LADYBUG TEA AND AUCTION

Chloe and I attended an adoption grant fundraiser this last Saturday. It was the fourth annual Ladybug Tea and Silent Auction and our second time attending. We had just started on our adoption journey about 2 months before we attended last May. We applied for one of their adoption grants last year and found out the beginning of July that we had been chosen to receive one! It was a huge blessing and we we were so thrilled and thankful beyond words. They asked if I would speak at the tea this year and share how we started on our journey and how God has provided for us as we've stepped out in obedience to His call for us to adopt. I felt so honored and was thankful for the opportunity not only to say thank you for the grant that we received last year, but to put a face out there to all of the people there spending their money on items that will go towards grants for others too. Chloe and I had a really good time too and the food was yummy!!!

A CARE PACKAGE TO GRACIE

We mailed a care package to Gracie on Thursday, May 10th. This is a picture of all the items that we sent to her. The Washington Cougars t-shirt is for the orphanage director (it is highly suggested to send gifts and sporting teams clothing is a suggestion for males there). The photo album has a picture of Gracie in the middle of the star on the front and then a bunch of pictures of all of us inside. This was a gift for her foster family but we definitely pray that they look through it with her a lot so that she will at least recognize us when we go to pick her up. The pink teddy bear is of course for Gracie but will be kept at the orphanage for the other children when she leaves. The tootsie rolls are a gift for the older children in the orphanage. And the two-pack disposable cameras are the only thing we are expecting but not sure if we will get back when we go to pick her up. We requested that they take pictures of her with her foster family, friends, the city, etc. but there is no guarantee that they will or that we will get them back. Our agency suggested that we sleep with the teddy bear for a few nights so that it would absorb our scent and this could dramatically help in the bonding/attachment process when we get her. Since the album was cloth on the outside we slept with that too. We bought doubles of the teddy bear & album, since we will not get the ones we sent back, and will bring them with us to give to her when we pick her up (she will not be any the wiser that they aren't the ones that she's (hopefully) had for the last two months! But someday we will explain it to her.....) We love you Gracie and can't wait to have you in our arms!!!

WAITING FOR OUR "LOA" FROM CHINA

Our agency sent our "LOI," which stands for letter of intent, on April 10th and it arrived in China on April 12th. This document states we are requesting to adopt Gracie and are aware of her mild heart stenosis. When the CCAA, China Center of Adoptions, received it they went and pulled our dossier (official documents that took us & the U.S. from March '06 to August '06 to put together). Every family's dossier, and there are about 20,000 in China currently, has to be given a "logged in" date of when it arrived, then translated, then reviewed, then matched to a child, then give families their referrals in order of when their "log in" date was. Well, our dossier was logged in 9/20/06 and translated shortly after but then has been sitting in a room waiting in line to be reviewed (CCAA is only through reviewing dossiers through 3/31/06). But good news! Since we switched from the "non-special needs" program to the "special needs"/waiting child program then we don't have to wait in the same line for our dossier to get reviewed and then wait again for our referral since we've already received our "referral"! Like I said earlier, when they received our "LOI" they went and pulled our dossier to be reviewed ASAP. It may still be in a line along with other family's dossiers whose baby/child was on a waiting child list too but it is a much shorter line. The average wait time right now for reviewing "special needs" dossiers is about 2 to 3 months from the time they receive the "LOI".
Once they finish reviewing our dossier then they will send our agency our "LOA" which stands for letter of approval. If they have any questions or need more info when they are reviewing our dossier then it could take longer but we are praying for our "LOA" as close to the 2 month mark as possible! This would be around mid-June and then we have to sign it and send it back. Then we will wait again for China to give us permission to travel but this only takes between 1 to 3 weeks to receive. Then, our agency will set up our consulate appointment for the soonest opening they have and our travel will be based around the available appointment. Whew!!! What a process!!!! But we know she is well worth all the work and the wait!!! Realistically, the soonest we can hope to be traveling is around mid-July which would be great! But we just have to keep waiting and be ready to jump on that plane which is what we are trying to do right now. Thank you for all your prayers and please keep them up for us and our sweet Gracie.

HOW TO POST A COMMENT

Hey everyone! Since many of you are brand new to blogging I thought I should explain this. At the bottom right of each one of our posts it says "comments" and will have a number by it. If anyone has made a comment then it will show the number of comments made. If no one has made a comment on that post then it will just show 0. If you click on "comments" it will take you to a new screen where you can read others' comments and you can post your own comments. You have to register because it will not let you write something annonymously. It's easy to register but you should write your info down somewhere in case you can't remember it because, if I remember right, you have to sign in each time you want to post a comment. Happy commenting!!!
Nicole

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRACIE!!!

