A Little Behind!

Sorry, I don't have much of an update at the moment. We planned to have Kalee's room finished over the weekend. We're running a little behind but it's just about done. We are waiting to get the drapes back from being altered. I will post pictures as soon as I get the drapes back and hung. Charley painted Kristen's room last night, but we still have a little more decorating and "moving in" to do before it's finished!
As for the adoption, we are expecting the BIG BOOK titled, "How to Prepare Your Dossier for Vietnam" to arrive Fedex either today or tomorrow. Then we will once again be swamped with more paperwork. I have to say, although it's a ton of paperwork and money, so far it beats morning sickness and labor pain by miles!!!

Homestudy Scheduled!

Well, our homestudy is scheduled for Saturday, May 5th. I was a little bummed at first that it was so far away, but it will take us at least that long to prepare the rest of our documents for our dossier, so everything will work out ok there. OH....and Kalee's room is almost finished. I will post pics soon!

Busy Weekend!

Well, so far we have had a busy weekend! Charley & I had the day off yesterday. We took all four kids to the doctor for well child check-ups (it is mandatory for the adoption that we all have them done) and then we went to the Southlake Post Office and waited in line forever to get our passport applications submitted. Today we went funiture shopping for Kalee & Samantha and we found just what we were looking for! Kalee's furniture will be here on Wednesday. She is changing bedrooms and moving down the hall to what used to be the upstairs computer room. She decided now that's she's a teenager she should have the room farthest from the other "children!" Charley is busy painting her new room (as I type) LIME GREEN!!! Once we get Kalee moved, Kristen will move into Kalee's old room. Bradley & Cody are staying right where they are, but we will be painting their room. Samantha will get Kristen's old room. I can't wait to get it all done. I will post pictures of each room as it's completed.

What's in a name?

Well, I don't really have a whole lot to update about today, so I decided to post about a few things that I have thought about today! For one, last night we traded in my mini van for a GMC Yukon XL. It is roomy, pretty & perfect for our growing family! I love it! I just can't wait until I can look back at her in her car seat as I'm driving down the road! The other thing I thought about today was trying to find somewhere that does framed name meanings to hang on the wall in her room. All of our other four children were named simply becasue we liked the name. Well, not only do we both love the name Samantha Grace, the meaning is beautiful. Samantha means "LISTENER OF GOD." What more could we hope for our little girl than to be a listener of God? And the name Grace has many meanings; Ellegance, Mercy and The freely given, unmerited favor and love of God. A perfect name for a special little girl. And all that said, we will call her SAM!

The OFFICIAL Contract!

Yet another step!!! Last night we signed our names at least a dozen times on the official contract with our agency, Adoptions International Inc. Today Charley took it to the post office and now it's on its way to Jody Hall, our adoption director. The next step is our homestudy. We should have a date for that by next week.

Application sent, received & APPROVED!!!

Our application was mailed to our agency on March 5th, received on March 6th and officially approved on March 8th!!! With every little step, we become a little closer to holding our Samantha Grace, and we give God all the glory and thanks for each little step we make in this amazing journey.

The First Official Papers Get Mailed!!!

Today is a special day for us as we sent our first official papers to the CIS (Citizenship & Immigration Services) office. We filed our I-600A form which will give us our I-171H Letter of Approval (LOA). This allows us to re-enter the United States with our adopted daughter. It should take 2-4 months to recieve our I-171H form from the CIS. Pray that it comes as quickly as possible as this is one of the many documents needed to prepare our dossier. Once our dossier is complete, it will then be translated and sent to Vietnam. We should then shortly receive our referral (a picture & info about Samantha)!