Soooo...

... I didn't sleep much after my last post - was just so excited, well in shock actually, to get our LOA so quickly! My mind is still spinning with all that has to happen now, there are still a variety of steps involved between now and travel but our agency has told us that we can expect to go to China to BRING HOME OUR SON (cant believe its finally happening!!!!) in 10-14 weeks!!!!

Would appreciate your prayers as we prepare... yet more paperwork but oh what an incredible feeling writing our sons new name on this paperwork!

We wont know exactly when we are going until 1-2 weeks before we go, which makes things a little more complicated ;)

Can't wait for our sweet son to finally be home, where he belongs.

We got our LOA!!!

Just wanted to post real quickly that we got our LOA today!!!! on day 35!!! In shock, trying to get our next ducks in a row. Will try to post more later!!! SO very very excited!!!!

JJs Bear

Not much to post, no movement in the process that we are aware of. We are now on day 30 of our LOA wait, hoping and praying that we get it in the next month...

I've been trying to work on things around the house, distract myself by focusing on getting ready for JJ, nesting pretty much :) so we cleaned out closets galore last weekend, moved furniture around in our bedroom so that we can fit the crib in next to our bed (we are planning on JJ sleeping in his crib in our room initially, help with the bonding/get over jetlag etc), and I've been working on JJ's bear. It is still a work in progress but this is what I've done so far:

When Hubby and I were first married (and living in Hong Kong) we went shopping at Ikea one day and saw these sweet little bears (which I had also seen at the orphanage we worked at). I persuaded Bob that it would be a good idea to buy some of these bears for our future children... I think Hubbys response was something along the lines of  'ummm.... our kids???? ummm..... how many do you think we need? 1 or 2?'. :) We ended up walking out of Ikea with 5 of these sweet bears (not exactly sure how that happened!?!) and Jon Jon's bear is our last one. Somehow AG managed to lose her 'AG bear' (we are REALLY original with our stuffies' names in our house!), which is her 'I cant go to sleep without it' stuffie, so I made her a second bear, identical to the first one. Soooo, Hubby and I were talking the other night about how this is our last bear and how we should probably try to find a couple more - just in case the kids lose theirs ;) So if anyone sees them please let me know! I think I bought them for $15HKD ($2USD) each but saw them on ebay last night for $30USD! ouch!

Other ramblings... The waiting and the fundraising... feel like I'm a yo-yo when it comes to both of these. Some days I miss our son so badly, its almost a physical pain, just want him home and wish there was a way for the process to move faster. Its hard being stuck in the particular wait/phase that we are in right now, not knowing if we will get our LOA next week or not for another 3+ months... its hard emotionally to prepare for both of those options, still have hope and be ready and yet not be crushed if it takes 140 days... yah, pretty tricky... Appreciate prayers for peace and patience in the waiting.

And the fundraising, we have been so blown away by all the love and support that we have received, so humbled by those who have given to help bring our son home. I wish I could stop there and just focus on that because it is incredible to have this army of people who love your child, and love you, and believe in what you are doing to the point of getting behind you to support you... but then I look at the numbers, look at what we've paid and what is still due and it is overwhelming, scary! And then today we got a sweet envelope from a precious just turned 9 year old girl, who is giving us her $25 to help bring our son home... and I was brought to tears and reminded that God has called us to this, that God has chosen Jon to be our son, and that He will provide! So grateful and so in awe...

Just thought I would share this, the first pic we saw of our sweet son... We don't know when this was taken, or where, but sometime before he was 9 months old (I'm guessing around 4 months but who knows)... our sweet son...

JJ's puzzle

Just a little update on our puzzle progress...

Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored puzzle pieces to help us bring JJ home. We are so humbled, so incredibly grateful and love seeing the way that God is bringing this all together. I can't wait to tell JJ the stories behind the names that are on the back of these pieces... many of which have brought me to tears.

