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!