Woo hoo! We received our letter from the U.S. National Visa Center (NVC) today confirming that they have wired our file to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China. With this piece of the puzzle, we now send off our last packet (is going out today!) to our adoption agency and they overnight it to China. We now await confirmation of something they call an “Article 5”, which is the final official approval from our Consulate and confirmation that they have sent our paperwork back to the CCCWA for granting us Travel Authorization (TA).
Although we have a separate page that outlines the rest of the process, I am going to go ahead and give it again here because I know this is where people really want to know. According to all information we have seen and read, the Article 5 takes 3 weeks. Travel Authorization tends to take 2 to 9 weeks, but because we are adopting a child aging out, it seems reasonable to expect it to take closer to the 2 week side of the range. Most people travel 2 to 4 weeks after getting TA and with the Chinese Holidays in October that make travel difficult, I have to believe we will likely travel on the shorter end of that range. If you put all of this together, we COULD be on our way to China by the middle of September and on the way home with our two newest girls early October.
*** IMPORTANT PRAYER POINT ***
We praise God for how He is breaking down walls and making this happen in His time. As you know, we have been led by God to not share specific prayer requests, but rather to simply ask you to pray for what God would have you pray about and do. There are still a few major obstacles that only God can overcome working through those that don’t know Him as well as working through His children. As soon as we reach TA, we are at a standstill until God does a work like we have never personally seen before. Please don’t slack off on your prayers now just because things are going well — now is the time to get even more serious about praying with and for us and the girls.
Thanks and God Bless!
Ben
Praise the LORD! And joining you in prayer!!!