Joey!

I want to squeeze him to pieces!! That face is always on my mind. He is waiting for us to come and we are waiting on permission to go. The Lord has a time prepared for us to travel, and when we go, I will rejoice! For now, I gaze upon the most beautiful set of brown eyes I have ever seen. He melts my heart!

Awww. How pretty!

This is a bit off-topic as far as adoption is concerned, but I had to share. Last weekend my daughter went to her first Spring dance at school. She was just so pretty all dressed up! I am amazed at how much growing up she has done this year. I know she is only 12, but sometimes she gives me glimpses into the young woman she is evolving into. Our kiddos grow up way to fast! I sometimes long for the "princess" outfits when I see her dressed and ready to take on the world! Lord Jesus, bless the sweet daughter you have entrusted to me. Please give me wisdom to parent her and to keep her in a close relationship with you! Amen!

WOOHOO!

Greetings my friends!!

You have certainly been more patient than I have been waitng for updates! I have a BIG ONE for you! Please join me in praising God for the gift of our LOA (Letter of Acceptance)!!! YES! That's right! We have been officially approved by the CCCWA(China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) to adopt Joey! That is what this piece of paper is all about .(It looks pretty cool too with all of the Chinese characters on it!) I am moved beyond words. God is so good!

I now have a fresh, new stack of documents to mail on Monday morning. I love each stack of paper. I know, it is a crazy thing to say, and I stress over every single form, and it is a pain in the patootie to fill them all out, but really, seriously, each form brings me one step closer to boarding a plane bound for my little boy. How cool is that?!!

Joey so sweet. Last Sunday night, Monday morning for him as his part of China is 13 hours ahead of our local time, he drew me a picture. How do I know he drew it for me? Well, after he finished his drawing, he sat in a little yellow chair and held it up for me to see on the web-cam. He smiled at the camera and was saying something that I could not hear because the sound is never on on the web-cam, and well, even if it was, he speaks Mandarin and I wouldn't be able to understand him. (Personally though, I think he was saying,"Look at my picture Momma! Do you like it?) With tears running down my face, I called back to him,"Yes, Joey! What a beautiful picture you made! I LOVE IT! I cannot wait to hang it on the refridgerator when you come home!! Mommy loves you so much!!"

Addition To Our Timeline Family

Well hello there!
  I must be honest and say that I was prostrate yesterday asking the Lord some very hard questions. He answered them very clearly, "Trust My heart, when you can't see My hand". Okay, I will. I have been very anxious lately as I tried very hard to keep the lessons learned in the past all in my heart. We waited a long time for an update on our timeline, and I was about to despair..not a good thing. I knew I needed some extra "knee" time. I had to settle my spirit so that I could hear the words I needed to hear. His reaffirming voice, in my heart telling me to wait on Him.
I heard today that another waiting mother finally heard  good news and added another date to her timeline. I felt GENUINE joy for her and her family. It felt SO GOOD to feel that JOY!
Right after talking with her, my agency called and gave us our much awaited for date for our LID!! So, I will add that to our timeline family today :-)


July 1, 2010- Signed application with our adoption agency.
August 24, 2010- Saw our son for the first time! (Well, at least I saw his picture!!)
September 16, 2010- Our son's file was locked for us! (This is a blog post all it's own!)
September 21,2010- LOI  (Letter of Intent)
October 12, 2010- PA!! (Pre-approval).
November 26, 2010- Received completed homestudy in the mail.
December 1, 2010- Mailed in our I800A application to USCIS.
January 3, 2011- USCIS fingerprint appointment.
January 28, 2011- I800A approved!!
February 15, 2011- Sent dossier to our agency.
March 3, 2011- DTC!!! (Dossier to China).
March 14, 2011- LID!! (Log In Date)

I am humbled and in awe of how big our God is. Thank you Lord for your provision.

