Celebrate!

Here's us just after we dropped off our dossier to our agency. We headed over to celebrate at Cafe Sunflower (one of our favorite restaurants) and dined with Mom and Meridith! We talked about our sweet baby and how anxious we are to hold her in our arms, make her laugh and kiss on those soft cheeks!

So... today is a big deal

We got all of our paperwork back from DC this morning, and so we took it all to our agency and turned in our official Dossier!! Now our job is through... for a little while at least. They will translate it and bind it with our photos and send it to China!! We can't wait to hear that we have our Log In Date (LID) -- that China has received it. (:

A Scare

I got a call last night from Carol (a wonderful carrier in Washington DC that helps adoptive families) that all of our paper work that we've sent to Washington DC was on a FedEx truck that wrecked and rolled over in Memphis, TN. She was even told it would be another 2-3 days before the packages would be sorted and sent. I was sick, sick to hear this and we didn't sleep last night... I worried that maybe all of our hard work over the past few months could be gone. BUT this morning we did find out that everything got there in one piece, somehow. We are reminded again, that we have no control in this world. Just another praise to God that our papers made it there. So crazy, huh?

Papers to Washington DC

On Friday, we went to the Secretary of State and got everything certified from Georgia... we have been waiting on our last piece from Oregon's Secretary of State and WE GOT IT on Monday!! So now we've packaged up and shipped them off to get authenticated by the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. We should have them all back a week from today, Tuesday October 25th and be able to take them to our agency. IN ONE WEEK OUR DOSSIER WILL BE COMPLETED! From there, our agency will review everything and make sure we crossed every T and dotted every I correctly, translate it into Mandarin and send it to CHINA!! Once it is in China our time starts ticking down to get our Travel Arrangements to fly to meet our darling baby Mae.

HiLo Chair

We got Maebelle's little highchair/booster seat. This is the coolest little invention because it is designed for 6 months to 6 years old... The highchair flips over and on the other side is a seat the perfect height to fit under our table. It is so GREAT to see her little highchair in the corner of our kitchen. Can't wait for our sweet girl to fill it!

God has BIG plans

Yesterday was a very hard day for Cody and me... we sold our beloved letterpress shop. Those of you that know us understand that we have poured so much love into our little business and know how upsetting yesterday was. We know that this decision was what we had to do... we can not keep operating our print shop, knowing that the time we spend there would be time away from Mae. I never thought my heart would change to understand this kind of love and sacrifice... but I am glad that it has.

We planned to have a date night last night, to distract us from the bad day and be together. Cody got home from moving the presses out at about 5:00 and jumped in the shower. I heard our mailman so I went to get the mail... (which was extremely late) and I tore up the stairs yelling for Cody. We GOT OUR I-797! We GOT OUR I-797! (This is referred to as the "Golden Ticket"... it is approval from the United States to adopt a child from China.) Let me be frank, this was not a coincidence. This was a gift from our Father... HE delivered this message that HE has this all in HIS hands. HE HAS A PLAN - AND WHAT A BIG ONE IT IS! Our I-797 is said to take up to 90 days and we received ours in 40 days... on this bad day, our Father wanted to show us HE cared. Our day doesn't seem so bad anymore. (: CELEBRATE!