Another update

The little 13 year old girl - she found her family!!! Yeah!! It was not us..too bad. But the main thing here is that another child has found their family!

Our paperwork should be on its way to China today. We said yes to Noah back in February of '08, and we are DTC in January of '09...

GOOD GRIEF!!! With Kaycee, it was 9 months... start to finish! Post Hague adoptions are the pits.

BUT can you believe it? We should be able to start our countdown here soon. Of course we have to get through Chinese New Year...:)

Oh well. At least it is totally out of our hands now. (It always has been out of our hands, as in it has been in God's hands; however, now the paperwork is really out of our hands now.)

God speed, dossier...safe travels!

Update...

After sending our dossier to our agency, there were two items missing. Actually one item wasn't missing, but Leonard's doctor had marked him as having Hep B. China would have said NO!!! if that would have gone to them. So it was a good thing our agency was on the lookout for things.

So it was back to getting paperwork done, notarized, and certified...then overnighted to our agency AGAIN, and I am thinking this is it.

We should know tomorrow.

But...you know all of the delays we have had.

Little stops along the way. All the while I knew God was at work for some reason.

I may have found the reason.

I hate to even think it. I hate to even dream it. I hate to even write it.

My sister in law- a mom to four kiddos from Eastern Europe reads a lot of adoption blogs. She found one today.

It talked about 4 older kids that will be turning 14 in the next few months. When that happens in China, they are no longer adoptable. At all. They then head for a life of who knows what.

One little girl has to be adopted by July or else.

She loves crafts. She loves knitting. She loves clothes.

Could she be the reason?

How many miracles would have to take place in order for her to become my daughter?

Let's start with the first miracle...my husband! ABSOLUTELY NO MORE KIDS has been stated more than once.

I brought it up to him this afternoon. He didn't say no.

Then let's go to China, the CCAA. They require that all adoptions have at least one year in between them. However, for the older, harder to place, they are willing to give many waivers to families.

I have asked a couple of different people who are much more experienced with Chinese adoption. They have stated that if I could possibly get our I797 (Immigration approval) changed to have two adopted, and have our homestudy amended so that it states we can be approved for two kids, there would be a chance we could adopt two at a time....which was TOTALLY unheard of until just this last year.

No I won't think about it. No I won't dream about it. But I am on my knees praying about it. Praying God will remove this thought from my mind and this feeling in my heart. Maybe her family has already found her. I so very much hope so!!!!

Long ago pictures

Have you seen that commercial for Walgreens? The one where all of those people are standing around from different events: a wedding, fishing, football game, riding a pony, etc.

And someone else pops in...and all of the people get mad?

"Not another one," says the bride.

Then beep, beep, beep, and all of the people look worried. "Someone's going to be deleted."

"Not me," says the fisherman, "I was deleted last time." The pop, the fisherman is deleted.

I have 6 cards for my camera. And believe me, these are not the small ones. They hold somewhere between 200 to 400 pictures EACH!!!

Guess what I have on each of these cards? You guessed it....I had to delete two pictures so I could take the picture of our dossier.

Anyway, here are some from LAST SUMMER!!!! We took a day trip to Wyoming to see a train...

Anyone know what this is?

For those of you from the adoption community...you know what this is. This is all of the blood, sweat, tears, worry and frustration all scattered on my bed. (Actually it really isn't all of it...the homestudy is already at our agency.)

For those of you not from the adoption community, this is our dossier. It has our birth certificates, marriage certificate, two background checks each, a letter of adoption, employment and salary letters for both of us, physicals for each, and the ever elusive I797 (letter from the US government stating we can adopt a foreign orphan.)

All of them are notarized.

All of them are state certified.

Tomorrow they will all be in the mail to our agency to be sent to the Chinese consulate to be authenticated.

Then translated.

Then sent to China.

Then the wait starts ALL over again.

But at least once it is there, it is only a matter of months before Noah is home.

