TA!

That's Travel Approval! It arrived at our agency late Wednesday afternoon, and I got the call from our social worker yesterday! This is the official OK to travel to China for the purpose of adopting our son.

Our son. It won't be long now...

We are just waiting on our updated I171 from US Immigration - that should just be another few days. Then we can schedule our US Consulate appointment in China, figure out what day David will be placed with us, and make travel arrangements (book flights, hotels, etc.).

We are praying that we will be able to leave China by February 14th. That's the start of Chinese New Year. The entire country will shut down for two weeks beginning on that date. If we aren't able to schedule everything by then, we will have to wait until early March to travel. It's looking good for us, but we're not taking anything for granted.

There is so much that needs to be done around here. I'm going through each room in the house, getting rid of stuff we no longer need. David's room is still a storage room. I'm going to spend much of Christmas break getting it ready for him - cleaning it out, putting new shades in the windows, setting up his crib and dresser, digging toys out of bins in the basement. I need to get an area rug for the wood floor, lamps, a bookcase. I'm excited to get working on his room, but I've had to put it on hold while we prepare for Christmas.

I keep trying to imagine a two-year-old boy running around our house. It's going to be fun! We're ready!