We're moving along....

Things have been moving forward since our last update when we got our LOA! In the last month, we have completed several milestones including receiving our I-800 provisional approval, filing our DS-260, starting our Article 5 process and submitting our Visa applications. I know these steps mean nothing to most of you, but they are important to being able to get to our son. These steps have definitely been the most confusing part so far!

Here's the super simple explanation of each of these documents:

- The I-800 is an immigration document filed with the U.S. government to approve our adoption. We receive provisional approval from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and then our Case is forwarded to the National Visa Center who sends that approval to China for us. We are provisionally approved until our Visa documents are received and approved.

- We can then file the DS-260 online which is basically a visa application for Charlie

- Our Article 5 is a letter that tells China the U.S. has determined we are eligible and suited to adopt, that Charlie may enter and reside permanently in the United States, and that the U.S. Central Authority agrees that the adoption may proceed. It takes about two weeks to process this and we should receive approval on 8/26.

We also filed for our Visa documents to enter China. This step requires that we send our passports, our actual physical passports, to a courier to take to the Chinese Consulate. They will actually stamp our passports and send them back to us so we can enter China.  I don't think I've been so nervous shipping anything!  If anything happens to those passports... 

 

According to our Agency, assuming everything continues on schedule, this means we should travel October 15 to China. If you haven’t looked at a calendar lately, that is TWO MONTHS away. Holy moly!

October seems like forever away and so soon at the same time. Everything has been process, process, process up to this point and the "process" part is almost over. Charlie will be here and in our lives forever in no time at all. I am also realizing that so much in my life will change, too, which is overwhelming at times. I can't imagine how overwhelming this must be for him considering everything in his life is about to change. Please pray for his little heart. He will be experiencing so much loss and we will have to help him process through it all.

Next Update...Nursery pictures!!