Application Received!

The InterCountry Adoption Board has received our application for adoption! Now we wait for their approval! Also, I like the word "Secretariat", I might try to use it more. Isn't that the name of some famous horse that won some horse race? I should Google this...

Dossier Mailed!

What the heck is a dossier anyway? Definition below, but regardless of what it is, it's a fun word to toss into conversation and feel important while saying it. It makes me feel hoity toity everytime I say it.

As you know once we received the approval from USCIS we were done creating our dossier and could mail it to our agency in Wisconsin for final review before they mailed it to the Philippines. (Side note: now that we're in the next stage of the game we're working with the agency in Wisconsin until the time our little boy or girl is back with us, then we'll go back to working with the Pennsylvania agency)

But then...we got an email informing us that the Philippines had altered the requirements and they now wanted the raw test scores for these tests we had to take along with the psychologist's reports. Arg. Seriously? Ok. No biggie. I called the office, informed them of the need and they dropped them in the mail right away and we had them a few days later. Crisis averted.

Oh but wait...I as I was going through making photocopies of everything in the dossier and checking and double checking that we had everything and it was in the correct order (yay for compulsive behavior!) I realized it said that not only did we did the psychologist's report but that we also needed a copy of his license. For the love of Pete. I have read the checklist approximately 3,982 times since last September and never saw those words. Another call to the receptionist at the psychologist's office (thankfully she's a kind woman). They couldn't give it to me, but our case worker could call and request it and they'd fax it to her. A few emails later and our case worker, Kim, in Wisconsin had the license!

With this news it meant we were ready to mail! Seven months of preparing:

 The finished product!

 I thought the angle in the previous photo didn't do the stack of papers justice!

It's hard to tell, but the stack is right at the 1 inch mark!

I went the Boalsburg Post Office the morning of February 28 and paid extra to overnight it to the agency in Wisconsin. I did this partly because I was excited and partly because I thought it would be cool knowing it arrived on Leap Day!

Kim emailed me on March 1 to say that they had reviewed everything and it looked good and she had put it in the mail to the Philippines! We'll hear acknowledgement of receipt and then we wait...waity wait wait wait until we get a referral for our little boy or girl. Right now the average wait time for a child under 4 years of age is 36 months. That's a long time. Please be praying with us that the time we'll need to wait is less. We fully trust in God's timing, but are not afraid to pray big prayers for our future child!

Finger Prints

On February 9 Marc and I woke up super early and hopped in the car to drive down to York, PA to get fingerprinted for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

We got there a few minutes before our appointment at 9:00am and are signing in, etc. It's important to note that we were the only people there besides the two ladies working there. It's also important to note that this room was one big rectangle - you could see everything from anywhere in the room. Lady #1 gives us our paperwork back and a number and tells us to go take a seat in the waiting area. The waiting area was about five feet to the left. Then Lady #2 who had been there the whole time walks over to the finger printing station and yells out, "Four? Four!". I looked down at my number. Four. That was me. Then I swiveled my head around to ensure I wasn't on some Candid Camera show before getting up. I wanted to bust up laughing so badly and the only reason why I didn't is because I couldn't figure out why it was necessary to call out our numbers! She did the same thing to Marc. Good thing. I may have tried to go twice.

 This is us in the car after we had been finger printed...showing our finger prints. 

We're taking pictures of the adoption journey to show our little boy/girl what went on before they joined our family physically!

I just like this picture because Marc makes me laugh so much all. of. the. time. 

I don't even remember what he did or said, but I like the pure, naturalness of it. This, friends, is the Pensyls!

This was the last set of finger prints we needed. After they took our finger prints they sent them off and we waited to hear back from USCIS for approval. That was the last puzzle piece to our dossier, once we received this we were all set!

On Thursday, February 16 we received a letter in the mail saying we were approved! Wahoo!

Now to put the finishing touches on the dossier and put it in the mail...more to come on that tomorrow!

A Few Pictures

 Tucker just leaning on Marc like he's a piece of furniture

 David came to visit me at work! I thought he looked so cute in his Lee jeans and flannel!

 Miss Ab knew we were going to send this picture to Uncle Marc so she was acting like a goofball

Marc and I made grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner a few weeks ago. He was cutting the grilled cheese and says "How would you like me to cut it?" As in, in rectangles or triangles. I say, "Oh it doesn't matter - just cut." This is how my sandwich was presented to me. This guy makes me laugh! :)

Pillow Resolutions

Huge announcement in the Pensyl household. We have found a way to resolve the pillow issues we seem to frequently have during the darkest hours of the night.

When we were in Disney World the hotel had a king size bed with...you guessed it...king size pillows! Marc was rolling around as he woke up on our last morning there and said, "These pillows are great! We should get them for our bed." I realized he was absolutely right! We have a queen size bed and two king size pillows fit perfectly across it so now no matter where Marc rolls his head there is pillow there!

First world problems though - we almost have too many pillows now. We have our new king size pillows, our original pillows, and the pillow shams. So when the bed is made and they're all on there it's like pillow central.

We may have a new issue developing though. Marc likes to "hug" his original standard size pillow, but every morning it's on the floor. That isn't the problem. The problem is that when he's getting up he picks it up and tosses it onto the bed and it frequently lands directly on my head. Eh. You win some and you lose some, right?