Cabled!

This morning we received notice that the National Visa Center forwarded our I800 visa information to the US Consulate in China.  The Consulate will review the visa application, and then issue a document that states that everything is in order for the adoption to be completed.  This document is called the Article 5. 

It takes 10 business days for the Article 5 to be completed.  Therefore, since our information will be dropped off tomorrow, it will be picked up on Wednesday, August 15, and then forwarded to Beijing.  After that, we wait for travel approval!

One step closer...

I800 Provisional Approval

One more step down!  We received our I800 (visa for L) provisional approval today--phew!

The next step in the process is to have the National Visa Center cable this information to China to begin paperwork processing there.  While the term "cable" has an official ring to it, this is basically an emailed PDF with a hard copy to follow.

In the next 1-2 weeks, we should receive a copy of the letter that is sent to China, and have chosen to receive it via email rather than waiting for the hard copy.  We still get a hard copy, but an email will shave a few days off, and the faster this can happen, the better.

In the meantime, we are prepping away, trying to view our home through the eyes of a 2-year-old, which means things like moving medications to high, locked areas, reorganizing our pantry to get rid of rickety, old shelves, etc. We're trying to spend lots of time with the furballs, whose lives are about to go to hell in a handbasket.  And, of course, enjoying summer, as the sun is slowly deciding that maybe we are worthy here in Narnia the Pacific Northwest. 

What Now?

We are ready to hop aboard a plane for Xi’an right now, but there is still a lot that needs to happen.  The next step in the process is our I800 approval.  Back in March we were fingerprinted for a general I800A, which is essentially the immigrant visa that brings L home (he travels home on a Chinese passport, and becomes a US citizen when he crosses through Customs in the US).  The original approval was for a child between ages 1 and 5.  Now that we have approval from China for a specific child, we need the US to approve a visa for him in particular.  This should take 3-5 weeks at current timeframes.  Our paperwork was submitted on 7/10. 

Most likely we will travel in October.  L’s birthday is 10/15, and I admit I’m pretty fixated on being there by that date, if not sooner.  We’re not sure that will happen, but have hope.

So, we’re good.  Waiting is hard, but at this point everyone who got to have an opinion on our ability to parent little L (our agency, the Dept of Homeland Security, and the Chinese government) have made their decisions.  The rest is just processing, and so far seems to be a bit easier to take than will they or won’t they question. 

In the meantime, we are re-motivated to finish our library of parenting and adoption-related books, getting our condo ready for a toddler, and figuring out leave/work issues for when the time comes (we both work for teensy companies, so don’t qualify for any leave time per FMLA.  Tricky stuff.) 

Thank you all for your kind words and emails.  It means so much to know we have folks in our corner. 

J

El Oh Aye

LOA.

Letter of Approval.

We got The Call yesterday, and are officially approved to adopt our little boy.  I left work for the day--it's hard to type when your hands won't stop shaking and your brain has turned off.

Then we were emailed this form:

(Identifying info removed as this is on the internet 'nstuff)

which makes it all very, very official.  His name and birthdate are on it, as are ours. 

It's hard to wrap our minds around, really.  After the road we have been on, to actually think about planning for him...it's wonderful and amazing. I really don't know what to say beyond that. 

Fortune has smiled upon us. 

We are so, so very lucky.