WE GOT IT!!!!!

We finally got our two authenticated documents back from California!!!!!!!! It took CA closer to three weeks than two, but they are safely back and in our hands again!!!!! Thank you Lord! We are only waiting now for the home study to be reviewed and Cortney called me yesterday to inform us she had spoken to Jessa and the review would only take about 2 weeks now. Another, PRAISE THE LORD!!! As soon as it is completed we will need to get it authenticated and ALL of our documents are ready for the I-800A process. We are jumping for joy!!! The sooner the dossier is in China's hands the better.
Here is a peek at California's Authentication. They offset the documents just enough to add a pretty red stamp that joins the two documents together.

YAHOOOOO!!!!!

It has been pretty quiet around here regarding our adoption. We are still waiting for Mike's clearance from California and also for the two documents I sent to California for authentication to come back. However, yesterday our HOME STUDY was email to Great Wall China Adoption!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPY!!!!! Nora finished it yesterday morning and emailed both GWCA and Mike & I. We read it and there were only 2 minor things that we could see in our bio's that need to be corrected. Now, we wait again...Jessa (our dossier consultant) did send confirmation that she received it at GWCA and said it would take 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 weeks to be reviewed...*sigh* We knew that part would be long, so we are praying it doesn't have to go back and forth to many times. After the home study is finalized, we will send off the I-800A and....wait yet again. We still are doing really well considering we have only been at the paperwork part for 2 months now, so I really cannot complain. God has opened doors, given us money and topped it with a dose of patience. God is good!!! Thank you for you continued prayers for our family and Makayla.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Wishing you all a fabulous and blessed Easter!!! He has risen!!!




















We are hosting Easter this year, so I am about to get to work on preparing our lunch-dinner.

I had a moment to post and thought I better get completely caught up on Makayla's scrapbook:) Here is page 10!


















We are now almost finished filling out our I-800, so as soon as Nora has our Home Study finished we can file our document and be fingerprinted one more time.

Getting Caught Up!

Here is the layout I finished this morning of our Home Study Celebration Dinner:) We are now on page 11 of our Makayla Scrapbook.
Have a wonderful day and a Happy Easter tomorrow!

Home Study!!!

YAHOO!!! We have officially completed our home study meeting :) Nora was so sweet and the whole experience was fantastic! Our meeting started at 1:00 pm and we were finished by 4:30 pm. She told us that she should have our home study written up in about a week. We were shocked and thrilled at the time frame. When we were finished, we said our "Thank You" and "Good bye's" and rushed out the door to our favorite restaurant to CELEBRATE!!! If you are looking for a FABULOUS authentic Thai restaurant, you will not be disappointed with the Thai Kitchen!!!

Back In Our Hands:)

Our 9 of the 13 authenticated papers are in our hands now!!! Aren't they pretty :) I met Cortney yesterday for lunch and picked up our adoption papers :) YA YA YA She was relieved to not have responsibility for them any longer and I can't say I blame her one bit. I think it would be stressful to be carrying around someone's valuable documents too. We are so grateful to her and Sean for taking our paper with them for the authenticating process though. She took a couple of pictures too:) Thanks Cortney!!!

This is the gentleman who looked up all of our notaries, so we could have our documents authenticated by Sam Reed:)
The next step is Mikes 2 documents that have to be authenticated at the California Secretary of State. I will be sending those in the mail today. That will make a total of 11 of the 13 documents that we need to have authenticated!!! YAHOO!!! The process will take up to two weeks, so we will be praying for safe delivery and speedy return. That means less worry on my part for those documents.

Tomorrow is our Home Study!!!! We are all very nervous!!!! It will take Nora about 4 hours to complete the study and then we wait for her report. WHEW! After the report is compiled it will be sent to Great Wall for review and then it too can be authenticated. We will also be able at that point to file our I-800.

We are really cruising along here. Much faster than we anticipated. We feel so very blessed that our process is going so smoothly. Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers and encouragement, we appreciate each and every one of you!!! *HUGS*

Here are the before and after pictures of Makayla's room that I scrap-booked too.

TODAY!!!!

Our papers are being hand delivered to the Secretary of State of Washington to be AUTHENTICATED!!!! We are jumping up and down with excitement! Our friends were driving over to get their paperwork authenticated and offered to take ours too!!!! THANK YOU!!!

Other than that, it has been pretty quiet lately as we wait for our Home Study. Nora did send the paperwork to California for Mike's Child Abuse clearance.

After the Home study, we will be ready to have GWCA double check our documents and then we can file our I-800.

Yesterday, Missi and I decided it was time to paint Makayla's room. The room went from my blue office to "Ballerina" PINK! Her room is BEAUTIFUL! Mike even came home after work and painted her ceiling!! Our plan is to paint cherry blossoms along the top of the wall. The theme is "New Beginnings". This will be a New Beginning for all of us :)

Here is the room before...


















Missi and I working hard to cover the BLUE!!!


















BALLERINA pink!!!

Last Two!!!

