Our world and hearts keep expanding

One of the neatest things about adoption (apart from the obvious, having two new daughters in our lives) is that we've met so many great people who want to share in our joy and have been put into our lives expressly to make our journey easier, and to help us know how to best go through this crazy process of adopting special needs children.

We were blessed with our Sunday School class holding a pancake breakfast for Jennifer last Sunday and they took up an offering to help with travel expenses. We are working on filling out grant paperwork, trying to launch a line of children's furniture (rocking chair, stools, etc.) and custom plaques/sign work to help fund our adoption as well as hopefully save a little for Jennifer's ocularist needs when she gets home, and we are so appreciative of friends who want to support us in this way, the love we felt was overwhelming. I stood and tried to thank everyone for their caring, I honestly don't really know what I said as speaking in front of more than about two people at a time petrifies me but I hope our class somehow felt the thankfullness we feel at being a part of such a great group of families. We sat by a couple during this breakfast that I've spoken too a bit, but don't know very well. They shared that the husband only has one eye and that he wears a prosthetic, we would've never known! Today he actually took it out and showed it to us, right there in the gym! Amy and Dave are so warm and caring and matter of fact about something we know nothing about, an artificial eye. They told us that they know an excellent ocularist (the person who can make the prosthetic for Jennifer) and some of the steps we can anticipate going through. What a gift from God, to meet people who've BTDT and can offer us advice and support! So again, as we worry that we've gone into territory that we won't know how to navigate, God has put someone in our lives to help us see the way through as we bring Jennifer home, into our family. We look forward to getting to know this family better - they have already been such a blessing to us!

It is my heartfelt desire to somehow be the support to others who are going through adoption as the friends I count on have been to me (you guys know who you are!). Tomorrow I will start work on a rocking chair and stool prototype and hopefully will have something to show friends soon, to get marketing feedback from my adoptive family community.

And, on a different note, the adoption community is worldwide and yet, actually a small "neighborhood" where everyone kind of seems to know everyone else. Righ now, there is a little girl named Chrissie who has been with her forever family only six months and she had to have major open-heart surgery. It has been really tough, she's been on life support since Monday as a result of her surgery. We are praying for Chrissie and her family as we are hoping for a miracle for them as the doctors take her off some of the life support equipment she's needed and help her look toward recovery and healing.

So many children needing homes...

I am still walking on air from receiving our LOA "early". We frantically finished filling out all the paperwork needed to go with our LOA on Monday night so it would be ready to travel out on Tuesday when the FedEx truck arrived with that very important pc. of paper. I met the FedEx lady at her door, she didn't even get out of the truck. Tom and I dropped our work, signed our LOA, made the appropriate copies and took off to overnight it to the Hague headquarters in TX for our next step to working toward travel. I had made up a box of goodies for Jenni and her friends with a letter and new pictures of us to send out on Monday, telling her we are thinking of her every day, and that we should be in China sometime this summer. So, as we sent off her paperwork to TX, we mailed her package to China, it was such a good day.

Today I am back to work, trying to get caught up on business paperwork that our accountant needs (now!). And all I can think about is the information I read on my adoption support group boards this morning. A new shared list has just arrived and it brings the total of kids waiting on that list to somewhere close to 1700. Just think, 1700 children without moms and dads, 1700 children with no future, no one to tuck them in at night, to clap when they hit a ball for the first time, to exclaim over the fact they won the P.E. jump rope competition yesterday (yay, Taylor!), 1700 children who will never get to go to a special high school event with a beautiful dress and matching shoes and purse (yay, Emilee!). 1700 children who will never get to know that their parents are so proud of them while they wait for their first child (yay, Sara!)

So I sit here, sooo happy that we will be meeting Jennifer this summer, and she will know all about a family's love, she will have a mommy and a daddy, big sisters and a cool brother-in-law that can make sure she knows how to grow up surrounded by fun and security. And right now, there are 1700 children waiting for that opportunity.

LOA!! LOA!!

After only 39 days, we have our LOA, our Letter of Acceptance! I have been praying that we would be able to travel in July, and it looks like we just might be able to do that! It took us 5 weeks to be logged in when most families are logged in within a week or two, so just this week I was imagining someone looking at our file and saying, well, lets get this LOA moving to make up for lost time!

I was running errands, had just come out of the accountant's office when Tom called me and asked me where I was. Well duh, running the errands you sent me on. He says, well Living Hope is trying to reach you. My heart started pounding, NO WAY, I said, don't mess with me. He said, call them, they want to discuss your LOA! So I called and our rep. confirmed that we indeed have this important step out of our way. I ran into UPS and told Texas, the friendly counter guy that I see at least once a week our news, I know he thinks I'm crazy. Little does he know he's the first person I got to share this big news with!

