We received our provisional approval! Yeah!!! We are so excited! We are one step closer and counting down! We are so close that I can actually list the remaining steps while in conversation! Well, it seems that some of you were itching for news nearly as bad as we were because I have had two good friends call out of the blue (whom I haven't spoken with in months) yesterday and today asking for updates. Sorry it is hard for me to keep the blog updated. After spending all day on the computer, it's not what I want to look at when I come home. It also makes it hard that we don't have internet at home. To do anything online, I have to go to one room in my house, in a certain corner of the house to access wireless internet from my neighbors. :) (Don't worry, its my parents and they don't mind.) Anyway, I will try harder to stay up to date as we get closer to reaching the light at the end of this tunnel. The waiting has been so hard! I was warned it would be. It is miraculous, the way God has grown the love in our hearts for our daughter and sister over the past months.
Are remaining steps are as follows...
We are now waiting for a letter from NVC which should arrive in a week. Once we get that to the consulate in Guangzhou, we will wait about three weeks to receive a Consulate Approval. Then we send that to China and ask for Travel approval to travel in to China. The travel approval usually takes about three weeks. Once we have that, we can plan our travel and we should travel three weeks later. So, put it all together and we should travel about two months from today. Or at least, that is typical. However, I'm finding that you can't ever expect anything to happen as it typically does. So, we will travel when and only when our Almighty God is ready. And that I know for sure!
As we are nearing travel we are busy getting immunizations (measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, and typhoid, ouch!), applying for visas, getting documents notarized and ready to go, racking our brains trying to think of everything we will need to take and need at home, toddler proofing the house, getting Rx's to take for us and Xinping just in case we/she gets sick while we are in China, etc.
We have MORE exciting news!!! We applied for a matching grant through Brittany's Hope and they are going to match $7000 that we will raise to make a total of $14,000 to go toward our remaining adoption expenses!!!! And our adoption agency is donating $500 toward our expenses! God, our Father provides! He is faithful. He is a God who gives and takes away, but HE IS always FAITHFUL! He has taught me and molded me so much this year and I have so much yet to learn and so far to go.
You are all SO AWESOME and I'm so thankful for all of you! Thank you for helping to carry the burden when it has been too heavy to bear alone and thank you so much for lifting us up continually in your prayers!
