Approval!!!

LOA!!!

For those who do not know, this is what we have been waiting for, and ours only took 40 days to get here. LOA stands for Letter of Approval, is a letter that China sends to the agency stating that they approve the family to adopt the specific child. The approximate time that it takes for families to receive LOA varies greatly, but is somewhat determined by how long the family's file has been "logged-in" in China. Our official Log-In-Date (LID) is September 27, 2009, so our dossier had been logged-in for almost 4 months when we received our referral for the Butterfly. Believe it or not, 40 days is a very short amount of time to wait. The average time is 55 days, and some people even wait over 100 days. We feel so blessed that we were able to receive our approval so quickly and smoothly. As you may remember in an earlier post, I expected our wait to be about 60 days, so this was a totaly surprise!

So, here is what happened today. After a rather hectic and frustrating day at work, I picked up the Ladybug from school and headed home. I was already aware that other people throughout the United States had received their LOAs because I had been watching the Rumor Queen board throughout the day (Rumor Queen is a place where families who are somewhere in the adoption process get together to talk, ask questions, answer questions, and offer all-around support). I had my cell phone with me all day and it didn't ring, so I wasn't expecting a message when we returned home. But, when we walked in the door, the message light was flashing.

The Ladybug and I proceeded to listen to someone from our agency whocalled to give us the great news. I was, and am still, in total shock. After calling the agency back to verify the news, The Ladybug and I started doing the "Happy Dance" around the room! She then ran to her room to start packing, again. Hmmmmm, sorry little girl but we are still not leaving yet. Hopefully in about three months.

We now will be sending in our I-800 to USCIS (Immigration), and wait for their approval. Hopefully things will continue to go smoothly for us. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

~~Aloha!