I-800A Filed

Today we filed our I-800A, which is our immigration approval to adopt a foreign born child. This is the last step in our paperwork, before it can all be sent to China. We now have to wait for a fingerprinting appointment, which we are praying will be soon. If we get a referral soon, we want our paperwork complete so that we can travel to China as soon as possible. It will still take 5-8 months before we can travel, and I know once we know who our daughter is, every day we have to wait will be hard.

Why Adopt - Why not??

It is hard to believe it is 2010. As I look forward to this year, the thing that is most prevalent in my heart, is that in 2010 I will meet my new daughter Lilly. People often ask us why we adopted Mia, and why are we adopting again, I think this video sums it up.

Mia Quotes

Here are some Mia quotes that just melt her mommas heart ........


Mummy I missed you when I was in China ( this one completely caught me off guard).

Mummy I'm your daughter and you're my mommy, and daddy's my daddy :), and Benjamin and Ethan are my brothers, and my baby sister Lilly is in China.

Mummy I love you SO much.

You're a great mommy.

Mommy I'm your baby girl (she says with a big smile).

Mommy I miss you (she says this every time I come home from work, or even if I just run an errand without her - which isn't very often :) )


These aren't things she says to me occasionally, but she says at least one of these to me everyday. What a blesing this little girl is to me, she has filled my heart and life with such joy.

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Sooooo, I guess as I just said her name I had better OFFICIALLY announce that our new daughters name is going to be Lilly. We have not decided on the middle name yet. Lilly means beautiful and pure.

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Adoption update : We are still waiting on a referal. In November we recieved a referal, off the China waiting child referal list, but it was accepted by another family, before we could lock in on it. We felt totally at peace about it, as we new that she obviously wasn't supposed to be ours. A new group of referals came last week, but we didn't get matched that time. It is a different process than when we adopted Mia and at times I feel like I am on an emotional rollarcoaster, but I continue to try and keep my eyes on my father and remind myself that his timimg is perfect. We really want to travel to China before next August as Chris may be in school full time then - so we are hoping for a referal soon.

Two of my Babies

Chris in Nicaragua

Chris just got back from another trip to Nicaragua. The object of this trip was two fold. One to bring art work home from the kids so we can have a fund raiser art auction for them in the Spring sponsored by our charity Kids in Crisis.

The second was to build additional rooms on the building to rescue two sisters. The girls mother was a prostitute and so are there older sisters, she asked us to take them so that they wouldn't end up in the same life style. There plight has been something that has been very much on Chris's heart - his daddy side kicked in big time, he was going to do what ever it took to help those girls. We raised money to help with the construction, so it was huge for him to be able to go there and physically build there rooms, and then meet them, hug them and tell them their daddy God loved them so much he sent someone far away to help them.


The kids painting




Building the rooms

Some of the kids that live there

Precious sisters

YAH !!!

Today my British back ground check for the adoption arrived !!!!!!!!

Everything is now completely done for the homestudy - we just need the social work director to sign off on it.

Next step - apply for our immigration approval our I-800A.

One more step closer :)

and it continues.......

After witnessing a miracle Thursday, Chris left Friday morning at 7:45am, to fly to Miami and then Nicaragua. He had an 1 1/2 hr layover in Miami. At 10:30 I got a call from Chris - he was not in Miami, he was sitting on the runway in ORLANDO!!!

Oh my this didn't sound good - apparently a lady on the plane had a heart attack so they had to land at the closest airport. There was NO way he was going to make his connection - unbelievable. Just when you think it is smooth sailing - WHAM - your hit again.

He fineally got to Miami, but they couldn't get him on another flight until 7:00pm, urrrr, the worst part though was that we couldn't get hold of anyone in Nicaraga so no one new what was going on. He fineally arrived at 8pm, I spoke with him, and there was no one there so he checked himself into a hotel, and fineally was able to talk to the team who were now in Somoto - 4 hrs away. This morning he caught an early bus, and got up there by 10:30am - speaking no spanish I'm sure that was an adventure. He is doing great, and not discouraged by all the craziness.

So why did things go so crazy after we saw such a miracle - I don't know, all I know is His ways are better than mine.


Now that brings me to today. I got up this morning to find our cat, Madison had died. He has been with us for 14 years, we got him a month after we were married, our first baby.

Urrrrr, what was I going to do with a dead cat - I know - call the neighbor. Allen, our very kind neighbor came over, removed Madison and dug a big hole in our yard to bury him in - what a blessing, I guess if I had to I could have done it, but I REALLY didn't want to. It's sad to know he is gone, but he was old, and we thought it was getting close.