Surprise!

I can hardly believe it, but our agency received our LOA today. (Day 42).   About 3 weeks sooner than my best case scenario expected it to arrive.  What does this mean?  According to our agency, travel approval should now be expected in about 2 months and then, we should travel 2 weeks after that.  Looks like we will be in China late Feb, early March.  Wow.  Now I have one night to complete the paperwork that I thought I had 3 weeks to get done.  But I'm not complaining,  I'm just drinking lots of coffee.  It's gonna be a late night.

Treat! Treat! Treat!

Our Halloween days were full of treats.  Thursday and Friday the kids and I were out of school - so we got started on the festivities early.  We've so enjoyed these days....

Pumpking Carving

Celebrating my mom's birthday.  The kids helped me make Taco Soup and birthday cookies.  It was such a fun night.  My mom always makes sure that everyone else is the center of attention.  It was nice to have a night that let her be the center of our attention. 

Jillian opted to paint her pumpkin this year.  Is she cool or what?

We had a very excited Dorothy.  She is a BIG Wizard of Oz Fan.  She has grown up so much since last Halloween when she was frightened by EVERYTHING.  This year she didn't even blink at the site

of ghouls and goblins in our neighborhood.

 

Jillian was a 1950s girl this year.  She LOVED her costume that we borrowed from a friend.

Will's hero is David Ortiz. 

Thanks to one of his uncles who was recently in Boston, he was set with this jersey and hat! 

Such a fun night.  Our family has such a great time on Halloween.  Hope your holiday was full of treats as well.

We have our Log In Date.(LID)  And now the official counting of the days begins.  The next thing we wait for is our Letter of Acceptance. (LOA) I've been watching other families' timelines and it appears that LOAs have come in anywhere from 50-90 days.  Today a family received their LOA in 74 days.   So we really don't have any idea when it may actually arrive.   After that, we've been told to expect travel approval in approx. two months - then we'll set our travel date.  So, it looks like we may be about 5 months away.  Join us in praying that it all happens sooner.....  because....

I just can't wait to see this little face.

DTC!!!

Dossier to CHINA!

Those of you in the adoption community know what a huge step this is....  For others, just know that our work to bring Mia home is DONE and has arrived in China.  Now we wait.  I've been following along with several other adoptions and recently families have waited as short as 51 days from the time their paperwork was logged in until they received their letter of acceptance.  I'd like to see that trend continue!!!   After acceptance we'd wait about another 2 months or so for travel approval....   The problem... I'm not really good at waiting!

Bringing Hope To Mia

I am amazed.  On September 26,  our dear friends and family hosted a spaghetti dinner to raise funds for our travel expenses.  We were blown away.  First, by the compassion of our dear friend, Michelle Grubbs, and my dear sister-in-law, Julie,  who worked with such passion to make this event be such a special night.   I am not quite self-absorbed enough to think that so many people participated because they love us, but rather I realize that so many people participated because they care about the things that God cares about.  It reminds of this verse:

"Anyone who sets himself up as "religious" by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the orphans and unloved in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world."  James 1:27 MSG

So, thank you to all of you who planned the event, bought raffle tickets, made gracious donations, and encouraged us Saturday night.   We are overwhelmed by your goodness.  We are overwhelmed by God's faithfulness to us and our hearts are overwhelmed with gratitude to you all.  May you be richly blessed.  And may we all never forget that while much hope was brought to Mia that night, there are still 147 million orphans in the world still waiting for someone to bring them hope.  Could YOU be that someone?

Some pictures from the night.....

Family pitched in to make and serve the spaghetti...

Many of our friends sold and purchased raffle tickets.

Some of our dear friends let us use their new event pavillion for the event.  It was beautiful!

We are so grateful to all who came and helped bring hope to our Mia.

We ended the night by lighting candles to represent the hope that all orphans need. Together we sang, "Jesus Loves the Little Children."   It was beautiful.

I love this picture because the two little girls holding the candles live on our street and will be Mia's friends when she comes home.  He does love all the little children.  Those near and those far.

p.s.  I know many of you come across the blog because you are considering adoption or because you are in the process.  If you want to know more about how our fundraiser came together and how we did the raffle, email me.  4barbees@bellsouth.net

The Stork

Our paperwork should be in the hands of the "assistant stork" by tomorrow.  Then, she will take it to the State Dept and the Chinese Consulate in DC for their authentication.  You can mail all of it in yourself, but this courier service can do it for us in a few days as opposed to weeks.  When your daughter is waiting on you on the other side of the world, every single day counts.  Ann, also known as the assistant stork, also handled Lainie's paperwork for us and she is great.   Pray for no snags, and no delays........

New Pictures of Mia!!

We'd been asking our agency to try to get some updated information on Mia.  They have been trying for quite a long while and finally got the right person. There are 4 pictures - this one is my favorite.  The rest are very similiar.  She has already grown up so much from the first picture.  We are sooo ready to see this girl in some girly pink! 
I talked to our I800A case manager on Monday and he thinks we will have our approval by the end of the week.  What does that mean?  Well, that approval is the final piece of paperwork for our dossier.   After we get each piece authenticated by the North Carolina Secretary of State, and the Chinese Consulate in Washington, DC- THEN - we can send our dossier to our agency for their approval - THEN - we can send it to China and wait for them to accept it all. Which, I am told will take about 3 months.  THEN - we can expect to travel in 2 months.  So, still many steps to go - but I'll be so glad when this paperwork is out of my hands.  You can join us in praying that this will all happen without a glitch and that we will be able to travel in record speed (a feat that only God has control over).... Actually, he's in control of it all - all the time.