And now we wait . . .

Well, we officially finished all the paperwork necessary to compile our dossier, and our agency sent it off to China on February 3rd. Woohoo! Yes, this is a major milestone in the process, and I can't even begin to describe the weight that seemed to be lifted right off my chest when that happened. Months and months of chasing down document after document, getting them notarized, sending them here and there to be authenticated . . . etc. etc. etc. It's time-consuming and stressful, and I'm REALLY glad it's done.

So now we wait. And, of course, there are some other things to do, too, like complete yet another very long document required by the U.S. Government. Tony is tackling that one. And we're trying to plan and strategize ways for me to earn income next year, since I won't be teaching. And there's LOTS more money to come up with.

But on that note, let me just tell you how blessed we are . . .

We applied for and received a matching funds grant from Hand In Hand Christian Adoption, Inc. They promised to match up to $4,000 in gifts from family and friends. Many of you received an email or Facebook message about that, and we were blown away by the response. Close to $5,000 came in, so our total amount from Hand In Hand is almost $9,000! Praise. The. Lord. We have been completely humbled by these gifts, and we are so grateful to everyone who contributed. I'm still working through that list to make personal contact with each donor to say "thank you."

Now, as I said, we still have a LOT of money to come up with. Have I mentioned that international adoption is seriously expensive? But we're confident God will provide ways for us to do what He put on our hearts to do. We have applied for two other grants and are waiting to hear from them. We have some other ideas about ways to raise funds. Oh, and we're saying "no" to doing some stuff we might otherwise be inclined to do. Like eat, for example.

Just kidding. Sort of. :-)

Mostly what I'm doing today is pretending to grade papers while actually reading blog posts of people who have recently brought their little ones home from China. I'm choking back a whole bunch of tears. I seriously want to get on a plane today and just go get our little man. Why does this have to take so long??? Every day we have to wait, he's there growing and changing and becoming less of a baby and more of a toddler (although he's not doing much actual toddling, since you kinda need two legs for that). Every night he's being lovingly tucked into bed (I hope) by another "mama," one from whom he will have to endure the pain of detachment, much like he experienced the confusion and grief of detachment from his birth mother. He's there, just going about his day, doing whatever he does (and it's so frustrating for me to not have a clue what that is), having no earthly idea that there is a family of five people who talk about him every day, who look at his referral photo and ache to touch his little face, who say with regularity, "When we do this next year, it will be with Mr. Cutiepants." There's an entire extended family and a community of friends who pray for him, anticipate his arrival, and support and encourage us as we prepare for him, and he is completely unaware.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't bothersome to me because I feel like he should somehow know all of this so he can be appreciative. He's only two years old, after all. It's bothersome to me because he's my son, but unlike my other three kids, he's a half a world away missing out on all of this. So. I'd like to just go get him. Mkay?

Red tape says "no." Red tape says "we have to be certain you're not axe murderers. Or too old or too fat or unhealthy or broke or even remotely questionable in any way whatsoever."

Fine. But could you please get on with it? Because these arms need to squeeze 'em some sweet little Chinese son.