I CAN’T believe it! All of our paperwork for the adoption on
the United States side is complete! Check out this photo of all of our dossier
documents that will be sent to our adoption agency this afternoon, and then
China soon after!!!
It was definitely a long and in depth process to get each
document ready. The majority of the dossier documents needed to be notarized,
state verified by the secretary of state, and then certified by the China
consulate. In case you’re interested, here’s a list of what is included in our
dossier!
-Letter of Intent to Adopt
-Home Study Report (this is a huge report detailing
everything from where we grew up to our current finances)
-Certified Birth Certificates for each parent
-Certified Marriage Certificate
-Physical Examinations for each parent
-Financial Statement
-Employment Letters
-Certificates of Good Conduct for each parent
-Immigration Approval
-Passport Photographs
-Copies of our Passports
-Photographs of our family and our home
We officially began our “paperwork pregnancy” in September
2015. I honestly can’t believe we are already at the point of sending our
dossier to China. Once China receives it, our documents will be translated, and
then we will be formally logged into China’s system and available to be matched.
This is truly a huge milestone, and something to celebrate! We are one step
closer to finding our Strawberry!
Prayer has also played a significant role in this pregnancy.
God led us to this place, and he is continuing to lead us during the waiting. In
the past couple of months, we have mostly waited. Waited on Citizenship and Immigration
Services to send us approval and waited to receive documents back from the
China consulate. During this wait and without the constant filling out of forms,
the adoption has seemed so surreal to me. With my biological pregnancies, I was
reminded of our babies every time they kicked or had hiccups, or even as my own
discomfort grew. In our current waiting, I have prayed for a more “connected”
feeling. In this present season, I think God is answering that prayer through a
small voice.
Gavin is not one to pray out loud often. He always listens
as we pray, but typically says he would prefer not to. And lately if we ask
what he would like us to pray about, he requests that we pray for “apple.” Yes,
the fruit! So, we thank God quite a bit for how wonderful and delicious apples
are.
But before bed on May 26 Gavin caught us off guard and asked
if he could pray. We of course said we would love for him to pray, and we
jokingly asked if he was going to pray for apples. He told us no, and that he
was going to pray for Strawberry. This was his prayer:
“Dear God, thank you for baby Strawberry, and for how
wonderful she is. Amen.”
We told him how sweet that was, and he said he wanted to
pray again.
“Dear God, thank you for baby Strawberry, and for how
wonderful and beautiful she is. Amen.”
He has prayed similar prayers for Strawberry every night
since then. One night he prayed for her health and for God to heal her if she
was sick. Another night, he thanked God for her giggles.
This.
This is beauty.
When I have prayed to God over the past year for Strawberry,
it has mostly been for her protection, for her to securely attach to us in the
future, and for her to know she is deeply loved by God and by us. These are all
good things, but Gavin’s prayer made me aware that I have not yet thanked God
for how wonderful she is and for who she is as a person. His prayer was such an
amazing reminder to me to thank God for the things I don’t even know about her
yet! And I am so thankful for Gavin’s already tender heart for his baby sister.
