LOA update

On Friday, we heard from our agency that our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) was in its final phase of processing.  WHAT A RELIEF!  At that point, we had heard nothing about our LOA for 91 days!  That's a long time to wait for a piece of paper with no word on where it is or when you will receive it.  Our agency is wonderful - and they have done all they can.  It's just not their standard practice to check on the status of the LOA before 90 days.  I was so worried that something was wrong with our paperwork, that it was "stuck" in one of the phases.  I had bad dreams that our dossier had just been lost or thrown away......it was such a relief to know that this long, horrible waiting game is drawing to an end!  Chinese New Year will likely still complicate us receiving it very soon, but at last we know it will be coming! 

Once we receive the LOA, we can move forward with the final phases of the process!  We can't wait!  We are HOPING to travel late April or early May, at this point.  However, like all phases of this 13-month process, we will just have to wait and see.

I received a wonderful gift from a family/teacher friend of mine during Christmas - a copy of the book, Big Bird in China!  Alexis has really enjoyed reading this with me every night.  We promised her a "movie night" tonight, since we don't have school tomorrow, so the movie version of the book is what we plan to watch.  Alexis has enjoyed learning how to say "hello and goodbye," as well as a few other phrases.  It's so neat to be able to show her video footage of places that she will actually get to see during our trip.  I'm having a hard time convincing her that Big Bird isn't going to be there, though. :-)