How Many Days?

 I've broken down our wait from the time our agency accept our application.

Approved by agency - 2/21/09 = 302 Days
Referral accepted - 3/09/09 = 277 Days or 9 months, 2 days
Sent LOI - 5/29/09 = 196 Days or 6 months, 12 Days
Received LID - 9/1/09 = 101 Days or 3 months, 10 Days
Received LOA- 11/3/09 = 38 Day or 1 month, 8 Days

Wondering how much longer!

So Tired

I am just so tired of all the delays! Apparently our agency has not sent our paperwork to the Consulate yet. It's been two weeks since our file was cabled. Approval is usually given between 6-14 days after the cable is sent. So we could be looking at another 2 weeks before our Article 5 is issued.

Feeling a bit weary in this process.

**Update -Our information was originally submitted a few weeks ago but our in-country staff was then informed that the DS 230 was missing information as they had updated the forms. They have provided this information to our in-country staff and they are working with the consulate to have it processed as quickly as possible. They will follow up again today and let us know what they hear.**

Gearing Up

Not sure when we will travel, I've started gathering items for our trip. Evans clothes are washed and I'm trying to decide what to bring. I think we will start packing his items. His little backpack is full and ready for him to go through. We have enjoyed shopping for items he will need. I think the item we bought that made it real for me was his little toothbrush!

Nothing new to report on our wait for TA. We will be sending him a birthday cake at the end of the month as his birthday is Jan. 1st. Hopefully we will receive pictures. :)

It's Been Awhile

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged over here. Bob and I had our midterm in our Monday night sign language class. We both missed two questions out of 30. We are still going to our Thursday night class which is good because it actually keeps us going. We start our Monday night class back up the begining of January.

We are still waiting on our TA. For those of you not familiar with the adoption lingo none of this will mean anything to you but for those of you who are this is where we stand. We received our I800 approval on 11/20 and then the NVC cabled our petition to Guangzhou on 11/27. We are offically awaiting for our article 5 to be sent and then our TA should be sent!

We have started washing Evans clothes and buying some needed supplies for our trip. I can hardly believe that it is almost time to travel. Please pray that we can travel before Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is 2/14 this year.

We are inching closer ever day!

Nerves

It seems as though my nerves are getting the best of me these days. Maybe because the time for travel is actually getting closer. There is still so much to do. We've waited for what seems like forever to bring Evan home and now it's right around the corner.

One of our biggest fears is that our time in China will be much like it was with Lia. Lia's fear, saddness, and anger was so overwhelming at times it hurt. There was only one other child in our group who reacted as Lia did. All the other children were happy go lucky. I can still hear Lia's deep cries and feel her in my arms as she tries to push herself away from me. Evan is bigger and even stronger than Lia. Will he react as she did or will he be excited?

All we can do is prepare for the worst and pray for the best! We don't expect Evan to come running to us nor did we with Lia. We know this is a life changing event that comes with many emotions for our children. We do pray that Evan's adjustment is a bit easier than Lia's was.

Drop Intercepted!

For those who have adopted before you know how fast that FedEx guy is. I was bound and determined I was going to catch him today. I swear they drop that package off and run for their life! Well, I caught him. Actually as soon as I saw him hit the end of my driveway I flew downstairs and flung open my door. Needless to say I startled him. Imagine a crazy excited woman with a camera running towards you.

Today has been a crazy day filled with preparing FedEx packages, photocopying papers, faxing the agency and lack of sleep. I am so glad 90% of our paperwork was filled out before hand or I would have been more overwhelmed than I was. Come to find out Evan's Chinese name is actually translated to Lv Bo BUT can be translated to Lu Bo as well. As for our offical documents we will use Lv so there are no delays but for our spelling we will use Lu. I have double checked to make sure this is appropriate and I have been assured by two people that it is.

It feels good to know that all of this paperwork is done and out of our hands. Now to sit back and wait yet some more. We are being advised that our TA could take anywhere from 9-11 weeks and that is if things stay at the rate the are going now.

Right now I'd just like to see my fellow agency friends receive their TA's as they have been waiting for a long time. So if you are reading could you say a prayer for them please?

*Edited to say the packages arrived safely to their destinations! PHEW!!!

LOA!!!

WooHoo, 63 days after CCAA logged us into their system they have officially approved us to be the parents of Lu Bo!! I can hardly believe it! Praise God for only He could have given us a quick LOA. It looks as though we may travel at the end of January if all goes well. :) Only time will tell.