Happy BIRTHDAY BABY!!

Our little girl celebrated her first birthday on December 23rd, we had sent her a care package and a birthday cake through a service in China.  We were hoping and praying for new updated photos and information about our precious daughter.  Instead we got word that she is in the hospital and could not receive her package.  We have a little bit of conflicting information as to why exactly she is in the hospital. We have peace that she is well of and we are fervently praying for her health and that she feels our love from the other side of the world. Please join us in praying for her.  We will hopefully have more information soon and some new photos too! 

DTC (Dossier to China)

As I type this my dossier is in the air, winging its way to China!!! DTC, Baby!

My kind of Beautiful...

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.... Well, it may not look like much to some, but this is as beautiful as it gets in this Momma's eyes. An entire authenticated at 3 different levels, fully ready to go to China -dossier!!! Now that's PUR-DEEEE! I made Mina hold it with me as I prayed that our paperwork would find it's way to China safe and sound and that this little stack of paper would move from desk to desk and room to room in China as quickly as possible, and all who touch it show favor to it and get us to China with record breaking speed. I feel a hundred pounds lighter knowing that our baby girl is not waiting for her Mommy to get her papers ready, Now we wait, and right now waiting feels good! Now ask me that question again next month and I will probably be done waiting... but for now all is well. 

Now can I have my baby sister?

A little bit closer....

Marc and I set our alarm for 4:00 a.m. and headed out for the 3 hour drive to the Secretary of States office to get our documents authenticated. (Thanks baby for taking the day off of work to accompany & appease your over anxious wife) It was a looooonnnngg day, and let's just say the workers at the Sec. of St. office were in no particular hurry to authenticate our documents.  It is their policy- if you get their before 10:00a.m. that they will get them back to you the same day, but we had to wait alllll day.  We did save about 4 days of our paperwork either on someone's desk or on a Fed-ex truck so it was worth it.  Mina was exhausted by the end of the day.   At this very moment our dossier paperwork is winging its way to D.C. for it's final stamp of approval before heading to China!!!  Head over to our family blog, here for a funny (at least I think so) story about our little road trip to the State Capitol!

My Outrageously Adorable "Helper"

The not so pretty side of the paperwork!

My 4 year old (soon to be 5) took this photo of me this morning, this is how the kids have been seeing me lately. At a table full of paperwork, unwashed hair in a ponytail, and sweatsuit to boot. It's like a new level of Mommy guilt. I hate that my dossier paperwork is in my hands. I feel like every day that I hold on to it is another day that our sweet girl waits for us. So to say I have be a bit neurotic is an understatement. We have our last homestudy visit tonight, and my SW Rocks! so we should have our completed homestudy in a matter of days. Other than that we are just waiting on Marc's physical on Monday and we will be DONE! Hopefully we can have all of our documents certified & authenticated and on their way to China well before Christmas. The flip side of the Mommy guilt is that the 4 kiddos have a very preoccupied Mommy this week, one who made up a game called "SQUIRREL" which is played by their pathetic Mother hiding a bag of (shelled)mixed nuts in the backyard so they can look for them easter egg style.  Did I mention that NONE of my kids watch TV, ever... so I do have some type of excuse for turning my children into scavengers...