It has been VERY hard to be patient recently (as if we had any other choice). We had been told that getting the next papers could take anywhere from 1-4 month, and as of today, our paperwork had been in China for 54 days. We have friends that had gotten their notifications in about 30 days, but we have also read online of families that have waited over 100 days.
Cathy decided to call our agency today to make sure that the whole packet of forms we had filled out a few weeks ago were in order so that they could be mailed out as soon as we got the go ahead from China. The papers were all good and once again we were encouraged to be patient.
And then...just a minute after Cathy had hung up her phone....our rep at the agency called back and said "Guess what just came in today's mail !?!?!"
The agency had received our "Letter of Seeking Confirmation from Adopter" (also known as a "Letter of Acceptance" ) from China. (The very notification we had been waiting so patiently for :) Basically, this document is official word from the Chinese adoption authorities that we have met their requirements to adopt Jiang Zhen.
Our agency sent us a copy by email. We marked the box saying "We accept the adoptee mentioned above." We signed and dated the copy and faxed if back to our representative at our adoption agency. And since they are on the west coast (Seattle), they had time to get working on sending out that stack of papers we had filled out earlier.
We still have to get approval from the U.S. government to adopt this specific child (we got general approval to adopt earlier), and we have to get an appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou to get our new daughter a visa to enter the U.S., and we have to get final approval to travel from the Chinese government and a few other things. But that's what that big stack of papers we filled out was about and our agency takes care of getting the right forms to the right places from this point on.
We've been told that families usually travel in 3-4 months from this point, so we are still on track to be in China sometime right after the first of the year (looking forward to that minus 30 degrees in Harbin :). And we've been told that we can now send a "care package" to our daughter-to-be. It was another good day on our long road back to China. But unfortunately, now it's going to be even harder to be patient!!!!
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