We Have Our Pre Approval!

"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord..."

Today is a very special day! It has been a long wait, but we got our pre-approval (PA) from China today. Some of you are probably wondering what that means. Well, it means that China has approved our match with Hannah and will accept our application to adopt her. Our application will now be sent to their office, and we will wait for the official Letter of Acceptance (LOA). After we get the LOA, we will sign the official papers and wait for our Travel Approval (TA). Once we get the TA we will make an appointment with the American Consulate in China to get Hannah's passport and medical release to travel to the US. Once we have an appointment date, we will make travel plans.

It looks like we may travel sooner than we thought we would. Because we didn't get our pre-approval before Chinese New Year, we thought we would have to wait until July to travel; however, due to an unforeseen complication, it looks like we will travel in May instead. Last week our agency called to tell us that China had rejected our special needs application to adopt Hannah because of our medical histories. However, they offered us another option to adopt her. As many of you know, we have two applications in China, one for a non special needs child and another for a special needs child. They told us that we were welcome to use our application for a non special needs child to adopt Hannah. We have agreed to do that and because this paperwork has already been reviewed and processed, it will not take as long for us to get our Letter of Approval. While we wait, our agency will contact the orphanage and ask them for an updated photo and report. We will also put together a care package to send to her with family photos, a disposable camera, and other gifts. The other application will continue sit on hold while we pray and wait for direction to adopt a brother or sister for Hannah.

Thank you all again for watching and waiting and praying with us. We are excited and look forward to the day that we can introduce you to Hannah. The day is drawing closer when we can bring our little girl home! We praise God every day that He has a plan and He is always trustworthy.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight" (Proverbs 3:5-6).