UPDATE ON ALLY KATE!

We had asked for an update on Ally Kate in July and just received it on Monday night.  We are so excited to have updated photos of her.  I want to go get her TODAY!! I will share photos first and then will share the written information.

If there was any doubt that she was NOT meant to be our child this statement about her should remove all doubt! "Her most favorite activities are DANCING, ......".  Yep, she is our child.  My other girls live and breathe ballet.  Interesting that Maya Grace's paperwork said, "She loves to dance.  She hears music she starts to dance".   She is a tiny little one for her age as she will be 9 yo in March.  She only weighs 37 pounds and is 45 inches tall.  In comparison Anneli is eight months younger than Ally Kate and she weighs 52 pounds and is 48 inches tall.  Anneli is slender and small related to her American counterparts.  It was also reported that  - She is going to the 3^rd Grade and she received award for high scores in Chinese and Math final tests last fall. She only knows the 26 English letters. She has just started taking English class.

At this point we are estimating travel in February! Please keep us in your prayers and sending positive thoughts our way.  We are praying that God will prepare her heart to receive us as her family.  Imagine taking your eight year old child away from everything he/she has ever known and suddenly placing them in a completely new country, different food, language, all new people, etc. She will have grief. Also praying for God's provision as this is a huge leap of faith for us financially. 
 

DTC - For Those Who Do Not Know DOSSIER TO CHINA!

We learned on 10/3 that the needed updates for our dossier were sent to China on 10/2!  This means that in 1-2 weeks we will receive a LID (log in date).  The next step will be for China to send us our LSC (Letter Seeking Confirmation) which gives us official approval to adopt Ally Kate.  We are praising God for each step ahead!  Guesstimating travel in February!

We continue to have on-line only fundraisers to assist us with fees.  For those who are interested I will list a few below:

1) NEW - Pasta Fundraiser  - You have to take a look at this site! They have the cutest and most unusual pasta shapes which would make a meal event especially fun! We receive 40% of all purchases! http://www.funpastafundraising.com/shop/adoption-fundraiser

2) NEW - Discovery Toys - Awesome developmental toys for all ages! Perfect for holiday gifts!  http://www.discoverytoys.com/publicstore/event/16985/AM/default.aspx

3) NEW - Lilla Rose Hair Jewelry - Perfect time to purchase hair accessory items to dress up your holiday outfits and for everyday wear!  These would make great birthday gifts and stocking stuffers too! http://www.lillarose.biz/parties/2687

PROGRESS

As many of you know Maya Grace's adoption was riddled with conflicts and delays. The journey to Ally Kate has gone so smoothly and I am thanking God for every step.  We were fingerprinted by USCIS on 9/9 and our agency told us to expect a two month wait for approval.  I was in shock when I pulled our approval out of our mailbox on Friday, 9/20!  Two months was reduced to ELEVEN DAYS!  Since our agency is out of state I made the decision on Monday to do the certification of our documents myself to save more time rather than sending them to the agency.  I took them to our county courthouse yesterday for certification and drove them to the state capital today for certification by the Secretary of State.  (I will explain by those not in the adoption world.  Documents must be notarized.  They have to be certified on county level which is a paper stapled to the front of your document.  This paper documents that "yes" the notary who notarized your document is indeed a notary for the state.  You must go to the Secretary of State who says that "yes" the person on the county level was certified to give her approval. The final step is for the documents to be sent to the Chinese Consulate who says that "yes" these documents are properly certified and they add their paper to the front to "authenticate" the documents. Once all three steps are completed your documents are ready to be sent to China). I  found the local Federal Express office and sent the three documents overnight to the courier who handles documents for the Houston Consulate.  Since we only have three forms and the consulate is closed three days next week for a Chinese holiday I chose to have the documents expedited.  The courier will drop them off on Friday and pick them up on Monday.  FedEx will overnight to our agency and they will be in our agencies hands on Tuesday!  We should be DTC next week! It is so unbelievable that it is happening so quickly.

                                                     The trio holding the completed forms!

We are getting in major planning mode here for the addition to our family!  Our agency had initially estimated travel in Mid-March to Mid-April but with the USCIS approval coming six months earlier than planned we will move that up to a  February/March time frame.

We have asked for an update on Ally Kate but it has not come yet.  We are anxiously awaiting.  We are not allowed to have contact with her at this point.  Once our documents are sent to China we will receive a log-in date.  Once they along with our dossier from Maya Grace are reviewed we will receive a LSC/LOA which is the official approval from China for us to adopt her.  We currently have pending approval.  Once LOA is received we can send her a care package at that point.  We then must submit more forms to USCIS and then a few more steps before China sends travel approval.

