While We Wait.....

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:25

So our I800A has been federal expressed to USCIS. The remainder of our documents have been sent to Richmond for authentication. We are back to what much of the adoption process is about.....waiting for the next step. We will receive appointments from USCIS to be fingerprinted. Yes, after 3 fingerprint attempts I have to do it again as well as John, and also Jeremy. Our prayer is that we will receive the appointment letter quickly and once the fingerprints are complete, we wait for the I171H which is the final document we need to send our dossier to China. In the meanwhile, Summer-like weather is finally arriving and none to soon for me! We have had a lovely Spring but the heat and humidy are inevitable. Shane is getting toasty brown and still spends quite a bit of time each day outdoors. Jeremy is home for the Summer and will be working at UVA doing temp work until he returns to college. Part of me wants the Summer to go slowly as I enjoy having Jeremy home and the other part wants it to go by quickly so we are closer to bringing Abigail home and seeing John and Melissa again as they plan a visit home once we return from China.

A little late posting this but Kelsey really would like to be a part of our blog so I am sharing the exciting news of her being voted the Junior High Homecoming Princess at United Christian Academy in January. It was quite a surprise for all of us and we were really proud of her.

Home Study is Complete!

"The LORD liveth; and blessed by my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted." Psalm 18: 46

We had our 4th and last visit for our home study with Jennifer on Tuesday, May 27th. We met at our usual "meeting place" in Lovingston. Shane accompanied us to the visit and as usual was a ham for Jennifer. Jennifer put in a lot of work to meet all the new requirements that are now required for the Hague Convention. We will now file the I800A form and pray that we receive fingerprints appointments quickly. I am hearing from other adoptive parents that USCIS is questioning home studies and details are extremely important. I also sent off the rest of our dossier documents to the Virginia Commonwealth office for authentication since AAI is going to authenticate our I171H. This is different from the last adoption but I am happy to let them do whatever they want to as long as we keep the process moving!

I received a "May update" from New Day for Abigail. My favorite part of the update was the statement that said, "Abigail is now matched with a family and knowing that she has parents has made her particularly happy".

Abigail Receives her Family Photo Album

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thessalonians 5:18

As soon as I received the call from Ky on April 17th confirming that we had pre-approval. I thanked Lord and began to e-mail everyone that I could think of to tell them the news. I e-mailed Karen at New Day and informed her that we had pre-approval and asked her to change her name from Stacey to Abigail. It is so great to go to the New Day web-site and see "Abigail" with an asterisk by her name which means that she is matched with a family. Just a reminder that we began having an interest in adopting her in December 2006 so our journey has already been a long one.

I had been working on a family photo album to send her. It includes pictures of her new parents, her siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. I write the name of who each person is by their picture. I also included pictures of her new home. She not only has a Chinese brother but 4 Chinese cousins so some of the faces that she sees in the album looks familiar to her. She received the photo album a week after we mailed it and Karen e-mailed me pictures. I just love the picture of her face right up to the photo album. Of course we sent her another doll and another book. From the updates that we receive, I know that she is "motherly" so I figure she likes dolls. We have pictures of her up through out the house and we are already talking about traveling to China to bring Abigail home with Shane. When he sees her picture he says, "that Abigail, we are going to bring her home". If you ask him what is his sister's name, he will tell you her name and tell that you that we are going to China to bring her home.

Pre-Approval Received!