Yahoo! We sent Nora our last two documents today for Mikes California Clearance. We also found out today that our WA child abuse clearances and Washington State Patrol clearances have already come in! Guess What??? We are clear!!! LOL Big surprise, hu? However, that was really fast! We are praying that the California clearance for Mike comes back quickly too:) Here are a couple of LO I have just completed. Have a great evening!

HALLELUJAH!!!!

Our List of Today's Blessings...

• Our coordinator met with me today to give me our last piece of notarized paper for Nora
• I met Nora, our Home Study Social Worker, for the first time
• I hand delivered our Biography and Mikes Physical to Nora
  
• Our meeting today counted as one of our four meetings
• Scheduled our home study for April 9th
• Drove away with the sun shining on my smiling face
• Our last piece of paperwork came today in the mail for our home study
• Our finger prints came back from the FBI and they PASSED
  

It was quite a busy day today, but it went so smoothly.
Thank you Lord for all your blessings today:)

It seems quiet...

...but it has NOT been! I hand delivered our home study packet to Nora's office today!!!! We are finished with almost everything she requested in the packet!!! The only thing left is Mikes employment verification and notarizing his physical. YIPPY!!!!!!

The next step in our process is to have our 8 documents authenticated by the Secretary of State here in Washington. That will happen over Spring break! The documents will be hand delivered for us by our friends and I know they will be in good hands!

We also SOLD our piano!!! Thank you Jesus! That was all we needed to be just under $1,000 shy of completing the financial obligations for the adoption-excluding the orphanage donation and travel expenses!!!! It is truly a GOD thing that everything we posted on Craig's List sold and funded the majority of our process!!!

Next for us is our BIG Yard Sale!!! I pray it will bring in a BIG chunk of change, as we are still in much need of finances for the next steps! Keep us in your prayers ;)

We are so grateful to our wonderful friends and family who have been so helpful! We LOVE you all:) You have given freely of your selves and your time. You have blessed all of us. Thank you from our hearts!

I have also read a few books that I highly recommend! Our coordinator let me borrow them and they were fantastic. The Waiting Child by Cindy Champnella and The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans. Another friend loaned me "Miracles of Marlee" by Shannon Turner and it was a great read too. I actually know her personally, which made it even more special.

Have a wonderful evening and I will update you soon:)

And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those
who love him, who have been
called according to his purpose.
~Romans 8:28

Good Morning!

This is a quick post today:)
Not much happening as we are still waiting for Mike's birth certificate and our youngest has her physical today. Mike and I will beginning the travel vaccinations Hep A & B series today, since they take a year to complete. Then all that is left is Mike's physical and we schedule with Nora for the home-study!!!!
I wanted to post the two layouts that I completed yesterday so you could see.
Have a GREAT day...the sun is shining here and I so thankful!

FANATICAL at Etsy!!!!!

As promised!!!! I finally have my store up and ready to go.
The name we chose was "FANATICAL".
My husband and I thought this was a PERFECT name for my store considering the reason I am starting it. By the dictionary definition "Fanatical" means ~ Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea!

We have started the process of a adopting a little girl from China. Our little girl has been tugging on our heart strings for many years. I love to make jewelry, so we thought what a great opportunity to make money for our adoption. All the money earned will go directly in to our adoption fund to bring our little girl home.

I hope you can stop by and take a look, you never know, maybe you will find just what you are looking for:) I will continue to add new items, so check back often.

The Mini store link will stay to the side of my blog in case you need to get there quick!

Have a blessed day!

They are FAST!

We already got the email this morning that GWCA received our fax and with in 5-7 days we would be given a Dossier Specialist. Then within a couple hours we were assigned a Dossier Specialist! They are fast!!!! YAHOOOOOO!!!!
Today we also got the call from our City Police Department that the Chief had signed our letters and we could go pick them up! Out the door we ran. LOL We got there and they had spelled my name wrong and Mike was referred to as a HER in the letter. LOL Not so funny though, because I had to tun around and go back to have Bobbie fix it. She was more than willing to help, but did have to call the Chief to come personally and sign again. He was so nice to do that for us! We got to thank him personally and all the girls in the office made us promise to bring Makayla in when we got her home. What a great little city we live in. Here is the picture of Bobbie handing us our paperwork at the Police Department. Until tomorrow...

This is the day...

This is the day that the Lord hath made, I will rejoice and be glad in it! This is the song that came to my mind this morning. God is so good!!!! Today we faxed in our Adoption Agreement at 12:29 to the Great Wall!!! YIPPY!!!!!!! We are so excited to finally officially begin! With this Agreement, we will be assigned a personal Dossier specialist to hold our hand through this paper chase. Although, Cortney, our local coordinator, has done an amazing job!!! Mike faxed the agreement to them from work and then I will mail the paper documents tomorrow. Here are a few pictures Missi took of us signing the agreement. Thank you Missi, you did a FANTASTIC job:) Have a super day everyone!

A Couple of Layouts:)

I wanted to share with you two of the layouts (LO) that I completed this weekend for Makayla's scrapbook. This is the only scrapbook I am actually caught up on! LOL I will try to update you more tomorrow. Have a super weekend and Enjoy!