Provisional Approval & Pictures!

Great news!  We were just informed that China granted us our Provisional Approval (PA) on January 29.  That means they accepted our LOI for our little girl.  That also means things are officially semi-officially-official, and we can share pictures publicly. 

When we received our little girl's referral package, there were three pictures included.  These were from the November 2011 timeframe, so she was about nine months old.  We don't have much more to share at this point, so enjoy the pictures of this beautiful little one.

Surprise!

Well, life sure does bring big surprises from time to time.  Remember that first prayer request from our last blog post?  The one asking that a match would happen sooner than we expected?  Yeah, that one.  We're humbled and blessed to report that this prayer has been answered!

On January 17, only six days after being logged in with China, we received a child referral from our adoption agency.  We had 24 hours to review her file, and on January 18 we officially submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) .  This means a new little girl is in the final stages of becoming a member of our family!  She was born in February 2011, so she's only 11 months old.  We'll share pictures once we receive our Provisional Approval (PA) from China, which may be as early as next week.

Because everyone knows that we are adopting through China's special needs program, we know we'll get asked what condition she has.   This does not define who she is as a person, so all we'll share is that she is a hereditary carrier of a genetic condition.  Because she's only a carrier, it doesn't cause any symptoms.  This is the only reason she was placed on the special needs list.

So, next steps...  Now we must wait to receive a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from China, followed by a final request to the USCIS to bring our daughter home.  More paperwork ensues, and long story short, a bunch of documents will eventually be sent to the US Consulate in Guangzou for processing.  Once the US Consulate completes their tasks, they will notify the CCCWA, and they will grant our travel approval. 

Given recent wait times for other adoptions, it looks like we'll be traveling to China to get our daughter in the summer of 2012.  The time cannot come soon enough!!!

Our prayer request is that all of the remaining tasks & paperwork outside of our control will be completed quickly.  Pray also for patience, as the wait is even more difficult now that we've seen this wonderful little face.  Ella and Myles can't wait to introduce you all to their little sister!

One Step Closer!

After several weeks with no news to report, we're happy to say that our dossier has officially arrived in China!  All those months of compiling and certifying paperwork came to a close in December, and our agency found no errors, praise God!  The dossier was mailed on January 6, and we received confirmation that we are "logged in" with the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) as of January 11.  This is a huge milestone!

Next step:   We will be matched by our adoption agency through China’s monthly release of special needs children when they find a child matching our profile.  This process could take anywhere from one to several months.  Once the match has been initiated, we'll be notified within 24 hours.  Within the next day the child's information will be compiled and shipped to us overnight.  We then have to review all the information and sign a letter of acceptance.  And then more waiting begins: waiting for one final USCIS approval; waiting for an appointment to be scheduled in China through the US Consulate; waiting for our travel approval.  After all that, we'll have two to three weeks' notice to prepare for our departure to China.  The adoption will be finalized in China, so this child will have a forever family before we even get on the plane home!

It's both amazing and heart-wrenching to know that our little girl is already born and out there just waiting for us!  Your continued prayers are very much desired:

- Pray that our child match occurs even sooner than we could have expected.

- Pray for the safety and health of our little girl. Because we're in the special needs program she will have some correctable medical condition, but we won't know if it's cleft lip, a heart defect, or something else until the match is made.  Pray in advance that the surgery (or surgeries) she will have to go through will be as minor and uneventful as possible.

- Pray for wisdom and discernment when we do finally receive a file to review.  Pray that it will be completely clear whether or not she is the child God has planned for us and that we will feel confident in the decision.