Oh my goodness. I can hardly wait to get my arms around this little thing.
We received updated measurements and Miss Magnolia is growing. She was moved into a foster home about six months ago and the move has made a wonderful impact on her growth. She is now, at just barely two, 32″ and 23 pounds. Which makes her 3″ shorter than Clementine and 2 pounds lighter.
At two and almost-three-years respectively, neither of my little loves are even on the growth chart. Which might not be the worst thing since I’m thinking that this mama might be carrying both of them, a lot.
And, even better than an update (which is saying a lot because updates to a waiting mama are just about the best-thing-ever) today we received our Letter of Acceptance (LOA)… basically telling us that China has approved us to come on and get our girl. Okay, there are a few more hoops to jump through but this one is probably the biggest.
My palms are sweating and my tummy is turning and I can’t stop feeling like I’m about to start producing some big happy waiting-mom tears.
And so for the record, and because it’s so fun to add a major milestone like receiving our LOA, here is our timeline to Miss Magnolia.
July 3 – Prayerfully commit to start a homestudy update
July 16 – Submit our special needs checklist to Lifeline
October 14 – The Call
October 19 – Officially commit to bringing Magnolia home
November 2 – LOI submitted
November 6 – PA
November 9 – Homestudy finished and sent to Lifeline
November 23 – Homestudy finalized and sent to USCIS
November 27 – Homestudy received by USCIS
December 11 – Fingerprint notice received
December 21 – Fingerprint appointments
January 2 – USCIS approval
January 4 – Dossier docs through certification and authentication
January 12 – Dossier to China
February 3 – Dossier logged in
February 18 – Dossier through translation
March 24 – Dossier in review
March 29 – LOA received and signed!
March 31 – USCIS approval
April 7 – PDF received from NVC
April 12 – Article 5 issued
April 18 – TA! and CA!
I have a post in the works summarizing the results of our Known By Heart effort, but for today, my brain simply can’t focus on anything more than shouting the blessed news.
We are coming for you, sweet one. Just as fast as we can.