Moving Forward to Davis - LOA!!!!!!!!!!!

The single longest wait of our adoption timeline is now over!!

Cue "The Hallelujah Chorus" music now..... 

Since our dossier was logged-in to China (LID) on December 24, 2012 

we have been waiting for our official Letter of Acceptance (LOA). 

This piece of paper can take anywhere from 40 to 100+ days to receive,

with the average being 60-90 days. 

We got the phone call yesterday afternoon from our social worker Stephanie 

that Lifeline had received our LOA from China in their Birmingham office 

and had already sent it out via Fedex for to us to sign and send back. 

Even with everything closed for an entire week in February for Chinese New Year,
we got approval on Day 60!

Parker and Wesley were excited by the good news and 
graciously laid down on the living room floor to spell it out

And then we went out to Ocean Buffet - the local Chinese restaurant - to celebrate! 

Parker felt really adventurous and ate his first egg roll. Yum! 

So, what is the big deal about the LOA? 

Well, we received Preliminary Approval (PA) to adopt Davis into our family on December 5, 2012,

based on a review of our Letter of Intent documents. 

The official Letter of Acceptance means that our entire dossier of information

has now been reviewed and evaluated and 

that the CCCWA has signed off that Davis can become a member of the Allen family. 

From here on out, the paperwork that is traded back and forth centers on getting permission 

from US Immigration (USCIS) to adopt Davis into our family, getting a visa for him,
getting those approvals sent over to China so they can issue our Travel Approval (TA),
and arranging for our Consulate Appointment in Guangzhou.  

It typically takes about 12 weeks from LOA to travel which would put us near the end of May.

But because we want to take the boys with us, we are looking at traveling in mid-June,

once school is out and Annual Conference for the churches is over in Lakeland.

Last summer when we were at the beach talking about bringing home a little boy from China,
our prayer was he would be home in time to come with us to the beach this year (August 2013).
And then when we were matched with Davis and found out that he turns 3 in July of this year,
we prayed to be able to have him as part of our family before his next birthday.
If this timeline holds, we will be with Davis in China on his birthday.