Playing the LONG waiting game

Before I give you the adoption update I want to let you know that I have many posts spinning in my head, so check back here often in the next few days to hear about my big little man turning 3 and about our wonderful summer 2012. 

Today (August 15th) is the first day since July 28th we have been home and not had house guests.  We really really like having house guests, but I wanted to let you all know why I have not posted... house guests AND of course my Olympic obsession! 

Our baby girl  *yes, it is crazy to say that* will be six months tomorrow!  I wish I could celebrate this milestone with you little one! 

This means we have six months to pray her home by her first Birthday.  This is a very “doable” goal.  I of course and praying for a super fast LOA (to be explained later) and a super fast TA (later) so we can bring her home in December!

Am I crazy?  Those not in the adoption world say “NO WAY”... those in the China adoption world might say “Sorta.”  I am OK with “sorta”  crazy and would ask you all to join us in praying that God would do the impossible with this adoption and we can bring her home before Christmas.  Realistically, January/February makes more sense, but my God is a big God so I am asking for Big stuff! 

Since the referral...
M has been so excited to tell everyone he meets, “I a big brother” and then he flashes his copies for his baby sister’s photos.  He is so proud.  I hope that this feeling does not fade for him.

On August 1st we received “PA” (pre-approval) to adopt little Miss from China.  This means 8.1.12 is our “day one” in the long wait for LOA (letter of acceptance).  Because we have a log in date (7.10) that is so close to our pre-approval date we are likely in for a LONG LOA wait.  This is a huge place for us to gain ground so I would ask you all to please pray that we have LOA by day 60. 

Yes adoptive friends, I know you are laughing at me, I can still ask this prayer!  I do realize that people with the stats I listed above are waiting on average 100-140 days for their LOA.  I realize I am asking people to pray that our wait is half that long. 

Right now our dossier is being translated in China.  Once it is done being translated we will receive notice that we are “out of translation” (OOT).  Once we get the OOT notice our LOA should come in 2-5 weeks though some are taking as many as 7 or 8. 

I will make sure to let all of you know when we have moved out of translation.

After we receive our LOA we will then have to submit our I800 (USCIS immigration stuff) and have that approved. 

After 800 approval it will get cabled to China.

Once China receives it we wait again, this time for travel approval (TA).
Once we have been given travel approval we will apply for a Consulate appointment (CA) and should hear what our date is only a few days after TA.  The consulate appointment is the date we will need to be in China to meet with the US Embassy to get a visa to bring our little girl home. 

Families generally always travel within a month of receiving TA.  Recently families have been going from LOA-boarding an airplane for China in around 10 weeks, but that can change anytime. 

There are so many unknowns... I guess that is OK because it is important in all of this to keep trusting God! 

Since this post has a bit of a random flare I will leave with one more tidbit.  We still don’t have a name for our sweet girl, but I am reading the “top 100,000 baby names” book so hopefully we will have this decided before we board the airplane!