Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Bummer
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Sunday Recap
I love Sundays, not just a little bit. I seriously love Sundays. It is a day when our family doesn't work or shop and it is so nice. We can relax and spend time together without a to-do list interfering. There is always Monday for things to get done:) I love spending time with my family. I am a stay home mom who home schools so I spend a lot of time with my children and we spend a lot of family time together, but Sundays just are different, they are more peaceful.
Sundays are a day for me to center and reflect on things in my life. This year, I have reflected a lot on how extremely blessed I am. I have a house to live in, I have enough food to eat, my house has heat, I have furniture to sit on, I have clothes to wear, I am healthy, and mostly I have a family to love. These things have become such gifts to be grateful for, not that I wasn't before, but now even more so. I may not have the nicest, or the biggest, or the newest, but I have them and I am so grateful because I know that there are many people in the world who do not. I love my family. I have a wonderful husband. We enjoy life together. He is such a good match for me; we are different in so many ways and we complement each other. We have four fantastic sons. They make life fun. They have good hearts. They are growing into wonderful young men. I feel extremely blessed to get to be at home with them and know them so well. I am grateful to be adopting. It is something that has been on my heart for a long time. A lot of years worth's of prayers have been said to be at this point and I am grateful.
We are getting so very close to the end of this adoption process and it is so amazing to look back. We saw Min in November, had our pediatrician review her file, went over medical options and prayed. We sent in our Letter of Intent to adopt her at the very end of November and received preapproval 11-30. We scheduled our physicals, the earliest appointments were in January and we thought that was great since it would be after the holidays. Then we had a cardiologist look at Min's file. He was not anywhere as optimistic as our pediatrician and from then on we have worked so hard to get through the process of adopting as fast as we could, and we have been so blessed. Our homestudy writer finished the visits in one week, and wrote the homestudy quickly. We were able to expedite the I800A process and were able to fly to Anchorage and walk in for our fingerprints and be approved the next morning by USCIS. We had our dossier to China 4-15 and were logged in 4-29. Our agency has a great waiting child coordinator and she monitored our dossier and requested it be expedited multiple times. We had our LOA 6-3, it was expedited. Our I800 was expedited it was approved 6/13 and the NVC cable letter was received 6/17. It was dropped off to the US Consulate on Tuesday 6/21. I look over the past 6 months and see God's hand everywhere.
In the midst of all of the adoption process, which I will admit to having spent an inordinate amount of time researching and educating myself, trying to find ways to shave off any amount of time from the process, my husband got extremely sick and was a step away from respiratory failure, he is normally an extremely healthy guy and it came on extremely quickly. It took him a couple months to get better and he was under doctor's orders not to get sick....:) We had my 8 year old son's baptism so we got to have a lot of family come visit which was fun. We have had swim meets, and play performances, scout advancements, and I have worked three different temporary part time jobs. I had a mole removal that came back fast growth cells and so had to get more removed. We moved into a fixer-upper last fall and have worked on a ton of home improvement projects. We have just had life happen, but the peace I have felt has overridden any stress or pressure about other things.
I am amazed at the way this adoption has changed my heart. Life is such a gift. We are so very blessed. God loves us and is very aware of where we are in our lives. He hears and answers our prayers. If we look we can see Him carrying or guiding or blessing our lives all the time.
Sundays are a day for me to center and reflect on things in my life. This year, I have reflected a lot on how extremely blessed I am. I have a house to live in, I have enough food to eat, my house has heat, I have furniture to sit on, I have clothes to wear, I am healthy, and mostly I have a family to love. These things have become such gifts to be grateful for, not that I wasn't before, but now even more so. I may not have the nicest, or the biggest, or the newest, but I have them and I am so grateful because I know that there are many people in the world who do not. I love my family. I have a wonderful husband. We enjoy life together. He is such a good match for me; we are different in so many ways and we complement each other. We have four fantastic sons. They make life fun. They have good hearts. They are growing into wonderful young men. I feel extremely blessed to get to be at home with them and know them so well. I am grateful to be adopting. It is something that has been on my heart for a long time. A lot of years worth's of prayers have been said to be at this point and I am grateful.
