Dossier -Done!!!!

I have a huge "praise report" to share with you --  our dossier was complete as of yesterday and off to our agency for final review!!  This is such a huge blessing.
For those of you that have not yet traveled this roller-coaster ride of adoption, please allow me to explain the reason behind my excitement ---  Since September we have been working hard at completing our homestudy (which included interviews, inspections by our social worker, the fire department, and the sanitary department; reports of everything about us - from Molly, our dog, to our fiances, birth certificates, letters of reference, fingerprints, police reports, FBI clearances, on and on and on!)  And then we needed to wait for US Immigration approval to adopt a child from Ch*na.  Soooooo we have spent the last 5 1/2 months working hard at compiling this treasure, our dossier --- proof that we are capable and safe to adopt a child.  Just as a side note, if we were not crazy before we started this process, we might be after we are complete! Just kidding!   So then as I have stated in earlier posts, each document needs to be "sealed" or certified and authenticated by the US State Dept and Ch*nese Embassy before it arrives in Ch*na.
  While we were waiting for our homestudy to be finalized and for our Immigration approval, I had sent over all of our other documents that were sealed along with our family pictures to our agency.  So all I had to do was to complete the steps with our homestudy and I-797 (Immigration approval).  Needless to say, I was a little nervous yesterday -- (if you haven't read the story of why I was nervous, check out my previous post "trust".  It explains my previous encounter with this "process".)
    The first HUGE praise report is to give God the glory for His timing.  He called us to Ellie and this adoption right now, right here, in Maryland.  That being said there are HUGE advantages to living this close to DC.  Normally, families have to travel long distances or pay large amounts of money to have couriers complete their "sealing" for them.  But I have been able to do everything myself and within close distances. Thank you God!
     Since our homestudy was notarized by a civilian (and not the military jag) I needed to go to Annapolis to have it certified by the clerk of court, and then by the MD Secretary of State.  I was overjoyed on the day it was finalized.  So Thomas and I drove to Baltimore and then to Annapolis to have the first three steps done for this document.  Then I put it to the side while we waited for our I-797.  It arrived in the mail Tuesday afternoon (only 36days since I put our application in the mail)!!!  Happily I went to the base on Wednesday and had a military notary put their stamp on the copy of our I-797.  We were done at 10:30 and I thought briefly about going to the State Department.  But flashbacks came rushing back of the anxiety of trying to be there before it closed at 11:00- NO way! So yesterday morning, Thomas and I headed over to Washington DC to the US State Department....praying along the way.  It was a breeze, praise God! Then we went to the Ch*nese Embassy.  It was a breeze, praise God!  The lady told me that the documents could be ready by 2:30 -What?!!? - praise God!!  I was so excited!  After hearing this great news, Thomas and I needed something to do for 3 hours.  It was a gorgeous day yesterday - a taste of Spring! So we decided to take a walk and check out the area.  Just three blocks away in the middle of this busy city was an amazing playground, complete with a sandbox and a huge messy, mud puddle!  Thomas LOVED it!  Again, praise God!  As I sat there and watched my beautiful boy playing, I awed at the graces and blessings the Lord has poured over us, not only with this adoption process, but in our entire life.  God IS so good.
       We had so much fun at the park and even made some new friends, praise God! Hello Sarah!  When we were finished playing and having lunch, it was time to go back to the Embassy and pick up our paperwork.  No problems there, praise God!  Then I had noticed a Fedex office right across the street from the playground. So we quickly headed over there after leaving the Embassy and sent off the remainder of our documents to our agency.

All of our dossier documents and pictures (minus our homestudy and I-797)

       Can you believe it?  We are half way there, now.  After our homestudy taking forever... I thought that we would not be able to get our dossier to Ch*na until the middle of April.  Now I have just sent everything off on the first day of March, praise God!!!!
      Now what?  Well now, our agency will review the last bit of our documents, then translate them.  They will send our completed dossier to Ch*na.  Then we wait for our family to be "logged in".  This is when the Ch*nese Children Welfare Department registers our family to be able to adopt a child from Ch*na.  Since we are already pre-approved to adopt Ellie, we will not have to wait for a referral.  With other familes, after being logged in or having their LID, this is when they would wait for a referral of a child.  So after we have our LID, we have to wait for our LOA.  (I know, love the acronyms. What can I say I'm a nurse married to a military man, I'm used to it!)  The LOA is our official approval to adopt Ellie... this will be a very happy day!
      How much longer?  Well still only God knows this answer.  Every step is an unpredictable amount of wait time... sometimes two weeks, sometimes 4 months!  So we are still expecting to travel in September/October.  But with God, ALL things are possible.  He knows my heart's desire is to be with our daughter as soon as we can.  So now we continue to trust in His timing and praise Him for His graces!  Thank you, my Father God, for taking care of us and loving us so much.

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever."          Psalm 136:1