Guess what?!?

We have our...

LID - Log-in Date!

What this means is that our next big step will be our referral!! Now that we are logged-in, we can get our referral any time! We are one giant step closer to seeing our little girl's face. One step closer to learning more about this one that we are already so in love with - though we know so little about. One step closer to our daughter who is so far away. One step closer. 

A fun weekend with family

Last week was our Spring Break. We had a great week. On Monday, Daddy had the day off. We went shopping at Garden Ridge and cooked out. For Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I had each child pick something free or super cheap that they wanted to do. Gabe's request was to go to a park other than the one down the street from us and invite some friends. On Tuesday the weather was gorgeous. So, we went to a park down the street from some friends of ours. Gabe decided to wade in the creek at the park and got in the van with a leech on his leg! YUCK! But, he had a blast. Selah wanted to "up-cycle" her American Girl bunk beds. We painted them white, picked out some material and then I sewed (and she supervised) some new bed clothes. Mig wanted a pajama day. On Wednesday we rented a Redbox movie, piled pillows in the living room, and had a pj day! 

Friday was the grand finale of our Spring Break - Nicol and our four nephews came up to spend the weekend!! We decided to take them all geocaching. If you haven't been geocaching before, it is super fun (and totally free). 

Our first find was located near our local park. We had tried to find this one during the summer and never could locate it, so we were super excited to find it this time!!

Our next find was my favorite. It was in the woods behind our park. There was a clue that read, "Un-natural, natural camouflage." We could not figure out what that meant until we saw this:

JT was quite excited and impressed with this hiding spot. 

Each cache has a paper inside for your signature that you found it and, if big enough, some kind of trinket. 2 of the 3 caches we found had coins inside. 

Our 3rd and final find was a little too far away to walk, so we got in the vans and drove to find it. It was a very easy find.

After re-hiding the cache, we took a trip up to Gainesville, TX where we enjoyed dinner at Serna's Mexican restaurant! We even got to chat for a long time with the owner who was so nice! 

The next day was rainy and gray. We decided to stay home and created another Froese Bros. movie production. It has become a tradition of ours to do a video when we are all together with the boys. This time we did our first improv video and made a kind of satire of our trip to Serna's Restaurant! Jonathan is working on editing it. When it is completed, I will share it here as well. It was a great weekend and such a fun time!!

We are DTC (Dossier to China)!

Last Monday our agency notified us that our Dossier would be sent on to start the translating process and that it would be completed and sent to China by the end of the week. Every time my phone chimed with a new email on Thursday I would check - hoping it was "the" email saying that our dossier had been sent. Thursday came and went - no email. I had planned on making home-made pizza for dinner Friday and told the kids that it would be our celebration dinner for our dossier being sent to China. Friday went by, we did school work, went to the park - no email. I started cooking our dinner disappointed that we didn't have anything really to celebrate. As I started making our pizza crust my phone chimed! The email was there! Our dossier was completed and was on its way to China!! There was a lot of celebrating - a little kitchen dancing and jumping around!! 

Now we enter what I like to call "the acronym" phase of the adoption process. We are what the adoption world calls "DTC" - Dossier To China. Next we will have an "LID" - Log in Date (within 10 to 20 days from the time our dossier is delivered to the CCCWA - the China Center for Children Welfares and Adoption). From there we we will get a referral for a specific child and upon accepting that child's file we will send an "LOI" - Letter of Intent. Then China will send us a "LOA" - letter of acceptance of our intent. This is going to be a very exciting month!

Here is our adoption timeline so far:

3/23/13 - Began filling out our application for CCAI - our agency

5/6/13 - Our application was received by CCAI

5/10/13 - Our application was approved

7/19/13 - our first home study visit

8/12/13 - 10 hours each of parent training completed

8/12/13 - our final home study visit

9/24/13 - home study draft completed for review

10/27/13 - 10 of 13 documents certified by the Secretary of State

11/6/13 - Finalized home study report received

11/9/13 - Garage Sale/ Bake Sale Fundraiser - totaled $720.12

12/10/13 - Fingerprint appointment at USCIS Fort Worth

1/21/14 - I-797 (I-800A) Approval Notice delivered

1/31/14 - Final 3 documents certified by Sec. of State

2/3/14 - Documents sent to Courier for Authentication by the China Consulate in Houston

2/11/14 - Authenticated documents delivered

2/12/14 - Dossier mailed to CCAI

2/20/14 - Dossier critical review completed - 2 docs need amended

2/28/14 - Ammended docs arrive at CCAI

3/3/14 - Translation of Dossier begins

3/7/14 -  DTC!