Happy 1st Birthday Mia!

We are so sad that we did not get to spend her 1st birthday with her, but we are looking forward to a lifetime of celebration!

Care package #2 is on its way to her right now. We have tentative travel dates, November 5-19th. Things are starting to get very exciting around here!

Today we had cake with family to celebrate Mia's 1st birthday in her honor. She got lots of presents and it was all adorable clothes! Pictures will follow soon.

I can't wait to see her in these darling outfits.

Thank you all for your love and support.

What happens next?

Many people have been asking what happens next and when do you go get Mia? I thought I'd post it here to help shed some light on this process.

The first thing that has to happen is that China will send us Travel Approval (TA). This means we are cleared to make a Consulate appointment in China. We also have to apply for a Visa to go to China so we start this process as soon as we receive our TA.

Our agency makes a Consulate appointment for us and then we book our travel to go over based on that date. It looks like it will be in November.

While all this is going on, we still have to get our final approval from the US government to bring a child into the country. This is why we needed to finish our home study and get all our documents over to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Once we have all three of these steps completed, we buy our plane tickets and prepare for the happiest day of our lives.

More shopping fun!!

Daddy's Shopping Day!

We bought the letters for her room.

He bought lots and lots of adorable girly outfits. Good job Daddy!

Birthday Care Package

Cute clothes and more decor for her room. We also finalized her personal birthday care package that we'll be sending through Ann @ Red Thread again. I'm hoping to send her a birthday cake through Ann too. Mia will be 1 on September 27th.

Mia's Care Package

I received an email from Ann@ Red Thread this morning with a picture of all the items she is sending to Mia.

It just made my day! I wish I could jump in the box.

Where is Mia?

So Mia is in Jiangxi Province in Riujin. I marked the spot on the map as best I could. We will probably travel from Fort Lauderdale to San Francisco, San Francisco to Beijing and Beijing to Guangzhou and then to Nanchang where we will meet Mia. From what I've read about the trip the orphanage director will bring the babies to us in Nanchang so we will not see the city or orphanage where she is. We expect to be in China for two weeks.