I800A Approval

We got it!!!!!!!! The I-800a approval which says we meet the eligibility requirements, per the US, to adopt from China!!!!! So happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Now, I just have to get all these papers that I have been chasing for the last 6 months and put them together for China.  We should have everything to China next friday (the only day it's sent), be logged in in China in about 2 weeks from then, and hopefully find our daughter soon........... Keep praying for us and our little girl! :-)

Whitehouse craziness....

I forgot to update after we found the dog.  He was hiding in my closet for about 8 or 9 hours on a box under some hanging dresses.  A few days later he got out of the fence and I found him under the grill about 14 hours later.  What a crazy dog.  He was very sweet, but there is no way we can handle 3 dogs and 3 almost 4 kids.  So this past weekend, Mike took him to a lady who foster's chihuahua mix puppies. 

We did have somewhat of an eventful week last week.  It was the kids first week of school.  Chase started 6th grade, Ella is now in 2nd grade, and Taylor is a now a kindergartener...:-(  They are growing so fast.  It is very nice however that they are all together at the same school, FINALLY!!! I cannot express how happy I am with this.  The past 2 years they have all been spread out so to finally have them together is just wonderful.  They had a great start.  Taylor only goes Mon, Wed, and Fri, so he is home with me on Tues and Thurs.  I am really excited about this as well.  We will have time to spend together and we will be doing a little homeschooling on those days.  He was sick this past Thursday, but we still had a good day and got some school work done. 

Chase started baseball practice last week, and Ella is playing softball for the first time which also started last week.  Taylor is playing soccer but that does not start until next week. 

Another thing that happened last week was our dog, Georgia, whom we gave to my mom when Taylor was a baby, died last week.  She has been sick for about a month and after many tests they found masses in her chest and abdomen, so mom had her put to sleep.  She was just miserable the past few weeks, so we know she is much better off now.  They did an autopsy and found she had pancreatic cancer.  Mike and I were doing ok that day after mom called us and told us what was going on, we had said our good byes the day before.  I couldn't figure out when the perfect (if there could be) time to tell the kids.  They have grown up with this dog.  So after practices and dinner I gently broke the news.  It was worse than I could have ever expected.  They were heart broken!  After about an hour and a half of constant crying, by all 3, and Ella and Taylor competeing for loudness, we all got into our bed and they fell asleep.  It was just pitiful.  They have never lost anything or anyone they were very close to, so this was their first experience with death.  I pray they don't have to experience this hurt and pain again for a very long time.

Tonight, starts the beginning of the Whitehouse Craziness, as if it wasn't already.  Mike starts school tonight.  Last semester was a little hectic but we made it.  Thankfully, my Mom is willing to help me with getting 3 kids in 3 different places all at the same time.  So pray for us!

One other prayer request, please continue to pray for our adoption journey.  We are waiting on our

I-800a approval (from Immigrations), which will hopefully come this week.  I had mailed in everything, so I thought, from my list of what to send them.  Well, last week I got a letter in the mail stating we needed to submit our Marriage certificate, how did I forget that???

I had it overnighted and spoke with our officer who said once she got it, we should be approved.  So, hopefully it will come this week....One more thing to slow us down. 

I just keep reminding myself that this is God's plan, not mine, and it is happeneing the way He wants it to, all in His perfect timing.



I800A Fingerprints done

We finally had our fingerprints done today for immigrations!  So exciting to be taking another step towards our daughter......:-)

Earlier today when I was getting ready, I thought about how many people adopting (and others too, I have just read more from adopting parents these days) feel Satan tries to stop them from following God's commands and plans He has for us.  I honestly was thinking what if we were to get into an accident to prevent us from having our fingerprints done today.......

Well we arrived safely at the immigration office and successfully "walked" in (our appointment wasn't until the 16th). Everyone was so nice and had no problem with us being there 2 weeks early.  We left there and I then went to a local community pool to meet up with my sister-in-law and my mom, who had the kids.  We let the kids play a couple of hours and then left, well not even a mile down the road, I had looked down at the radio and when I looked back up a car was stopped and I couldn't stop fast enough.  I swerved to the right to miss the car, skimmed his bumper and then hit the guardrail.......  The van is still driveable but needs a lot of work done on the front end.......

The kids were with me, Mike was at church and my sister in law wasn't far ahead of me, so she came and got the kids and Mike came and we waited for the police.  I felt, still feel horrible.  The guy driving was only 19, very nice, actually in school to be a nurse, but his car really only had a scratch on it.  I just can't believe I did that to the van.

All I can say is Thank You GOD for keeping us safe! Thank you for that guardrail keeping us from going down the hill into some one's home. 

GOD will prevail, we will follow His plan He has made for us!

However there is another issue we are having tonight......
Last Saturday someone dumped left a dog on our driveway with a crate, food bowls, and even a toy. How nice of them.......
However we don't want another dog. We already have 2.  2 is plenty!!!  After taking it to the vet, to be evaluated and $120 later I found out he was 7-8 weeks old, a mix of chihuahua and something else.  Well tonight he has disappeared.  Literally DISAPPEARED! 
We can't find him ANYWHERE.........
I let him out after we got home, then got food out of the garage and fed him, he ate. But for 3 hours now, he has been missing.  We have searched EVERYWHERE.  Mike came home about 10:30 and immediately shut the door and was greeted by the other 2 dogs, but no puppy.  I have no idea where he could be. He loves to bury himself under pillows or blankets, so I'm worried he has burried himself and cannot get out....I don't know what to do.

