I lot has happen since I last typed on this tiny blog of mine. My first born got married. She was the most beautiful bride I had seen since I saw Shelly walk down the isle so many years ago when we got married. Katelynn is a treasure in my life and handing her off to another man was not an easy thing to do. What made it bearable was the fact that she had picked this guy with the help of God. I got to witness with all there guess her first kiss. The standards she demands of herself and of him makes me proud God choose me to be her dad. It was a hot day and I had asked her a million times if it was necessary to go all the way to TN to get married when our home church is only 5 minutes away from our house. It was! She had picked a beautiful spot and had everything planned out. It was outside with the mountains in the background. Even with all the beautiful scenery, Katelynn was still the most beautiful thing I saw. I pray a blessing on her and Jonathan and look forward to seeing them grow in there marriage. I am proud to be Katelnn’s dad and I am glad to call Jonathan son.
Well after waiting 2.5 months for immigration to open up its finger printing location in Atlanta it has happened. We received a letter in early July that the office was going to open up on July 13 and we had were given a appointment for two days later on the 15th of July. This was very exciting because we have been lacking much movement lately. The three of us went in that morning and stood in line and waited our turn. It was pretty uneventful process. You go in, stand in line and get finger printed. Easy but very satisfying to have it done so that immigration can actually finish our I-800 form and approve us so we can move a little closer. This is the last document we need to walk through the sealing process to finish our dossier.
We also received the rest of our documents back from the courier we used to go thru the State Department and the Chinese Embassy in DC. It is nice to have those totally done and ready to go into our dossier.
We also heard from FedEx that Customs in China had destroyed the care package we sent to Wei Wei months ago. Good news though we were able to go through the adoption agency to pick out items off of a Chinese web sites and have them purchase them for us in China and mail them local. It was a little rough navigating the Chinese web sites but I finally found a teddy bear we liked and added some suckers and sticker. We wrote another letter and had them send it to Wei Wei. The orphanage received it really fast but we got no pictures or video. I waited a couple of weeks and nothing. I know we are not always going to here from them but I wrote an email to CCAI and asked if they could at least have them confirm she was given the package. We got our favorite type of email, one that has attachments of Wei Wei and on the same day.
Every picture we get seems to get better and better. These were no different and I would say I don’t think they could have been. The four pictures sent had her holding the items we sent her. The best part was the excitement and joy on her face. We have seen her smile yes, but never with such expression. Even though we have never interacted with her in person it was obvious in her expression she was extremely happy. Nothing gives a parent more joy then to see there kids happy. Shelly and I both shed a few tears from seeing her joy and now as I write this my eyes get cloudy with emotion again.
Everyone continues to ask us,”How much longer?”. I wish I had an answer, that would be so helpful. We continue to hope by the end of this year to have Wei Wei in our arms. As the days past by and there is no news to when China will open its boarders again I get a little discourage. Then I hear our President criticize there government. I cringe not because I disagree or agree with him but because I worry it will stall things being opened back up sooner. I do know this, when they do open, we will jump any obstacle to get to her.
I want to close out by saying thank you to those who have been helping us through this process. God continues to bless us through you.