Weeks Away!

I am knocking on wood SO HARD right now since I just made this title "Weeks Away!"

If everything goes according to plan, we are literally weeks away from traveling to China to get our girl!

Last week we had the pleasure of spending some time with family while in Michigan over Spring Break. While we were there, I was still a crazy lady, incessantly calling Immigration to see if they offered the final approval for Caroline Grace to join our family. On Thursday of last week, the amazing Officer Clark emailed to let us know that they approved our i800 request to adopt Caroline specifically. He mailed me a hard copy approval, and also mailed a copy to the National Visa Center so they can process Caroline's visa paperwork for immigration into the US.

I've been emailing the NVC daily since Monday. Finally this morning I called, and received what's called our GUZ number and our invoice number. Pretty much, it just means that they've received the approval from USCIS and have it logged into their system. This morning I was able to complete our final immigration form for Caroline, called the DS260. It was SO SURREAL. As her petitioner, I had to fill it out AS her. I listed "mother" as me, and "father" as Kris. I was able to list her address as our house. MY HEART.

My heart was overwhelmed filling out this form. It was extensive, and super interesting. We were asked if Caroline had any plans to participate in espionage, fund terrorists or had a history with child soldiers. I was overjoyed, but also really sad that these questions exist.

Right now, we are awaiting one more piece for us to have our final documents submitted in China (I mean, literally, right now. I've been sitting on hold for 31 minutes so far with the NVC to see if they have sent everything to China yet).

The National Visa Center will forward our information to the US consulate in Guangzhou, and once that occurs, they are supposed to email us a PDF letter explaining that it has been sent. Once we receive that PDF, our agency representative will forward our documents for our Article 5 to their in-country representative, who will courier the packet to the consulate. This has a 10 business day review period. Lord willing, this will be dropped off early next week. Once our in-country rep picks up our Article 5, they will overnight it to Beijing to the CCCWA for Travel Approval. These have been taking an average of 7 days lately.

We can travel one to two weeks after receiving travel approval, depending on when we get our final consulate appointment for.
AHHHH! I die. We are thrilled beyond measure. But truthfully, I am beyond anxious. There is SO much unknown, and we are truly feeling every emotion in the book, at the same time. It's SO WEIRD.

We have been waiting to get Caroline's room ready since I keep thinking I might jinx myself. Now, here we are, maybe 4 weeks away from travel, and I find myself absolutely over the moon, but absolutely scrambling.

Will you pray?

Will you pray for speed over the next few steps?

Will you pray for peace? For us, and obvious for Caroline Grace and her foster family.

We are so thankful to have the support we have. Thank you for loving and supporting us so well, and encouraging us every step of this journey. GUYS, WE ARE SO STINKING CLOSE!

Have an awesome weekend. I'll update much sooner as these next few steps are typically all so close.

LOA and Beyond

44 Days.

This really and truly felt like the worlds LONGEST 44 days in my whole life.

Typically, what happens is that the CCCWA (the agency within China who handles adoptions) updates their system electronically first, and lets everyone stay up to date with their process. Once your dossier goes from translation, to review, you are sent to the matching department, who then verifies that you and your child are a good match, and then they issue your letter of acceptance verifying that China has approved you to adopt that child, and then Kris and I need to sign it to verify that we are moving forward with Caroline specifically.

A few days after their system shows that they have issued you LOA, you end up waiting for it to be FedExed to your agency.

However...

In our case, the CCCWA has not updated their system at all for our file. We still show in review, but our agency has received the official hard copy of our LOA today! Yay!!!!! We have always been told that LOA wait is anywhere from 40-100 days. It was anticipated that it would be at least 50+ days since Chinese New Year was in there, and the entire country of China shuts down for a full week. 44 days was a BREEZE given recent timelines!

Before I get into the upcoming timeline, let me say, I was really, really getting tired of waiting the past week or so. I prayed that God would remind me of His faithfulness- not even in regards to the adoption, just in life in general, so we could see Him move, and remember that He is present.

Friends, we saw our God show up in so many non-adoption, mighty ways this week. From being reminding of the way He orchestrates relationships in our lives to support us and to love us well, and to give us the opportunity to love others well, to providing for our needs and by moving in the hearts of our children to increase in kindness towards one another, we have seen Him move, and we are so thankful.

My anxieties cannot always be controlled well, though. Cognitively, I know God is faithful, and know He will continue to move in our family and circumstances, but with an anxiety disorder, it's frequently more than just KNOWING. My brain felt peace this week, my brain new that things were moving, and coming along, but my BODY.. my body responds with heart palpitations, and lightheadedness, and tingling. It is SO strange.

This morning, Lifesong for Orphans (they granted us a covenant loan for this adoption- an AMAZING organization) posted this. I needed it. I prayed it this morning over and over it.

I feel like I used to never consider Nehemiah, but he has been continually woven throughout this adoption. God used him in BIG ways and he continually moved forward by faith. I really hope and pray that we can continue to move forward in faith in our marriage, in our family, parenting and beyond, even after Caroline Grace is home.

Anyway, God has strengthened my hands :)

Okay, so here's the next steps and timeline going forward...

1800 Submission- We already received pre-approval from USCIS (Immigration) to adopt a child meeting Caroline's criteria from China. Now that we have LOA, we have to request permission to adopt Caroline specifically. They say it takes about 3 weeks for this. Currently, they are running about 16-17 days.

NVC- National Visa Center. USCIS will send our approval to the NVC and they will start working on issuing Visa's.

PDF- We will receive an PDF letter from the NVC after about 1 Week (okay, so we're up to about 4 weeks. It will have a special number on it called a GUZ number (stands for Guangzhou, which is where the US Consulate in China is).

D260- The final form we need to submit. It needs the GUZ number. Once we have all of the above, our agency will send all of this to their representative in Guangzhou, China, along with the hard copy of our signed LOA. This is called the...

ARTICLE 5 Drop Off and Pick Up- This is dropped off, and takes a full TEN BUSINESS DAYS.

Travel Approval- Once this is picked up, they will take it to the CCCWA in Beijing, and then we just wait for Travel Approval (TA). TA is currently running 2-10 days after arriving at the CCCWA.

So let's all do the math together... :)

21 Days (or less!) for I800 Approval
7 days for NVC
14 days for Article 5
10 days for TA

52 days. 52 DAYSSSS!

Once TA arrives, you request a Consulate appointment. It really just depends on when you get your CA for, rewind approximately two weeks before, and THAT will be Gotcha Day! Some people leave one week after receiving TA, and some people leave a couple of weeks after TA...

WAAAAHHHH!

My heart. I can hardly handle it.