Last one...

The last i has been dotted and the last t has been crossed.  The last piece of paperwork has been sent via FedEx so now we sit and wait.  It will be about 10-14 weeks before we get our travel approval, so now we sit and enjoy our precious picture.  We get to spend the next few months nesting and enjoying our family of 4 for the last little while.  We will send a care package next week that has a photo album of us and a disposable camera.  What a wonderful Christmas it will be this year when our family is complete!

Keeping my head above water!

At this point in the new phase of waiting I feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water.  The paperwork at this point is completely overwhelming.  I think it's because I'm updating some old paperwork (which has expired) with a new department which basically means starting over.  At the same time, we're doing all the paperwork needed for travel which includes lots of immigration stuff that has to per PER-FECT!  It's all completely worth it, worth it 1,000x's but I'm so ready to travel already!  A family in Europe that is adopting a child from the same orphanage left for China on Thursday and will have their daughter in their arms on Sunday.  I'm looking at 3 more months before we travel.  Some prayers for peace would be greatly appreciated!

Hurry up & wait...

Everyone has been asking if we have any adoption updates yet....well, no!  We are still in the process of updating some paperwork and all travel plans hinge on the completion and processing of this critical step.  We can't even begin to complete our travel step until our immigration paperwork is completed and our fingerprints are scheduled for Aug. 24th.  As many times as we've had fingerprints done I think we could do it ourselves & really,....do you think our fingerprints have changed in the past 18 months?  I know there is a reason for each step but this momma is ready to get her girl home!

Getting there....

I can't believe it's been a week today since I've seen the beautiful face of my girl!  I really can't believe I haven't posted anything on this blog since then...sorry for those of you checking in for an update.  It's been quite overwhelming with the paperwork that needs to be done and the time-frames in which it needs to be returned!  We also started school last week so I'm putting the teacher hat back on.  We're having some trouble here in our county between the School Board and County Commission and the beginning of school was actually cancelled until things could be worked out.  They are not sure when public school will begin, so it's been a nice relief to homeschool and already be 4 days into our school year.  I know we'll have some adjustments to make in our year because of our travel time to China, getting over jet lag and a new addition when we get home, so getting a head start on school is such a blessing (if you followed that last sentence, good for you).  It's been so fun to show everyone M3's picture.  Yes, we now have an M1, M2 and M3.  I know when they get older and I'm calling for one of them it will probably just sound like a roll-call until I get to the right one.  I think all parents are like that, though, regardless of if their children's names begin with the same letter or not.  My mom has been calling me my aunt's (her sister) name for years so I know it's inevitable.  I just can't wait to have all my M's under one roof!

Wow!

We're IN, we're IN, we're IN!  We received "the call" on Monday after a long and torturous weekend.  She will be 9 months old tomorrow and she's A-DOR-ABLE!!  Unfortunately, because of the 10,000 papers I've signed and updates that are still in route to various agencies I can't post a picture.  I'm really not sure WHEN I can post a picture, actually!  I've signed some privacy agreements that basically say I can't post her info. or picture on a social network (blog, FB, etc...) until our adoption is finalized.  It kills me to not have those big brown eyes showing for everyone to see, but it will be soon hopefully!  It took me several days to even get this written because there were obviously some people that I wanted to share this excitement with before I posted for the whole world to see!  Thank you all so much for being so kind and supportive of this journey.  We still have several months to wait before we travel so a new phase of waiting begins...but now I have a beautiful face to stare at so it's getting much easier!