Our Journey to Sophia Mei

Today marks a VERY exciting day in our process of adoption Sophia from China. We got the email from our agency that told us that they had finally gotten all of our paperwork and that we will be in the August 2006 batch of dossiers that are going to be sent to China. It seems that this paperchase would never end and it did! I just hope that the wait for Sophia goes as quickly. With the kids, it seems that life is busy and as a family we will be busy getting the baby's room ready and engaging in activities that will bring us closer to the culture that our new baby will bring into our family. I wonder what Sophia will look like and what her little personality will be. We talked and thought of the wonderful day that we get our referral and see our beautiful daughter. She could very well be born now. It is hard to say. A lot will depend on China and the time that it will take to process referrals. Right now the wait is at least 12 months. We are praying for the right time when the baby God hand picked for us is ready for us to bring her home. The wait, not matter how long is well worth the glory of spending our lives with this beautiful baby girl that we will call Sophie (short for Sophia). God is good. Today the excitement is that of the way I felt when the pregnancy test was positive for my children. We are officially "adoption pregnant"! :)

2nd trimester of adoption!

Today was a wonderful day in the process of bringing Sophia home! We have two remaining documents that needed authentications, and today we called Fed Ex, and they confirmed that both forms are to be to our Adoption Agency by Wednesday, July 25th. This means that as of tomorrow, Wednesday July 25th we are oficially DONE with the paperchase and now on to the 2nd phase of waiting to bring Sophia home! What a blessing! We could never have done this without the Lord and His hand on our lives. He is so good to us and merciful. It is exciting to know that He plans to grow our family through the miracle of adoption. We know that we have so much to thank and praise God for. Looks like we have gotten through the first trimester of adoption. Now we are feeling better and our energy is higher! Sophia, mommy and daddy can not wait to bring you home. We love you!

ADOPTION LINGO

Adoption glossary
Here you will find some adoption terms that are often used in the adoption community.

Dossier
This is a very large set of documents that the adoptive couple puts together requesting a child from China. The dossier includes a home study (written by a social worker), medical reports, marriage certificates, birth cirtificates, police clearances, employment verication letters, financial statement, FBI fingerprints, and numerous other documents and photos.

CCAA
The China Center of Adoption Affairs. This office is located in China, and is the place where our dossier was sent, logged-in, reviewed, and eventually where a match to our little girl will be made.

DTC
Dossier (documents) to China. This is the date that our dossier left the United States on its way to the CCAA in China.

LID
Log in Date. This is the actual date the the CCAA logged in our dossier. This is the date that the CCAA uses to eventually review dossiers, then match them with children. People with similar LIDs are grouped together for the review and matching processes.

Referral
This is the notification from the CCAA that they have matched us with a child. The referral usually includes the child's Chinese name, date of birth, weight, height, a medical report, photographs, and some notes about the child's disposition. Aside from actually travelling to China, the referral is the day that families most anticipate.

Our Journey to Sophia

MAILING LIKE A CRAZY MAMA
Today, oh what a day! We have been waiting on two forms to come back, one that is from Adam's employer to verify his employment. His company had it notarized incorrectly twice and this was the third letter that needed to be authenticated so we were really nervous. We sent this form off to Florida (all forms MUST be authenticated in the state that they origniated in) and got it back today. Our authentications are two step - the first step is to send the notarized copy to the state office and the second step is to send the form off to the Chinese Consulate. After getting the employee from back from the state, we quickly went to Fed Ex and sent the form to the Consulate. They will be authenticating the form and then sending it directly to Americans Adopting Orphans for our dossier. When we got home from mailing the letter, another Fed Ex envelope was at our door!!!!!!! We peeled the sticky tape off and found a priceless jewel - our last - our final - our beloved 171H form that had been authenticated at the state level and was also ready for the Consulate to authenticate!!! So today marks the start to the end. Rather today marks the start to the beginning. We can finally breathe a sigh of relief. We have completed victoriously, the paperchase and now we enter the extended wait for our precious girl. Thinking that she may be ready to be born, or actually born already is almost too awesome of a thought. It is interesting how our focus went from getting forms filled and filed to now the wait for our daughter that was meant to be in our family from the beginning of time. We feel so blessed that God planted this seed of adoption, because we now know and feel the void in our home that only our baby Sophie will fill. Looking at our family's picture last Christmas, we wonder when Sophie will be here to celebrate the magic with us!!!!

A poem for our girl:

We wait in silence to hear your sweet cry
We wait and wonder
We wait and seek the wisdom of others
We wait, knowing God has handpicked you for us
We wait, knowing by you, our family will be complete
We wait, knowing that a piece is missing and wanting you near
We wait, praying for God to protect you
We wait, asking the Lord to bring people to love you
We wait, and we miss you although we have never met you
We wait, as every second ticks by and the countdown begins
We wait and we love you and we ponder the day
that our wait will be no more and you, Sophia are in our arms.
We love you baby girl!

I could not have said it better

I read this today and it made me cry. It has the lovely words that truly show the beauty of adoption and the love that we have for our daughter.

LEGACY OF AN ADOPTED CHILD
Once there were two women, who never knew each other
One you do not remember, the other you call mother.
Two different lives, shaped to make yours one.
One became your guiding star; the other became your sun.
The first gave you life, and the second taught you to live in it.
The first gave you a need for love, and the second was there to give it.
One gave you a nationality; the other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent; the other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions; the other calmed your fears
One saw your first sweet smile; the other dried your tears.
One gave you up; it was all that she could do.
The other prayed for a child, and God led her straight to you.
And now you ask me, through your tears,
The age old question., through the years;
Heredity or environment - Which are you the product of?
Both, my darling, just two different kinds of love.
Author Unknown.

YIPPIE SKIPPIE!!!

Today we got back from yet another wonderful camping trip. The kids had so much fun and they loved playing in the ocean and exploring the light houses and hiking too. I have also really began to enjoy this camping bit and realize the the slow nature of camping forces me to relax and enjoy the kids. When we got home today I quickly looked at the mail (we have been waiting for that one last form....the 171H form). I have tried to be patient as this form can take 1-4 months, but as always, I kept thinking that one month sounded WONDERFUL!!! It was in actuality just a few days over one month from the filing date that we got this wonderful form in the mail. Right when we got home, I cruised to the notary and had the 171H form (this is a form that grants us permission to bring an orphaned child into the United States) notarized then went directly to the Fed Ex office to have it shipped overnight to Olympia and I will watch my front door day in and out until it comes back our way, THEN we send it to the Chinese Consulate to have its final authentication and then it's off to Americans Adopting Orphans to get sent as our Dossier to China!!!!!!! We can not wait.
We keep thinking of how much God has moved in our lives through this process of adoption. We feel more stongly now than ever that God is blessing us far beyong what we ever deemed possible by this sweet baby girl. We know that our little baby girl will know total and complete love in our home and that we will be the forever family that she needs and deserves.
It seems really funny these days, our children find all things that are made in China and get so excited, because they think it is so original that an item be made in th every country that their baby sister will (or has) been born in. I keep dreaming about our little missy and wonder what is going on in her little life. She is either in utero or born. I am praying that all of the people who love and care for our little girl will be a complete support to her and let her know how wonderfully special she is. I love her already. Now it is the waiting time. We are thrilled to be in this time period as it means that the paperchase is done and we are one step closer to our baby girl!!!