Home Land Visit

Shangrao

Nanchang

I can't believe how fast this year has gone, and that it is a week and a half till we leave for China.  We are taking Jasmine back to see her country for the first time since she was 16mths, which she is so excited about.  We are leaving on the 29th July and flying in to Shanghai, where we will spend a few nights.  We are then taking the train (yes a chinese train) from Shanghai to Shangrao (Jiangxi province) where Jasmine Qing Shan was born.  This will be REAL China for sure, well for 4 nights it will be.
When we adopted her we were not allowed to travel there to meet her, they bought her to the capital Nanchang where we were staying, so this will be the first time we actually see her home town as well.  We will get to visit the Orphanage there (which they charge for!) and she will meet the nannies who looked after her.   We are also going back to Nanchang to stay in the hotel where they handed Jasmine to us, so that she can see all these 'landmark' places that make up her story.  After Nanchang we are flying to Hong Kong for two nights before coming home, and having some fun.  Hopefully Ocean park of Disney Land, and of course Markets!
I am not sure what this will all be like traveling with our youngest Chanel, hopefully she will be a trooper, but she is so fussy with food.

Ocean Park

Shanghai

Progress

Well our Homestudy has been completed by our social worker which is great, so hopefully the National office who are checking it all, won't have too many questions.  We are now back in to full on paper work for the agency part, trying to get this done before we leave for China this month.  It is at really nice to be at this stage, we feel like we are moving now.

So Excited!!

These last two days have been so exciting, and we have made some giant leaps forward in our adoption.  We have been told that our social worker will finnish our assessment/home-study on Friday.  So all going well, we should have all the documents to the NZ agency who finds us a child match, before our holiday to China (before 3 weeks).  So we have literally gone from snail pace to high speed.

A person from NZ has just gone to Russia to meet her children, and her application was only with the agency for a month before, so we could be going a lot sooner than we thought.

Watch this space!  

Sister Love

My youngest two girls are such monkeys together.  I had was putting them to bed and heard a lot of giggling coming from Chanels room.  It was worth a photo or two.  They look rather pleased with them selves.

The monkeys after they were caught

7 Years ago today

It was 7 years ago today that we got to see the face of our daughter.  We received her referral and a few photos, and then the  long 8 week wait began before we could pick her up.   

Her name was Rao Qing Shan, and she was born in Jiangxi Province, Shangrao.  She was 13mths at the time of her referral and 15mths when we got to hold her for the first time.

Such happy memories, and such an amazing journey, and exciting way to build a family.  

We love you Jasmine

Before and After

 It is amazing sometimes to look back at Jasmine before she found her family....us.  I can not imagine our little monkey not being in our family.  I just love all the funny things she come out with, we are always laughing at something.   One of my personal favorites was: "hey mum we can use those banana's to make blueberry muffins".
Jasmine is very impatient to have another adopted child in our family, and we are also requesting an asian child again.  Eastern Russia has a large asian population.  Fingers crossed.

The never ending adoption paper trail

The paper work is never ending with an adoption.  This time we only had to update our paper work but it seems like we started from the beginning.   The process is one that is sometimes hard to stick with, it is all about patience, something I have not been blessed with! :) But we know after adopting Jasmine that it will all be worth it one day. I think because of having Biological kids as well, you realize how easy that decision is, but with an adoption, you have no choice but to follow the process, no matter how invasive it is.  Jasmine even got asked in her interview(yes the kids get interviewed too) if she realized she would have to share toys and other special things?  I thought all parents wanted their children to have this quality not look at it like it is negative?  

This time around we were also required to see a Psychologist. { For three hours it will cost us $1000. }  Every country has different requirements and this is Russia's.  

It is weird to think that the child we will call ours one day is already born and somewhere out there, I hope safe and loved.   

We are at the stage now that hopefully in two weeks our paperwork will arrive at our National office ready to have a sign off.  Then it goes to the adoption agency here, and they will send it all off to Vladivostok, Russia.  The wait is anyones guess.