Slow & Steady

What our table looks like right now! We have to compare the forms our Home Study Agency wants with what our Adoption Agency want (example: both need forms from our doctor, so which one do we actually use) and everything needs to be issued and/or notarized within a certain time frame and can't expire before it gets to China. Even with doing this before, it is just SO overwhelming.....and why the adoption community says we're paperwork pregnant!! But luckily our adoption agency is SO organized and on page two of the packet they say by following their directions we're in good company because they have completed over 11,000 dossiers....and one of those was ours for Brayden :) :)

I can honestly say this has been our busiest summer! Between Benson taking four online graduate classes (he has his Masters +30 now!!), adoption paperwork, me getting hired as a VIPKid teacher (I'm teaching English online to kiddos in China!), and just being parents ;) we definitely accomplished a lot!

Brayden doing summer school and a camp in the mornings helped though ;) This kid just loves to be out of the house!!

We went to Santa's Village :)

Loving life on the last day of swim lessons

#culture ;)

Every year, but especially this year!

Hoping the adoption process goes just as fast and we're flying to China to meet Baby J in no time at all!!

Some people have asked how to follow our blog. Hopefully this works?

Ok, back to home study classes!!

Brayden is ready for a sibling

In the past two weeks, we've watched Brayden "discover" his shadow in his bedroom and his reflection in our sliding glass door. He laughs and dances with his 'twin'.

My friend came in from Iowa with her two kids (her daughter is two years older then Brayden and her son is one and a half years younger) and they all spent the night. I was so nervous about how this would all play out, but Brayden had a blast and has been looking around the house for them. This visit also eased my anxiety on the lack of space in our house since we need to put our addition on the back burner because ALL the pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, etc) are being saved to bring Baby J home. Benson sees this as the green light to us having three kids/adopting twins <eye roll>

Got some forms notarized today and looking into what Home Study classes to take.

Happy almost 4th everyone! :)

Approved!!

Happy first day of summer! :)

So life/adulting/end of the school year/finances slowed us down from our end of March start to the adoption process, but here we (for real! It's official!!) go! ;)

Last Thursday, June 14, I mailed off our application to our adoption agency, CCAI, in Colorado. Benson's superstitions do wear off on me: we could have emailed the application in, but last time we mailed it (also in June) and I LOVE the Medinah post office!! They have the nicest postal workers and that hasn't changed in the six years since I sent off our first application.

The application was supposed to arrive by Monday and when we hadn't heard from them on Wednesday, I emailed to check the status. They just needed a few more numbers from us and this morning while Brayden was in speech therapy I received this email:

We weren't really worried, but still! ;)

Until we get all the paperwork and classes completed and filled out (our Dossier, which will be translated and sent to China), there's not much for our adoption agency to do (except field my anxiety-ridden calls and emails questioning how to fill out this or that form haha) It's nice to have the summer to focus on this!

This is just the top half of the page!!

A year ago, I was packing for our Disney trip; organizing this and completing a blog post is just as good! ;)

And while all I want to do is change course for a domestic adoption to adopt a child from a detention center here in America, I am SO thankful that we're adopting from a country that is Hague approved. This means, "...is an international treaty that provides important safeguards to protect the best interests of children, birth parents, and adoptive parents who are involved in intercountry adoptions". 

Baby J:

So much hope, love and prayers surround you already!

(Thanks Pinterest Adoption board for the images)

We're Back!!!

So we blinked and we've been home with Brayden for almost 4.5 years!!

He's six, in full day kindergarten, an active little guy who still loves to snuggle, and will be the BEST big brother to Baby J, aka #2!

A year ago we were ready to get the ball rolling, but we had my 20 year high school reunion friends trip to Disney World in late June, so we said after that since we'd be home consistently to answer phone calls and respond to emails (since we waited so long we have to start ALL over at square one again with the home-study process). Late May had us deciding to move first so we would have more room for our two littles to run around. Late December had us deciding to put an addition on to our house since we LOVE where we are. Late February we had blueprints and mailed in our home study application and today was our first appointment!

We were told to expect a meeting of 2-2.5 hours, but since we've been down this road before and didn't have too many questions it wasn't too bad. We were given a folder with LOTS of papers to fill out, and get filled out, so I'm excited to announce that Benson and I are officially Paperwork Pregnant!!! 😍😍