Moving Right Along!

Just a quick update because things are happening! We received our I-800 immigration approval last Friday, so I emailed the National Visa Center and they were able to send me the case numbers I needed to complete Ellie's immigrant Visa application. I was able to complete this on Monday because it wasn't ready in their system until then. So then I emailed once a day, everyday until they sent a PDF copy of the letter they sent to the US consulate in Guangzhou. It was nerve wracking just waiting for this one email for days. We finally got it today! So this means Article 5 drop off will be tomorrow! They only do drop offs on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, so we're SO thankful it doesn't have to wait until next week! The nice and terrible part about Article 5 is that it always takes 10 business days. So we don't have to wait not knowing when it will come, but we won't be pleasantly surprised with it being done early either.

What is an Article 5?

"Article 5:  A courier will pick up the Article 5 (final approval that every duck is in a row and quacking) from the US Embassy and deliver it to CCCWA.  The Article 5 lets CCCWA know that you are approved by the US government to adopt that specific child/ren and have appropriately jumped through every hoop and paid every fee our two governments could think of.  After this step CCCWA issues TA." - Waiting Child Info

See the part at the end where it says CCCWA issues TA? That roughly translates to: China says "Come get Ellie!" We're so close!! Travel Approval (TA) takes anywhere from a couple days to two weeks, so we are literally only about FIVE weeks away from boarding the plane to bring our girl HOME! 

Time to start getting her room ready! 

Ellie's doll. I love that it has a limb difference like Ellie. I ordered it on Etsy from justplainbeckyw. She makes fully customizable dolls and is very easy to work with!