We are DTC!

We are officially DTC!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the adoption lingo, DTC stands for "dossier to China".  Our plea to adopt and all of our paperwork is on its way to China.  Once it arrives, we will wait 3-4 weeks for a log in date (LID) and then we are officially waiting on a referral.

We covet your prayers during this time.  These are the things we are praying for specifically.

-Wisdom for Lifeline (our agency) and Lily who will be matching us with our daughter.
-Clarity upon referral; that we would know without a doubt if we are staring at the face of our daughter.
-That God would provide a special person to love our daughter and comfort her while she waits.
-That God would prepare her heart to be adopted and provide a supernatural peace through the transition.
-That God would prepare our hearts and the hearts of our families and friends, to love her, accept her and grow her up in the Lord.
-That this process would continue smoothly and quickly. 

Thank you for supporting us and praying with us during this process.  Visit us at our family blog at http://www.birdsofafeather.blogspot.com/ if you'd like to see what we are up to as we anxiously await the day we bring our second daughter home.

One Reason to Look Forward to 30

I was going to title this post "The Top Ten Reasons to Look Forward to 30", but then I realized I couldn't think of ten reasons, however I CAN think of one really GOOD reason to anticipate my 30th birthday.  Aside from all of the paperwork, reading, learning, etc. that you must to do adopt from China there are also certain qualifications you have to meet...a minimum income level, a minimum number of years married and a minimum age...and, you guessed it, that age is 30!  We can't officially be "DTC" until my 30th birthday.  So, if you are approaching the big 3-0 and need a reason to look forward to it, may I recommend adopting a child from China.  I'm joking, you know, but this small caveat to our adoption has proven to make me look forward to an age many dread.

With that said, here is an official update on our whereabouts in this lengthy process.  We received our immigration approval today (which is ironically exactly one month before my birthday).  For those of you who don't know, that means that US immigration has approved our application to make our future daughter a citizen.  This is a big step in the process.  Next, we will complete our Dossier (a Dossier consists of your home study, birth certificates, marriage license, child desired form, and a lot of other paperwork).  Once complete, our Dossier will be authenticated and then sent to China.  Once it is received by the Chinese government, we will be "logged-in" and once we are "logged-in" we will be officially waiting on our referral. 

It won't be too much longer until we see the face of our precious daughter.  We have such a peace that God will bring her to us at His appointed time and we just can't wait to see how He will continue to knit our family together over time and distance.  Thanks for sharing in this special journey with us.