Travel Dates

Well we have TA. and that means we have our travel dates. We will leave here February 2 or 3rd and return February 19th. We should get Anna February 9th. We are sad that we have to wait six more weeks to get her but happy that we have travel dates and know when we will finally get her. Please pray that the next 6 weeks will go quickly and will be enjoyable.

Here she is Miss America......

Ok not really but she is beautiful enough to win any contest HANDS DOWN!!!! We got updated pictures of our sweet girl today. We sent her a care package through Blessed Kids. We got an email Tuesday letting us know that she got the package. Then we got a second email saying that her contact got updated pictures of Anna and if we wanted them she would give us a quote. Well of course we said yes and here they are. We think she is beautiful. ENJOY-

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We have a lot to be thankful for. We are thankful for our relationship with Jesus Christ. We are thankful for godly family and friends who love us, pray for us and support us through live. We are thankful for the wonderful blessing of Anna who will be home very soon.

Anna update:

We got two updates on Anna. She is now 20 pounds and 28 inches long. She has 9 teeth. She understands simple terms. She is not talking or walking yet. She will laugh if you tease her. And then we got a second update:

Her lip has been fixed. Praise the Lord. We were praying that she would go ahead and have the surgery....probably the reason for the weight gain.

We are hoping to travel in the next 5-6 weeks. We have been busy with the small details that we have had to wait on. We are working on packing....man does one little girl require a whole lot!!! We are packing and repacking to get it all in. We bought the last of the supplies we need for the trip (or at least we think we have).

We put the Christmas tree up today and I cried a lot..not sad tears but happy tears because when we take it down.......................Anna will be here!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are leaving it up till she gets home and then we are going to have Christmas when she gets home since it'll be the first of January or at least we hope. We are waiting for TA (travel approval) to know officially when we'll be traveling. We think it should be the end of December beginning of January. So not too much longer now.

Happy Turkey Day

Here she is

Our beautiful baby girl

Here she is saying "Mom I need a manicure and a pedicure":)

Well everyone ....we have our LOA so we can show her picture. Scott came to work today and surprised me. I thought that he was telling me his granddaddy has passed but he wasn't crying; so then I thought that we got an update. We had asked Monday for an update on her size, if she has had the surgery for her lip etc. Bethany told us that they would get us an update but that it would take a couple of days. So when I saw Scott smiling I asked "Did we get an update?" and he said, "Well we got an update" and I said "Don't tell me we got our LOA?" and he said we did and well then there was much celebration. We are so thrilled that we are officially approved by China to adopt our beautiful daughter.

We are hoping that we will travel by New Years. There isn't enough time to travel by Christmas because there is a group leaving in two and half weeks and we won't be able to get our LOA back and get our travel approval. But we should be able to travel right after Christmas hopefully. It'll depend if there is a Consulate Appointment available. So please pray that we are able to travel by the end of December and early January.

Two happy parents!!!

Another incredible blessing

My mom, me and Scott at the shower and a painting for Anna done by a dear friend

A handmade ladybug blanket and other ladybug items

Ladybug rocker given by our dear friends and DVD's to entertain Anna

A collage of the gifts our dear friends blessed us with at one of the
sweetest showers I have ever been to. There were so many more priceless and precious gifts given by our sweet friends.

Too cute ladybug cake and diaper cake

Up close view of the ladybug cake

Some of the blessing that our friends gave us

We had such an awesome shower this past Saturday. Our dear friends gave us a wonderful shower that touched our hearts in ways that words cannot express. God has blessed us richly with godly friends and family who have walked this adoption journey with us and prayed and supported us in some of our most desperate times. It is because of our family and friends support and prayers that we were able to celebrate the miracle of God's blessing of Anna this past Saturday night.

We are waiting for our LOA (letter of approval). We are praying that this is the week that we receive that precious piece of paper. Once we have that we then wait for our TA (Travel approval) and with that we will finally have our dates of when we will travel to China. We are praying that we get to travel before Christmas. We would love to have her home before Christmas. But God's timing is perfect and I know without a shadow of a doubt that His hand has been guiding this adoption from the very beginning. So I know in God's timing we will hold our precious daughter....and everyday is one day closer to having her!!!!

