It Finally Snowed!!!

"For with God nothing shall be impossible." Luke 1:37

I have been promising Shane and Nicholas all winter that it would snow. I had better be careful what I promise as even though this has been a cold winter in Virginia, we have had very little to no snow. We had a dusting in early December and that has been it. We have had several forecasts for snow over the past month or so but it always missed us. The boys have been eagerly waiting for it. John and I teach the 4-5 year old class in Sunday School and our attendance chart for the students is the Winter theme so each week they have been putting on hats, gloves, sleighs, etc. on their charts and we have been talking about snow so they also have been eagerly anticipating a snowfall.

Today that got their wish! It is not much snow as you can see from the pictures but it was enough for the boys to put on their snowsuits, hats, gloves and boots and enjoy what little we have. I was so glad that this was one of my scheduled days off for the week so I could be home to enjoy the snow with them. Shane and I went out for the first time at 8:30 a.m. We went out a second time with Nicholas, Kelsey, Daniel and Danielle around noon and stayed out for about an hour and a half. The snow was falling gently and it was beautiful. God has created such a beautiful world for us to enjoy!

It is Chinese New Year so the CCAA is closed this week so it continues to be quiet on the adoption front. Our agency is now predicting that we will travel in mid to late March. I continue to pray to travel sooner. My heart aches to bring our little girl home. I am including a picture of her also. At least I am comforted by the fact that she is well taken care of and is enjoying herself. One of her friends, Luke, will be joining his forever family next week. I am sure that she will miss him but the good news is that his new home is only 20 minutes from us so she and he can visit together once they are both in America!

My 46th Birthday and No News from China

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." III John 1:4

Well it is January 22nd and as I celebrate my 46th birthday, all is quiet from China. Our LOA was dated 12/30/08 so we really thought that we would have our travel approval by now. I need prayer for patience! The final leg of this journey is going really going slow.

I must admit that I started the day feeling sorry for myself and longing for news that we would be traveling to China soon. My day was brighten by Nicholas showing up at 8:00 a.m. with a miniature cake with candles! It continued to get brighter when I discovered a birthday card that John had left me on the kitchen counter. The phone started to ring about 8:30 a.m. with "Happy Birthday" calls with my mother-in-law, then Jeremy, my sister and her children, two friends called, etc. Believe it or not between the phone calls, I have managed to get laundry and other things done around the house!

The highlight of the day came when Federal Express stopped in our driveway and delivered me 36 beautiful roses! They are from my two grown sons and my daughter-in-law. What a lovely surprise! I am such a blessed woman! I am including a picture of me and my lovely flowers.

Abigail is having a grand time preparing for Chinese New Year and I am including a picture of her. The picture of Shane with the dog was taken by Mandy. He has had the dog since he was at New Day in China and would not part with it for the first couple of days after we picked him up at the Beijing airport. He likes to take it down from his shelf that it is in room and play with it from time to time.

John Anthony agreed to participate in a project for Danielle, our niece, and I am including several pictures of him that were taken this week. It looks cold in Boise! We are going to Lorene's for dinner tonight so I had better pull myself away from the computer and get back to housework. Hoping to update soon with news from China!!!

The First Glimpse of our First Grandchild!

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

As I noted in my last post, Melissa went to the doctor and they did an ultrasound. How exciting for them! When I was pregnant in 1981 and 1987, they did not do ultrasounds unless the pregnancy had complications. I was very blessed and did not have complications so I did not have ultrasounds with my two boys. I very much wanted to know what I having both times but without an ultrasound it is impossible so I had to wait for the babies to be born each time. Technology has come a long way. So here is my grandchild! The next ultrasound will be done around 20 weeks and we will know whether we are having a boy or a girl. Even though John and Melissa are far away in Idaho, we share in their excitement. I think pregnancy is a wonderful and special time in a woman's life. I am sure Melissa is blossoming and I have to remember to ask John to send me pictures of her as her pregnancy develops.

This post will be all about my oldest child. John was born at 7:17 a.m. on Monday, May 3, 1982. He was born two days before my due date. He had light blonde hair and blue eyes. There was no doubt what the color of his eyes would be since both his parents have blue eyes. He was a typical baby in terms of eating, sleeping, pooping, etc. He wasn't unusually demanding and I very much enjoyed being a mother even though Iwas nineteen years old at the time. John and I had been married a little over a month when I became pregnant with John (we call him John Anthony but he prefers to be called "John"). It was not an accident. I always wanted to be a mother so I was not taking birth control.

John was a very undemanding child. He was playful and active but not very mischievous. He is really smart and was liked by his teachers at school. We enrolled him in a Christian School (United Christian Academy) when he was in first grade and he stayed there until he graduated high school in 2000. Please don't think I am boasting but I have been so blessed with my children. John went through high school and did not give us problems that you hear so much about from other parents. He got so-so grades even though he could have easily been a straight A student. He played soccer, basketball and baseball. He worked part-time as a writer for the Greene County Record and also at FoodLion. We didn't push him to be a straight A student even though we knew he was capable of it. He was very busy and I think a happy teenager and we tried to let him enjoy his teenage years. I have fond memories of the ballgames and trips that we took through the years. He was mature, responsible and very independent.

