DTC - May 31, 2006

LID - June 6, 2006

Referral - May 24, 2007

LOI - June 4, 2007

LOA - August 20, 2007 

TA - September 7, 2007

Forever Family Day - September 19, 2007

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Thursday, May 24, 2007, we received the referral for Dang You Song. On that day we would be forever changed.  We fell in love with him and knew he was our son.  Praise God!!!

The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy. 

Psalm 126:3

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Friday May 25, 2007 we started filling out the Waiting Child Adoption Application.

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Saturday May 26, 2007, Hayden graduated from high school.  After graduation we held a luncheon / party in Hayden's honor.   Saturday evening after everyone had gone home and the excitement of the day settled down, Paul, and I work some more on the adoption application.

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 Sunday  May 27, 2007, Paul and I finished the adoption application and had Dr. Johnny Jerome, a family friend look over Dang You Song's medical records.  That afternoon Paul and I went to the bank to fax the adoption application to adopt our little guy.  We were so excited!!   I kept checking the fax number to make sure it was correct.  We knew that Dillon offices would be closed Monday for Memorial Day but we couldn't wait and faxed it anyway.

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Monday May 28, 2007, Dillon offices were closed for Memorial Day.

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  Tuesday May 29, 2007, Dillon let us know early that they received our fax, they said they would look over it and let us know if we were approved. After many emails and a phone interview, we were told that afternoon that  we were approved to adopted Dang You Song and that no other families could look at his information

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Wednesday May 30, 2007, Dillon emailed us some of the LOI (Letter of Intent) paperwork so we could look it over and ask any questions we might have.  Dillon said that they would Fed Ex us the official LOI packet and said we should expect it the next day.  I was able to make a consultation appointment with a pediatrician for Thursday for the doctor to look over Dang You Song's medicals and get a treatment plan.  The LOI ask for a plan of treatment for your child's special need.

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Thursday May 31,2007, we received the official LOI packet from Dillon.  Paul and I went to the consultation appointment with the doctor.  She was able to give us a wonderful treatment plan for Dang You Song.  When we got home from the appointment we had to work on getting a garage sale set up for Friday, we  planned this sale weeks earlier with friends.  Once the garage sale was set up for the next morning, Paul and I tackled our LOI packet.  We nearly completed it, but left a few things to be done the next day.  My goal was to get it back to Dillon by Monday morning. 

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Friday June 1, 2007, Paul and I woke up early and worked on the LOI packet, all we needed was some things notarized for Dillon and then it would be ready to Fed Ex.  Paul had some urgent bank business to attend to Friday and an unexpected conference call that lasted past the Fed Ex pick up deadline.  I called and found that there was a Fed Ex office open on Saturday in Greenville, so that was our plan for Saturday. 

Friday evening we were so thrilled that we were ready to send our LOI, that we decided to do something fun.  We went to Hastings, it is a coffee shop / book store.  We love to get coffee and sit in their comfy chairs and read or look at magazines.  Okay, some may think we are boring but we LOVE it!  I looked through baby name book, after baby name book, after baby name book and Paul read children's books, trying to decide on which book to buy our little guy, in honor of our LOI going to China (all Paul's idea...what a good daddy).  We chose a Max Lucado book, You Are Special.  It is a precious little book that we think our little guy will love.  On our ride home we again started talking about what name we were going to give our precious son.  We had referred to him as "our little guy" long enough, we both wanted to call him by his name.  My night with the many baby name books helped narrow down some names we were considering.  We wanted a strong, simple, and older name that had a good meaning.  We had a couple of names that we really liked, but only one would be the perfect name for our son.  On Friday June 1st, we decided to name our son Max Cole Yousong.  Wait until you read the meaning of You Song, it's awesome!!!!  You can read more about his name in the "All About Max" folder.

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Saturday June 2, 2007, we got up and drove to Greenville.  We prayed over the packet and sent it on it's way to Dillon, where it would be reviewed and sent on to China.

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Sunday June 3, 2007, We enjoyed the day and dreamed about or life with Max!!  

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Monday June 4, 2007, CELEBRATION!!!!  We went to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Our LOI packet made it to Dillon before noon, they reviewed it, packaged it up and sent it to China. YEA!!!!!  June 4th, is our official LOI date.  I was hoping that we could get all our papers in and our LOI be sent out on this date because now I share this special date with a sweet friend that on this same day, for the first time wrapped her arms around her new daughter from China.  I am so honored to share this day with Annie's Forever Family Day.

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