Next Step!

Well, our dossier made it through the Department of State and the African Embassy! It is in Dallas in the hands of our case manager at Buckner! She said everything looked good and that she would mail it to Africa on Monday! I think it takes about a week to arrive there and then it gets translated and submitted and we wait for a court date! I have no idea how long all that will take but we are working on patience so here we go! Our friends are actually in Africa right now sleeping (maybe) and in the morning, they will meet their daughter for the very first time!!!!!!!! The crazy thing is that they will probably meet our daughter while they are there and we just don't know which little girl she will be! They have strict instructions to love on all the little girls they meet!! Pray for them that all of the transitions go well and that they have a safe trip back in a few weeks with their daughter. Pray too that soon we will be called for a match meeting to find out which little girl is ours!

YEA!!

We finished our dossier!! That means we put together a huge document filled with everything from letters of reference to bank statements to police background checks and more! I think there were about 27 documents in all. We drove to Austin yesterday, went to the Secretary of State's office and had all of the documents authenticated (she checks to make certain all of the notaries are legal and then attaches a form to the top of each document). Smooth sailing until Homeland Security has changed some requirements, if you are in this process, the copies of y our passports must have the statement, "I certify that this is a true and accurate copy of MY passport", not the original passport, but my passport!! Crazy! Anyway, after a trip to the UPS store, new copies and new statements notarized by Josh, we were back at the Secretary of State and finished everything! We then headed to FedEx, made copies of all her certifications and then we mailed it to D.C.! Already this morning our wonderful courier has picked up the documents and is taking them to the Department of State and then to the African embassy. Once everything passes there and is certified again, the courier will overnight it to our case manager at Buckner and she will send it off to Africa!! And then we wait for a court date. It is so great to be finished with our part of the process, at least to this point. Who knows, maybe in the next few weeks we will have a match meeting and find out about this little girl for whom we are waiting! I'll let you know!

Thank you!

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK Y OU!

Thank you to all who contributed to our adoption raffle!! We couldn't do this adoption with out the help of our friends and family. It was a great success and we really can't tell you enough how much we appreciate your involvement in bringing this little girl home!

The recipient of the ipod nano is Jacob Jones!! Thanks Jacob!

Thanks again to everyone! (If anyone would still like to contribute please feel free to contact us either through email or just give us a call!)

Amazing!!

We received our 171 form in the mail Wednesday!! This is the form from Homeland security/immigration that approves us to adopt an orphan from another country. The amazing thing is that all the paperwork says not to expect t his for at least two months because t hey have to process the form, we have to get fingerprints done, etc. On the website it says they are processing forms five months out, sooooo I just knew we had months to wait on this form. It was processed in one month and we received it in a little more than a month! What does this mean? It means we have to get moving!! We have just a few more items for our dossier and then we will head to Austin to get everything authenticated (signed by the Texas Secretary of State), then we mail it to D.C. to go to our U.S. Secretary of State and the African Embassy. Once it comes back with everything done (possibly a couple of weeks) we send it to Africa where it will be translated and submitted into their system and then we wait for a court date! (No idea how long this part will take.) Needless to say things are moving along!! Once we get our dossier finished we may get a referral which is when they match us with a little girl!! Then we will know who she is!! I can't wait! Please just keep praying, we all need it!!

Ella!

Congratulations to our friends on becoming parents!! Last night they passed court in Africa at 3:07 a.m. our time which means they officially became the parents of a beautiful little girl named Ella! You can see pictures of her and tell them congrats on their blog! They are already the very best parents to her from so far away and when they meet . . . I can't even imagine!! We can't wait to meet her and give her a huge hug!!Hopefully, she will have a friend here soon! Congrats my dear friends, your lives will be full of amazing and wonderful joys!

Soccer

Soccer season is here again! Both boys are doing great and have really improved since last year! Their teams are doing well and they are having a blast! Carter, still not real competitive, just having fun and loves playing. Dakota, well, last week he looked across the line at another four year old and said, "You're going down!!!" Never a dull moment with this one!!

Quilting

Carter's class is doing a unit on quilting so we asked his Great Grandmother to come to his class and show the kids how she does quilting by hand! It was great! The kids loved it and all wanted to try quilting. They were very excited and all talked about going home and getting their parents to help them quilt something! It was really fun to watch and see my grandmother teach the kids and show them all the hard work that she puts into her work. She has made so many beautiful quilts for all of her family and she also makes them for people in need through a group at church. She is a fabulous grandma and human being!! Carter loved having her in his class and showing her off!! It was really fun!
By the way, she's 90!!