log in date...........yeah!

We just received our offical log in date. It is 12/27/06. Our dossier was sent to China on 12/22/06, so it was a very quick turn around! Our LID (log in date) is a very important date. That is when "time begins ticking". It is from this date that we can begin anticipating our TA (Travel approval). I am told that it will take 2-4 months to receive the TA. After that, it will take 1-6 weeks before we actually travel. Realistically, it could be April. The average time has been 3 months for the TA and then 3 weeks for travel. On the early side, it could be late March, on the late side, it could be late May or early June. We are hoping for late March or April or late May. We need to avoid the first week of March because of Jacob's battle of the books competion. We need to avoid March 13-16 because of Emily's OGT testing. Spring Break is March 26-30 (between March 17 and then would be wonderful!). The month of April is good, but the beginning of May is testing for Sam and Jacob.

On 12/30/06 we sent a care package to Ri. It was exciting to be able to send him something. Unfortunately, we had to limit the amount of things we sent, but it was fun thinking about him. I sent him a warm, snuggly blanket... similar to Elizabeth's. She loves the feel of it, so I wanted him to have one too. We also sent him a warm blanket sleeper and some long john sleepers. He is getting a brand new pair of light up shoes. Elizabeth was fascinated by her pair of light up's. We included some socks, a cookie monster sweatshirt to match his sisters, a pair of jeans, 2 books that have plenty of "boy" pictures, a musical toy that Elizabeth picked out (and loved), plenty of candy for the nannies to share, some snacks for Ri to share, a camera for the nannies to take pictures of Ri and those he loves, a journal for the nannies to leave a message for Ri to read when he is older and a photo album with each of our pictures so that he can play with and carry around all that he wants to. Mark has a friend from work who is from China. She has been precious to us throughout Elizabeth's adoption and now throughout Ri's. She was kind enough to translate a letter for us so that the orphanage would know how much we love our son and can't wait to hold him and how thankful we are for their role in caring for him.

The bad thing is that he will not recieve it until late January or mid February. THe cost of shipping to China was so expensive that I sent it the most economical way. That's ok, the thing I really want him to have is our pictures. But our agency was incredible and has already sent him a photo album with pictures of us. It is not one where he can drag around, but it is one the nannies can "read" to him everyday.

I am anxiously awaiting new pictures of our little guy. I don't know when they will send us some, but I am confident it will be before we leave.