FIVE!!!

FIVE. Yes that is a very important number. We received our Article 5( last Thursday 7/22) to adopt our 5 year old daughter so that we will become parents to 5 wonderful kids!

I did not post immediately because we were on vacation and this week ha been crazy trying to catch up. But When I realized that we are on day 8 of our wait for our TA I thought I needed to post.

Needless to say I am starting to have the anxiety kick in, especially since I don't have the exact timing down on things( and for a planner like me, this is a big obstacle). I do have my list created and only have three more things on the need to buy list. But the things that need to be done before we leave is quite large, and most of it can not be done until we have our dates of travel. Oh well, enough stressing for this early in the morning. We will hopefully hear something next week or the week after and then I will be in full blown action.

Now to mention our vacation. We went north this year to Michigan. We have never vacationed in Michigan but really loved it. We went to Lake Michigan and got to go to the beach but the drive there was only a wonderful 5 hours so it is on the list for a repeat vacation.

We were also able to meet up with our friends, The Smiths, with whom we had the pleasure of spending several weeks with when we were in Russia. Last Wednesday 7/21 was the two year anniversary of when we both got to meet our new little ones. Two years, wow! It seems like they have been with us forever not just two years.

Here is a picture of Grace and Micah last week:

And here is a picture of them on Gotha Day September 29th 2008.
PHEW! Have they changed. We are going to get together again with them this weekend along with two other families that travelled with us when we were in Russia. It will be so fun to see how the kids have grown( we will miss you Kathy and Andy).

Well I could write so much more but gotta go for now. I will write when the TA comes in. Here is a great memory of the beach 2010.

Happy Tuesday!

Yes, it is a happy Tuesday in that we received our letter from the Visa center. I just emailed it off to our agency and they will email it to China. So Thursday our China contact will be dropping off our papers at the US Consulate. I then have two weeks to wait until they issue the article 5 which should be on July 22nd.

I have to say that it has been killing me this morning waiting for the mailman(woman in our case). I did not attack her as she drove up, but waited until she drove away until I ran to the mail box and quickly searched for a letter. Unfortunately Olivia is not home this week(at camp in very very hot weather) to remind me how crazy I act when another milestone has past. I'm am just giddy like a kid at Christmas. So here we are again, hurry up and ..... WAITING.

CABLED!!!!

YEA YEA YEA! We are chugging along and getting closer to travel to see our Sweet Sophia. I called on Wednesday and our file was cabled to the US Consulate in China. We now have to wait to received a letter from them saying that it is done and we can then have the rest of our papers dropped off( hopefully on Thursday 7/8). It will take two weeks then to get our Article 5, which will go directly to the Chinese government and then anywhere from 1-4 weeks until our TA. OhOh so close. Dominic is getting very excited about our trip and he has asked me several times, " You mean that after we meet her for the first time, she gets to stay with us from then on?" My response: " Yes, from then on!" And we both smile.

I will keep you posted!

And the List Gets Smaller

One more approval down! Yes yesterday, I called our officer at the USCIS and we are approved and the letter got sent out. Hopefully we will have or letter in a week as will the National Visa Center, who will then cable our stuff to China. We are getting there! Not many more steps left on my check off sheet. As the time is getting closer to travel, I am getting things all ready. Our house is pretty much ready for 5 children! I purchased booster seats last week. And this week I dug out my packing lists from Russia and started listing what I need to buy. I am hoping that we get to travel in August( probably late August) so I know we will be all ready to go. However, will Sophia be ready?

I don't really even know if she knows she will be getting a forever family. The last update we received were measurements in March. I have not heard anything since we sent the care package to her. I wrote a letter to her foster family, and provided a way for them to respond, but nothing. I don't know if she knows what is going to happen, let alone understand it. So, even though I have been praying for her since I saw her face for the first time, I have been stepping up the storming of heaven.

And I ask you to help me. At the top of my blog, I will be adding a little prayer (I will try to keep it little) that I ask all our readers to pray when they come to our blog. That way there will be many of you lifting her up in prayer over the next few months. I thank you for helping Sophia this way and I know God will respond in a might way!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEENAGER!

