Drum roll please......

Her name was just meant to be - and so it WILL BE:

F    A    I    T    H

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

FAITH is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Heb 11:1

I had several other names picked out but FAITH was not to be - I wanted a name that started with a VOWEL (I have no idea why, but I did).

Then suddenly (over the past few weeks), FAITH kept coming up in things I read, did and saw.  At this point, I just KNEW this was "HER" name.

Faith's middle name will be her given Chinese name (or names, depending on how many she has been given)!

One step closer....

Dossier 'almost' ready...

Just got word today that our dossier is 'almost' ready to be forwarded to our social worker.  THIS MEANS, our home study should start next week.   YAY!!! 

This should take about 4-5 weeks to have prepared.  Once prepared, it has to go here and there and everywhere then finally provincial approval (that unlike other provinces, this happens in a few days).  Once we have provincial approval, it's sent to our agency.  I 'think' after this...it's shortly after this our file gets sent to China for our Log In Date (LID) then we wait!

I could be mistaken, but it's something like that.  We're moving forward baby and that's the main point of this post!

On the home front, we have been preparing a room for a lil' princess!  OH how much fun am I having making a pink room!

She even has her first doll on her bed!!!

When the room is finished, I'll take a full set of photos and share!

Our FIRST celebration...

....of Chinese New Year!

Friends, that have adopted children from China (and are going through the process again for a boy), invited us to celebrate Chinese New Year with them (and another couple - who also have a daughter from China).

We went ALL OUT!  Noah and I learned all we could learn this week about Chinese New Year, the traditions and foods for school this week.

I made two desserts;

Chinese Almond Cookies

(click link to view recipe)

and

Chinese Candied Banana Fritters

(click on link to view recipe)

I did not get a photo of the finished product.

I will definitely make the cookies again, but the banana fritters - well, it'll have to be a big event (like Chinese New Year) to go to the effort to make these again.

It was VERY time consuming (almost 2 hours) and the pay off was not great

(for our family at least - neither Jacques, Noah or I liked them).

Time for photos! 

Was glad to see Barb is a photo taker too....

LOOK...I'm actually IN a photo (but I should have took one too so Barb could have been in one too)!

The girls are 11, (almost) 8 and 2!

Uh-oh Barb...maybe you'll have to get Anissa AND Sophie an ipod now!!! 

(sorry for Noah 'welcoming' her to the world of electronics)

After supper the big kids did some sparklers....

and poor Anissa got to watch from inside!

Next year honey....next year you and your brother can come to do sparklers with the big kids!!!

What a wonderful night!

Thank you SO much Barb for including us in your CNY celebrations

(oh, and for our daughter's her FIRST gift from China)!

You are so special!

I'm so glad we bumped into each other and

you convinced me to jump in the CRAZY TRAIN heading for CHINA

(Boones and all)!!!

Full speed ahead....

And so now we have decided on CHINA and are committed with the agency, we are FULL SPEED AHEAD!

Last weekend we completed our PRIDE training (again).  Much of the information was the same as when we took it in Feb 2009 so needless to say, we went through the motions and completed it as the province requires!

Poor Jacques was in the THICK of his busy season during year end.  For the few weeks prior to this weekend, Jacques had been working 12-17 hour days  -  so needless to say he was really tired.

During the parts of the training that were repeats, this is what he did to stay awake! 

When I asked him what it was, he told me a 'self portrait'!  Do you see the resemblance???

YAY....another step DONE!!!

OH and on a side note, we ended up meeting up with another woman (who was with a new husband) that we had done our first pride training with! We really connected (again) and I can't wait to get together with them when we travel to Fredericton! 

Then comes ALL the paperwork, which I kept thinking I had done.

This was the first package sent off in October.

This is our 'ADOPTION' file folder.

In preparation to send our BIG package off (that is required to get our home study started).

UNTIL he has EVERY last DOCUMENT, our home study can not start...

so making sure we 'cross all the T's and dot all the I's'

All this was.....STRESS.....

,,,,which led me to having a glass of wine MID afternoon on the day I did the final preparations to sending off our BIG package.

And so here it is.....

The final package!

And do you see THIS smile???

It's NOT alcohol induced!!!

It's called:  RELIEF!!!

It's OFFICIAL....

We are officially with CHINA baby! 

Yuppers....little girl under 3 years old, special needs (more than likely Cleft Lip & Palate).

Things are starting to take shape.  We are on our way to PRIDE training this weekend, one more thing to CHECK OFF our list!!!

Soon after this, our home study will start and should take around 4-6 weeks...

As for Russia....it became painfully clear that Russia just wasn't going to happen with our health goals not being met and more recently, not being able to contact the agency since October (2 emails and 4 phone calls and messages)!

And...do you want to hear some irony (or is it?)?

FOI (Family Outreach International is our agency) is the original agency we contacted in July 2010 when we were trying to decided on a country for international adoption....how COOL is that??? 

Obviously, there was a plan for us to be with China but some things had to 'pan' out before we locked in with China.

We are THRILLED!!!

Moving forward....