Documents are on their way to the consulate!

Whew! What a crazy few days it has been around here. Yesterday, Grammy and I went on a dolphin cruise with Anna's class field trip--which was great fun and we actually got to see lots of dolphins even as we chased a gaggle of 2nd graders around the boat. Afterwards, I spent a few hours scanning, copying, printing, and compiling all of our dossier paperwork to send it express mail to the Chinese consulate for the authentication step. I'm not sure how long it will take for the consulate to process the paperwork and send it back, but I'll be watching the mailbox again until it returns safely here!

Today, Tom was promoted to Lt. Colonel, so we attended his promotion ceremony at the Eglin Hospital this afternoon (Tom gave a very nice little speech and his commander had wonderful things to say about him), and we invited the Mignaccas and the Schaicks to join Tom's parents and us for a celebration dinner at Osaka Restaurant, a Japanese hibachi grill where the chefs entertain as they cook your dinner. What a special night to enjoy with friends and family and savor some really delicious food.

I've included some photos from the past few days' events--enjoy!

State Certification is Complete!

Last week, Tom and I visited our notary at the Eglin Hospital (I told her we'd have to name our baby Kim in her honor after all the time we put in!) and had all our dossier documents notarized. The timing couldn't hvae been better--Tom's folks arrived Thursday evening to spend a week with us and Tom had Friday off. So, he and I took off Friday to drive all the paperwork to Tallahassee for state certification. Then, as planned, we spent a lovely 2 nights together in a local resort to celebrate our anniversary while Grammy and Pop Pop stayed with the kids and the dog. We had a nice time away and they all seemed to enjoy their time together!

Now, the final step in getting the dossier ready for submission is authentication. Tuesday morning, i will express mail the entire package to the local Chinese consulate to accoplish this last step, before the dossier undergoes critical review with our agency and then is sent off to China. Slowly we are able to tick things off the list.

Our agency last Friday did present something for Tom and me to consider--would we maybe be willing to consider accepting a little boy instead of a girl? Hmmmm....something we were thankful to have a few days away to think, talk, and pray about. We are still sort of undecided and have some questions I need to ask our agency first thing Tuesday morning. After thinking about our new child as our "daughter" and our "little girl" since we began chasing paper last fall, it seems weird to now perhaps switch gears. But we are challenging our thinking and our assumptions because boy or girl, we don't want to miss any of the blessings God might have in store for us with this adoption. We will keep you posted!

I-171H Finally Came!!

Yesterday afternoon the mailbox finally contained our final piece of the dossier! I was thrilled. The next layer of the onion (I have come to think of this whole process as a giant onion with layer upon layer to be unpeeled one at a time) can now begin to unpeel. The flurry of activity that accompanies each layer of the onion is now beginning: today we hope to have everything notarized, tomorrow we hope to drive to Tallahassee to have it all certified by the Florida Secretary of State, and then we can express mail it all off to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for authentication. Then, finally, after a final critical review at CCAI (our adoption agency), the dossier will be sent to China. Then, beginning anew will be the waiting that follows the flurry of activity with each layer of the onion--this time the waiting to learn who our daughter is.

Tragic news also came yesterday--the 5-year-old daughter of Christian Singer/Songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman was killed yesterday in the family's driveway, struck accidentally by a car driven by her older brother who didn't see her. I do not obviously know this family personally, but this well-known family has 3 biological children and 3 children adopted from China and has done much to raise awareness of the need for families to love Chinese orphans through their organization, Shaohannah's Hope. Here is a link to a story on this tragedy, as well as links to their organization and Mary Beth Chapman's weblog.

http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/marybeth/

http://members.shaohannahshope.org/site/PageServer

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,357046,00.html

Finally, back to good news, Tom's parents are arriving either late this evening or tomorrow for about a week. We are so excited to see them! They are driving here from Missouri, where they attended our niece, Jollene's, college graduation. How exciting! They will stay with the kids while we take 2 nights away to celebrate our anniversary, and they will also be here next week when Tom pins on Lt. Colonel. How exciting!

OK, off to begin my flurry of activity with the dossier! Thanks for reading!

Another Week Has Passed...

...no I-171H yet. Life is full enough that I do not dwell on it, but each day's trip to the mailbox continues to begin with eager anticipation and end with a sense of emptiness and discouragement.

In the meantime, I watch the news of the earthquakes in China and pray for all the children in orphanages and schools who were injured or lost parents, for the parents who lost children, for the American families who might have already been matched with a Chinese orphan that was lost in the quake...it looks horrific in the photos and news stories.

And, as always, our family continues to live life fully...we spent the bulk of today at a swim meet in Pensacola called the "Pentathlon" where each swimmer could swim each stroke plus an IM. THe kids did well and it was a fun day. Here are some photos of recent happenings around here, just for fun.

Still Waiting...

...our fingerprints were taken on 24 April, 16 days ago, and we are still awaiting our I-171H from the USCIS. I had been hopeful we could have had it as early as a week ago today because our friends had theirs within 9 days of fingerprinting, but not us! It has been a daily letdown, going to the mailbox extectantly each day, and finding mainly junk mail (credit card applications, catalogs, sales flyers...you know the stuff). I am poised and ready to spring into action once that document is in my hands, and am prepared to make the 5-hour round-trip trek to Tallahassee to have our dossier documents Florida Secretary of State certified once we have them all and have them notarized.

But, until I have that last document in my hand, I simply have to wait. Of course, waiting doesn't involve inaction, since there is a never-ending list of things to be done in the course of normal daily living. But mentally, waiting involves an emotional and mental struggle to remain patient and faith-filled as I go about that endless list.

We're not alone in the wait. I am beginning to read some of the online forums for adoptive parents in the process, and am finding I need to not read so much of them as they only make me less patient.

Of course, our daughter is also doing some waiting of her own, waiting for her forever family. May the wait go quickly for us all!