Wow, that was fast!!

I just got a call from Lauren at AWAA. She said she received our dossier this morning and everything looks good! We will be DTC on Thursday, July 2!!! I'm so excited that I think I might just cry again!!! Praying safe travels of all the dossiers going on Thursday and for FAST LIDs!!!

Success!!!

Well....after a VERY long day...I was able to get our I-797C authenticated!!! I got up at 4:15 this morning and left for the airport at 5:15. I then flew to Houston and was in my rental car by 8:15!! I arrived at the Chinese Consulate by 8:45 with help from the trusty GPS system I rented with the car. Praise God for that because little did I know it would come in MIGHTY handy later in the day. I stood in line until 9am when the doors opened. I think I was the 10th one in line. I turned in my papers to them and was told to come back at 2:30pm. It was only 9:15 when I left so I had some time to kill!! I decided to drive over to the Galleria and do some shopping. That place was too ritzy for my blood so I left and found a Barnes and Noble where I bought a book (The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom) and a nail place so I could get a pedicure and nails. It was so lovely. I was being so leisurely!! I ate a little lunch and talked to my sister on the phone where she informed me that when she did this same thing they told her to come back at 2:30 but she went early and they had it ready for her. Great idea, I thought! I'll mosey on over there after I eat and pick it up, go make copies, mail my dossier to AWAA, and make my way over to the airport and catch an early flight back. Ha. I got back to the Consulate at 2pm and walked in to a room full of people waiting for same day service. I walked up to the window and they told me to sit down and that it wasn't ready yet. "2:30!!", they said. So I sat down amongst all of these people and I asked the grumpy looking man how we were supposed to know when to approach the window. "I've been sitting here longer than you! You get up when I say you get up", he barked. Yowchy, dude. Anyhoo....2:30 rolls around. Nothing. 3:00...nothing. Mind you I still need to find a FED EX, make copies, turn in my rental car by 5pm, and catch a shuttle to the airport for my 6pm flight...in Houston traffic. 3:30...out of a room FULL of people waiting for their documents ONE lone piece of paper gets brought out. And it mine! I was humbled and joyful all at the same time! I jumped up and down, grabbed my paper and sped out the door to my car. The next little bit was CRAZY!!! I had printed off directions to a Fed ex before I left this morning. When I got there it was closed down!!! Praise God I had my cell phone and the GPS system. I got Sara on the phone and she helped me locate a Fed ex but it was sort of far from where I needed to be. I arrived there at 4:10 and had my dossier in the mail to AWAA by 4:15!! The poor lady who took it from me didn't know what to do with my tears and snot. I was very emotional about the whole thing. But it was short lived because I had to race back to the airport to turn in my car and catch a shuttle! I arrived at the car place at 5pm sharp and was through security by 5:20. I was so early that I was able to fly standby on a 5:30 flight. Wow! I'll say this...none of this could have been done with out the Lord. Occasionally through out the day He would show me the "sign" he likes to show me. When I would see it I would take a deep breath, tell Him I trusted him and this process, and continue on. He is so good to me that way!! Anyway, thank you for praying for me today! I got so many sweet messages that gave me such encouragement!! Once AWAA receives our dossier tomorrow I will get a call and they will let me know if everything looks good enough to send to China on Thursday. I'll let you know once I hear! Thank you, friends!!!

Our dossier...it may not look like much but IT IS!!! 4 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days worth of work. Which, by the way, is a miracle! Last time it took me 10 months!!


Before it left today for AWAA....be safe little box. Be safe.

Traveling to Houston

Ok, guys! I leave at 5 am to head to the airport for Houston. Will you say a little prayer real quick? That His will is done and that His name is glorified no matter what happens tomorrow!!! Also pray for me as I'm not real used to traveling by myself and finding my way around a city I'm unfamiliar with. It should be interesting and I hope to post once home tomorrow night. Thanks! Hopefully we'll be DTC this week!! Stay tuned....

Here is whats lovely....

Our certified I-797C just arrived back from Austin! It got there on Tuesday and it came back on Friday. I love fast service! This means that on Monday I am going to personally take it to Houston to have it authenticated and from there I will mail it to AWAA with the rest of my dossier for review. If its all in order they will mail it to China next Thursday! The only thing that could cause a snag in this little plan of mine is if Houston decides they won't do same day service. Our family coordinator said they took same day service away and then put it back in the last couple of weeks. Hopefully they won't change their mind! We'll see! I'll be sure to post when I get home on Monday evening to let you all know if its a go or not. Pray that it is!!! I can't believe we are almost done! Thank you, Lord, for opening doors for us!!

Oh there it is!!!

Whhhhoooooo Hhhooooo!!! Today in the mail our I-800a approval arrived. AKA: I-797C!! So off I go to the UPS store to have a copy of it notarized and then I'm overnighting it to Austin for certification. We're almost done, ya'll!!! And then the BIG wait begins...but I'm happy about starting that portion of it! Thank you, Lord!

Where is our I800a approval?

Really not much to say right now. Just waiting on our approval from the USCIS!! Where is it? Lets pray together, shall we? Pray it comes soon so we can be a step closer to getting our baby boy!! Who, by the way, is not such a baby. He's 2 and needs to be home with his family! Pllleeeaaasssseeee, USCIS. Could you hurry? Thanks.

Authenticated documents back!!

This morning my authenticated documents arrived on my doorstep at 8:30 am!! I was getting nervous because we are leaving for vacation and thought they might not get here until next week. But Praise God they arrived today! Last time when we authenticated our documents for Adiah's adoption there was a sheet of paper stapled to the top of our documents that was written in Chinese. That was the authentication part. Not this time. I thought they sent them all back to me without having done anything to them. I panicked for a short moment until I turned them over and saw a nice little sticker with Chinese writing and a seal. I guess that's how they do it now. Whew!!! Now all I'm waiting on is our I-800A approval and we're done!! Yeah!!

Fingerprint appointment complete!

This morning Brian and I went for our fingerprint appointment. We were supposed to be there at 9 but we got there early...I guess around 8:30 because we thought we'd need to stand in line. There were all of zero people there so there was no waiting involved! I got called back first and Brian got called back a couple of minutes later by a different guy. He was done way ahead of me because every time they did my prints on each finger it would come back denied. Talk about freaking me out! I've been making Brian put lotion on everyday because I heard that helps with fingerprints. When I finally finished Brian looked at me and said..."What? You didn't use enough lotion?!?". But all was great and we walked out of there at 8:55. I want to give a shout out to Essie, my fingerprint lady. She was so sweet and talked about what a blessing children are in our lives and how excited she was for us. Now we wait for our beloved approval from the USCIS! We'll be on vacation next week so I won't think about it for at least that long....maybe!