Today we received that piece of paper we have been waiting to receive since December 23rd when our dossier was sent to China for review. Our agency calls it an RA (Referral Acceptance), most people call it an LOA (Letter of Acceptance). The document is actually translated to say "Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter". It basically confirms that after reviewing our stack of official, notarized, certified and authenticated documents they have approved us to adopt a child and have matched us with Li Meng. The document asks us to check a box to confirm we accept him. We sign it and send it back to China to await travel approval. Now, that used to be all we needed to do and it would come back in 2-5 weeks. Now, however, we have to jump through more hoops with US Immigration first. So today, we sent by fed-ex our immigration forms, we had previously sent other consulate forms to our agency. Once immigration approves our forms are in order and cables their approval to the consulate in Guangzhou, it will be matched up with the form sent from our agency and another form will be sent to the China Center of Adoption Affairs in Beijing who will THEN process our travel approval. Our agency hopes we will travel by mid-June. Pete hopes we will travel in early June. I've learned to be a bit cautious about my expectations.
My greatest joy today is that this little piece of paper also means we can now send Li Meng letters, photos and gifts. The first care package with pictures and letters was ordered today from a service in China. I am also sending a package and photo book from here at home. We plan to send more between now and when we travel. Please pray that God will prepare his heart to receive our letters and gifts. As I'm typing this, my son is playing a Third Day CD and the song "Love Heals Your Heart" is playing (see earlier post...)
This piece of paper also allows us to post pictures! We have over 30 photos now and hope to get more-- so perhaps I'll post a picture a day for a while! Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement!
The pictures below are of the long awaited piece of paper and the growing binder of documents we've collected (about 4 inches thick now!)
1 comment:
I was secretly hoping that your LOA would come earlier than they told you! I'm so happy! Now, you get to keep waiting!
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