After six lonnnng months I can finally say we are done with our dossier (paperwork)! It is now on its way to our adoption agency where they will look it over and make sure its OK, then mail it off to China. Once arriving there it will then be translated and go into a pile where it waits to have the people of the CCAA go over it with a fine tooth comb. Once it passes that inspection, China will then issue us a letter of acceptance. We will sign this and send it back. Then... (deep breath)... China will issue us our Travel approval. This is their invitation to us to travel to China to pick up Ren!
Mark and I drove to FedEx yesterday with literally our life in our hands, OK life representation is a better description. What is simply called a dossier represents our life histories, blood, sweat and tears, months of work, inspections, many dollars later, and practically a whole ream of paper. OK maybe I'm being a little dramatic but that's how I felt ;-). We walked up to the counter and presented our package. Mark's hands were literally shaking, my stomach was in knots. The lady asked us if we wanted to declare a value, Mark and I just looked at each other. We didn't have to say anything to know what the other was thinking. After a huge pause we just said no. There is no way to put a value on those papers. Not because our lives are so interesting but because there is a another life counting on our paperwork. I am not ashamed to say we actually laid hands on and prayed over those papers before they were sent!
The reason for my excitement today is that our part of the work is DONE. We can now try and sit back and relax (yeah right) till the next step. The next big job will be packing, Hallelujah! Oh and did I mention shopping, lots of shopping ;-D.
