Out of Review - Woohoo!!!!

I am so excited to say that our dossier is out of review! CCAA announced they are through 9/30/06. What a milestone! I never really had any fears that we would be rejected or questioned because CCAI (our agency) did such a good job getting our dossier ready but still it is a HUGE relief to know that someone in China has actually looked at and approved our dossier. Even though we still have a loooong wait ahead, at least we are moving to the matching room. I am so happy that I am in tears!!!!! We are one step closer to Mia Jade!!!

Thankful as can be

This Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for. First and foremost is thanks to God for our son Zane. How could we possibly have known this time last year that he would be in our lives this Thanksgiving. I am thankful for the choices his birthmother made; for the support she was given. I am thankful for my husband; for his love and friendship. It was a long and difficult journey to become parents and we were together in our journey every step of the way. Thankful for our families and their endless support for us. We are so very blessed and we give great Thanks!

Congratulations Clark Family!!!

I'm so excited for my friend Donna & her family who received their referral for her beautiful daughter Lainey! To visit her blog & see her picture go to Handsful. I'm especially excited because not only is Donna in my favorite Yahoo group but she also lives in the same town as us so she can be friends with Mia Jade! Congratulations again!!

To renew or not to renew?

With everything going so smoothly with Zane, we have to take a moment to focus on Mia Jade. Our all important 171H, the document from Homeland Security that says we can bring an orphan to the US, is about to expire - in January technically. Our agency says to start now if we want to renew it. The government has allowed one free renewal of the almost $700 application. But the problem is even our agency doesn't think we will get Mia within the 18 month time frame of the new form. The problem with the "free" renewal is that all the supporting documents are not free. So do we spend the money to get a free renewal that won't do us any good (probably) or let it expire and start all over when we know it will be the document that we really need? Either way will cost a lot more money! It's very frustrating to know what to do. But as I said, everything is great with Zane. We count our blessings evey day! We won't let this 171H thing get us too down!

Our beautiful Zane

This beautiful photo was taken by my mom. One of our few pictures that shows those beautiful eyes. He is only 2 days old here and getting ready to come home.

Stork Alert

My girlfriends at work gave us with a stork for our yard announcing Zane's birth. It really surprised our neighbors who didn't know about our domestic adoption plans nor saw me 9 months pregnant!