Hooray! We have reached a milestone today by mailing in our home study to our agency here in Kansas City. It was a great feeling to take that envelope to the post office this morning! The agency will now read and revise the documents, send certain items back to us for changes, and then submit the study as the first big step completed in this process. In the meantime, we will have our home visit in September, and begin working on our Dossier. The Dossier is many of the same documents, but require a notarization, certification, and authentication process for each of them. (In short, you must send them all over the country and have them signed and resigned by important people such as the Secretary of State and the Chinese Consulate).

On a more personal note: the kids are getting very excited about this process. Madison has been helping me organize the copies necessary for each part of the process. Caeden finally seems to be understanding what is going on and often says "Leila is going to be my baby sister!" Today in the car, I was telling Caeden that we were going to the post office to turn in important papers in order for Leila to come home. He replied, 'I'm going to be Leila's big brother. And if she decides to jump, I'm going to catch her.' I'm not sure where he is expecting her to jump from, and why this same sentiment doesn't apply to his very cute and adorable 2 year old brother, but it was sweet nonetheless.

I decided to post a little poem I wrote for Leila when we first decided to adopt. Please remember that I am not gifted in this area, but I do think that it is a clear picture of Jason and my feelings at this time.

Leila Grace

Maybe you are but a twinkle in His eye. If this is true, you can be assured you are the apple of His eye, and you can trust that He has been thinking about you since time began.

Maybe He has already knit you together in your mother’s womb. If this is true, you can be assured that He has created you in His image, and you were crafted with a purpose in this life. Your mother may already be wondering, “What will be the fate of this child?” while you, dear one, grow each day, closer to your debut in this big, confusing world.

Maybe, you lie in a hospital nursery, while your sweet mother cries in the next room. Maybe she wonders “why?” Why must she part with the most beautiful gift she has ever been given? Does she feel the loving hand of God on her shoulder?

Maybe you lay sleeping in a basket…on a roadside…in a marketplace…or on a soft bed in a crowded room. Do you know that you are already loved?

Wherever you are, Leila Grace, your Creator is with you and loves you more that you can imagine. He is crazy about you, do you know that? And somewhere, halfway across the world, waits your family.

Until we meet, sweet baby, I pray that the God of both of us will hold you in His loving arms until He places you in mine.

Love,
Mommy