On November 5, 2008 many things happened: it was my father's birthday - he would have been 85 years old, we elected the first black President and we received our Letter of Approval (LOA) to adopt our second daughter from China.
When we started the process to adopt our daughter Qin Xia --soon to be named Kylee Alexandria -- she was two. When Kylee joins our family she will be shy of four years old. We missed her third birthday, Halloweens, Thanksgivings, family vacations and Christmases and she was always in our thoughts. This has been the longest wait I have ever experienced in my life.
But today, November 6 we signed and returned our LOA which agrees that we accept our child. In approximately 4 weeks we will receive our Travel Approval (TA) and it will confirm that we can travel to China to bring our daughter home. We have tentative travel dates for January 1 and we should have her in our arms on January 5, 2009. (At the time I wrote this post I didn't know that we would experience yet another bump in the road, Travel Approval took 8 weeks to arrive.)
It is amazing how you can bond with a child whose picture you've only seen. That you can unconditionally love someone you have never met and plan her future when you haven't even spoken her name for the first time. But she is ours and we cannot wait to bring her home and let her become the person that God intended her to be.
{Happy Birthday to you...}
8 years ago
We are very excited to meet your second daughter and to watch Mia with her sister. She is going to be a great big sister. We look forward to celebrating future Christmases (and birthdays and other events) with you all.
ReplyDeleteWe are praying for your safe travel and for Kylee's transition to her new home. This has been such a long process. I can't believe how long it has taken. But, the wait will prove to be well worth it, I'm sure!
Love to you all,
Billy, Cheryl, Drake and Hailey.