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!