In this lovely FedEx folder holds some very precious documents……dossier documents to be exact!  Birth certificates, a marriage license, employment letters, financial status letter, home study, criminal checks, and health exams.  It does not sound like much to you, but to me it is months and months of hard work.  It is making sure everything has been spelled correctly, notarized correctly, and even stapled correctly.  It is doing somethings over because they were not perfect the first time.  It includes being very patient, being stuck several times because the doctor didn’t order the right blood tests the first time.  (For me, thank you very much)!!  It includes not only getting original birth certificates, but also a marriage license.  Then when you get them, you send them back to the home state for the Secretary of State to seal them.  With payment, of course.  For us, that included Arkansas and Missouri.  The other documents went to the Indiana Secretary of State for the seal, no payment required there!!  PTL!!  Then it required the documents from Arkansas going to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for authentification and the rest of the documents going to the Chicago Chinese Consulate.  They required $20 per document, plus a courier fee for each trip. 

Adoption is definitely not for the faint of heart!  Knowing the rewards of my hard work make all of this worth it!  I will celebrate each step along the way, I have too.  If I don’t, I would probably go crazy!! 

Thank you God for the wonderful family that I have and for another daughter halfway around the world!!

Blessings, Heidi