Great news for a friend!

The funniest and most amazing thing happened today. Last night I was thinking about a family that I have been in contact with because they are in the process of adopting a little girl that is with Quan in the same orphanage. I haven't emailed in months and thought I should today. Her adoption has been involved and they have been waiting a very long time. Her dad is the man that has met Quan and sent me the wonderful pictures of him smiling and happy. (The only pictures of him smiling and happy) I sent the email and to my surprise got a response that they were leaving for the airport on their way to China to bring their daughter home!!! I am so excited for them! What a wonderful surprise! And he told me that he will be sure to give Quan a hug and a kiss and assure him that he has a family and we will be coming for him too. In a few days he will be with his daughter, and also will see my son!!! I am beyond excited for them. It's a great day.

A letter

I just got to write a letter to my little boy. After we found out that Quan knows about us we immediately wanted to write a letter to him so that he could know that we are in fact real. It is so important to get photos to him so he gets to finally see who we are. It hasn't been fair that we have gotten to see him and he still has no idea who we are. Sure hope he likes us! :) It was such an emotional thing writing that letter. There was so much I wanted to tell him and yet I didn't want to over whelm him. I have to say, that little boy is definitely suppose to be my son. It may not be easy, but I know he is suppose to be with us. I so can't wait to have him home. What ever it takes. I want to be tucking this little guy in at night with his brother and sisters. He has spent too long without a mama.

So handsome!

We got an awesome surprise today. Betty sent us updated photos. He's so handsome. He's a skinny little guy. I wish this would move quicker and someone could just let us go and get him. The kids were excited to see what there new brother looks like right now. But we are all very ready to see him in person. I know no body is more ready than him.  I am working on getting pictures together to make a photo album of all of us so he can see what we look like. I hope so much that it puts a smile on that solemn face. I am hoping it will give him hope if he can see us and know we are real. I have to explain to him that we don't want this wait. That we are doing everything we can. And everyone is working very hard. As an adult I can say, it just takes too long! I can't imagine how this wait feels to a child. My little man, it will be worth the wait. We are going to love you so much. You will never be without a family again. Hold on and be brave. I promise we are coming to bring you home.

           SOMEONE'S MISSING....AND HE'S WAITING FOR US IN JIANGSU

GREAT NEWS!!!

Our dossier was able to be sent to China on Thursday after all!!!  Our home study agency director was out of the country busy working on adoption related things when we desperately needed her signature. Her internet was down, so she was not able to get it to us.  Not to mention a major time difference. It was stressful and went right up to the last moment. But everyone's hard work and God's provision came through. Our dossier made it out as planned. We have been very blessed to have wonderful people helping us and working with us. It can get very frustrating when things don't go smoothly because emotions are running high. We don't want him to spend one more day than he has to in the orphanage. We want him home. The wait is a very difficult thing. It is very hard to be patient. Knowing he is growing up while we wait is not a good feeling.  More big news. We also found out from our agency's Beijing office that they spoke to someone at the orphanage and they said they did tell him about us. So he knows! That's good and bad. I'm happy he does know he has a family. I'm sad because I don't know how long ago they told him and he is probably wondering where the heck we are. They had recommended that we not contact him yet. The wait is so long. For a child it is an eternity. They have found that when the kids have to wait so long they lose hope and get upset. I can understand that. It feels like forever for us too. We still have probably about 6 more months until we finally get our approval to bring him home. I am going to put together a photo album for him and write him a letter. Our agency has offered to translate the letter and get it to him.That is so great! I am very excited. So our boy knows about us!! He was told that he has a family, that he will be going to the U.S., but that he will have to wait several months to see his parents. Well, I am going to get going to write my son a letter!! That is awesome. Finally, I get to speak to him, sort of.

What to say

We got everything done on time. Spent $60 to overnight it....it got there on time. We were busy this morning doing more adoption related stuff. The anticipation of seeing that email that it was received..... and then the bad news. Someone from our agency had not signed a form that was needed for our dossier to be sent to China. I would like to say I stayed calm. But after many emails back and forth, and finding out that the girl that needs to sign the paper is out of the country....I lost it. I really did. I was crying, frustrated and upset. We really jumped through hoops the last 2 weeks. Three trips to the city, literally running through the city at times, staying up all night making copies with a challenging copier, being at the doors of offices before they were open. Over nighting everything to make it in time and then a form is missing that I didn't even know about! Uuuugggghhhh! Really. I'm sad. We have great people helping us. And great agencies. I have to step back and say maybe it is all God's timing. I have to think that. It's out of my hands, We have to give it to God. It's just hard feeling like we are losing weeks with every glitch that comes up. My little guy is growing up in an orphanage and I just want to get him home. He turned 9 last week while we were busy doing paperwork!  If you could see the stack of papers and all the official stamps on everything and saw what we have gone through, how hard we have worked....from classes to letters, to forms, trying to learn the whole process of how to apply for everything and what form is needed and goes where with what, running all over the place to collect everything. We've gotten every clearance, physical, reference,form that can possibly be needed. Just please someone let us come get our child now. I know I am being a complaining whiner. But it hurts. Enough already. We want him home.

Dossier

I'm sitting here holding in my hands our completed dossier!! And I got really emotional. It's been a long time and a lot of work. A lot of writing and a lot of appointments. Michael went back into the city today and picked it up at the consulate. I spent tonight making all the needed copies, photos, checks etc. and put it all together. Months of working on this.  I'm looking at all the official stamps on top of stamps. It's all here. Tomorrow morning we will be at Fed ex when they open so we can overnight this whole package to FTIA. I'm praying that it is all good and it will get the final stamp of approval so it can be on it's way to China!!! We've worked so hard for this. For our little guy. It's been a very hard week. Friday was my dad's birthday. All the things I wanted to write this week, and I just couldn't. It was a hard week to do anything. We miss him so much.  Friday was also Quan's birthday. He turned 9. He turned 9 still not knowing he has a family.  Part of me wants him to know, but part of me hopes he doesn't because it takes so long. If our dossier is good it will be on it's way to China Thursday. Then we wait.  But this is one giant step closer and a big sigh of relief.