More Good News on the Adoption (and why I love overnight emails)

One of the benefits of the time difference is that while I am sleeping, those on the other side of the world are working!  Thursday morning I was checking email on my iPhone and I had received an update on the timeframe for finalizing the adoption.  I was a bit overwhelmed by all the information, so I had to write it down and post it on the fridge!

Basically, without a medical expedite, it has been taking 8-11 weeks for families to receive approval from US immigration and to get their travel approval (TA) from China.  Once all the approvals have been granted, we will have two trips to make to complete the adoption.  First, we will go to the provincial capital and that is when our daughter will become legally ours.  Then we travel to Guangzhou and we will finish the US immigration requirements.

Because we asked for a medical expedite, we are hoping to shorten our wait time so we can take our daughter back to the US for her next surgery.  After I absorbed all the information in the first email, I refreshed my email and I had a new message from our placement agency.  The agency said that they had spoken with the immigration officer assigned to our case and the officer considered our case a priority and would put it at the top of her pile.  The officer also said they would try to do all the approvals by email so that we wouldn't waste time waiting for mail.  That brought some tears to my eyes!  I also appreciated the fact that my agency was taking the time to email what was very late at night for them.

My guess is that we'll travel in March, or at least that's my hope.  Maybe this week will bring more good news!