A Major Milestone in the Adoption Process

This afternoon, I received a call from our adoption agency, letting us know that they had received our "Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter" from China. This is roughly equivalent to when we received our "referral" when adopting MelodyJoy. The letter tells us that ". . . in accordance with the Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China, the China Center of Adoption Affairs matched a child with you." It wasn't quite as dramatic as it was with Melody, in that [a] the letter came by email rather than special delivery FedEx and [b] we already knew exactly who we were being matched with. Nonetheless, this is certainly a milestone worth celebrating.

We celebrated in classic American fashion, with a quick trip to a Chinese buffet closest to Jeannette's school. Here are pictures of us holding the Letter.  I know I look cranky . . . it's just that the sun was very bright and since we took them with my old cell phone, we couldn't even see what we were shooting.  But trust me, we're happy.

There are still a lot of steps remaining.  Our I-800 petition was mailed to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.  Anywhere from two to six weeks from now, we'll receive our I-800 Notice of Provisional Approval. The National Visa Center will then get in touch with the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China. About two weeks later, if I understand things right, the Consulate will issue the "Article 5 Letter" (whatever that is!) and it gets sent to Beijing.  Two to five weeks later, the Chinese adoption bureau will issue our Final Notice of Traveling to China for Adoption. Families usually actually travel about three weeks later.

If you do the math, we could travel in as little as nine weeks from now or traveling to Jillian could be four months away.  Jeannette's hoping for travel in mid-October and I'm thinking mid-November seems more realistic.  We'll keep you posted!