TImeline

So my friend, Kimberly, told me that working through this process backwards is hard.... we knew going in that it probably would be! Brad has been an absolute ROCK STAR, and flown through all the necessary paperwork to get things going for us. We found out today, at our adoption class, that our homestudy probably won't even be until July sometime, and of course, we were hoping for tomorrow (not actually, but you know what I mean!) We are going to have to work really hard to have patience throughout this whole process!
We've been asked alot about the kids reactions to all this news....! Allyson is easy, she wants a "baby" sister, and I've tried explaining that they will be the same age, but she is excited (at this point) to have someone to share her room with and play with. Her little world will definitely be rocked with the addition of Gracie, but we feel that given time, she will love having a sister! Caleb and Jacob have done really well with the news, as well. We have had a lot of discussions, some gearing towards the Down's Syndrome, and some just dealing with having another sibling. They seem very interested in the process and have asked questions and seem to be handling it all well.
Our timeline to Gracie should be approximately as follows: The homestudy has to be done before our I-800A and Dossier can be done. Our homestudy will probably be done in July, and will take a few weeks to process. Once the Dossier is sent to China, we are looking at 2-4 weeks for a "Log In Date". This just confirms that China has received our paperwork. The Letter of Acceptance (LOA) should be issued 2-4 months after the log in date. After the LOA, we send in our I-800, which takes about 2 months to prcess. After this time, Travel Approval (TA)can be issued, and we will travel approximately 2-3 weeks after this. I know this all sounds very confusing, if you've never watched an adoption go through, but I know we will be asked alot about where we are at in the process! In the mean time, we are going to be doing everything we can to raise the necessary funds to bring her home. We are thrilled that we will be receiving a grant from the adoption agency, and we plan to apply for a couple of other grants, one of which will be through Shaohanna's Hope, which is Steven Curtis Chapman's fund to help families going through the process of international adoption. We were granted a fund from them during Allyson's adoption, and hope to receive another. We know that God has called us to this, and we know that He will provide the necessary funds to get us there! We will be living as frugally as possible, and will do all that we can to save, as well as hopefully host a couple of fund raising events.
To say we are excited, is a major understatement! There is a lot of uncertainty and some fear going into this, but we know that God is with us every step of this journey He is taking us on! Thank you all for loving us and praying for us and giving us the encouragement we need!