Good news..... Zach's visa extension was approved and is in the mail to us.  Now we can quit ducking the law - afterall, we HAVE been harboring an illegal alien since June 10.  You know how it is, the constant worrying that the INS will come knocking on our door, looking over your shoulder when you go out in public.....

This means that he definitely won't have to go back to China ahead of us.  And his passport will be back to us in plenty of time to travel (it will arrive back to us in the same envelope as his visa extention).  Another thing down.... and seems like a million more to go.  When we started this process, we asked our adoption agency and another mom who had adopted from China how long it would take, and were told about a year, if we really pushed things along maybe 9 months.  We rushed every process we could, even paying extra for some of that rushing, and are still looking at a year.  Sigh.  The earliest we will be able to go to China is Aug 1.   Grumble, grumble, grumble. 

Zach came to live with us last year on July 31.  It just doesn't seem like he has been with us that long, but seems like we have been in the adoption process FOREVER!!  Funny how the very same time is looked at in such different ways. 

By my calculation, that is one more step forward.......even with where we were 2 days ago.