DAY 36!!!

... not that I was counting...

The phone rang a couple of times when I was in session this morning. I never answer it, letting the answering machine pick it up instead. When the little guy left, I checked the messages hoping for new business, expecting cancellations. Instead of either, one message was from the Manager of Adoption Services telling me our LETTER was at her office and we could pick it up if we wanted to do so.

The LETTER is the response to our Letter of Intent sent 5 weeks ago. Some people call it the LOA or Letter of Acceptance (which is what I've been using on the blog), but the more appropriate title is Letter Seeking Confirmation from Adopter or LSC. On very fancy paper it stated in Chinese and then in English that we had been matched with a child, specifically OuYang, Chun Wen of the Lanzhou Children's Welfare Institute, and did we accept this match and offer of adoption. Did we? It took about 5 minutes to check the "we accept" box and sign where indicated. The intent was for us to pick it up and take it home to review and sign, but since we were both there it was signed and returned to be shipped to China this afternoon or tomorrow.

This is the last BIG step! Next we wait for our Notice of Coming, which is an invitation to travel to China. Our agency contact is on holiday, so it'll be next week before I have details of what happens next. As I said to her, I'm foggy on the process from this point on - getting to this point seemed nearly impossible, I didn't look much past it. I know we need our Notice of Coming, we need appointment dates/times made in China that define our travel dates, but I'm not sure the order or timing of these things happening... The earliest our travel would be is early September, because of the stinky Olympics. I have always loved and looked forward to the Olympics - I can't bring myself to hate or resent them this year, but I'll call them "stinky" to express my displeasure at their timing in our lives. Of course, September travel means the likelihood that we'll miss Jack's birthday - of and with which he is aware and displeased, but that is a topic for another day and another post.

For the record, all three of my angels went down without a peep tonight - though it was nearly 9:30 and after a good round of tball in the field by Steve's bball game.

N