New Pictures!

Wednesday morning we received a long awaited update on our beautiful daughter including these three new pictures.  We were surprised by how Ashlynn has grown since her last pictures in early November.  She is now 16½ pounds and 27½ inches tall.  She is not crawling yet but she stands and takes a few steps holding someone’s hand.  According to the update from the orphanage, she is eating milk with rice flour, noodles, soft rice “with various nutrition soup” and steamed egg custard.  Her personality is described as “quiet, gentle and likes other people to make her laughing”.  

The orphanage has not yet received the package we sent on February 1 but our agency tells us it is not unusual to take longer than the 10 days the post office predicted.  Hopefully our package will arrive soon and Ashlynn will be looking at pictures of us.

We continue to wait for our I-800 approval from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. We've received notice that our application has been accepted but we expect it'll be a few more weeks before we receive the approval.  We're so glad to have new pictures to admire while we wait.

One Step Closer

Finally, an update!  On Thursday, January 24, we received a call from our adoption agency that they had received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA).  The LOA is China’s official approval of our adoption of Ashlynn and a significant milestone in our journey to bring Ashlynn home.  Yeah!

The LOA was sent to us to sign and return.  It’s an impressive document with verbiage in both English and Chinese.  Ashlynn’s big brothers are getting more and more excited to welcome her home too.


Big Brother Mason & Big Brother Derek with our LOA

What next?  A copy of our signed LOA is now being sent with our I-800 application to United States Citizenship and Immigration Service.  The purpose of this step is to get the US government’s approval of the adoption.  This typically takes about four weeks.  Once we have this approval, we will apply for our travel VISAs.  We’ve been told this will all take about three months and to anticipate our two-week trip to be in late April or May.

Receiving our LOA also means we can now send a package to Ashlynn.  We put together a simple photo album with pictures of family members.  Our agency provided labels like "mom", "dad", and "big brother" for each photo in English and Chinese.  We are hopeful Ashlynn’s caregivers will show her the photos regularly.  At the advice of our agency, we sent a disposable camera and a letter asking them to take pictures of Ashlynn and her surroundings.  At the suggestion of another adoptive parent, we also included a thumb drive in case the orphanage is a bit more sophisticated and may have some digital pictures and videos.  Finally, we included a list of questions regarding Ashlynn’s care that we hope the orphanage will be answered and returned to us with the camera and thumb drive when we meet Ashlynn.  Only time will tell if the orphanage is able to fulfill our requests.  We are hopeful as we want Ashlynn to have information and pictures of her first year of life.

In about two weeks our agency will contact the orphanage to confirm they’ve received the package and ask for an update on Ashlynn.  We are anxious to hear how she is growing since our referral in early November and hopefully get a few new pictures of her. 

In preparation for Ashlynn's homecoming, we are researching clinics for the treatment of her cleft lip and palate.   We are fortunate to have five options in Minnesota.  We have narrowed it down to the U of M and Mayo.  We are in contact with the teams at both facilities and hope to meet with each of them to make our final decision before leaving for China.  If anyone has any recommendations, please let us know.

Thank you to our family and friends for your support as we continue on our journey.  Please keep Ashlynn (now 10 month old) and her first family in the orphanage in your prayers.