DTC!!!

We got some very exciting news today. Our dossier has passed all its inspections and authentications that have to be done in the United States and the original documents are on their way to China. This is what the international adoption world calls DTC (dossier to China--which really is a mouthful to say over and over so it's nice to have an acronym). As with all other steps in this process, we now begin another season of waiting. China will translate and review our documents and, assuming they pass inspection, issue us official approval to adopt the 2 children for which we are already pre-appproved. This is currently taking anywhere from 40-70 days, with an average of 52 days. With this in mind, we hope to receive our approval mid to late April.

All this just means we are one step closer to bringing our children home. In the meantime, we are glad to have all of you praying with us. We pray the rest of our paperwork goes through quickly and smoothly. We pray for the Lord to prepare the hearts and minds of Eleanor and Steven for this big adjustment. We pray for inexpensive airline tickets when it's time to book our flights. We pray for good health and a strong immune system before, during and after travel. Pray for our current family as we will be separated for 3 weeks--this has mama stressed out! (Daddy too, I think.) I would appreciate prayers for clarity of mind and memory as I continue to learn as much Mandarin as possible before we travel. We are doing everything we can to ease their transition from China to the U.S. I could go on for a couple more paragraphs. There's a lot still to do, but each time we reach another milestone our anticipation grows! Thanks for reading along!