{MIND-BOGGLING NEWS}

We have had so much to do since we locked Makayla's file on Friday (July 31st)!!! We had to send a letter of Intent (LOI), pictures and more paperwork to Stephanie at Great Wall China Adoption (GWCA) by Saturday evening!! After our LOI was checked by Stephanie, all those documents were sent to China on Sunday (August 2). Now, we wait for our Pre-Approval (PA) letter. That could take anywhere from 2-4 weeks. We are praying for it to go smoothly and that they accept our letter, so we can be matched with our little girl!!!
On Monday (August 3) all our Dossier documents came in the mail from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco!! I checked the date on the envelope of when they sent it back to us and it was the same day we said "YES" to our Makayla (July 31st)!!! That was no coincidence, but God at work with His master plan and another Red Thread!
We still had a couple things to complete with the Dossier back in our hands. We were going to have to move pretty FAST to get it all in the mail on the same day we got it back!!! We had to go make 2 copies of the entire Dossier, fill out the cover letters, passport photo's...etc!!! We ran out the door to Kinko's and it took us an hour to make all those copies. We then jump back in the car to head to the Post Office to mail the FINAL Dossier to GWCA. We made it with 15 minutes to spare before the Post Office closed for the day!!!! WHEW!!!
If our Dossier gets to them by today, August 5th (praying), Jessa will be able to review it. If everything look good then our Dossier will be mailed to CHINA this Friday (August 7th)!!!! That would mean that our LOI and our Dossier got to China in the same week! GW only mails the Dossiers to China on Friday's, so if there is any problem at all we will have to wait for the next Friday. We are praying hard for THIS Friday!!! Then, we wait again, but this time it is for our Log In Date (LID). When that happens, which could take up to 90 days, we can then be ready to travel to CHINA to get our little Makayla. We are hoping before the end of the year to travel.
Mike and I have been filling out grants like crazy to hopefully help us with a portion of the adoption expenses. We were not planning on going so soon, but very excited to be able to hold her in our arms!!!! Please continue to pray for us, so we can move quickly to bring Makayla home.

I think I have talked enough for one morning:) I hope you all have a blessed day and thank you for you prayers!

HUGS,
The Sweeneys

This was my favorite picture that Missi took of us making all the copies!!! He loves me ya ya ya:)

This is us right before running out the door of the copy center to mail the FINAL Dossier!!! Yes, it is in a plastic Ziploc bag, for protection. I guess more than one family has had their Dossier arrive and it had been dropped in a puddle or caught in a rain storm. All the documents were wet and the ink had ran all over!!