Pre Approval from China Today for Sophie!

When I picked up Simone from school today her Teacher Barb told me that Simone had some thing in her cuby to show me. I think she said that her Teacher Jessica or Teacher Dee wanted her to show us this. When I saw it I was so happy because it was like she already knew about the good news that I was going to tell her.

The good news is that we received our Pre Approval from China today!!!!!!!!

Big day in our house.

I think she did a pretty good job of drawing Sophie.

Simone is doing so good with her writing. Here she writes Sophies name and Baby! I love the photo she made of Sophie. The long eye lashes and short hair!! I just had to take a photo since it was on the white board and we have to return it to preschool tomorrow.

Below is the email that our case worker sent us after we got off the phone. I am posting the email since she does such a good job of spelling out every thing.

Hi Rickey and Michele,

Congratulations on receiving your pre-approval today from the CCAA. This means that the CCAA has pre-approved your family to adopt Shi Wei. They will now match your dossier with your pre-approval application and review your information more closely. If everything looks good, they will then issue your Confirmation Letter in 2-4 months from now (possibly shorter because your family were logged in earlier but 2-4 months has been the average). Average wait time to receive your Travel Notice will be 3-5 months, and then travel around 3-4 weeks later.

I asked Yu Ping who works in the China Program about the pronounciation and meaning of Shi Wei's full name. She said that her last name Ji is pronounced the same as the character of the chicken, but they didn't use the character that means chicken. Instead, the character they used means record or millennium.

She said the character of Shi means world. The character of Wei doesn't really have a meaning but is a very typical character for a girl.

Regarding the pronounciation, Shi Wei is pronounced the way you say it from what I can tell. 'Ji" is a little bit harder and to get it all correct, I will put Yu Ping on the phone one day to pronounce it for you since she is Chinese. I hope this works.

Sincerely, Linda

What I appreciate about our agency is that they always prepare you for the longest wait times! Two families from our agency just received their Travel Approval on Friday for their waiting children. I asked her their time line. She told me that the one family has a LID like ours from 2006 & waited two months for their Travel Approval. The other family that has an LID of 2007 waited three months for their Travel Approval. But as always, things can go much longer or much faster.

It is all in Gods timing. This will probably be the last time I do this but here are some of the emails we received today. Since this will be Sophie's scrapbook I just want to save them for her. From now on if anyone wants to leave her a comment just leave it here on her blog so she can have it. Here are the wonderful comments we received from our friends this afternoon!!!! Since you don't know all of my friends nick names I have added them in parentheses. *See them below:

*HOLY SMOKES!!! I am so thrilled for you! This is fabulous. God has all the details worked out. Your family has shown so much faith in your wait.
How fun is summer going to be????
Michele, I know a lot of people offer, but if you need ANYTHING, please ask (Andrea M)

*Congratulations!! One more step closer to Sophie!! Hopefully everything else will come quickly and you can soon be on your way!
Nadine

*holy cow that is fabulous! The best news ever! I am so thrilled for you guys!!
Love from us 5 (The Kuhlmans)

*that is so great WOW can't wait to meet her (Rachel, Bryan, Holt and Kingsley)

*Great news for you! June would be great then you would have the summer with her before you had to go back to school. You are in my prayers. Love and miss you guys. (Cami and Chris)

*Just in time for a wonderful summer…and beyond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for your family…little Sophie couldn't’t be luckier to have the parents and sister that await her! I just got the chills writing this!!
Jan Mills

*I dont know if Windy wrote you back yet.. But I am so excited for the both of you!! We are praying that everything goes smoothly for you guys! Mike

One more thing! After lunch I started telling my PE classes. I was so excited to finally tell them. I will tell the rest of my classes tomorrow. There are a few classes that I will miss since their second PE day was on Wed. but I am sure the good news will fly!

So what now? I am working on a small photo album to send to Sophie tonight for her Care Package!! YIPPY, we finally get to do this. We are sending her a pink blanket, small photo album, letter and small stuffed animal or doll. I will take pictures of it when it is ready. Our agency can not send a disposable camera due to the rules so I will send her a second small package with one of those in it. It is a neat feeling to know that soon she will see our faces and learn that her Mommy, Daddy and Sister are coming to get her soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you God!

*Below are some more comments from family and friends....I just have to keep them for Sophie. So here they are.

*I dont know if Windy wrote you back yet.. But I am so excited for the both of you!! We are praying that everything goes smoothly for you guys! Mike

*Congratulation...... two months are nothing....... Sophie will be here soon!!!!!!! I send a big kiss for Simone.............. Bye! Lina

*Oh, my gosh! CONGRATULATIONS! I am so excited for your family! Keep me posted! How great if you could head out as soon as June to go get Sophie and bring her home! (Jessica C.)

*I am so excited for you and your family as you await the arrival of your little girl! (Lori)