Paper chasing and picture taking.

For the last six months Mike and I have been pulling together endless amounts of paperwork.  Well, really, Mike has been. The last adoption Mike was working full time and I was at home so the burden fell on me and I was terrible at it!  This time around since Mike is working from home with me, he has taken over the paper chase and he has been amazing at it!  He is always one step ahead of the process - knowing what we need to get and do next.  It is an answer to prayer and I have no doubt that he has heavenly help - adoption gets high priority up there! 

This week our paperwork has been in Washington D.C. at the state department and at the Chinese embassy.  When it gets back to us we will send it to our agency and after it is approved and translated it will be sent to China.  That is what we call our Dossier.   It includes every government document on us EVER - our birth certificates, wedding license, passports, medical clearances, FBI clearances, photos of us, as well as a huge home study that talks about each and every intimate detail of our family life.  

Compiling the dossier is definitely the hardest part of the adoption process - at least for us!  Once that's in everything from here moves quickly and easily.

We are also pulling together a package to send Di Hui.  Last week I finished editing a digital photo book telling him all about us and his future life here.  It was so happy to describe each of the kids and include photos of our life.  I loved telling him about how he is going to homeschool, sharing images of all of our recent trips, and filling a page with his dozens of cousins!

Once we get that back from the printers we'll close it up with a bunch of other fun things and send it to him.  I hope and pray that he can sense of the happy family he will have and the love we already feel for him!