A Little Slice of Heaven

What a great beach day today. The weather has been so dismal here this summer. Unusually cold and rainy. Today was gorgeous. 75 degrees with little humidity. Perfect. We only live 2 miles from the beach so we headed on over for a few hours. The beach has always given me a sense of peace. I find it magical. I grew up on the beach. It's part of who I am. I love it. I can't live without it. My kids love it. I hope Lily will learn to love it. The feel of the cool, soft sand under your feet. The salty smell of the ocean. The hot sun warming your body. The sound of the waves hitting the sand. The sounds of children laughing. What more could you ask for?

We are so close!!!

I just found out we have our I 800 approval. It was approved yesterday afternoon. We only have a few more steps to go and then we are off to China! I can't believe it! The next step is for Lily's visa paperwork to be approved which takes about 3-4 weeks. This is done in Guangzhou, China. Then our file gets sent to Beijing to the CCAA and they review everything once more and then issue travel approval (about another 3 weeks). Once we receive TA we can go get our little girl. We are so close. I can not believe we have been in this process for a year and a half. We have been wrapped up in all this paperwork for so long it felt like it would never happen. Like it was just a dream. Or just part of our daily life. Kids, house, work, fun, adoption paperwork. Now it is starting to feel like it IS going to happen. We will have another daughter. We will be able to hold her in our arms and tell her we love her. I don't want to get ahead of myself here. We still have those last few approvals to get. We are getting close though! Hopefully the beginning of September we will travel. Keep us in your thoughts. We could use some positive vibes sent our way.

IT IS HERE!!!

So much fuss for this one piece of paper. Yup, it came in the mail this morning. This is the paper we have been waiting for. Four months of waiting for this single piece of paper. Can you believe it? No more wasting time now. On to the next phase.... waiting for immigration (USCIS) to clear Lily as being suitable for adoption under the new U.S. Hague rules. I sent off those forms to immigration late today after a long day of gathering all the appropriate forms, photocopies, signatures, numerous phone calls to USCIS, HAS and to M.W. What a long, tedious day. Thank you M.W. for making this difficult process a little easier. It is nice to have a friend that can understand every frustration and emotion that this process brings on. Now we wait again............

ImageChef.com Flower Text

We got the call today from our agency! Our LOA has arrived! Better late than never, right? One more step down. A few more to go. Probably about 2-3 months before the rest of the paperwork is done before we can travel. My prediction is September. Please, please let my prediction be right. We are one step closer to our little Lily. Off to celebrate.............

Day 500

Today marks 500 days since we started this adoption process. 500 days! If you would have asked me this time last year where we would be in this process it certainly would not be where we are now. I never imagined it would take this long. We were anticipating 9-12 months start to finish. Obviously we are way,way beyond that. I know we are not alone in the waiting. Other families are waiting just as long or longer. I just want our LOA so we can proceed. Day 108 for LOA now. Very frustrating! I would love to know China's reasoning why some LOAs take 45 days and others take 140 days. No one seems to know. The joke around our house is that Lily will be in high school before we can get her. We have to joke or else I would have been in the loony bin a long time ago.

100 CLUB

OK. Can you believe it? Day 100 waiting for LOSC/LOA. We are not very happy around here. This is a club we did not want to join. I call it the 100 and still waiting club. What is the darn hold up?