Getting so excited it is amazing!

So my adoptive nesting instinct must be working, as I am feeling the need to clean and organize like a loony bird heheh. I also got the suitcases out of the closet and am starting to make my "Official lists" I cant believe it is almost here and soon we will be on a plane to China! Someone on one of the groups I belong to posted that she got a message that her TA is being delivered on Monday and her Article 5 pick up was the same as mine. Of course that does not guarantee that mine is coming Monday or next week at all, but it sure gives me hope that it can happen! If it wasn't so snowy and icy out I would be outside doing a cool dance! (well in my mind it would be cool but Lord knows what any onlookers would think of my dance! heheh).  My husband and I looked at each other tonight and broke into instant giggles at the thought that we are going to be parents again real soon.  We cant wait to meet Luke and start to get to know him. Is he shy? Outgoing? Funny? What are his thoughts and his likes and dislikes... How fast will he pick up ASL? What will he think when he sees Tom and I for the first time and I start signing to Tom what is being said in the room? Will he understand that Tom and him are both Deaf, but that I am not? I cant wait to wrap my arms around him and hug him so hard but I dont want to scare him the first time we meet either, but whew it is going to be hard to not do that and to not bust into tears. I am finding it hard to sleep the last few days as the anticipation is getting to me, I cant even imagine how much I am not going to sleep when we find out we have TA and start making flight plans and such.  I already put in my papers for my leave at work and we will adjust dates as needed. My leave starts Jan 7th but I know that will be changed, we just had to give a date to be submitted to the school board and we gave the earliest possible date. 

 AHHHHH I am soooooo excited!!!!!! I am praying for some pictures of Luke to be sent to me this week from the package we sent to him with Angela at Lady Bugs N Love, she has been amazing for us and really goes out of her way to get something for my guy, since he is older she has done some special shopping for him.  Ok I am going to try and get some sleep so tomorrow I can get working on the gifts for the orphanage and dignitaries on our trip and get some more organizing at home and for the trip done. We have a ton to do and finally I can say not much time to do it in and for once that really feels good!  Here we come Luke, Here we come!!!!!!!! It wont be long now.... We are still in dire need of prayers for funding for the trip. We dont not have the travel funds needed yet and are just finishing paying off all the adoption agency fees. So please pray for us as we trust in the Lord for the provisions needed for the trip to China!!!!!! 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from The Worrell Family! We are so blessed this Christmas Season! Thank you Jesus for being our Lord and Savior! You are the reason we celebrate today. We spent the last 2 days with our loved ones and had an amazing Christmas.  We took some pictures to commemorate our last Christmas as a family of five. We are thinking of our Luke on this day and hoping he got the care package we sent him and praying to get a few new pictures of him as we wait for our TA. Merry Christmas to all! 

Officially on our TA wait!!!!!!

Well we are officially waiting for our TA and we are coming to an end of our wait!  We are busy with the hustle and bustle of Christmas and my oldest, Aaron, is home from College during his break! We are excited to celebrate the birth of our Savior and cannot wait to just spend some time together as a family and hopefully not have to run all over creation and we will just be able to relax a bit as we gather our thoughts and whits about us this holiday season, plus prepare for our travel to China.


My daughter just asked me "Momma when is my brother Luke coming?" I told her I am not really sure, but it will be soon. Her response " Momma, why cant Santa go get him, you know his Reindeer are super fast, he tells them "Giddy up" and they go super speed, if he can deliver presents to everyone in one night then he can bring my brother to us for Christmas right?" Who wants to be the one to tell her NO? Not me!!!!!!

Tommy has his and Luke's bedroom halfway set up, we were going to set up bunk beds, but the room is big enough for two twins across from each other. Tommy has a small table with a light set up in between the beds so him and his brother can see to "sign all night long and you wont even know we are awake.. until we laugh that is heheh, then dad still wont even know we are awake hahah!"  that boy sure is smart in creating his Deaf friendly environment.

We are truly blessed beyond a shadow of a doubt in our lives. We have been crazy busy lately with our jewelery fundraiser (which was a very nice success and we are hoping to have the funds from that come in soon :) and we have been blessed by some others with donations, plus I have worked myself to the bone.....I am now back down to 1 job as of this past Monday,(well 2 if you count full time mommy!) I was grateful for the extra work, but I am so exhausted and was so stressed it was a lot for me, on top of all that I do at church with interpreting on Sundays, interpreting our Thursday night Deaf bible studies (what a rewarding and incredible time that turned out to be and I cant wait for my new son to become a part of that) and teaching ASL on Tuesday nights for family night at church, plus preparing interpretations for 2 Christmas plays was a TON!!! 

