Pre-Approval

Today we found out that we have received Pre-Approval (PA) from China to adopt Nan Qi Jia!!!

Our formal application was submitted on Sunday evening which included some preliminary paperwork:

Our Nurture Plan
The agency's opinion statement regarding us
Financial information
Health information
Family information and photos

Now, China will begin reviewing our complete Dossier and eventually...in 2-3 long  months...issue our Letter of Confirmation (aka LOA) which is their final approval of us as adoptive parents for Qi Jia.  I have heard from others that the wait for LOA is the hardest and longest wait of the many waits in an adoption journey.  Now we have pictures of a beautiful little girl to look at every day, and that makes you want to jump on the next plane over there, scoop her up and bring her home!

In the past three days we have been blessed to receive many updates on Qi Jia...recent photos, recent measurements, answers to some developmental questions, CT scan images and even a video of her playing with friends!  We are very grateful that the orphanage director has been willing to provide these for us.  We had been told that some orphanages are not willing to give any additional information besides what is listed in a child's file.  We are so thankful that her orphanage is not one that is unwilling to provide updates.  We know that most likely we will not get any more updates on her until we receive our LOA.  In the mean time we will probably burn out our computer watching the video of her over and over every single day.  What a relief to see her in the video...she looks so happy, smiling and playing with friends.  And very active...crawling under tables (Aidan's favorite part of course!)  And by the way...Maura may have some competition for the title of "miss bossy pants" in our house...Qi Jia doesn't stop talking during the entire video...but I have no idea what she is saying.  I'm working on having it translated.

I am hoping that my next post will include pictures and some details about her.  We are waiting to hear confirmation that we can share photos and information about her now that we have PA.

If you can, please take a minute to say a prayer for our newest little girl....that she remains safe, and healthy until we can hold her in our arms and bring her home forever.