Friday, the beginning of our highly anticipated 3 day weekend. The day started quiet with our internet service knocked out last night with the storms. Expecting a crazy day full of court house tirades and waiting around for MaBell to show up at our home I baked the morning tension away by making my favorite bannana bread! Yummy! This time with a crust topping of brown sugar and cinnamon...can't wait to eat it tomorrow. Obviously, the internet is up and running. Dude man showed up at our home right on schedule and finished w/in 30 minutes. During the wait I made some lemon bar cookies. For some reason I am in the mood to cook.

We were off to the closest BOA by 2pm to have our final 2 documents notarized. Not realizing it we walked in to the banks busiest time of the week...and a holiday weekend approaching made it even busier than expected. We were out of there by 2:45 and on our way down to the Gwinnett Justice and Administrative Center, or "GJAC" as Matt lovingly calls it.

Our experience with Gwinnett County's Superior Court Clerk's office was pretty awesome. FINALLY a good experience at one of those places! We were walking to our car by 3:30PM! Happy as could be!! The only snare was one of the notary signatures was hard to make out...called around to find the correct spelling. Not too bad considering!

One more thing off our To Do List! Yipee! 3 day weekend here we come!

Yesterday Matt traveled into Decatur to have our home study notary certified/verified or what ever. His trip was not as stressful as the one a few weeks ago at the vital statistics office.

Update on our status:
1.) ALL Gwinnett County notarys need to be certified- planned completion date:Friday, May 26th

2.) ALL GA documents need to be verified- planned completion date: Friday, June 2nd

3.) Then we are able to send everything to the Chinnese Consulate in Houston TX!

4.) Dossier hopeful completion date: end of June


The RED Thread
There is an ancient belief in China that when a child is born, invisible red threads reach out from the child's spirit to all of the important people who will be part of the child's life. The threads may tangle but they will never break.

Today is Mother's Day! In honor of this I am posting a poem that I ran across. Through this process I have frequently felt that it is a dream and not reality. I am finding it hard to visualize that all our struggles will actually have a happy ending. Matt and I have been trying for over 5 years to start our family and now that we are actively pursuing adoption it still doesn't feel real. Today is a hard day of coping for me. I anxiously await the arival of our precious gift and answer to our years of prayer... this I dedicate to our precious "China Doll"



Dear Sweet Daughter

Author: Gayle Leubecker

Dear Sweet Daughter,

As a girl I had a common dream, to be a mom someday.
My baby would have eyes of blue and hair the hue of hay.
But now my dreams have been transformed. New visions fill my head.
Now the tresses that I long to stroke are raven black instead.

And in my dreams those eyes are not so big or blue or round.
Now in my dreams they're almond shaped and colored cocoa brown.
And in my dreams my arms can stretch across enormous seas.
They reach half-way around the world and hold you close to me.

As you grow in your mother's womb, carefully knit together,
you're also growing in my heart, where you will stay forever.
And in my dreams the moment that your mother says good-bye,
I'll be right there to comfort you and hold you as you cry.

Our features may not look alike; we're different as can be.
But still I know the Father has created you for me.
And though I've not yet seen your face, or held your tiny hands,
and though we're half a world apart in very different lands.

I'll be right there to get you just as soon as God allows.
But til He says the time is right I give to you this vow.
I'll pray for your protection every night on bended knee.
For God will hold you in His arms, until you're here with me.