aw lawd

Those are the famous words of my buddy, Sharon whenever anything good happens.

And today, something good happened: we moved on to another step. The pdf I mentioned came so we're marking "NVC" off the list.

Just for fun, I am listing all the other steps below, with a big slash through them, just to remind me of how far we've come!

Agency Application
Home Study Approval
I-800A
DTC
LID
Referral
PA
LOA
I-800
NVC
Article 5 drop-off
Article 5 pick-up
TA!!!

I've been at the beach with my family this week and thought I'd link up last year's vacation post. Lucy may not be with us this time but I have great confidence we'll get her little toes in the sand before the year is out! It's good to go back from time to time to see how far the Lord has brought us and to remember His faithfulness!

Grateful today!

a pal indeed

Andy called last night to tell me what was on our front porch:

Thanks again, Secret Pal! You know me oh so well!

As a small update, we are working on the next step called "NVC" (National Visa Center). We are in their system and I am awaiting a .pdf  to show up  in my inbox from them. Once I have that, I forward it on to our agency and we check that step off the list. Then, it's only 3 more!!!!!!

I-800 approved!

I called USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) this afternoon to check in on the status of our form I-800 (the US's approval to bring "Li Yamin" into our country via adoption and become a citizen). The lady who answered looked up our receipt number in their system and, after a looooooong silence, finally said "I have good news!"

It should go out in tomorrow's mail so I'll be looking for it early next week. We can't move on to the next thing without it in hand but it's good to know we have yet another step behind us.

Next up...

NVC Cable
Article 5 Drop-off
Article 5 Pick-up
TA (Travel Approval)

This list is getting shorter and shorter...and our anticipation is getting greater and greater!

My agency says we're approximately 8 weeks from boarding a plane :) Gulp.

This thing just might happen.....

ambushed

What was meant to be a quiet lunch with Summer Joy....

was actually a "We love Lucy party" in disguise.

Thanks North Star peeps for the fun Chinese lunch and lovin'.

I can't wait to watch her bee-bop down the office hall, making her rounds.

happy father's day

I've asked Andy a few times what he's looking forward to most about having Lucy home. It's always something really sweet and simple. Such as taking her out for yogurt. Or pointing out the corn growing just down the road. Or catching her sneak food to the dog.

Last week he mentioned wanting to pull her around the neighborhood in a red wagon. I thought that would be a fun daddy gift to give him and had our neighbors hide it at their house until this morning. Thanks, Fran and Jerry!

 We've also been needing a new grill set so I threw that in for a little extra something to open.

Happy Father's Day to a guy who already loves his little girl so much. Andy, I can't wait to watch you at work. I will pray along side you that the Lord gives you lots of wisdom as you teach Lucy about His unfailing love. Thanks for walking this journey with me. I couldn't have asked for a better man.

speaking of packages

After writing about Andy's Father's Day gift yesterday, I received my very own package on our front door step :) Isn't it so fun when the FedEx, UPS guy or mailman stops at your house with a package instead of flying by to your neighbor's?

Thanks to my Secret Pal, Goose now has some Tinker Bell pj's, a Minnie Mouse bathing suit, an adorable butterfly outfit and a copy of Sweet Moon Baby!

The idea of Secret Pals came from a Facebook group I'm a part of. It's called "DTC Winter 2011-2012" and is for those of us with the same time frame, more or less. We all sent off our dossiers around the same time. It's great to be a part of a very active group of ladies (and some men) who ask questions, share info and provide support to each other. One of the many unexpected blessings of this adoption journey has been the powerful community we've found of people all over the place, who have been down or are going down this road! I hope to write a separate post about it one of these days .

In the meantime, thanks Secret Pal. Whoever and wherever you are :)

baba's day is just around the corner

A special day is around the corner for my dear husband. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to give him his first real Father's Day gift. The big one in particular! The two gifts are not really related. One is something we need. The other is something he mentioned he'd like to have. Any guesses?

Now to figure out where to hide them until Sunday...

(By the way, I don't think Andy ever checks the blog. But, just in case, if I happen to have told you what it is, shhhhh!!!)

what's so great about LOA?

I realize my last post was extremely short and without much explanation! It's been a crazy few weeks and I had only a moment to post that our LOA had arrived. So, I'll try to do a better job of explaining :) For those of you who've been down this adoption path a time or two, feel free to correct me if I get anything wrong. I'm still trying to figure this thing out myself :)

Our agency told us after we were matched that our wait for LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from Lucy's country could be anywhere from 3-5 months. This is Chin@'s stamp of approval on our adoption. It also sets in motion several other steps, all leading to TA (travel approval). We received notice of our LOA on day 91 of our wait. This was really cool because it was 2 days shy of being 3 months (we received PA on March 6). Remember me asking you all to pray that it would come early? Well, it did! I had a feeling the Lord might take delight in answering that prayer! Very encouraging. Many people are currently waiting 5 months to receive their LOA, so we were so pleased we did not wait that long. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason as to why some take longer than others. I have some ideas but I won't bore you with more jargon.

All this to say, receiving LOA means one is approximately 8-10 weeks from travel. Since we received it a week ago tomorrow, I suppose that makes it 7-9 weeks from now :) It's looking more and more like August.

What are the next steps?

I-800 Approval
NVC Cable
Article 5 drop-off
Article 5 pick-up
TA

I'll try to explain what these each mean as they happen. Partially because I'm still learning what they all mean! But the wait for these isn't nearly as long. It's coming quick and starting to feel more real every day.

Thanks so much for your faithfulness to pray for us and Lucy. Everyone has been so encouraging. To God be the glory! He's working this out, day by day.

LOA!

That's right! I got the call at 6:09 this evening! "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land" Proverbs 25:25