Bed time...zzzzzz

  I have been obsessing, I mean, searching for just the right bedding for Joey. It was VERY hard!! I am very picky...and on a budget....which makes things even harder. I had in mind something without a cartoon character/super hero/ action figure. I don't have anything against said things, they just didn't seem to "fit" the image in my daydream of tucking him in bed under the softest, most cozy bedding that I could find. I know that if I was being transported to "far,far away" with my new Mama and Baba, I would want everything that touched me to be all soft and cozy. With all of that being said, Joey is a four year old little boy. He needs a four year old little boy bedding set. It needs to be blue....and have something decidedly "boy" on it somewhere..don't you agree? I thought so! Well, I felt an inner voice urging me into a store on Thursday. I was told to look for bedding. Hmmm. Okay. I went, cause I can get in a heap of trouble if I don't listen to that inner voice! Well, at first, I didn't see anything. Hmmm. Um, Inner Voice? I thought there was some good bedding in here? "Keep looking" was the response. So I rounded the last aisle that had any bedding on it and there it was! All blue and everything! Rolled up snug and cozy, cradling a matching pillow sham in its arms. Ah, but, would it, could it, be as soft as it looked? YES!! Ooooh, ahhhhh. Just the feel I was looking for. Now, is it in the size I need? Yep! The word TWIN was written in bold letters! One more hurdle...$$$$$$. As I rolled the "roll" over to see the price I held my breath. (Gulp) Is that what I think it is? Dare I hope? Could it be? A CLEARANCE STICKER?? WooHoo!!!!! Jackpot! Needless to say, I tucked the mini comforter set under my arm like a football and took off to the front counter to pay. I was so exhilarated by this find! The sheets that I found matched perfectly and added just the right "boy" touch. Thank you Jesus for being in the details. You know exactly what we need, and you always deliver!! Oh. I did mention that I prayed for His  help while looking didn't I? No? Oh, well, I should have, cause I did!! I would not trust he details of my life to just anyone! Only Him who loves me best of all.
Sweet dreams Joey. I sure hope you like your new bed when you get home.

Serendipity!

Okay, I know I said I was on limited computer time, but I just don't think  it is fair to not share this with all of you.
 I was watching a recorded segment of video from the live webcam that is on every Sunday night in our son's foster care center, when I realized absentmindedly that Joey looked to be wearing a new shirt...or at least a shirt I had never seen him in before. As I continued to watch him run and play and sit at his little yellow table to draw on the magna doodle, I kept seeing the shirt and it dawned on me that it was like a jersey...with numbers on it. Hmmm. Ok. No biggie, right? Well, then I realized that the words across the chest of my son were that of a university in THE STATE THAT WE LIVE IN!!!!!! Hold on!! Could it really say that? I looked and looked, and there was no doubt about it! Without even knowing it, Joey was advertising his "home" state. How cool is that??!!
A step farther...What are the chances that any orphan in China would be wearing a jersey from a universiy in the United States? What are the chances that the one child that WAS wearing said jersey would be in the process of being adopted by parents in the VERY STATE that  jersey named? What are the chances that this precious child would be wearing this state jersey on the only day of the week that his mommy would be watching, and could see him in it? Just blows the mind doesn't it?!

Hello? Hello? Hello!!!

Yes, yes, I am still here! I have given up most of my computer time for Lent, so I will not post much this season. Funny, but their is not much to post.... that is how it is with adoption. First there is so much to tell, then nothing for weeks. Ah well, life is much the same. We go along for many days of hum drum, beating the pavement, and then BAM! something out of the ordinary happens and we talk about it for days.
The big question is always, "How is the aoption going?"  It is going fine, just not as fast as I would like, but who could blame me for wanting to hold my new son in my arms as soon as heavenly possible??
We have yet to hear if we have been officially logged in with the CCCWA (The CCAA changed their name). We are thinking we have been, because our dossier was sent to China 24 days ago. If we are correct, then we are now waiting on our Letter of Acceptance (LOA). When this gets to us, we will be continuing the downhill ride to picking up our son. I am not looking for our LOA until late April, which means there will be slim pickins of updates until then. Sorry :-(
Accompany me on this journey through Lent and take the time to enjoy this beautiful season. There is much to be thankful for and I, for one, don't want to miss a minute of it!!
Peace be with you.