All of the blessings we have received aside...... we are still thousands short on the money we need to go get Luke. We will not be able to get our Travel Approval (TA) if we do not pay all of our fees within the next week or 2.  Then we need to come up with the money for the actual travel itself. I have applied for several grants and have not gotten any, but I am praying that there is a chance we can still get a grant and God will show favor on our family to help get our son home! It is a huge kick in the pride to have to ask others for help and ask for donations and fund-raise, but from what I see in the adoption community it is pretty much the norm.  I wish it wasn't so expensive to bring a new son into our home as I am sure if it wasnt we would do this again.... I am going to see what I can do to help set up an adoption ministry in my church (hmm I know of at least one lady in church that has the same goal..... ahem right Terry?) to help others who might have the yearning to adopt and the income to take care of another child daily, but not the $24,000 - $30,000 needed to bring home a child. I know before Luke even walks into the hotel room on our Gotcha day that he is already a huge part of my heart and that he is 100% for sure my son.  My children are so excited and pray daily for their brother to come home.  Luke has already been a part of our daily lives before he even touches American soil.  He is already an integral part of our daily routine.  


We are asking if anyone feels led to help us out in our journey to bring our son home... to go ahead and do so..... we still have our coffee fundraiser going at www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWorrellFamily   we would also appreciate any and all prayers as we head into the home stretch and are trying to scrap out these last funds, of which we still need a very large amount. 

We just had Angela at Lady Bugs N Love send Luke another care package for Christmas and we sent him a winter jacket (which we are hoping he will be wearing when he comes to us, this way we dont have to bring one or buy one in China), plus jeans, a camera and film, about 25 pictures of our whole entire family (Granparents, Aunts and Uncles and our HUGE dog too!), a remote control car and also a short letter to Luke.. I will add it on here! We are pretty sure he wont understand any of the letter, but we pray that somehow he will get that we are coming soon!  We are hoping to get some new pictures of him with this package as well. We havent had a new picture since August! 

our letter to Luke Xinhai:

Xin Hai,

We are hoping to travel to China to meet you very soon and bring you back home to meet the rest of your new family. Daddy and Mommy cant wait to come to Jinan to see you. Back here in New Jersey we have your bedroom all ready and you will be sharing a room with your brother, Tommy. Your 2 brothers and your sister are very excited to meet you and to start to get to know you and play and play and play with you! We are hoping to be in Jinan either January or February at the latest. We know it is soon that you will come to be with us. I am sure you are nervous, but please know what we will always love you and will help you to try and adjust to America as soon as possible. Dad and I have been learning some Chinese Sign Language (CSL), it is a very nice language, we both like it a lot. Many signs in Chinese and American sign languages are similar. We think you will be able to learn American Sign Language (ASL) very fast. We hope you enjoy the jacket we are sending you as we know it is very cold where you are and we hope it helps to keep you warm during these cold months. We had our first snow in New Jersey yesterday and it is cold here too. We hope you enjoy the toy we are sending too. We think you will have fun playing with it. We are hoping that you are able to understand our letter and understand that we are coming soon to get you and bring you home and that we will always love you and protect you and promise to always be here for you. We wanted to let you know that we have picked an American name for you, your name if you like it, will be Luke Xin Hai Worrell. We love you and cant wait to meet you.

Love,
Daddy, Mommy, Aaron, Tommy and Paige

Article 5 was picked up!

Our Article 5 was picked up today! Yahoooooo.  We were cabled 11/24 so we have had a long wait for Article 5 and my nerves are wearing thin.  Getting the news today that our Article 5 was picked up sure helped me out some.  We also sent Luke a package for Christmas and sent him a new letter, some new photos with all of our family members included so he can hopefully recognize his Nan, Pop, Mom-mom, Granma, Pop-pop and Aunts and Uncle when he arrives in the USA.  We also are having a winter jacket sent to him so he will have one there when we get to him and sent a remote control car.  We are expecting pictures of the care package soon and will post pictures real soon. It was amazing to be able to write to him and let him know that we WILL be there soon in Jinan, China and we WILL get to bring him home soon!  The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!


Now we are waiting for the all amazing, stupendous, fantastic, terrific.. TA!!!! That is our travel approval that allows us to finally make a Consulate appointment and get on a plane to get our son. They are normally 2-3 weeks after Article 5. There is a SMALLLLLL, ever sooooo smalllll chance that we can possibly make it out of here by Jan 14 or 15th to make it to China in time to bring Luke home before the Chinese New Year. IF we do not get approval and fly out by Jan 14 or 15th we will not be able to travel until mid February to bring him home as Chinese New Year shuts everything down for awhile whilst they celebrate their big holiday! Please pray with us we get approval in time to head out in a few weeks, prayers will definitely be welcomed and appreciated!
This momma needs to bring her son home, NOW!!!!!!!

Feeling Blue

No Article 5 yet. Seems that those with power in my situation are not allowing me my Article 5 yet. Why? Good question and I do not know. I am frustrated and disappointed beyond what I would think I should be. That is about all I have to say for the moment.  Some prayers for a speed up to my Article 5, which should have already been done and a speedy TA.
Thanks

What are you thinking?

Well we are starting to head towards the end of our journey and I am wondering what our little man is thinking? I KNOW what I am thinking... WHEN OH WHEN CAN I HOLD YOU?????  I am ready to leave and ready to get out of here.  (well not actually packed and ready but feeling more then ready time wise).  Many who were originally on similar timelines as me got their TA's today, I know that could have been me, but there is a reason why I am not going right now.  I know soon I will get my Article 5 (I should have 1 more week then get my Article 5) then after that comes TA which is normally 2-3 weeks after Article 5. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and it is getting brighter by the day! I had dear friend at work today give me a travel outlet adapter for China and a travel waist money pouch, It really hit me.. OH MY LORD I gotta get my butt in gear and get ready to get out of here!  We were given a bedroom set by our Amazing Pastor and His incredible wife and we are so blessed to say that we just switched the kids bedrooms around yesterday and now Tommy is sleeping in his new room with Luke's bed set up right across from him and that really made us all cry as we starred at the empty bed and knew that oh so soon Luke would be here and him and his brother would be signing to each other at night from across the beds. Tommy even set up a lamp and night light near the beds so he can sign with Luke at night (as he so cleverly told me this "oh and Guess what mom.. you wont even know we are awake and talking to each other (well signing to each other) unless of course we laugh" hahah I love that he thought of that on his own. My hubby is so excited that soon there will be another Deafie in our house and that more and more hands should be flapping and creating a breeze in our house!   Aaron is due home for Christmas break soon and he will arrive home to a new bedroom and I think he will like the set up of his room he is now the last bedroom on the floor and can overlook everyone when he opens his door.  Strange to be actually seeing things happen now when for so long it was seeming like this would never happen! Well our sweet Luke we are coming soon! Hang in there as mommy and daddy are on their way soon so you can meet your family that waits for you back in the good ol USA! 

My husband made this with all 4 of our kids (including Luke who isnt even home yet) WE LOVE THIS! WATCH and Laugh with us!

Cabled!

NVC  Cabled to China!!!


 We are officially cabled as of Nov 24th 2010 and now are waiting on one of the last two steps until we leave to get our son in China. We are officially waiting for Article 5 now.  After that comes the amazing TA (travel assignment) then we get CA (normally the next day) then we are outta here!
I am soooo excited I have been dancing alllllll day! It is a goofy jig I am dancing but it is working for me!
Off to work now but will post more later!
Tracy

I-800 Provisional approval

Our I-800 Provisional approval is here! We got it in the mail today but it is dated Nov 18th.  This is another very big step in our process and brings us even closer to our son!
Our next steps are as follows:
USCIS will issue a Provisional Approval for the I-800 (done Nov 18th) and will forward it to the NVC (National Visa Center).  (THIS PART IS DONE FOR US ALREADY Nov 18th)


The NVC will send a notification in the mail that the I-800 Provisional approval has been forwarded to the US Consulate-Guangzhou- this takes about a week after approval


The Adoption Unit will issue an "Article 5" letter , this process requires 2 weeks. The Article 5 verifies that our adoption case meets all of the Hague requirements.


CCAA will issue a Travel Appointment (TA) and mail it to our agency- about 2-3 weeks after Article 5


We are down to the last few steps before we get the great TA that allows us to head on out of here and go get LUKE!!!!!!!


We are sooo excited, God is surely moving in our lives at the moment!


Cant wait to bring him home!

What is going on in our lives

Alot has been going on since my last post.  We are still waiting for our I-800 provisional approval and as I seem to be noticing a pattern here I will share the pattern with you... Hurrryyyy Hurry get those papers out FAST, overnight them and then.. sit and WAIIIITTTTT!  I seem to find the long lines in the food store and our adoption seems to follow that pattern too.  Some others in the adoption process have surpassed me that were in the same place with me awhile back, but then again there are 2 of us for sure on the exact same track and both of our children are in Jinan, in the same orphanage so obviously our Lord has plans for the two of us to travel together so he is keeping our timelines together.  I certainly thought we would be there by now when we started this process in February, yet here we are with still about 2 months or so left until we travel.     


I have been crazy busy. We have our Just Love Coffee fundraiser going but so far it seems that not too many people we know happen to love coffee, how that is possible I don't even know.  I have applied for every single grant possible out there and so far nothing, but I have not counted out a grant yet, we still have time.  Very soon (actually I am hoping it is tomorrow) I should be starting our new fundraiser.  A dear Sister in Christ has offered 100% of the profits from a Premier Design Jewelery catalog sale (that is 50% of each piece sold) and all of the profits are going towards bringing our Precious Luke home to his family.  We pray daily for our newest son and his brothers and sister pray faithfully for him too, we know he is covered in prayer and just cannot wait until the day we get to wrap our arms around him and see his sweet face. 


Thanksgiving is coming soon and we have much to be grateful for.  I am excited to be spending the Holiday with my family and cannot wait for a blessed day of family and fun and great food. My oldest son, Aaron will be home in a few days from College and we are all so excited he will be here and that we will get to spend some time together as a family again.   My son, Tommy has his last football game this weekend and then Tuesday night wrestling season is starting up.  Tommy is hoping Luke will get here before wrestling is over so he can get to see what wrestling is all about and get the opportunity to meet some of the amazing kids he wrestles with.  I am not quite sure what Luke will think of wrestling but sports are a big part of our lives so he is going to get the chance to see many different kinds of sports and we are hoping he will one day join a team if he so desires.


 I cant believe the Christmas season is almost upon us. I do realize that these last few months of waiting to get Luke might just zip by with all the busy plans of the Holidays upon us.At least that is my hope. The waiting is starting to wear on me so I am hoping that the holidays might just make time go by quicker.  


