Sweet Little Toes

I was just talking to a friend yesterday who is also in the early stages of adoption.  We were giggling as we talked about the ways that bonding may be different with these special additions of ours.  She said, "I wonder if I'll need to like wear a low cut shirt so we can have that "kangaroo" time when we first meet(skin-to-skin bonding which is considered very valuable to newborns/infants)?" We laughed, but in all seriousness...there is a lot about bonding with an adopted child that is uncharted waters.  Will we still marvel at every little feature on our daughter's sweet little body?  Will we spend an abundance of time admiring her precious little hands and her adorable little toes.  yes. Yes. YES!!  I am sure that just like we have with our little bio, our bonding may be slightly different but there will be no stopping the awe that will come from soaking in God's handiwork designed perfectly in every way.  Ahhhh...I can't wait!
This morning while checking New Day's blog I realized that Hope's pretty little spotted toes were helping to "decorate" their site this morning.  Oh.  So.  Sweet! (Notice how they have her in a hat to protect her from the sun...thank you, Jesus for the wonderful care she is getting!)

Praying for the special family who will get to soak in every special thing about her from the top of her head to those precious little toes.  Give this baby a family, dear God!!  May your will be done in her life and ours.

Passports!

We sent in our passport applications on Thursday, July 21st over Carl's lunch hour. They said it would take about 3-4 weeks to get them.  We need valid passports to travel to China, of course, but we also need valid passports for our Dossier.  I'll explain all about the Dossier another time, but suffice to say its a VERY important document in our adoption journey and we are in the "gathering" phase of getting that ready to send to China. 

"Hope"-ful Update

I have gone back and forth about whether I should even be posting about Hope, the sweet little girl who has been pretty influential in getting our adoption plans rolling, until the time we are officially matched with a child. After all, Hope may not turn out to be our forever child and then what? What if I have all these updates and information about a little girl who turns out not to be our daughter at all? Something tells me that my sadness in not being able to snatch Hope up will be quickly filled with the joy of knowing who our child is and that Hope will have a family of her own as well.  Not to mention that our daughter, whoever she may be, will know that God uses all kinda of people and places together for the good of those who love him. There is no doubt about it. Hope is part of our daughter's story whether Hope is our daughter or not. Hope is being used for the good of our family and the good of our daughter-to-be. What a special gift she's already given to us all!

"It will all come out in the warsh." as Grandma Julia would say. While we wait to learn who our daughter will be, I am continuing to pray for Hope and loving her to the best of my ability as a "sponsor" from this side of the world.

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 :)

I don't want to forget

We've spent the last few weeks sharing our exciting news with our family and friends.  To be honest, we've had mixed reactions.  Some are over-the-top excited for us as we embark on this process and others...  Well, some of their reactions resemble what you might expect when you announce that you're expecting your eighth child.  We have not wavered in our hearts desire to adopt regardless of all kinds of circumstances that seem to appear to the world as "cards stacked against us."  I know that God has called us to adoption without a shadow of a doubt.  I know it will not be an easy process.  I know that we are going to be stretching ourselves in every way imaginable to bring our daughter home and I WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY.  God is good and he's in complete control of even the smallest details.  We're just following in his footsteps, putting one foot in front of the other, and it feels really good :)

Because I don't want to forget one very special response to our adoption news...

and because he may not be around to meet our daughter...

and because it reflects who he is to very core...

I want to share my Grandpa Roling's reaction to our adoption news.  He has a huge heart and says exactly what's on his mind at all times these days.

After my mom took some time to really explain to my Grandpa Roling, who is very hard of hearing, about our plans to adopt a little girl he responded initially with, "Ohhhhh, what next?" and after taking a moment to ponder...he said, "Oh, she'll have a great home...and she'll be spoiled!"

 
Yes, Grandpa...we are biting off a lot at this time in our lives.  We might be crazy, but we certainly have enough love to share as we grow our family in this special way.  We simply know that there is a little girl that needs a family and we are absolutely up for the job :) Yes, we'll give our daughter a good home just as your mom raised your "adopted" siblings.  In fact I think you might understand this adoption thing better than most because you lived it growing up.  Yes, our daughter is sure to be spoiled.  I know I will be absolutely useless in preventing that from happening :)  I sure hope that you're able to meet your 14th great-grandchild.  I just know she'll bring a sparkle to your eyes.

Accepted into the Program!

The news came tonight!  We have officially been accepted as a family in process to adopt a child from Holt's China Program.  WOW!  This is a big step in the right direction.  What that means is that we now have secured Holt as our adoption agency and they are going to lead us through the process to bring home our little treasure.  It also means we are now officially paper chasing our way toward the completion of our Home Study--a very big step in the adoption process.

Curious about the perks of being accepted into the China Program?

Well, first of all you have access to a wide array of resources describing every tiny detail of Holt's process of adopting from China.  It takes the form of a huge binder filled with very important information and, after a trip to Kinko's,  looks like this:

I fell asleep daydreaming of little girl names Wednesday night with tears in my eyes.  Its hard to explain, but it feels just like I did in the early days of my pregnancy with both of the boys.  The news today was just like getting a positive pregnancy test :)  What a great day!

Fingerprints Galore

Yesterday was a big day in this first trimester of our pregnancy of the heart. Carl and I had our first "appointment."  Unlike with our boys, the first OB check up for this little one took the form of a trip to the cop shop for fingerprinting!  

Lincoln was being a bit uncooperative about a family picture, but really enjoyed seeing the machine scan our finger prints and then watch them print out.  Sully?  He was in total aww of all the police cars everywhere and kept saying "2 Cawww, 2 Cawwww!"  (his quote from Cars 2).

We have been digging our way through paperwork this past week while we await our official approval of acceptance into Holt International's China Program and have been making pretty good progress.

Here's what we've done so far...

• had a signed copy of our service agreement notarized and sent off to Holt on Thursday, June 23rd.
• recruited four, non-related personal references in preparation for our home study
• tracked down information regarding every single address that both Carl and I have lived at since birth
• filled out financial information regarding all of our monthly income, past and present, monthly debts, assets, debt, retirement, etc.
• completed an 18 page questionnaire (it was that long before I filled it in with somewhat lengthy answers) all about me, my upbringing, my parents, being a parent myself, my health, religion, our community, our home, our marriage, our children, my feelings about adoption, and on and on and on. (Carl also has to fill one out from his perspective as well)
• filled out background check forms for South Dakota and Iowa, still waiting on Minnesota's form to come from the agency
• tracked down signed verification of employment for 2 out of 3 places we've worked in the last five years (its quite a deal to get that done at Carl's work so that may take a few more phone calls)
• as mentioned above, yesterday we had a whole bunch of fingerprints taken (3 sets for each of us) for our background checks at both the state and FBI levels

The next step is just to wait on our official acceptance (praying for no glitches there), finish up Carl's questionnaire, apply for passports, send off a bunch of signed papers and wait.  If all goes well, we will be proceeding into the Home Study process with physicals, interviews and all that good stuff in a month or so.

Every signature, phone call and questionnaire is a step closer to our daughter.  I hope to share as much about being "in process" to adopt so as to encourage those of you out there who have maybe had adoption on your heart but just didn't think you could do it.  If we can do it,  you can do it.  We're just an ordinary family who has had a nagging on their hearts to step out and grow their family in a less-traditional way.  More about all that to come...

Prayers and questions are ALWAYS welcome :)