Hi all. Hope this finds you all well. We have been spared several of the recent heavy snows that others have been experiencing. We have probably received about only 7 inches total, that is with some high winds.
Jessica is an outdoor girl for sure. Danielle was able to purchase Jessi a new snow outfit and she seems to stay warm. I am excited for this snow season as we have decided that this will be the year to start Jessica on snow skiing. I started skiing at about the age of 12 and Danielle has been a couple of times and was miserable the entire experience. I will say that Danielle has learned to appreciate good snow gear and she has admitted that it does make a difference. Come January we will be headed to the mountains to give the new family sport a go.
On the adoption home front, we are officially Log In Date (LID) to China. The date of our LID was December 17th. So that means our official countdown for our Letter of Approval (LOA) has begun, so we are anticipating that timeline to be about five months. Then we have to get the Travel Approval (TA) which is about an additional month.
We have also learned, through one of our chat groups, that another couple is headed to Gutian Orphanage in January to get their child. We are hoping that the couple will be able to be in contact with Katie and that they are able to provide Danielle and I updated photos and a report.
Wishing you all the best and many Blessings this Christmas Season and in the New Year.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
DTC and Christmas Dance Recital
DTC. For those not in the adoption community, DTC means Dossier To China. In other words, Danielle and I have officially sent all of our required documents to China for the CCAA to approve. It will now take about 3-5 months to be approved and then about 1 month after that until we travel to China to meet Kate. The picture on the right shows all the documents that made up the dossier. Our agency confirmed that CCAA received our dossier early last week. We have not received confirmation that we are LID (log in date) yet, but we anticipate that to be this coming week sometime. The time is moving fast and we are so thankful to have all the documents out of our hands.
In other news this past Friday, the 12th, was Jessica's first dance recital, (note the picture on the left, Jessica is catching air). My parents were able to make it into town this weekend, and we are so thankful for the opportunity for them to come. We had a great time and celebrated our gift exchange early. It was nice that they could enjoy the time with Jessica and watch her open the gifts that the had gotten for her.Wishing you all the best this time of year.
This is Jessica at home after she received her roses from her pappa and myself for her first dance recital.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Quick Update
First off, Happy Thanksgiving. We hope you are all having a great long weekend.
I wanted to share with you our last update of Kate, we received confirmation a couple of days ago and we are so happy with the updated information.
"... your daughter is doing well. She can sit independently and pull herself up but she cannot walk on her own yet. I asked if she is crawling, and was told no because the caregiver doesn't want to put her on the floor to crawl because of her heart condition (according to her). She said that when the baby cries her lip will turn blue and she doesn't want to upset her by putting her on the floor to crawl. Other than her heart condition, she is doing well and she is a bright child."
Kate is 15 months old in December. Of course Danielle and I are so thankful for the great news. The picture above is from when Danielle was on the phone with our adoption agency when we got the call about being accepted to adopt Kate.
I wanted to share with you our last update of Kate, we received confirmation a couple of days ago and we are so happy with the updated information.
"... your daughter is doing well. She can sit independently and pull herself up but she cannot walk on her own yet. I asked if she is crawling, and was told no because the caregiver doesn't want to put her on the floor to crawl because of her heart condition (according to her). She said that when the baby cries her lip will turn blue and she doesn't want to upset her by putting her on the floor to crawl. Other than her heart condition, she is doing well and she is a bright child."
Kate is 15 months old in December. Of course Danielle and I are so thankful for the great news. The picture above is from when Danielle was on the phone with our adoption agency when we got the call about being accepted to adopt Kate.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Here We Go!
Welcome to the new blog. I have to say that I got tired of myspace and decided to move over here. So far so good, I am going to continue to explore all the different options with blogger and edit as needed. Bare with me as I go through the changes. Hopefully this will be a fresh look at Hough Stuff as we move towards our second adoption, hence the name Hough Stuff con Katie. Kate Ann Cheng Xin Hough is the name of our new daughter. Kate turned one year old on September 11th and it looks like we are still about 5 months out from being able to go get Kate and bring her home.
The latest update is that Danielle and I pushed at getting our paperwork through USCIS (government immigration), it was the last bit of paperwork that we needed before we submitted all documents to the State Department and Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. All said, it took us a total of 57 days to complete the USCIS part (this is fast given the majority of wait time is now 120+ days for approval).
Danielle sent the dossier to Washington D.C. on Friday November 21st. The courier that we hired delivered the papers to the State Department today, tomorrow the papers will go the Chinese embassy then they should be completed and shipped back to us December 1st. We will be cutting it close, our adoption agency gave us until December 5th to get our Dossier to China. I must note that we did file an extension to give us extra time to get the dossier completed, but it has always been our goal to get the dossier completed more sooner than later.
We will be submitting our documents to our adoption agency the first week of December with hopes of the agency sending it to CCAA (China) that same week. The we are only about 3-5 months before we can go get Kate.
In other news, Danielle switched hours at work so she now goes to work from 6 pm to midnight 3-4 nights a week. So I am able to get home, sit down to diner with Jessica and Danielle for about half an hour before Danielle has to leave. It is working out good for us, we took Jessica out of day care so either Danielle and I are with her all the time.
Since we are not putting money into day care any more, we decided to get Jessica into gymnastics and dance. She loves them both!
Jessica's first dance recital is December 12th, I am excited about seeing her in the show. For the gymnastics, I guess there is no recital to speak of, so I took an afternoon off from work to go watch. I have to say that I was almost moved to tears, it was awesome to watch Jessica be so comfortable with herself to be so sure of what she was doing. She was focused on her gymnastics and payed attention. It made me realize that she is growing up quickly and to realize that she has already been with Danielle and I two years, she is well adjusted and a happy girl. I could not be more blessed!
The latest update is that Danielle and I pushed at getting our paperwork through USCIS (government immigration), it was the last bit of paperwork that we needed before we submitted all documents to the State Department and Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. All said, it took us a total of 57 days to complete the USCIS part (this is fast given the majority of wait time is now 120+ days for approval).
Danielle sent the dossier to Washington D.C. on Friday November 21st. The courier that we hired delivered the papers to the State Department today, tomorrow the papers will go the Chinese embassy then they should be completed and shipped back to us December 1st. We will be cutting it close, our adoption agency gave us until December 5th to get our Dossier to China. I must note that we did file an extension to give us extra time to get the dossier completed, but it has always been our goal to get the dossier completed more sooner than later.
We will be submitting our documents to our adoption agency the first week of December with hopes of the agency sending it to CCAA (China) that same week. The we are only about 3-5 months before we can go get Kate.
In other news, Danielle switched hours at work so she now goes to work from 6 pm to midnight 3-4 nights a week. So I am able to get home, sit down to diner with Jessica and Danielle for about half an hour before Danielle has to leave. It is working out good for us, we took Jessica out of day care so either Danielle and I are with her all the time.
Since we are not putting money into day care any more, we decided to get Jessica into gymnastics and dance. She loves them both!
Jessica's first dance recital is December 12th, I am excited about seeing her in the show. For the gymnastics, I guess there is no recital to speak of, so I took an afternoon off from work to go watch. I have to say that I was almost moved to tears, it was awesome to watch Jessica be so comfortable with herself to be so sure of what she was doing. She was focused on her gymnastics and payed attention. It made me realize that she is growing up quickly and to realize that she has already been with Danielle and I two years, she is well adjusted and a happy girl. I could not be more blessed!
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