Referral!!

Last week was quite an exciting week!  It went something like this:

Monday- We received “THE CALL" from our adoption agency.  They have a referral for us!  After hearing a little about him, I said, "YES, send me the file!”  It took me about 5 seconds to text Kevin, find the email, download the file and pull up the first picture.  SO CUTE!!  I know some people wait to look at the file with their spouse, but there was no way I was waiting!  (OK, I may have texted my mom in there, too!)  I showed Kevin the file as soon as he got home from work, but we had to wait until after the kids went to bed to have any real discussion.

Tuesday- I called an adoption clinic and emailed the whole file to them for review.  Lots of staring at pictures and re-reading every word in his file!  Some searching for different growth charts and looking up various things online.

Wednesday- The adoption specialist (a pediatrician who specializes in international adoption) and the clinic coordinator called to review the file with me.  We talked for about an hour.  I was ready to move forward and wasn’t sure I could wait for Kevin to get home from work to discuss this!  I will also admit that I jumped WAY ahead and started counting days and looking at the calendar.  Yes, you other adoptive parents will know exactly what I’m talking about.  Don’t try to deny it!  We made the decision to move forward and accepted the referral!!  I contacted our agency to let them know and find out our next steps.  They emailed our instructions with a “congrats" and I was off to write our Letter of Intent (LOI).

Thursday- I reviewed our LOI one last time and emailed it to our agency.  I shared with a few close friends.

Friday- Our agency let us know they would have our LOI translated and then sent to the CCCWA (China Center for Children’s Welfare & Adoption- the people in charge on the China end).  We told the kids.  I was trying to decide whether I should video or take pictures of the occasion and ended up going with pictures.  I couldn’t even get the words out before Caetlyn guessed what was going on!  The kids huddled around the pictures excitedly, while I tried to snap a few pictures of them.  Yeah, they were less than cooperative with that part.   

Now, here we are at the start of a new week.  I had just explained to Caetlyn that “nothing happens in the adoption world” on the weekends.  Well, guess what!  An hour later I had an email in my inbox, telling me that our LOI was submitted into the CCCWA system and the file was now officially locked in China!  Because it is already Monday in China, the CCCWA had reviewed our LOI and agreed to "move our application into the procedure for special-need adoption.”  This is basically our Pre-Approval (PA).  Because we are already LID, we will not get a PA. 

We are now allowed to share our news and even send our little guy care packages as we wait for the CCCWA to review our dossier and send our Letter of Acceptance (LOA).  This step typically takes 60-90 days, so it’s going to be a looooong wait!

Now, for the info you REALLY want!

Our little guy has just turned 18 months old.  He is described as very mischievous and extremely active.  His medical need is a mixed bilateral cleft lip (right complete, left incomplete) that has already been repaired, and a cleft palate that still needs to be repaired.

We are quite taken with this little guy and hope to receive an update soon!

We have a questionnaire and a couple of forms to fill out and sign for our agency (1 needs to be notarized), and will send those back with our next fees on Tuesday. :)