Letter of Intent

So the next step in making this little girl our daughter is to submit a Letter of Intent (LOI). The LOI is written to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and in it you tell them why you want to adopt this specific little girl. They want to know why you want her, what you know about her condition, what research you have done on the condition, the treatment plan for her, how you plan to pay for the expenses involved, the support network available to you and how your existing children feel about her.

The LOI is supposed to be a paragraph to one page, but needless to say, ours was 2 pages long! So after a little editing, we sent the letter to our adoption agency on Monday. It was translated to Chinese and sent to the CCAA along with our family pictures on Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

In the next 3 weeks, we should receive a pre-approval letter indicating the CCAA's acknowledgment that we intend to adopt her. In the meantime, we need to update our home study report, again, specific to this little girl and her condition and send to the U.S. Immigration Office. You have to get an I171-h form from Immigration in order to bring a foreign born orphan into the United States. Once we have this form, it is sent to the U.S. Consulate office in China and the CCAA. After that, the CCAA sends us a formal Letter of Acceptance and then our Travel Visa! This whole process could take 8-12 weeks, so we still have some waiting to do.

In the meantime, we have been busying ourselves with converting the spare bedroom/office/game room/Kathy's room/Karen's room, into the Baby's room! Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE to decorate, so it is on! I sold the sofa-sleeper and dresser in 1 day and our end table found a home at Auntie Sharon's house. Chris has already begun to prep the room for paint and the crib and dresser should be here by Friday. This past weekend Mom and I went and did some shopping and bought lots of girly clothes and a diaper bag. It was sooooo much fun! I'll post pictures of the Nursery when it is done as well as when we receive our pre-approval. It's 8:30 p.m right now here in San Diego and while we are settling down for the evening, our daughter is getting ready for lunch. Can't wait until all 5 of us are settling down for the night. . . . . .