WE GOT IT! (AND THEN SENT IT RIGHT BACK!)

TODAY WAS NOTHING SHORT OF CRAZY! JOHN AND I AWOKE THIS MORNING at 4:16am to NO POWER! Yes, that's right! A dead tree had fallen on our power lines, and clearly we were gonna have no lights for a while! Now, it takes a lot of work for me to look presentable. So, it was NOT GONNA HAPPEN for me to go to work without makeup on!

After we called the power company- they arrived at 5:30am to inform us they would need to bring back several "crews" to deal with the problem, time was running short for us to get ready for school and work. My parents sweetly said I could come over and get ready so as not to miss a day of work during FINALS week! Anyway,.....fast-forward to later.....Karla, our social worker told us yesterday that she was overnighting our LOA and we should receive it today. I knew we wouldn't be home to sign for it, so my mom said we could have it sent to her house and she would sign for it. That worked well, and after school we picked it up, headed to meet John at the Fed Ex office, sign the paperwork and overnight it back to Karla so she will have it in her hands by 11:30am tomorrow. Hopefully, she will be able to get it sent back to China tomorrow! In case you don't know what LOA (Letter of Acceptance) is, crash course in adoption lingo:

LOA is the official document from China that we show to the US (USCIS) that we have to have in order for them to issue our 800 paperwork (which will ultimately give Sam citizenship and allow him back in the US on a visa). It is the final document we receive from China before we are issued Travel Approval (TA). It has to be signed quickly with the box checked that we do intend to adopt this child, and returned to them asap! Once they receive it back...along with some other documents, they will begin the process for approval to travel. We would expect to travel within 2-3 months from this point. We are EXCITED! Gotta really work on getting ready to become a family of 6 now!!

Mom with our LOA!

JACKSON AND RILEY

ME SIGNING

JOHN SIGNING

THERE IT IS!

Blessings-

Meredith