We are getting so very close to the end of this adoption process and it is so amazing to look back. We saw Min in November, had our pediatrician review her file, went over medical options and prayed. We sent in our Letter of Intent to adopt her at the very end of November and received preapproval 11-30. We scheduled our physicals, the earliest appointments were in January and we thought that was great since it would be after the holidays. Then we had a cardiologist look at Min's file. He was not anywhere as optimistic as our pediatrician and from then on we have worked so hard to get through the process of adopting as fast as we could, and we have been so blessed. Our homestudy writer finished the visits in one week, and wrote the homestudy quickly. We were able to expedite the I800A process and were able to fly to Anchorage and walk in for our fingerprints and be approved the next morning by USCIS. We had our dossier to China 4-15 and were logged in 4-29. Our agency has a great waiting child coordinator and she monitored our dossier and requested it be expedited multiple times. We had our LOA 6-3, it was expedited. Our I800 was expedited it was approved 6/13 and the NVC cable letter was received 6/17. It was dropped off to the US Consulate on Tuesday 6/21. I look over the past 6 months and see God's hand everywhere.
In the midst of all of the adoption process, which I will admit to having spent an inordinate amount of time researching and educating myself, trying to find ways to shave off any amount of time from the process, my husband got extremely sick and was a step away from respiratory failure, he is normally an extremely healthy guy and it came on extremely quickly. It took him a couple months to get better and he was under doctor's orders not to get sick....:) We had my 8 year old son's baptism so we got to have a lot of family come visit which was fun. We have had swim meets, and play performances, scout advancements, and I have worked three different temporary part time jobs. I had a mole removal that came back fast growth cells and so had to get more removed. We moved into a fixer-upper last fall and have worked on a ton of home improvement projects. We have just had life happen, but the peace I have felt has overridden any stress or pressure about other things.
I am amazed at the way this adoption has changed my heart. Life is such a gift. We are so very blessed. God loves us and is very aware of where we are in our lives. He hears and answers our prayers. If we look we can see Him carrying or guiding or blessing our lives all the time.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Happy Father's Day!
Today is Father's Day. It is a really big weekend for us this year because my husband and my anniversary was yesterday and Min's birthday is tomorrow, so our family has three fantastic things to celebrate in a row.
I am very blessed to be married to a man that I absolutely love. He is fun and kind. He is funny and a great listener. He is a wonderful partner and I am grateful to be sharing my life with him. He is also a father who loves his children and wants the best for them. He cares about their well being. He takes the time to do things with them that they enjoy. Lately that has been fires. My boys all have fire strikers and steel so they love to light fires(it's what comes from scouting and camping!) and are always wanting to do that. They spend time whittling shavings off sticks to use for their tinder and kindling and it is amazing to me how much time can be spent shaving pieces off of sticks. I love watching my husband teach our sons and show them how to be a good dad. I hope my children realize how blessed they are to have one.
Of course, we are super excited that Min is going to have a dad. This will be her last Father's Day not knowing about what a Father is. My husband is thrilled to be having a daughter and she is going to love him.
I am grateful to have a Father in Heaven. I love in the Bible where the Savior cries out ' Abba' which is closer to 'Dad' in translation than 'Father'. I feel so strongly that I have a Father in Heaven who loves, knows and cares for me as His child, not just as a member of a mass of humanity. I feel His influence and direction and blessings in my life so often and am so grateful for Him in my life and all of the ways He lets me know that He loves me. I am thrilled to be reminded on this day how lucky and blessed I am to have a perfect Father and love Him very much.
I am very blessed to be married to a man that I absolutely love. He is fun and kind. He is funny and a great listener. He is a wonderful partner and I am grateful to be sharing my life with him. He is also a father who loves his children and wants the best for them. He cares about their well being. He takes the time to do things with them that they enjoy. Lately that has been fires. My boys all have fire strikers and steel so they love to light fires(it's what comes from scouting and camping!) and are always wanting to do that. They spend time whittling shavings off sticks to use for their tinder and kindling and it is amazing to me how much time can be spent shaving pieces off of sticks. I love watching my husband teach our sons and show them how to be a good dad. I hope my children realize how blessed they are to have one.
Of course, we are super excited that Min is going to have a dad. This will be her last Father's Day not knowing about what a Father is. My husband is thrilled to be having a daughter and she is going to love him.
I am grateful to have a Father in Heaven. I love in the Bible where the Savior cries out ' Abba' which is closer to 'Dad' in translation than 'Father'. I feel so strongly that I have a Father in Heaven who loves, knows and cares for me as His child, not just as a member of a mass of humanity. I feel His influence and direction and blessings in my life so often and am so grateful for Him in my life and all of the ways He lets me know that He loves me. I am thrilled to be reminded on this day how lucky and blessed I am to have a perfect Father and love Him very much.
