Any minute....

There has been a rumor that Travel Approvals were in the air on Friday. That poor stork has a long way to go! Once we receive the TA's I'll be able to book my flight and the countdown can begin. We will know what day she will be placed in my arms.
We are so excited, it's almost unbearable.

Easter Celebration

Some photos from our church's Easter Egg Hunt. Ben paired up with Grandpa Woodall and Carter with Mom were winners in their age group for finding the special egg. Our niece, Kyla came and enjoyed herself too. She was happy to get a special sucker.

Easter Blessings!

Happy Birthday Anna!

Today is Anna's birthday, happy birthday sweetheart!

While we wish whole heartily we could celebrate this day with you, we rejoice in the knowledge we will be together to celebrate not only your next birthday, but many more to come.

It lifts our hearts to know that this is the last birthday, the last spring, the last March that we will be apart from one another. Your mom hopes that you'll be her Mother's day gift, as do we all.

We send our love to you in China.

Put Your Listening Ears On

Well, it's looking like a May travel date. This week my Visa application is in Chicago at the Chinese Consulate. I think we've completed the other stack of inch-high paperwork that I'll need to travel with. Looking back it's really amazing how things have fallen into place. Right now, we are waiting for our Letter of Invitation or Travel Approval (TA's). I will then be able to buy my airplane tickets. I will be traveling to Hong Kong, Chongqing, and finally leaving from Guanghzou, where the US Consulate is and then home.

The Stork has Landed

The stork (also goes by UPS) dropped off our Letter today. A single Chinese/English document that's going to change our world and hers completely. We've mailed it back to our caseworker,(using a different stork, USPS). So let's see how quickly we hear back from China. It almost seems like watching a tennis match.

Letter of Acceptance

Today, while I was out (my once-a month Bible study/lunch with the girls), I received a very important phone call. Our caseworker, Laura told me that "this is THE CALL". She told me that come Tuesday, I would receive my Letter of Acceptance from China. We're more official. This means that we have to get busy with paperwork again. Matt and I have to sign and resend our RSVP/acceptance to Laura in less than 24 hours. We will then be given Travel Approval or the Letter of Invitation in the next 3-4 weeks. We will then know exactly when we'll be allowed to travel and bring home our daughter. She estimates that I'll be traveling in 6-8 weeks. That's the end of April/May. That's perfect timing.

Thank you to all who have prayed for our family. Talk about God's answers to prayer! He really does listen. We are incredibly happy. We'll keep all up to date as the news comes in.

Have a great week!

A Hug from China

It's been an interesting few days to say the least and I'm not just talking about the weather. Yesterday, Gayle visited a blog of a family who's daughter is in the same orphanage as Anna. Gayle sent the family an e-mail last night congratulating them and telling them about Anna as well. Little did we know that e-mail would lead us to new photos of Anna today and a lot more information.

By the way - thank you Laura! I think that our families must have had a red thread between us.

Today we have some additional photos of Anna, you can see them attached below. As well, we learned about a website for families of children adopted from the Chongqing Fuling First Social Welfare Institute (this is where Anna currently lives). It's been interesting to see the institute and we learned about a program called First Hugs.

First Hugs is an infant nurture program with specially trained nannies. These nannies work with 3-4 infants for 6 hours a day, 6 days a week. During the First Hugs time, babies receive loving attention from their nanny and have the chance to develop their muscles through floor time. Gayle and I think this is a wonderful program. Our family and Anna will benefit from being in the program, because it will make bonding with Anna easier.


Enjoy the pictures and drive safely in the snow.

Matt


Anna is in the middle. (Oct 14, 2007)


Taken Nov.17 , 2007



This is Anna - bottom left. Date-?

Once again, No news

It's a beautiful pre-spring Saturday. We thought we'd let everyone know, we still know nothing. I did call our caseworker, Friday afternoon, just to make sure our phone lines were still working. She reported to me, that she had not heard anything from China this past week. So maybe, once again, I'll hope for next week. Unfortunately, this is how adoption stories go. A lot of "hurry up's" then "wait". I guess we're still on the "wait" part.