One Step Closer

We got our I800 approval today.  

I GOT PICTURES!!!

  She's grown so much since her referral pictures were taken.

Look at that sober little face.

She's growing, standing, eating solid food, all good news.  

I'm not sure what the decorator frosting was all about but I hope everyone had a good time.

She's holding the album we sent.

Next year, little girl.  We can't wait to help you celebrate!

Emily's Birthday

It's Emily's second birthday in China.  She might be enjoying some birthday cake and these gifts right now.  I'm hoping for an update and some pictures but it doesn't sound like anyone has had any luck obtaining these from her orphanage.

Next year, sweet little girl!  We can't wait to share special days with you.

August

It looks like August is going to be our month!  : D   LOA is Letter of Acceptance.  China tells us that they think we are fit to parent a specific child.  Woohoo!  Thanks for all the support.  We now wait for final approval from the US to do the same thing, wait for documents to be moved to the right place, and off into the wild blue yonder we fly.  

It's going to be a real TRIP because these angelic beings are going with us. 

I won the what-are-we-doing-with-the-children battle last time.  

I lost this time.  Kenton insists that this will be wonderful for them.

The question now is how many straight jackets should we take with us?

GUESS WHAT!

WE GOT OUR LOA!   

WOOHOO!!!

Saying Yes

"On the excruciating wait/delays:  Oh my, I can speak to this.  First, forget whatever timeline you were given at the beginning.  Forget you ever heard that.  Put that in the trash can.  Adoption will change, shift, slow down, hit snags, be weird, be difficult, take longer than you think, take longer than you can stand.  This will happen.  This is the normal thing.  When someone gives you a timeline, say, "Thank you for that cute little sentence.  Flush."  Potential adopters, let me tell you this:  Get your "YES" straight at the very beginning.  Decide on it.  Roll around in it.  Put it on the table and shellack it.  Because you cannot let every delay and snag derail your certainty about adoption.  When you say YES, you are saying YES to enter the suffering of the orphan, and that suffering includes WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THEM.  I promise you, their suffering is worse than yours.  We say YES to the tears, YES to the longing,  YES to the maddening process, YES to the money, YES to hope, YES to the screaming frustration of it all, YES to going the distance through every unforeseen discouragement and delay.  Do not imagine that something outside of "your perfect plan" means you heard God wrong.  There is NO perfect adoption.  Every adoption has snags.  We Americans invented the "show me a sign" or "this is a sign" or "this must mean God is closing a door" or "God must not be in this because this is hard," but all that is garbage.  You know what's hard?  Being an orphan.  They need us to be champions and heroes for them, fighting like h*** to get them home.  So we will.  We may cry and rage and scream and wail in the process, but get them home we will. "  Jen Hatmaker

Waiting

It has been 112 days of waiting for our LOA.































Good thing I'm such a patient person or I'd be going a little nuts.

Trail mix, anyone?