Our Beautiful Chinese Nieces

Our dossier was overnighted to AAI (our adoption agency) on Thursday, September 18th. Ky e-mailed me on Friday, September 19th to let me know that she had forwarded our dossier to the Secretary of State in Washington and then it will go to the Chinese Consulate for authentication. Once this is done, it will go to China. She went ahead and sent our home study to the facilitator in China for translation so he would have a head start while waiting for the rest of our dossier. We are hoping to be DTC (dossier to China) by mid-October. Our wait will then begin for China to give us LOA (letter of acceptance) and then TA (travel approval). We will then be off to bring our precious daughter home!

Mandy took pictures of Savannah and Shiloh in their Chinese outfits so I am including several pictures. Aren't they real beauties! They are growing up so fast. I have to include a picture of our daughter also. As always, she looks healthy and happy.

John Anthony called me last week to tell me that he had bought a motorcycle. My first reaction was one of surprise. He actually bought a small one that gets 85 miles to the gallon and from the picture he sent me, it looks pretty "safe".

I800A Approved!

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,to them who are the called according to his purpose". Romans 8:28

It has been a whole month since I have posted. We finally have it or sort of..... The Hague Unit e-mailed me today to let me know that our I800A has been approved and the confirmation in the mail to us! Hooray and praise the Lord! There were days that I felt like this day would never come. I can't wait to receive it and get our dossier off to AAI so it can be on its way to China. We are still praying to have Abigail home by Christmas. It may be a long shot in terms of the world but finding her file and actually adopting her was a "long shot" in most people's eyes but they that did not believe it could happen do not know our almighty God.

Since I last posted, we celebrated Susie and Lorene's birthdays. For those of you who don't know who they are - Susie is my sister and Lorene is my mother-in-law. I hosted the party and it went well but I must admit it was hard to have a gathering at my house and not have my mother present. I am not sure that the day will ever come that I won't miss her. I wonder if she had any idea how much she was loved. I look forward to that great day of reunion in Heaven.

I received the monthly update for Abigail and she is doing wonderful. She is a hearty eater, very healthy and very talkative. My poor ears will never see rest again as Shane is quite the chatter box. I am attaching a picture of her from the last update. The little girl behind is almost 7 years old and her name is Leah Hope. She is a dwarf and was recently matched with a family. She is extremely happy and we are happy for her!

This past weekend I went with several ladies from our church to a ladies conference in Martinsburg, WVA. We left on Friday around noon and got back home around 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. It was great! The time of fellowship with the ladies was wonderful and the conference was spiritually refreshing and uplifting. I must admit I really needed it.

Shane had his first real sleep over at Sharon's and since I prepared him for it, he did very well. He really does not like to be away from home at night and away from his parents but I have learned that if he is informed of an upcoming change that he does much better with it.

I feel like I had not mentioned Jeremy much lately so I'm including a picture of him in this post. I am such a blessed mother! I am so proud of my 3 boys. I thank God each and every day for them. Jeremy is doing great and is a studious student and is in spiritual matters a very mature young man. I'll post soon with news that our dossier is off to China!