Things are Moving Right Along

Once I completed our dossier, I took it to our agency in Atlanta on Monday, June 25th to submit it! Ryan and Henry joined us, which was very cool to have someone there with me to experience the moment. I sat at the table with the worker and she went over all of our documents and photos that accompanied the dossier. Everything looked perfect! All I needed to do was switch out some photos that were not acceptable. She said that she would go ahead and review the dossier so that she could send it to Colorado for another review and a partial translation, despite the incomplete photo set. I went home and gathered the photos that were needed and drove them back on Wednesday. It was a good feeling to send that dossier on its way! A few days later, I got word that our financial statement needed some adjusting. We had to create a new statement and have it notarized at the city level only. That was a big relief! I was so thankful that I did not have to have it notarized at county, state and then authenticated. That would have really slowed things down! I took care of this right away and then overnighted it to Colorado so that it could join our dossier.

China Update

I have been working diligently for 8 months on compiling our dossier for China. It is a huge undertaking with 12 documents that must be created, notarized, notarized again, sealed by the State of Georgia and authenticated by the Chinese Consulate. We also had to make two sets of copies of every single page of the dossier. I am so happy to announce that our dossier has been submitted in full to our agency and we should have a log in date with China by the first of August! It is very exciting!

Here I am posing with our dossier the night before we submitted it. While we continue to wait to match with our child, I am taking things in stride. Trying to stay calm and patient. Our journey to our child has taken over three years and God is teaching me patience above all else. It is very true that things never go as planned. I have to include that Kaori has consistently prayed for God to bring her brother and a sister. She fully believes that this will happen. Who am I to say it will not.

Feeling pretty excited! We are currently still waiting with Japan, although we have not heard anything from them in many, many months. When we match with our child from China, we will have to close the door to Japan as we cannot afford to adopt from both countries. Our future lays with the Lord and we are trusting in His perfect plan.