For those who had adopted from China before you know paper intensive it can be. You also know about how it is such a waiting time. The process varies depending on if you are adopting a healthy child or special needs child. It also depends if you are seeking pre-approval for a specific child prior to submitting your dossier or having your dossier logged in by the CCAA. So, what is a dossier? It is a collection of documents regarding your family and it includes things such as your homestudy which requires 4 visits with your social worker and numerous other things such as medical forms, criminal history background checks, employment verifications, financial statement, certified birth certificates, certified marriage certificates, etc. All documents have to be notarized and authenticated. Just a little education for those who have never adopted internationally. Once we received Abigail's file, we then submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI). This is a letter to the CCAA confirming that we want to adopt her and promising to always take care of her, etc. We then wait for pre-approval from China which is confirmation that we have permission to adopt her. With the new electronic system in place, Ky from AAI thought that we would have the pre-approval in several weeks. Even though we were trusting in the Lord and knew that he had brought us this far, John and I really longed for that piece of paper saying that she was 100% ours. All of our information that the CCAA required for our pre-approval was submitted on March 12th. So we waited for Pre-Approval....... In the meanwhile we had mailed Abigail an Easter packet and as usual, Karen e-mailed us pictures, some of which you see. She is getting chunky! She just turned 2 in October so I sent her a 2T dress. She has it on in the pictures and as you can see , it is almost too small for her! We sent her the doll in the carrier and a book to read. I told Karen to not worry about keeping up with everything to send with us when we traveled to China. We have sent her 3 -4 packages of gifts so far and it will be a lot to try to bring home with us. The call from Ky came on April 17th. We had our pre-approval from China. She is officially ours! John and I were elated. The CCAA gave us a deadline of July 17, 2008 to submit our dossier. Again, a little nervous as our homestudy requires fingerprinting and I had already been fingerprinted twice and they were having trouble reading my fingerprints. Never a dull moment in our adoption journey to Abigail. New a dull moment at home either. Shane is a very happy and energetic little boy. He is also a very strong willed little boy. He has learned the art of temper tantrums. Most of them are over clothes or shoes. When he sets his mind that he wants to wear a particular outfit or pair shoes, it is very difficult to change it for him.

Spring 2008 Vacation!

We had all been eagerly looking forward to our Spring break vacation at the Outer Banks. Not only would be a great relaxing week but John and Melissa would be joining us for the week! Jeremy couldn't go with us as his college Spring break was the week before. We arrived at the house that we rented on Sunday evening as we left after Sunday morning church. The house had 8 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, 4 of them with Jacuzzis, a computer with Internet access, 3 "sitting" areas, and a move theater room in addition to a recreational room with pool table. There was plenty of space and it was a GREAT house. John and Melissa flew into Raleigh, NC on Monday and John and Bernard picked them up at the airport so they arrived at the house in the early a.m. on Tuesday morning. If you haven't figured it out yet, Sharon and her family was also with us. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, so gorgeous that I ended up with a pretty good sunburn from sitting on the beach. John''s friend, Josh and his wife, visited with us during the day on Thursday and Melissa's mother and brother joined us on Friday and spent Friday and Saturday night with us. I was glad that Melissa was able to spend time with her mother and brother. It was a wonderful and relaxing week. As usual, the only time that was sad was at the end of the week when we had to say good-bye to John and Melissa.

Shane's 3rd Birthday Party!

We had our 2nd homestudy visit on March 18th. I went out of town for another business trip on March 19th and 20th. It is hard leaving Shane overnight but he has adjusted very well. My business trips are usually in the Spring and Fall and I have around 4 per year and I work really hard to keep them to 1 night if possible. Shane turned 3rd on Friday, March 21st. I had to work that day and when I took him to Sharon's house as he stays there with Nicholas and mom when I work, Mandy and Kelsey had tied balloons to the dinning room lights and had him several gifts to open. He was really excited and his favorite gift was "Super Teddy". Mandy is a big Superman fan and had a teddy bear with a Superman shirt and cape. Shane had been asking for it for some time and Mandy promised him that she would get him one for his birthday.

We had our 3rd homestudy visit with Jennifer after work on March 21st so it was a busy day for us! The birthday celebration with family would be on Saturday, March 22nd. Sharon kept Shane with her most of the morning while I finished wrapping gifts and decorating the house. It is such a blessing to have family next door to help out with babysitting! The party went great and Shane had a wonderful time. Sharon had a Superman cake made for him. Daddy bought him a bicycle helmet with elbow and knee pads.

Abigail's File is Sent to Us

We had several "hurdles" to go through before we actually received Abigail's file. On February 15th, we had to submit a letter to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) detailing how we knew her and why we wanted to adopt her. This was not the letter of intent. On February 21st, AAI, our adoption agency called me, and they needed to submit a letter to the CCAA recommending that we be allowed to adopt her. We did not hear from Ky at AAI for a few weeks and on March 5th, she e-mailed me say that they were confident that the file would be sent soon and recommended that we start the home study process. I contacted Jennifer, our social worker who handled our first home study for the adoption of Shane, and arranged for our first home study visit which took place on March 10th. Jennifer moves fast and we love her for it!

