Being a Soon-to-Be Mom Changes Things

Being a soon-to-be mommy sure changes the way you view things in life. Yesterday, I underwent a minor surgery (lapraoscopy) to check on a few things, and thank God I came through just fine, only a few minor pains to mention. I can't believe how nervous I was to have the procedure done. The last thing I remember saying to the guy putting me to sleep was, "I have a baby girl in China waiting on me to come and get her, so you take extra good care of me in here today." Well, he did. No pressure, right??? Becoming a mother causes you to second guess everything you do, because now there's someone else in this world who is depending on you. To say the least, it was a very enlightening experience.

We are DTC as of 5:00 Today!!!!!

As of today at 5:00 P.M., we are finally DTC (Date to China). Our dossier was sent to China today, via FedEx, and should arrive in China by Monday or Tuesday. So, here is the timeline we can expect, unless there are any glitches in the process in China:

• Dossier will arrive in China Monday or Tuesday
  
• Chinese officials will translate all of the paperwork from English to Chinese, which can take up to two weeks
  
• Translated dossier will then be sent to CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs)
  
• At this point, we will be given a Log In Date (LID). From this point we can expect a 6-7 month wait
  
• When a child is matched with us, we anticipate this to happen around April or May, then we will be sent our Referral, which contains several pictures of our daughter, birth information, abandonment information, and health records.
  
• We should travel 4-8 weeks after our referral.
  
• We will travel to China and stay two weeks in Karsynn's homeland, before we bring her home forever!
  

From this point on, it is basically a waiting game, so you may not hear very much from us. However, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and please pray that all goes smoothly and we can get Karsynn as soon as possible. Until next time...Goodnight!

Nursery Update!

It's official. I don't think there's one more thing that can even FIT into Karsynn's room. Papaw and Mamaw Davis bought us a beautiful, white rocking chair from Cracker Barrell. It is simply PERFECT! I sneak in there at night and rock, just imagining what it will be like when Karsynn finally arrives. It's the most peaceful feeling I've had in a very long time. Daddy put together a toybox, and we finally found a quilt rack and Time Out bench at the Apple Festival this weekend in Paintsville, KY. Now, all we truly need is Karsynn.

The I-171H has ARRIVED!!!!!!!!!!

Well, after many long weeks of checking the mailbox daily hoping to find "the final document" and nothing being there, our wait is finally over, but not without a few issues, of course. We received our I-171H on Monday of this past week. We were so elated, that we didn't even bother to check over it to see that it was correct, that is until later on that night. After checking it over, we found not one, but TWO mistakes. Troy's name was listed as Troy D. Harfield and my middle name was Rend and not Rena. After 72 days, you'd think they could at least get our names correct?? So, I made a phone call to Sen. McConnell's office to see if they could get things straigtened out for us in a timely manner, and they did. The updated (correct) version of the document arrived on Thursday, THANK GOODNESS. Troy took Friday off from work, and rushed our completed Home Study and the I-171H to Frankfort for authentication. Then, he stopped by AHH to see our Family Advocate, Ebbie. After checking things over, Ebbie felt that we were ready to FedEx our documents to Washington, D.C. to be hand-delivered to the Sec. of State's office for authentication, and finally to the Chinese Consulates office. When this has been done, the courier will FedEx the documents back to our agency, hopefully by this Friday, and our paperwork will be off to China. From the time China receives our Dossier, we have a 6 to 7 month wait for our referral, at which time we will see our first pictures of our daughter and will receive her birth and medical information. The wait will be long and difficult, but well worth it when they place her in our arms. To all of you who've said a prayer for us lately, we say, "Thank You!"