Paperwork, Paperwork, Paperwork

Ah yes that has been my hobby for the past 3+ months. It has not been constant but more like, do a little, wait for something, do a little more, wait some more.... But now FINALLY we have pushed through most of it and have sent it all off to where it needs to go. Unfortunately that is not to China yet.

First we received our approved home study and sent it off with a few other documents to Immigration in the US. This is so that they can approve us and approve a visa for Sophia to enter the country when it is time. That was sent of on 3/1 and on 3/8 we got an email saying that it was received and being sent to processing. Now we wait for our fingerprint appointment letter, and then try to get it moved up and once that is done we will get our approval letter that needs to be sent to China. Above is a picture of the documents that we sent off to immigration. It looks like just a pile of papers but it has been our life for the past three months. I hate it when you mail it off and they ask about having it insured. I want to say, $1,000,000 but since it is just paper, it is only worth the paper it is printed on!!!!!

TODAY was also a big day, I had our entire dossier(except the letter from immigration) sent off to our agency. With China they require an additional level of approvals at the country level from the Chinese embassy. I could have done this myself but once I figured the cost for authentication and couriers and stress, I decided that I would just pay my agency to do that part. So off it went today for them to get the authentication done. So now I am truly in a waiting state which is really great right now since the snow is melting and the weather is warming up and we have travel plans coming up too!

I guess the fun part of waiting now can start. Retail therapy some say but getting ready for her and buying pink is going to be so fun. We also found a really great program that we are hoping helps us learn enough chinese to communicate with her.

I wanted to end today with a prayer request for a beautiful little girl Emma. I met her and her mom & dad, Darla and Jeff, today. She is having some bad reactions to a surgery last week and she went in today for more surgery which will hopefully help her. Just pray for success, quick healing and strength for her parents. She is 5 and reminded me of Sophia, it just broke my heart to see her in so much pain. Please left her up in prayer.

I hopefully will be getting back with you soon on paperwork updates.