July 12,
2005
I’m very excited to be able to say that we are officially DTC.
This means our dossier has been sent to China by our adoption
agency, Great Wall China Adoption. We finally received our
approval from CIS, the coveted I171H form, on June 28. On
Wednesday, June 29, Rodney and I drove to Miami to get the I171H
and our home study certified by the Secretary of State then we
FedExed it off to a courier in Houston. Cindy, of MyChinadocs.com, took it to the Chinese Consulate on Thursday,
June 30th. Cindy picked up the documents on July 1st
and FedExed them to Pam Eidson of ABC Courier and Notary who was
doing our dossier. Pam received them on July 5th;
put the dossier together and FedExed the same day to Great
Wall. Our dossier was approved on Thursday, July 7th
and was sent to China on Friday, July 8th. Clear?!
It was a major feat to pull that off and be DTC so soon. We
couldn’t have done it without great people helping us out. Now
we wait for our referral, which will be a picture, name and
information about the beautiful little girl who awaits us in
China. I was told by our agency that our dossier should be
logged in by CCAA within two weeks. Our referral should come in
about 6 – 7 months. Hopefully it will be a holiday blessing.
Last week the boys and I went to Disney World. Rodney
wasn’t able to get off work, so he stayed home. We had fun, but
it’s always more fun when he’s with us. WDW is having The
Happiest Celebration on Earth so we saw the new attractions and
enjoyed ourselves. It was *very*
hot and reminded me of why we always go in the fall or winter.
Who needs the heat and crowds? We still managed to have fun,
though. We enjoyed everything. The boys enjoyed the China
pavilion at Epcot. It was their first time to see the film and
they thought it was cool to see places they will visit for real
soon. I will tell you that Emma Grace has some lovely little
Princess items to go in her room as well as a couple of
dresses. I also bought us some chopsticks. Hopefully we can
learn to use them before we go to China.
Now that we’re back, we’ll continue working on the house. We’ve
painted Chase’s room, the boys’ bath, the hallway, half bath and
the master bath. Next up will be Blake’s room, which will then
become Blake & Dylan’s room. It will be “The Iron Bowl”, half
Auburn…half Alabama. Chase’s room is a total rock ‘n roll room,
it’s really cool! We will paint our bedroom and then start
working on the nursery. I’m trying to get all of the painting
done before we start back to school in mid August. I can’t
stand to work with a mess in the house. We’re also going to
celebrate Blake’s 12th birthday this week. He wants
to go to the Melting Pot. Do you think he’s spoiled? Just
kidding, he just has good taste.
Chase starts band camp this Thursday with the new high school.
He will be doing that daily until August 10th when
school starts. Most days, they’ll be there from 8a – 6p. I’m
sure that’s going to be fun, right? Summer is starting to wind
down. I will be spending lots of time getting our books in
order so we’ll be ready to jump in. We won’t be taking much
time off this year because of our big field trip in the spring.
Dylan and Blake are doing well in Tae Kwon Do and may compete
in August. Also, they’re getting ready for the new homeschool
beginner band. The director wants them to be section leaders;
they’re very excited about that.
This coming week I will be going to register for the baby at
Target and Babies R Us. My mom and aunt are going to throw a
baby tea for us, probably in November. It seems a little weird
after all these years to be registering for baby stuff. Blake
is looking forward to it, though. He wants to use the scanner
gun at Target. I’ll have to watch and make sure he’s not
registering for paintball gun stuff…you never know about that
boy.
Rodney is staying very busy at work. They’re still planning to
move to the new location in August. Hopefully things will hold
out with the weather so the building can be finished quickly.
That’s about it for this update. I’m including some new
pictures of the boys.
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Praise
We’ve
completed our dossier and it’s in China!
Prayers
The process of
review and matching goes smoothly with CCAA
Continue to
pray for our family as we go through this
Continue to
pray for Emma Grace to be loved and well cared for until we meet |
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Chase and Blake boating on the
Sassagoula
River
Blake digging in the Bone yard at Animal Kingdom
Silly boys!
Chase trying on hats in China at Epcot
Dylan was driving my boat, oh my!
Dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine In after a long wet day
at MGM Studios
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