So blessed

Well I am overwhelmed by the love of others. The ladies at my school gave me a baby shower today. My first baby shower. They blessed us abundantly. There were about 45 ladies there and my principal. And there were so many gifts. I couldn't believe all that they gave us. The ladies in 4th grade threw the shower and they made it perfect. They are wonderful ladies to work with and I am truly blessed. Mother and Daddy drove up last night to be there and that made it even more special. What a blessing. I included pictures of what we got.

I'll do better

Ladybug blanket from our friends
This is a handmade bib made by one of my
Bethany Board Buddies-Thanks.
Cute hoodie from our wonderful friends
More ladybugs-YEAH
We love this brown and pink outfit-too cute

O.K. I'm going to do better about updating. Especially when we have Anna. I still can't believe we are post referral. It is so wonderful to know what our baby looks like. And believe me she is beautiful. We still can't post pictures yet but I promise as soon as we can, I'll have her picture up.

We celebrated our 1 month anniversary/17 month LID on Monday. We couldn't believe it has only been a month. It feels like it has been four months since we got our referral. People would say that the wait up to referral was very hard but the wait after referral till travel is a killer. And I thought, 'No way, I'll be fine once I know she exist. The waiting after referral till travel will go quickly." Well let me tell you.....THEY WERE RIGHT!!! It is a killer knowing she is growing up with out her mommy and baba (for those of you who don't know baba is daddy in Chinese; and is what Scott wants Anna to call him). She will be 15 months on Monday. We would love an update on her but we are at the orphanage's and China's mercy as to whether we will get any.

We got our USCIS approval last Saturday. We couldn't travel till we got that. We were afraid with Hurricane Gustav that it would delay us getting the approval since the regional office is right outside New Orleans. But it finally came, although the envelope did look like it went through a hurricane. Then we found out Tuesday that we got P.A. (Pre-approval) from China on 9-2-08. Which from our research means that China has our LOI and our dossier in hand and will at some point begin evaluating and checking our dossier and her dossier. We aren't through review yet so it'll be a couple of months before we get our LOA (Letter of Approval); but once we get that, things will move pretty quick. Please continue to pray that our dossier will be reviewed quickly and they will approve us without any questions or delays.

Now we are looking forward to October. Why you ask? Well my school is giving us a shower on October 8th (less than 3 weeks :)!!) and then our church is throwing us a shower on October 18th. I posted some pictures of some cute outfits our dear friends gave us for Anna, along with a handmade bib from a Bethany Board buddy. I just wanted to update everyone who checks our blog with what has been happening. We cannot wait to get our precious Anna Meili. Not too long now.

Hugs and kisses.

I AM A MOMMY!!!!!!

I can't believe that I finally get to type that I am a mommy. That's right for those of you that don't know, Scott and I got a referral for a baby girl Friday. It was a total surprise. She is 14 months old, she is 13 pounds and 2 ft tall. She is itty bitty. But that is O.K. with me. She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. WE ARE SO IN LOVE!!! We hope to travel in 2-5 months to get her.

So here is the story of how we found out:

I was in my classroom teaching when my principal came to my door. He had a very serious face and said "I need to see you in my office, immediately" I was scared to death. I thought I was in serious trouble or getting fired or something. Well when I walked down to the office, everyone was looking at me very serious. My principal was standing outside his office with the door closed. He then opened the door and ushered me in. I saw a man sitting in his office and it took me about five seconds to realize it was Scott. I thought at first it was a parent wanting a conference. I looked at him and said, "What are you doing here?" Scott was crying and I could tell he had been really crying. My first thought was that someone had died and then he starts reaching for some papers. My second thought was that Scott had been fired for some reason. And then I thought, "Oh no, we didn't make it through review. So I repeated, "What are you doing here?" He then said, "Would you like to meet your daughter?" I said, "Are you kidding me?, Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?". He then showed me his picture and then I started jumping up and down, screaming and crying. It was an outer body experience. So surreal. After about five minutes of crying and praying we left my principal's office. All the office was standing outside the office and they said "Well?" I started jumping up and down and said, "I am a mommy." I then saw my principal and told him. I then told him I had to go to our social worker's office, but that I needed to tell some teachers who had been praying for us first before I left. They all cried and were so excited.

