Today I write this as I think of and pray for our little Sophie.

We received our re finger printing appointment in the mail today. They rescheduled us for Portland on October 3rd. It is during the work day but we are so happy not to drive to Seattle!

I am praying that this is a good sign?!?

We all think and talk about Sophie daily. Simone names every thing Sophie now. Here babies names are Sophie, her little pull doggy is named Sophie and she even calls her self Sophie.

Simone tells us that when baby Sophie comes she will sleep on the bottom of her dolls baby bed and she will sleep on the top of the canopy while Daddy sleeps on the floor in their room. (As of now we are going to have the girls share a room.) Simone is so sweet and can't wait to be a big sister.

The Dossiers that were LID during the month of July 2005 just came out of the review room today so I am hoping that is a good sign that every thing is moving along.........Maybe after the start of 2008 they will start moving adoptions a little faster??

Simone is starting to ask us a few questions about her adoption like, "How Come the birth Mom can't take care of the baby?" She also talks a lot about the Nannies aka Ayi's that took care of her. I feel this is good that she already feels comfortable to ask questions, that is the goal and it is good practice for me to talk about these things.....She is just so darn smart!

Preschool is still going good. Tears on day 3, 4 and today on day 5 but she says that she has a great time so that is refreshing.....

Praying and Hope

Praying and Hope15 Months Since our LID (Logged in Date) and 22 months sincewe have started Our Journey to Sophie......Here is the latest:On August 15th we received a phone call from our agency saying that the Immigration office will let us renew our I600A Application for Adoption with out paying the $875.00 refiling fee BUT we needed to get our paper work in by our expiration due date of August 27th. Sounds easy but it is not. (We tried to update this in June but they said we could not because the State of Washington Interpreted the new law statement of one free renewal only applied to people that were doing their I600-A form for the first time. Many adoption agency's requested a clarification on this many weeks ago and we just received notice of this on August 15th. It took them that long to clarify it.Why are we frustrated because we wanted to do it during our summer vacation when we had the days off.....)To make a long story short we first we have to fill out a DSHS clearance form and receive it back before we can file our I600 a form and receive an updated home study. Luckily we have a very understanding Social Worker who decided to interview us so she can update our original home study. She got our updated home study ready so that when we received our DSHS clearance back on August 22nd they could mail out our package on August 23rd so it can get to the INS office before our paperwork expires.Our package did arrive in time. We have also received word back from them that they want us to come in and re fingerprint during the first week of school and drive all the way to Seattle to do it.....This makes no sense since they let us do our fingerprints with the Portland office last time?? So we are hoping that they move our appointment to Portland and to a Saturday so it does not interfere with work. Well see......All of this has gotten me all shaken up again about how long this adoption is taking! We just pray and hope that we can bring Sophie home soon! I know that China has the right to do what they want with their adoption program but I just do NOT understand what is going on....is it a political thing, is it a way to save face and reduce the amount of children that are being adopted internationally by having a quota of how many children are adopted out in one year, does the up and coming Olympics have some thing to do with it???? I just do not know, I just wish they would be honest and say so!I pray every day that the babies in China that live in foster care orin the orphanage can go home to a forever family either domestically or internationally!I can not help but do the math..................If China keeps up with their current pace then we will not receive a referral until 2009 or even 2010.............Please remember that we want this second baby just as much as we wanted our first babyand by telling us that we have one baby should make this wait easier well it does not.We pray for another daughter and a sibling for Simone.We are trying to let go and let God....to have Faith..........Not question why but it is hard and we are human.....our minds wonder time from time......Yes we thank God EVERY DAY for our little angel and we are very blessed, we pray for our family to grow, so we wait.............(Yes, I feel better now that I wrote this. Written from the heart from a Mommywho's heart is aching for her other daughter named Sophie to come home. It has been seven straight years of trying to have babies, I am just ready to move on. Yes it is worth the wait and heartache I am just hoping that by writing this other families will know that they are not alone. I know that there are a lot of us that are waiting this long.)