China Approval!!

Wow! What a day.  Our family received the best news today – we have received approval from China to adopt Gabi!!  I keep saying Gabi is coming home soon.  This is the final countdown – WACAP has said about 2 ½ months to travel.  However every timeline they have given us has been longer than the actual time frame.  They told us 3 – 4 months for approval and we received it in 39 days!

I want to share with you an amazing God moment we were able to share with our children.  My timeline in my head has always been to have approval by March 15^th, since we started that was my goal.  So last night I told the kids that we all need to pray and ask that we receive approval this week and believe that God would answer this prayer.  The verse that was coming to mind all evening was Matthew 18:19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”  How amazing that God answered our prayer and we were able to witness what happens when we live out God’s word.  This adoption has brought our entire family closer to God and continues to strengthen our faith. 

So what’s next?  (Remember our agency typically gives longer than normal wait-times, average right now seems to be 8 weeks)

·         I-800 approval (3 weeks)

·         I-800 approval forwarded to the National Visa Center, NVC forward approval to U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou City, China (2-3 weeks)

·         U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou signs off on Article Letter 5 (2 weeks)

·         CCCWA issues Notice to Travel (TA) (3-4 weeks)

·         Discuss travel date and request consulate appointment

·         Appointment confirmed

·         We book our flights!!!

Look how short our list has become.  Now I am worrying about what to do with kids and dogs if we travel before June, but it is a great problem to have because that means Gabi is coming home soon.

Thank you to everyone who has joined in our celebrating, everyone who has prayed for us (please keep those prayers coming), and everyone who has contributed to our adoption fundraising.

We still have our fundraiser going on through March from the blog Worthy of the Prize: http://www.worthyoftheprize.blogspot.com/2013/03/meet-law-family-our-newest-adoption.html

We have also had amazing pizza fundraisers at our church; we have been selling noodles, greeting cards (we sold 50 boxes!) and our timeshare.  Thank you!  Gabi is almost home.