We are LOA!

We have reached the next step in the alphabet soup of adoption.  We are now LOA (Letter of Acceptance.)  We received our letter from China, officially accepting us as parents of Lily Rose, on May 23rd, and we quickly mailed in our I-800 on the 25th.  If our timeline moves along according to a "normal" pace, we will travel at the end of July/early August to pick up Lily Rose!!

We received an amazing e-mail in our in-box today.  Another family is in Shanghai adopting their son.  He is just a few weeks older than Lily Rose.  The mom was kind enough to take Lily Rose's photo with her to China to see if she recognized her in the orphanage.  Today she e-mailed me several photos of Lily...from just yesterday. 

This is her description of Lily Rose....

Your daughter..."is a little peanut...a bit tentative, but smiling and interacting once we were there for a bit .  She was ticklish and giggled when I tickled her belly.  She is super-cute and oh so precious!!"

I can't tell you how special it is to know that someone saw our daughter yesterday and even got to tickle her belly!  It makes me home sick if that makes any sense...home sick for my daughter.

For those who have never adopted, I can't explain the love the Lord puts into your hearts for your children hundreds of miles away.  I can tell you that the emotions I felt on the delivery table with our first two biological children are the identical emotions I feel when my adoptive children are placed in my arms for the first time.  And the longing I have to hold Lily Rose right now is more intense than the longing I had with my first two pregnancies because Lily Rose isn't safe in my womb but hundreds of miles away where I can't protect her.  But my loving Father is holding her safely in His arms.  And He is giving me bits of encouragement through a woman like Shannon who took time out of her amazing adoption journey to bless me!

We're coming Lily Rose...