Adoption Update

We are in the final stages of waiting dear friends.  I think the closer to the end we get the harder the waiting is.  We are currently waiting for our Travel Approval (TA).   TA's usually take less than two weeks from Article 5 pick up date.  Our pick up date was on the 12th.  If I have learned anything on my two rides of the adoption roller coaster, it is to not put too much hope of "usually" and "typical" when it comes to timing of things in the process.  Every single step of this process (besides the super quick referral after LID) has been slower than typical.  Sadly, as I am writing this I have an adoptive momma friend who had her Article 5 p/u on November 30th and she is still waiting for her TA.  Yikes!

It is easy to panic.  It is easy to fear missing the travel window before Ch!nese New Year.  It is easy to think of things to worry about.  It is so much harder to trust that God knows when our Travel Approval will come.  We are so close.  We can see the finish line.  It feels like we could just sprint in, and yet we must not run ahead.  This race is God's not ours. 

We will learn of TA from our lovely case manager.  She will call us and inform us that the country has said we can travel to get our daughter.  At this point it seems like we could just jump on a plane and go, right?  Well, not exactly. 

As soon as we have TA we will give our case manager our top 5 choices for consulate appointments.  The consulate appointments can happen on Monday-Thursday, but we are PRAYING for a Monday. We want to in and out of Ch!na as quickly as possible because we are leave M at home.  Yes, we are.  Yes, it is hard.  Yes, that is a whole different blog post which I will get up soon. Anyway, we are hoping to be gone for 13 days including flying days so the Monday consulate date is critical.  Because the consulate is a US govt. office it is closed for MLK day on the 21st.  This means that our Monday options are smaller than normal.  We are praying that we will get our first choice for a January 28th CA date.  Please join us in praying for this when you think of us. 

Typically (there is that word again) the consulate will confirm your CA date within 3 days.  Sometimes it is within one day!  Once our CA is confirmed we are free to book flights, hotels, and make our plan for our time in Ch!na. 

Christmas and New Year's also throws a wrench in some of the timelines as our agency, the Ch!nese offices, and the US consulate all close for both Christmas and New Years.  

I will make sure to do a quick post when we receive both TA and CA news.  If we don't hear about TA tomorrow, the next chance we will get to hear anything is next Wednesday as our agency is closed Monday and Tuesday.  Thank you so much for your prayers for our family.