On March 11th, I was on my way to Salisbury, MD for a business trip and my cell-phone rang. It was John and he was calling to tell me that Ky had called our home and had e-mailed Abigail's file to us. He was elated. I could hear the excitement in his voice. He called me a second time an hour or so later and was reading me all the information that was in the file. Some of it we knew due to our sponsoring her but some was new to us. I had a laptop with me so I was up at the midnight checking out the file. The pictures that you see are the two pictures that were with the file. Isn't she cute!!!

Finding Abigail's File!!!

January 2008 came and Jeremy returned to Liberty near the end of the month. He had been home since early December and we have very much enjoyed having him home. He worked at UVA in a temp position so he was able to earn spending money for the remainder of the college year. It is always hard when he has been home for a while to see him pack up and leave again. Shane always looks for him when he is not at home as they truly have a great time together.

In early February I sent another round of e-mails to various agencies looking for Abigail's file. Each time I would send out the e-mails, I would pray that God would direct me to the agency that could help. That prayer was answered on February 6,2008!! Ky from Adoption Advocates International, an agency that I had never heard of but was one of many that I found while performing Google searches, responded to my e-mail that she would try to help me. On February 13, 2008 , Ky e-mailed me that she had received word from the CCAA that they were assigning Abigail's file to them and we could start the adoption process. We were elated!! Our journey to find her papers was over and we could begin the adoption journey!

In the meanwhile, John was busy making our vacation plans for March 2008 in which we, along with Sharon's family, John's parents and John & Melissa would spend a week at the Outer banks together. We continued to receive monthly updates and she was doing great, eating good, playing the motherly role with the younger children.

Shane's Second Christmas in America and Gifts for Abigail

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which Christ the Lord". Luke 2:11

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I start decorating the house on Thanksgiving weekend. Our tradition has been for many years now that my 3 siblings and their families come to our house on Christmas morning. Gifts have been collecting at my house for weeks as we all buy for the children and the adults draw names. Each family opens their gifts to each other at their house and the remainder of the gifts are opened at our house on Christmas morning. We videotape the gift opening and it is a sight to see with all the children opening their gifts at the same time. The tradition started when my boys were very young as I was the first to have children. My siblings have been kind enough to continue with the tradition even though they now have families. My two older boys have come to expect the tradition each year. Christmas lunch is also served at my house so after the gift opening and a light breakfast, everyone returns to their homes to prepare dishes. Lunch is usually around 2:00 p.m. and we have anywhere from 20 -25 as both sets of grandparents, John's brother and sometime friends of the boys join us.

We mailed Abigail (at this time her name was still Stacey) Christmas gifts and Karen was kind enough to send us several pictures of her opening her gifts. The only thing missing was that John and Melissa have not been able to come home for Christmas several years now due to his job. I dream of the day that we will have them both at home with us, in addition to Abigail.

Baby Dedication Day at Church - December 2007

...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15

Our church had "Baby Dedication Day"on Sunday, December 16, 2007. It was a very important day for us as dedicating our child to be raised in a Christian home and being taught to serve and worship the Lord is one of the most important responsibilities that we have as his parents. Andy and Sharon had Nicholas dedicated. Both boys were a little older than most babies being dedicated but we had not had the opportunity to do it before.

As usual, we looked forwarded to receiving our monthly update for Abigail and one of the comments noted were "We love to dress her up and fix her hair; she likes it, too". Even though she looks serious in the picture we received, I love it. We continued to pray and search and I truly felt in my heart that our prayers were going to be answered soon..........

One Year Post Placement Visit and Abigail Update - November 2007

We celebrated Shane's one year adoption anniversary on October 23rd. His one year post placement visit took place on November 8,2007. A six month post placement visit was completed in the Spring and we went to Lynchburg for the visit. Shane was still reserved when he was not at home so even though he talked some to Jennifer, he was not the happy-go-lucky child that he is at home. I told Jennifer that I was looking forward to her visiting our home at the one year visit as she would see the "real Shane" in his own environment.