In the mean time, we need to...

get passports for Jacob and Nathan...(they are traveling with me)

Leonard will take 6 credits,

I will take 9 credits,

I will be teaching 6 credits at Aims,

I need to take one of my PLACE tests for my masters,

watch about 20 more basketball games,

about 10 baseball games,

go to about 10 track meets,

have 8th grade graduation,

Leonard will be in Las Vegas for a week,

and possibly take a family vacation to Pennsylvania at the end of May.

Hhmm, I think we will be busy. Hopefully this will help the time go fast! :)

They finally came...

This weekend was awful.

It really started last week. Our fingerprints FINALLY came! We celebrated, but it didn't last very long.

My mom and dad were supposed to take all of our paperwork to Denver on Wednesday to get everything certified (third to the last step before we send it to China.)

My dad got put into the hospital over night - while they were trying to get things done.

We had everything planned to take it to Denver on Friday.

I spent the day in the emergency room with my mother in law...

Thank God, both my dad and my mother in law are doing ok.

Friday, we also got an email stating that we needed on more thing certified in Illinois.

Saturday and Sunday, Leonard did literally 20 hours of homework.

Jacob and Nathan studied for finals.

Jacob had two basketball games - which he didn't play in...that would be another post altogether...

Finally celebrated John's birthday.

I finished up an order for a purse and a pair of socks...

Cleaned up dog throw up.

Cleaned up kid pee.

Wrapped presents.

Christmas shopped.

Dealt with a bad grade from one of my oldest children.

Did 10 loads of laundry.

Helped Leonard with his final business plan.

Thought about cleaning the house. Didn't do it.

And then they came. The tears....I lost it last night.

I cried and Leonard sat with me. Not saying a word.

It seems like for every step forward on the adoption, we take two steps back.

I really don't know if I can take anymore. I know that it is all in God's perfect timing.

Happy Birthday...

It is Noah's birthday today. He is 3. In this world there are three mothers...
1. His foster mom - Today she will spend his birthday...I know that the home that sponsors him has a birthday party for each child and their family. I know that she is enjoying this time and loving it. She always looks so happy when she is with him. Thank you so much for loving him before he comes home to us. Thank you for giving of your time, your energy, and your patience to raise him.
2. Me - I think of Noah all of the time. I wonder what he is like. What is he doing to celebrate his birthday? What is his favorite food? What makes him laugh? I pray he is healthy and that his adjustment is quick and secure. I have never met this little boy, yet, he is so deeply etched in my mind and in my heart, that I cannot imagine life without him...
3. His birth mother - Granted, there is no way of knowing exactly when his birthday is. However, whether it was yesterday, today or tomorrow, there is a mother who is without the child she carried for 9 months. She is without the heartbeat that was under hers for so long. She made the very hard decision to give him up. Can you imagine having a child and then having it taken away at only a couple of days old? Can you imagine laying him on the sidewalk, hoping and praying that some one will come by and pick him up?

Noah has three mothers...one that will hold him for a couple of years, one that dreams of holding him for the rest of his life, and one that remembers holding him as he took his first breath and heard his first cry....

Happy Birthday, Noah

Where have I been?

The same place we were almost a month ago...waiting for the now infamous fingerprints...

I feel guilty complaining about the wait.

What about all of the little ones out there without parents, not knowing if they will ever have a family.

What about the little ones who do have parents but should be removed from the home?

What about the little ones who don't have enough to eat, a place to sleep, or safety?

What about the little ones who have lost a parent...and don't understand why?

What about all of the little ones who will never know that Jesus died for their sins?

I think about all of the little ones out there. I can't help them all. I can pray for them, I can call out to Jesus to protect them, feed them and comfort them. I can adopt two little ones and give them all of the love that some of the others will never know. I can donate toys to toy drives, sponsor a family this holiday season...but I can't help them all.

Makes me sad...makes me disappointed...makes me want to hurry up this process so Noah can know the love of a family.