A few friends have commented that it's been practically forever a while since I've posted an update on our adoption process. (Actually, it's been practically forever since I've posted at all. Sorry!) I wish that I had some exotic excuse (like I've been hanging out on an island with no Wifi), but the real reason is mostly that I haven't had much to share. For a L-O-N-G time, we've been waiting...and waiting...and waiting for our Letter of Approval (abbreviated to the three lovely little letters L-O-A) to arrive from Ch*na. There isn't much to do adoption-wise during the LOA wait, so updates on the process aren't super thrilling.
Well...guess what? After 74 days of waiting, LOAs for both our boys arrived on July 30! Of course, we happened to be halfway across the country at a conference when they arrived. Thankfully, our wonderful agency overnighted them to my parents' house in SoCal (just 1-1/2 hours from the conference), so we were able to get them signed and sent off to U.S. Immigration on August 1.
What does all this mean? First and foremost, one really L-O-N-G stage of waiting is behind us. (Can I get a woohoo?) Second, I've been spending my free time researching hotels in Ch*na. (How fun is that?) Third, we are getting really C-L-O-S-E to hopping on a plane to go pick up our boys!
I found the awesome chart below to help explain what we've accomplished and what we have left to do before we travel to bring our li'l guys home. (I take absolutely no credit for this lovely graphic; some way-cool adoptive mama created it.)
Well...guess what? After 74 days of waiting, LOAs for both our boys arrived on July 30! Of course, we happened to be halfway across the country at a conference when they arrived. Thankfully, our wonderful agency overnighted them to my parents' house in SoCal (just 1-1/2 hours from the conference), so we were able to get them signed and sent off to U.S. Immigration on August 1.
What does all this mean? First and foremost, one really L-O-N-G stage of waiting is behind us. (Can I get a woohoo?) Second, I've been spending my free time researching hotels in Ch*na. (How fun is that?) Third, we are getting really C-L-O-S-E to hopping on a plane to go pick up our boys!
I found the awesome chart below to help explain what we've accomplished and what we have left to do before we travel to bring our li'l guys home. (I take absolutely no credit for this lovely graphic; some way-cool adoptive mama created it.)
At this point, we've finished Steps 1-9. We're waiting on U.S. Immigration to review our Form I-800 and complete Step 10.
What does all this mean in English?
We have five teeny, tiny steps left in our adoption process! The last of these steps is for the Ch*nese adoption entity to send our TA (Travel Approval). Based on other adoptive families' timelines, we should receive our Travel Approval sometime during the second half of September.
There is some bad news. October is not the greatest month for traveling to Ch*na. They have a festival the first week, so all government offices are closed. (No government offices = no adoption appointments/paperwork.) The last two weeks there is a gigantic trade fair in one of the provinces we have to visit. This makes travel and hotels much more expensive. Boo. On top of that, two of us are in a wedding on November 3.
So...our agency is recommending that we leave the second week of November. October sounds oh-so-much closer (and I haven't totally given up hope that we'll travel then), but either way, it's so exciting to get a glimpse of the end of this journey (and to spend endless hours on agoda.com).
Even though I haven't had much to say in a while, thanks for asking anyway. It means a lot to know that people are following along with our journey and praying for us and our boys...who may or may not finally have names. ;-)
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