Hanging out at Kinkos

These are copies- the originals were bright blue.

Friday, Camille and I ran up to Sioux Falls to retrieve our dossier from our adoption agency.  We had sent it earlier in the week to Pierre to receive it's state certification stamps from the Secretary of State, then had it sent back to our agency.  Now, we have to have 4 copies of each document with it's cover letter/seal, so we were off to Kinkos to make copies- it took almost 2 hours to complete it all, but it's done!! 

Then, back to the agency to give them 2 of the copies and the originals, and they are then forwarded to the National Bethany office for authentication and translation.    Then we are....

DTC- Dossier to China!!!

Each pile represents time spent the last 9 months gathering documents, taking physicals, interviewing for our homestudy, coercing relatives for statements, hunting down a notary public with a current notary seal.... They don't call it a paper chase for nothing.

 Tough paper pregnancy, but we are starting to see the fruits of our labor, so to speak.  (pun intended)

I've been taking deep breaths ever since we turned it in to Bethany.  Now if I can only keep myself busy as the process works itself out; our file travels to several offices to be stamped and moved on to the next desktop or file pile. The waiting is tough, because I want to scoop her up and begin loving on her as soon as we can!!  She's been without a mom and dad long enough.

 I've already begun preparing her room and purchasing clothes that should fit her this fall, and I've collected items for her baby book, repainted her room, and yes...I'm working on her first baby quilt!  Anything to keep my mind off of the wait, and feel like I'm doing something productive during this interlude until we travel. 

 Besides, it will be nice to have everything in place when we come home with her, so that we can focus on bonding with her and spending the time to help her adjust to her new home and family.

Let the nesting begin!  :-)