Canine Intuition

Cali's room is Scout's new favorite place to hang out. We continue to find him upstairs lying in front of her crib. Is he practicing his canine instinct to protect the new little one or does he just enjoy the feel of the cushy pink rug in that warm cozy spot?


Though his vocabulary is usually quite advanced, he has yet to share his intimate thoughts on this topic. Being the dog whisperer that I am, I've surmised that he is truly excited about his sister's arrival. He's anxious to spend much time in her room reading stories and taking naps!




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Getting Closer

We're getting closer to holding our baby girl!!! Our part of the official travel paperwork is now completed and we have our visas. Today, we received the letter that is the catalyst to put the final pieces of the puzzle together. There will be some other documents gathered/contacts notified and then our appointments will be made all on the Chinese end of things. We should receive a call in 4-6 weeks, from our agency, letting us know our travel dates,etc. So, it looks like we still may travel in March, at least that is our hope...fingers crossed!

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Flowers and Tattoos

Separately and collectively, through the last several years, we’ve cycled through both emotional highs and lows. In recent months, we even battled with the reality that maybe, although such a deep desire in each of our hearts, we weren’t called to be parents.

In the questioning moments, we always seemed to find therapeutic refuge in a shared experience. We took a couple of trips which were fun, but our most treasured times were colored with flowers and tattoos.

We’ve found great joy in planning and decorating Cali's room together. Although there was a chance for brothers and sisters to come first, her room has always been “Cali's room.” About a year ago, in a period that we just needed to do something, we painted the room pink. During the summer, we added some artwork of flowers and butterflies, created by the family artist, Bobby G. Recently, he completed his work with cherry blossoms over her crib.

Cherry blossoms are not only seen all over China, and therefore why we chose them, but are also beautifully displayed in Bobby’s adoption focused tattoo. Getting tattooed together is a favorite memory of our waiting time; I never imagined how it could play such a significant role in our story toward our baby girl! Flowers continue to have great significance in our adoption story and we hope to understand more of this as we head to China.

Cali's Care Package Delivered

Our friend Ann put together a very cute care package for Cali...

Care Package

We sent a care package to Cali this week via a company in China that specializes in gathering gifts and delivering them to the child’s orphanage. Ann, a Chinese entrepreneur and very sweet lady, also gathered new pictures and current measurements of Cali for us as a part of the service.

Sweet Cali is still a little peanut with little hair; we are guessing her head was recently shaved as is common in orphanages.  She looks like she has had a cold with little chapped lips and a red nose...she just needs to come home to us! She is definitely bundled up with several layers of clothing which is very common in China. These pictures were taken in the outside play area of her orphanage.

We continue to move along in the travel end of our paperwork. We submitted our Visa information via Fed Ex this week. Our agency will be processing that and is continuing to work on travel details while we await our travel approval.

Scout just asked me to add that he’s really excited to have a sister and is already enjoying capturing stuffed animals from her room and holding them captive on his bed. He’s not really sure why we’re spending so much time in that pink room, but thinks that it’s a pretty cool place to visit. We’re sure that he has no idea what lies ahead, but hope that he and Cali will become fast friends and help each other burn off energy!

Referral Acceptance

On 12/17 we received a phone call from our case worker...wonderful news...Cali Jean’s RA (referral acceptance), China’s official acceptance of our adoption, arrived at our agency and earlier than expected! Yes, we can now submit the last bit of paperwork before travel approval...oh wait...Glitch in process...we are still waiting for another piece of immigration paperwork...12/20...Bob checks mail...large manilla envelope...US Immigration office...sweet, it’s here...mad dash to put all of the pieces together...late afternoon 12/20...2 Fed Exes off to Virginia and Texas...the journey moves forward!

We’re now compiling our visa information and working with our agency on travel plans. This truly is a Merry Christmas for the Griffin Family...our hearts are full of great love for our little Cali already and we can’t even imagine how that love will multiply when we are able to hold her in our arms. We have been deeply reminded, through the last month, of God’s many blessings. Our Thanksgiving phone call and “speedy paperwork turnarounds” just before Christmas, are clear evidence that God has had this precious little girl in His plan for us all along. He is moving in very special ways to shorten that red thread that connects our lives to our sweet Cali Jean.

Thank you so much for all of your emails, phone calls, and shared excitement!

We appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers as we work through the paperwork and red tape that separates us from our trip to China and bringing Cali home. As we started four years ago in one immigration track and now have had to update everything in another track, we were told last week that it actually will take longer to process our paperwork. Our caseworker is guessing that we may now travel at the beginning of April. This was a bit frustrating to hear, but there is obviously not a thing that we can do about government procedures and policies. These "procedures" and ever extended time lines are the most frustrating part of the adoption process, but I'll leave that soap box for a future blog entry.