Getting closer!

Our homestudy FINALLY went to our adoption agency on Monday after an unexpected 2 week delay. Yayyyy! We are so excited to be one more step in the process. Our agency has up to a week to make any changes that are needed in wording/format and then they send it back to the homestudy agency here in Boise to be finalized. After this point we can start the process of authenticating our dossier (which is a fancy word for sending it to a lot of government agencies for various stamps and seals).

We are also getting really REALLY anxious for an update. Our agency requests one every 3 months from the orphanage, which means January is the month they request next for us. I am so ready for a new picture of our boy and am crossing my fingers for a possible video! We cannot ask them for specific details (like a video) but I know some people in the process have received this welcome surprise. We are also hopeful for an updated weight and height, but again, we will be happy for any information we can get! And, just a note, although our agency REQUESTS an update this month, it may take a month or two for the orphanage to respond to this request. So although we are aware of the fact that it can take a bit to get an update, we are praying for it to come very soon!

Obviously, many adopted children have little to no history prior to adoption to look back on when they are older. Our boy is no exception to this. But--the internet is an amazing place and through another adoptive mom I learned about a site where you can request (for a small fee) your child's "finding ad."  This is the ad the orphanage is required to post in a local (Chinese) paper at some point in the child's early life. Some orphanages place this ad right away, some post it after a few years. *side note--We have already become VERY aware through this process that the Chinese government does not operate like the US government, and we are trying to roll with it since we have no control over it. But I digress. Back to the finding ad--I have been in contact with one of the companies that has copies of Chinese newspapers dating back to 1999...and he found our boy's ad! We should receive it within about 14 days and he let me know it does have a small black and white picture in the ad of Z when he was much younger. We are so excited to have this little piece of our boy's history.

We are so excited things are moving forward again and so thankful for all of the prayers for this. Please continue, as always, to remember our boy Z. We are acutely aware that he is in a less than ideal place-although it seems they are taking good physical care of him, it is an orphanage, not a family. We continue to pray daily that he is being loved by someone and communicated with in a loving way. We pray for this process to go as quickly as possible, all the while realizing we are not in control of any of it.

Thank you as always for your kind words that make every day easier. We are so blessed by all of you.
Aaron and Sarah