Dossier Submitted

Yesterday we hit another milestone in our adoption journey. We received word from Dillon that our dossier had been SUBMITTED! It feels so, so satisfying to finally say that. Some of you may be wondering what that even means, and the short answer is this- we sent a big ole' stack of papers to Hong Kong to make sure they like us. It means other things, of course, but my adoption fried brain is all out of juice for now.

We also submitted our i800a (Application For Determination of Suitability To Adopt a Child From a Convention Country), which the USCIS has received, and we are waiting for our fingerprinting appointment as of right now. Although we've already been fingerprinted once at the county level (hello Harvey County jail, nice to meet you), we need to be finger-printed again at the USCIS, super official, FBI, Law and Order, Judge Joe Brown level. So basically, does the US government think we're good enough people to adopt?

With all of these governments deciding if we'll make good parents or not, I'm revisiting that issue myself.

Parenthood looks a whole lot different this time around.

We won't be checking in for our scheduled c-section at the hospital less than a mile from our house. Instead, we'll be hopping on a plane and flying 7,789 miles to meet a child who may or may not be happy about our arrival. We've been told T doesn't care much for adults he doesn't know (insert- us).  That's not such a pleasant scenario to imagine, but I do it more often that I should. I picture our first meeting going something like this.

-"Hi, we're you're parents. Nice to meet you." (Insert complete emotional break down here).
-T throws chairs/tables/Cheerios in our general direction. Gives us the evil eye.
-We sink further into the emotional break down already in progress and the orphanage staff escort us out (throwing our dossier at us as we leave).

SEE WHAT THIS PROCESS DOES TO ME?! I'm a worrier by nature, but this is a whole new ball game. I'm still sane enough to know the above scenario (while somewhat possible), is manageable and is probably going to go a hundred times better than I picture it now.

It all comes down to "Are we going to be good parents to this child?". I am going give it to God at this point, because I know he led us here and he won't let us fail our (His) son. I'm going to stick to worrying about things I have control over, like bedding choices. Which, I'm happy to say, have been chosen. Here's a few photos to end this rambling post once again. Thanks for sticking it out with me.

New bed from my recent trip to Ikea in Colorado, and bedding that conveniently arrived from Pottery Barn while I was gone (it's obviously the little things for me)!

-Notice the "Toothless" Build-A-Bear the girls made for their big bro next to the pillow. The sound inside his hand is Claire saying "I love you brother", but it sounds more like "I love you bbbbutter bell". Can't wait to be at the point we can send him a package!

And finally, kuddos to Husband who (without too much complaining) made trips here, there and everywhere so we could get our paperwork sent out on time. This is when we were mailing our i800. Here's to continued progress and interior design!

Love,

M.