PAINT

Went to Lowe’s and picked out paint for Darci’s room and Brian’s office. Don’t know when I’ll start painting, but it will be soon. Have to move all of the stuff that Amanda and I moved out of Darci’s old room into the spare room (now Darci’s room) back into the guest room. Have to do this before I can start painting.

A new bed for Mom and Dad

Brian decided that we would buy a soft side waterbed. I finally got my king size bed. He wants to keep the old bed and so the only room that it will fit in is Darci’s. CHANGE OF PLANS!!!! We went and picked out paint for the back bedroom (Darci’s old room), painted it, moved the old bed into that room. Poor Brian, I pushed while he pulled. We got er done!!! Moved furniture around in our room and set up the waterbed. Went shopping for bedding and got a beautiful bedding set for our new bed.

The "Dossier"

Many may ask what a dossier is. It is all the official documents that go to requesting our permission to adopt a child from their country. What's in the dossier? LOTS and LOTS of paperwork.

Marriage License, Birth Certificates, Divorce decree (if there has been a divorce), State background check on both parents, Local police clearance, Autobiography from both parents, Physical's and supporting letters from doctor regarding any illness currently being treated for, Official paperwork from the US government, Pictures from your passport, Home study, Pictures of the house, pictures of both parents, Letter from parents requesting to adopt from their country and any paperwork associated to any previous arrests.

All of this is compiled, sent for state authentication, the sent to the Chinese consulate for authentication and then our agency send the dossier to an agency in who then translates all of the documents into Chinese, and then the dossier is sent to CCAA ( China Center for Adoption Affairs). The clearing house for all international adoptions in . They are located in Beijing .

Let the home study begin!!!

Our agency registered our home study for us. We should hear soon who our social worker will be and when our home study will begin.

Immigration paperwork filed

Sent off the I600A to BCIS. This is the first part of immigration paperwork. Brian is the petitioner. This means that he will have to travel to get her. After our home study is sent to BCIS, we will receive a letter for fingerprinting appointment. The last paper that we will wait for is the I171. This is the paper that allows Darci to come into the United States as a US Citizen.

Approval!!

The phone call came!!! Application part II was approved!!! Sent out another email.

Subject: Adoption Approval YEAH GOD!!

Thank you so much for your prayers as we take this journey to Darci. I was called this afternoon to be informed that our final application has been approved and we move onto our home study process. Darci is somewhere in and God is watching over her and protecting her until He places her in our arms. Please continue to pray until she safely arrives here in Oklahoma .
Brian and Debbie

We went shopping tonight. We went to Pottery Barn Kids. Amanda got to go with us so that was a lot of fun. We got Darci a pink overstuffed chair. I am going to have her name embroidered on it. We also got a blow up beach ball to take with us to . So she will have something to play with that is big, but can pack conveniently.

Dillon receives our application

DIllon recieved our application II today. Now the ball is rolling and we should hear shortly when our home study will begin.

Application II is in the mail

Sent out our Application II, YEAH!!! It’s out of our hands. Waiting to hear from Dillon if this part is approved so that we move onto our home study process. I was so excited to get the application mailed off that when I got home I realized I had not included the application fee. Called N to let her know that I would mail the check tomorrow. I hope we can pass the test, since I am forgetting so much!!!

Surgery

SURGERY DAY!!!! I have to be at the surgery center around 11:00. Can not have anything to eat. Boy am I hungry!!! Everything went great with the surgery. Cleaned out the bone fragments, cleaned up a lot of old as well as a lot of new damage and did a lateral release on the right side. I have this cool contraption. It is an ice chest with a pump that continually pumps cold water through a wrap that is on my knee. Kinda neat!!! I keep it cold and running 24 – 7. Got to get that knee better, Darci will be here before we know it.

Running around (not literally)

Amanda and I spent all day running around taking care of all the errands that I needed to have done. Since I was not able to drive, I have accumulated a lot of things that needed to be done. Poor Amanda, I had to tell her every little turn to take. She was a little tired of being in a car all day. We got everything done!! YEAH!!

Amanda is here!!

Amanda flew in this evening. Her plane did not get here until almost 10:00 pm. The plane was late arriving in St. Louis . She had a great flight. She was hungry when we picked her up so we went to IHOP to eat. It feels good to have her here.