National Visa Center Approval

We got an email today from the National Visa Center that our request has been approved and our approval has been forwarded to the American Embassy in Guangzhou, China.  I forwarded this email to our agency and their in-China representative will take the rest of our paperwork to the Embassy tomorrow so they can process everything.  Basically they are doing one final review on all the paperwork to make sure all the I's have been dotted and the T's have been crossed.  This is where they make sure Konnor meets all the requirements for an immigrant visa and they "sign off" on the paperwork so that we can complete the adoption.  This step will take 2 weeks.  Once we get the approval from the Embassy (the approval is called the Article 5), then we are officially just waiting on Travel Approval (TA).  The TA usually is issued approx 2-3 weeks after the Article 5 is picked up and then we would likely travel within 2-3 weeks of getting TA.  We are still looking at traveling the end of May at this point.  We are getting soooooo excited and have started trying to get the house in order so that it is more toddler friendly.

Ashley

Immigrations Approval

So bright and early this morning I had this very strong need to check my email.  For those of you that don't know I am a full fledged don't care who knows it coffee addict : )  I also am a person who plans her morning routine down to the minute (yes it is ok to laugh b/c I know in a couple months this will be impossible for me, but for now I still am holding onto my snooze button).  Anyway, I felt like I HAD to check my email.  In order to do that I was going to have to forfeit my coffee in exchange for warm soda, YUCK!!  Thankfully I check my email and there was an email from our USCIS (Immigration) caseworker saying that he had approved our I-800 application!!!!

I know some of you may be thinking, "Didn't they get immigration approval last summer??"  We did fill out paperwork last summer to ask permission to adopt a child from a Hague convention country.  The I-800 form is filled out asking permission to adopt a specific child, KONNOR!  So we have officially be given approval from immigration for Konnor to be adopted and classified as an immediate family member.  They have forwarded our paperwork on to the National Visa Center to get a Visa for him to immigrate to the good ol USA.  This next step will probably take 1-2 weeks.  I will stop here b/c there are still several steps, but if I lay them all out now it will just get confusing.  Let's just say that it appears at this point in time that we are still on target to travel the end of May.  We are busy getting the house ready and thanks to some VERY generous and amazing co-workers I get to go hog wild crazy baby shopping this weekend : )  Keep checking back often as things should progress pretty quickly from here. Thank you to everyone for the continued support.

Mark and Ashley

LOA, LOA, LOA, LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FINALLY after 70 days we got the call at 1029 am today that we had gotten our LOA!!  In case you are not aware the LOA is the Letter Of Acceptance.  These 3 little letters are so HUGE that upper case letters just don't explain it.  The LOA means that both our paperwork and Konnor's paperwork have been reviewed and we have officially been given the go ahead to get approval for him to immigrate to the USA.  As our awesome caseworker put it, "IT'S OFFICIAL, HE IS YOURS!!!!"  It will still be 2-2 1/2 months until we can travel to meet our Son for the first time, but we are definitely on the countdown to gotcha day now.

 I know for me I have continued to hold a little part of myself back from being excited about our match.  This was not an intentional thing, but more of a defense mechanism.  Don't think for a second that I was not crazy happy, but this withholding was more due to the fact that I didn't know how much my already battered heart could take.  This has been a long journey for us in many ways.  Now that we have officially been given the approval to adopt I can feel the lingering weight lift.  It is so crazy to think that we are now just a few short months away from meeting our Son.  This little boy has already started to shape our lives in ways that we would have never dreamed of a few years ago.  To think that he has this kind of impact while still halfway around the world is amazing.   Just think what will happen once he is actually in his Forever Home.  Hold onto your seats b/c the ride is going to go much faster from here.  Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers during the coming weeks that everything will go as planned and we can soon have one less orphan in the world.

Mark and Ashley