What's Next?

Getting our LOA means that China approves of us adopting our son.  It means that they have read over our dossier and everything looks okay to them.  This is hugely exciting because it means we are so much closer to getting him home!  We waited 95 days for our LOA, the longest wait in our whole adoption process so far.  Our agency received our LOA on Monday. They sent it over-night to us so it arrived to our house on Tuesday (also my birthday - that's the sweetness of God, y'all).

We have to check that "we accept the adoptee" or "we cannot accept the adoptee" and sign our names.  We accept!  We accept with glad hearts!  

We have several pieces of paperwork to gather and then we will over-night our signed LOA and other paperwork back to our agency.  They will return it to China for us.

They will also submit our paperwork to USCIS (US Central Immigration Service) and we will wait for approval from them that our son can immigrate.  If we get this approval (we should) then he will become an American citizen as soon as our plane lands from China.

Then we wait for our Article 5, Travel Approval, and Consulate Appointment.  More details on those things when they are closer.  Don't want to make your head spin too much in one blog post.

Meanwhile, we are also applying for Chinese Visas. We can't travel without them.  I'm at the very beginning of this intimidating process.  Lots of forms and procedures to follow.  (All worth it to get my boy home, though.)

So.... 

When do we expect to travel?

Early/mid December!!

It is possible that things could move faster, so we are considering all of that now as we plan ahead.  But it looks like our son should be home before Christmas!