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!!!!~!!!