LLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

I was at work today when the phone rang for me. Ainsley wasn't feeling very well this morning so I figured it was the school calling for me to come pick her up. Imagine my surprise when it was my agency calling. I will never forget the words that she uttered....we have your LOA....and then the tears started! I just bawled my eyes out and couldn't stop shaking....I couldn't think, move and I could barely breathe. She kept asking me if I was OK and I kept saying yes......everyone at work was just smiling at me watching me totally lose it. I left work early to go pick up the LOA. There was no way I was trusting that document to the US Postal Service or anyone else for that matter!! Our agency is on my way home from work so it worked out well. As I was leaving the agency's office, a song came on the radio. It was the same song that usually plays in the car as I am driving around. It is "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri........."and all along I believed I would find you
                  Time has brought your heart to me
                  I have loved you for a thousand years
                  I'll love you for a thousand more....
                  .....one step closer.....one step closer"

Well, this song usually ends up with me in tears and almost unable to drive. It was so amazing...I am literally one block away from the agency on my way home with our LOA in my hand. By the time I got home I was an even bigger mess than before. That song just touches my heart like nothing else.

So to explain...the LOA is really known as the "Letter of Seeking Confirmation From Adopter." It is China's final approval for you to adopt and your confirmation that you are willing to proceed. It has to be signed and dated and given back to our agency. This document gets sent back to the CCCWA in China so that they can begin to process our TA or travel approval. It is also the document that needs to be filed with US Immigration to begin the process to classify Sofie as an adooptee and immediate relative (I-800) and begin the processing of her Application for Immigrant Visa (DS-230). Yes, all that stuff needs to be done before China will issue our TA.
Tomorrow we will drop the LOA back off at the agency and they will send in our I-800 application to US Immigration. This step alone could take as long as 4 weeks so we are probably still 3 months away from traveling to China. The most awesome think about the LOA, other than I needed it, is that I can now put Sofie's pictures on my blog and I don't need the other blog anymore.
So, without further hesitation.....Miss Sofie Lu Jingjing...

I couldn't decide on which picture so I included  all of them.

And here is the document that everyone waits for: