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!