Friends Support

I have gotten behind in documenting a few things.  I guess it has been a month now, but we shared with our Bible study class our plans to adopt.  I know that may sound weird to have waited, but I was so scared something would come back saying that we could not adopt.  I did not want to go through explaining this to everyone.  Anyway, my point is I received numerous emails after our announcement from our friends of their love, support, and prayers for us.  I wanted to say THANK YOU!  I will save those emails in order to one day share with our daughter.

Dossier Delivered to CCAA

I received an email Wednesday that our dossier has been delivered to CCAA (Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs).  So hopefully in the next 3 weeks, we will receive our LID.    I know much of what I have written about thus far has been documenting the compilation of our dossier.  Thankfully this process has ended.  I will begin writing about life events, how we are preparing, and letters to our daughter.  If you would like to post a letter to our daughter, I can give you an email address.  What is typed in the body of the email will show as a post to the blog.  What is typed in the subject line will show as the title of the post.

Dossier to China

Our dossier was received by the Colorado office 5/18/10. The Colorado office translates it to Chinese. I received an email yesterday that our dossier was sent to China. Hooray!

The CCAA will receive our dossier in approximately 3-5 days. We will receive an email when it has been hand-delivered to CCAA.

The CCAA usually logs in dossiers within 4 weeks of their receipt. We should receive our LID within the next eight weeks.

Dossier Sent to Colorado

I received a call from Jaime today that our dossier looked great.  She has FedEx it to Colorado today.  They will translate it to Chinese and mail to China.  Hurray!  I am so excited that I did everything correctly.  Everything is so precise and has to be stapled in a specific order.  I worry that I had missed up something, but it looked good.

To God be the Glory

It probably is no surprise that adoption is not cheap. When we started to embark on this process, Kevin and I came up with a schedule of how we were going to pay for the expenses to get our dossier to China. This is not all that we will have to pay, but it is about half of the total cost. We had been saving for three years to put a good down payment on a new house. So the plan was to use that money to cover the costs that would now be due and start saving all over again for the new house.

All I can say is that when you follow God, He will always provide. Today, I am writing the last checks until we receive our referral. So far, we have not had to take one dollar out of savings. We have also still been able to put back our monthly amount to savings. I am an accountant and pretty good at math. There is no way mathematically this makes sense. To God be the Glory!

We are so very thankful for God's provision. I give this testimony because many may say we cannot afford to adopt.... but God can.

Documents Authenticated

Friday, we received the documents from Houston. We now have all our dossier documents.

It is ironic that today, Mother's Day, I spent making copies and getting our dossier put together. Although I am not a mother, I got to spend it working on bringing our future daughter home. I also got to help with baby dedication at church and see all the new babies. I think of the day when we get to show off our daughter. I know there will be many more difficult days ahead, but I start imagining what she will look like and how worth the wait she is. Then, it is hard not to be happy.

The next steps for us are as follows.

1. Critical review of our dossier.
2. Forward to Denver CCAI office for translation
3. Dossier bound and mailed to China
4. Receive our LID (Log-In Date)