Hit the Ground Running!

   Well, I'm not sure if you're adding this all up, but we signed on with Gladney in Dec. and they have a 3 month deadline to have our large amount of paperwork turned in... It's now February and we have 1 month to get our Official application and paperwork turned in to Gladney, (or we have to reapply and resubmit our application fee- no thank you! :)  )
    So, we got busy.
   Lets just say it's a LOT of paperwork, and I began to realize that this was a different kind of "pregnancy" than I had experienced before. 


   Besides a lot of paperwork, there is also a lot of training that is required during the adoption process.  Part of our required training was to go to Ft. Worth, TX for a two day training, called Pathways, put on by Gladney Center for Adoption. I (Brandee) was super excited about this, as I had been wanting to bring Ben and the kids to my home town area (Big Sandy, TX - about 2 hrs away from Ft. Worth) and this was the perfect opportunity.  Not to mention, our friends, the Richie's, had recently moved from Dayton, OH to Combine, TX which isn't too far from Ft. Worth.  So, we began making arrangements for the end of Feb. to go to the training, have the Richie's watch our kids for the 2 day training and visit with them before going to Big Sandy for a couple days to see extended family and show Ben and the kids where I grew up.

Who's ready for a 15+ hr drive...

Looks like it should be in Ohio, not Texas! 

Jay, Kayla, Eli, Gideon, and Gabe Richie!!

Plans quickly came together and before we knew it, the time to go south had come. We drove down in 2 days and stayed the night with the Richie's. The next morning, Ben and I left our kids there and drove an hour's drive to Ft. Worth where our training was.  The training was amazing and we actually met another couple who lives in Cincinnati who are adopting from China too.  They also have 2 biological boys and a girl. The training was on attachment and gave advice on how to care for and work through issues that many children who have gone through an adoption have experienced. That night Ben and I had stayed at a hotel and had a date night at the Stockyards downtown. 

Night in the Stockyards with my Love.

The second day of training actually got cut short due to the ice storm that hit Dallas/Ft Worth.  The city literally shut down and what should have taken us only an hour to get back to our kids, ended up taking five hours!  Thankfully we made it back together safely, and thankfully we still got credit for the 2-day training. We had a great night catching up with The Richie's.  The kids loved hanging with them (and helping gather eggs from their chickens!!)  The next morning we hung out again and said our goodbye's before heading to Big Sandy (1 1/2 hrs away).

 

Mike, Brenda, Zachary, and photo bombed by Brandon and Evan :)

  We stayed both nights in Big Sandy with my Uncle Mike and Aunt Brenda. They live on a little farm with fun animals that the kids thoroughly enjoyed.  My Cousin, Celina, set up a get together for everyone to come hang out at her mom's church the first evening we were in B.S.  It was great to see family and friends that I hadn't seen in over 8 years.  The weather was surprisingly cold for this time of year, but the people and places made up for that! 

Mike, Celina, Mikey, Brandon, Evan, and Alex!!

     We ended up getting all of the paperwork necessary for the Gladney application in on time, and quickly shifted to working on the paperwork that would eventually make it's way to CHINA, aka, The Dossier.  (Which is pronounced... Doss- ee- ay, rather than a Doe-sher, which is what I had been reading it as all along. ;)
   Each step is one step closer to our little girl...