Adoption Process update

I know I haven't been posting a lot on our adoption, so I thought I would give an update.
Update: there's not a lot happening.
At least that's what it feels like. We originally thought that we might be able to travel by Christmas so many months back. We knew it was unlikely but a slight possibility. Now that seems like a distant dream.
As of right now, we don't have our LOA, letter of acceptance, from China. Everyone else that accepted referrals when we did already have had theirs for a while. We finally contacted our agency after waiting for a long time and she contacted the CCAA. Apparently our file was placed in the non-special needs waiting line because when we submitted our dossier we didn't have a match. I guess our agency had to tell the CCAA that our file needed to be moved to the special needs route which takes time. I just contacted our agency and got an e-mail back saying that they have been pushing for our LOA and that they hope to have it soon. However even if we do get LOA soon, IL still hasn't approved our home study. In what has been the LONGEST process of getting a home study update EVER, I have no idea when IL will approve our home study and what kind of hoops we will have to jump through to get it approved. What we thought would be a 1 month process has turned into a 6 month plus process so far. And still we don't have approval. I am going to try to contact the state directly because going through our social worker has been pretty frustrating. However, I don't hold out much hope that will make a difference. I am pretty sure they are closed for the Christmas holidays.
So we are just trusting that God will have us travel when He wants us to travel. His timing is different than ours. It is difficult for me to understand why, but He knows and I trust Him.
So that's where we stand with our adoption. I guess right now we are hoping to travel by March or April. If it happens before then, we will pleasantly surprised.

Merry Christmas 2011

I love Christmas! Most everything about Christmas-the lights, the cookies, the parties.
But most importantly I love the fact that over 2000 years ago, Jesus was born in a manger. That He made the ultimate sacrifice to enter into humanity and live among us. To be born as a helpless infant, completely dependent, yet completely perfect. This is a difficult concept for me to understand and try as I might, I probably will never fully grasp it. But, that's ok. I don't need to understand everything to understand that Christ came into our world for me. For me and you. So that we can have Hope and Peace. Not just at Christmas but throughout the year.
Thank you Jesus for entering into our world. For living among us and for dying on the cross years later so that we could have Hope and Peace.
Merry Christmas! May each of us enjoy celebrating Christ this Christmas!