So close!!

Well, we are still in the paper chase, but so close to being done!  Our Dossier, which consists of 13 documents that have to be created and then certified by 5 different groups from Memphis up to the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. is almost complete!  We sent 12 of the 13 documents to our courier in D.C. last week to go to the U.S. State Department and then the Chinese Embassy for the final seals to complete the "sealing process" for each of those documents.

Drinking from my Washington D.C. Starbucks mug on the day Matt FedEx'ed our
Dossier documents to the US State Department and Chinese Embassy in Washington!

Now we only lack one document which is the I800A and basically is the United States Approval for us to adopt a child from outside of this country.  This required paperwork, money (of course!), a finger print appointment for Matt and I and now we are awaiting an approval.  I may or may not be calling almost every day to check and see if we have been approved yet.  Once we are approved and receive this document in the mail, we will complete the "sealing process" (notary, county clerk certification, TN Sec of State, US State Dept and Chinese Embassy approvals) for this document and then ALL OF OUR DOCUMENTS will go to our agency for review and translation and the SENT TO CHINA!!!  This is a huge deal and we will celebrate and you will know when this happens!

Our fabulous finger printer to the left and lovely manger who approved us to walk in for our appointment early.

We took our documents to Nashville for the Secretary of State sealing for our Documents a couple of weeks ago.  Matt wanted to make a fun day trip out of it, so he flew us there and back.  It was a fun little getaway for just the two of us. (And a good excuse for him to get some flying time in!)

Best lookin' pilot I ever did see!

It was a pretty early day and I was a little grumpy (Matt said my Kind bar I had for breakfast was not working ;) ) and tired.  I was driving to the airport to meet Matt after droping the girls off and thinking about how tired I was.  I realized that my lack of sleep was probably very similar to how it would be if our little one was home with us right now.  I don't know how old he or she is, but I'm guessing an infant currently and if home with us now I would be getting less than full nights of sleep most days anyways.

I also had a moment during lunch in Nashville when I was "starving" and looking for a place to find food.  As I thought about how hungry I was, the Lord said, "You think you're hungry, think of all the people around the world who feel like this every day all day and don't get to walk up to a Chick-fil-A and order food." WOW, that will get your attention quick and snap you back into a grateful mindset.  I have so many blessings in my life that I don't even realize what they are on a day to day basis.  Thank you Lord for a warm bed to sleep in and food on the table for my family and I each day.  Thank you for the opportunity for us to be able to bring another child into this blessed life you have graciously provided for us.  Help me to not take it for granted!

Our Adoption File Taylor named "JoJo" :)

We first met with Carole, from our Home Study agency to pick up our Home Study and have it notarized in Nashville.  We then headed over to the Secretary of State Office to have all of the douments sealed by their department.

Meeting Carole from Adoption Assistance to get our Home Study!

Getting closer every day!

We finished our paperwork and made it back to the airport ready to head home.  We were on time and things were looking good.  AND THEN, when looking through the documents we realized one of them was filled out incorrectly!  Holy Moly! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Check them before you leave? Yes, yes that would have made perfect sense.  In fact, my lovely hubby even mentioned something about that and I'm pretty sure I said something along the lines of "They are professionals babe.  They know what they are doing."  So rush, rush, rush back to downtown Nashville, into the building that requires security clearance and back up to retrieve the corrected document and back to the airport to head home to get the girls before the end of the day.  So much for laid back, huh?  Oh well, we got everything done in the end.  And apparently they mistook Matt and I for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (I mean we do look JUST like them) as we had a Cadillac pulled up planeside upon arrival to the airport and we pulled it right back up to the plane when we left.  Pretty fancy huh?

I mean, this is service!  Our rental car pulled up plane side ready to go!

Matt made me promise to put a picture of the plane's instrument panel in the blog post. ;)

In the meantime we will just wait for our government approval and apply for some adoption grants to help with the financial aspect of the adoption.  We are are looking forward to having some big steps completed soon to see months of hard work paid off.  Thank you for continuing to encourage and pray for our family!