Dossier To China!!!

Today was a big day - the biggest yet on this whole journey. Our dossier is officially on it's way to CHINA!!! All the work we've been doing the past 7 months has been in order to get this dossier together. We have been waiting for months for the day when our agency could send it off to China. And today was that day!!!

"What is a dossier? It is our entire lives in an envelope. Seriously, everything is in that envelope: birth certificates, marriage license, employment letters, criminal checks, background checks, passport photos, 6 photos of our family, financial statements, medical exams, and our I800A form. Also included is our home study…a typed document consisting of 4 interviews/visits with a social worker, life history, family histories, financial histories, interviews with our kids, parenting styles, beliefs, and just about everything else remotely related to us as individuals and as a family." (From a blog I love)

We were excited. 

Kendall was sitting next to me when I checked my email and saw that it had been sent. I squealed and told her that all the paper work we've been working on, all the letters asking China to let us adopt one of their little girls are all finally heading to China. She seemed to totally get it and was very excited too, which I loved! It was fun to celebrate being one step closer to my third daughter with my first daughter. 

Baby girl, we are coming as fast as we can and we are celebrating every milestone along the way! We are longing to see your face and know your name. Soon!! 

Now we wait for our log-in date. This should take 3-4 weeks. THEN we will officially be able to receive a referral for our baby! It could still be a few months until we know who she is, but we are one step closer today! 

Approved!

We received our I800a approval from immigration last Monday, August 27th! The approval was actually dated on my birthday, August 24 - we just got it in the mail on the 27th. We were so excited that that part of the process was behind us! We scanned our approval and emailed it to our agency and they began the process of authenticating and certifying our whole dossier. This takes around 2 weeks, so we expect to be sending our dossier to China very very soon!!

We passed a pretty big milestone a little over a week ago: my 30th birthday! We are now officially able to adopt a child from China, according to their rules on age. Randy got me the most special gift for my 30th birthday. Here's a picture:

I love it so much and wear it everyday! Can't wait to see the face of our sweet baby and to give the necklace to her one day!