SO we went to our social worker's office and she cried, we cried and we officially accepted Anna as our child. When we first got to her office I asked, "Is this my baby, is this my baby?" and she said, "She is if you want her." Of course I shouted "YES". We then flew (well quickly drove) to Florida and surprised our family. They had no clue and were very surprised. We showed up at Mother's office right as she was closing and showed her Anna's picture and told her about her new grandbaby. We then went to the apartment, where I walked in first carrying her picture to show daddy. We then called Christy and told her. She and Jeff were thrilled. Oh on the way down we called Lorrie to make sure Mother and Daddy weren't going to Birmingham. She kept asking why so I told her. She is convinced we are going before Thanksgiving more than ever. (Another story) We went over to Scott's parents and surprised them too. It was dark by the time we got there and Scott pounded on the door. His dad answered the door like what is going on? They were like "What are y'all doing here?" We showed them and told them about Anna and they were thrilled. We then called his sister on speaker phone and told her. Finally Saturday we skyped Katie and Mikey and told them. IT WAS A WONDERFUL WEEKEND.

Now we start the paperchase to get her. We hope to have her by Christmas but if we don't that is ok. China has got to review our dossier and get us a court date so that is why we have to wait. Please continue to pray that the rest of this adoption will go smoothly and quickly. She needs her mommy and daddy and Nana and Grenny and Papa and Papaw and Aunts and Uncles and Cousins and Memaw and everyone else. We are so excited.

We are having her file reviewed by the International Adoption Clinic and are awaiting the call from the doctor. We got our Hep A and Hep B shots today. Once we hear from the doctor we can then move to the next step. Please pray that as China reviews our dossier that comes smoothly and they send their formal approval soon and travel dates soon. So this has gotten long and if your still reading--thanks. We are so excited.

We love you and you just don't know how much you all mean to us. Your prayers have truly gotten us through and we can't thank you enough. But the person we owe all of our thanks, praise and love to is OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. He has sustained us and seen us through one of the most difficult journeys of our life. He has been our strength and our guide. He is faithful and GOOD and kind and generous. We have seen His miracles this weekend and How Good He Really IS!!!

Love
Happy Mommy and Happy Daddy

Hallelujah...SOME GREAT NEWS

A MIRROR I PAINTED FOR ANNA-THE FRONT HAS HER NAME ON IT
OUR CRAZY, AND MOST OF YOU KNOW SHE IS, CRAZY DOG. Yes I know she desperately needs to go to the beauty shop.

SOMETIMES SHE CAN BE CUTE-WELL MINUS THE RED, DEVIL EYES :)


So on to the good news. Our agency just sent out an email a week or so ago and announced that they are now taking part in the shared list for special needs children from China. So now that I told you all that greek let me explain. The shared list is a private portal where China puts the files of special needs children for certain agencies to look at and find families for. So what does all this mean? It basically comes down to there will be a whole lot more children available for our agency to find children for waiting families. One of the best things is that we can participate now. We don't have to wait to get through review. We have filled out a form telling Bethany what we feel comfortable with as far as special needs. We are hoping to turn that in tomorrow. They then check the portal and when they find a child that matches what we said we would feel comfortable with they lock in that file so no other agency can see it. We then have 48 hours to make a decision. After we say yes, we then have two weeks to have a doctor review the file and let us know their opinion. IF they find something more major or more special needs, we can decline the referral and then the file becomes available for other agencies to see. We then would continue to wait. WE feel pretty confident that the child we are referred the first time will be our child. What this all boils down to is that our referral could come at any time. I have talked to some people whose agencies have been participating with the shared list for a while now and they say their agencies have place two to three times the number of children with this new system. Plus they seem to think that with what we are open to as far as special needs, we could possibly have our referral in FOUR TO EIGHT MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lorrie, you might be going to China after all. :). We know that it could take longer but if you'll look at older post, just a couple down you'll see we were talking five to six years----FOUR TO EIGHT MONTHS PEOPLE :) :) :) :) Can you tell we are thrilled??? We are both so excited and have a peace that God will see us through and we'll have our precious one soon.

