WE HAVE OUR LID!

The CHI office (our adoption agency) in Beijing passed along word (through our local office) today that our dossier (official packet of adoption papers) was officially received (logged in) by the Chinese government agency responsible for international and domestic adoptions on November 17, 2006. [Our log-in date for Gracee's adoption was November 5, 2004.]

Our paperwork left our agency's office here in the states on October 13. In the meantime it was translated into Chinese and waited to be formally registered with the government there. There is no denying that this process of bringing a little boy or girl home has been in God's hands since His Spirit first put the thought to adopt again into our heart last fall. Yet with that thick stack of special papers on the other side of the world in a foreign government's hands, there is ABSOLUTELY no question that it is completely in His hands--for that we are thankful and confident.

While the wait promises to be long, we are grateful that we have a home full of wonderful children that will keep us busy enough to not be overly consumed with the thought of that child who needs a family and who is waiting in an orphanage. We are thankful that the government of the People's Republic of China has a method by which many children are allowed the opportunity to have a "forever family." And we appreciate deeply our friends and family who are dedicated to praying and supporting us in this Big Adventure II.