DTC!!

Well, today is the day!  We are officially DTC (dossier to China) and that is something to celebrate.  This is the big milestone that we have been working so hard towards these past 4-5 months.  Six months since we saw his face.  Four months since we officially requested to adopt him.  Hours and hours of paperwork, essays, documents, notarizations, education requirements, physicals, and interviews.  We have been approved, certified, and authenticated by the USA and now we have officially sent everything to China so that they can review and basically give us permission to come and get Zachary.

Look at those pretty little seals from the Chinese Consulate and State offices...can't believe we've made it this far.  Incredible.

We already have PA (preliminary approval) so we know that China is essentially promising that we will be approved to adopt Zachary providing that all the right documents on the US side are sent to them.  We were given 6 months to get these things to China (our dossier) and now here we are 2 months ahead of schedule!  We were told to have everything in by July 3rd, and today we are DTC, so that is thrilling.

God did it!  We made our deadline with room to spare and are that much closer to meeting our beautiful boy.

I don't know if I can express how much effort, energy, love, stress, and anticipation has gone into this moment.  I know I can't express how much we've seen God move in this process...it has been humbling.  Now we wait.  We wait (probably 3 months or so) for China to send our official letter of approval to adopt Zachary (LOA).  Once the LOA comes we go into a frenzy to get everything ready to travel.  Probably three months after the LOA we will be in China meeting our precious son for the first time.

So, thank you for all the support and prayers that have brought us to this point.  We are over half way there!  Please pray that our LOA would arrive quickly, some people wait 20 days and some people wait over 120 days (the average is 70 right now so we're hoping for sometime in July).  Pray that the government officials have no questions or issues with our dossier and that we are approved.  And most importantly, please, please pray for Zachary.  We hope that he is in good health, that he is being loved on, and that God would prepare his heart to meet us.