I will update as soon as our I-800 provisional approval arrives. We are anxiously waiting that day. My poor husband, I page him many times a day from work and I only say one word, "Mail"?"  The dear man is ever so patient with me, but I am sure he is tired of seeing that 25 times a day and I am sure he is wishing our mail came earlier each day so I wont not be able to send that same message so many times in one day.  


What the rest of our journey looks like:

We are currently waiting to receive a Provisional Approval (praying that is any day now).... About a week after that, the National Visa Center will confirm they have cabled our case to the U.S. Consulate in China. After   two  more weeks  an Article 5 should be issued by the U.S. Consulate. An Article 5 Letter states that we are suitable adoptive parents and that our child will be allowed to enter and reside permanently in the United States.

The next step is for the Article 5 to be delivered to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs), who sends out our Travel Approval (TA). This takes about two or three weeks. (We are praying for 2) Next, we will have a Consulate Appointment (CA) about two or three weeks after our TA is issued.  We will travel about 10 days before this appointment. We will spend two weeks in China.   As you can see we are not long from travel now and the excitement sure is building!!!!!!!!

What we have been up to.

Anxiously awaiting the approval of our I-800 so that we can move on to the next step and hurry up and bring Luke home!  We received our LOA on October 26th and mailed out overnight our I-800 on the same day, we checked our tracking number and know that it was received on the 27th so here is praying we wont have much longer of a wait!   We are beyond excited and just cant wait for the day when Luke finally gets  to come here! We have started a fundraiser selling Just Love Coffee. Sales are  a tad slow to start but, we just started it so lets see what happens. I have been filling out grant applications like a crazy woman and 3 are leaving Monday and hopefully 2 more will be out of here a few days after that. WOW the work involved in the grant applications is insane. Totally worth it if we get one, but WOW insane!  Like there isn't enough paperwork involved in an international adoption with China hahah.  I have a link on my page for our coffee fundraiser.  Justlovecoffee.com/TheWorrellFamily    Check it out and purchase some amazing coffee. I also have a link for Christmas Frenzy. An adoptive mother devoted her blog to allow many of us adopting and having fundraisers to put them all in one place. Great way to get some Christmas shopping done and help a family to bring their child home forever!  I surely cannot wait until I have my son in my arms and my children have their new brother home with them! We are truly blessed! My daughter who is 4 prays the most amazing prayers for her brother "Dear God, I pray that you keep Luke safe, I pray that he comes home really soon and that he fits in well with our family  and that I can sign with him when he comes home, because sign language is hard and I am still learning, I pray that he comes to know Jesus, so that He can save him. Please bring him home to us fast. Amen"
From the mouth of a child straight to Gods ears and heart!

Announcing our Fundraiser

Announcing a Fundraiser to help bring our son, Luke Xinhai home from China! We are selling Fair Trade Coffee from Just Love Coffee. If you would like to purchase some of these amazing and incredible quality coffee products please use the link from my fundraising store and a portion of each purchase will go directly towards bringing Luke home! Please send this link to as many people as you would like! The coffee is not very expensive and makes a great gift for the holiday!!!!! Thank you for helping us bring home our beautiful son! Use this link to help support our adoption.                 http://www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWorrellFamily

Preparing

Preparing for a fundraiser soon! Just in time for some Holiday shopping and it is not expensive either! Hmmm peaked your interest?? Stay tuned I will update you soon! Working on bringing home Luke soon!
Stay tuned for more information......

LOA LOA LOA! YAHHOOOOOO

Today is the day! Finally our LOA came! 48 days of waiting and it is finally here!

We are so excited and cant believe it is finally here! Tears of Joy and relief and happiness are flying! I cant believe we are finally seeing some progress! Next step is provisional approval of our I-800 and we will mail that out as soon as Madison gets the LOA to me and we sign it, we have to make copies and then send one in with our I-800.  I have all of the next forms done (they have been for weeks) so as soon as it gets here we are signing it, copying it with our signatures and it is outta here! Praying everything moves quickly and smoothly from this point on!

God is SOOOO watching over my boy!

How crazy is this.. I google my son's Chinese name just for the heck of it and guess what? I find out that he was at a Christian camp this summer!!!!!!!!  There is a group of Christians that travel to China every year called "Bring me Hope" and they had the honor of showing the love of the Lord to my son! I am so amazed and blessed! The Lord our God is already preparing Luke's heart so that Luke will one day be a strong Man of God! I am so humbled and blessed that my son was able to be a part of this group and be shown the love of the Lord our God that I was brought to tears when I saw this picture! Thank you so much to the amazing people of Bring me Hope who have touched my sons life in a way that is truly amazing! Every parent that is in the process of adopting prays that their child is safe and that the Lord is watching over them while they are not with their momma and daddy and I had the Lord send me a picture today and say

 "Hey Tracy, dont worry! for I have been watching over this little boy since before he was even born, he is mine and I am taking care of him!" 

ahhhhhhhhhhhh.. GOING NUTS HERE!

