we're clean, I promise

We just received the first to documents back that will go into our Dossier (pronounced Daws-ee-ay) to send to China. The Dossier is the most important document of our entire adoption process and will take us the next 4-6 months to complete. Once we collect all of the notarized documents we need, then these documents must go back to Pierre to be certified as being official and then they go on to Washington, DC to be authenticated one final time before heading to China. Its a big deal, a really big deal so the first arrival of documents for our Dossier is pretty cool. It means a couple of check marks off of a big, long list but its progress.

While we assured them in our signed and notarized application/agreement that we have clean records with regards to criminal offenses (speeding tickets don't count...thank goodness :), we needed proof. The state of South Dakota has declared that Carl A Nagel and Beth A Nagel are clean, squeaky clean. Oh, and they weren't afraid to notarize that either.

We have police clearance for both our home study and our dossier (thank you Julie McDonald for that time-saving tip!)

We're a teeny tiny step closer to you, baby girl!  Mommy is really enjoying using her type A part of her eclectic personality to organize our adoption guidebook, fill out online requests for documents and try and figure out this whole international adoption thing.  I've also been spending a little bit of time dreaming about what we will name you and how I'm going to turn the nursery into a very special place for you.  I think your big brothers are going to be very excited when they see the bunk bed plans I have for their room :)