So Where Do We Go From Here?????

Now what happens???

One of the questions we are asked most is WHEN??

When will we get her?

The answer-I wish I knew.

In some ways getting our referral so early is going to make it seem like this takes even longer. Don't get me wrong, we are SO blessed to already know who our girl is. Many families wait months and months for this part. That being said, the fact that we already have our referral does not mean any of the other steps go away. If I had to give my best educated guess, I will say best case scenario is at least 6-9 more months.
Again, I will say of all the times things have gone my way, please oh please Lord, let it hold true for this one!

So here's my best explanation of what happens now....

Home Study-We had our final home study visit last week. Now our social worker writes up the report and sends it to a lady in Springfield to approve.

I-800A- Once we have our completed home study, we send that along with lots of other paperwork in to the department of homeland security. Then they invite us to be fingerprinted (again). Once our fingerprints clear we receive our I-800A, which is the DHS saying we qualify to bring an orphan into the US.

IL/China Seals- Once we have our 1-800A, we send that along with all the other documents we've been collecting and having notarized to Chicago. A Courier will take the to the Secretary of State office for them to approve all the notarizations. She will then take them to the Chinese Embassy in Chicago to have all our documents "sealed", basically the embassy approves them.

Dossier To China-All the approved documents go to our agency in Colorado. All the documents together are referred to as your dossier.  They review everything. Three times. Once they are sure everything is in order, they will send our dossier to China.

Log in Date- Once China receives and approves our dossier, we receive a LID. This is very important!

LOA- commonly known as the Letter of Acceptance or Letter Seeking Confirmation.  This is a document issued by the Chinese government. It says that they have reviewed our  dossier and that they approve us to adopt Penelope.

I-800 approval- This is on the US side.   The US government will not allow just any child to come to this county. Steps need to be taken to make sure she is truly an orphan and that she is healthy enough to enter the country. This has to be done after we receive our LOA.

NVC- This is where the US government says they will issue a Visa to Penelope.

Article 5- Communication between China and the US, has to be issued prior to travel approval.

Travel Approval- After all of the steps above are complete the Chinese government will send us an invitation to come to their country and pick up our girl.

So, as much as I wish we could get on a plane tomorrow to go get her, that's not going to happen. I think anyone who has had any experience with government agencies will agree, they don't move quickly. We have been doing everything we can to accomplish our jobs ASAP. At this point we have completed as much as we can and are at the mercy of others.
All of these steps have varying lengths of time. We would very much appreciate prayers that we are on the quick side of each step so we can have Penelope in our arms as soon as possible. This girl needs a family!