42 DAYS, 42 DAYS OF WAITING ON THIS ONE PEICE...42, 42 42 DAYS........DAY 42 HAS NOW COME AND GONE AND NO LOA!!!! ENOUGH ALREADY AS I AM GOING CRAZY HERE!!!! I NEED THIS NEXT PIECE SO THINGS CAN REALLY START ROLLING!! ENOUGH TORTURE AND BRING ON THE LOA PLEASE!

AHHHHH I am applying for grants like a crazy woman and digging into fundraising ideas. Anyone that has any great ideas they would love to share would be greatly appreciated. We are hoping to get some grants but fundraising would be great too! The applications for the grants are LONG and taking way more time then I had expected but it will be worth it if we qualify for one or more! We are praying that God will help us find a way and that the funds needed to bring our son home will be here when they are needed. So far God has been amazing and we have truly been blessed and met every need. We are coming up on some big needs though and any prayers for funds would be a blessing! Praying to bring our handsome son home sometime in the very beginning of 2011. I am hoping for the very beginning of January but of course this is not up to us and the longer we wait for LOA the longer the wait until we can go. We are on day 38 of our LOA wait and with this being Friday there goes my dream of having an LOA in the 20 or 30 day range, so now I am praying for the 40 day range! After LOA we have about 9-12 weeks before we travel so as you can see the faster LOA comes the faster it is to bring our Luke home! 

Where are you LOA????

Well It is now the end of day 36 and still no LOA. I am definitely getting antsy.  I have all of the next forms filled out and ready to go! So we just sit here and wait! LOA LOA LOA where are you? Here is hoping our prayers get answered soon and our LOA arrives any day now! 

Pictures I have found, what a joy and a blessing!

Awhile ago someone posted a link to hundreds of photos from Luke's orphanage and I was lucky to find these on there! It is nice to be able to find some pictures and see what he has been doing and watch him change. It is nice to find some younger pictures of our boy! What a joy of a find!

Found these of our guy when he was
 younger.. Love the gaps in teeth!

Dont you just love that face

 He is in the orange sweatshirt sitting
 on the chair under the butterfly                                                                          

Cant wait to find out what this was for!

Celebrating a friends Birthday!

Ok can we get him a bigger chair for those
 long legs, he does take after me!

 He sure is one tall boy!

This was on the front page of a Newspaper in Jinan,
 Luke is bottom right wearing a blue shirt 

Luke is the handsome tall boy in the dark 
uniform behind the little guy

30 days and counting!

Tomorrow is day 30 of our LOA wait. I must say I am losing patience but, trying hard to find where I left it. Funny how those little patiences always disappear hehe. I was hoping we had our LOA on Friday of last week when a pretty large group from our agency received theirs.  A few people who received theirs were ahead of me in days they have been waiting since LID and a few were exactly the same LID as me. So I was sure praying hard mine would arrive too, but alas it did not. Plus I knew if it didnt come last Friday that the CCAA is closed from Oct 1st -Oct 7th and no paperwork will go out, so there is no hope of seeing it until the end of next week at the earliest. I have all of my I-800 forms filled out and ready to go so as soon as this bad boy arrives we can sign it, make a copy and send it and all the accompanying forms off to the CCAA and send some paperwork to Madison Adoption Associates and then we are good to go! I am praying we see LOA next week. I dont know how much longer I can wait. From LOA there are a number of steps left such as:


 I-800 provisional approval - @2 weeks
 NVC notification - @1 week
Article 5 notification -@ 2 weeks
Article 5 to Travel Approval (TA)- 2-3 weeks
TA to Consulate Appointment - 2-3 weeks
TA to Departure - 2 weeks

SO as you can see after LOA it is about 11-13 weeks before we travel.  So if LOA comes next week we could be traveling in the beginning of January.  ALL of the times I gave are approximate so who knows when we will actually travel but the beginning of January sounds good to me. AHHH Northern China in the winter. Boy that sounds interesting..... I am NOT a cold person hahah. I better learn to adapt real fast, at least we get to end the last part of our trip in Guangzhou and it will be much warmer down there near Hong Kong then in Jinan (north near Beijing but near the coast).  Ok so I am praying for LOA next week! Lets see how it goes!! Feel free to pray along with me. Praying our little boy home is very important!

Our Birthday boy!

We got 3 pictures today of Xin Hai celebrating his 10th Birthday with the cake we had sent for him. We hope he had a good birthday and are happy he will have his next birthday at home here with us!

Thanks to Angela with Lady Bugs N Love for sending our care package for us and then sending the pictures to me when the orphanage sent them on to her! So nice to see our sweet sweet son's face! 

Happy Birthday Luke Xin Hai Worrell!

Happy "10th" Birthday Luke XinHai!!!!!!

Wed Sept 22nd is Luke's 10th Birthday. He will be spending this Birthday in the orphanage that he has been in since he was 8 months old. We sent him a Birthday package and cake for his Birthday through Angela with Lady Bugs N Love (the same women who sent our first care package for us and we LOVE her) so hopefully soon we will have new pictures of his birthday to share. It is hard knowing that Luke now knows about us but will spend his special day without us. One thing I am unsure of is whether the orphanage will actually celebrate his birthday tomorrow as tomorrow is a big Holiday in China. The Autumn Moon Festival is Sept 22nd so Angela wasn't sure if they would celebrate his birthday because it is already a big holiday. We shall see what happens. I know we are thinking of him here and praying lots of prayers for him and hoping and praying he knows how much love we have for him.  This WILL be his last birthday celebrated without his family. Say some prayers for our precious son on his special day. We love you Luke XinHai!


