- Pre-approval to adopt Lauran. Since China is not the one matching us with a child , which is what they do with healthy children, 0ur agency had to send a letter of recommendation for us to adopt Lauran. Then China looks over our file of paperwork called a Dossier that we sent to them, and then basically approves us. At this time we are considered pre-approved. ( one step completed!!)
- Then we wait for our official letter of approval (LOA). This take 2-3 months.
- Then we wait for our travel approval. China sends an official letter to approve us to travel to China to adopt Lauran. It seems redundant to me since they already approved us to adopt her and how else would we adopt her since they require us to travel to China. So shouldn't we be approved to travel when we are approved to adopt! I am assuming they have a good reason for the extra step. Anyways, that takes another 2-4 weeks to receive after we get our LOA.
- Then we get scheduled for our appt. at the American Consulate. This is the last appt. of our trip and will dictate all our other travel dates. We usually need to be in China 10-14 days before this appt. This appt. completes the adoption with the U.S.A.
- Now we make all of our travel arrangements.
- Travel to China!
Makes my head spin and I have done this before! So on the long side we will be traveling at the end of May possibly early June. The short end would be late April to early May. I am planning for it to take the longest span but hoping and praying for the shortest! The thought of waiting til Late May or June is heartbreaking! Also, that will be tricky with the Nathan an Ryan being at the end of the school year. If we do not take them they will be going to MN and will miss school either way. Not sure how that will work if they miss the end of school. I guess I will have to look into that!
In the mean time we are able to send a care package to Lauran. We can send toys, blankets and pictures of us. We can also send some disposable cameras and hopefully they will take some pictures of her while we are waiting!! Then we will get them hopefully on Gotcha Day! So I will be working on that with the kids on putting that together with the kids over the next week! Now that we are all on Antibiotics for sinus infections I am hoping I will be able to get something done. Nathan, Megan and I have been sick since right after Christmas :(
We also picked out bunk beds for the girls room this weekend. That was not as fun as I was hoping it to be. It was hard to figure out what to do in the room. I was hoping to avoid bunk beds but that is what we ended up with and it was the best fit for the room and the best long term solution. Megan is excited to get big beds though (she is still in a crib) and her face lights up when we talk about sharing her room with Lauran!
1 comment:
I know these days drag, waiting for that coveted TA!! You are in my prayers!!
Bunk beds ROCK!!! At first everyone wants to sleep on the top and then after about 5 days, NO one wants to sleep on the top :0) I conviced Evie that the top bunk is the better one because you don't have to make your bed, since no one can see it anyways! She bought it at least (plus, it is tons of fun to launch stuffed animals from the bunk!) Love you, Stacey
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