Catch Up!

Our baby girl is in Southern China - Guangxi - City of Laibin




Well - it has been so long and I am absolutely terrible at keeping up with this blog! So much has happened since October last year. After much prayer and discussion we decided to switch to the special needs program in China. We started the paperwork which took us till June to complete due to the restructuring of the program with our agency and new requirements from China. Our agency told us they expected us to get matched within 6 months from the final conference call we did with them on June 24th. We were matched on the following Monday when the new list come out, June 28th with a beautiful 7 month old little girl from Guangxi Province in China! We were instantly in love from her. It has been a whirlwind since then. We received our Provinical Approval July 6th and then had the terrible, horrible, 72 day wait for our LOA {letter of acceptance} that arrived on September 9th. This is China's official word that she is ours! That was such an exciting day. We then had to file our I800 with the USCIS here in the US and that was approved on September 23rd, just 2 weeks later. Our paperwork then had to be sent off to the US Embassy in Guangzhou and we were cabled on October 5th and it was then picked up on Wednesday, October 26th and sent to Beijing to the CCCWA. That is where we are now- 10 days into our Travel Approval wait. I was so hoping to receive that today! I think we will get it next week. Our travel group with our agency is scheduled to leave on November 30th so I have been praying really hard for us to get this. God has been so faithful through this whole journey- I know that he will continue if it is his will. Each step has been harder than the last. I just really want my baby girl to be home. Her 1st birthday is November 9th - next Wednesday! I am so sad that we cannot be there with her to celebrate. We are sending her a birthday cake through Ann of Red Threads. She is going to try and get us pictures of her party with her friends and caregivers. She was not able to get an update or pictures when we sent the last care package last month. I just know she has changed so much and it saddens me that she is growing up without us! Just 25 more days until we board an airplane- God willing! I don't think I am going to sleep much between now and then. Pictures to come:)