Dossier Submitted!!!!!

Here I am with the kids dropping off our dossier to Laurel, our family coordinator. It was cool being able to drive it to the office and hand deliver it. I would have been ALL over the tracking if I had to send it. She is going to hand deliver it to Ethiopia when she leaves on August 1st.........we really lucked out on that one. Well, not luck, a blessing!

Completed dossier

On Friday I actually finished doing the photcopies and our dossier is officially done! HURRAY!

AHOP fundraiser for Mina

We are planning a wine and cheese fundraiser in September. When Pete and I chose AHOPE as one of the organizations we would like to support, they got me in touch with a woman named Julie. Julie just returned a couple months ago from ET with a beautiful little girl; however she had lost her first daughter two days before travelling to get her! Her first daughter, Mina, passed away from an asthma attack right before she was able to travel and get her. AHOPE realized that we lived near one another, so I was able to attend Julie's event in Washington DC and meet her gorgeous little one!! Aren't those eyes just amazing. I think Julie was looking to raise $100,000 that night.......just incredible the amount of children with HIV that could support and help. I hope our event in September raises even a small percentage of that!

A Beautiful Day

Well this is a day that is such a blessing. One of my closest friends had her 3rd baby about an hour ago. His name is Justin Jeremieh, and he weighs 7 pounds 10 oz. They worked so hard to get him here and he is such a blessing! Praise, praise, praise for his healthy and final arrival.

On another great note.....we got our I-171 back today! They got it, certified it and and sent it out all the same day. Thanks VA SOS for being so on top of the process. They have been the quickest and most reliable of all the paperwork process. So, I am making photocopies as I type. Never did the copies of docs before sending them foe cert. so now I am having to try to fold back the seal page to copy the docs underneath. Next time I will remember that. :)

On a 3rd great note: Laurel told me this morning that she is going to Ethiopia August 1st and will just hand deliver any dossiers that are to her in that timeframe. I know it's crazy, but that gives me a good feeling. I have watched everyone in my agencies blog group track their dossiers and wait for the pick-up.....a bit stressful I must say. Maybe God is giving me this little gift since having worked on those precious papers for over 1 1/2 years. Because of our changing countries, rejected docs, expiration redo's, etc. I swear I have seen some of those papers a ridiculous amount of tmes! But, they get me closer to my babies so that's just fine.

On a 4th note, Pete sort of surprised me this morning and asked if I wanted to go to Penn State tonight when he gets home from work! We haven't been there since we had Isabelle (over 6 years ago) and we have been feeling the draw and desire to get up there....and our kids are so excited to see where mommy and daddy went to school, where daddy asked mommy to marry him and where we actually got married. It gets even better, our great friends Zach and Gene (who moved back to PSU a couple months ago) got a sitter Saturday night for themselves and when we called to say we were stopping in town they asked if we would want to share the sitter and go out for a night on the town!!!!!! O.K. now we're talking! To be able to go out at night, especially with those two and visti the old bar and club scene will be crazy. Funny, though, crazy isn't what it used to be........that's a good thing. We don't drink much anymore (it's a beautiful thing) but I bet it will be as much fun or even better. What a special treat for Pete and I (memories, romance, new love) , our kids (seeing the place where it all started, seeing where the stories come from and the pictures come to life) and our visit and freindship with Zack and Gene (reconnecting, meeting their 2nd child, seeing their new house, rehashing old memories and making new ones as adults and PARENTS!!! eek)

Funny, I took a pic of Pete this morning for the passport photos needed for dossier......it cracks me up, he was wearing his t-shirt and didn't smile. I am going to try to load it .....I am sure he will be so happy I am posting it. hee hee
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by Andrea 11:23:00 AM
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LAst of docs out the door

Today the kids and I drove to see daddy and to get our "hot off the press I-171 notorized and sent to VA SOS for certification. We were so excited to have the last visit to a notary and the last trip to the UPS store. It did however take THREE different stops at banks to get one that could notorize our doc. The first bank was not there anymore (just a cash machine sitting there....sort of funny!). Piled back into the car, on to the next bank. The notary didn't have her newly given # and it apparently is now needed to go on all things they notorize. So finally at the 3rd bank we got it right!!! We got a picure of the moment too. God must have a sense of humor, I told Pete "he's a funny guy" having us run all over to do our final task.

We got it, we got it!

I suppose this is the first of the "we got its" in our future. Yesterday was the total excitment of finally getting our revised I-171. This document allows us to go to Addis, Abba Ethiopia and return with one or two orphans. It was the final peice to our paperchasing days! Since we began our adoption journey over 1 1/2 years ago, we have been led by the Lord to switch programs and go to Ethiopia instead of China. This was such an amazing realization and truly the work of our Lord. However it did create a lot more paperwork and some redo.........now we are DONE!!! The tears flowed as I pulled the letter from the mailbox and saw the "Homeland Security" return address. What an emotional relief and amazing peace I now feel.........until the next "we got it"!! (referal day)