LID and LOAs

The Chinese adoption process has a lot of abbreviations.  We had to fill out LOI (letters of intent) for each of the kids, we recieved PAs (pre-approvals), we submitted our dossier and were waiting for our LID (Logged in Date), and ultimately we need to receive our LOAs for each child.  (Letter of Acceptance).  That would insure that each of the three children were definitely our referrals.  We also had to resubmit our I800A supplement to increase from 2 children to 3.  That's the approval you have to have to bring the children back to the US as US citizens.  We submitted them as soon as we could but were told it might take a little bit to get that approval, and we only hoped it wouldn't delay getting our LOAs.

On Tuesday morning, November 29 we received the email from FTIA that our LID was November 21.  Now we'll just hope that our LOAs are close behind, and that China doesn't wait until our I800A is updated before issuing them.

Again, God's handprint is all over this adoption journey.  Later in the day on that memorable Tuesday, we received an email from our agency that they had recieved our LOAs in courier.  Unbelievable - we actually received them in record time.  Whoo Hoo.  As soon as they overnight them to us, we'll get our I800 forms filled out  and sent to the Department of Homeland Security (that is another government form that has to be submitted that indicates which specific three children we are assigned and intend to bring back to the US as our children).   We're moving along at record speed right now - just hope we don't hit any speed bumps along the way.

1...2...3

And our journey continues.  While waiting to get information back on our little guy with the cleft lip, we were not feeling too optimistic.  Again, we felt maybe it just wasn't meant to be.  On October 18th, we received another email from our agency.  They had another little boy just come available - another family had just pulled out their LOI (Letter of Intent) on this little guy - he was just 12 months old, and had a rough start to his life.  He had been operated on when he was about 6 months old to remove a cyst on his forehead.  One look at his photos though and we were smitten.  He had the biggest grin and a twinkle in his eyes.  We still needed our physician to review his file of course. 

Our physician discussed with us the potential risks related to the surgery he had, but also indicated that he appeared to be developmentally on target and cute as a button.  In the meantime, we also received the updated information on the other little guy as well.  His updated photos, measurements, and video showed that any concerns our physician had about him were no longer concerns.  So we had a tough decision to make. 

Chris first brought up the idea of adopting them both.  I thought he was crazy, and said "absolutely not".  That only lasted about 24 hours. After some real soul searching and praying, the choice seemed simple - they were all three suppose to be our children, and we wondered if China would even let us adopt all three children.  We are certain that God had a hand in bringing these two little boys into our lives.

Well, it took a lot of work, but after submitting our request, providing supporting documentation as to the benefits of adoption into our family, and busting our tail to get our dossier completed, we finally received the go ahead by the Chinese government to adopt three children.  And we had committed to getting our dossier logged into China by November 21.  We had alot of work yet to get done - getting all of our documents notarized, then certified at the Secretary of State, and finally sending them to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago to be Chinese Authenticated. 

With a hug sigh of relief, I overnighted our dossier to our agency on November 12 - given them plenty of time to get it reviewed, and in the courier to China on November 17.  So the waiting continues - we should hear something in a week or so.