I took a break this afternoon for lunch and a nice, long visit with my good friend, Cindy.  She was gone much of the summer, and it was so good to have her in our home again.  I'm always encouraged after spending time with her.  Thanks, friend!

One thing she did was to help us work on those family photos.  Just in time too!  My oldest daughter, Sarah, described the "walk in the woods" photo from yesterday like this. "That walking in the yard picture is hilarious and kind of terrible. It looks like, "We go for walks in the woods. And a random supermodel comes with us."  I totally laughed out loud, REALLY loud when I read that!  So, here are a couple more tries that I think are going in our packet:

We were bumped to another level and assigned our own caseworker today, so I guess that is progress.  We did more signing and more notarizing today with the goal being a nice, big package of documents to go into the mail tomorrow.  I hope the US Mail is functioning better than our agency's e-mail server.  It has been bouncing back to me most of the day.  

After this package is mailed, there are only two things remaining to send for the Pre-Approval from China.  

1. The "Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan" aka "The Letter of Intent."  This consists of eight specific and rather detailed questions we must answer to convince the Chinese authorities that we would be a good placement.  Um...then it states "Your plan should be one typed paragraph and no longer than half a page."  Whaaaaaaat?  Looks like I need to CALL (since the e-mail isn't working!) and make sure that is accurate.

2.  The Parenting Resource Plan.  Yes, still working on THE dreaded document.  It is thirty-six pages so far.  I have only a couple more sections, so hopefully we'll top out at forty pages and be done.  This has seriously been grueling brain work. 

We registered for our first of several required classes today.  This first one is called, "Coming Home: Adopting the Older Child." 

 

I'll close with a link that I've gone back to many times.  I love what this guy has to say.  He sums it up well for us, but much better than I could have said it.  A little investigating, and what do I find?  This guy is an orthopedist right here in Cincinnati!  Amazing!  He and his wife are in China RIGHT NOW and have just gotten the two children he talks about here.  I have followed their journey through their blog.  Amazing.

 

The Question Everyone is Afraid to Ask: Are you crazy?