Excuse me while I jump and shout!!!!!!
OUR DOSSIER IS ON IT'S WAY TO CHINA!!!!!
We got an email today with our FedEx tracking number! It was sent out yesterday!!!I just checked the FedEx number and it has made a stop in Anchorage, Alaska!!!
We are THRILLED to finally be at this point!!!
Brinley, we will be there soon!!!! :)

Okay......I know everyone is sick of hearing about the dossier but we are soooooooooooo excited to know that Stefani (at our adoption agency) has it!!! I just feel like shouting!!! Next stop for our dossier is CHINA!!!!!!!!! Hooooooooray!!!!!!!!! Stefani said she thinks our dossier will go out Friday!!!
Still hoping to have our baby home to celebrate Jesus' birthday with us!!! :)

Dossier Goes To Utah

Our dossier is on it's way to Utah to be translated and then it should be on it's way to China by the end of the week!!!!

Marty came home with a big bouquet of flowers and the sweetest card this evening and announced, "HAPPY DOSSIER DAY!!!!!
"Brinley is called "YaYa" in the orphanage. Our kids have all called me "YaYa" ever since Marty and I were married 2 years ago. Keith is Marty's bio son and he didn't know what to call me so Kristen told him that I said I wanted to be called "YaYa" when I have grandchildren. So, I have been "YaYa" ever since.......so, now we have two YaYas!!!
The envelope of the card Marty gave me says "YaYa #1". LOL

Dossier Arrives!

Marty and I were out on the deck this morning talking and he looked around the corner of the house and said, "FedEx Truck!".
I believe our dossier is now complete!!!

HOORAY!!!!!

This is a photo of our dossier documents! Isn't it beautiful??? LOL

Fed Ex Bound Dossier!

Thank goodness it's Friday! That means our papers will be jumping on that big FedEx plane and making their way back to us today!
HOOOORAY!!!!
Our completed dossier will be in the hands of our agency's China coordinator...the wonderful Stefani...in just a few days! We are still praying that we will have Brinley here at home with us for Christmas. If she's not, it will still be okay because she will be with us on the day she is supposed to be........but it sure would be nice to have her here with us to celebrate Jesus' birthday. It's looking like we won't be traveling with our friends Rachelle and Tim.....that makes me sad but I am so excited that they will have Gracie home soon!!!! Rachelle and I have traveled every day of this adoption journey together so far.....and we're not stopping now!!! :) We just might have to travel at different times but we will definitely be together in spirit!!! ((((Rachelle))))
Josh (20) will be moving to Charlotte the first week of October. I'll be so sad to see my baby go but I know that he will be fulfilling his dream of going to art school and he is so talented! I am so proud of him for following his dream! I'm glad he'll only be an hour and a half away in Charlotte. That means he'll be ableto come home and visit often! :) Brinley will have Josh's room when he leaves. It will seem strange to have a pink room where Josh's guy stuff has been. LOL We will still have plenty of room for Josh, though when he comes home!

The FedEx won't even leave Washington until this evening........andI'm already listening for the FedEx truck! ROFL!!!

Fed Ex Bound Dossier!

Thank goodness it's Friday! That means our papers will be jumping on that big FedEx plane and making their way back to us today!
HOOOORAY!!!!
Our completed dossier will be in the hands of our agency's China coordinator...the wonderful Stefani...in just a few days! We are still praying that we will have Brinley here at home with us for Christmas. If she's not, it will still be okay because she will be with us on the day she is supposed to be........but it sure would be nice to have her here with us to celebrate Jesus' birthday. It's looking like we won't be traveling with our friends Rachelle and Tim.....that makes me sad but I am so excited that they will have Gracie home soon!!!! Rachelle and I have traveled every day of this adoption journey together so far.....and we're not stopping now!!! :) We just might have to travel at different times but we will definitely be together in spirit!!! ((((Rachelle))))
Josh (20) will be moving to Charlotte the first week of October. I'll be so sad to see my baby go but I know that he will be fulfilling his dream of going to art school and he is so talented! I am so proud of him for following his dream! I'm glad he'll only be an hour and a half away in Charlotte. That means he'll be ableto come home and visit often! :) Brinley will have Josh's room when he leaves. It will seem strange to have a pink room where Josh's guy stuff has been. LOL We will still have plenty of room for Josh, though when he comes home!

The FedEx won't even leave Washington until this evening........andI'm already listening for the FedEx truck! ROFL!!!

Chinese Embassy

Our documents have made it to the Chinese Embassy! They went through the U.S. State Department today!!! Good grief but I am EXCITED!!!!!Marty isn't home from work yet so he doesn't know. I may have to call him to tell him! LOLGod is so good!!! We are so very thankful that He created this child just for us and He is providing for us to bring her HOME every step of the way!!! It is so humbling when I think of all that God has done for us. Thank you everyone for your prayers!!!!
...even closer to Brinley than we were this morning! :)

Chinese Embassy

Our documents have made it to the Chinese Embassy! They went through the U.S. State Department today!!! Good grief but I am EXCITED!!!!!Marty isn't home from work yet so he doesn't know. I may have to call him to tell him! LOLGod is so good!!! We are so very thankful that He created this child just for us and He is providing for us to bring her HOME every step of the way!!! It is so humbling when I think of all that God has done for us. Thank you everyone for your prayers!!!!
...even closer to Brinley than we were this morning! :)

We love you, Aunt Ruby!

