Paperwork Blunder... Not on My Part

Well, yesterday certainly was a mixed bag of emotions. I was so excited to receive the update and 2 new photos of Little Miss and then....ugh!

I am so grateful to be a part of many Facebook groups of parents adopting from China. There is a group of us who all logged in our paperwork in China in May. Having such wonderful people around who are going through the same experience has been a huge help. I have also been able to "stalk" their timelines to see how we are progressing through our paperwork. Well, through that stalking I KNEW our I800 paperwork should have been received and ready for approval early this week. I called Immigration Friday and again yesterday to see if it was received and they couldn't find it. The officer tried to locate it but it wasn't even in the system. So I called the agency. Long story short, somehow our paperwork was sent to China instead of to Immigration. 2 weeks have passed. 2 long weeks in which we should have received our approval. The agency has been great about trying to get the paperwork resubmitted, and they sent it last night. It is now at the "lockbox" waiting to be dealt with. Our officer has been notified and the file has been "tagged". Hopefully they will bump it ahead in the pile. But, 2 weeks are gone and now I don't know when we will travel. So, please pray that this doesn't set us off too bad. With the week long holiday the first week in China I can only pray we will travel mid-October.

Just goes to prove my point about why I am such a control freak. If I hadn't caught this, we'd still be waiting. UGH!!!

So, the adoption rollercoaster continues. Trying to "roll with it" but not feeling happy today.

Photo Time

Well, I just realized that I never posted a photo of our cutie, Little Miss. I didn't want to post her photo before we had our official approval. Now that we have it, here are the few photos I have of her. The first few are from her file, dated June 2013 so aged 2 1/2. 

 I love the smile on her face!

And now today I received a wonderful gift- an update. A few of my questions were answered. We have new measurements for our peanut. She hasn't grown much. She's about as big as Colby was when we picked him up at 22 months. But I'm so thankful for new photos to look at. And here they are:

LOA!!! LOA!!! LOA!!!

We have our LOA!!!!

We just received our LOA. This means we are approved to adopt Little Miss. One HUGE step forward. Now to finish paperwork and get our travel approval. Praying to travel late Sept but probably in October. We're coming soon my little peanut! We're coming soon!

LOA....Still MIA

Well, we have had our dossier in China since May. We know we have a DTC of 5/9 and a LID of 5/21. We also know that our dossier has been OOT since the week of 6/9. And now what? We are still waiting. UGH!

We have been LID for 60 days now. 60 days of waiting. 60 days closer but still 60 days. Most LOAs have been coming around 60-70 days so hopefully we will be coming soon.

This wait has been the hardest one so far. It is similar to the wait we had inbetween trips to get Colby. I've done all the paperwork, we've met all the requirements and now we wait. We wait for someone in China to say OK, all set. We wait for our dossier to be approved. Then we can get the last paper to the US to approve bringing home our Little Miss and then we get travel approval. After we get that elusive LOA we will have about 2 months before we travel. So if we get it soon, we could possibly travel in September but more likely October. That also means waiting through the week long holiday in China the first week in October and traveling through Guangzhou during the "Trade Fair". It should be an exciting time but a little more costly to stay. UGH!

So, your continued prayers for that elusive LOA to show up. I did see 3 ladybugs on our mini vacation to New Hampshire. So, hoping they brought us good luck.

Another Great Fundraiser

While we wait I want to remind you all of our Puzzle Fundraiser. We haven't had much movement on it but I have 2 beautiful puzzles with Chinese scenery on them. Please consider donating $5 for a piece of our adoption puzzle. I will put your name on the back, the puzzles will be put together and framed in our Little Miss's  bedroom. Please see the DONATE button at the top right corner of the blog.

Also, today I have a Tupperware fundraiser beginning. A wonderful fellow adoptive mom sells tupperware and hosts these parties as fundraisers to help bring kids home to their forever families. Please consider buying a great product and adding to our China plane trip fund. See the link below!

A China Princess Finds Her Family Fundraiser!

http://order.tupperware.com/pls/htprod_www/!twx$eparty_ctl.p_guest_welcome?pv_eparty=2218dc88d9b995ae3fd10329345088a2

Thank you all again for your continued support and prayers! Still waiting on our Letter of Approval but with your prayers, it just might come soon!

More Waiting

Well, we have finally made it to summer. I am so happy that school is over. It was such a crazy, hectic school year, I can use the much needed rest and relaxation. The only trouble...too much time to think.

It is now June 27. We have had our paperwork into China for over a month now. It has been logged in (LID of 5/21) and we have been translated (OOT sometime the week of 6/9) so now we just wait. I have seen many with LID dates of mid-April now getting their letters of approval (LOA). I can only see this as a good sign. That means May LIDs would be next. Let's get that LOA!

So we wait, and we wait, and we wait. This is hard. It is so similar to when we had to wait between trips to go back for Colby. We first met him in late June 2008. We had 2 "play dates" and then had to leave him. We had no idea when we would be back. With the judge requesting updated paperwork, and a couple holidays thrown in, it wasn't until the very end of Jan 2009 that we returned. 7 months of waiting with only a few photos and a short video to look at.

And now, I have the same. A few photos and a short video to keep me company. We have a little better idea of when we might go, still praying for late Sept but more likely October travel. We just need that silly LOA paper. With that I know it will be about 8-10 weeks to travel.

So, what can we do? Pray for a quick LOA. Pray that someone in China gets through a big batch of adoption paperwork to approve a bunch of LOAs. Pray that our little girl stays healthy and that the ladies taking care of her love her. Pray that we survive this crazy wait as we get two federal governments to agree that our China Princess can come home. Just pray!

A Little Owl Told Me We Are 'OOT

The owl said we are 'OOT!!!

I know, sounds silly but it is another big step forward. 

Once our dossier was sent to China, it needed to be logged in first. Se we were DTC on 5/9 (arrived in China 5/12) and LID, logged in date of 5/21. I have many friends on the various Facebook adoption groups who have similar dates as we do. It is fun knowing that we might meet up in China as we travel to get our little ones. Well, we all post our "stats" and watch each other's. The other dossiers were moving on to be OOT, or Out of Translation. A big step. So, on Thursday, needing some good news, I emailed our placement agency just to see how things were going. Marilyn emailed back to say that the listings show that we are OOT also!!! So excited! 

What's next?? Our dossier needs to be reviewed and we will receive our LOA, Letter of Approval. A bit of a long dragged out process but we are moving along. Some have waited 30 days for LOA, some have waited for 100 days or more. We have no way to know how long we will wait. So please, keep praying that we move along quickly and bring home our Little China Princess soon.