My last post I wrote how we weren't sure what was going to happen, well I of course got very scared and freaked out a little, maybe a lot.  I also prayed a lot.  I prayed for God to please move some mountains, please make this happen.  So for the next week, I started hearing more songs with the lyrics God can move mountains, faith can move mountains, on church signs I was reading faith moves mountains.  I love it when god speaks to me, it is AMAZING to say the least.  I came out of that uncertainty with a more certainty than ever before.  I have been saying from the very beginning that I felt God put us here for a reason.  I felt that God had been paving the way for us to adopt.  So why was I so worried?? If I honestly believed that this was God's plan then it would happen, no matter what.

Well I am happy to say our Homestudy is finally complete!  I was able to review it today, next it will be reviewed by our placing agency, once it is approved we can finally move on to the next step.  The next step is immigrations, we have to be approved by the USCIS and then finally we will be able to send all of our paper work, which is a lot, to China.......It is somewhat overwhelming, I try to take it one paper at a time.  I know God has a plan and I am to wait and allow Him to put it in to place as He plans, I have done really good lately about having some patience and not being quite so worried about the timeline.  I know it will happen and we will have our child that God has planned for us, but to those of you that have been pregnant, remember how 20 weeks seemed like it would never come.....I just want to find our precious child and look at her picture and know that she is mine, just like you can't wait for that 20 week ultrasound, to look at that little heart beat fluttering away and maybe find out if it's a boy or girl. 

Tonight I ran into someone who I don't really know but our paths keep crossing.  We were talking about adoption and she was telling me how she feels that it is God's calling for her to adopt, however her husband doesn't agree.  I was telling her that we were in the exact same place about a year ago.  My heart was aching inside for another child and Mike was not feeling the same want or need for another child as I was.  I told her all I can say is to pray, pray for her husband and pray for God's guidance.  That was what I did, I prayed for God to soften his heart and open it to the possibility of adoption.  I completely believe in God's plans for us...."plans to prosper us not to harm us" (Jeremiah 29:11)  and even though we want it here and now, God's timing may be a little different. Maybe Mike was not ready then because our child was not yet born.  I obviously do not know for sure why God does what He does or when He does it, but I do know God makes no mistakes and we will find our child only when God presents her to us, all in His perfect timing.

I have read so many adoptive blogs and talked to many adoptive parents and there is always a comment about the "bumps in the road" and how stressful the process is.  I have been thinking this whole time that things were going so smoothly and we hadn't really had any "bumps".  Well today we came upon a ditch.....I can't go in to much detail right now but please pray it all works out.  We will find out more tomorrow, so for now just pray.  I have strongly believed that we were led here by God and only God, so I know He has a plan for us, I honestly believe His plan for us is to adopt.  So I will pray and put all my trust in Him; that He will make this happen as He has planned.

I love this!!!
We finished our homestudy about 2 weeks ago, so we are just waiting on it to be completed and approved.....I continue to try and have patience with this and know it is all in God's hands, but I am so anxious and ready to meet her, or atleast see her picture. 
We will be very busy this summer with baseball.  Chase made Allstars!! He is so excited! He has been working so hard and doing so good this season, pitching, catching, and hitting.  I love watching the three of them play sports.  Since we have started this process a lot of things have become more apparent to me.  For instance orphans probably don't get to play sports on a team, they probably no nothing about organized sports, and even more they don't have parents cheering them on, with anything they do or accomplish.  I find myself thinking of these things often.  Last week while we were in Las Vegas for a nursing conference I walked around these beautiful hotels and watched Cirque de Soleil and ate WAY too much food and thought how the orphans have probably never even been in a crowd or seen many things outside the orphanage walls.  We ate at Maggiano's, Yummy, However, I felt SO guilty.  We had ordered more food than any of us could eat, how could we just throw it all away, so we packed it all up (there were 6 to go boxes packed full of food) and passed it out to the homeless.  As greatful as I am for my life and where we live and all that we have, I am constantly realizing how much we don't need and how the things we think are neccesary, really aren't.  These kids need nothing more than love, forever love and they deserve that.  I mean can you imagine growing up without your parents, without a family, without a home?  I can't and if I can help just one to have a forever family than that's one less orphan out there. 

~For He has Risen, He has Risen indeed........
We had a great Spring Break, enjoying some time with my mom at her cabin in Blue Ridge.  It's so peaceful and relaxing there.  The kids loved playing in the hot tub and taking the dogs on walks.  We went to the movies to see "Mirror Mirror".  Cute movie, the theater was very interesting, only 2 theaters in the building and one man working the window, snack stand, and the actual movies themselves.  Oh and they did not take debit cards.......We came home Wednesday, Thursday night Chase started running a fever but seemed fine Friday.  Saturday we went to an Easter egg hunt with family and friends and on the way home Chase threw up ALL OVER the back of our NEW van........poor guy, he felt horrible.  Then today, on Easter, at church, he took a terrible fall and has banged up both knees, hip, and shoulders.  In fact I'm a little worried about his knees, they are both so swollen but look so different......not good I know. He was playing and walking on them fine earlier but since we got home tonight he has been in a good bit of pain.  Wait and see how he is tomorrow.....
     So today was Easter.  I had to work last night so I was unable to go to church with the family this morning.:-(  No Easter pics yet, I will be putting them back in their Easter outfits for a picture, of course.....We went to my Mom's this evening for dinner and another Easter egg hunt, I got rab'd (means they weren't busy and didn't need everyone schedued) so I didn't have to go back to work tonight, well not yet anyway, I'm on call.
     Nothing new on the adoption front as of now.  Still trying to plan our last home study meeting, we all 5 have to be here together.  Not so easy right now with Mike in school and the kids in sports and me working nights.  All in God's time.......

"6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 4:6-7