In the Home Stretch ......

Today, all of our paperwork was sent to China for the last time. This is the step where our agency requests appointments for us at the US Consulate in China to do our final paperwork - Jacinda's visa to get into the US, her medical exam, etc. Once our agency finalizes these appointments, we will find out our travel dates. We should probably get official Travel Approval (TA) around mid-late August. Then, we should hopefully travel in probably late September or early October.

Today, we also mailed off our passports to the Chinese Embassy in DC for our visa applications.

So we're definitely in the home stretch as far as paperwork goes. We still have a lot to do in the next few weeks .... finishing Jacinda's room, making a packing list, and getting a few major things for our trip (video camera and typhoid shots, to name a few).

Things you can pray for ..... that our final paperwork goes smoothly, that our passports don't get lost in the mail, that we all stay healthy (here and in China!), and that we all stay sane as we prepare for the greatest trip of our lives!!!!

Sherry, Aaron, and Luke

LOA is here!!!!!!!

We just got the phone call from Holt that our LOA from China has arrived!!!!!!!!  This is what China sends to us approving us to adopt Jacinda.  We're one step closer!!!!!!!

We're hearing that families are getting their Travel Approval approximately a month after LOA.  And then the actual travel takes place about a month after that.  So there's a realistic possibility we could be traveling around the end of August or beginning of September.

However, we're not getting our hopes up.  The State Department has issued a travel advisory for China due to the Swine Flu.  Our agency is still allowing families to travel, and we plan on going as long as we are allowed to.  We want Jacinda home!!!!!