Well, we've spoken with many of you already, and you might have seen our exciting news, but in case you haven't,
WE
ARE
MATCHED!
It's a crazy and wonderful story. The agency we were using was telling us that it could be up to another year before they had a match for us. That was tremendously sad because we KNOW there are kids who are waiting for families. We are ready, they are ready, WHY do we all have to wait? Well, it's a matter of where the files for those little ones go.
Disclaimer: this is my own understanding of how the process works...
Most children who are adopted from Ch*na right now come from orphanages that have "partnerships" with a particular agency. So, that agency may support the orphanage through donations, staff training, facility upgrades, etc. When the children from that orphanage then have their file prepared for adoption, the files will first go to the partnership agency. These files are VERY rarely transferred to another agency.
Our agency was a large, incredibly professional, efficient organization with a wonderful reputation. They really are amazing to work with. However, because of all that I just mentioned, the "line" of families waiting to work with them is long. We were pretty far down that line, and didn't necessarily realize it at first.
Through some incredible circumstances, we found out that another agency had (for a brief moment), a few more files than families. After a LOT of prayer, we decided to give them a call. One week later, on October 8th, we saw our daughter's face. She's very young, and very beautiful--chubby cheeks, a sweet little nose, a smile that lights up her eyes, and a she wrinkles her nose when she laughs! There was no going back.
So, we transferred to our new agency, AAC Adoptions, and got busy on more paperwork! On November 6th, we were given our new Log in Date (LID), and submitted a letter of intent (LOI) for our precious little one.
What we are waiting for now:
Our dossier (paperwork) had already been translated and reviewed by the central adoption authorities. However, transferring agencies makes us have to go through part of that review again. So, we wait, again. We are waiting for what's called a letter of acceptance (LOA), which could take 2 weeks or 2 months. After that, we play what I like to think of as a game of paperwork "tag" with immigration for about 10 weeks before we can go get her! We are hoping to travel by March. Yep, it's a long way away, and it's hard to know she's sitting and waiting for us, but she appears to be very well taken care of, and we are praying for her each day.
Oh, and PICTURES---sorry, we can't share until LOA. We'll share her new name and sweet face when we're allowed. In the meantime, if you see us around, please ask us, you might get a sneak preview!
