DTC!!

YEAH! We are DTC!! What does that mean? It means our complete dossier, all the paperwork needed for China, has been sent to China, thus Dossier To China on Friday February 26, 2010. My goal was to have this new dossier done in one month, and we did it!! This was only possible because we were able to use our home study and I171H from our original dossier. Now they will Log us in and we will WAIT some more until they get to our file.

The Dossier!

On Monday, I received my dossier completely authenticated and ready for China! How exciting to be soo close to sending this all to China. Everything is so stressful in this paperwork process and so I have to tell me funny story. I made copies of everything in the dossier and headed to the fedex drop just minutes before the last pick up of the day. And of course, they were out of the plastic protector for the airbill. Luckily, the fedex guy pulled up as I was standing there. I asked him if he had more in his truck and he said he did. I expected he would go get them right? No, he took my airbill, marked on it and laid it on top of my package containing all my life papers and a month of sweat and tears and checks. Then He continued to open the fedex box to pull out all the other packages!! What! This guy is lucky he is still alive! I just stood there in panic mood...what if he loses the airbill, there is no way to know who the package belongs to! It could fall off, blow away, or he could just forget to do it!! I finally spoke up and kindly explained that this package was for an adoption and my life was in there and it could not get lost!! He responded with a smile and said that he will take care of it! I mean seriously guy, your lucky I didn't grab you by the collar and march you to your truck so I could see you affix my airbill!! So I trusted him; I told myself that many of these packages are very important documents and he'll do his job. I went back to my van and drove off. Of course, I woke up at 3 AM worrying about my package and mad at myself for not demanding that I see him affix my airbill. Finally at 3:30 AM I remembered I could look up the track number...it was there and half way across the US on it's way to my agency! Thank you fedex guy for doing your job, I am truly grateful and really didn't want to have to hunt you down:) And Thank you Jesus for watching over this whole process!

Happy Birthday Kelina!

Happy Birthday Kelina! We love you so much and wish so much that we could have been with you this day! Soon we will be together to celebrate your birthdays. We hope your day was special. Daddy, Mommy and your brothers and sister celebrated "with you". We ate our favorite chinese meal and sang "Happy Birthday" to you!

Foster Care Angel!

God is so Good! Kelina has been in foster care since 2007. We found out that the foster care program's funding and training is provided through donations given to Grace and Hope for Children, a christian organization who's goal is to provide foster care for orphans in China with the hope of spreading Jesus' love. People choose a child to sponsor. Kelina has an angel out there who choose to sponsor her so that she could have a foster family, that she could have the benefits of being in a family vs. an orphanage, and that she could be prepared to be adopted. We are so grateful for this individual and for God using them in our daughter's life! We can't express in words how much this means to us! God has always been watching over Kelina and providing all she needs until our paths come together. The sponsor has received updates about Kelina for the last two years and we will receive them when we go to China (part of her life for us to fill in). We may have contact with the sponsor at that time if they so choose. Eternally grateful to them!
Please check out Grace and Hope For Children website a http//:www.grace-hope.org. If you would prayerfully consider, there are so many chidren still waiting to be sponsored. Kelina's orphanage is Guangxi: Guilin.

Authentication

What a difference a week makes! We found out this week that the two documents are acceptable and we are on to the next step...driving to Harrisburg for notary verification and then to the Chinese Embassy in DC for Authentication of the documents. Thank you LORD!
Unfortunatey..we are snowed in!! My trip to Harrisburg was delayed on Monday because of the Blizzard of 2010! The storm dumped 2 feet of snow. Then two days later it snowed another 8 inches. It is still snowing. I was planning on driving this coming Monday...but another storm is coming!
Matt graciously took a day off work and drove to Harrisburg on Friday (yesterday). He left at 8:30 and had the verification done by Noon and back home by 5:30. Copies made then FedExed over night to a courier in DC. Hopefully the documents will be back in our hands by Feb. 23 then they will be sent to CHINA!
Matt enjoyed his trip to Harrisburg. The idea of being alone for a 9 hours drive with a supply of Pepsi thrills him...although he did wish he was on his motorcycle in 70 degree weather! At the State Department, There were 3 other families there getting their adoption papers ready for Russia, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam. Some were veteran adoptive families others were new to adopting. Matt said they all shared pictures of their children and shared stories of the process! What fun! How amazing that so many families are choosing to adopt!!
The surprise of the trip was Matt had bonding time with LiNa. His heart of service connected him with his daughter across the World. This trip brought her closer to coming home to her new daddy.

Kelina's Scrapblog

Hiccups

Friday was hard on me emotionally. Trying my best at getting all the paperwork ready to send to Chinese Consulate so we can eventually send everything to China. Our countdown doesn't start until our paperwork is logged in (LID)! We got word of a few hiccups in two documents...very discouraged and feeling let down by others. This is a crazy process preparing a new dossier and with soo many agencies and gov't organizations involved, I shouldn't be surprised! Pray that God would guide hands and move papers fast for us!

Kaylie's Kisses

Last week when Daddy was tucking Kaylie into bed, she said that since he couldn't kiss sissy Good Night, he could just say "Good Night, Sissy" and blow a kiss! And she did just that! How precious! She even pretended to hug the air...can't wait til we can actually wrap our arms around Kelina for real! The poor girl will probably be bruised from the amount of hugs she will get!