RA!!!

It has ARRIVED!  I'm not sure if I wrote this in my previous blog but the magical day I was counting on was St. Patrick's Day.  I used someone else's timeline to calculate when we should expect our Referral Approval.  Looking back, I actually miscounted 71 days, but either way, my magical day was March 17th.  Being an Irish Gal who celebrates St. Patrick's Day, I thought this was a good day to get a referral.  On Monday, March 15th we got the call.  Whoo Hoo!  I wasn't nervous about our paperwork at all, but if Wednesday had come and gone with no word, I would have started worrying.  Our family coordinator told me that she would mail the paperwork to us the following day and it would arrive on -you guessed it - St. Patrick's Day!  There is a quick turnaround on this kind of paperwork.  You need to sign & return quickly so that the agency can return it to China quickly.  We also have paperwork that we have to submit to USCIS so that our Consulate appointment may be scheduled and immigration paperwork can get underway.
What's great is that we can now reach out to her daughter- work out her new American name and send care packages to her.  Now is the time she will be prepared, by her caregivers, and by our packages, to make the transition to living in an orphanage to being a daughter in a family.  Up until now, the orphanage wasn't even notified of a potential family.  I can't wait to get her size information and pick out some new outfits for her for at least the time we are in China.  I would like to have her with me when we round out her wardrobe.
So, we have lots to do - paperwork, working out finances, getting together our travel stuff, sending packages, making countdowns for the girls, getting a "travel meeting" dinner for our little travel group set, organizing our away from home details.  Much to do, much excitement and we'll get it all together.  The week I will be a crazy woman will be the week before we leave.  Specifically the day before we leave.  Thankfully my honey has promised to start his time off the day before we go so that we can get ourselves in gear and he can help keep me on track.  And you better believe the girls will be in school that day!
So, with that said, I'm signing off to do some prep work.
We're closer to bringing home our JuneBug....YAY!