LOA baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, it's finally here. This is the document we have been waiting 2 months for - 59 days to be exact :-) This is our LOA - China's formal acceptance of us to adopt our daughter - Fu Jing Gui - I can finally share her Chinese name! This finally is feeling more "real." (Although, total sidebar - her name was translated incorrectly on this document - it is actually Fu Jing GUI, not Fu Jing Jia. I only had a minor heart attack when I saw that!)

So for my non-adoption readers ... what the heck does all of this mean? It means that we are a TON closer to bringing our daughter home ... a ton closer to holding her in our arms, feeling her, kissing her, smelling her and loving on her ... a ton closer to her being more than just a referral picture ... so close to her being ours. So very close to her being real. I know God knows her, but I long for the day when we know her too!

There are still several more steps, but this was a big one and we can almost taste our upcoming trip! I submitted our I-800 today - that's the next step - the "Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as Immediate Relative" ... I had to wait until we had the LOA to submit it because a copy of that has to go with it. It's a form needed for the US Immigration side of things. After that is approved, we will wait on several more approvals before we can travel ... my best guess is that we'll be leaving for China in mid-late May! It's later than we had hoped but it will be right around Sunshine's first birthday!

Please keep praying that things move along smoothly and that Sunshine continues to stay healthy! The last update we have from her was from 7 months and she turns 9 months on Sunday! Where in the world has the time gone?!?!?!?!