Where to begin

Well, first, I guess you should read "What's in a Name," that will give you some background, and then I'll give you the cliff-note version of what's happened since. As you can see, we started thinking about adoption in 2005. We began the paperwork in February 2006. Our paperwork was finished sometime in late December 2005 (Sara Kate's sickness was a factor in the timing.) It was then sent to China on January 5, 2007. Our paperwork was officially received and 'logged in' with China's Center for Adoption Affairs on February 9th, 2007. That date, applicably so, is called our Log In Date or (LID). It is from that date, that the waiting actually starts calculating. Right now, the wait time from LID to referral is 24 months. If you're doing the math, we have at least one more year, and that is IF the wait does not continue to increase. I must note, that when we started this process the wait time from LID to referral was 8-10 months. So, as you can see, I fully expected to have our youngest daughter by now.

Because the wait has been so long, the documents in our dossier (documents that make up a biography of you...birth certificate, marriage certificate, financials, medicals, yada, yada, yada) are beginning to expire. So, right now, we are in the middle of getting our home study updated.

This week, we have had our septic tank inspected (poor guy), our bodies examined (poor doctor), and we're having our fingerprints retaken and resubmitted to the FBI tomorrow (it's funny, aren't they smart enough to know that your fingerprint doesn't change.....anyhoo). We still need to get a letter from Brad's employer and we still need to fill out the financials. Then our social worker will come to our house and visit with us; and hopefully, once again we'll get the GO ahead. After that, we'll submit a request for an extension for our other immigration fingerprints or CIS approval, so that we don't have to pay for them to be done a second time. We still have to do them a second time, but won't have to pay again. After all that gets done, we get to wait some more.

If you haven't noticed, I'm a little grouchy about the whole thing. It is a tad bit aggravating to re-do everything you've already done (correctly I might add) and paid for; but it is part of the process. And, we do what it takes to bring our baby home. I think the hard part for me is knowing that there is a fairly strong possibility that we'll have to do all of this (redo) again a year from now, because we may still be waiting. Re-do a re-do (there may be something spiritual in there). Anyway, If you're real perceptive you just noticed a prayer request, if not, I'll spell it out for you.....PLEASE PRAY FOR US! I need a super amount of patience and perseverance, and if God would choose to speed this up a bit I would be forever grateful.

Until she's home........