Officially In the Third Trimester of Our "Paper Pregnancy"!

After 52  very long days of waiting, we were FINALLY able to here the three little words that we so longed to hear..."CHINA SAID YES!" In other words, our Letter of Approval (LOA) had been issued. I was so anxious to get this news that I had seriously started hearing phantom sounds that my phone makes when I get a new e-mail. Why? Because the LOA is the official kick-off to the third and final trimester in this paper pregnancy. With the LOA now in hand, we are ready to jump through the next set of hoops needed to bring Cheyenne home.

• Now that China has formally approved, it is time to go BACK to the USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services) for their final approval. If you recall from previous posts, we already dealt with the USCIS, including being fingerprinted, in order to get their approval to adopt a foreign-born child. Even though we were already matched with Cheyenne, the USCIS' provisional approval is not linked to any particular child. Instead, they review your home study and issue a set of criteria in which you are approved to adopt. In our case, we had our home study specifically written to encompass any/all criteria we would need to bring Cheyenne home. Now, we must send a copy of the LOA to them so that they can issue their final approval for a specific child who matches criteria they previously outlined in the provisional approval. This step typically only takes about two weeks. However, since Christmas, the majority have been taking around three, and in some cases, up to 5 weeks for approval.
• While we are waiting for the USCIS to issue their approval, we have also sent away our Passports and have applied for our China Visas. Visas are required to travel to China. Those have a quick turn around and should be approved this week - provided they don't reject my serial killer looking photo! (I wish I was kidding)
• Once the USCIS issues their approval, they will notify the National Visa Center that they have approved. This will allow us to complete yet another-blessed-form! This form is the online application to begin her Visa paperwork. Her Visa will be finalized while we are in China, but they will not allow us to travel until the beginning steps are complete.
• After Part 1 of her Visa is approved, all the final pieces come together to form what's called the "Article 5", which is a packet of completed forms that our agency's China rep will facilitate between the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China and the China Center for Children's Welfare Administration (CCCWA) office in Beijing. This process takes 10 business days. Once this has been done, China will then issue us what's called our "Travel Approval". This is their official invitation to come get our daughter!

At this point, we are expecting to travel around April 1st, but that may change.

One thing that has made receiving our LOA even more special was the fact that my girlfriends threw me an amazing adoption shower. Let me tell you, this little girl is S-P-O-I-L-E-D! We got so much wonderful stuff for Little Miss Cheyenne. Everything from clothes, to bath stuff, to games/activity books...it was so much fun and I can't wait to see how pretty Chey will look in her new clothes and to play with her and her new toys.

China said yes!!!!

Still No LOA, but Lots of Activity While We Wait

As I mentioned in a previous post, we have our Dossier logged in and are waiting for the "Letter of Approval" or "LOA" from China. Today is day 35 of that wait, but who's counting? This wait is excruciating because we don't have any idea how long it will take and after we get the LOA we still have a few more hoops to jump through before we can bring Cheyenne home. The LOA is China's official approval. Once we get it, we have to send it and some forms in to the USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Services) to get the US Government's official approval (we have their pre-approval). Once we get official approval from the USCIS, their approval goes back to China who will start the process of getting her Visa paperwork ready (her Visa is actually finalized while we are in country). Once that step is done, China will issue us a Travel Approval (TA). This is their invitation to us to come and get her. We are hoping to travel in March, but the longer the LOA takes, the more it starts to look like April. As long as we get the LOA by mid-January, we are still looking at March travel, so fingers crossed.

The only way to survive this wait is through many distractions. Fortunately, we have two busy boys to keep us occupied. As if they aren't enough, we also had the holidays thrown in and the flu bug strike our house. We also started painting and redecorating her bedroom...

But the best distraction of all came on December 19th. Yes, it was Nathan's 14th birthday which was a distraction all in itself, but...I woke up that morning to finding pictures of Cheyenne in my email and learning that they had told her about us. So, SHE FINALLY KNOWS!!!! Below are pictures of her with the stuffed animal "we" sent her, along with a photo album with some pictures of us (if you look closely at the one picture, you can see a picture of the four of us in the album). Apparently, soon after her notification, they took her and a few other children on a field trip and made dumplings and cake. They sent me a few pictures of that too.

They also sent me this very cute video of her dancing. This was taken the same day they told her about us, but I don't know if it was before or after.

To further distract and educate myself, I also read three adoption related books, and started joining MANY adoption related groups on Facebook. While reading a post on one of the groups, I noticed someone mention an orphanage page. I decided to search to see if there was a page dedicated to her specific orphanage...and there was! That created the second best distraction thus far...when they allowed me into that group, I was able to find one picture of her orphanage and over 20 photos of our little girl - going all the way back to her being a toddler! I was in tears and felt like I hit the jackpot. These pictures give us the opportunity to see her grow up through the years. This is a gift that most adoptive parents don't get, so we are very grateful!

                                                                    Orphanage

                                                                  She's SO CUTE!

                                              I love the hat on backwards with her hair down!

        Of course, our little girl would be the one giving a little "attitude" up front with her arms crossed!

While showing these pictures to a couple friends, one of them asked me how I know the younger ones are her. The only explanation I can give is maternal instinct. I've been looking at the few pictures we have of her for months, I've watched the videos they sent us of her enough times to study her body language, and on top of all that, I have gut instinct that could only be explained by maternal instinct....it's a very odd feeling to have this instinct for a child I've never met, but all I can say is the moment I spotted her in each photo, I JUST KNEW...it's the same feeling I had the very first time I saw her profile picture and read her profile. I just knew she would be our little girl!

Thanks for checking in. Please continue to pray for a speedy process to bring her home!