Fast Forward

Wait….what do you mean something happened AHEAD of schedule???

I should back up first and explain that there is a LOT of paperwork that goes into adopting a child internationally.  Throughout the process documents have due dates, expiration dates, and must take place in a specific order.  It is a lot to keep track of, but our fabulous agency helps to make it as easy and painless as possible.  I am fairly certain that none of y’all want to hear about the entire documentation process from beginning to end.  So, I have found this diagram floating around various blogs (I would gladly give acknowledgement if someone could tell me where it originated) and it helps to give a high-level overview of the basics of the process: 

When we received our match we had to create and sign a document called a Letter of Intent (LOI).  This is then sent to China and we wait for the CCWA’s pre-approval.  The average wait between LOI and travel is between 4-8 months. Since our dossier was already complete and was logged in and reviewed by China in 2011, we are on the shorter end of that timeframe. 

 

Our LOI was received in China on September 30; therefore we had calculated February 2014 as the earliest we would be able to travel.  Immediately after our LOI was sent, I started receiving emails with additional paperwork to prepare.  The next “big” thing we were waiting for was our Letter of Acceptance (LOA).  This is China’s response to us confirming our child match.  The LOA can take about one to two months to arrive.  Therefore, you can imagine our shock when we received an email only a week after our sending our LOI stating that our LOA had already arrived.   WHAT??!!   I was so confused I immediately called our agency thinking I was surely misunderstanding something.  However, when I called our agency, they confirmed that our LOA had indeed arrived much earlier than we had anticipated!   Who knew that at any point in this process we would have something actually go faster than the norm???

(What does this mean you ask?)

It means that instead of traveling in February, we might actually go get our daughter THIS YEAR!   (Usually, you can expect to travel anywhere between 10 and 14 weeks after the LOA arrival; which, if you get out your calendars, is basically the month of December.) We are SUPER EXCITED and we are I am BEYOND STRESSED at the same time.  Ask me if I have the room painted? The furniture put together? A name for her? My desk at work ready and set up so it as is easy as possible for someone else to step into the role for a while? My benefits and time off figured out? Our house in any sort of order so we can have people come and take care of Izzy and Murphy? Oh, and let us not forget about the piles of paperwork that I thought I still had at least a month to work on! 

But much larger than all the stress…is the complete feeling of thankfulness and joy.  I cannot express what it feels like to imagine that I may not have to sit through yet another Christmas trying to hold back tears waiting for the day when we have her home to celebrate with us.  Or the fact that we can have her home and start working on getting her the one-on-one attention that she needs; that we can start getting her developmental milestones on track.  We have missed so much of her life already, so many “firsts”.  Every day sooner that we can have her here with us is a blessing indeed!