The way it used to be...

I remember when we were waiting for Norah, there was not a day that went by that I did not think of her. I was praying that she was getting the things that she needed, that she was being loved on and well taken care of. I feel in my heart that they did the best they could by her and when she came to us she was, for the most part, healthy. I think of Samuel often hope that he is being well taken care of. I look forward to the day that he is home and interested to see how he will mesh with our loud big family :)
We sent off our paperwork to the Secretary of State and go them back last week!! They will now be sent via FedEx to a courier in Virginia and be hand delivered to the Dept of State and the Chinese Embassy. It will be hard to see them go... but I know it has to be done. Once we get our fingerprint appointment and get out approval we will expedite that piece of paper and then our dossier will be done. Please pray for a speedy approval as that will be one thing we will be waiting on!
And thank you to all of you that have help with our efforts to bring him home. I could never ever repay you, but please know that every prayer, donation and purchase is so much appreciated. It is amazing to me that Samuel will be surrounded by people that truly helped to bring him home to his family!
I also found out today that our agency asked for an update last week, so hopefully we will be getting that anyday now!!!!

Thank YOU!!

Just wanted to post a quick thank you to EVERYONE that has ordered things off of our sweets for samuel site, people that have generously donated their money and friends that have donated their time! I cannot tell you how much this means to me... it really does. Thank you for helping bring Samuel home and for loving him (and US!!) enough to help and believe that he WILL COME HOME!!!

What does it take?

I have had several people ask what goes into adopting a child internationally.
And it goes a little something like this...

* Find a reputable agency that handles the type of adoption that you want to start. DO RESEARCH!
* Once signing with an agency you will have to have a homestudy. A homestudy consists of several things. You will have a social worker visit multiple times and you will talk about... well YOU! How you grew up, how you were disciplined, how you will discipline your child, whats important to you... that kind of thing. We filled out a 15 page autobiography about ourselves and some really DEEP questions.
* You will begin to prepare your dossier that will travel far and wide before it makes it to China! The documents you will gather will be:

A family information form
An application letter
Birth Certificate of husband and wife
Marriage Certificate
Employment Letter for both- how long we have been there as well as pay per year
Certificate of Financial Status- a break down of our finances WOW
A complete physical for both - hearing, vision, blood tests, HIV test, ...
Police Clearance for both
Homestudy
Photographs- of our family, our house, inside and out

These all need to be:
notarized: stamped
secretary of state: stamped
Dept of State: stamped
Chinese Embassy: stamped

There are several other steps that I left out like the child abuse clearances for each state that we have lived in since we were 18 and the immigration paperwork and fingerprints.

PHEW! There is ALOT that goes into adopting a child, whether you adopt internationally or domestic. All for the best interest of the child! Once all of our papers have been stamped, I will take a picture and post it. They look sooo official! It is so worth it, no matter how time consuming and utterly confusing it is! The end result is Samuel and that is worth it to me!!

Sweet!

Just wanted to let you all know about a super cool website that I found! Its Post Your Adoption Fundraiser Here and we are the main event right now! This website was created to bring awareness to the families that are fundraising to bring their children home! Stop on over... you just never know what you might find and help a family at the same time!