So where are we??

 Oh my goodness.

We are in the throws of piles and piles of paperwork.. I thought it was a lot last time but 

this is unbelievable. I have been up for 2 weeks, late every night answering essay-type question after question, filling in endless forms, running to the bank for cashier's checks, visiting doctors, notarizing lots of signatures, taking all six kids for TB tests, getting fingerprinted, running back to the doctor for checkups or other immunizations, even getting the dog a recommendation from the vet...(I am not kidding). And that is just SOME of the things I have been doing (life still goes on, as well, in our busy household in the busiest month of the year...).

Tho I have been a bit frazzled lately, I'm glad to see I am  still lookin'  pretty good according to Jemila (in a portrait she made of me). No, I don't typically wear a crown and I'm not so sure my eyelashes or lips are nearly that big either   (Yikes!).

 The first round of paperwork has just been mailed in -  YAY! This will start the homestudy process which will hopefully only take 6-8 weeks. There will be online training classes, home visits, more paperwork, more fingerprinting, it seems endless.

Once our homestudy is approved, we will move on to the "dossier" phase - basically more paperwork, LOTS of notarizing, certifying and stamping by the state governments of EVERYTHING, waiting for clearances, translating, shipment of all the documents to China, and then more waiting.

Adoption requires one to be committed and undaunted by the endless hoops and lists and be willing to  bare it all and be wide open. It is a humbling process...and rather exhausting.

But I am NOT complaining (ok, maybe just a little...).


PUZZLE UPDATE:   33 PIECES HAVE BEEN SPONSORED! YAY!

I have had a couple of people tell me that they couldn't use the Chip-In box. It will only work if you are viewing the blog on your computer. I can't get it to show when I view the blog on my phone. If you are more comfortable mailing in a donation, that's great too! Our address is shown on the original puzzle blogpost (May 4).

We continue to feel blessed and excited to get to do this amazing journey again!