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.

WhooooooHooooo...Some good news

I'M SOOOO EXCITED TO TELL YOU ALL SOME GOOD NEWS. China has made it through 2006 for reviews. (Before you start jumping up and down- not referrals but review) Let me explain. The first step is to get your dossier logged in. Which we did on April 15, 2007. The second step is to go through the review room. They look over your dossier with a fine tooth comb so to speak. Only when you are through review are you approved by China to adopt. Our agency has a great track record for getting dossiers through review. I sure hope that holds true for us as well. There have been some rumors that the review room is starting to review some dossiers using the new guidelines which we do not qualify for. So we are praying that there are no hold ups or questions about our dossier because that could cause us to get a later LID which could possibly disqualify us. We know God has brought us down this road and we are trusting him to get us through review. SO as of today China is now reviewing January 2007. OUR YEAR. Finally they are in our year for something. SO once we get through review we are good to go. We are then also able to request COP (special needs) children in the first round and we don't have to wait for a re-release of the list. This is a great step in the right direction. We are trusting God to get us through review (hopefully before summer is over) and then bring us our precious Anna very soon. Please pray with us in that way. We love you all.

PS. If you haven't read our last entry (The one year LID anniversary entry) please scroll down and read.

ONE YEAR!!!

I'm a member of Bethany forums. That is the agency we use and this is what I posted on the forums today. Scott said to put that on our blog because he said that is truly where are heart is right now on this our 1 year LID anniversary:


Well today marks our one year LID anniversary. China says we have been officially waiting for one year today. And I'm not sure how to feel. Part of me is thrilled that we made it through the year and in some ways it really has gone fast. Other parts of me are very sad today. Scott and I have tried for four years to have children. We went through countless infertility treatments with no success and then God turned our hearts toward adoption. When we went to the first meeting with Bethany we were so excited and couldn't get enough information about China. We were told the wait was ten months from beginning to end. We were so thrilled to think that in a year we would finally be parents. Well we all know what has happened with China's IA program.

Scott and I took off work today so we could be with each other today to celebrate and to comfort. We are going to have a date all day and try to think about the good things and daydream about the day we finally get to hold our precious child in our arms. My heart literally hurts to think it might be another four years before I become a mommy. God has turned our hearts toward Special Needs kiddos and we are excited about that possibility. I'm just ready to hold my child NOW. To give her kisses and take her to the park and rock her to sleep and to comfort her when she cries and to see her smile and to hear her giggle and to tell her about Jesus and what He has done for us and to promise her that I will always be here for her and will never leave her ..so many things I want to experience with my child and so we wait and wait and wait for China to allow us to adopt one of their precious children and finally I will be able to say I'm a MOMMY!

With much love,
Shelley

The song from Casting Crowns "Praise You in the Storm" is so relevant in our lives right now:

I was sure by now that You would have reached down and wiped our tears away stepped in and saved the day but once again, I say "Amen," and its still raining.

As the thunder rolls I barely hear you whisper through the rain "I'm with you" And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands and praise the God that gives and takes away.

I'll Praise you in this storm and I will lift my hands for You are who You are no matter where I am. Every tear I've cried you hold in your hand. You never left my side and though my heart is torn I will Praise You in this storm .

I remember when I stumbled in the wind. You herd my cry, You raised me up again. My strength is almost gone. How can i carry on if I can't find you?

As the thunder rolls, I barely hear you whisper through the rain "I'm with you". And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands and praise the God that gives and takes away.

I'll Praise you in this storm and I will lift my hands. For You are who You are no matter where I am. Every tear I've cried, you hold in your hand. You never left my side and though my heart is torn, I will Praise You in this storm .

11 months and what can I say...

Ok. I know that I haven't posted anything this month and well we are half way to our next LID month anniversary (the big 1 year) but I don't really know what to say. I guess the good news is that China is finally in 2006. That's right we are no longer talking 2005. They got to January 4, 2006. Now for the bad news. It took 31 months to refer 2005; and well if they take that long that's almost three more years to get through 2006 and then we have to get to April 2007 so you can do the math.......not great. I know anything can happen but with the Olympics coming to China, we are praying they don't stop referrals for a couple of months which is what is being said could happen.

We are beginning to look at our agencies special needs kiddos. They are called Children of Promise (COP for short). Once a quarter (every three months or so) China sends Bethany a list of special needs children. The list has boys and girls on it with varying degrees of special needs and varying ages. Some special needs are very minor and that is what we are looking at. However, how Bethany does the process, we are in the second group that can request a child. What I mean is those who are through the Review Room in China get to request children off the list first. After Bethany matches those children, they re-release the list with children who were not matched. That is when we can request (at least till we get through the review room). The Review Room is working on November 2006 dossiers. So we have to wait till they get to April 2007. The Review Room was moving pretty quickly but has really started to slow down (Surprise, Surprise). They have been working on November 2006 dossiers for three months now. Once we are through Review Room, we can request as many children as we want off of the special needs list. They only match you with one but you can request as many as possible. So that is what we are looking at right now. Truthfully I don' t know if we'll find Anna off the COP list but I do know that I don't want to wait four to five more years to hold my first child.

So I guess I had some things to say after all. I'll end with this. Please pray for us. Some of you know the situation we just went through and you know our disappointment. Our blog is public so I won't go into more details about the situation. However, we are both struggling with our disappointment and I'm struggling with why it didn't happen. I know you can say "It wasn't God's will" but I believed God was showing me that it was going to happen and I was convinced in my heart that it was going to happen and now here I am with empty arms and an ache in my heart so great. I know that the Lord is good and I know He is working but that doesn't take away the hurt and disappointment I'm feeling right now, so I really covet your prayers.

We love you all.

10 months and 4 days to go

I know I'm a little late on this post but I really don't have a whole lot to update. We celebrated our ten month LID anniversary with some delicious Chinese. We then went to Florida for the weekend to see the family. We got to see Alexis and Rae so we were happy about that but we missed Elijah and Tyler, which was a bummer. The title is a clue to how far China got. They made referrals to December 27th, 2005. Only four days and finally we will be in 2006!!!!! I won't know what to do with myself when we are finally in 2007 (probably be celebrating my retirement :)!). We had some excitement last Tuesday. A tornado came through our neighborhood. I have attached some pictures. God protected our home and we had just a few branches down. We continue to pray that God will move and do what He wants in our adoption and that He will receive all the glory and praise. We don't know what that is but we are excited about the possibilities.