Be Still My Heart...

You guys, our God is A-MAZ-ING. Seriously awe inspiring.

There was a bit of chatter of LOA's being issued today on some adoptive parent forums, soooooo...because my curious mind couldn't contain itself, I shot off another e-mail to our agency to check our dossier status.

Again.

{Side note: I'm sure that I'm in the norm of adoptive parents. I cannot be the only one who bugs them for this information. Thank you, Holt staff (that will most likely never read this), for putting up with our mothering-hormone-induced-obessiveness}

And be still my heart, there had been MORE progress!! Our dossier status is "seeking confirmation", which means that we should expect our LOA (letter of acceptance) in about a week!! ONE WEEK!!!! This is China's official approval for us to adopt Z. Seriously.

Let the paperwork begin! AGAIN! I'm SO ready for it!!!

p.s.- Remember my friend Gina? Her dossier shows the SAME progress!! We're sticking together like glue!!!

Look Out Now...

Look out now...we have some

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When a dossier gets logged in China's system, it's supposed to be updated as it goes through each step of the process. With everything going as it should, the adoption agency can theoretically log into the Chinese system and see the progress of a dossier. We were warned when our papers were logged in that this system is sometimes used correctly, and sometimes forgotten about until the dossier has final approval.
Several people with similar timelines as ours had notifications that their dossiers were making progress through the system, and even though I'd been warned...a mama's heart needed to inquire!!!
I e-mailed our agency last night telling them I was aware of the lack of correct use of the system, but asking if they would pretty please check our file and see where it stood. Guess what?!? We're OOT!!!!!! That's out of translation, people!! That means that our huge stack of papers

have been in the hands of the Chinese government for the last 30 days being translated. These papers are now ready for the matching department to review our information, verifying that we qualify for adoption in China, and verifying that our match with Z fits what our social worker approved us to adopt. Once they see that all of our t's are crossed and i's dotted, they'll send us our LOA, letter of approval. That LOA is the beginning of the end!!! We'll be able to better guess our travel dates once this is issued, as well as start the snowball of final paperwork/visas/immigration approvals/private Facebook group to share tons of specifics!

This is it, folks! We're almost there!!!

I'm adding a new prayer request to the list today! I'm sending off {yet another} grant application tomorrow. I'll admit, it gets disheartening to send...send...send...with no results, but yet I continue to send! It looks like we'll be facing quite a deficit at the end of this, which is a situation we knew was a possibility. Quite frankly, I don't care if I'm in debt for the rest of my life at this point. Z is worth every penny. Every. single. one.

Until next time...COME ON, LOA!!!!!

And the waiting continues

Seeming as it's almost tomorrow, I'm going to officially say that we are on DAY 30 of our LOA wait! THIRTY!!! 3-0! Whew, it's been the longest, quickest 30 days of my life. Ha!
I feel like I've been doing pretty well with this last-unknown-duration wait. Plenty of things have been occupying our time, like getting a Kindergartener and a First grader ready for school (eek!!!), building a new princess bed for Oakley's new bedroom, and getting the room for the boys ready. None of that is completely finished, which means I should have plenty of 'stuff' to keep me busy for the next few weeks of wait.
There have been a few rough days, where it feels like there is this hole in my mama-heart just waiting for our little guy to fill. So many emotions...nerves, excitement, worry, love, fear, joy... kind of like the movie Inside Out, with ALL of the emotions going nuts at the drivers seat AT. THE. SAME. TIME.
With all of that being said, I am sincerely trying to live each day, experience each day the Lord has blessed me with, and enjoy every minute of this process. I know it's true that the next three months will go by in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, we'll be a united family of five.

Prayer Requests:
-As always, Z. His preparation, transition, and knowledge of his new family and new life
-Our LOA. This is the Letter of Acceptance from the Chinese government. We'd love to have this by mid-August, which would let us travel in November. After we get our LOA, we'll begin the private Facebook page where we'll be able to share much more information about Z.
-My friend, Gina. We'd love to travel together! As selfish as it is, I want our paperwork to stick together like glue so we can finish this great process together.
-Finances - the need hasn't changed, but the date has gotten closer. HE is always in control, and I'm still trusting that!

Thank you for going down this road with our family!!