DTC!!!!!

Almost 7 months of paperwork after starting this journey, we are DTC (dossier to China)! A file of our entire life's history: background checks, employment verifications, financial statements, etc etc etc are on their way over to the People's Republic of China now. 

After it's long Fedex journey, it will arrive at the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption)- basically similar to our version of the Department of Social Services, where it will eventually be logged in to their electronic database and on that day we will be issued a log in date (LID). Once we get the log in date, we are eligible to receive a match at any time- though we expect our wait will be several months. 

Join us in our celebration of this milestone in our journey!

China-lina

In my mind, I've gone to China-lina...

Oh wait... that's not how the song goes.

But really, China is probably one of the biggest topics of conversation in our house.

Caitlin worked on this one day while I was working...

Caitlin carried this thing around with her everywhere until it was tattered and torn and as you can see in pen, she kept adding to it as she talked about China baby's journey. It is so neat to see her processing (and as she processed, she worked on the map, and she stapled to it and added to it and I eventually threw it away while she was sleeping because I'm a bad mom - but don't worry - we've made several more!). Caitlin loves to chat about Mommy, Daddy, Caleigh, and Andrew flying on an airplane to go to China to get China baby and then how she is going to be at the Lake House with Gammy and Bampa and Hudson, and how she will meet China baby at the airport, and how she will teach her everything, like how to swim and how to swing on the swing outside and how to sleep in her room. She has the sweetest little heart as she processes it all. And I know I've posted before about her sweet heart towards China baby, and I've been meaning to do a post about the big kids (and I will) - but God just works in mysterious ways, and He is working in Caitlin knitting her heart together with this baby girl, her sister, from across the ocean. I pray the same for our baby girl - that God would be working in her and preparing her heart for all that is to come - adoption is ultimately a good plan for a world broken by sin. But with it comes so much loss and my heart is heavy with that for our youngest-soon-to-be-Dyer. She has a big change ahead of her in becoming a Dyer, and though it will ultimately be good (a family!), there will be much grief in the process - much loss - the loss of everything she has ever known. And my heart hurts in that for her.

I got word today that our final documents are being picked up from the US State Department today and they'll be couriered to the Chinese Embassy on Friday (tomorrow) for final authentication. Once that is complete, our agency let us know that we should be DTC next Friday, May 27th. So exciting!

mothers day 2016

My mother's day this year was fantastic. I felt so loved. Adam did a fantastic job of celebrating me, and really it was just a great semi-regular day of being a mom. I think part of the greatness of it was that the kids are getting older and really want to participate in making it mom's day... and part of it was that my favorite thing to do, and our annual mother's day tradition is something they also love and look forward to: a Sunday late afternoon walk to Brixx for pizza outside on the patio and then ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. The weather was fantastic and we just all really enjoyed being together. It was such a great great day. 

 A stop at the park on the way home...

 It's hard to take a selfie with 6 people... (see below)

I think one of the reasons this mother's day was so sweet was that I was still riding the elation of knowing all of our paperwork is in to our agency. It feels like I'm pregnant! With a China baby! And it's so exciting. As opposed to the melancholy of the ups and downs of waiting for prior paperwork approvals when everything felt like it was moving so slowly and like it would never be here, now I can almost feel how close we are getting. It is still our hope and prayer that we would receive a referral for our China baby before Christmas. I think it's likely, but Adam will be there first to tell you that I have a thing with expectations ;) ... as in I really like them, I probably hope in them too much, I probably get too disappointed when my expectations aren't met... so I don't want to get my hopes up, or plan on a specific date. But honestly, I'm a planner, I already know I'll be disappointed if we're not matched by Christmas. But I know that "the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." (Prov 16:9) I know we will be matched in His timing.

But anyways we're excited and it was a great Mother's Day. And it is all from the Lord. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. (Romans 11:36)

I'm so looking forward to the day when we're attempting 7 people selfies, and we've got a little China baby in the middle of our blond haired crew.

all of our documents...

Some exciting movement happening! After we got our I800a approval in the mail on Saturday, April 23rd, I had to go and get a notarized copy made on Monday and then we overnighted our remaining 3 documents to the NC Secretary of State to be certified. We received those three documents back with their official NC state seals on Wednesday afternoon May 4th. Woohoo!

On Thursday morning I spent some quality time with the copy machine and finished preparing all of our final documents to send to our adoption agency. I was in a time crunch and trying to get it done in not-quite-enough time and was a bit overwhelmed and stressed. (And trying not to break out in tears over my copier-woes... technology hates me!) I was trying to get to an appointment with a friend and ultimately had to text her and cancel our plans. She was so completely gracious and sent me the sweetest prayer that she was praying for our family (thanks Trish!) God continues to amaze me with the way He works in mine and the lives of my friends - praise be to the Lord!

So after my mini breakdown I snapped a pic on the way to drop off our precious compilation of documents that we've been gathering for the last 6 months. All the documents for our dossier arrived at our agency in Virginia this past Friday. Woohoo! It's out of my hands! Insert praise hands emoji.

There are still 3 documents in the package that our agency will courier over to the US State Department and the Chinese Embassy in DC. Once those documents get their final (Chinese) seals of approval - our agency will notify us that they are sending everything to China and then we will finally be dossier to China (DTC). Hallelujah, praise Jesus. These last couple documents should take about 2 weeks to make their way through the system. We.Can't.Wait.

Seriously, we're so happy! So excited to have some movement and to be one (big) step closer to our China baby.

On another note, we have been so blessed recently by some generous donations from a couple friends to our fundraising account: www.adopttogether.org/thedyerfam

We need your help to bring home our China baby!

With our big package of paperwork, also went a check for $6,730. Completely worth it, and most of the money that we've saved toward this adoption. Once we are DTC, our fundraising efforts will kick into higher gear - we have a friend of a friend very generously working on a t-shirt design now. If you're able, we would love if you would prayerfully consider supporting us in #bringinghomeourchinababy.