Yes my little girl, my first born is a TEENAGER today! Boy do I feel old. She is such a treasure to us and is maturing into a beautiful young lady. She is also growing like a weed! She passed me up in height about a month ago and has grown about 1/2 since then! I am totally amazed at the growth, no wonder she is always complaining of this or that is hurting. Here is my favorite picture of her:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE! WE LOVE YOU!!

Adoption Update: We DID NOT receive our US approval yet(like I previously posted), just the receipt that they got the papers. Guess I am getting too excited!

LOA!!!!!

Oh My Oh My Oh My!!! I am totally floored right now. The kids and I were out running errands most of the day( they were for the kids so it's not like I was torturing them the first day of summer break). Anyway, I thought I would sit down, take a break and read my emails since Micah was now napping. As I scanned my emails, I saw the letters LOA!! I about hyperventilated. I started frantically saying, "oh my oh my oh my". Dominic comes in and wants to know if I am ok. OK?! I am better than ok. We are one big step closer to getting Sophia! Our Letter of Acceptance was signed on 6/4/10. That would mean that we were approved in 28 days!! That is inconceivable to me. The lowest I had heard of recently was 35 days. Many have been in the 40s but most likely I was hoping for no more then 56( which would be 8 weeks). Someone on one of my yahoo groups had been monitoring peoples stats and he came up with 7- 10 weeks for approval. Our was in 4 weeks!

I know that it does not seem like it but I am speechless and my mind is racing a million mile a minute. I had been holding back to filling out the forms that I needed once we received our LOA. I was going to start on them this week since school is over. Well, tonight and tomorrow will be paperwork.

Next step: Finish our I-800 form and overnight it to US*CIS and wait for their approval( about 2-3 weeks) and also fill out the other forms that I need. This also means that we have a very good chance of traveling in August! Oh my Oh my. Got to get busy!

28 DAYS!!!

Yes that is how many days we have been waiting for our LOA(Letter of Acceptance). It is hard to believe it has been that long already but with the end of school activities, I can see how it has gone so quickly. Today is the last day of school for the kids and summer begins, I am excited to slow down the pace and just enjoy time with the kids, but that would mean the wait will seem to slow down too....don't like that idea, guess I will just have to keep us all busy having fun right?

In the past week the wait has started to get harder. I have a little bit of paperwork to complete for when our LOA arrives and this week we went through Olivia's room getting things ready for Sophia so we are all set there. There is always more reading to do and we are going to start as a family learning some Chinese so that will be fun. Oh! I have to tell you all of how wonderful God is to provide! We have been looking for someone to help us out in our discipleship group in watching our kids starting in July( there are 7 with 3 more coming through adoption in the next several months). Well God has provided a wonderful lady who is Chinese and speaks Mandarin! I could not believe it. I had been thinking about trying to find someone in our area that spoke Mandarin so that when we run into communication problems with Sophia, there would be someone to call. It was on my list of things to do but to be truthful, I did not know if I would every get that one finished, I guess God knows that I will need the help and is already providing! Not only do I have someone to contact, but she will be someone we will meet regularly with at least one a week! And in the mean time we can practice our chinese on her - God is so good.

Another reason why the wait seems so long is that I have not received any new information on Sophia. We have a set of pictures from November, her original medical information and updated measurements in March. We sent a care package in April but we have not received any information back from her foster family. I keep staring at the same pictures trying to picture what she will look like when she is not posing for pictures. I don't even know if we will get more information before we travel but I know that all things are in God's hands and He knows best.

I did get a pick me up though a few weeks ago....

This is the necklace that I orders from www.jiayindesigns.com. It is custom made in China by a missionay's wife and is Sophia's chinese name - Xin Yan which means "Precious Beauty" so fitting. I have been wearing it a lot( when I don't have grunge cloths on) and will be wearing it in China all the time. I hope it will mean something special to Sophia.

So for now I will get back to planning a fun summer. Enjoy the time!