Happy Chinese New Year - Year of the Dog

What a weekend! Saturday T and I left for Charlotte to get our fingerprints done. We arrived around 1:30 and waited - something that I'm getting used to!! The office was very busy but we were out of there by 3. I talked to the gentleman at the front desk and asked if they accepted walk ins. He said YES!! That really upset me because we could have had this done a month ago, but then I thought about it and two things came to me. One, our homestudy was just sent to them the week before and two, this adoption has been in God's hands for the beginning. He has a plan for us and our daughter. God is good and will take care of her while she and her her forever family wait to meet.

On our drive to Charlotte T and I talked about a few things. One of them was teaching our daughter about her culture. He made some very good points about this and after thinking about what he said I agreed with him. We talked about culture, school, language, etc. We also talked about the rest of the fees and how close we were with the money aspect. He said that he would make sure I had money to buy gifts with and for me to just make sure everything else is taken care of.


Sunday I celebrated Chinese New Year with some friends who returned home around 6 months ago with their daughter. This was the first time we met but a good time was had by all. She shared a ton of information with me and her daughter is adorable!! The visit made me just want to get to China faster!! I took my friend J and my youngest son with me. They enjoyed the dancing and singing along with some good food and great company. Thanks for inviting us!!

On a side note, seeing all those beautiful kids yesterday brought tears to my eyes. Not knowing what my daughter looks like and her not knowing how much she is already loved by her forever family is very hard for me to deal with. We are not even DTC yet and I'm already driving myself crazy.

We are so close to having everything done. All the paperwork is being certified as I write this. All we have to do now is wait for our 171H from Homeland Security and then authenticate everything. I faxed our homestudy to the agency last week and will need to make some minor changes to it but other than that it looks great. Maybe we can be DTC by the end of February. I also got my passport on Friday and T's should be coming this week. Everyday is a step closer!!!