Hope to post updated pics next week sometime :)

We need help

Soooo we are thrilled to be closer to bringing our son home but are realizing that we need help to do so. Adopting from China costs between $25,000-$30,000 USD. We have saved up some of that but are hoping to raise $5,000 to help out... This is where you, our friends and family, come in.

Our main fundraiser when we brought EB home involved months of training for hubby :) I got to cheer from the sidelines but he did the hard part, running the local half marathon (many of you sponsored him, THANK YOU!!!). For JJ we've decided to do something a little different. We are having a puzzle piece sponsorship! Here's how it works... We have had a picture of JJ printed on a 500 piece puzzle, hoping you all will sponsor a piece/pieces of the puzzle. Your name will be printed on the back of the puzzle piece that you buy. I am really excited about this because I think it will be so wonderful for JJ to be able to see the back of the puzzle, not his picture, but the part that shows him how many people love him and played a part in him coming home.

We are asking you all to sponsor a puzzle piece for $5 or $10. There is a paypal link below and also on the side of our blog where you can contribute. Thank you so very very much!

For those who are wondering, here is the picture that we have chosen to print on our puzzle. Its a pic of our sweet son, JJ, receiving his first care package from us, his forever family :) 

You need flash to view the Paypal giving box below. You won't be able to see it if you are on an iPhone or iPad. So sorry! :(

LID!!!

Woo hoo!!!! We found out that as of 1/17/2012 we are logged-in!!!

It's been...

too long since I've posted. I've been busy just keeping up with our girls and then there was Thanksgiving, and Christmas, AND a new puppy (Thanks Pop-pop!) :)

There are some exciting things to share though! We finally got our USCIS approval aka I800A approval/797. It was dated the 20th of December, but of course that was the day that we flew to Colorado for Christmas so we didn't really 'receive it' until we got home on Dec 29th. This precious piece of paper was our last document that was needed to complete our dossier. The girls and I drove this document all over so that it could be properly authenticated/sealed. This included getting it notarized (which in itself I think is pretty funny: that the lady who works at State Farm needs to notarize/approve the letter from the US Govt!), then we were off to the county clerks office to have the first notarization notarized. After that it was a trip to downtown where the county clerks notarization was notarized by the secretary of state. Then this precious paper was sent to Washington DC where it could finally be notarized/authenticated by the US Dept of State. Finally it stopped in at the Chinese Embassy for its Chinese authentication. Whew - lots of running around (this process was required for all of our dossier documents)... On a side note - all that the Chinese Govt requires on these documents is the Chinese Embassy's seal but in order for that to happen it has to be authenticated by the US Dept of State, who requires the previous 3 notarizations! Talk about a streamlined process ;)

We managed to get this all done relatively quickly (considering that the Govt offices were closed for New Years) so that our 797 was able to join the rest of our dossier in GA (at our agencys office) to go through 'critical review'. After that it was all fedexd to our agency's main office in CO where a summary paragraph was translated and then the entire dossier went to China!!!! yay!!!! We are officially DTC as of Jan 13th!!!! The CCC*A received our dossier (taken in by courier) on Jan 16th!!!

So now that this step is done we are on to the next hurry up and wait. We are still waiting for our official LID (Log In Date) which is when the CCC*A logs our dossier into their system. Then it is the unpredictable wait for our LOA, which can be as quick as 35 days or as long as 120+... no rhyme or reason for the variation in the time frame... Once we have our LOA we file the next bit of paperwork, and then we wait for our next approval before we can proceed.

If you're still reading at this point I'm impressed! I'm mainly writing this down for myself so that I can look back on it and remember, see Gods faithfulness in it all. I thought that I would remember all the dates and bits of the process last time but it didn't work out that way so am attempting to record more of it this time around.

SO from here (well, from our LID) we are told to expect it to be 4-6 months from there to travel approval... Once we have our LOA we'll have a better idea of time to travel as time frames are pretty consistent after that, it is just this unknown wait that we are entering now.

Thats our update on process, will post an update on our precious son next!