Cabled! And Artlcle 5 things....

We are getting VERY close to our Mary.  If all goes like the calendar in my brain HOPES it will go, then we should be waiting on our Travel Approval from China in less than two weeks.  Here's a rundown of what's happened lately:

Thursday, May 2:  we receive our official immigration approval in the mail - the USCIS also sends this approval to the NVC (National Visa Center)
Friday, May 3:  Mikki emails NVC to see if they received our stuff - they have not.
Monday, May 6:  Mikki emails NVC again to see if they received our stuff - Yes.... BUT.....
 
Pause:  This is where Mikki begins to have a come apart.  You see, this step is supposed to be very predictable.  These are the steps, this is exactly how long these steps should take:  period.  We have endured our share of waiting and unknowns and who-knows-when-things-will-move-forward-again and THIS part of the journey is supposed to move right along. There should not be any "BUTs" in this part of the process.

But..... when I sent Monday's email, I got a reply that said that they could not move forward with our paperwork because Joe's birthdate didn't match up in their system.  WHA?

So, I CALLED those folks.  I needed to speak to a human.  Liam from the NVC and I had a nice little chat on Monday night after Jack's TWO HOUR Tuscaloosa Youth Orchestra Concert.  Liam was VERY understanding, glad that Jack's concert went well (maybe I share too much....), and then explained that all I had to do was scan Joe's birth certificate and passport to them the next day.

So, I did.  And the next day, THANKFULLY, we were back on track.

Tuesday, May 7:  receive GUZ# in the morning.  Immediately emailed the NVC with GUZ# requesting our PDF (this is the golden ticket of this phase of the game)  Usually, the PDF comes about 24 hours later...... BUT.... (this is a good BUT), ours came that afternoon!

Which meant that on Tuesday afternoon, the NVC CABLED our PDF to China!  All paperwork on this side of the ocean is DONE!

Our agency then sends this PDF to their China coordinator who physically walks our paperwork into the Embassy over there:  this is our Article 5 drop off.  And then, two weeks later, she walks back in there to pick it up (Article 5 pick up!)  We are waiting to hear from our agency as to when our exact drop off date was, but I'm REALLY hoping it was some time last week.

Once our Article 5 is picked up, we are officially waiting for Travel Approval (TA!)!!! That's our invitation from China to get ourselves over there and get our girl!

BUT.

Yep.  I know.....

The last week of May (24-31 to be exact), the CCCWA who issues those Travel Approvals is switching over to a new computer system, so there will be little or no official notices being prepared.

AND, then, in June, China has what's called the Dragon Boat Festival and is shut down for three days (June 10-12 to be exact.)

So, when will we travel?  No clue.  I am still REALLY hoping for that last week of June.

In the meantime,  we make lists.  We finish up the last 10 days of school.  And we think about our Mary.