Her Bed is In

9/7/2011
Her baby bed is in.  So Blaine, Allie and I went to pick it up.  My mother-in-law is going to make a dust ruffle to match Allie's for it, so we aren't going to put it together until we have that ready.  And she is going to redo one curtain in their room.  The curtains in Allie's room have her initials on them, so we are going to change one set to Emery's initials.  I can't wait to get all that together!!!!  I will post pics when we are finished!!!!

Thanks for all the prayers!  They are working.  Now we are praying that our LOA comes in soon!!!!  I would LOVE to have her home for Christmas!!!!!

More Questions

9/6/2011
I called Sarah today with more questions.  I needed to be sure we could post about her and I had a few questions about the immigration paperwork.  And then I wanted to see exactly what we could send her in her package.  This will let her know that her forever family is coming to get her!!!  She gave me some great ideas and also told me that we may want to buy two of some things so that if we don't get them back that we will have a match to it.  She also told me to make them smell like us so that she could get use to our smell.  I can't wait to shop for her!  I already know of a few things that I want to send.  Anything I send had to fit into a shoe box.  We may be sending several boxes! Hee heeee......They will be requesting an update on her.  There are no guarantees that we will get one but they are asking.

We have our Pre-Approval

9/2/2011
This has been the fastest process!  I feel so blessed, God definitely wants us to get this baby home!!!

Woo-hoo!  We received our Pre-Approval today!  I was sitting at the hospital visiting with my Dad when the email came through.  Again, I did not expect this so quick,  I though it would be a few weeks, but it was 5 days!!!!  We have been waiting on this information so that we could tell everyone!  We could tell friends and show her pictures, but I couldn't blog or post about her until we had this information.  We are getting ready to go our of town for the long weekend, so I read the email and tried to let it all soak in. We still didn't want to blog about it until I had talked to the agency and was sure it was ok to tell it.  So we will go enjoy the lake with family and friends and celebrate our new baby girl!!!!

More Paperwork:(

9/1/2011
Man, I did not realize there was still so much paperwork after we were matched.  We were emailed another travel packet of information today.  It has some great information in it!  I can't wait to read all of it.  We also received information on filling out our I800 and I864W.  This is immigration paperwork.  Once we have it filled out, we will send it back off with our official LOA (Letter of Acceptance).

Paperwork Submitted

8/30/2011
I have all our paperwork together and had the last piece notarized.  We had to sign an new post adoption agreement and send it in too.  The post adoptions visits have changed since we started this process, so we had to sign an new agreement and pay some extra money.  But she will be totally worth it!!!  We received an email fro Sarah at CCAI saying that our paperwork had been officially submitted (formally locked in)!!!  She said that we should have our pre-approval within a few weeks.  We are praying that this will go quick!  We have to receive our pre-approval to move on to the next step.

Paperwork Headed to China

8/29/2011
We received our email today telling us that everything was headed to China.  This is our LOI (letter of Intent).  She told us that we would be getting our 2nd To Do List.  Tony printed everything out for us and I got it all filled out an ready. 

Paperwork Complete

8/26/2011
I have all the paperwork complete, scanned and sent to Pam at the agency.  She could not believe that everything was already done so quick. I told her that that baby was not going to wait one more day because I had not completed some paperwork, so I am trying my best to get it done as soon as we get it.   She told me that we would receive another email telling us that our paperwork had been translated and sent to China.  We are praying that this will go quick!  It could take a few weeks!!!

WE HAVE A MATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8/24/2011  I know I can hardly believe it myself!!!!!!!!  I keep pinching myself to be sure I'm not dreaming!!!!  I got the call that I have been waiting for, but boy I was not expecting it at all.  I had been in a meeting at work and came out to find a missed call and message on my cell phone and work phone.  I told Craig (my boss), "that is weird, the agency has called me.  They probably need more paperwork."  I quickly listened to my message and it was Pam and she just said "Renee, I enjoyed talking to you so much yesterday that I thought I would call you back and chat today, please call me when you have a minute."  Of course I thought that was crazy but I quickly called her back and again she said "I really enjoyed talking to you yesterday and wanted to talk to you again, and she paused for a second, and then said those wonderful words and to tell you that I think we have the perfect match for you."  I had not thought about what I would do or say when I got the call and my response would definitely be different if I had it to do over, but anyway, I screamed "SHUT UP, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME."  Then of course I was crying and she ask if I wanted to hear about her so I was writing frantically everything she was telling me about her.  She told me that she loved to play with toys that make music, she loved to rock, when you reach to pick her up she will reach up for you and smile, (she sounded perfect).  So I ask her what her special need was and she said that she had a teratoma on her bottom and that she had surgery last September to have it removed and that she had recovered well and was doing great.  She also told me that there were pictures of that if I wanted to see her file!  I turned quickly and ask Craig if she could send it to me at work and then we  waited to receive it.  As we were waiting, she told me that we had a week to have her medical checked by our Pediatrician and make a decision (like there is a decision, I was already totally in love with this baby and hadn't even seen her).  The file came through and I thanked her for all the info and hung up to call Tony.  (now that I have thought about it, I could have conferenced him in on the call, but I could barely think).  So I call Tony at work and I'm yelling and crying and saying "guess what, we have a match", he says "sure you are funny, no we don't"  I told him all the details about her and that I couldn't make all that up and to open our email and see her.  I had already opened a picture and she was the most precious beautiful thing you have ever seen.  But the picture I opened she didn't have very much hair.  He opened a picture and said "look at all that hair".  Needless to say we were so excited.  I continued to give him all the details about her and print all her medical off.  We really couldn't believe it had happened so quick.  We were in shock!  But we knew there was no doubt, she was our new daughter and there were no questions about it!!! The last medical we have on her is at 7 months old.  She was 64cm in height, 6.2kg in weight, and her head was 42cm.  I that means about 12 1/2 lbs.  But the pictures show was a happy healthy baby!!! It looks like she is sitting up great all by herself, so I really don't think she is very delayed.She is perfect in our book!!! I then called my friend Beth (who is a teacher and told her all about her, but I also told her she couldn't say anything because Conner goes to the school where she teaches and I didn't want him to find out before we would tell him).  And then I call Tiffany (our Pediatrician/friend) and it was her birthday so she was off work that day.  I told her all about her and wanted to know if I could meet her with the paperwork to check it over for us!  So I left for lunch and took her the paperwork and tried to call all my friends(Terri, Suzanne, Amy, Gwen that have been so helpful and supportive through this process and no one answered!  I was so disappointed, I wanted to tell them and no one picked up.  I did get to talk to our friend Christy

God is so good!  It was been a wonderful day!!!!!!

Just Few Questions......

8/23/2011
I called the agency with a few questions today!  I wanted to try to find out now that we were logged in where we were on the list, would she (Pam) be the one that calls me with a match, who it is that actually matches us and when during the month do they get children!  She told me that there were no magical lists with us numbered on them, but that we were at the front and that our waiting child "list" was really good.  She said that yes she or one of the other waiting child match people would be the ones to call me with the match.  And that they are the ones that match the children with their forever families.  She said that they receive babies throughout the month and once they are translated that they match them with families.  She did tell me that once a month they receive a shared list of children and that they stay up all night checking it for their families.  I thanked her for answering all my questions and told her that our process had been wonderful and that they had beat every timeline they had given me and that I hoped it continued.  She said she hoped that as well!!!

Now to wait for that call.  I really hope that it happens within the next month or so!!!!  That would be fabulous!!!!