Paperwork is on it way to TAIWAN!!

Who would have thought that 26 years ago tonight when Mommy and Daddy had their first date ever (3/14/1986), that we would be sending our paperwork to Tawain for our little girl!!!  BUT that's what we got to do today!!  The paperwork came back from TECO about 2pm today.  Momma put the finishing touches on it and drove it to Mt Carmel about  and send it to Taiwan so that Trena can apply for our court date!!! Gabi and Ava were very excited to get to mail the paperwork to get "THEIR" little sister!! This is a huge step!  We are officially done (atleast for now) with our part of the paperwork!!!  Now we wait.....which wont be easy, but we are very blessed to get lots of pictures and videos of our girl!  We also know she is being taken care of and loved while she is waiting on us!!  WE ARE BLESSED!!! Gabi and Ava helping FedEx all our paperwork to get "THEIR" little sister!!  Love her little bird legs!!!!

Paperwork done!!!

Today we got the last of our paperwork back from the State of Indiana!  So now we are completely done gathering paperwork and get to send it to TECO----the last stop before it all goes to Taiwan!!!!

After work tonight Momma stayed up (with Daddy's help) and copied all the dossier so that it can be FedEx to TECO tomorrow and be on their desk Monday morning!!!! 

Papers off to TECO!

One step closer to this pretty girl :)

God's Intervention!

Today we went to Springfield IL to get all our documents for Illinois State sealed!  Daddy, Mommy and Ava went on the adventure!  It was about a 4 hour drive each way, but driving them there saved us about 10 days of waiting on the paperwork:)   The drive was longer then we had expected and we got there with only 30 minutes to spare before they closed for the day! That was the first stress!  Then we went to the wrong building!!  A nice security guard took us outside and pointed directly to the building we needed!   So Momma ran down the block to make it in time!  This broke big sister Ava's heart!  She and Daddy followed Momma, but  Ava was in meltdown mode by the time they got to the Secretary of State office! We give the lady at the desk our paperwork and she says "these wont work--I can't certify them"!!  Now MOMMA is near meltdown!!!!   I beg and plead and am ready to cry---I explain we have a daughter in Taiwan waiting for us, we just drove 4 hours each way to get it done---it will add ALOT of time on our wait----this lady won't budge!  Says there is nothing she can do!  It has to be redone! Now Momma is in meltdown mode, Ava is still crying crocodile tears because Momma left here down the block and now Momma is ready to join her!!!  Daddy just keeps saying "I don't understand"!!!   This seemed to go on forever, when a nice lady that worked there says "Im a notary and I can notarize these and then we can certify them"!!!   Praise GOD!!!!   The first lady  wasnt happy at all, but her nice coworker stepped forward and helped us!!!!!  God intervened!  Turns out the nice lady that helped us had a sister that was adopted and she has a soft spot for adoptive families :)  GOD is good!!!  So all worked out great because God put the right people in our lives at the right time all to bring our sweet baby home!!  I just love God moments!!   And we are mailing the nice lady some chocolate on Monday with a BIG thank you!!!  Bless her HEART!!!!  Everything is now State Certified for Illinois!!!!  Then Momma, Daddy and Ava went to Darcy's Pint and had a "horseshoe" that is a native food of Springfield IL!!  It was quite yummy!!!  YUMMY goodness!! THE HORSESHOE!! Momma and Ava outside the capital building!! Holding the sacred paperwork! Teasing Dayne because she got to eat at an Irish pub!  Worth it all!!!

Package from Taiwan!

Today we got all our translated papers back from Taiwan!!  YAY!!!  BIG step forward!  Tomorrow we will drive them to the Secretary of State of Illinois to be certified!! 

Also today we finished the picture portfolio :)

All our paperwork!!

Sweet Sleepy Baby

Look what I found in the inbox tonight!!  New pictures of our little sweetie!   She is so cute!!  Hard to believe that she is already sitting in the bumbo chair!  I love her hair it look so soft and a little wavy!  Can't wait put some bows in it!   And that fair skin is beautiful!   And the Looks she gives are already  awesomely  BOGARD!!!  HEE HEE!!   ATTITUDE!! Thanks Holly for the pictures!  They are Priceless!  Even if she did want to sleep through them :) Sleepy Girl! That's our Sweet Taiwan Stink Eye!

EARTHQUAKE!!!

Today Kerrigan got to experience her first earthquake!  5.9 magnitude!  This is a fairly common occurance in Taiwan, but still a little scarey for Momma and Dadda several thousand miles away from her!   His Hands was very quick to let us know that all was ok and all the babies enjoyed the Rock and Roll of Mother Nature :)  

Ava calls this the Taiwan stink eye!

The Paperchase!

We have made some progress this week on the paper chase!  It feels good to be able to do something while we wait!  This week we almost finished the picture portfolio---and YES Daddy even took some pictures of the house for this!!  WOW we will make him do paper work yet! :) 

We also got the marriage certificate ready! 

Dr Lutz signed the medicals for the court documents!  And everyone in the office and the bank (where the notary was done) wanted to see Kerrigan's picture!  Momma hated to do it, but I had to show her off!!  HA!  They all insist we bring her in to see them when we get her home! 

We sent the forms for reprocessing to Accurate Biometrics for our fingerprinting! And got our homestudy update started (just in case we need it)

Called to get our employer letters for court also!

Momma emailed and text---Trena, Gina and Kate tons of paperwork questions!  Thank you all for being patient with me!  My Momma hormones are going crazy this week and I feel like I could break down any minute (didn't think you were suppose to have hormonal issues when adopting, but I was WRONG!)   All I can think about is that sweet little girl of mine waiting for me to hold her! 

Love this girl so much already!