I Can Breathe a Sigh of Relief...

CCAI has received our dossier!
Here's to a problem-free critical review!

On Our Way to DTC (We Hope)!

We mailed our dossier today to CCAI! We sent it via Express mail, so they should have it by noon tomorrow. I just hope we pass critical review! It will feel so good to finally be DTC even if it means more waiting. At the start, I thought the dossier process would be so overwhelming, but CCAI helped make it relatively easy to accomplish. Hooray!

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday and decorated the house for Christmas. We had two very special ornaments to put on the tree this year:

We Did It!

Our dossier is all ready and we will be mailing it to CCAI on Monday! I am so excited! We went to Harrisburg last Friday to have the Secretary of State certify our documents. That was very easy and the lady at the desk who helped us had a great sense of humor. We bought Jade a panda bear while in Harrisburg. Before heading home, we went to the Lancaster outlets to do a bit of Christmas shopping.





Then on Sunday we drove to New York City. We went to Chinatown during the day. We bought a beautiful piece of art in Chinatown which we have since hung in our living room. On Monday, we went to the Chinese Consulate. It was an easy process, but we had butterflies in our stomachs! While we waited for our documents to be ready, we went to FAO Schwartz and did some more Christmas shopping. We bought Jade a pink puppy.







Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I had parent conferences at school. We had a nice Thanksgiving and I made my family pose for the last of the dossier photos!

Then yesterday we went shopping on Black Friday and wow, we were really successful! Needless to say, I feel like today is the first day I can catch my breath in some time. Today I organized the dossier and we will mail it on Monday. FINALLY!

I hope everyone had a peaceful and relaxing Thanksgiving.

Thank You, God!

Our I-797 arrived today! We are going to Harrisburg tomorrow and the Chinese Consulate on Monday. We may actually be DTC before Christmas! What a Christmas that would be!

Thank you to everyone for their good wishes!

xo

...And More Waiting

Well, I contacted our HS agency and the SW said not to worry. Apparently, USCIS has a right to take up to 120 days but she said, "Don't worry, they never do." I just want our form already! This week it will be 5 weeks. She said to give it another month and then she will check in if we don't have it. Her prediction is that we will get it within the next two weeks. I hope so!

We went to see The Prestige yesterday, and I really enjoyed it. We also went to the mall to see Santa. I love to watch the little kids with him, but there weren't really any kids around him yet because it's too early and it was 60 degrees yesterday! He sure does arrive early.

Today we watched Lady & the Tramp. I don't think I have seen that since I was little. The Siamese cat song freaked me out a bit. They were some pretty scary cats! They reminded me more of snakes than cats actually. I think I have a crush on Tramp. I said that to my mom and she said, "He is a cartoon dog." I said, "So?"

Still Waiting...

We are still waiting for our I-797 from USCIS. I kind of wish our HS agency never told us that Philadelphia has been sending them out in two weeks lately because that really got our hopes up. This week it will be four weeks. It was sent on October 10, so Philadelphia probably got it on the 12th or 13th. Every day it is so exciting to look in the mailbox...and so sad to not find it. If I can't wait for my form, how am I ever going to wait for my baby?!

We decided that both of us will buy a Christmas gift for Jade to put under the tree this year. We won't let each other know what we're buying and we will wrap them up for Jade and open each others' gifts to her. I am excited about doing this!

We found some great bargains in clothing for her at Peddler's Village this weekend. Oshkosh was having a great sale and we bought her a gorgeous sweater ($34 regularly), two shirts, a hooded sweatshirt, and two skirts all for under $25! We also found an adorable shirt at Talbot's Kids for $7 (clearance) that says I Love My Pets and it has embroidered animals on it. It's adorable. I love looking for good clothing bargains now. I usually try to buy sizes 18 mo. and up and clothes that can be worn at any time of year.

I am looking forward to our trip to the Chinese Consulate because we are planning on staying overnight in NYC and getting some Christmas shopping done. If our form arrives before Christmas, that is...