The Breather
Are you ready for this? Really? Are you sure? Ok! Our dossier is now done AND on its way to China! Hooray!
We’ve earned ourselves a bit of a break for the moment. Since being officially matched with our two little men, we have been busy updating our dossier. We needed somewhere around forty documents, updated, notarized and sealed by the Illinois Secretary of State before we could send them to our agency. Many of the documents had to be completed by other people, such as our medical forms and local police clearances. Then other documents had to be reviewed and approved by other agencies, like U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Those documents take quite a while to process once we send them in. So, although it only took us fifteen minutes for us to complete the forms, it took weeks for the agencies to approve everything and to get the actual approval notices in the mail. Once all the approvals came in, we had to have everything sealed by our state.
The day before the Cubs won The World Series, I was in downtown Chicago, in pouring rain, literally running all over the place getting everything sealed and off to our agency. It was a whirlwind of a day getting everything done, but also pretty memorable to be downtown and see Chicago decked out in Cubs decorations, "W's" flying, and feel the World Series excitement in the air.
At the end of that day we had our 40 documents. Signed. Notarized. State Sealed. From there, they went to our agency and then passed through the U.S. State Department and the Chinese Consulate in Washington D.C. After that, they made one last trip back to our agency before finally heading to China.
Now, it all has to be translated and reviewed, which will take a few months. Then, more paperwork will head back our way before we travel shortly thereafter, hopefully in the spring. (Yes, that’s a super simplified version of the process, but at least you’ve got a general idea of what’s going to happen anyways…).
It’s strange after all the paperwork insanity to be back to waiting. In all honesty, we are ready for a breather. We need to rest. It’s been a whirlwind of a year with lots of ups and downs and all sorts of craziness in between. It’s been filled with lots of beauty and also a lot of hard, hard things that we never thought we would encounter on this journey. So our plan is to rest and prepare our hearts for the next few months ahead.
We are hoping to do a few more fundraisers to help with one last (wahoo!), giant payment due to our agency in the coming months.
Speaking of fundraisers…. shout out to all of you who have bought a bib scarf! Can you believe since we started the bib scarf fundraiser that we have made and sold over $5,000 worth of bib scarfs? That is awesome! THANK YOU!!! You all are incredible!
We wish you all a wonderful Christmas season! Thank you again so very much for all your prayers, support and encouragement. We are so humbled and blessed to have so many people praying for us and loving us along this journey. Thank you.
