We received our travel approval today!

Our agency e-mailed us today with our travel invitation letters from China. We are so excited to be one step closer in our journey to Madison. Next week we should have our Consulate Appointments set in Guangzhou & then our itinerary will be set. We are hoping to be able to actually book our tickets end of next week!

This is going very fast (of course there is still an element of slowness knowing that she is still there waiting for us). Tonite we worked on our packing list so we can feel a little more organized.

Last week we sent a care package to Madison with a blanket, camera, & a photo book with our pictures. These were sent to a lady in China that does Care Packages who will add a few other items & translate our letter for us.

We have also put a few finishing touches on the nursery:

Introducing Madison

Here are the pictures of our Jiangxi Jewel. We are in love with this little girl already. We're still mulling over what her middle name will be, but most likely something with 'Yi' in it which means 'happy.'

Referrals are on the way

The current buzz is that referrals are on the way from China. For those who aren't familiar with how this process works, here are the steps:

1. Our file got matched with an available baby (this should have already happened)

2. Our referral (along with the other 4 families in our agency's travel group) will be sent with a picture & information about the baby.

3. This info is translated into English & we are called with basic information (aka 'The Call')

4. We will go to the agency to get our picture, file & letter of acceptance (LOA).

5. We sign the letter of acceptance once we are comfortable with the information provided (& have the medical information reviewed by an adoption specialist) & this gets sent back to China. Hopefully this part won't take more than a couple of days.

6. China then sends us an invitation called a Travel Approval (TA) allowing us to make our consulate appointment (CA) with the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China.

7. Once our CA is made, we can make our travel plans & start packing!!

Hopefully getting the above steps c0mpleted won't take more than about 4 weeks so we can have about 3-4 weeks notice after that before we travel. As soon as we get information I will post this. Hopefully this will be Tues or Wed at the latest.