She saw the "real Shane"! He played with her, sat on her lap, ran around the house and her favorite thing was him straddling the wooden foot rest and pretending he was riding a horse at the rodeo and falling over the horse. See the big smiles in the picture! The visit was enjoyed by everyone.

As we do each month, we received our update for Abigail and the picture you see was included in her update. One of the comments from the update was "She smiles more often, and she gets along well with visitors". We were continuing our search for her papers and trusting in the Lord to guide us and to make our dream of having her join our family one day a reality.

Trip to Idaho and Abigail's Second Birthday - October 2007

I was still actively looking for Abigail's (aka Stacey) papers by contacting adoption agencies periodically. We had been sponsoring her from quite some time so we received monthly updates on her status. It is always one of the highlights of our month anticipating receiving the update with a new photo of her. I contacted Karen at New Day and asked if we could send her a birthday package. The attached picture is her holding one of the gifts that we sent her. The picture with the crown is the birthday celebration that was held at New Day for the October birthdays.

John, Shane, me and John's parents flew to Idaho to visit John and Melissa on October 15, 2007. 2007 was a great year in terms of how many times I was able to see my oldest son and his wife as this was the third time! We had never been to Idaho so it was a new place to see for us. Boise, Idaho is very nice and has a small town atmosphere. In addition to spending time with John and Melissa, we took Shane to the park each day and toured the area with John and Melissa. Shane really liked John and Melissa's dog, Smokey and their cat, Aurora. Smokey has been with John and Melissa for over 4 years now. Shane still talks about "Smokey Puppy". He is not a puppy and is in fact well over a 100 pounds. It was a great visit and as usual, the thing I didn't like about it was when it was time to leave as I knew it would be months before I would see John and Melissa again.

Family Vacation in July 2007

Early in 2007, we planned a family vacation in which our family including Jeremy, John's parents, and Sharon and her family would fly to Las Vegas in mid-July. John and Melissa would fly from Idaho to meet us there as they have moved from Fort Collins, Colorado in June as John accepted a job at the Idaho Statesman. We planned on spending a few days in Las Vegas, driving to the Grand Canyon and spending the night and then returning to Las Vegas. John and Melissa had flown home in June to attend Melissa's youngest brother's high school graduation so they were not strangers to Shane. Shane has an incredible memory and he does not forget his brother between visits.

It was very hot in Las Vegas in July! It was Sharon and most of her family's first true flying experience as we had taken Mandy on a vacation with us several years before to California. We had a great time and I think the highlight of everyone's trip was the Grand Canyon. Shane loved having both his brothers around and spent lots of time wrestling with them both. The highlight of my trip was just having my 3 boys together with me for a whole week. The picture of Shane and Nicholas with the Elk behind them was right in front of our hotel at the Grand Canyon.

Shane's Best Friend and his 2nd Birthday

Shane and his cousin, Nicholas, fast became friends. I returned to work on January 15, 2007. It was a hard day for me. I think it was harder for me than it was for Shane. He did fine and I thought of him all day long and missed him very much. He is with my mom and Nicholas on the days that I work. On the days that I am home, I have both boys with me. Since we live next door to Sharon and her family, they see each other on weekends and since we attend the same church, they are also in the same "tots" class. As you might imagine they are buddies. They play and fight together just like brothers. Shane is aggressor of the relationship. Nicholas is by nature a mild and quiet child. Shane has brought out the active and playful side of Nicholas. They both wake up looking for each other. It is so cute to watch them play together. They miss each other terribly when they are not together and while we are very much looking forward to our trip to China, hopefully in the fall, I know the boys are going to miss each other very much as we will be taking Shane with us. I am attaching a couple of pictures of the boys and I think it will reflect their relationship.

Shane celebrated his 2nd birthday party in March 2007. The picture you see is him opening his gifts with the help of his cousins.

