Moving right along...

We got a bunch of stuff done between yesterday and today including getting fingerprinted, requesting a police clearance letter, getting some documents notarized and certified adn going to the doctor for our medical reports. Productive 2 days!

We also got an email from the agency confirming that we need to get our paperwork to them before April 13th. Hopefully that will be possible. We will certainly try.

We also picked a name for our future daughter!!! I know it's a little early but it seems like most Intl. Adoptive parents-to-be pick out a name early. Makes it more real to call her by name instead of "the baby".

To announce the name to my mom, I made a Search-A-Word puzzle so she could figure it out without me flat out telling her. This is the easy version of that puzzle. I had given her questions to answer but they were specific questions for her so I'll just post the words to find here. Once the words are found, unscramble all the letters that appear in a pink square to solve the puzzle!

1 CHINA
2 GORILLA
3 GARDENIA
4 BLUE
5 PINK
6 SILVERBACK
7 JINGLES
8 AUSTRIA
9 PLAYPEN
10 CAMEL
11 RAYMOND
12 SEVEN
13 AIRPLANE
14 PERRY MASON
15 YOSHI
16 REINDEER
17 PANDA
18 FLOWER
19 SONJAHENIE
20 GODZILLA
21 RED
22 SNAKE
23 ELVES
24 COMET
25 BRUCE


The answer to the puzzle will be her first name and we will most likely keep her Chinese name (or some variation of) as her middle name.

Agreements Signed...

Ok so we signed the agreements and sent in the first payment! We actually have to get all of our paperwork in probably by the beginning of April so that the agency can review it and get it to China by May 1st. We contacted a homestudy agency and should be speaking to them on Monday. I'm not sure yet but I think we have to have 4 homestudy appointments, then apply to USCIS (Immigration). Our frst appointment will probably be in the beginning of January due to the holidays. That's only 2 weeks away but seems like FOREVER! Other things we have to do is make appointments for our medical reports, start the immigration process, get police clearances and I am sure I am forgetting a bung of things! I really hope we can get this all done by April. In the meantime we are both going to attempt to loose some weight just in case. That is what could hold us up if we don't get our paperwork in by April. We both have to have BMIs of under 40. Time to dust off the treadmill.

Well that's all for now.

WE'RE APPROVED!!!

We called the agency today and they told us we were approved! I was getting worried because China has just changed their eligibility requirements this past Friday and we do not qualify under the new requirements (yet) so that would have made us have to wait a while before applying again. It turns out that all we need to do is get all our paperwork in (called a dossier) by end of April in order to still be eligible under the existing requirements. So let the paperchase begin!!

I've been meaning to try to post some pictures so here it goes.

Here's a picture of our puppy Yoshi. He's a Shiba Inu and is 8 1/2 months old. This is one high energy dog let me tell you!

"Come on Mom, can't I have some more sugar pleeease?"

Yoshi got his first Xmas card today from my Mom with a cute little note inside for him and one dollar... (notice it has cats on the front)

If you can't read the note it says "To Yoshi, Merry Christmas. put this dollar in the bank for your little sister. Love Grandma". Now how cute is that?

We picked a different agency!

Ok, so after a minor glitch, our first bump in the road, we are applying with a different agency. We're going with our second choice (which should have been our first choice) Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI). We Fedexed the application today so they will have it tomorrow morning. Hopefully we will hear something by the end of this week or beginning of next week and can officially start the process.