Friday, June 17, 2011
NVC
We have been cabled and got our NVC letter emailed to us. Basically this means that all of our(and mostly Min's) information and Immigration approval has been forwarded to China's US embassy for them to issue her travel visa. She will travel home on a Chinese passport with a US Visa. There are several steps to clear to make sure that everything is in order for her to become a US Citizen upon entry into the United States and then also to give her a US Visa to travel out of China. Our application for Min's Visa will be dropped off on Tuesday, since Monday is not a drop off day and it is already late Friday night in China.
It is a standard 2 week wait for this Visa process(known as Article 5). We are hoping it will be expedited for Min's health but don't know what that will look like until it happens. As it is, from LOA to NVC letter being cabled to China the average wait is about one month, ours was two weeks, so we are getting there.
After this Article 5 approval, we get to wait for China to invite us to travel!! We are almost there:)!!!!
It is a standard 2 week wait for this Visa process(known as Article 5). We are hoping it will be expedited for Min's health but don't know what that will look like until it happens. As it is, from LOA to NVC letter being cabled to China the average wait is about one month, ours was two weeks, so we are getting there.
After this Article 5 approval, we get to wait for China to invite us to travel!! We are almost there:)!!!!
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Thanks Anne!!
We finished up our 31 fundraiser last month and the items arrived yesterday. A big Thank You to everyone who ordered cute bags:)
Anne is an adoptive mom who wanted to do something to help others when she got home from China. Someone held a successful 31 party/fundraiser for her when she was adopting and she decided that was what she wanted to do, so she does these great fundraisers, donates the hostess credit back to the adopter, or whoever is holding the party, and donates all of her commission to the adoption fund of the person. Pretty amazing if you ask me!
So here are the pictures of the cute bags that I got(for FREE)
This is Min's backpack for China...yes that is going to be her new name...Emery Min. Both names will be her first name and if she doesn't like Emery we will call her Min since that is what we call her now:) It was a fun thrill to be able to fill out paperwork for her Immigration with her new American name on in and our last name...and I love that this bag makes her seem a little bit closer to being with us!
Here are the links to Anne's blog and facebook site if anyone is looking for a fun and easy way to earn some money to help with your adoption costs
http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/
http://www.facebook.com/AdoptionFundraisers
http://www.morekids4me.blogspot.com/
Thanks a bunch Anne!
Anne is an adoptive mom who wanted to do something to help others when she got home from China. Someone held a successful 31 party/fundraiser for her when she was adopting and she decided that was what she wanted to do, so she does these great fundraisers, donates the hostess credit back to the adopter, or whoever is holding the party, and donates all of her commission to the adoption fund of the person. Pretty amazing if you ask me!
So here are the pictures of the cute bags that I got(for FREE)
Here are the links to Anne's blog and facebook site if anyone is looking for a fun and easy way to earn some money to help with your adoption costs
http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/
http://www.facebook.com/AdoptionFundraisers
http://www.morekids4me.blogspot.com/
Thanks a bunch Anne!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What a Day!
What a day:)! Yesterday had so many things happen that were answers to prayers that I was grinning ear to ear all evening!
First off, we got our I800 approval. I tracked it and it has arrived at the NVC so now we wait for it to get logged in and cabled to China. We got a call in to the doctor to schedule Min's appointments with a pediatric cardiologist. We got the tracking number for the I800 and it was scheduled to be delivered this morning by 10:30 EST.
Then to top it off, last night I checked my email before we went to bed and....updates!!!! With pictures:) So I HIGHLY recommend using Ann with Red Thread to send a care package. She calls the orphanage and checks on your child before sending the package. We are sending a photo book, and it was actually the same or less money than we would have spent mailing it ourselves, plus it is translated into Chinese.
First off, we got our I800 approval. I tracked it and it has arrived at the NVC so now we wait for it to get logged in and cabled to China. We got a call in to the doctor to schedule Min's appointments with a pediatric cardiologist. We got the tracking number for the I800 and it was scheduled to be delivered this morning by 10:30 EST.
Then to top it off, last night I checked my email before we went to bed and....updates!!!! With pictures:) So I HIGHLY recommend using Ann with Red Thread to send a care package. She calls the orphanage and checks on your child before sending the package. We are sending a photo book, and it was actually the same or less money than we would have spent mailing it ourselves, plus it is translated into Chinese.
She is growing up...we need to have her home! I wonder if she knows that she has a family and if these pictures were taken with her knowing that they were coming to us??!! Oh my goodness, I can't wait to have her with us. She looks so great and I love the artwork on the walls.
Here is the picture book with Chinese captions and a translated letter that is being sent to Min this week:
What a great day!
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