It is already Sept 22nd in China so it is Luke's Birthday already for him, but it will be for us tomorrow. Crazy how that happens. We have been praying for you all day today and will do so again tomorrow. We are going to have a small cake at our house for him tomorrow (his Brother, Tommys suggestion) and some prayer time for his Birthday. Cant wait to have a heck of a shin dig for his 11th Birthday. 
Love you Luke!

LID!!!!!

Another Big YAHOOOO is in order! One more acronym down! We were notified today that we have LID (Log in Date of our dossier in China) as of Sept 7th 2010. That is amazing since it was just sent on Friday, Sept 3rd on Labor day weekend and Arrived in China on Sept 6th which is labor day Monday and we were told they were closed that day. So amazing amazing amazing! One week at LID already and now we await LOA (letter of Acceptance) this is our next big Acronym and step.  I have been told this can take anywhere from 25 (really fast) to 75 or more days for this to happen.  We obviously, like everyone else in this process, are hoping for an LOA in the 20's day range, but as with everything else in this process we have no control over this. I am thrilled with the super duper fast LID and am going to try hard and not count days like a crazy person (this is going to be tough) until LOA....

Sept 22nd is Luke XinHai's 10th Birthday and we are in the process of sending him  a birthday package which includes an outfit, candy and nuts for the kids in the orphanage, a basketball, some more pics of us and of course a cake.  We are sending this package through Angela with Lady Bugs N Love as she already sent our 1st package and we just love her. I am hoping maybe she will be our guide in Beijing!  Hopefully we will receive new pics of Luke with his friends celebrating his "Big 10" Birthday. We  are going to have to have a huge Big 11 Birthday for him here next year! So happy with todays news! Come on LOA!!!!~!!!

testing

This is a test to see if I can post to my blog from email

DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!

WE HAVE DTC!!!!!!!! What more can I say.... WOW!!!! but for those of you that don't know what that means I will explain. All of our paperwork we have been working on since February, trust me there is a TON, is finally all state sealed, China Consulate Authenticated and now our adoption agency has shipped it off to China! WHAOOOOO! This is a big step. Our next step is LID, that should happen not to long after DTC... but I know that you often don't find out you have LID for awhile but you have it. So don't know when we will be notified we have LID (Log in date), meaning China has our paperwork.  Then about a month or so  after LID we should have LOA (Letter of Acceptance) meaning that China wants us to sign papers saying that this is definitely the child we want, of course he is! then we head down the road through the Hague process steps and head towards a few more steps (the Hague process is fairly new so how long all of that takes is in the air) and finally TA (travel appointment) and CA (consulate appointment). So from this date forward it is about 4-6 months before we head off to get Luke. Of course we are hoping for 4 months, but there are a lot of Holidays in China and The USA between now and February and the CCAA takes off for both American and Chinese holidays so I am feeling 4 would be tough, but one never knows!


Here is a picture of  most of our paperwork after we got it State Sealed ( we had several states involved so it took awhile and a few of our papers are not in this picture as we shipped them off to our adoption agency when they arrived later) I don't have a picture of any of our paperwork after it got consulate authenticated as Madison Adoption Associates took care of that for us (Thank the Lord as it is scary if this paperwork ever got lost to replace it would take months)

YAHOOO DTC feels good!!!!

YAHOO some forward movement!

Yahooo Lydia emailed me today to let me know that all of my paperwork is back from the Chinese Consulate and is authenticated! They are shipping it off to China on Friday! So I am not sure if that shipping it off to China day is when we are considered DTC or when they actually get it in China but oh man I am excited! This is a big one. Now we start counting down the acronyms until we get to the final big two TA and CA and then we are there! Will let you all know when it is finally on its way, but that sure did make my week! Hang on Luke we are working on coming to get you. His birthday is coming up so time to get in touch with Angela from Lady Bugs N Love and get working on another package, we are soooo getting him a Basketball this time as he seems to really like BBall! YAHOOOO!

HI everyone! Well My oldest son, Aaron is now safely tucked away at his College. He is a freshman at Valley Forge Christian College and I am so proud of him. It is truly strange for him to not be home (our house is the place where him and his friends where every single day as well) so even with 2 young ones at home I feel like I am going through empty nest syndrome hahah. I am missing my big guy, but am so so so proud of him. I cant believe he is off and on his own and doing amazing and loving college. Geesh where has the time gone???


