Another Fingerprint Appointment!

The USCIS has now sent Ric his third fingerprint appointment.  The first we could not make because it was in the midst of our vacation.  The second one we received, he was out of town.  I took the opportunity to go ahead and get mine out of the way.  We now have an October 7, 9AM appointment.  We will be heading home from Maryland that morning on a 6AM flight.  We are praying for good timing (no delays of the flight, no heavy traffic) and understanding immigration workers (if he is late).  This will one of the last hurdles in getting our dossier complete.  After this we wait for immigration to send us a piece of paper that we have notarized, certified, and authenticated.  That will complete our dossier!  We then send that to our agency and they go through a process of checking and rechecking to make sure everything is perfect and sending it to China.  Then we wait for something called a Log in Date (LID).  This will signify that China has logged your dossier into their system.  We are thinking at t his point that we may travel in early spring???????  We will update that thought as things continue to move along.

Our First Care Package

We took a while to get together a care package for Jacob.  We sent a soft and silky blanket,  two toy cars, a play phone ( that has 3 different language settings and we even put an "I Love You" message on it), a small teddy bear, a camera, lollipops to share with friends, some gummi bears for his caretaker, and a photo albums of  his new family.  

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More information about our "Little Guy"!

I checked our email this morning and was delighted to see an email from the director of Operations at PHF, Leah Zimmer. One of her responsibilities is helping families “meet” their kids prior to picking them up. She said if we have any questions or curiosities about Cole and his life here, please don’t hesitate to ask. She also said the therapy director, Carrie, can give us a ton of information about Cole’s development and his arm. He has been one of the therapy team’s success stories. She attached a bunch of pictures of him from when he first arrived at PHF in June 2007. He lives in our House of Peace which houses about 22 children along with 16 nannies. What a blessing to have Jacob at a place where we can find out so much about him, see photos of his life now and observe the care and therapy he receives!

Photos of Jacob

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make a Smilebox greeting

We have a name!

We finally have decided on a name for our new son.  Drum roll please -- Jacob Jiang Thompson!!!!!!!  I know you all were expecting Richard Douglas Thompson III and we really seriously considered John Jacob Jingle Hymer Schmit (which has such a ring to it) but we decided to stick with our pattern of Biblical names.  

Introducing our Son Fu Jiang Ling!

We received PA (Pre Approval) today for Fu Jiang Ling!  We got an unexpected referral call the night of August 15.  We hopped on the computer to retrieve his file. We spent the weekend reviewing his file and decided to pursue adopting him.  There were not many questions and Ric and I seemed to be quiet at peace with the decision.  It has been an exciting few weeks.  We sent in our LOI (Letter of Intent) on Aug.  and received updated medical information. I know I always present an "unfazed", perhaps unexcited demeanor, but believe me I have been bursting at the seams!  It felt just like learning that you are pregnant.  You want to share with everyone and yet have some hesitation due to the whole complicated international adoption process.  His pictures have been posted up around the house and everyone in the family is in love with him.  It is really precious to hear 4 year old Luke say, "I just love Fu Jiang Ling".  We are all "over the moon" about him!  We ask that  you share in our good news and praise God for this tremendous blessing!