I know, I know, long time no blog.
Well, I'm here to update on all things John. Last Thursday, September 30, we received our Article 5 letter. I really don't know a whole lot about what an Article 5 letter, but I do know this. You have to have it to adopt. It takes about 8 weeks after you get the Article 5 to receive the High Court Order. Once we get the HCO we will be given travel dates which are usually 1-3 weeks post HCO.
I've been scouring the internet looking for blogs from people who have adopted or are in the process of adopting from Hong Kong. So I'm going to add a little technical info here for others who may be reading this blog to get some answers.
We received our Matching Approval on August 10. It took about a week for the documents from HK to arrive at our adoption agency. In the mean time David and I filled out documents for immigration. Everything was mailed to USCIS on either 8/20 or 8/21. We received immigration approval on 9/5 which was about 2 & 1/2 weeks.
After than all of our immigration info was supposed to be sent to the US Consulate in Hong Kong for the Article 5 letter . A friend of mine who is a few weeks ahead of me in the journey told me that it took them 10 days after immigration approval to get their Article 5 letter. That was not the case for us.
Ten days came and went without hearing anything from the consulate. After much fretting and gnashing of teeth I called Bethany. Long story short, our paper work got left on a bureaucrat's desk and was not sent to the consulate. Craziness ensued on my part which involved me calling the consulate on a Sunday night to try and figure out if they had received our documents. Ok, I have to tell you, those poor English speaking Hong Kong ladies had no clue what this South Ga redneck was saying. I kept yelling "article 5" into the computer (I called on Skype). Travel over there is going to be real interesting for us.
Thank the good Lord, Mother's Choice confirmed with us that Monday that the consulate had received our immigration and was in the process of getting the Article 5 together. The actual Article 5 was issued September 27. Hallelujah!!!
Now we are waiting for the High Court Order. They say it take 6-10 weeks with 8 being the average. Please pray with me for the HCO. All of this has been perfectly ordained by God. I know His timing is best. I want to be comfortable and peaceful with God's timing. But, I really want that HCO to come sooner rather than later. God hasn't been doing any of this according to my time table, so maybe I should start going with His. The only problem with that is that I can't print off His table study it, and make plans accordingly :0)
I got a video in the mail last week. I can't wait to tell you all about it!