Shane Meets His Oldest Brother

We had been home several weeks when John and Melissa flew to Virginia for a visit. Shane was adjusting well and loved to play and wrestle with Jeremy when he was home on the weekends from college. I was amazed at how quickly he was growing to love his extended family. He immediately took to John. He was a little more reserved with Melissa. He would let John hold him but not her. The weather was warm most days so we spent a fair amount of time outside. I had taken a 3 month leave from work and was already dreading the day that I would have to leave him. He was with me 24/7. I left Shane for the very time while John and Melissa were home. He was so comfortable with them. Mom would visit every day as she babysat Nicholas, our nephew next door. This was great as she is our babysitter and I wanted Shane to be comfortable with her. I left for about 30 minutes to run to the grocery store. Shane cried for the first few minutes but was fine. I left again a few days later for around an hour and again, he did fine.

I had made an appointment to have family pictures taken while John and Melissa were in. I didn't know when the entire family would be all together again so I didn't want to miss the opportunity. The week went by way too quickly and I was sad to see John and Melissa leave. Shane missed them also.

Traveling Back Home to Virginia!

We flew out of the Beijing airport on Friday, November 2, 2006 and into Newark, NJ. Shane slept about 8 -9 hours of the flight. While waiting for our luggage at the baggage terminal we had a couple to approach us to comment on how well he did. I guess folks see a little one and assume they are in for a flight with a lot of crying. Our flight was suppose to leave 45 minutes after our arrival to NJ. We were very disappointed to find out that our flight was delayed by an hour, then 2 hours and ultimately 4 hours. We were so eager to be a home and missed the rest of our family terribly. I called home to let Jeremy know that we would not be home until around 2:00 a.m. instead of our original time of around 10:00 p.m. He and Sharon's family were disappointed as they were eagerly waiting to meet our new bundle of joy. When we left Beijing it was pretty warm. It was cold in Richmond! I had to dig out clothes from the suitcase to put on Shane to keep him warm while we waited for the hotel shuttle to take us to our car from the airport. Shane had never written in a car seat so the first hour of our trip on the road to our house was spent with him crying as he did not understand why I could not hold him. He finally fell asleep about 30 minutes prior to our arrival at home. When we arrived home around 2:00 a.m, I took Shane downstairs to meet Jeremy but Jeremy was fast asleep so went upstairs to bed.

I can't adequately describe how wonderful it was to wake up in my nice, soft bed! When I awoke around 9:00 a.m. and truly realized I was home, I thanked the Lord greatly! I looked over into the crib where my sleeping child laid and was so very thankful. If you have ever stayed in China, you know that the beds are small and very hard. Except for Guangzhou we did not have air conditioning so I slept very poorly during the trip.

I called "the family" around 9:30 a.m. to let them know that we were up and ready for visitors. I know all the books and advice tell you not to do this but I felt that Shane would be okay......and he was! One of our church friends nicknamed him the "Emperor" when she stopped by that day as she watched him walk around the house like he owned it. He adored all the attention from the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. For those of you who know our family, you know that I have 3 siblings and each sibling has 3 -4 children and we all live in the same small town. We are blessed that both set of grandparents are close by also. The only thing missing was John Anthony and Melissa as they were living in Colorado at the time. However, Shane would soon meet his oldest brother and sister-in-law and my next post will be about the visit.

Our Favorite Part of our First Trip to China!

We flew back to Beijing and would be there for 2 days before flying home. We had hoped to tour New Day so we could see where Shane spent the last 12 months of his life. We called Karen and she arranged for a driver to pick us up at the Capitol Hotel where we were staying and take us to New Day. We felt comfortable that Shane would be okay returning to New Day since he was bonding very well with us. What a treat! We got to see many of the children that we had come to know through following the New Day web-site. This is a good point to mention Abigail. At this time she was named Stacey and had just turned a year old. Every since we had been accessing the New Day website, Kelsey, our niece, kept talking about Stacey and how beautiful she was. She asked us to make sure that we saw if we were able to visit New Day. It was nap time for the younger children so we only were able to see her in her crib asleep. We had no idea that 1 1/2 years later we would be in the process of adopting her. Isn't God great in His planning! We saw and took a picture of the crib that Shane slept in. We were given the laminated sheet from the door to his room that had his name. Of course this is in his scrapbook. The first picture is of Shane, dad and Karen while we were at New Day and the 2nd picture is of Abigail celebrating her 1st birthday in October 2006. We had lunch with Karen and several of the other folks at New Day. Shane did fine and when we left, he waved good-bye to everyone and seemed unaffected by the visit. It was actually the first time that he allowed me out of his sight and he played in the play area with dad while I finished touring with Karen. Needless to say, New Day is a wonderful haven for children and our children our truly blessed to have had the privilege to have been a part of the home. Abigail has been at New Day since she was 20 days old.