We are now in the last stretches - we must now submit several more forms to apply for TA, travel approval. This time of waiting can take as long as 2 1/2-3 months but I'm hoping we're on a roll and can get our TA by the first of June so we can book our flights, get our CA or consulate appointment in China and go get our girl.

Encouragement

Sometimes when you are waiting to meet your child that is so far away, it can seem like a dream, like it might not happen, even though you know it eventually will. This week has been one of those weeks that has been discouraging and time has felt like its dragging by. And then on Friday, I met with some friends and one mom who has adopted and knows just how long the wait can feel brought me two outfits, well, actually 4 because she bought matching ones for Taylor and Jennifer! Taylor was overjoyed, she talks constantly how she and her little sister are going to match. She loves to match, she and Sara have had matching t-shirts before, it seems to bring about a real feel of belonging to her. One look at the Christmas dresses brought about exclamations of 'oooohhh'. She said immediately, I have to email Mrs. F, and she did (with my help of course). So, on Friday night, all of a sudden we felt like it wouldn't be too long til Christmas and two little girls in matching green dresses and cute pink tops & pants, thanks to our friend's thoughtful gesture. This morning I wrote another letter to Jennifer and we'll send it off next week, just to let her know she is in our thoughts each day til we have the chance to meet her :)

Scary week

So far this week there are no LOA's showing up and this is strange....I've actually been thinking we could get our LOA by the end of the month and now, nothing, the adoption boards are eerily quiet.

I am getting another letter ready to send to Jennifer, some more pictures, so she will know we haven't forgotten her, we want her to know she is in our heart and thoughts every single day. How long it must be for a little girl, when she's waiting on her forever family to arrive :'( I pray that there is someone who is kind enough to say to our little one every once in awhile, your family will be here when they can....

A positive sign

Today Tom and I were working in our shop and our mail person pulled up. We were wondering what needed to be signed for? It was our packet of information from our adoption agency - all the forms that have to be filled out and sent with our LOA when we get it. For those of you who aren't immersed in a Hauge convention international adoption, once a family gets final approval of adoption of a child (LOA) then there is much paperwork to be done to be given permission to travel. The ironic part is that this extra boat load of paperwork is provided by our government, not China. But it has to be completed, sent to China, it comes back here, it goes back and forth several times and finally we, the family are given approval for travel (TA). Today the packet came with a letter saying, now that you are getting close to your LOA, all this paperwork needs to be completed in order to be ready (so not a day is wasted!). Just opening up this pack of forms made my heart beat faster. In the papers was Jennifer's referral, her official notification that she will be our daughter. So I will fill out more forms, I don't mind, it makes me feel like I'm just one step closer to bringing our little girl home.

I have a friend who encouraged me to think 'outside the box' with raising funds for travel so I am in the process of designing some little step stools to sell - something a child could use to brush his or her teeth, perhaps. I would love to come up with some really cute adoption related plaques, i'm working on these too. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll share them and get opinions from my friends as to whether they think they might make a good fundraising tool, we may need airplane tickets before too long! I spent one day this week applying for adoption grants, praying maybe one organization will think our story is worth helping us bring Jennifer home :)

Lots of LOA's were issued this week - we could possibly get our LOA by the end of April - that would be just amazing. We need to travel, get back home and get settled in before time for us to become grandparents! Jennifer will become an aunt before her first Christmas with us!

Happy Easter

Today is so beautiful here in Virginia. Spring is finally here, our trees and flowers are blooming, and we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Our church service was so moving and full of praise, it just made my day.

Taylor woke up early this morning, so excited, only she wasn't sure why lol. She thinks the idea of a large, human-like bunny coming into her home is bizarre and scary - we don't even go there, but she remembered that there is supposed to be a present in a pretty basket that shows up on Easter morning, so she told me to wake Emilee up and we wandered into our family room to find a basket for her with a pretty little white rabbit and a DVD that she's been wanting for a long time. Emilee got a CD of her beloved Keith Urban and a cool Starbucks water bottle to take to work to cut down on wasting plastic (a green Easter lol).

This week, Taylor has the whole week off so we're lining up play dates with a couple friends and the week will end with a visit to Sara's house. We'll go shopping and we'll buy Sara something new since she didn't get to come home for Easter this year.

I am hoping and praying that there are as many LOA's issued in April as there were in March - if so we'd have ours and move on to the next BIG step - paperchasing to travel documentation. I'm still praying hard for late July travel - anyone reading this is more than welcome to pray along with me!