Pre Approved!!

We received our Pre-Approval today!!!!!

We came back home from traveling yesterday and I woke up this morning in my usual post-travel state of exhaustion and didn't want to get out of bed. I opened the computer to check my email expecting there to be nothing there, like there never was, so it seemed. My mood immediately changed to elation when I read the subject line, Pre-Approval! I called Justin and the boys in and they came running and together on our bed this morning we read the words that we have been waiting to hear. He is ours and we are going to fervently pursue bringing him HOME!

And now we can finally share his sweet little face with YOU!!

Chen Qi Long

Birthday: 3/15/2010

I know a mama's heart is always biased, but he just has the sweetest face. We feel like he just looks like he belongs to the R family! :)

A few questions that we have asked ourselves and received encouragement about:

1. What is a PA? This is a statement from the government of China that our family is officially promised to this child and no one else can view his file. In a nutshell, we have 6 months to finish our paperwork and submit our Dossier packet to China and then they will go over our information and issue a formal Letter of Acceptance, and after a little bit more paperwork between the US government and China, we will be given a travel date to go pick him up. 

2. What could happen from now until we pick him up that could change our status with him? Can this PA later on get denied? We asked our case worker these questions and of course there are always things that can happen, and she encouraged us that she had never seen that happen. The only time someone would not receive approval after receiving PA is if they were not telling the truth in their original paperwork. People have stopped the process on their own after receiving a PA, but she said it is very rare for someone to have a disruption for some reason outside of their own control. Basically, she told us to relax. Haha.

3. And our really really big question...Since we live nearby, are we allowed to meet him now? We have submitted a request to go visit him. Our agency frequently works with expats and our case worker says sometimes the orphanage says yes, sometimes they say no. All we can do is try and then wait. We are becoming professional wait-ers.