Today, Marty took our two papers that didn't pass the Secty of Statesinspection to have them done again. Then he is FedExing everything toour courier this afternoon. Scarey! I thought I'd pass out when hedrove away with everything. So far, I have always had them right whereI could get my hands on them if I needed them. It's not that Martyhas them.....it's that they are going to be dropped off at FedEx andthen out of sight. We'll just have to pray that our package makes itquickly and safely to Carol in Washington.On a sad note, Marty's Aunt Ruby died Saturday evening. We are so sadthat Aunt Ruby won't be here when we bring Brinley home. We never evenhad the chance to tell her about Brinley. I know she would have justloved her! Happier news is that Aunt Ruby lived a long (81 years),healthy and happy life and she got the joyous news Saturday morningthat she was going to be a great-grandma for the first time. Everyonesaid she was absolutely thrilled!We will truly miss Aunt Ruby with her sweet smile and gentle voice.What a lady!!! :)

IT'S HERE!!! We have the I171H!!!

It's here! It's here!!! We are having everything certifiedtomorrow!!! We already had the appt to have everything else certifiedbut now we can have this done, too!!!!HALLELUJAH!!!!!Stefani, everything will be on it's way to you in a few days!!!!I am soooooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!Hang on, Brinley!!!Mama & Daddy are coming for you ASAP!!!!!

The I-171H Blues

Instead of our I-171H, we received a letter from CIS stating that they need an ammended home study. They need more information on Kristen since she is an adult living in our home. Please pray for us that all of this can be taken care of very quickly. It has to go through our social worker and then DSS again and then back to Citizenship and Immigration. So close....wait, wait, wait.
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It seems that our awesome social worker has conquered the great and powerful CIS for us and that we should have our I-171H very soon thanks to the help of some wonderful ladies at DSS! (THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED US GET THIS MESS STRAIGHTENED OUT!!!)Today we received my passport and Marty's passport. I suppose Brice and Keith's will be here within the next few days. Keith is really excited about having his own passport and wants to take it to school. Marty told him he can take it AFTER we come home from China. :)We have an appointment next week with the Secty. of State in Columbia to have all of our documents authenticated. HOORAY!!! We made the appt for Friday just in case we get the I-171H. Then we can have it all done at once! Such a nice lady I talked to at the Secty. of State's office. Once again a HUGE thank you to VJ for guiding me through exactly what I need to do to get these papers authenticated!Marty and I have a date tonight! :) Probably going to BabiesRUS....a big change from our usual dates of WalMart and Lowes! LOL

Kristen sang at church last night. Before she sang she told everyone that it was her baby sister's birthday and that she is now 2! Preacher Kimmett passed around a picture of Brinley to everyone while Kristen sang. Here are some photos of her cake and our family last night. Keith wasn't with us. He is in Tennessee on vacation with his mom and grandparents. We miss him very much and will be very happy to see him again Sunday!

All ready for our birthday girl!

Brice lit the candle for us.

He blew out the candle and made a wish for her, too. He said later that his wish is that Brinley will be happy with us forever!

Our family........minus Keith and Brinley!

Happy Birthday Brinley!

It's tomorrow in China and that means it is Brinley's 2nd birthday. We truly wish with all of our hearts that we had her here with us....eating ice cream and cake and tearing into packages and being a silly two year old!! I guess the best birthday gift she could get right now would be for us to receive the I-171H tomorrow on her birthday here. We've got our fingers crossed for it! We bought a little cake that says "Happy Birthday Brinley" on it and we bought her a new See 'n Say and a little Sonya Lee doll. We're going to celebrate tonight after supper with our cake and ice cream and we'll take pictures for her Life Book. I can't help but think of her other family. I hope and pray that in their hearts they have peace and that they somehow know that she is okay and loved very much.

Passport Photos!

There was a post on our Yahoo! Groups that P.A. was received for 3 families yesterday. Stefani (the director of Chinese adoptions at our agency) is out of town. I am hoping that our's is one of them that was received yesterday. I'm practically sitting on the phone waiting. I know we have the 'unofficial' P.A. but we are really anxious to have the OFFICIAL one, too!Keith, Brice, Marty and I had passport photos taken today. Marty had his done at WalMart during his lunch break. $30+ for 6 pictures. Keith, Brice and I went to CVS Pharmacy and got 16 photos each on a sheet and each sheet was only $7.99. Wow! What a difference! I guess Wally World is NOT always the lowest in prices.Marty's mom and dad came over for supper tonight. It's always nice when they come over. We showed them our vacation video. They laughed at Marty and the boys jumping off into the lake! Keith is leaving Saturday to go on vacation with Maria and her family. He is really excited about going. He loves spending lots of time with Thacker and Doris!I know Brice will miss him while he's gone, though.Mom is supposed to be coming to visit tomorrow and stay for a few days.....that will certainly perk Brice up if his "Dee" is here!