I am sitting here waiting for our paperwork to come back from the Consulate with Authentication and then all will be shipped off to China and I will finally be able to say we have DTC .. but not yet. I cant believe how long this process takes as we have been working away like crazy people since February and thought our son would be home by November until we hit sooooo many speed bumps and roadblocks. I know this is all in Gods time and He has the perfect plan, but it is sometimes hard when I know my son is now aware of us and wondering what is taking so long for his mommy and daddy to come and get him.... We are coming Luke!!!. Our big guy is going to be 10 on September 22nd and it is sad to know we wont be there with him.... but we are planning on sending him another care package with more pictures of us and a nice big cake! It is nice to know that this is his last birthday without a family and I plan to throw on whopper of a shindig for his birthday next year :)


So for now I just sit and wait for notice from Madison that our paperwork is back from the Consulate and on its way to China!!!!!!!tick, tock, tick , tock

AWAITING I-800-A approval!

We are in a "holding pattern" while we wait for our approval of our I-800A. We went in early Monday morning and were fingerprinted. Our appointment was Aug31st but we took the risk and went in early. Our dossier (all of our paperwork going to China) is due in China on Aug 21st and our that is the end of our 1 month extension. Plus Aaron is heading off to College on Aug 21st so how would Aug 31st have worked for us? Sooo we decided to take a chance and the Lord watched over us and made a way! We walked into the office and a very nice lady behind the desk didn't even glance at our date on our papers. She whisked us right in and had us sit down. After we came in she switched places with another woman and that woman was inspecting peoples hands and checking dates (she sent one family away as their time wasn't until the afternoon) so we just missed having her check us in by 2 minutes..... Then as we sit waiting our turn one of the men my husband coaches football with comes across the room and heads into the supervisors office... turns out he is the supervisor of that office and runs the whole thing... Thank you Lord! He made sure everyone knew who we were and that we were well taken care of. We could not have asked for more. So the fingerprinting was done Monday morning, I called the USCIS that afternoon to let them know we were printed very early and hope that an officer was assigned to our case, and we had just been assigned an officer that morning. I got to speak with him and let him know we went in early. He said if everything is approved the fingerprint results should be back in 3-5 days and then if approved we would get our I-800A approval in the mail after that..... So now we wait! When the approval comes back I will drive it to Trenton to get State Sealed and then quickly get it to Madison so they can get it Consulate Authenticated for me. Then and only then can my dossier be sent to China and we can finally say we are DTC, (dossier to China) after that await LID (Log in Date) then we await LOA (letter of Acceptance) and then we hit Article 5 (which I believe that has a few steps involved) after that we get TA (travel appointment) and then we are off to get our son! So for now we wait and we count days until our approval comes and then we wait and we count days for the next thing.. I do predict a lot of counting!!!!!  But we are getting closer and closer to LUKE! We are working as hard and fast as we can to come get you!  

What an amazing day!

Well today has been an amazing day!!!!!! I got an email today and opened it up to find not one but 12 new pictures of our amazingly handsome son! Plus an update too! The update is a little rough with the translation ( I am going to see if I can find someone to re-translate it) but it is amazing. Our Luke XinHai got his care package and seemed to really enjoy what we sent him! We hear that he is doing very well. Amazingly sweet, friendly and loving! We got new measurements too. Seems he grew a bunch since April as he is now 4'7" which is amazing as he was 4'5' in April. He thinned out a bunch too as the pics we got sent in April his face was chunky and now he is quite slender.  Weighing in at 66 lbs. His brother Tommy was upset that Luke grew so much as he wants them to be the same height, which I think is so funny. He was happy when he saw that his brother is about 3 inches or so taller then him but seems to weigh about 6 lbs more.. so not too much difference. His brothers feet are only 1 inch bigger then Tommys' so they should be pretty close in body type, both skinny bone boys hahah. Opening this email with the pictures surely made my day! I am waiting on our fingerprint appointment for our I-800A. I called yesterday and they said our appointment is Aug 31st but we are going to try a walk-in as my son will be gone for College at that point and also my extension deadline will have come and gone by then. When we applied for an extension due to my homestudy agency taking forever we only got a 3 week extension. So please pray that we can turn things around quickly as we want to hurry and go get this handsome little boy home! We are all smiles today after seeing these pictures!

 God is sooooogood!

YAHOOOO! One step closer!

Well the day I have been waiting for since March 25th finally arrived. Tomorrow morning our I-800A application goes out overnight by Fed ex to process that application and bring us one step closer to getting our dossier turned in. Our paperwork is due in China July 22nd, but that isnt going to happen as our Homestudy agency finished our last Homestudy visit on May 25th and finally just got us our finalized Homestudy report Friday, July 16th whew that is a long time for them to finish it. Especially when they sent me a draft to correct on June 10th and I sent the corrections back the next day. Well water under the bridge and we are moving on and taking one step closer to bringing our son home! We are so excited we just cant wait! Wishing our I-800A a speedy processing and praying we can go in early for our fingerprints as we are applying for an extension for our dossier but this process has to speed up at this point. Praying for our son to be home before Christmas. What an amazing gift for God to bestow upon us! Waiting to see your sweet face Luke Xin Hai!

Short Update

Just a short update, we are sending our paperwork off to the adoption agency tomorrow so they can send it out for Consulate Authentication. I have almost all of our paperwork State Sealed already. With exception of my NJ Divorce certificate (took 2 and half months to get it from NJ) my Homestudy as it is not yet finalized (I expect that this week) and our I-800A approval as we cannot send that out until our Homestudy is approved.  We are moving along and cannot wait to brig Luke home. As soon as our dossier heads off to China we plan to send Luke a package and introduce ourselves and let him know that there is a family that cant wait to get him home. There is no guarantee that the orphanage will give him our package, but there is a good chance they will. You have to wonder what he will think when he sees pictures of us for the first time.   Soon little man, soon.........We are praying and waiting!