To Guangzhou

As we continued our journey to Guangzhou, Shane started to play more with his father. Their favorite thing to do together was for Shane to stand in the hotel window and watch the cars go by. His father would stand behind him and hold onto him. They did this several times a day. Shane would say "toot toot" or that is what it sounded like. It certainly heard the sound of horns blowing as the traffic was heavy and we heard horns blowing quite a bit. He continued to say "toot toot" repeatedly when we returned home so his Aunt Sharon nicknamed him "toot toot" and still calls him by the name. We left Hohhot after about 7 days and flew to Guangzhou. We like Guangzhou! The weather was warm and balmy. The White Swan hotel was beautiful. It has a large playroom with all sorts of toys and we spent quite a bit of time there. Shane could run and play freely. Another good thing about Guangzhou is that many of the Chinese spoke American. This was not the case in Hohhot. For those of you who don't know this, Guangzhou is the location that all adoptive parents go to finalize their adoption at the American Consulate so there are usually lots of other adoptive families there. The picture you see is the famous "red couch" picture that adoptive families take prior to leaving China. The only "snag" in Guangzhou was that our home study paperwork listed our P. O. Box as our address and I had put our actual address on the paperwork in China. The American Consulate refused to issue us Shane's Visa so we could not return home with him. Thank God for Susie and Jennifer! It was 10:00 a.m. in China and 11:00 p.m. at home when we received the word that the American Consulate was questioning whether we had moved during the adoption process. Long story....short...Susie was able to get in touch with Jennifer and Jennifer promptly faxed an addendum to the American Consulate stating that we had not moved during the adoption process. We left Guangzhou on schedule and all was well. Oh, by the way John's favorite place to eat in Guangzhou was Lucys. They have American food including hamburgers! Gotta run for now!

Waiting for TA and Travel to China

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17

We kept ourselves busy checking out the New Day web-site searching for pictures, old and new of Shane as we waited to receive permission to travel to China from the CCAA. One day at work, I received an e-mail from Jenny. Jenny and her husband were also adopting a child from China and they would be traveling with us. Jenny and I exchanged e-mails and several phone calls as we anxiously awaited to travel. It was very comforting to have another mother to talk with and to share my anxieties with!

We sent Shane a care package in August which included a family photo album, a musical toy and a blanket. Karen at New Day sent me several pictures and the one you see was my favorite. The call came on September 21, 2006! We had permission to travel! Shane turned 18 months on the day we received the call. The bags were packed and we waited for our travel arrangements to be made by Living Hope. John and I drove to Richmond on October 22, 2006 and flew out of the Richmond airport on Monday, October 23rd for our trip to Beijing. Daron and Jenny joined us Newark, NJ and we spent the rest of our adoption trip with them and Helen. We will always be thankful for their friendship and all the help they provided us during our trip.

Shane was waiting for us in the Beijing airport. We were hoping to be able to pick him up at New Day and travel with him to Inner Mongolia but our flight to Inner Mongolia was only 4 hours after our arrival in Beijing so it was arranged for us to receive him at the airport. Anyone who has adopted a child or has given birth to a child knows what a BIG moment it is when you see your child in person for the first time. Words can not describe it so I won't attempt them. Shane transitioned very easily and started bonding with me exclusively. He never cried except when he was pulled off of my hip for picture taking, medical exams, etc. We spent 7 days in Hohhot. We toured the grasslands and a factory, visited a park, etc. The weather pretty cold and we took bundled Shane up each day to take him for strolls. The other picture was taken by Jenny in their hotel room and we e-mailed it home for family and friends.