DTC

Oh what a happy day!!! Just got an email from our agency and our dossier is on it's way to China! Praise the Lord! So glad to have this part of the process out of our hands. Now we need our LID(log in date) and LOA(Letter of Acceptance). Still praying and believing that our God can do miracles and move mountains and that we can travel by the end of the year. It will take a miracle but I believe. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" Hebrews 11:1

Road Trip

We were thrilled to check our mail today and find our I-797C approval form! We immediately planned a road trip to Columbia! Me, Nana, Ashton and Anna Grace jumped in the car and drove to have it authenicated. We then overnighted it to Carol so that she could get the final approvals. It should be to our agency by Tuesday morning and we are praying it will leave for China on Tuesday afternoon. So very happy to have this part of the process over.

Praying that it is soon time!

A child sat on Jesus' lap in the splendor of heaven.
The child asked, "Is it time?"Jesus parted the clouds, looked and said,"No, not yet child."
The child asked "When will it be time?"Jesus replied, "When lessons are learned,hardships endured, and loneliness lived,then it will be time."
Time passed. The child asked, "Is it time?"Jesus parted the clouds, looked and said,"No, not yet child."
The child asked, "When will it be time?"Jesus replied, "When maturity is reached,self-worth affirmed and spirits strengthened, then it will be time."
Time passed. The child asked, "Is it time?"Jesus parted the clouds, looked and said,
"Their love is strong and their hearts are open.Yes, now it is time-Your parents are ready."~author unknown

This entire process is in God's hands and I completely trust His perfect timing but I must admit that my mommy's heart longs to hold sweet Andrew. Hold on little one, mommy and daddy are coming as soon as we can.

Happy Birthday Hayne

I can't believe my baby boy is 7 years old today! Happy Happy Birthday to Hayne! I am so proud to be his mommy. He is such a joy. He makes life so much fun. Years ago, Hal and I thought our family was complete with Ashton and Adam. Imagine our surprise when I found out I was pregnant(I actually thought that there was something terrible wrong with me, I never imagined I was pregnant). The pregnancy was extremely hard and I spent lots of time in the hospital and sick. I could never have imagined what a blessing I was carrying. Hayne has always been such a sweet and loving child. We have spent many years saying that God's plan is always better than ours. Hayne brings so much joy to everyday life. He makes us laugh out loud on a daily basis. He loves his Anna Grace and never gets upset when she calls him "Haynie Grace" He thinks Ashton is the smartest girl around and loves for her to draw him pictures. Everyday he tries to be more like Adam. He loves him so. Hayne is the one who kept crying and telling us that Andrew needed a family. Even when I explained that it would take time away from him, he still insisted that Andrew needed to be his brother. As Anna Grace would say "it makes my heart smile to hear him use Andrew's Chinese name. Only 3 years ago we came very close to losing our sweet boy. I am crying just typing those words. He was attacked by a dog but I firmly believe that God protected him. It was this same child who begged for a dog this year. I am amazed by him and how he recovered. Hal and I are so blessed with all of our children.
We have had a great day celebrating our little man. He has also enjoyed all of the special attention. He woke early to see the table that was decorated just for him and open his gifts. We went and had big desserts for lunch and then he chose to go to Build A Bear and he made a special dog named Lucky. He had so much fun. We are now waiting for grandparents to arrive so we can have cake and celebrate Hayne.
Thank you Lord for all of our blessings!

Still Waiting

We have encountered a bump in the road of this adoption journey. A vital piece of paperwork is missing and we have yet to receive our approval. If we get it by this Wednesday, then our paperwork can still go to China on Friday. Please pray with us that this will happen. I understand that this will all happen in His perfect timing, but it is so hard to wait when I know our precious little one needs his mama and baba. A friend reminded me today that thankfully God loves him even more than I do and therefore He will protect him until we can be together. So grateful tonight that I serve a God who can move mountains and speak peace to my soul.

Approval-Woo Hoo!

Can you hear us shouting all around? We rec'd GREAT news today! Our I800A has been approved-only 20 days since we mailed our application-woo hoo! I think this is one for the record books! I messed up our original package and tried to stop Fed Ex from delivering it to Chicago-I was unsuccessful-Lots of tears and worries on my part. Now I can see that God's hand was in the process all along. Because I had to call the office and explain my problem, I was able to reach a wonderful person who has helped me tremendously. She became my case worker. Today she called me to tell me that she rec'd my cleared fingerprints and that she will get my approval to me on Monday. Woo Hoo! What an awesome, Mountain moving God we serve! I am so thankful. We are driving to Columbia Tuesday to have our paperwork authenicated and then overnighting it to Carol in Washington that day. She will have my completed dossier to me by Tuesday, August 11th. I will hand deliver my dossier to Mei in Charleston on Wednesday. We will get to visit with some of our awesome travel buddies and hopefully we will be DTC by the 14th. One day short of 2 months since we accepted our referral of Andrew. I am in Awe of the miracle of this. Thanks for all of your prayers-please keep them coming! We are still praying and believing that we can meet our son before the end of the year! Hold on sweet Andrew, we are closer than ever!

Birthday Fun! Fingerprint Miracle!

What a day we have had! Guess how we started our day? We drove to Charlotte and were able to walk in and get fingerprinted!! Woo Hoo! For those of you not into all of the adoption lingo and process, this is a HUGE step in the right direction. Our appt was not until August 19th-3 weeks from now. The kind people in Charlotte helped us so much. This means that we will most likely have our final piece of paperwork before our original appt-Once we have this we can be DTC(Dossier to China)At this point the countdown will begin. We are praying hard that we will be able to travel by the end of this year. Please pray with us that all will fall into place to allow this to happen.
While we were in Charlotte, Nana planned a party for Andrew. We went to her house tonight for pizza and cookie to celebrate our little man's 3rd birthday. You should have seen the presents. Andrew is one loved little boy. He is going to love his Nana as much as we do! It was so much fun-lots of people were there to celebrate--Johnny, BJ, Jesse, Craig, Jodi, Max, Cole, Kamden, Mema, Papa and all of us! I can't wait to celebrate his birthday once he gets home. We are saving all of the presents for him to open.
Happy Birthday to our sweet Andrew-I pray that 5 months from now, you are in your mommy's arms surrounded by your family! We love you!