Step 2 Complete- Yay!!!

Well, after we received our immigration letter last week, we thought we would get our NVC letter just a couple of days later.... Well, that didn't happen!!! However, we did get the letter emailed to us yesterday so hooray for that! Our file was sent back to China yesterday for the final two steps.... Then we will be on our way to Makalynne!!! It should get to Beijing by tomorrow where it will then be forwarded to Guangzhou. Maybe travel in 5-6 weeks if all goes as we hope????!!! We are now asking that everyone please be consistently praying for our quick processing through these last 2 steps. We know that God is in control and look how far He has brought us.
Hold on Makalynne, we are almost there.... God please protect her and prepare her little heart for the family that you have designed just for her:) We can't wait to share the love of Jesus with her...

A Blessing!

I can't believe what happened to us today. We received such a blessing from God!!! Today, as I had to be home recovering from the flu, my husband took the boys to a friends birthday party. While there, he met a lady who lives in the same town as us and who is adopting a little girl from China as well!!! And the best part is that she is going through the same agency as us and we are both just waiting on travel approval!!! This is so awesome as I have been praying that God would send me someone who could understand and relate to how hard it is going through this process... Ask and ye shall receive:) I am so excited! The other family is about 2 weeks ahead of us in the process, but there is still a possibility that we may catch up and actually get to travel together!!!! It would be such a blessing to have someone from our area to travel with, how fun that could be!!! This is her second adoption through China, so she has alot of knowledge too!!! Have I mentioned what a blessing she is to me?!! As much as I need this new friend in this process, I can only hope to be a great blessing to her as well. The other family only lives about 15 minutes away from me and the little girl they are adopting is just under a year older than Makalynne so they will be close enough in age to really be good friends for each other. I can't tell you how many blogs I have read in the glimpse hope of finding another family in our state let alone in our same town... And, what do you know, We met them at a birthday party!?! Who says birthday parties aren't for the parents?, lol!! After talking with my new friend for 45 minutes over the phone, we have plans to meet next week and compare notes for the upcoming weeks!!! Yippee!!! How awesome! How Great is Our God!!!! It means so much to have someone there that can feel your pain, so to speak, as this is the most difficult process ever..... But those precious babies have it much more difficult than us, so who am I to complain?

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!

I just got off the phone with Jessa at Great Wall. My adjudicator at immigration received my file yesterday. This process normally takes 7 - 10 days once the adjudicator gets the file to get it approved. However, we were so fortunate to get the adjudicator who stepped in to help us out last time again this time! She approved our file and put it in the mail yesterday afternoon!!! That has to be a record!!!! Only a few hours with the adjudicator, Hooray!!! I am definitely sending her a gift for all of her help, she is awesome! The unfortunate part was that she did not find the overnight Fedex label in my package and so she sent it out via regular mail... That means we should hopefully receive it by the middle of next week. As soon as we get that letter, I will send the last of my paperwork to the agency and send an email to the NVC to request the letter that I need from them. As soon as I get the NVC email, my agency will forward my file to Guanzhou to the US Consulate via courrier. It will take approximately 3-4 days to get there. Then, it will take 2 full weeks at the consulate before being sent to the CCAA. We are expecting the CCAA to have the file by the middle of April..... Please begin praying every day for us that our file will move expeditiously through the CCAA and that we get our travel dates for the beginning of May (hopefully by the 7th!). God has definitely shown His face today and reminded us that all things are possible if we will just trust Him! If things continue to move at this pace, we just may get to China by the second week of May:) We are so very thankful for the wonderful support that our friends and family have poured over us. We humbly ask for dedicated prayer during this last phase, we are almost there gang:) I'll post next week with the latest and greatest:))

No News:(

Well, we are still waiting. I did call today to check with immigration and they have still not sent my file to my adjudicator (case worker). I will call back on Friday as they said it usually takes 10-14 business days to transfer over. Jessa also told me to call her when it had been 2 weeks so she could ask my adjudicator to fed ex me my approval notice to try and cut off about a week or so from their time frame. I do know that the adjudicator is not supposed to have the file on his desk for more than 7-10 business days. That being said, if my file is transferred over by Monday of next week, we should be looking at no more than 4 weeks total processing time:) While this is a rediculous amount of time in total, we are just thankful that we may be able to cut a week off of the time frame. For now we are on our knees praying steadfast that the time keeps moving and we get every day a step closer to our Makalynne:)) Just for a breakdown of what our time looks like after immigration this go around, here's what lies ahead... Next, our file will be transferred to the NVC where it supposedly only stays for about 2 days. During this step, I will be able to send an email to the NVC and ask them to email me the notice that my file has been transferred to Guanzhou. This should cut off about 1 week of time since I won't have to wait for regular mail. Once my file leaves the NVC, it will be transferred to Gaunzhou where the US Consulate is. After I receive the notice from the NVC (hopefully by email), I will send my last packet of info over to my agency who will then forward it to the courrier in Guanzhou. Once the courrier receives it, they will take it to the Consulate. There will then be an exact 2 week wait time from the time it is dropped off to the time it can be picked back up. After the two weeks, the courrier will then pick it back up and send it overnight to the CCAA!!! Hooray! This will be the last step. Once the CCAA receives my file, they will take 2-8 weeks to issue my travel approval. This is where we will be asking that everyone be on their knees in constant prayer for us. The CCAA took over 8 weeks to get us the LSC so we are really hoping that they won't take that long this go around. We are really hoping for 2 weeks!!! Wouldn't that be nice??? Things haven't seemed to go our way thus far, but hey, we can still have faith and PRAY!!! The way things look right now, we are estimating that our file will be received at the CCAA around the week of April 25th. Then if they take only a couple of weeks, that would put us traveling probably the last week of May! Our prayer is still for the second week of May but at this point, it is very unlikely. In fact, what is most probable is that we will travel around the second or third week of June. Again, we are really praying for God's intervention in this. We would really like to travel in May when the kids are still in school as we think it would be of great benefit in passing the time for them. We are worried about how they will hold up for 2 long weeks if they are out of school and able to focus more on the fact that we are not here. Whatever happens, we know God is in control so we will just trust His time...

Still Floating on Cloud 9!!!

We are still so excited!!! It has really become a reality for us now as we gaze our beautiful LSC! It is framed and on display in our living room for us and everyone else to see:) God is so good and faithful to His promises! Time has flown by this week and i am feeling pretty good so far, after all we are one week into the 3-5 week possible wait with immigration. We are still hoping that they will process our file sooner rather than later. But, hey, we can rest now knowing that Makalynne is ours and all we have to do is wait this final step out. I know the wait will get harder as more time elapses but I am really trying to keep myself focused on the positives so I don't go crazy before our travel approval arrives... I'll post with any news of course:)