LOA, 5K, Sell and buy a house in a day! Yay!

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Thank you!

Did we say thank you for your support enough yet? If not, we need to say it some more. Thank you for your support. It was quite the feeling and blessing to see everyone coming to support us and Bailor at the Bring Bailor Home 5K a few weeks ago. We even had long distance support going on across the country and around the globe as we had folks do the 5K virtually where they were. The global part was Mackenzie's parents who were on a cruise in Europe and found time to get their 5K in on the deck of the ship as it was crossing the ocean. :-) It's been such a blessing to see everyone supporting us, but even more so when everyone's there in group fashion taking to the streets of Summerville/Ladson!

Shower!

Also this past weekend our sweet friends Sarah Ramsey, Hannah Coyne, and Janet Coyne threw us a China-themed shower for Bailor! We had a great time eating Chinese food and doing activities, not games! And opening special presents for Bailor! We are excited to see him get to use
















Moving!

We have also been working on trying to sell our house and buy another house at a lower rate to get the equity to pay off debt, pay for the adoption and just be more financially ready for when Bailor. It's been a whirlwind as our house sold about 2 weeks ago and then within 24 hours we had a contract on the next house we'll be going to, allowing us to close in under 30 days on both. What this means too is some paperwork updates, but selling and buying quickly will lessen the time lost now and we can keep moving forward. It's been such a blessing to work with both buyer and seller as they have been so flexible to our need to close quickly and for God sending them our way. So pray for everything between now and closing on May 27th and beyond for both properties. 


Checklist!

Finally, the biggest piece of news is we received our LOA or Letter of Acceptance which basically means we are approved again (again because we had pre approval before) to adopt Bailor. Still paperwork in front of us and time, but that is a huge milestone and relief to have that part completed.
Also completed this week: I800 approval, GUZ # received, and DS260 submitted!

So if you were keeping track of the steps....

_X__Home study completed (3-4 months). 
_X__I-800a application submitted with finalized home study to USCIS
_X__Immigration approval received from USCIS. (Approximately 2-3 months). 
_X__Dossier documents certified/authenticated. (Approximately 3 weeks) 
_X__Dossier sent to China (DTC) 
_X__Log-in date received (LID) from CCCWA (Approximately 3-4 weeks after DTC)
_X__Matching. This will vary depending on the child that you match with. Families who have pre-identified a child through a Special Focus program will begin waiting for LOA from the time of LID. Most families will log in prior to matching. At this time, families who match with older children (3+ years), children with more moderate medical special needs, or boys can expect to wait 1-4 months for a referral at this time. Families who will match with young girls with minor medical special needs will wait 6-12 months. 
_X__Letter of Acceptance (LOA) received from China (Approximately 3 months after LID or PA, whichever comes later). 
_X__I800 paperwork submitted to USCIS.
_X__I800 provisional approval received. (Approximately 3 weeks after submission) 
_X__Information for visa sent by USCIS to National Visa Center. (NVC) 
_X__Information for visa cabled to the US Embassy in GZ by the NVC. (Approximately. 2 weeks after information sent by NBC to NVC) (GUZ#)
____Article 5 letter received. (Approximately 2 weeks from cabling) 
____Article 5 letter couriered to the CCCWA. 
____Home study update 
____Update DSS clearances
____Update I800 
____Travel Approval received from CCCWA (approx. 3-4 weeks from being received by CCCWA) 
____Apply for Consulate Appointment 
____Receive Consulate Appointment (Approximately 2 business days after application) 
____Travel (approximately 2 weeks after receiving TA)     

God is good all the time no matter what situation we are in. We thank him for his many blessings and for making each one of you part of our continuing journey to bring Bailor home!

Video!

And to brighten your day, check out this video of Bailor!



Have a blessed day!
Scott & Mackenzie

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