Waiting...

So, still waiting on US Immigration. I'm hoping that will come through in the next two weeks.

NC quickly fixed the document they messed up.

St. Thomas NOT so quickly fixed the document they messed up.

In any case, everything (minus immigration approval) is in Washington DC. First everything gets authenticated at the US Department of State, then the documents make their way to the Chinese Embassy. Our courier emailed me yesterday to tell me all the documents looked great, and will go to both in the next few days.. She anticipates them being done on Friday. So, I'll have those all ready, and the rest of our dossier. I can send it all to our agency coordinator, Xiaoqing. She will make sure it is all correct, and then the only document left is from immigration.

I'm still holding out hope that we will get our dossier to China (DTC) in June. And that we can travel in December, before Christmas. I don't know that either will happen, but right now both are still a possibility.

That's all that's going on in the paperwork process. No new news on Tessa, but hopefully we will get some when we send a care package after DTC.

Mother's Day

This has been a great Mother's Day with my boys! We went to breakfast and church, then Mommy went to the movies for some quiet time. I met back up with Eric and the boys for pizza later, then we came home for baths and bedtime. We put two little boys in their cribs at 6:53pm, and they were both screaming. The house was silent at 6:54pm. It always amuses me how they put on such a show, but are truly exhausted.

This is my last Mother's Day without Tessa. For that I am very grateful. It still doesn't make me any more patient. I hate waiting for nonsense paperwork to go through and be approved. It's so hard to wait.

I'm reading a book right now by Xinran, called "Message of an Unknown Chinese Mother". Reading this, combined with it being Mother's Day, has me doing a lot of thinking about Tessa's biological Mom. Which we'll be calling her "tummy Mommy" with Tessa. I am so grateful to her. First for not aborting Tessa. Secondly, for choosing to let Tessa live. In the book I am reading, there are stories of rural villagers smothering or drowning their baby girls right after birth. I am immensely grateful to Tessa's tummy mommy for choosing life for her baby girl not once, but twice. And to leave her in a safe place, where she could be found and taken to an orphanage, is beyond what I could ever communicate my thanks for. Because of her choices, Tessa is going to grow our family's life more than we can imagine.

So I think about her today, and how she must be grieving. Wondering where Tessa is, how she is, is she warm, fed, loved, and happy. The EXACT same things I'm wondering. Two Mommies, one daughter, and a LOT of love. But she will never know the answers to those questions. She will forever grieve for her daughter, and never know if she is loved and happy. That breaks my heart for her, from one mother to another. I am the lucky one. I get to kiss Tessa's sweet face each day, and know how loved and happy she is. I am counting down...

Frustrated and Sad

I'm having a pity party tonight. A poor pitiful me kinda night. I know this is normal during this process; the wait and uncertainty of just how much longer the wait will be, can drive a person mad. Thank God Eric is sane. Nothing fazes that man, I swear. He just takes it as it comes, and goes with the flow.

Still waiting on St. Thomas to send back the marriage certificate authentication they screwed up.

Finally got everything back from NC. They screwed up one document. Sent it back today. Waiting on that of course.

Now hoping to get the last paper from NC, and the paper from St. Thomas back by Friday. (Fat Chance.) Then send to our courier in DC.

Getting fingerprinted tomorrow. Then continue to wait on immigration approval.

Now, all this is stuff just to get our dossier compiled. That's the big file that tells China all about us. I see that as Phase I in my mind. Then, there is Phase II. When we started this whole process, we were thinking Phase II would take about 5 months. But, much to my dismay, some of the steps of Phase II are taking a ridiculously long time. I'm so sad for the people ahead of me waiting, and even sadder for Tessa and our family.

I'm just having a down in the dumps kinda day. I want to hold my baby girl.