We just mailed in our Dossier today! And it feels so gooood!! From the outside looking in this won't seem like much has "changed"; however, this means the official waiting has begun. It also means our portion of the equation is now complete. 

  Taylor and I are pumped! We've essentially been working on the Dossier for two years. I told a friend a few weeks ago that it has been almost like working a job together to try and finish it. And working with a spouse (at least for us) presents, hmmmm ... how do I say this ... it's challenges :). 
I typed out the process of what is required to complete the Dossier and then when I re-read it I got bored, so I erased it. Long story short, this is great news and reason for us to celebrate! To celebrate we attempted to take some jumping pictures with a timer on my phone. And they turned out awesome (sarcasm). And now I can't figure out how to post them to this update. #technologyishard

  If you're unfamiliar with the word Dossier, it is the "authenticated and legal collection of documents about a particular person or subject". It is what is presented to China declaring we are eligible to be parents. It is the last step before receiving a referral (being matched with a child). From here on out we could be matched at any point. However, projected wait time is around six months. Once we are officially matched we will travel around three months later to meet and bring home our child. 

A few more details that you may be interested in:
- We are open to a boy or a girl. This most likely means we will be matched with a boy. There are no hard facts as to why, but, currently more families are waiting for a girl. So, when you are open to either gender, the likelihood of being matched with a boy is higher. 
- We are open to ages 0-3 years old.
- We will travel one time to China. The trip will be from 10-18 days long that will include several days of learning as much as we can about our child's home country, meeting our child for the first time, a bunch of legal appointments and bringing our child home. 
- Our child will have special needs of some sort. To be accepted into the China program you have to be open to special needs. The needs can range anywhere from the minor to major. We have spent a lot of time and prayer trying to follow God's direction as to what needs He has in mind for our family. We have chosen to keep the specifics of what we are open to private at this time. 
-We won't know any of these specifics (gender, age, needs) until we receive our referral. 

I wish I could figure out how to post some of the amazing jumping pictures to liven this post up. I'll work on that for next time:). 


Finley is loving Hillary Scott's current song. Only when she asks for it she says "Mama, you turn on My Will Be Done"?
Oh the irony :). 
There is so much I could say on that note . . . but in order to get this posted I will save that for another day. 
Please just continue praying - that we would trust that His will is good, that we would trust His will is where we want to be, and that His will would be done. 


Love, 
The Stanys