We are "having a baby"

Sometimes I have to remind myself that amidst the un-packing, paperwork, 

moving craziness - that we are indeed "having a baby", adopting a child, growing our family...

No - I am not pregnant

We are up to our eyeballs with of all the things that are happening to bring our babe home.
It's a lot of stuff. It's a challenge for each of us. It does get overwhelming. I'm just being
honest, here. We are finding out how strong we are in a lot of different ways. The truth
of it is - we aren't that strong. We just serve a God who is almighty. He is giving us all
the strength we need. When you look at things that way - it's all good. Sometimes,
though, I forget that this all goes back to a little one that we love - but don't know. Yet.

We submitted our I-800A application to the USCIS (immigration dept.) and it is in
 process right now. We are waiting for our summons to appear for fingerprinting at the
Atlanta office of the US Department of Homeland Security hopefully in 3 weeks.
Once we receive our application for immigration approval we can move forward.
We are hopeful that approval will come in August. If you would pray about that
that would be great :)

Our new goal is that our dossier (which includes immigration approval) will be on its way
to China by the end of August or early September. Once it is received and "logged in"
we will receive a "log in date" (LID). Once that is done we will begin receiving referrals.
I'm hopeful we will know who our babe is by Thanksgiving. Wouldn't that be awesome?
I'm so excited to know about her/him I can hardly stand it. It's actually a blessing that
there are so many things to think about besides that right now - my brain is about to
spontaneously combust.

So that's where we are at with the adoption process. Moving is definitely part of this
process and we are so grateful for the support from family and friends and even strangers
- as we move along. We moved into our house last week (more on that later) and
neighbors stopped by and delivered a goody bag and flowers.  How awesome is that?
Such a sweet story God is writing for our family - we are forever grateful.