DTC!!!

As of April 15, 2011 we are DTC.  This means dossier to China.  All the documents we have been collecting over the last 5 months:  Financial, medical, immigration, home study, employment etc. have been put in the mail to China.  This seems like the biggest step.  Now we wait for word from China that they have approved us and issued travel arrangements.  Looking at other's timelines it looks like we will have Claire home sometime in September.

I feel like I want to start packing right now!!!

Disappointed!

My goal was to have our dossier(all the documents we've been accumulating over the last 4 months) sent to China yesterday.  Well, we weren't able to make that happen.  I should know by now that one should never set an actual date, because invariably something will go wrong.

For us it turned out to be a multitude of things.  I found out that two of our documents were not completed correctly.  One was a document outlining Kevin's income.  Found out that best practice is to have a CPA do it.  Fortunately our CPA was Peter on the spot and got that done for us very quickly.  The other was that our application letter didn't specifically name Claire.  I had used a sample and didn't realize that we were supposed to include her name.  Those two documents now have to go through the certification and authentication process.  That means they have to go to Olympia and San Francisco before we can send them to our agency.

In addition, it turns out that our social worker didn't complete a bunch of inter-agency paperwork that she was required to complete.  Our agency will not send our dossier to China without the paperwork in hand.  There was a late afternoon round of emails between me and the social worker's agency about what needs to be filled out and who needs to to fill it out.  I was frustrated and frankly, angry because I felt like they were telling me that they didn't normally fill this paperwork out and so it sounded like they wouldn't.  Fortunately, I misunderstood and the meaning was that the social worker has to fill it out, not the agency.  Now if only she would answer the emails!

Keep us in your prayers.  Hoping to get this all done in the next week or so!!

She knows!!

We jiust received an email from Angela in China with 4 pictures of Claire!  We are so thrilled.  The pictures are of her with the orphanage director and all the presents we sent for her birthday, two of her by herself and one with two nannys.  One of the presents we sent was a pillow with our pictures on it.  So she definitely knows about us.   I can only imagine what she must be thinking, other than "When will they come get me??"

It is a wonderful way to end our day.

One more exciting thing . . . .

I forgot to mention that we received Catherine's passport today!  Hopefully we will receive Luke's tomorrow.  Keeping my fingers crossed!!

I800A-Immigration Approval

We received our approval today from US Immigration.  This is super huge!  Now we just need 2, hopefully quick, approvals of that document and we will be able to send everything to China.  Once all the paperwork is logged in with China, it will be 4-6 months before we travel.

Everyone is so excited.  Even Luke jumped up from the table and did a little "Oh Yeah" dance when we gave the kids the news.

One step closer to bringing home our sweet Claire!!

Happy Birthday

Today is Claire's 8th birthday.  We have counted down the days and thought of her all day.  We said a special prayer and Catherine even sang.  We just wish she could have been with us to celebrate.  Next year, on this day, the sadness of separation will be a distant memory.

This day is also special because it was the birthday of my stepmother, Patsy.  She's been gone 6 years now.  When we learned that Claire's birthday was the same day, it was one of the coincidences that confirmed for us that she was meant for our family.  We don't know her yet, but I know that Patsy would have been thrilled that we are adding to our family and that she and Claire shared a birthday.

Today, they both are missed.

Every little thing is exciting . . . .

Friday, February 18, 2011 we took Catherine and Luke to passport services to apply for their passports.  When we left, Kevin and I were so excited.  We said "Yea!  Now we can go to Canada!"  Seems like such a small thing, applying for a passport, but it was another step in getting us closer to Claire.

On the downside, I emailed Immigration on Thursday to let them know that we had been printed so that they could work on our file now instead of waiting until the appointment date.  I received an email back thanking me, stating that our file had been noted but that they were currently working on files that were received by them in late December.  So looks like we have a bit of a wait . . . .at least 30 more days before we get their approval.

This approval is the last thing we need before we can send all of our documentation to China.  So now we are in hurry up and wait mode.