Our Journey to Ella Claire

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

LOA!!

We are absolutely shocked! Our LOA is here! After only 49 days!! Our China facilitator emailed today with some travel documents. I thought that was odd since we are not even close to LOA time, so I called her! "Yes yes! Your LOA is here but I don't have time to talk! Just fill out the paperwork and I'll get back to you!"

So here we are - on the one year anniversary of being a family of FIVE! We are one step closer to being a family of SIX!

Remember a year ago? We had the traumatic adventure of dumping fuel in the ocean and spending the night in Japan! We were so relieved to actually put our feet on American soil and be a family with ALL our girls! Well almost all! Little did we know we had left one there:)

With all of the new Hague requirements, we thought this process would take so much longer. But from the first moment we saw sweet Ella until now has been only 5 months! We are ahead of schedule! We are going to have Ella Claire by Christmas! Can you believe it?? Maybe by Thanksgiving!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

LID

We are LID - meaning we have a "logged in dossier" for Ella Claire's adoption. So today the wait begins for an LOA - Letter of Approval. We learned the last time that it doesn't really matter how it is going for everyone else. We were anticipating a 65 day wait and we waited 129 days! So this time... we'll just wait! We are thrilled to know our part is finished and we can just wait...

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

DTC Today!!!

Hip Hip Hooray!
DTC today!!

Our dossier arrived at our agency yesterday. Our adoption counselor looked at it today and said she just couldn't believe that every document was PERFECT! So at 4:00 she sent off the completed dossier to Beijing! We are so excited to be finished with our part!

Remember the wait for LOA that ended just about this time last year? Well it has just begun for Ella Claire!