Closer to Kohl

Today I'm just writing an update of where we are in our journey. Most of you have already heard this, but I know there are a few who don't have Facebook and don't go to our church so you may be out of the loop! I've been out of school for almost a month, but I've had 2 weeks of trainings and a week in Dallas so this is one of my first days to really be at home all summer.

In the last post we shared the first picture of our sweet boy Kohl and that we were waiting 2-3 months for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance). They tell us there is no rhyme or reason for the various small steps that occur as you are waiting for your LOA so we had no idea when to expect any news. 

And then the week of June 8 came and it was our week for news!

June 8- Our file came out of translation (translating from English into Chinese) and went into review. 

June 9- Our file was officially reviewed and went into "Waiting to be Matched" phase. 

June 10- We were officially matched with Kohl and went to the "seeking confirmation" phase. 

June 11- We learned that our Letter of Acceptance (or confirmation) had been issued and was on its way to Birmingham (this is considered soft LOA). 

All of these little steps can take weeks between each one, that is why they said this part of the process usually takes 2-3 months. We are so thankful that we got all this news in one week!

Our actual Letter of Acceptance arrived in Birmingham on June 17! So what was suppose to take 2-3 months was only 50 days for us!  Unfortunately we were in Dallas at the time so our social worker just held our letter on her desk and this past Monday we drove to our agency, signed it, delivered some more paperwork and we are now in our final stage before we actually go to China and get Kohl. 

It has been so long getting to this point in our journey, but we know that God has had His hand in all of this and that He will continue to guide us as we prepare to meet our sweet boy and bring him into our family. 

At this point we are in another waiting stage. When we get a little closer to knowing when we will travel we will get visas and begin making actual travel plans. They are estimating that our travel will be some time in October. 

We are getting super excited about Kohl getting here and have begun preparing his room. Hopefully we'll have some progress made in a few weeks and can share some pictures with you soon!  We also had some much fun registering for him! We don't know what size clothes or diapers he is wearing yet so we mostly just registered for other basic items. We registered at Target and on Amazon if you are interested. 

Finally, I will leave you with some pictures that were taken at Kohl's party.