Paper, Paper and More Paper

I am not one to keep a lot of clutter or lose papers around, so you can imagine when you have to collect piles and piles of papers to bring your kiddos home it can be a bit of a challenge. I just keep reminding myself that the various piles and file folders everywhere are well worth the minor inconvenience to this Type A type of gal! AJ and I are currently finishing up the paperwork required for our Dossier.  What is a dossier you may ask? A dossier is a term that refers to a set of appropriately authenticated and translated legal documents which are used in international adoption cases to process the adoption of a child in its own country by the adoptive parents, or for the adoptive parents to obtain the legal custody or guardianship of the child in the foreign court, so the child can be brought by the adoptive parents to the United States for adoption...WEW!  Yeah that's how AJ and I feel right about now!  We have been compiling, ordering, filling out and notarizing paperwork since June!  It's not that it is hard, but it's time consuming and needs to be done right, else you do it again.

Right now we are waiting on certified copies of birth and marriage certificates and reference letters. We also need to fill out an application form for The Waiting Child Program and also our I800A application once our homestudy report is finalized.  Once we are at that point, we have to start getting our paperwork authenticated by the State and then by the Chinese Embassy in NYC.  Once I start talking about this part, I start to feel a overwhelmed because everything needs to be done right and done quickly because our documents are time sensitive. It is then sent to China. When our dossier is approved we wait (big surprise) for our LID (log in date) and begin another period of waiting for a referral. Once we accept a referral, we wait (I am a pro at this now) for our LOA (letter of acceptance) and our travel dates.  We don't really know the time line of how long it will take to get a referral, it's based on what we requested and the matching of that child(ren).  We are hoping to adopt siblings/twins and the age range we requested is between 6-18 months. We emphasized in our paperwork that we would like them to be as young as possible. We know God has the right kiddos for us, so we are not really stressing over age ranges too much.  

our file full of notarized documents

all our document for the dossier

I know so many of you have questions or have asked about time frames, ages, boy/girl and such. I wish we were able to answer with more definitiveness, but in the world of adoption it is not so. Believe me, I would LOVE to know what we are having and their ages so I can go out and buy clothes, toys and finish our nursery---this is one of the hardest parts. Knowing you're having children, but not knowing when, how old, or boys/girls is so difficult...but I am used to waiting, so....I shall wait (and then go on a MEGA shopping spree the moment we accept our referral -sorry AJ)!  

So that is a little bit of catch up with where we are at in the process. We ask you continue to keep us in your prayers as everyday we get closer to our Gotchya Day!  

God is good and we are blessed!

 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain

1 Corinthians 15:58