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to Gracie, Happy birthday to you!!!! Today was a bittersweet day. We thank God for the day Gracie was born but it was hard to not have her physically with us as we celebrated this joyous day! Several times today I broke down crying because we want her here with us so bad. We plead with God everyday that He will help her paperwork move swiftly and as effeciently as absolutely possible. Chloe helped me bake a cake for her and thought we were going to actually be able to give it to her today. I explained we were going to have a party for her but that she was still in China. She said "Oh yeah, we have to wait." And I said "Yeah, but I'm tired of waiting" and she said with a sigh, "yeah, me too." We went over to John and Connie Hickman's house tonight for a goodbye dinner for Abe & Jess heading off to Alaska (another reason I've been shedding tears today!). So, we took the cake with us and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Gracie. It was sweet. We love you Gracie!

OUR TIMELINE

Well, I thought it might be interesting for you all to see a timeline of our journey so far. So, here goes...
Fall '05--started throwing around the idea of adopting
Dec '05--shared with our friends Aaron & Kelli Couch we were exploring the idea of adopting and they told us they were too!!!
Jan '06-March '06--We began praying a lot and doing research on foster adoption & international adoption. Although we thought foster adoption seemed more practical for financial reasons we kept getting tugged towards international adoption and had gotten referred to an agency called Small World by several people we talked to.
March '06--went out to dinner with Aaron & Kelli for Scott's birthday and shared we had an appointment to meet with Small World. They shared with us that they and some other friends we knew had just applied with the same agency to adopt from China!!!
March 20, '06--We met with Kathy & Janell at Small World and knew immediately that God had led us directly to them and applied that day to adopt a baby girl from China!!
March 20-July '06-The "Paper Chase"!!! Here's a few of the the things we had to do:
-ordering birth & marriage certificates
-medical physicals to show we're in good health
-Homestudy paperwork & interviews to show "worthiness" :)
-required reading and study on adoption
-applying for advance permission to adopt an "orphan" (I-600A)
-fingerprints done, mine rejected!, mine redone and accepted! :)
July 26, '06-delivered our completed dossier (all required paperwork & documents) to Small World!!!!!
End of July-started feeling God tug on my heart to consider the "waiting child" program & asked Janell to start e-mailing them to us whenever they come out
August 4, '06-our dossier "certified" in Olympia, WA and then sent to San Francisco to be "authenticated"
August 11, '06-Kelli called me and said they had found their baby on the August waiting child list!!!
August 18, '06-Small World received our dossier back from San Francisco!
August 21, '06-Small World sent our dossier to China!!!!
September 20, '06-Exactly 6 months after we began, our dossier was officially approved in China and this was our "log-in date"!!!
January '07-applied for the "waiting child" program
April 5, '07-received a call from Janell while we were in Boise for our referral!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 6-8th, '07-preparing acceptance of our referral paperwork
April 9, '07-delivered our paperwork to Small World
April 10, '07-Small World sent our acceptance paperwork off to China!!!!!!!!!!!
April 10, '07-attended a travel info meeting at Small World!!! We have so much to do to get ready for our trip!!!!!!
Waiting for our letter of acceptance to adopt Gracie and for permission to travel from China!


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WAITING FOR THE "WAITING CHILD" LIST!!!

Sorry all of these posts are out of order but we are trying to go back and catch you all up on what has been going on for the last 13 months!! Once we get caught up then hopefully the posts will be easier to follow! Okay... so we started becoming interested in what our agency calls the "waiting child" program back at the end of last July. The waiting child lists are comprised of children who either are simply older or who have some kind of a health issue. Our agency receives a new list about every three months. Some great friends of ours found their little girl off of a list that came out last August. Then there was a list that came out in November and this is when we decided we wanted to seriously consider the next waiting child list that should have come out in February. In January, we had made it official with our agency that we were open to finding our Gracie off of one of the waiting child lists. We had to fill out a new "desired child" form that stated what age range we desired (6-18 months) and had to check the boxes of what health issues we felt we could handle. Well, unexpectedly our agency received another list right away in December. They still thought they would receive another list in February but by mid-march we were still waiting but by this point were told that we were one of the first families who they would try to match a child to!! We were so excited and on pins and needles!!! They called us on March 27th and said that the list had finally been sent from China and was on it's way!! But it does take several days to arrive and then possibly up to a week to be translated from chinese to English and so they told us not to expect a call until probably Monday, April 9th. This seemed okay though because we were spending the week in Boise for Spring break and that sort of distracted us from being completely consumed with anticipation.......(if you want to read the posts in order of how they happened then read the post titled "Getting the Call" next, then "Gracie's pulmonary stenosis," and then "We signed our final paperwork".)