Mission: Paper Chase - Accomplished!

Today was a big day in our adoption journey!  In May, we began compiling a large stack of documents called our Dossier.  This consists of birth certificates, marriage certificates, physical forms, employment letters, financial statements, police reports, reference letters, family pictures, home study report, USCIS approval and more!  Each document is newly issued or written, it is notarized, then authenticated by the Secretary of the Commonwealth in Harrisburg, PA, then it is certified by the Ch*nese Consulate in New York City.  We were thrilled to get all the paperwork completed in five months - yup... COMPLETED!!  Today we received the last set of documents back from the NYC courier that processed them through the Consulate for us.  Our Dossier is done... 78 pages to provide all the information needed to prove we are ready and able to raise our Makenna! 

The final papers were delivered this morning - I came home for lunch to scan and copy and everything and compile all the paperwork.  After work all the paperwork was laid out and organized..

Then it was packed neatly in a wonderful FedEx envelope...

And driven to the nearest FedEx drop off location...

As I type, it's on its way our Family Coordinator's office in Virginia.  Tomorrow morning it will be delivered to her office where it will undergo critical review to check everything for errors and accuracy and then...

Next Friday, October 19th, it will begin its journey to Ch*na!

I mentioned in an earlier post on the blog that the adoption journey is broken down into three stages.  If you are keeping track, we are done Phase I - Paperchasing- Mission Accomplished!  Next steps??  We wait for a referral (the referral is the file we receive to review when the agency finds a child to match our family).  We don't know how long we will wait - it could be any where from days to months.  The waiting will be hard. very. very. hard!  We are excited that we have finally finished something, but we know this also means that this is no longer "in our hands".  Sending that paperwork off is bittersweet - it's awesome that it's DONE but letting it go and leaving it up to someone else is a little tough!  We hope and pray for God's mercies as we wait  - we trust that He knows our daughter, He knows each hair on her head and certainly knows her path to us and when she will make her way home.  It's one thing to know it in your head, it's another to trust it in your heart.  Tonight... we are one BIG step closer to bringing her home! 

I hope you will wait with us - I think it is going to be well worth it when we see that sweet face!

Jessica