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.