New PICS!

Nothing starts a week off like seeing updated pictures of our little girl! I love getting emails from our agency when they bring good news.  She is so beautiful, and I cannot wait not to wrap my hands around that girl.  She is smiling and happy.  Please China - finish approving us and send us that RA/LOA!!  I'm dying to show her off on to the internets!! 

Praying for "Allison"!

Idea

Yes, we are still waiting.  I am trying not to think about.  I am just praying for our little girl's protection. 

In the mean time, I have been trying to think of ways to earn a little extra money for our adoption in addition to piano lessons and photography.  I have been playing with what is called "SubwayArt".  I saw were people are mostly creating these with Cricuts and stencils - I am creating with PhotoShop.  There are so many types of phrases and ideas, so I started with our school fight songs.  Would anyone be interested?  I am working out the details.  Shoot me a message if you are interested.  Here are a couple examples..

Waiting in another line

Yes, more waiting.  Since we have our referrral now, many are asking well when do you get her. Good question.  We can guess and estimate, but I mostly depends on CCCWA(Chinese Welfare Assoc.) and US Immigration.  From our best estimate we are likely to travel the end of December or in January. We we love to travel right now - YES, but we can pray that our paperwork in the fast lane on someone's desk.

Here is the run down of our next few steps.  We are now waiting on an email from CCCWA telling us we have been officially approved(LOA or RA).  They will then FedEx us the official paperwork for us to sign and send back signifying that we want our little girl.  After this, we will send more paperwork to back Immigration (I-800) and applying for her visa.  We will also be applying for our visas to travel to China.  Once we get approval from this, we will be waiting on official travel approval (TA).  When all of this is done - we get plane tickets and travel with the next group going. All of us are going - leave as a family of 4 and come home as Dear PARTY OF FIVE!!

It is hard waiting, but it will be worth it when we see her.  When we receive official approval, I will be posting pictures.  Our agency is currently working on getting us updated ones.  Some have asked if we will be able to contact her before we get her.  We will be able to send care packages after we receive our RA.

We are currently trying to decide on her name.  While we have been calling her "Allison" to give us someone to pray for, it doesn't fit with her Chinese name.  We are keeping her Chinese name (it is too cute) and giving her a middle name.  Some we are tossing around - Hope, Katherine, Elizabeth, Lane, and a few others.  We do have to decide before we fill out her visa ap.  Noel thought of making a fundraiser out of naming her, but I'm not too sure.

Praying for "Allison" .

REFERRAL DAY!!

This past Wednesday we received a call from our family coordinator telling us that they have a potential match for us. I was totally surprised, since most calls go out once a month, so I thought. She told us they had been monitoring the system, and this little girl popped up. Her special need was a maybe on our list, and our agency asked if we would be willing to consider her. We choose to look at her file and locked her in the next morning. Immediately we started researching her need and talking with our pediatrician and other medical professionals. We also sought God's leading as well.

We were able to receive a newer update on her, and after that we knew she was ours. On Friday morning we excepted our referral for little girl. We now wait for our Referral Acceptance from China. It could take up to 6 months to receive this, but pray that it will not take that long. We are anxious to meet our "Allison"

I know some of this is vague, but we will fill you in when we can. We know have a face, and her Chinese name we can pray for.

Thinking of "Allison" at the beach

The girls have gotten into tye-dying since Emily's birthday.  We decided to get some cheap shirts from the beach store to dye and to take our pictures in this year.  We did a shirt for "Allison" as well.  I took their picture with the shirt so I can send it to her when we are able to.  We want her to know we were thinking of her before we knew who she was.

LID

Today we received notification that we have a LID of June 9th!! We are so happy to finally get to this time. Now our dossier is being translated. Our next step is waiting for our referral. We do not know were we are on the list, but we do know that we will definitely be in the mix to get one. Before now it was just a small chance of getting one, but having a log-in-date our chances have improved greater. Noel wondered what will be harder, waiting for a referral or getting the referral and waiting to go get her.

We are currently at the SBC convention this week. This is where it all started. I was able to meet Lynette Ezell whose husband was a catalyst to finally commit to adopt, and Noel was able to meet Russell Moore the author of Adopted for Life. We have recommended that book to many people. Both of these families have adopted children, and what an encouragement they are to us.

Time to Dance!!!

I never thought this day would come. Our dossier is finished and on it's way to home office in Virginia before heading to China or DTC(date to China). It should leave for China by Friday. A lot of work and stress has gone into preparing all that paperwork, but It will be worth it. Getting it ready in the last couple of weeks has felt like labor. I was happy to send this Fedex package without a return envelope in it.

Now we wait for our log-in-date or LID as it is called. My prayer is that it somehow makes it to the top of the pile and is done quickly. Once that is done, we will then be moved from a paper-chasing family to a dossier family and able to get a referral. We are anxiously waiting for that day.

Keep praying for "Allison" and that we will know her soon.