We have LID!

"Great is our Lord and of great power". Psalm 147:5

The Bible verse above has been Shane's Bible verse for Sunday School the past several weeks. We have all memorized it. When I look at the beautiful trees with all the colors, the crisp blue sky and the gorgeous mountains, I wonder how anyone could think that there was not a God that created our magnificent earth.

I received an e-mail from Ky from our adoption agency today that we have a log in date for our dossier! It is October 21, 2008. We are excited as now the clock is ticking for the CCAA to review our file and give us a letter of acceptance (LOA) and travel approval follows after that. Realistically it will be months before we actually travel but you just never know about these things so I am still hoping and praying to have Abigail home by Christmas. I know people think I am crazy for even hoping but there were also people that thought I was crazy for ever thinking that we would find her file and actually be allowed to adopt her.

We celebrate our second anniversary tomorrow since we first met Shane for the first time in the Beijing airport. What a fast two years! We will celebrate at Virginia Beach but unfortunately John's parents came not join us as Lorene has been sick. I am including some of my favorite pictures that were taken in China by the New Day staff of Shane for this post. Wasn't he a cutie pie????? He still is of course!

Nicholas Celebrates His Fifth Birthday

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 2"

Nicholas turned five on October 17th. Oh my, how the years have flown by. It only seems like yesterday that he was born. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, October 18th and as usual we had the family come to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, Lorene could not come as she was sick but Bernard was able to attend. Carol was unable to join the celebration with us as sadly, her brother, Mike, died unexpectedly of a heart attack late Friday night so she was with her mother and father. Danielle and Daniel were able to attend and all the children enjoyed themselves very much. The weather was quite cool so we had the party indoors but after the food, gifts, and cake the children wandered outside and played for several hours. Jeremy and Jessi were home for the weekend so they also particpated in the celebration.

New Day posted pictures of the October birthday celebration that they held so I am also including a picture of Abigail celebrating her 3rd birthday. We are hoping to hear that we are LID (log in date) this week. This means that the CCAA has logged in our dossier and the clock starts ticking for us to travel to China to bring our little girl home. It will be several months but it is exciting to be one step closer to her.

We will be leaving on Friday to spend several days at Virginia Beach. We are looking forward to it as we did not have a Summer vacation this year. I hope I remember to take pictures so I can post them.

It is beautiful in Virginia right now. My flowers are still alive in the flower bed and the two maple trees in the yard are a brilliant red. It is my favorite time of year and the only thing missing is that my mother and daughter are not here to enjoy it with us.

We are DTC!!

I received an e-mail from AAI today that our dossier is off to China. We are DTC (dossier to China)!!!! We should be LID (log in date) in a few weeks! Once we are LID, the clock starts ticking for us to wait for China to give us our LOA (letter of acceptance). I am apologize to you folks that are familiar with these terms but I like to keep my extended family who have not adopted before up on what all the terms mean. As you might imagine we are extremely excited!

We also received pictures of Abigail opening her birthday gifts that we sent her so I am including a couple of them. I try never to forget how blessed we are that she is where she is and we have the ability to receive updates and pictures frequently.

The other highlight of my week was that John Anthony e-mailed me to say that he might be able to meet up with me while I am in California in December. This news puts a whole new spin on the trip as I would just LOVE to see my eldest and firstborn child again soon! Since I am thinking of him, I thought I would include a picture of him even though it is not "hot off the camera". The beautiful dog is Smokey. Smokey has been with him since he was a puppy and John lived at home with us. Smokey was orphaned very young and and is very much loved by John and Melissa.

We left for Blacksburg, VA on Tuesday (me, John and Shane). I had never been there and found it to be lovely. We stayed at the Virginia Tech Inn Conference Center and it was quite nice. Shane and John had an enjoyable time while I worked the conference and all in all it was a good trip. We returned home last night (Thursday). Shane was wanting to come home the first night. He loves home and it is going to be a long trip to China as when we are on vacation he asks every day to go home. He has a great time but at the end of the day he wants his bed.

More to come later!

Waiting to be DTC

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee: yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41: 10

2008 is flying by in some ways. What a year it has been. I love Fall and the leaves are just starting to change in Virginia. The weather is gorgeous. It is in the 70's during the day and in the 50's at night. Last Saturday, September 27th was Mandy's homecoming at UCA. All seniors are on the court for homecoming and I am including a picture of her with Kelsey and Daphne. This was taken a few minutes before they left home for the big event. Mandy is a special young lady. With mom's passing, she had to step up this summer and babysit Nicholas and Shane on the days that I worked. She has had to make sacrifices for her family and she has done it willingly.

We celebrated John's 47th birthday today even though his birthday was last Saturday. It was bittersweet as I always enjoy the family getting together but there is always a void now because mom is not with us at the gatherings. Jeremy is home for Fall break so it was nice having him here for the past few days. He returns to Liberty tomorrow and we will miss him. I asked Mandy to take pictures of the boys so I could post them but as usual, she has trouble getting Shane to sit still long enough for a picture so I am including one of Nicholas and not Shane.

This past week has been a Chinese holiday so our dossier is not back from the Chinese Consulate and no new pictures of Abigail were posted on New Day this week so I am including one that was taken previously. We received our monthly update on her though and she is doing wonderful. The nanny wrote "One day, she saw Ben's parents come to take him to his new home in the USA, and she said, “I also have parents. I am called Abigail now!”. It so blessed our hearts to know that is looking forward to her parents coming to take her home. We are hoping to be DTC (dossier to China) this week. I'll post if this happens. For those of you that have not adopted internationally before, our next step after we are LID (log in date) will be LOA (letter of acceptance) and this could take 60 -90 days. We are really praying for a miracle and that if it is God's will, that we receive it sooner as once we are LOA, we receive travel approval shortly thereafter.

I have a trip to Blacksburg, VA this week for work and John and Shane are going with me. I really like it when they can go with me as I hate being away from Shane overnight. Another reason we are praying to travel to China in 2008 is that I have business trip to California in mid-December and will be gone up to 4 nights. I have never left Shane that long before and unless I am on leave for the adoption, I will have to go. I'll post again as soon as I have news!