Now that our dossier is officially logged in with the adoption office in Beijing, now we wait. In some ways this is the hardest part of an adoption. We have done everything we could do to get that paperwork completed, and now it is out of our hands. Officials of the China Center for Child Welfare and Adoption will review our documents, and then will issue the Letter Seeking Confirmation. (It used to be called the Letter of Acceptance, so you see LSC and LOA used interchangeably.) The LSC is the official referral, and when we get that, we begin the travel phase. The travel phase will consist of (surprise!) a lot more paperwork including the I800 approval for our two children. The I800A approves our family as capable of adopting, but the I800 approves the specific child to be brought to the U.S. Then the US visa center has to cable approval to the consulate in Guangzhou, and the final travel approval will be issued. The trip will be a little more complicated for us, since we will have to travel to two seperate provinces to complete the two adoptions, before going to Guanzhou for the US Embassy appointment.
Until we get our LSC from China we just have to wait. The wait is usually a little over 2 months, which for us would be in late April. Some people have gotten them in as little as 39 days, and a few have waited for over 100 days. I'm not really good at the waiting part. I worry about little Therese, who is so tiny, and what her care and nutrition is. The good thing is that our little guy lives at Eagle's Wings, so we know he is getting well-cared for and loved while we wait. The strange part is that neither of these precious children have any idea they are waiting. We first saw Therese's picture in August of last year, so by the time we meet her we will have been waiting for her for a year. They have no idea that they have been matched with a mommy and daddy who can't wait to hug them, and that they will have three brothers and a sister, who have been looking at their pictures for months and planning to share their toys.
One of the best things to help with the waiting is retail therapy. We have lots of kids clothes already, so I haven't bought very many, but I have gotten some cute matching dresses for the girls, and some special t-shirts for the boys when I found things on sale. Both of the children we are waiting for already have a little backpack stored in my closet, stocked with some fun small toys and books. The kids have really enjoyed picking things for the backpacks, and my sister and her little girl have joined in the fun and contributed some very fun things for the future members of the family. We are all so excited, and hope that this big waiting period won't be too terribly long.
