We have wings!!!

What relief! I just got the confirmation email saying that our Dossier is officially heading to China today! Yippy!!! Now the next wait begins, to see when our LID (log in date) is. From posts that I have read the past few days, people have been pleasantly surprised with how quickly they got their LID. So I hope this trend continues! I've learned this is a never ending (worry) process. In the beginning, you worry about if you will qualify with the agency, then you worry about the home study (is my house clean enough) then it's time to worry about will our documents be certified and authenticated properly, next we worry about when our
I-797 (I-171 to some) will get here, then when will we be DTC, and when is our LID. Now after that I was hoping I could quit worrying for a while, but I'm starting to see, that it's probably not going to end till we have our little sweetie safe in our arms (at home) IN AMERICA! There are rumors going around about the reason for the waittime for referrals increasing. Some say it could go to 18 months. But I just read one, that supposedly came from a reputable source, say that the CCAA has No intention for the wait to go past 12 months. That they would like for it to settle at around 10 months. Lets hope so!!!  

Holding our breath!!!

Sorry I have not posted lately, just been so busy running around to finish up our paperwork. Well as of Tuesday, our complete Dossier was out of our hands. I sent it overnight to our agency, and they received it this morning at 9:31 a.m. and according to what they have previously said, as long as everything looks O.K. then it will be sent to China on Friday. So, now we are "holding our breath" for the news.
Stay tuned! 

Our complete Dossier! 

Packed up in a cute little file folder, and READY TO GO!!! 

AH, Fed Ex what would we do without you!

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!

Finally, after a month of waiting, running to the mail box, stress levels rising, and hopes diminishing, we have our I171, actually ours is a I797, but it is considered the same thing! YEAH!!!
And of course, we checked the mail box right before heading out of town for the weekend, so I could not immediately take it to be notorized, or county certified, but believe me, that WILL happen first thing Monday morning!
I was told we have a Grand mother to thank, she is part Irish, and well today is St. Patrick's Day. So a GREAT BIG hug, and THANK YOU GRANDMA!!!
No more worrying that it would get lost in the mail, no more gut wrenching dashes to the mail box to see if anything came, and no more "what if's." It is here safe and sound.
So I'm crossing my fingers that we can still make it to be DTC this month.

AND WAITING!!!

This waiting is just killing me! When we started this process I remember reading other people's stories, and thinking O.K. I'm not going to let it get to me that much, I mean whatever the time frame, we are meant to have a certain baby, right? Someone up there watching knows which baby is for us, and maybe we just need to wait till the timing is right in order to get her. So what difference does a couple of weeks make? A big, HUGE difference.
I keep thinking every morning, THIS is the day that our mail man will delivery the most anticipated piece of mail I have ever wanted so badly in my life! I wait around, thinking maybe the mail will come early today, knowing full well that our mail is delivered any time between 12:30 and 3:00. Every sound that seems familiar, like the truck that she drives, I rush to the window, but nothing. I try to time my day, so that if it comes , I will be able to immediately make the copies, get it notorized, and certified at the courthouse, and send it off to the State. So in order to do that, I need to feed my girls an early lunch, take an early nap (as if I can drift off to sleep at all) I usually wake up first, and try to figure out how I can wiggle my way out of the bed without waking my kids, to sneak to the mail box. So I just lay there, willing my girls to WAKE UP.
When they finally do, I rush as fast as I can to the end of my driveway, trying the whole time to not look like a big fool. My heart is racing, my stomach is in my throat, I reach to open the mailbox. There are envelopes, I grab them and quickly rummage through to see if it came...








NO!!!


It did not come today! I am almost in tears walking back to the house. Well, maybe tomorrow. Same routine, same early lunch, same early nap, same queasy feeling on the way to the mail box. And finally the same gut wrenching realization that another day has past us by.
I do not mean to sound down in the dumps, but let's face it, I am getting a little depressed.
It doesn't help knowing that another family that lives here in our town, has already received their form. Their home study was sent to USCIS the same time, received on THE same day, and they have their form. We have nothing, but our hopes that it will come.................................TOMORROW!
In the mean time, I have been a little bored, so I have posted some pictures of our girls. They are older pictures, taken last year about this time. Lily was three, and little Madilyn was probably about 9 months old.