75, no 83, days waiting for LOA

75, Yes 75 days we have been waiting for LOA..... Actually change that.  I started this post 8 days ago.  It has now been 83 days that we have been waiting for LOA!!!

What does that mean? Well, it means that we received pre-approval (PA) to adopt our Caitie 83 days ago, but we are still waiting to receive our official Letter of Acceptance (LOA).  The average wait right now for receiving this piece of paper for people who are PA after their file is logged in (LID) is 60 days.  We are way past that.  I was hoping that we would get it the first of January, but found out around the first of January that we were out of translation (OOT) on Christmas day. (Which was a regular day in China, since Christmas is not celebrated there.)  You receive your LOA approximately 4-6 weeks after you are OOT.  It has come as early as 2 weeks after OOT, so I have been hoping since about January 7. :(  

If we get our LOA at 4 weeks, it should be here by this Tuesday.  If we have to wait 6 weeks, we will join what is unofficially called the century club, meaning we will be part of the unfortunate group that has to wait 100 days for their LOA.  If it doesn't come by then, it will be bumped back even further because the offices in China will be closed for a week for Chinese New Year. At that point, you might want to leave me alone until it comes. (Just kidding, sort of.)  It is all in God's hands, I realize his timing was perfect, but it is hard to wait and know your child is not in the best of situations, while you wait on paperwork.  UGH!!!

Until now we have been hoping to have Caitie home by Easter, but that isn't possible now.  We didn't want to travel over Easter because we didn't want to miss a holiday with the boys and we didn't want to travel during Spring Break because that would mean our friends would have to find something to do with our kids during the day for a whole week and that is not ideal for them, but it looks like that may be when we travel.  Unfortunately there is a big trade fair in Guangzhou from April 15-May 5, that doubles or triples travel costs during that period.  Unfortunately that is just not possible for us to absorb, so we would have to wait to travel after the fair if we could not go before then.  It would make me really sad if money stood in our way of getting our girl, but it is what it is and it will happen when it is supposed to.