Here is a photo of us with the Fed Ex guy that delivered our LOA to us....I am sure he thought I was a little crazy, but he was super nice and humored me, and he was willing to join in on the picture taking. (Can you tell I was excited to finally have that LOA in hand?!?!)
The next step was to fill out our I800 application and send to USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). The I800 is basically our government's approval of the adoption. It is them saying that "Yes, these people are qualified to parent Max specifically." Our I800 was approved on 8/20. From there our paperwork had to go to the National Visa Center. We had to fill out yet another form, wait for it to be processed and then after we received all the receipts and numbers from that, our paperwork got dropped off at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. The Consulate will take 10 business days to issue an Article 5 letter that states we have our final approval to adopt and that he will qualify for a Visa. We had a few holidays that affected our Article 5 time line so our Article 5 will finally be ready on Thursday, 9/18. The Article 5 will be sent to the China adoption officials who will issue us our travel approval. The average travel approval wait has been taking about 8 days. So since China is 12 hours ahead of us....as I am writing this it is already Wednesday 9/17 in China so our Article 5 will be picked up in just one more day!
That was a really long explanation....if your eyes glazed over reading that (and I am sure that they did)....this is all you need to know: WE ARE ABOUT 1-2 WEEKS AWAY FROM BOOKING OUR TRIP TO CHINA!
So here's the nitty gritty and where we would love some prayers. Let me explain....our agency has only 1 scheduled travel group per month that we can go with. They will not let us travel outside of the scheduled groups. The group dates that we would fit into are either 10-10 or 10-31. I have been hoping and praying all along to make it in the October 10 group. That way he will be home before his 2nd birthday which is on 11/6. (Also Cora's birthday is on 11-1, so if we go with the October 31 group...we will not be home to celebrate her birthday with her. I already missed her 1st birthday while we waited to bring her home...I don't want to miss another one.) It will still take a small miracle to get the final approval in time to get everything scheduled for the 10-10 group. There is a week long holiday in China from October 1-7 which will make scheduling difficult. Please pray that we will be able to squeak into the October 10 group.
So here's our prayer requests...and we truly covet your prayers.
1- Pray for Max and that he is receiving good loving care while we wait to bring him home.
2- Pray for God to prepare Max's heart for all the changes he is about to go through. (We are excited to bring him home, but this adoption means he is losing everything that he knows in order to become a part of our family.)
3- Pray for approvals to arrive in time to get everything scheduled for the October 10 travel group.
4- Pray that Tj and I can get everything done at home without too much stressing as we prepare for this trip and bringing our 5th child home.
5- Pray for the financial portion of this adoption. There is still a significant financial need there to be able to pay for the travel expenses to get our Max home. (Any rich friends out there with money burning a hole in your pocket....we could put it to good use. ;-) Ha!)
6- Pray for our other 4 children that will be staying home while we travel to China. Please pray that our absence while in China is not too hard on them.
I will leave you with a photo of Max from March...gosh I can't wait to give this little guy a squeeze!
Happy Tuesday friends.
-katie
