Happy Birthday to our Girl!

Today Keira turns two.

Without us.

Thankfully she won't have to celebrate another birthday without a family who loves her and without a joyous celebration of her life! I'm so thankful I get to be her mom and celebrate with her for all the rest of her birthdays.

I  feel very sad thinking about her first mom and how hard today must be for her. I know she must feel an over-powering sense of grief and loss, no matter the circumstances, for not having her little girl with her today.

I sent a "Birthday Package" in hopes that Keira would get it either at the orphanage or at her foster home.

She will have a birthday cake delivered, this little stuffed panda, some candies for her foster family, a disposable camera that someone will hopefully use to take some pictures of her little party and a short birthday note from her mama and baba (that would be us :), translated by Ann at Red Thread China, who we ordered the package from. Hopefully, Ann will get the pictures from the camera sent to her and she will email them to me.

This is the plan. I have no idea if the plan was actually executed - I guess I will know when and if I get some photos. If I do, I might get updated information on her size too.

Happy Birthday baby girl - we are coming to get you soon!!

LOA!!!

We have received our LOA after only a 47 day wait! This is the Letter of Acceptance from China granting us permission to adopt Keira. 47 days is really fast - I was completely surprised when I got the phone call as I knew that even 60 days was pretty quick.

Next steps are:

• Sending in the remainder of the immigration paperwork to the Dept of Homeland Security, which is specifically for Keira.
• Applying for our Visas to go to China.
• Sending our signed LOA back to China along with the paperwork for Keira's Visa to come to the US. This is referred to as Article 5.
• Once we receive the Article 5 back for her Visa then we will be granted Travel Authority.
• We then wait for a US Consulate Appointment in order to book all our travel arrangements.

We may get to travel as early as Thanksgiving, which is also our 10th Anniversary. What a great way to celebrate 10 years - bringing Keira home!!