Also there are rumors that February 07 is out of review which means March 07 is in. We are getting close. I'll admit that as we get closer I get more nervous that something will happen and we will be questioned in review. That could potentially keep us from adopting from China. I keep turning my worries and anxieties over to the Lord and keep asking Him to give me the faith I need to trust He'll see us through. Please continue to be prayer partners with us as we come up on this very important step in our adoption.

Oh and China made it to January 25, 2006. SO not very far. As you all know the Olympics is in less than two weeks and then we'll just wait and see how the wait goes from there.

Love you all.

Beach Trip

We got back yesterday from the beach. We had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and the condo was spacious and nice. We really enjoyed spending some time with the family. Thanks Mother and Daddy for the trip. We truly had a blast and look forward to getting together next year at the beach or mountains. We missed you Christy, Jeff, the girls, Craig and Mikey. Hopefully next year we all can come.

Our anniversary trip

This is us in the train station waiting to go-it took a million pictures for us to get a decent one.

This white tiger was in the "Asia Domain" of the zoo

The gorilla was a real show off

Posing with the elephants

Who is taller - Scott or the giraffes?
Scott in the train terminal, can you tell he is tired of me taking pictures :) ?

The two of us in front of Jackson Square

Cafe Du Monde-need I say more?

Man are they good even in 100 degree weather

The happy couple celebrating 5 years

We had a great time in New Orleans. We ate a lot of beignets at Cafe du Monde, went swimming in the hotel pool, visited the New Orleans Zoo and walked about a million miles. I have attached some pictures of our trip. We took the train down to New Orleans and thoroughly enjoyed it. I highly recommend taking Amtracks to your next destination. We took a lot of pictures at the Zoo. We really enjoyed the zoo except that about five minutes after being there I stepped on a rusty nail. I was wearing flip flops (I know not too smart) and stepped right on it piercing my big toe. Luckily it didn't go too far in. It hurt a little but I was determined to keep looking since we had just gotten there. After we left the zoo, we got some first aid products and this past Monday, I went and got a tetanus shot. So I think I'll survive :). Anyway hope you enjoyed the pictures. We go to the beach next week with the family. We are really looking forward to it. I'll post pictures when we get back.

More good news

Well we celebrated our 14 month LID anniversary. We had Chinese and it was good as usual. Scott's granddaddy had been sick in the hospital so we had been going up there every day for the last four or five days so we ate Chinese came home and crashed. His granddaddy got to go home yesterday so that is good. We leave for New Orleans tomorrow :)! So excited. We are celebrating our five year anniversary. We are taking a train to New Orleans. Neither of us have done that before. The past five years have had difficulties, especially with us trying to become parents, but they have been a wonderful five years. I know God has blessed me beyond what I deserve when He gave me Scott for a husband. He is truly my best friend. There is no one else I would rather spend time with. He is giving, kind, tenderhearted, funny, committed, godly and loving. He is my knight in shining armor :).

Ok now that I have been mushy on to the good news. We just got word that January 2007 is out of review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That means they are reviewing February 2007, three more months to go and we are out!!!!!! We have to get through review before China says officially that we can adopt. Our agency has a strong track record with the review room so hopefully it'll be smooth sailing through review. Please pray that we don't get asked any questions and that we make it out of review without any problems. We also are working on updating our homestudy. It has to be updated every year or so until we have Anna. We hope we don't have to update too many more times. Oh and China did 8 days of referrals. They are now on January 20, 2o06. We are praying that things change soon in the area of referrals--maybe after the blasted Olympics!

We'll post pictures of our trip when we get back.

Another Month and School's Out!

So we celebrated another month of waiting. We got Chinese and wondered if this adoption will ever happen. Our agency got another COP list and there was one little girl we fell in love with but she was matched with another family so we continue to wait. January 07 is in review and hopefully we'll get word soon that they are out and Feb. 07 is in. China got to January 12, 2006 so they only did four days this past month.

Scott and I found a pottery painting place and went last week to paint pottery. I attached some pictures for your enjoyment :) . The plate was done by me two weeks before Scott and I went. My Bunco group got together and had a party so I thought I would paint a plate for Anna. I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Yesterday was my last day at school for this year. Ten glorious weeks of summer break. I hope it goes really, really slow.

Please continue to pray that something will change and that God will bring us our precious Anna. We long so badly to hold her in our arms and as the wait continues it seems to only get harder.