LOA........baby!!!!!!!!!!

This afternoon, sitting at my desk at work, my cell phone rang. I saw that the area code was 301.....I knew it was my agency. I knew we were only on day 59 waiting for LOA and I have friends who recently waited until day 87.....I just knew that maybe China was asking for something else or maybe something was wrong. So I answered and Jackie at Barker let me know, we did indeed have LOA. It is official, Wang Hongmei, Shiloh is ours!!!!! No further questions, but yes, more paperwork and waiting. Jackie also let us know that we will probably travel in June. This is so much better than the July or August I was thinking would happen. So it is here in 59 days and now it feels very real! We are no longer just pregnant in China...we are in labor, but 3 months worth of labor. To top off the day, prior to getting the notice of LOA, I had gotten 12 pictures of Shiloh from the contact in China that use to know her in the Baotou Childrens home. These photos are of her as a newborn and around 2 or 3 months old. While her palate is still open these pictures are priceless to us. They fill in the gaps on her early history and allow us a glimpse of what she has been through in her young life. Evidently she was in the China Cares Program and was given good care early in her life, which probably saved her life. So one more hurdle for us to make our journey to Shiloh, and this side of China, things are feeling really great! Tomorrow we will get the packet we have to complete via Fed-Ex. Chuck is staying home to get the package if it comes in the morning and I will be home in the afternoon to get it and to complete and sign all we need, so it can all go right back in the mail. The LOA is where we signed to accept Shiloh and it gets sent back to China so they know for sure we want her. Of course we do, no question there. Now the wait to TA (Travel Approval) begins. If this all goes well, we might be able to travel with some of my "renegade friends", I have made during the transfer journey and before. Amazing...this would just be icing on the cake to be able to be there getting our children together!