It's Official! She's Ours!

We just received word today from our adoption agency that China has approved our adoption of Madeleine Grace! Just to remind you what a long journey this has been, here is a recap of our timeline:
6.2.06: Dossier sent to China
6.8.06: Dossier logged in with the CCAA
7.27.07: Dossier passes review
12.15.08: Letter of Intent sent to CCAA for the adoption of Madeleine
12.29.08: Pre-approval received from CCAA
1.22.09: Letter of Approval received from CCAA
Seems short, doesn't it until you realize that we started this journey in 2006! We are still in waiting mode as we have to wait for the Chinese government to issue travel approval (TA). That will probably take four or five weeks considering they are on holiday all of next week for Chinese New Year. At the same time, we will be waiting for US Immigration to approve our application to adopt internationally. That can take about 90 days although we are going to see if they might be able to expedite the processing of our form. No guarantee, but our agency says they will try. Once we have TA from China and USCIS approval, then our agency will be able to go ahead and schedule our Consulate appointment (CA). I was hoping for travel in April, but I'm not counting out May. So stay tuned.

And now, without further ado, let me introduce our lovely daughter, Isabel's big sister (by seven months), Madeleine Grace: