The paperchase is almost over...

Last week we received our 171H form back and we mailed all of our documents to my sister Karen in Washington D.C. Today she took all the documents to the U.S. State Department for authentication. This process took about 30 minutes and everyone was apparently very helpful. Karen then took the documents to the Chinese Consulate for final authentication. She was told that they would be ready on Friday after which the entire Dossier will be ready to send to our adoption agency. We expect our documents to be sent to China by the end of next week, and we hope to be given a group number at that time. (The group number is something we can track in order to have some idea when we'll receive a referral). Words can't express how much we appreciate Karen being in Washington D.C.--usually I don't appreciate that because she's just too far away! Karen's enthusiastic willingness to help us paperchase for Leila is amazing. Each phone call I got today from her saying "I'm done at the State Department!" or "The papers are safe at the Chinese Embassy!" just felt like a giant step forward in the process. Her excitement to be part of the process means the most to me, and I can't wait to share in the China experience with her as she and her husband Taylor travel with us.

In not so great news...the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs is currently moving their offices (in China). Our agency has informed us that they anticipate delays which means our referral (the big phone call telling us that they have a baby for us!), could come anywhere from 7-10 months from when our documents are logged in at the CCAA. We are praying that it will be more like seven months, but at this point, I have given up trying to pinpoint a specific time. We know that God will give us the child HE chooses for us, and He will do so in His perfect timing.

Most of all, we are so thankful for those of you who are praying about this process for us. We would ask for continued prayer regarding the scholarships we have applied for in the past month (one at our church, two national foundations). We hope to hear from 1-2 of those in the next couple weeks. In the meantime, keep praying for baby Leila, that she'll be home with us soon!