MAJOR PROGRESS!

After our tumultuous adoption journey I am finally allowing my brain to fully absorb that we are going to China!!  There are many steps in the paperwork process to adopt and we have completed major ones in the past few weeks.  For those interested these were the steps.  Once China issues a "Letter Seeking Confirmation" which gives you approval to adopt your identified child an additional form called a I800 (Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative) must be filed with the USCIS ( United States Citizenship and Immigration Service).  This forms basically asks the US government for permission to allow you to adopt the identified child.   This form was sent to USCIS by our agency on 10/2 and we received approval to adopt Maya Grace on 10/18.  USCIS then notifies the NVC (National Visa Center) of this approval.  The NVC then sends the approval to the appropriate US Consulate which for us is the Chinese Consulate in Guangzhou, China.  Today we received the pdf in the mail from the NVC stating that this has been done.

A copy of the pdf was emailed to our agency.  They in turn sent it along with a few other documents to their representative in China.  She will deliver the documents to the US Consulate in China on Tuesday as that is the earliest working day they accept the forms.  The representative will return on 11/13 to pick up an additional form called an Article 5.  The consulate needs to review your new child's visa application (the DS-230), make sure it meets the qualifications for an immigrant visa, and then signs off that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed. This is called the Article 5 letter.  Once the Article 5 is received this is taken to the CCCWA (China adoption authorities) who then will issue TRAVEL APPROVAL!  Once we receive travel approval an appointment must be made for an US Consulate appt. in China and then travel arrangements can be made!  At this point it seems as if we are around seven to nine weeks away from travel to officially welcome Maya Grace into our family! It honestly feels surreal right now.  My "nesting" has to quick in high gear now!  

Please continue to pray for us and send us your positive thoughts as we continue on this journey to our new daughter.  Please pray that God will prepare her heart for the changes that will take place in her life. She is living her life as she knows it day by day.  With us entering her life everything familiar to her will be stripped away at once.  In other countries multiple visits are made over weeks with the children prior to the adoption.  In China they hand you the child and they leave.  She will hear a new language, see faces unfamiliar to her,  be introduced to new foods, a new bed, new surroundings, etc.  After two weeks she will get on an extremely long airplane ride and encounter even more change.   Even though she will be gaining so much her little world will be rocked.  She will be leaving everything she has known in her 2 1/2 years of life.  Our other daughters were 10 months and 11 months at the time of adoption and they exhibited no signs of grief whatsoever.  We prepared ourselves for the worst and got the best.  Once again we will prepare for the worst case scenario with her experiencing major grief but will pray that her adjustment to us will not be too traumatic for her little spirit.  I am so extremely grateful and ecstatic that we have been given the opportunity to once again nurture and love a sweet precious little one.  God is good.