One More Step Closer to Sophia

Things have been crazy the last month and I have so much to write about but for now I wanted to focus on my Sophia. I have to say that for awhile, I would think of her and then turn right to all the things that we have to do to get her home. But more and more, I have been thinking about her, what is she doing, where is she(have the moved her back to the orphanage or kept her in foster care) and is she safe. A few weeks ago there was a horrible sand storm that went through Beijing( and Tianjin where she is) and I just prayed that she would be ok and feel safe.

I know that I am starting to ponder these things more now because a lot of the work to bring her home is out of my hands. We sent off our I-800A papers to immigration on 3/1 and have been waiting AND waiting AND waiting for approval. And YES we now have approval from US Immigration to bring her home!! I talked to our officer on Tuesday and we are approved and now I am just waiting( not so patiently) for the letter to arrive. As soon as I get it, I will run around and get the final approvals, ship it off to our agency and then they will send it to the Chinese Embassy to get their approval and then it will be DTC(Dossier To China). It will take about 2 weeks after that to get our LID(Log In Date) and then more waiting begins. I am really hoping to be logged in before May(already?) On average it will be about another 4-5 months until we travel so we are thinking September( Another September Gotcha Day?). Right now it has almost been 5 months since we first saw Sophia's picture so hopefully we are at the half way mark.

Some other wonderful news was that while I was out of town, we got an update on Sophia! No pictures, actually not much info at all but we got some updated measurements from her. She is 3' 6" and weighs about 35 pounds and probably wears a size 11 shoe. So it sounds like she still looks like her pictures, taller and very thin. Micah who is a year and a half younger then her weighs 39 pounds! It is funny how excited I can get over a few numbers. Looking over them trying to figure out whatever information that I can.

For those wanting details on our timeline(especially approval times) they are on the right side.

I will update soon on our fun travels during spring break.