As most know this is a huge leap of faith for us financially since we just adopted Maya Grace from China on 12/24/12.   We have been in major fundraising mode.  We are proud people and do not like asking others for help.  As I have said before it is NOT about us.  It is about this little girl who has lived eight years without a family.  We have swallowed our pride.  This is about HER.  She is the same age as my Anneli.  I can't imagine my sweet, precious Anneli living without the love and nurture of  family from birth until this stage of her life.  We can't wait to give Ally Kate the gift of a FOREVER FAMILY! Please pray for us and send your positive thoughts as we travel on this journey to her.  If anyone reading this feels inclined to help us with a donation we would be extremely grateful no matter how small.  We have two accounts set up for tax free donations - Project Hopeful - http://projecthopeful.org/matched-families/campbell-family/  and Reece's Rainbow - http://reecesrainbow.org/63380/sponsorcampbell-2 .  I also have three direct sale businesses to help earn money for our fees - Thirty-One www.mythirtyone.com/35081 , Usborne Books www.w3493myubam.com and Trades of Hope www.mytradesofhope.com/angelacampbell .

T-Shirt Fundraiser!

We are having a T-Shirt Fundraiser.  We have just a few M, many L and XL.  They are $15 shipped an $10 for anyone local.  We will combine shipping costs.  You may pay by paypal (ajajd464@bellsouth.net), check,  or by donation into our Project Hopeful or Reece's Rainbow accounts (both tax deductible)

Updates

Giveaway - Thank you so much to all who made donations to us! The winner was CHRISTINA POULSEN! She chose the Bitty Baby Twins and is giving them to her daughter who will turn 7 yo this month! Winner of the $25 Toys or Us Gift Card was Beka McCullough.   She is a very gracious and humble person.   She told me to keep the card and use it in our auction that is to come.  Each donation from the smallest to largest brought us one step closer to Ally-Kate!  We are humbled with the generosity that has been shown to us. 

Adoption Progress - We were fingerprinted by USCIS (US immigration) on 9/9.  We will now wait for their approval.  Our agency is estimating that we will travel March or April.  Ally-Kate's birthday is 3/2 so we are praying that she will have joined our family by that date.  

Just Love Coffee Fundraiser!

We have another raising funds opportunity with Just Love Coffee. You can fuel your caffeine addiction and help us to bring our newest daughter home! From their site "We source only the finest Fair Trade, Direct Trade, organic, and shade-grown coffee beans from the best growing regions around the world. We research the co-ops we work with and are diligent about sustainability. That’s all before the coffee even arrives on the Just Love Coffee doorstep. From there, we inspect the beans and do sample cuppings. Then our master roaster Jason works his magic, taking an artisan approach to create smooth, flavorful, specialty coffees of the highest quality."  
. We will receive a percentage from each item ordered.  Link here - Just Love Coffee!

Progress and Process

Each day we are getting closer to bringing our newest daughter home!  Our home study update was completed and our initial form was sent to USCIS (immigration) by our placing agency yesterday.   Now we wait.  USCIS will send a receipt and a fingerprinting appointment.  We will go for fingerprints which are done electronically at the local USCIS office.  An officer is assigned who will approve our application which is basically stating that we are eligible per the USA guidelines to bring an orphan into the country.  This process will go a little quicker for us since our current approval does not expire until 9/4. 

Once this approval is received our updates and previous dossier will be sent to China. We then wait some more!  This process is a "hurry up and wait" game!  China will send us a notice of Letter Seeking Confirmation which is the official approval stating we can adopt our daughter.  We currently have pending approval.  We file an additional form with USCIS with our daughter's specific information.  Once approval is received back from USCIS  that is sent to China.  Travel approval comes next.  A consulate appointment must be secured and at that point travel arrangements made.  Unfortunately many of these steps take not only weeks but months.  Our agency is estimating travel in March or April.  Our new daughter's birthday is the beginning of March and I am believing God that she will be joined with our family so we can celebrate her birthday with us! 

Backing up some now for those not familiar with the process, I will share the paperwork that we have already completed.  Each person in our household required new medicals.  We had to provide six new reference letters.  A letter was required from my husband's employer. We have awesome friends/familyco-workers who have now taken the time twice to submit letters on our behalf.  For those people I am so grateful.  We had to go to our local police department and be fingerprinted and ran through the state system and FBI.  A child abuse/neglect clearance for each of us had to be obtained from the state government. We had to obtain a letter from our local police department saying we had no current cases pending.  We had to obtain a letter from our bank showing all of our deposits for the past year.  Copies of our last two years of income tax returns were needed.  Detailed financial forms were required. We had four social work visits  For our placing agency it was required to complete what ended up being an 18 page parenting plan among various other forms.  This process is NOT for the weary but such a major blessing in the end! 

Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts!