I dream to hold you in my arms

I'm praying and hoping that we are now under the 4 week mark in waiting on our Immigration approval - the last big step before our dossier can be sent to China. Canaan is so sweet and talks so often about his baby sister. Whenever he draws something (or even when he made a little boat the other day out of some foam blocks), it's ALWAYS for her.

We're on our way to you, little one, and we love you so much. That's part of the miracle of adoption - how much you can truly, deeply, love someone you have never laid eyes on. I dream of holding you, comforting you, being you Momma. In my heart you are already ours - we just have to find you!

In My Arms
(Jon Foreman)

Here, my dear
This is where
We'll shake the nightmare free

I dream to hold you in my arms
I dream to hold you in my arms
To hold you in my arms
Wide awake in my arms

I think I figured it out
We need to be together
Like the shore and the sea

We are not one thing
We're drawn here together
My ocean and me

I dream to hold you in my arms
I dream to hold you in my arms
To hold you in my arms
Wide awake in my arms

Love, we sleep apart
For the last time
For the last time

I dream to hold you in my arms
I dream to hold you in my arms
To hold you in my arms
Wide awake in my arms  

 

More About New Day

I should be sleeping, but instead I'm sobbing watching this. It's just so beautiful what New Day Foster Home is doing in China. The video is a little long, but SO worth watching.

The New Day Story from New Day Foster Home on Vimeo.

No Mistakes!

It feels like a complete miracle to hear back today that our dossier has been reviewed and they found no mistakes, nothing to redo, no "i" undotted! With such a large stack of papers that all needs to be done in a very precise way, this is SO wonderful to hear! We are really all ready now to be DTC (Dossier to China) - we just need that one last piece of paper. Just one more month to go until it's in our hands (we hope)!

YEAAA!!!!! :)

Dossier Recieved

I'm not gonna lie - I lost some sleep in the middle of the past few nights thinking of all the horrible things that could happen to our dossier on it's way to the west coast. But now, it is safely in the hands of Holt. :)

Sighing big sighs of relief over here.

Trusting God with each step, every day, is an ongoing process.

Getting ready to send out our dossier!

Parts of our dossier! I love the fancy seals. They make me happy. :)

Bye Bye Dossier!

Today we sent out 99% of our dossier to our agency! We just have our (notarized, certified and authenticated) I-800 approval to be totally done. But in the meantime Holt is going to review everything else for us. It was a scary, weird feeling putting this precious stack of paper out by UPS that is the fruit of seven months of work and what will be in the hands of adoption officials in China. Praying its trip to Oregon goes smoothly!!!

"Find Me"

I have never been a person who cries easily, but oh how adoption has changed that. My eyes have been opened to this heartbreaking and yet beautiful world and I am already forever changed through this process. You can support the efforts to complete this movie, "Find Me", here.

Yep, In Love Again...

Little Miss Sally is pretty stinkin' adorable (read more about her here). Little ones like her have helped us open our hearts to the idea of more special needs. Because really, wouldn't you say yes to her if asked? Uh, yep. In a heartbeat!

Sally is one of so many precious little ones being care for by an American/Chinese foster home in China. I love reading the foster home's blog - it's so clear that the children in their care are so dearly loved. I'm praying that our little girl is being loved as much as Sally and her friends at New Day!

Waiting on 797!

Homestudy approval.... check!
i800 sent out & recieved.... check!
Fingerprinting downtown. for both BJ & I.. check!

USCIS Buliding where we went for fingerprinting last week

And now we just wait to be assigned a USCIS officer, which I'm expecting will happen about a month from now (or a little later). The good news is that once we have an officer we should have our approval in a day or two. I'm thrilled because it seems like this part of the process is going quickly enough that I don't expect we'll have issues with our medical paperwork expiring.

BJ asked me the other day why I haven't blogged in a while, and what it comes down to is that this part isn't all that exciting! But, for our little one who might be interested in these details, I'll keep writing!

The bottom line is, that we are getting SO close to the next major step in this process, which is being DTC (Dossier to China)! Then we have to wait for our dossier (the collection of documents needed to adopt) to be "logged in" in China, which could take another month wait. THEN... the wait to be matched really begins. That wait could take up to eight months (putting us matched anywhere from October 2013 to May 2014). Of course I want for us to be matched quickly! But I know that God has one little one in mind for us, and that HIS timing is perfect to make it possible for us to find her.