The good, the bad and the beautiful!!!

I think we will start with the beautiful, because let's be honest, isn't blogging really 75% about photos anyway?? All four of beautiful children walked down the isle at my neice Kristen's wedding..it's been a fun busy wonderful couple of weeks! We had a blast last night! She and Justin were truly STUNNING! and they had the best looking bridal party I've seen in forever (especially since Mike and I were responsible for about 1/3 of it) :) I told them I was a bit concerned about loosing my "status" in the DeLuca family now....the status of having the most beautiful kids.... hahahaha...of course this was not at all humble and was met by all kinds of jabs by my sister in laws!!!!

The good......we are FINALLY! approved and have completed all steps on the US side of the paperwork chase to TA! Everything is finally in China and was cabled and dropped off by our agency rep last week to the US consulate in Guangzhou...these last few steps are actually predictable...(gasp) the paperworks dropped on Thursday December 2nd and picked up exactly two weeks later on Thursday December 16th...while there they make something called an 'Article 5'...our agency coordinator overnights this to CCAA (the big wigs who run the Chinese side of the adoption process) and THEN finallyfinallyfinallyfinally will issue us our TA to go get Will!!! (insert Angles singing here) USUALLY! this takes 2-4 weeks to get a TA once they get your Art 5...as most of you know, we are working and praying HARD to get to China by Jan 10th for Will's 4th Bday...this means we HAVE to get a 2 week TA...I know that's asking alot of China...so we ask ALL of you to please pray for us.... we've talked to our agency already (and they are sooooo wonderful) and have offered to do their best to get us out of town fast if the TA comes in time...so it's possible. I'll be chewing the furniture until once 12/16 comes waiting on that TA.....

The bad...I guess it really doesn't matter anymore now that our paperwork is IN China..but getting there, IT WAS BAD! USCIS took their sweetsweet time approving us and getting us out the door...@24 days and most families are seeing approval times in about 1/2 that...as a result we up at NVC the week of Thanksgiving which resulted in less staff a shorter week ect.ect...again..on day 11 we still aren't registered in the system. This twice as long as most families take to get throught NVC....
This ment we wouldn't make Thursday drop in Guangzhou and because of all the two week time chunks, our dreams of 1/11 and Wills 4th bday were pretty shot...I was one sad frustrated and tearful mamma on Monday. I decided Tuesday to FIGHT for that cable...and after 17 hours of repeated calls, over a total of 5 hours on hold, and 3 supervisors, that cable was succesfully sent to China at 11:30 Tuesday night JUST making my agency's request to get it to our coordinator on Wednesday (China is 12h ahead of us..so midnight here was noon there) Soooo, our chances are still only marginal, but Mike and I are soooo happy with marginal and hangin on to all hope!!!...no one said riding this emotional rollercoaster called adoption was easy...but boy am I ready to get off this time...I just want my boy home!!!!