Back on the Roller Coaster

As thrilled as we are to have received our Letter of Acceptance and to be moving forward once again, it has been a whirlwind of a week.  All of sudden there are THINGS TO DO to move this process along!  Visa applications (for me and my dad, who will travel with me) - this is a complicated process!  Fill out the application exactly right and figure out how to apply at the correct location (mine is in Chicago, my dad's in Washington D.C.) AND have someone take it in person, no mail-ins allowed.
Power of Attorney letter (basically Eric has to give me permission to sign everything and make decisions while in China since he's not going along) - and this must be notarized, certified, and authenticated.
I-800 form - we've already mailed this in and are waiting for the two weeks in the "lockbox" to be done so that it can be reviewed and approved.  We should be expedited on this step so hopefully it will be approved before Thanksgiving.
And then there's some other stuff that I'll have to figure out soon.  Eek!

It was suggested to us this week that perhaps Kellin's needs are too severe and that we should consider choosing a different child with less severe needs.  Although we were incredibly hurt and angry at this suggestion, it certainly opened my eyes to how much we truly consider Kellin our son.  Exchange him for another child?  Never!  He is the son we fell in love with, he is the one we think of and pray for every day, he is the one our children talk about constantly, he is the one we long to meet.  I should add here that we truly don't consider his needs to be "severe" (he is blind and underweight - those are the only confirmed diagnoses), but even if he does have more needs than we expect, we wouldn't love him any less.  We accept that he may have some limitations, but we will always strive for him to reach his potential.  At this point, we have no reason to think that he couldn't become a productive, independent adult, so as his parents, we will do our best to help him achieve that.

Our journey continues!  Keep checking back for updates!  It's starting to get exciting!