We have PA!

PA!!!!!!!! We have official word that our PA has arrived at CHI. We are going to be Brinley's mommy and daddy!!!! OH HAPPY DAYS!!!!We received an email from Stefani today letting us know that it did arrive and that she will mail it to us next week! HOOOOOOORAY!!!!!We went and took care of all of the paperwork for our passports today. So, Marty, Keith, Brice and I will all have passports in just two weeks. Hopefully, by then we will have everything we need to finish up the paperwork and send it on to China! What a glorious day that will finally be!!!Mom is here today! I'm glad she was here when we got the PA! She is so very excited and happy about Brinley! :)We are going shopping tomorrow for a high chair and a carseat for Brinley.Josh has decided that he may want to attend college in Charlotte rather than way down in Tampa. I hope he will decide this is what he wants to do. Tampa is so far away!!! We would miss him so much and he wouldn't get to see his new mei-mei very much......or the rest of us!!! Please keep him in your prayers!Sharon :)BRINLEY'S MOMMY!!!!!!!!

Hooray!

Okay, I take it back! We just received a letter from DSS. Our homestudy is on it's way to USCIS!!! HOORAY!!! Everyone remind me about patience, okay????? :)

I-171H

Today we found out that our homestudy hasn't made it through DSS and on to USCIS in Charleston yet. Our best guess as to when we will get the I-171H is August 22 if all of the processes run on average times. We have to have the I-171H before we can send our dossier to China. That is why it is so important to us. Once the dossier is logged-in in China, it will be about 4 months before we go for Brinley. That puts us going in January now rather than in November or December when we were hoping to go. Please, everyone, pray that we will get our I-171H in record time so that we can bring our daughter home as soon as possible. I realize that it is in God's hands and that it will work out in His perfect timing. I just have to keep reminding myself of that......sometimes it's not easy."Wait for the Lord; BE STRONG, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord!"Psalm 27:14

We have PA!

We went on a little vacation to Oconee State Park. We left Wednesdayand returned yesterday evening. Thursday Rachelle called and told usthat PA (Pre-Approval) is on it's way!!! I started crying when I gotthe message!!! HALLELUJAH!!! Marty and I were so happy to finallyhear something!!! Then Saturday I had another message fromRachelle.....the girls aren't going into foster care after all. I amrelieved because I think it would be too much change for them in sucha short amount of time. I feel even more strongly about this now thatI found out that Brinley and Gracie would only be with a foster familyuntil 30 days before we go for them and then they would go back to theorphanage. So much change for these little ones!So, now we are trying to get our passports as quickly as possible. Weare going to have them expedited so that we don't have to wait 6 weeksfor them, just in case we get TA (travel approval) quickly.One step closer, Brinley!!!! :)BTW...I guess I should mention that Rachelle and her husband Tim are also adopting a little girl from Guilin and we are using the same agency. We have become close friends in the past month! It is highly suspected by some that our daughter's may, in fact, be fraternal twins. We shall see. We are hoping to travel together! It will be interesting to watch the girls interact if we are able to go together!

Homestudy

We have an official, notarized copy of our homestudy! YAY!!!!We received it Saturday, July 16!We're almost there!!! Now we are just waiting on the i171h to comeand then all of our documents can be sent off to the Chinese Embassyin Washington, DC for authentication! HOORAY!!!Not much longer, Brinley!!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Wow! A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Our homestudyhas been completed and we have been fingerprinted.The homestudy was a breeze. June Bond is our social worker. Shecame very highly recommended and I can see why. She really gets thejob done!We had our fingerprints done on July 1! We were in good companywith VJ Allred, her husband Dave and their 3 year old daughter Jada.It was the first time Brice, Keith or Marty had been around a littleone from China. I think they all would have brought Jada home withthem if they could have because she is just so incredibly cute!Now we are waiting on our I-171H to come back from USCIS (thefingerprintin' folks).Our LOI is sitting in Charlene's office in Utah, just waiting on theFedEx man to pick it up tomorrow. It's been sitting there sinceFriday. They must have missed the shipping time Friday. We are allanxious to watch it's progress to China.I've bought some cute little clothes for Brinley and we've evenbought her a few toys. Not much available right now for Fall orWinter so I cruise through eBay frequently just hoping to findsomething oh-so perfect for our little Miss Brinley!Marty is getting really excited about Brinley. We talk about her alot and frequently he is the one who initiates the conversations.He's even talked to Alissa Furtick at church about adoption when sheasked him some questions about it.More later.