Our dossier is finished!

Our dossier stuff came back from being state certified on Friday. Mom was out of town for a conference but when she came back late Saturday night, we decided to head down to D.C. to finish up Grace's dossier. Dad got a free hotel night at a really nice hotel on Penn*sylvania Ave. and on Sunday morning, we headed out.
On our way, Dad dialed Aunt D. and AnnaClaire got on the phone and said "Guess what! We are coming to see you... right now!" The girlies were both SO excited to see their beloved aunt again! She was excited about our little surprise trip, too! :)
We were very excited to hear that our cousin, Michael, was home from the Nav*al Acad*emy on spring break. Kate had never met him (or her uncle!!!) and the rest of us haven't seen him for a few years, so it was very good to see him. He even shared his "Kin*der Eggs" that his dad had brought back from a trip to Europe! When he gave the chocolates to the girls, Kate looked up at him and said, "I really like you!" This girl is SUCH a sweet tooth:)
Kate was excited to meet Sadie, too. This picture was a huge step for her, as she has been terrified of dogs since she first came home... not Sadie though! She loved petting and kissing her!
AnnaClaire and Michael had a great time looking at all of his pictures! AnnaClaire just loved seeing her cousin again, as the last time she saw him was when she was 20 months old! He was so sweet with the girls, too.
And of course Katie Cakes loved snuggling her aunt! Uncle B. wasn't feeling too great :( but Kate loved meeting her uncle, too, of course!
After giving goodbye hugs, we drove down to the city (only about 30 miles away) and checked into our hotel, grabbed some dinner, and settled into our hotel for the night! This was the view from our window... (the one good thing about having a dad who travels... free hotel nights at pretty nice hotels!)
On Monday morning, Dad walked down to the Sta*te Dept. for authentications. He then came back for breakfast and to wake me up, and we headed to the Chinese emb*assy, while Mommy let the girls sleep a little longer. After we dropped our visa applications and 13 documents off, we headed to the hotel to get Mom and the girlies. We then headed for a walk around the city.
The girls were excited to see where "Ba-wok O*bama" the "pwesident" lives. We even saw his dog being walked in the yard! AnnaClaire was bummed that we didn't get to see him, but we told her he is a busy man, and that explanation was good enough for her. We of course had to get a few pictures in front of the infamous Wh*ite Ho*use!
The girls both brought their cameras on our trip and had fun taking pictures of all the sights! They looked pretty cute doing it, too, if I may say so myself!
We forgot to get tickets to go up to the Washing*ton Monument, so we just got to see it from afar. AnnaClaire talks about the monument all the time and was so excited to see it again... and to show it to Mommy and Kate!
And here's sweet Cakers! She enjoyed our little trip and I think was pretty excited to join along this time! She did have a few moments of grumpiness, but was overall had a fun time and enjoyed seeing the city and all of the fun things there!
But I'm sure she'd tell you the best part was getting to ride on Daddy's shoulders as we walked around the city!
AnnaClaire had fun, once again, as well. She is our road trip girl and loves driving through the night, staying in hotels (and getting to sleep in a bed with sissy!), and visiting people!
Kate and Daddy again- she has been such a Daddy's girl lately! After this, we headed to a wonderful Chinese restuarant and went back to the emb*assy. Our documents were ready right at 2:30, but we waited until 4 for our visas! The girlies were such troopers and made friends with many of the Chinese people there!
After we had everything, we started the 2 hour drive to our agency to drop our completed dossier off and bring somemore forms for Charlie. It was so nice to meet Aleda, our agency's director, and talk with Diana again. The girlies had so much fun playing with Diana's daughter, too! We just LOVE our agency. They have such hearts for orphans and just want to see all of these sweet kids have families! Aleda is the one who actually talked to Grace when they did the camp, and she was able to tell us a bit more about Grace. Best of all is that she said more than anything, she could tell that Grace really wanted a family! After staying for an hour and a half, they told us a good place to go have dinner and then we started the trip home and finally got here at 6 this morning!

And with that, we are now one step closer to our sweet girl...