LOA!

Just when I had started to tell people we hoped to travel by Christmas, and just when we were getting discouraged and increasingly impatient, the phone rang tonight, and it was our agency!

"Maybe it's Holt!" I said. (John can tell you that I have said that every time the phone has rung for the past 67 days--or at least any time it rang on a weekday evening.)

And this time--for once--I was right. And it was Holt. "Are you calling to tell us we have LOA?" I asked. And she was. And we do.

For those who don't speak Chinese adoption alphabet soup, LOA roughly stands for Letter of Approval, though I believe it's technically the Letter Seeking Confirmation of Adoption. It means that China has officially identified us as fit parents for Michael. They have gone through our whole painstakingly compiled dossier and said that we make the cut. That's a huge step. It means that now we can breathe just a little easier. And we can start to talk more seriously about travel.

What you really want to know is when we will be boarding that plane. Our agency estimates we'll leave three months from now.

We've dealt with estimates before, so we only put so much faith in them. But hooray that we are a huge step closer to our son who is waiting for us in China!

And how fitting that today is a national holiday in China--Dragon Boat Festival.

I can't think of any better way to celebrate than by moving just a little closer to our little Michael.