What are you waiting for?

So, how close are we to being a family of eight?  Pretty darn!  A week ago I was letting you know that we got our LOA {Letter of Acceptance}, which is just a fancy way of saying, CHINA SAID YES!  So, why aren't we on a plane yet?  Why isn't he in our arms already???

Well....there is the matter of not having all our funds together yet for one thing.  But, that isn't the big hold up.   There is a process. And this time {as opposed to when we adopted Claire}, it's different.  Last time we went from LOA to TA to China.  Not so this time around. 

Right after we received and signed our LOA, we sent it back on it's way to China so they would know that we accept Asher as our son.  Then we quickly filled out some paperwork for immigration and sent that in to immigration services. 

Over the weekend, we received a letter stating that they have that paperwork and are reviewing our case to declare Asher {an orphan} as a citizen upon his adoption. 

So, what we are waiting for next is our I-800 Provisional Approval.  This should happen in the next week or so is what I hear.  Then it has to be forwarded to the National Visa Center. 

The National Visa Center will send a notification in the mail that the I-800 Provisional Approval has been forwarded to the US Consulate in Guangzhou.  This takes a week or three, but you can call or email them to get a copy of the letter emailed to you so you can move on to the next step.

And, the next step is that the Adoption Unit is going to issue an Article 5 letter to verify that our case meets all the Hague requirements.  This step takes another couple of weeks.

Then China Center for Adoption Affairs will issue a Travel Approval {TA}, which will be mailed to our agency and forwarded to us.  This takes a few more weeks, but once it comes, our agency can request an appointment with the US consulate.  And, once we know when our appointment will be, we can book our trip! 

Whew!  Makes me tired thinking about it.  But, there you have it.  That is what we are waiting for! I'm not packing my bags yet.  But, I don't think I'm going to have much free time come January.  We believe we will travel immediately following Chinese New Year.  We'd love to go sooner, but that would take a whole lotta forward movement quickly!  The government isn't known for that, now is it? 

Then we will get to scoop him up in our arms and bring him HOME!