First authentication from Chinese consulate in Chicago

Texas certification

All but one of our Texas certifications cane ib today! Bret's employment statement was rejected because the notary didn't date it. Grr Oh well, all things in God's time. Now waiting for our first authentication documents from Chicago.  We are waiting on our I 800a to finish up and our trip to Houston after that comes in to authenticate all our Texas documents.
We are praying for our baby every day. Love her.

I 800 A

Bret mailed this beast of today. So happy! Now we just have to authenticate at the Chicago consulate, certify a bunch of Texas documents....authenticate those and the approved I 800 A, at the Houston consulate, all within six months of the first dated document...and we are good to go :)  How's that for a run-on sentence!? We are thinking a lot about you little girl! We all love you already!

First certified document

I was so elated when I received this in the mail. Our first certified document. One step closer!

I have been working on The Dossier and and OH MY WORD, I go through moments of feeling like I can do this! To moments of complete freaking out. You see our home study was complete before our money made to the adoption agency, now I am feeling like that is a stolen good month and half to two months that I don't have to spare. Our documents need to be notarized, certified, and authenticated all before they are dated over 6 months. Time to expedite!!




Here is a letter sweet Henry sent to our neighborhood. I am proud of him and am so happy he is excited to meet his sister!

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

My name is Henry and I am 10 years old. I want to go with my parents to China to get my baby sister that we are adopting. We are not sure when we might go get her, it might be a year or two. My mom and dad say that if I want to go then I have to help save for my plane ticket and passport. I want to know if you can hire me for any jobs, like pet sitting, car washing, or any other odd jobs you might have.  I really want to see my baby sister! If you do not have any jobs, but would like to donate towards my ticket, that would be great.

God bless you,

Henry

Behold The Dossier....

And so it all begins...the real paper chase...the real mountain to climb... and yet I stand on this side of the mountain kind of sharing a couple of emotions. I am super excited to get my daughter, and I am terrified at the same time. There are so many questions and unknowns along this journey. We have been praying for her and I have been thinking about her for years and years. I wonder who God has for us. I cannot wait to love her, and yet praying for her and this situation is weird...  What do you pray for a child who may be unborn at this point.  The worst atrocity of her life, still yet to occur. All of her future may be scarred by this one decision. And yet, her family is waiting for her, and loving her already. I pray that God will bind the spirit of confusion, abandonment, and pain, and that she will live to the fullest that she can, knowing as God adopted us, so we have adopted her. We are so happy to have her and she is very much wanted. May God bless our journey and make our paperwork go smoothly. We also ask that He guide us and work out the details if we are to go for two. One would be special focus, which would mean significantly more issues. 

blessings  

So it seems Bret and I have decided to do an official switch to blogger.com for my blog posts. I hope it's a fun experience - as for updating from the beginning of the year - I will do my best! :) My most amazing discovery on this 2nd day of March is that my sweet baby Henry is going to be 7 years old in exactly one month! I can't even fathom the reality of that - where did the time go. He is such a sweet, darling child. I love him so much!

We will start at the end of February and work our way back :)

Couldn't sleep last night...

I guess because I have too much on my mind! I have a physical today and have to ask them to take all these extra blood tests and do all this extra stuff...trust in the Lord for he is good. 

It's been mailed!!

I am thrilled.that the paperwork is.sent! The praying.has commenced and I am praying for all involved.in this adoption. May God.be with all.of.us involved! Prepare my heart for love and theirs.too! May God protect everyone in this situation.

be home study

we have our paperwork filled out and we are sending it tomorrow. next the dossier will begin...all of these new words that I am getting to have an education on. this is my spoken blog. it was like a scavenger hunt. it is worth it to see our babies in our arms! I feel like I am expecting but this time I am expecting without being pregnant. my heart is filled with excitement...fear of the unknown, and prayers and hope for the future. I cannot wait to hold my new children or child in my arms!