"Planning my work and working my plan"

In ultimate Miss Dior fashion, I have been doing adoption work at a feverish (slightly manic) pace this week in order to meet my "planned timeline." I love the phrase above, which I stole from one of my favorite Chinese adoption books, "An Empty Lap." It is written by a woman who is a self-described planning and control freak. She recounts the emotional turmoil her and her husband went through in deciding to start a family and then ultimately adopt. I love this book because it reminds me of some people I know. Even though I almost fell asleep driving home today, I'm happy to say that we've made some major strides this week.

• We have Picard's employment verification letter


• Because we have the letter, we could finish our financial report


• We got Passport pictures and applied for expedited Passports


• We e-mailed our home study revisions to our agency


• We are putting together our last packet to mail to our home study agency

In adoption speak, this means we are dangerously close to certifying and authenticating our documents. I'm hoping that we will have all of the documents notarized and in my hands for my 30th Birthday in a couple weeks. Is this excitement I feel creeping up?

In other news, I'm proud to share that Princesses run in our family. Check out my adorable niece Ali who recently won a trophy for her age division in a pageant. Cute stuff!