DTC! DTC! DTC!

DTC means, "Dossier to China" This is the magical time that we work so hard for. This is the culmination of all our running around getting paperwork from all corners of the earth, having it notarized, authenticated, approved and who knows what else. This is what we have been working towards for almost a year. Any day now, our dossier (our paperwork) will be on its way to China. We are so excited. Here are two really good things about this process. We don't have to send it! I have read horror stories about people stapeling items and not paperclipping them or putting things in the wrong order and then it was all sent back. We are so lucky, our agency (Homeland Adoption Services) is taking care of all that! Another thing that helped was a generous gift from Elizabeth and Chris Harned to allow us to send our final agency fees to Homeland so they could send the Dossier out. With out the help from the Harneds, we would have been waiting a few more months before we could send the check out.

When I get the exact date of our DTC, I'll be sure to post it. Then the next exciting date we wait for is our LID. That is our Log In Date. The date that we get entered in the system in China. The dossier has to go and be translated first before it goes to China. Then after it enters the system in China, we wait for about a year. Yes, that is not a type-o, I said a year. It is ok, because we will have to raise about $15,000 more, to cover the $600 for our homestudy to be redone (it expires in the spring) $4600 in fees to China when we accept our referal and over $10,000 to travel to China.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support in this process. It means so much to us that there are so many of you out there that care so much for us and our daughter. I can't wait to meet her and I can't wait for you all to meet her too.

Successfull Creative Memories Event

On August 19th, I had a Creative Memories all day crop to benifit our adoption fund. I charged $25 per person, had 10 people, so $250 went into our fund. We held it at Calvary Memorial UCC (where my parents attend) The church let us use the space for free and several of my customers brought the food, so there was no cost to me. I am planning to do another crop in February and hopefully will have more people there. Thanks to everyone that attended and brought food or donated items for the prizes.