Yesterday was Aaron's Graduation from HS and it was amazing! I just wanted to say Congratulations to Aaron. We are so proud of you and cannot believe that Aug 21st you will be a College Freshmen at Valley Forge Christian College! Crazy how fast life goes by! OH SO PROUD! So many amazing things happening to our family this year. Plus our agency said there is a very good chance that Luke will be home this year. YES I said, THIS YEAR! What an amazing Christmas present that would be! 
OHHHH I cant wait!

Homestudy Update

FINALLY we have our Draft for the Homestudy. We started the whole Homestudy process March 

5th, 2010, so that is a long time for a Homestudy but it is finally almost done. I now have to review the Homestudy and my Awesome Agency (Madison Adoption Agency) has to review and approve the draft and and then make any changes and our Homestudy agency will fix any mistakes. When that is all done I will receive a finalized Homestudy. YAHHHOOOO! That means we can finally move on to the next step in bringing Luke home. The next step is the I-800A (that means the application for determination of suitability to Adopt a child from a Convention Country) China is a Hague Convention Country so there are a lot of steps to be done and hoops to jump through. But at this point we are just saying "show me the hoop and tell me how high you want me to jump". Also when my Homestudy is finalized I will have the ability to apply for some possible Grants to help with the adoption costs . So lots of good things are happening. :)

John Waller- While I'm Waiting

Today has been a day of Moving Mountains and tearing down walls! We have hit some real rough patches with our Homestudy and some quite long delays, but today we made amazing headway and I am seeing a huge light at the end of the Homestudy tunnel. Things around the house have been crazy as I have been buried in paperwork, phone calls (trying to move mountains) and ofcourse both Aaron and Paige has Birthdays.. Yahooo Paige is now 4 and Aaron just turned 18. We are trying hard to get Aaron ready to head off to college Aug 21st as well, so busy isnt quite the word to use at the moment. Aaron is at his prom right now and he looked amazing, I will put up a picture for sure.

I mailed off almost all of our documents for State Authentication yesterday (3 different states but I am sure there are other people going through this process that have more states involved then that). It felt amazing to get those papers out of here. But now I cant wait for them to come back so I can send them to the Consulate. This sure is a unique process and I dont ever quite know how to explain it to someone that knows nothing of international adoption.

As far as our Homestudy's progress we are waiting on 2 pieces of the puzzle to come together and they are paperwork from 2 doctors that we need, as soon as we get those our Homestudy is done and we can move onto the next phase. I will keep you updated as to what that next phase is and how it goes. For now I keep looking into the light that just started to shine upon our progress. I beleive that God has a plan and he knows the perfect time for Luke to come home, I am praying that I get to travel with a friend of mine as she goes to get her new daughter in a province oh so close to our sons. That would be an amazing blessing from the Lord if he allows that to happen. We shall see.....

My first post

I am new to blogging so lets see how this goes!......
Our family is about to grow! Tom and I have discussed adopting a child for years and have now decided that it is the right time to do it! So here is our story!

I started looking at adoption websites (again) and researching the possibility of bringing home a little boy that is Deaf around the age of 7 - 10 years old. I found many children that were 3 or 4 and a few that were 13 but no boys that were Deaf in the age range we were hoping for. Then,on February 18th 2010, a friend of mine emailed me a photo and short blurb about an adorable 9 year old boy that was Deaf and needed a family. Tom and I opened the email and both gasped.. He is absolutley the cutest little one ever. We knew right away that this was the child we have talked about for years. I contacted the agency and told them we were interested in this little one. His name is Xin Hai but the agency called him "Boyd". February 22nd we put Boyd on hold to have his records looked at by an international adoption specialist. On February 24th I got an email from the agency saying that his file had been returned to China (along with many others) as China had changed some policies and had taken many children's files that had been on individual lists for awhile and planned to put them all on the shared list. The agency told us they would look for his file to show up on the shared list and if he didn't surface that there were many other children out there. We decided we didnt want to look any more for another child and if Xin Hai was meant to be ours then the Lord would keep him safe until we could find him. We spent quite awhile praying and waiting and then on March 19th I got an email from the agency that his file had showed up on the shared list! Yahoooo... only problem being that China's new rule was that you had to have LID (We did not at the time) to lock in a child on the shared list, but if the child was still there in 30 days a non-LID family could try and be matched. SOOOOO we waited.. and waited.. it felt like forever. Then on April 19th 2010 we received an email from our agency saying they had locked him in and sent all paperwork to China for matching. April 22nd 2010 we were official matched (PA) with Xin Hai. We are so excited, we just wanted to run around screaming! I actually did some skipping and running down the halls of where I work.... couldnt help it! This is only the beginning of our incredible journey, we are working on our home study and that shall soon be complete! YAHHOOO. I will try and keep posting as we take this incredible journey to our new son!