Checking More and More Boxes...

There has been a lot of progress over the past two months.  We completed all interviews with our social worker, which in turn allowed her to complete our homestudy.  The approved homestudy was submitted to our adoption agency on November 19 and our application to the USCIS was submitted that same day.  Next up is waiting for USCIS to schedule a fingerprinting appointment in Des Moines. 

We also collected and submitted all but one document for our dossier (the package of authenticated/certified documents for China).  The final dossier document will be our USCIS approval, and after this comes in the mail our dossier will be finalized and sent to China for translation.  We're still several months away from travel but we are trusting in God's timing!

A big surprise today was receiving an update from China!  Little sister seems to be doing great.  She's 35 inches tall and around 26 pounds.  She is in great health, has not been ill, and her physical/mental development is reportedly above average.  She can run, jump, and go up stairs.  She started talking about eight months ago.  We were told, "Now she can speak local dialogue pretty well and she can sing and dance with TV."  Time for us to start learning some Cantonese!

We asked about her personality and received this reply:  "She is timid and shy. She is also active with someone she knows well. She can play very well when she likes you." 

Oh, and we also have some new pictures to share!  We can't wait to hold this little one in our arms.