Soon after John graduated high school, he started dating a young lady named Melissa. John had dated several other girls over the years and he probably doesn't know this but Melissa was the first girl that he dated that I liked from the moment that I met her. She would have been the girl that I would have chosen for him to marry. John lived at home for the next few years. He attended a local college and also attend the Connecticut School of Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. , while working for a local newspaper. He ended up working for several different newspapers over the next few years and was building a great foundation for his career in the newspaper business. He and Melissa continued to date and on Valentine's Day in 2004, he proposed to her. She accepted and the wedding plans were made! They were married at our local church, Bethel Baptist Church, on July 17, 2004. Melissa was a beautiful bride and he was a handsome groom. They lived about 10 miles away in a basement apartment until October 2005 when they moved to Fort Collins, Colorado as John had received a job offer from the newspaper there.

It was a very hard day for me to watch my son leave Virginia. I was so proud of him and he was his "own man" but he will always be "my baby". He is my firstborn child and like each child, he holds a special place in my heart that no other child can replace. In 2007, they moved to Boise, Idaho after he had received a job offer from his current employer, The Idaho Statesman. He is a Sports Copy Editor and loves his work.

I am so looking forward to being a grandmother and watching my child and daughter-in-law become parents and seeing the love that I know they will have for their child. My prayer is that they will allow the Lord to lead them in the raising of the precious gift that He has given them. For those of you that don't know him, the pictures are of him as a baby, child and then adult.

Celebrating Kelsey's 13th Birthday

"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.". Colossians 4:6

This past week has been busy. We received our LOA via Federal Express on Tuesday. John had a friend that was gracious enough to come by the house that afternoon and picked it up after I signed it and took it to Culpeper to John at work (he was going that way) for John to sign it and put it back on Federal Express back to the agency. That is one expensive piece of paper by the time it gets back to the CCAA in China! As of right now, it is in Beijing awaiting delivery as it was mis-routed somewhere along the way. I completed the I800 form and its accompanying documents on Wednesday and it is also in route to USCIS. We now wait for USCIS to give us provisional approval which I am told takes around 10 days and for the CCAA to give us TA (travel approval). We, then, can start working with travel agencies to book the trip (once our agency has also secured the necessary appointments for the province paperwork and the consulate paperwork in Guangzhou). We are still hoping and praying to travel around February 10th or soon thereafter.

Melissa had her first visit with the doctor and they sent us an ultrasound picture on the cell-phone. I am hoping to get a copy soon to put on the blog as it is the first "glimpse of our grandchild". All is well and her due date is July 19, 2009. Two days after their 5th anniversary.

On Saturday, we celebrated Kelsey's 13th birthday. For those that do not know our entire family, she is my niece. She spends LOTs of time at my house. She is quite small for her age and is very energetic. She is very likable and has a good heart. I am including pictures of her birthday party. Unfortunately, Shane wasn't feeling great and he left the party with dad before picture taking started so there are no pictures of him at the party. I still haven't replaced my digital camera and I REALLY need to as it is so great to be able to snap a picture for the blog anytime that I want to.

I don't expect that I'll hear anything from China this week but will be busy continuing our packing. I have Shane's clothes for the trip set aside and have washed Abigail's size 3T's and will be completing her portion of the packing this week on my two days off from work. We still have not any snowfall other than the dusting we had in early December. Shane and Nicholas continues to eagerly hope for snow to play in.

The Dream is Finally Becoming a Reality - We Have LOA!

"He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation." Psalm 24: 5

We brought the New Year in where we bring it in every year, in church. We had a great time of preaching, fellowship, and food. Shane stayed awake for the entire service which ended a few minutes after Midnight. He fell asleep on the way home and we slept until 9:40 a.m. the following day when Lorene called. It is almost a tradition for us - I always wondered which mother would call us first - mine or his. It happened without fail every year for many years. There was no competition this year with my mother gone and it is these small things that brings her memory back so very strong. I had a lazy day and did very little around the house and we went to Lorene's for dinner. The highlight of dinner was when we asked Shane, who his girlfriend is now as he has had a crush on two little girls from church for some time. His response was, " I don't have a girlfriend, I am done with them". Bernard laughed so hard and it was a joy to hear his laughter.

Friday was back to the usual routine. John went to work and I worked around the house catching up on laundry and cleaning. Saturday was going to be a busy day as Susie was having a birthday party for Savannah at 11:00 a.m. and we were meeting Luke's (from New Day) parents for the first time and Karen and Byron were joining us. Long story, short - Byron's family lives in Virginia and they are home for the holidays and we arranged to get together. Karen is the director of New Day and she has not seen Shane since he was 21 months old. Well, the day ended up more exciting than I would have ever imagined! We were on the way to visit with Luke's parents and my cell-phone rang. It was our adoption agency calling to inform me that we have LOA (a refresher for you non-adoptive parents - this is Letter of Acceptance and this is the final document prior to travel approval to bring our precious daughter home). I would have probably fallen down if I were not already sitting down! We are VERY VERY excited and praising the Lord! It is all tentative but we are hoping to travel in February to bring her home. A dream is fast becoming a reality!

Our visit with Luke's parents, their beautiful children, and Karen and Bryon was wonderful. We enjoyed it so much that we spent 5 hours at their house! Shane fell asleep on the way home so I have time to update this blog and my "Internet friends" with our wonderful news. Unfortunately, my newly purchased digital camera broke so I don't have pictures from the visit and am hoping that Bonnie and/or Karen will remember to e-mail me some of theirs so I can post them. Our next post should be news about our travel to China!