Meet Meili!!!!

Special Announcement...

We are so proud to announce that we received a very special phone call on January 23rd about a very special little person in China who needs a forever family!( Just FYI: January 23rd was also the night of our Anniversary!) Thank you Lord for such an awesome Anniversary present!! We have been busy to say the least since that phone call :)

Let me just start off by saying that we think she is the most precious cutest baby EVER!! We already love her beyond measure and can not wait to meet her!!! Her Chinese name is Zhan (she was named after the orphanage) and she is currently 15 months old. Her only known special need is that she has an extra thumb. She is currently in foster care now.

I have not been able to post anything until now because we were waiting to find out that our match is secure and now that it is we are excited to tell the world about our precious daughter! We have her pictures up all over the refrigerator and did I mention we are excited!!!  Our families are very excited too!!

Whats next...

Now we do more paperwork and wait and then more paperwork and then wait...we are still thinking we will be traveling in about 6 months from now. We are continuing to put her room together and prepare for her arrival home. I am also going to be doing another garage sale on May 31st and more fundraisers to come...

What the Lord has been up to in all of this...

He has continued to change us and refine us. We are learning to be obedient and to have a faith like we have never had before. I used to think that having faith meant hoping that everything would work out for the best possible scenario but Jesus is showing me that faith is an unshakable trust in the Lord. The truth is I alone can't handle anything but through HIM I can handle anything he wants me to do. I am learning to be Brave for Jesus and to let him be in control of my life! That true joy only comes from being obedient to the Lord.  The Lord is so Amazing and we are just PRAISING HIM for giving us the honor of being her forever family!!!

What you can do to help...

Please pray for Meili while she is waiting for us in China. That she is being well taken care of, for her health and overall well being and that the Lord would just be preparing her heart for us and the new transitions to come. Thank you so much for your prayers!! We love you all and thank you for following us along on our journey to Meili.

WE ARE DTC!!!

We are so very happy to announce that our Dossier has been sent to China!!! What a huge milestone this is for us! A very huge PRAISE TO THE LORD!!! So now what happens...well the waiting part begins. First we wait for our LID (log in date) that is the official date they received the dossier that they will use to start the countdown to when we can travel to China. The reason is that the dossier has to be in China for 6 months before we can travel to pick up our precious girl. Also we will be waiting to find out who she is. I have updated our medical conditions list that they will use when matching a child to our family. I have talked to the agency and they said about a 2 week wait for LID and about a 2 to 4 month wait for a child referral. Once we get our referral we will be busy doing some more paperwork!!! Just when you think your done your not really done with paperwork, but this paperwork will be much easier and much more exciting so we are happy to do it :-) Then finally preparing for travel to China!!!

While I'm waiting I have many things to do to keep myself busy....working at Carters, planning some more fundraisers, going to start working on adoption grants, getting her room ready (very excited about this one), reading everything I can get my hands on to get prepared for parenting this precious child, organizing our documents, completing household projects, researching doctors for Meili and setting up her appointments for when we get back (as soon as we know who she is and her condition), getting immunized for our trip, starting Meili's life book (kind of like a baby book but its for adopted children), collecting things we will need for our travels to China, trying to learn some mandarin, and practice making some Chinese food for when we get back home with her. Thanks for continuing to follow us on our journey...

Dossier is on the way to Holt!!

I am extremely excited to announce that the COMPLETED DOSSIER is on the way to Holt where they will review it and then send it on to China! The next thing we will be waiting for is our LID as soon as we have that that means we are officially in the system and can receive a referral!! What a great way to start off the new year. We thought we would never get done with all that paperwork! God knew he would get us through :) Happy New Year everyone! Love to all of you...

Just Received our I-797 Approval!!!

Today was a great day!!! Today we received our I-797 approval!!! We are super excited that we have been approved and now all we need to do is get it notarized, state certified, and authenticated. Then we mail our completed Dossier to Holt!!! I am hoping to get it mailed off  by next week!!! Merry Christmas us!!!

Is Beyond Blessed By Friends

I am writing this post just to say that I am so beyond blessed by all the beautiful people in our lives. How much they love and how much they give is so amazing to me. God continues to show his love through his followers. Right now we have a family that is auctioning off a piece of award winning artwork and giving 100% of the proceeds toward our adoption which is absolutely AMAZING of them to do! We just thank them and give praise to God for what they are doing to help and for raising adoption awareness in the community. If you haven't checked out the art work I encourage you to do so. It is a beautiful piece of art with so much meaning behind it .....Here is the link.... http://www.ebay.com/itm/Orphan-Award-Winning-Artwork-Matted-and-Framed-/280792921653?pt=Art_Mixed_Media&hash=item41608ff635

Many Blessings to you all...

New Blog Additions!!

After spending almost the entire day playing around with this, almost having a mental break down,  making several phone calls, and  getting some huge help from a lovely lady (thank you Amy!!!) the blog is looking better!! I have added our adoption timeline, some music and a new back ground. Enjoy!! Sheesh : /

Waiting for USCIS Approval....

Just a quick update...we are still waiting to receive our USCIS approval. Hopefully we will receive it by December 21st. It is hard to be patient and anyone who knows me knows I struggle with this a lot! The adoption process seems cruel at times and I know this is only the beginning. Lord help me to rely on your perfect  timing and to remember that YOU are captain of this ship. I can't help but think that next Christmas Meili will be here! I can't help but wonder where she is now...but God knows...