Happy Halloween!

The girls had so much fun tonight Trick or Treating! Grace told us that next year Alyssa will be with us.  We can't wait to see her in her little costume enjoying the fun with the girls.

Unfortunately no news on our I800a.  Looks like people are waiting even longer for this approval. We are at day 52 and it appears it will be at least 10(probably more) days until we get approval.  We can't do anything else until we get this.  We know it will all happen in God's time. Sometimes it is just so hard to be patient.  We want to bring our little girl home and put a smile on her face.

Dossier (minus our I800a approval) in California

Great news! All of our paperwork except our I800a approval is in California. It arrived at our China coordinator's house this morning.

List of Documents for our Dossier:
1) Application Letter
2) Non-Employment letter for Kristen
3) Employment letter for Dallas
4) Kristen's birth certificate
5) Dallas' birth certificate
6) Marriage certificate
7) Financial statement
8) Kristen's physical
9) Dallas' physical
10) Kristen's police clearance letter
11) Dallas' police clearance letter
12) Homestudy
13) I800a approval(waiting on this)
All the above documents have to be notarized, sent to the Secratary of State in NC to be certified and then sent to Washington D.C. to the State Department to be authenicated, and on to the Chinese Consulate to be authenicated. 
14) 3 notarized reference letters
15) copies of the first page of our passports
16) 2 passport photos of both of us
17) 6 family photos mounted on card stock
18) checks to various people

So glad to be done with this part of the process.  Just one more document and we can send all of our paperwork to China.  We are still quite a ways from travel but every step is one step closer to bringing our little girl.

USCIS Fingerprint Appointment

What a pleasant surprise! Dallas, Kristopher, and I went to the Durham USCIS office today to be fingerprinted.  This is another part of the process. Before we can adopt Alyssa we have to have approval from the Department of Homeland Security. This is one of the longer steps to the process. We are about halfway there.  So back to the surprise. This is our third time being fingerprinted for an international adoption. This is the third office we have been to. You don't get to choose where you go, they tell you when and where.  In Jacksonville and Charlotte the experience was far from enjoyable. We came out feeling like criminals. The employees were very unfriendly.  Today was a completely different story.  They were joking and asking about our adoption.  How nice to actually enjoy this step of the process.  Now on to praying for a speedy approval.

Alyssa Faith?

I am still not sure I want to name our new daughter Alyssa Faith.  I definitely want to honor Dallas' wishes and have her middle name be Faith but I am not sure about Alyssa yet.  So far it is the only name that all of us like.  Most of us like the name Lily or Lilli, too.  We don't want her name to start with a K,Z,N,J, or G because we already have children that go by names that begin with these letters.  To be honest the rest of the family wants me to stop suggesting names and just go with Alyssa but I can't let it go.  It was the same way with Grace. We didn't officially decide until we were in China and she had been with us a night.  Any suggestions?  What is your favorite girl's name?  Does she look like an Alyssa?

He Gets It

Sometimes this teenager of mine really surprises me.  He isn't one to share his feelings or give you too much information about his day at school.  So I was one proud Mom the other day when he shared this story with us.  One of his teachers was talking about how she has always wanted to adopt a child.  He said the kids in the class didn't understand why she would want to do that.  He said that they think if you adopt a child that the kid just comes to stay with you and aren't really a family member.  He spoke up(surprising in itself) and said it isn't like that at all.  They become a part of the family, you don't think of them as being adopted, they are you siblings.  He, also, said you don't notice that they look different(in the case of Grace being from China).   I don't know that he will ever adopt a child himself(he says he wants a small family) but I am so glad that he gets it. 

New Pictures

We sent Alyssa a birthday cake for her birthday. I am not so sure she likes the cake.  We can't wait to put a smile on that face. Look closely she has a pearl like necklace on.  She is going to love playing dress-up with the girls.

Happy Birthday, Alyssa Faith!

We wish we could be with you today!  You are now two years old.  We hope someone sang Happy Birthday to you and gave you the birthday cake we sent. 

Zachary made you some cupcakes for your birthday. They were delicious.  You also got a couple of presents. We are looking forward to bringing them to China so you can play with them. Nicholas is not in the photo because he was at a football game. He did get to enjoy some cake when he got home.

Happy Birthday, baby girl!  We love you!