Update on the LOA

We have officially been skipped, in every meaning of the word in relation to China SN adoption. Yes, it's frustrating. No, there is nothing we can do about it.

What does this mean exactly? Well, others at our agency with LID after ours (but in 2006 still) and LOI dates the same or after ours did get their LOA today. We did not. Nor did other families who were LID September 2006.

Okay, now what? Since China is closed for national holidays our agency has to wait until Monday to contact them to find out exactly what is going on. They will ask nicely for the liaison to check on each of our paperwork stuff. I know of at least one other family in this situation, and I was led to believe there are more than 2 of us. The liaison will get back to our agency, and we should know something by Wednesday of next week (October 10th). We've been told to be prepared for vague answers like "we are processing the paperwork."

What is the best case scenario? Best case is that there was just a paperwork snafu and our LOA is sitting in China just waiting to be mailed. We'd get it next week. Or for some reason they prepared things out of LID order which is not normal for them, but who knows.


What is worst case?This one is hard for me to swallow. Worst case is that our dossier was never matched with our LOI. This means that we are no further along than we were June 29, 2007 when we sent the LOI. This could have happened because the dossier was probably sitting in the review room waiting to be reviewed when we sent the LOI. It may have never been pulled. If this is the case, our agency is going to ask nicely for expedite on our paperwork. If they do expedite it could be another month to get the LOA. If they don't, then we are looking at another 90+ days.

When will we travel?We honestly do not know. We can tell you with certainty that October 25th is out, as is November 1st. It's possible IF we got that LOA next week that we could make the November 8th time...but more than likely it will be November 15th. We really hope, at this point, that we are able to travel and have her home by Christmas.

I'm very upset with the knowledge that paperwork is keeping us from holding our baby girl in our arms. It's been so long already, almost 100 days. As soon as I have that LOA I can post her photo to this blog. If you are interested in seeing her photos now, email me.