While we were on vacation at "the happiest place on earth," we received even happier news. We have been issued our Letter of Approval (LOA) from the Chinese government to adopt Peter! This letter is a major milestone in the adoption process and literally has a red stamp of approval from the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption.
The average time frame for a family to receive an LOA is two to four months after Log in Date (when the Chinese upload into their system a family's Letter of Intent to adopt a specific child). We had been praying that we would receive our LOA in two months. Not only did God provide, but He provided abundantly, even beyond what we knew to hope for. We were issued our LOA five days before the two-month mark!
Severe winter weather in the southeast prevented us from receiving the LOA for a few days, as it was stuck in Memphis, TN. This was important because we needed that hard copy to complete subsequent paperwork for China and for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. However, God opened other doors for us to complete the paperwork very quickly, hopefully making up for lost time. We were able to complete and send out one parcel the same day we received the LOA and the second parcel the very next morning. We feel so blessed that God has been in control of every single step of our adoption process and has so faithfully and amazingly moved our timeline along.
The morning before we received the LOA in the mail, God clearly and lovingly reminded me that He is in control and that everything was and will be ok. I got into my car thinking about the paperwork I was eager to complete and two significant songs immediately came on the radio, one right after the other. The first was This is Amazing Grace by Phil Wickham - the song God used to help tell me He wanted our family to adopt from China. The second song was God of Angel Armies by Chris Tomlin - a song that I forever associate with Chinese orphans because it is the song my friend and adoption mentor (she has adopted three of her children from China) set her photo montage to when she returned from visiting a Chinese orphanage in 2013 and first opened my heart to international adoption. I love how God uses music to convey His messages to His children.
Now that we have our LOA, our agency has said that we will most likely travel to China to bring Peter home in June, but that May is not impossible. Please join us in prayer that we will travel in May, bringing Peter home to his forever family as soon as possible. Thank you so much!
