Was that the FedEx truck that just pulled in the driveway?

Give me an L! ...

Give me an O! ...

Give me and A! ...

What does that spell?

What does that mean?

After four months of agonized waiting  (126 days to be exact :>), we have finally received our Letter of Acceptance from the Chinese government!!!  Woo Hoo!!!  This is the official document from the China Center of Adoption Affairs that asks us to confirm our desire to adopt Andrew.  It arrived by FedEx on Thursday around noon; we signed it, took some pictures and sent it back on it's way to China around 6:30 ...  There have been moments over that past 4 months where we began to wonder if this day was ever going to come, or if the Chinese government had decided not to accept our application to adopt Andrew, or ... (waiting can be really hard, especially when your mind starts wandering).  Praise the Lord our application has been accepted!  We are so incredibly thankful to God that we have received Andrew's LOA!

Here we are signing our Letter of Acceptance affirming our desire to adopt Andrew. 
And here is a closer look at this all important piece of paper, and a family photo of all of us holding (gingerly) Andrew's LOA (you maybe able to notice that Hannah is wearing her "Big Sister" shirt :>)
After waiting for so long, it was time to celebrate, so we headed to our favorite Chinese Restaurant for some noodles and dumplings - hao chi le! (Chinese for "yummy" :>).  Here we are with the owner who we got to know when we brought Hannah home 2 years ago.  We haven't seen her in a year (she has moved to another state to help run her Mother's Chinese restaurant), but she just "happened" to be in town for a couple of days.

So, we know the big question on every one's mind is "what's next?"  Well, now we wait some more :>)  There is one more step between us and Andrew - TA (that stands for Travel Approval).  It usually takes around 2 - 4 weeks to get TA.  Once we have approval to travel we can make our Consulate Appointment in Guangzhou (to get Andrew's Visa for travel to the US) and that determines when we will travel.  All that being said, our agency estimates that we will leave for China somewhere around the end of May or beginning of June.  Of course, we would love to travel sooner than that, and God is still in the miracle business - but we trust that we will travel in His perfect timing (even if it is not ours :>)

For now, we need to get Visas, fill out more paperwork for our agency and start gathering items to take with us - it is finally beginning to feel more real.  It's hard to believe that we started this journey for Andrew exactly a year ago today (4/6/2011 was when we first saw his picture on Lifeline's web site).  We hope to get one last update on Andrew before we travel, so stay tuned :>)

We are so thankful that God has led us on this journey to Andrew and has been with us every step of the way, and will continue to walk with us as we journey forward.  Please join us in asking God to continue to protect Andrew and prepare him to join our family.