So what are we waiting for?

If it was up to me, I'd be on a plane tomorrow to go get her but I'm not in charge.

What we are waiting for next is our Letter of Acceptance (LOA). This form will come from the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) and it basically will indicate that everything is in order and asks us if we accept our referral. We have to sign it and send it back then the CCAA will work on our Travel Approval (TA).

As far as timing, it's hard to say when we will get our LOA. Because our dossier was already out of review in the non-special needs process at the time we sent our Letter of Intent (3/2/07) we could in theory see our LOA fairly quickly (1-2 months). There are many families that have waited many months for their LOA/TA but most of them sent their dossiers later than us so it's hard to say if there's a real pattern to it. People who know me know how analytical I am and how desparately I try to figure out patterns and timing but in this case it's a bit random so I have to just be patient.

It appears that for most people the time frame from LOA to TA is about 3-4 weeks and the time from TA to actually getting on a plane to China is anywhere from 7 days to 6 weeks. Most people will have at least 2 weeks notice and there is some flexibility in travel plans once the travel approval has arrived. This is a good thing since we are moving to Texas the end of June.

As soon as we get travel approval I'm going to want to go get her, I don't want her to have to wait any longer because of our time constraints, but the reality is we cannot travel during the few weeks around our move. That's just how it is and it will all work out in the end :-)

So cross you fingers for an LOA early April, TA early May and getting on a plane late May!!
Ok, it's not likely but there's nothing wrong with dreaming!! :-)