An overdue update

So sorry dear friends. It's been too long. We have made some much needed and wanted progress on the adoption front and wanted to share it with you. We are officially signed with a placing agency. All dossier documents (and our first big fee) have been sent to them. ALL except the photos. I hear it's actually common that families leave this step for last. It's something of a phenomenon if you ask me. I mean... why??? Is it some kind of pressure to have the perfect pictures that depict your family? Which ones do you choose? (I figure if one of us were a photographer, we'd have great shots to send. I can't - for the life of me - get good angles of the girls' room.) Anyway, we had to meet one more time per my placing agency's rules. After a few tweaks here and there it is finally off for review. Then it goes to our agency for final approval.  Once we get the ok, we will send in another fee for them to get our dossier docs authenticated and prepared to be sent to Ch!na!!!! Before it is sent, however, we need to send in our i800A application to USCIS. This is an application to Homeland Security requesting approval to adopt one or two non-specific children from a Hague Convention country.Getting i800a approval is usually between 35-75 days (45-50 is average). This is when we have to go in for the fingerprinting appointment (in our case, in the embassy in Abu Dhab! or Duba!.  Once we get approval and all that happens, we will be officially DTC which means Dossier to Ch!na.  Once it arrives there, the dossier will get reviewed, translated, then probably reviewed again. Finally, we will have an official LID (Log In Date). This is the route we're taking, choosing to be LID first before having files offered to us for review. For a few reasons. One being that I know it would be too hard for me to be pre-matched with a child and then having to take all these steps (and extra months) before getting to said child. It is torture for me enough to wait the 4-6 months after being matched to travel. We'll see what happens. But, just wanted for everyone to know that this ball is rolling! We're happy, excited, relieved, anxious. All of it. The crib is in the room already. I've been collecting little things for mei-mei (little sister in Ch!nese). I saved many of Mila's things. It's hard to know what to keep since we are not matched yet and don't know age, sizes, etc... 

Ciao for now. I'll update as soon as anything happens. 

xoxo


If you want to understand all of this better, check this out:

http://waitingchildinfo.com/acronyms-steps-and-timeline/

Love

This is what love does…

Remember my little love Tommy?

Because of love, I advocated for him.
Because of love, we connected.
Because of love, he was chosen.
Because of love, we are friends.
Because of love, we will be…

…Always in each other’s lives.

This is my boy’s mommy. Isn’t she beautiful?

And his sisters? Oh my! Adorable. He has four of them.
The baby is from Chin@ also and happens to look a lot like him.
Daddy is so handsome. What a beautiful family our little boy has.
His family gave him the name Samuel. It suits him, don’t you think?
And his family is working so hard to bring him home to the States.

This is their blog.
May Blessings Flow

Go ahead and click on it. Check it out.
Please consider participating in their giveaway for a chance to win an iPad or a Galaxy Tablet.

Because of love
We can help bring Samuel home.

Thank you.

Just a quick post.  We are so grateful to those who shared with us. We had our first donation within hours of posting our link. I was moved to tears! Thank you. We had very generous donations, we are just in awe. I know that not everyone can contribute monetarily, but just your support, kind words, love, friendship... it makes a world of a difference and we appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts.
We can't wait for progress. Can we fast forward a few months? :) Mila talks about her sister all the time now. I guess she changed her mind because a little while ago she wanted a brother. She says she has many girly things to share with her sister and not a lot of boy things. Another thing that she worries about is that she doesn't "want to have to buy another bed for a brother." She can just share hers with her sister. I explain to her that her sister or brother will have their own bed regardless. But she refuses. She wants to sleep with her sister. Okay, baby girl. No problem. :)

She "tidied" the bed all by herself.