We found out our LOI should be headed to China tomorrow. I can't wait to get PA. Once we get that I will start decorating Grace's room. Maybe PA will be our Christmas present this year. I can only hope and pray. If not it will be our New Year's present. Either way I can't wait. Then it will all seem more real. J is already talking about sharing toys with her little sister. She also says she won't push her. We were cleaning junk out of Grace's soon to be room today so J was asking lots of questions.

Another busy day of paperwork. Ended up having to just remail the application to CIS. Hopefully they will figure it out. We, also, wrote the check for too much. Praying it doesn't slow us down. We got our FBI fingerprints done and our local background check. We have sent away for certified copies of our birth and marriage certificates. We were also able to schedule physicals for the kids. Wish we could get all the paperwork done so we would be able to just wait. We don't start the homestudy until December 16. It will be a relief to have that done. DH is off to the beach for a few days so we were both relieved to get everything we could get done completed before he left.

Oops! Our first bump in the road...

I can't believe we made a mistake. This isn't the first time we have filled out this form. You would have thought we could get if right. At least we caught it before it was delivered. The document we did wrong would be the I 600-A. They are supposed to stop delivery tonight and return it do us tomorrow. DH is going out of town so lets hope it gets here before he leaves. We need to immediately turn it around and get this process started.

Whew! What a busy morning we had. The LOI and Agency packet are now headed to Utah. The I 600-A application is on its way to Charlotte. The Homestudy application and packet is going down the street to Raleigh. What a relief to have all that done. Now if we could just get PA, homestudy approval, and our 171-H we could be headed to China in no time. We also completed the first document that will go in our dossier. In an adoption you always seem to hurry, hurry, hurry to wait, wait ,wait. It is all worth it!

Poem for Grace

When we accepted Grace's referral, the China program director at our agency wrote this poem for her. Thank you, Stefani!

Its exciting to believe that dreams really come true I hope such a thing
happens to you It happened they say to lucky Maizie Long Fu

She was triking one day
At the photo shop, what? Unusual you say?
They snapped a great shot of her cute impish grin Trying to show her pure
charm deep within Something quite magic was starting out there....
So a family could see her, stand up and cheer!

Beside her was standing her kind foster Mom Sad the family finding was
taking so long It hasn't made sense! Why, has this been so?
Alone is no way for a child to grow!

Nobody loved her...? Poor Maizie Long Fu?
No! No! No! Such a thing is plainly not true!!
She had aunties and uncles and a foster family But she needed her own space,
her own place to be

Over and over again in her head
These are the words that sweet Maizie said, "I can surely find home,
Somebody see me.
Somebody love me. Somebody choose me."

Don't worry now little Miss Maizie Long Fu Somebody saw you, loved you,
and has chosen YOU!
Mom, Dad, sister and big brothers three
All together, oh my, how happy you'll be!!

Thats how it happened. Maizie is happy today.
The last girl to be placed from Group 16A.
And we are all pleased and shouting with cheers Because the wet on our
cheeks are from such happy tears!

The Beginning

On Tuesday, November 21 we decided to adopt Grace. She was born on March 20, 2005. We have officially begun the paperchase. If only we could just snap our fingers and have her home. We are trying to decide on the perfect name. We really want her first name to be Grace but haven't found a middle name to go with it.

Today we recieved the information from the adoption agency. I sat in the car for an hour reading over it. I can't believe I am going to have 2 girls. It was so exciting to see printed pictures of our little girl. She has the cutest smile. I can already tell her sister and her are going to always be up to something.