Travel Approval

Yes, it's true. Our agency confirmed with us yesterday that we have received Travel Approval. Technically, what that means is that China has given us the green light to enter the country to get our baby.

Now, we wait (yet again, more waiting) for a confirmed Consulate Appointment from the Embassy in Guangzhou. Once we receive news of that appointment we can begin to make travel plans for our trip to China.


Some of you have asked about a post that I left the other day, which I chose to take down for personal reasons. I have lamented over and over about whether or not to re-post or just ignore it completely.

We did receive translated documents early last week that gave us information about when/where Abigail's life began.



She was a tiny baby when she was born (6 pounds 3 ounces) which is really an answer to a pray I've prayed since the moment we Logged in. All of my boys were fairly large babies and I asked the Lord if he would give me a "tiny" little girl. He heard my hearts cry!

Even though she suffered abandonment, she was loved by her mother (& father) enough to be left at the entrance to an electronics store. When I think about all of the possibilities of where and how she could have been left ~ well, I just feel blessed that she was found!

So, considering my life these days is restricted to deep cleaning the house and packing for China, I'll be taking a little hiatus from blogging. I will let y'all know when we are scheduled to take off, but for now I need to keep myself focused (as I often get side-tracked) on the task ahead of us!

Blessings.

Vacation...well sort of

As many of you know, our "vacation" was interrupted (I'm not complaining) with the referral of our baby daughter, but we still managed to have some fun.

See for yourself.

Welcome Baby Paisley

I had the privilege of being a part of this baby girls entrance into the world. After having to be induced into labor for 30 hours, with an emergency c-section to end it all, we welcome Paisley Opal into this world Saturday, August 23 @ 8:43pm.


Mom and baby are doing well. Baby has been residing in the NICU due to some heart arrhythmia, which they continue to monitor. Mom is recovering nicely.

So what does the face of the earth look like if you've fallen off???

I am still here - sort of. I've just been buried with mounds and mounds of travel paperwork. And I thought the dossier prep was un-nerving. Sheesh!

So...let's see:
1.) Fill out Visa applications (for 6) ~ CHECK
2.) Write letter to Embassy requesting Visas (for 6) ~ CHECK
3.) Photocopy passports (in event they get lost in mail) ~ CHECK
4.) Send to courier service on East Coast for Visas (did I mention for 6) ~ CHECK
5.) Sign and notarize many documents ~ CHECK
6.) Take a break to stress out about all the documents ~ CHECK
7.) Talk to bank about money for travel ~ CHECK

and on and on and on.

So, I just wanted to let y'all know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth (though I'm sure I've seen what the face looks like).

Vacation photos to come...

Words cannot begin to express...

First, I want to say a special thank you to each and everyone of you who have left comments for us over these past few days. Your well wishes and Congratulations have truly made this whole experience so much more meaningful for us. I have been personally blessed by your words.
From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so very much.

As many of you know we are currently on vacation (a much needed one I must say). Some very dear family friends allow us to use their beach cottage and for the past four years I will say it IS what we look forward to every summer. Well, my first summer here, hubby was on a missions trip to Mexico with his youth group and I went ahead alone with the boys and during our week stay I met a very sweet woman, Katie (and her two children) who lives up the hill and she comes down to the beach to swim in the ocean twice a day - everyday no matter winter, fall, spring, summer. I totally admire her commitment to this. Anyways, each year we have warmly greeted one another during our stay. This year was no different. This morning while I was having breakfast on the front deck, enjoying the beautiful sea before me, Katie was finished with her morning swim and while passing by stopped for a quick conversation.

ME: Good morning, how are you today?

Katie: Very well thank you. Boy your boys are sure getting bigger, how old are they now?

ME: #1 is 16 yrs, #2 is 14.5 yrs, #3 is almost 12 ...AND (of course I had Abigail's 3 photos with me as I was admiring her during breakfast) here is a picture of our baby girl who we were just referred from China.

Katie: Oh my goodness, isn't she beautiful. {now the tears begin to roll down her cheeks and she proceeds to tell me how much she admires me for saving this little girl and giving her life and how if she was a baby she'd want me to save her...and on and on about how touched she was by our decision to adopt a baby and offer her a family}

I began to thank her for her very sweet, kind words and let her know how much we already love her and don't even know her, and ...I think you get the picture.

About a hour goes by and I am down on the beach sitting on a log watching #2 attempt to walk out as far as he could go in hip boots (all the while going too far and having water pour into said boots) and I hear a car drive up. Katie gets out of the car and calls for me. I let her know that I was down on the beach. She approached me with a piece of paper in her hand, tears streaming down her face and she says to me "I know this isn't much, but I am so touched by what you are doing adopting Abigail, you are such a beautiful person for doing it and I want you to have this." Of which she hands me a check for $100!

OH MY WORD! Can you say HUGE blessing to my soul. I was speechless. After she'd gone and I had a chance to think about it all, I sat before the Lord and thanked Him for His continued provision for us during this process. God is SO Good!!!

As if Cute wasn't enough...

And we thought her referral picture was adorable, get a load of these...

Well we made it back home to wait for our package (which we received by 12pm, ripped it open and signed the letter, photocopied it as fast as I could, drove .25 miles to mailbox store and Fed-ex'd it back to agency) and after a quick lunch have re-joined our vacation at the beach!!!

Going out to enjoy the sun, will post details about her later.

It's a GIRL!!!

Well after 924 days of waiting, we are insanely overjoyed to announce the arrival of:

Xiu Hua Qiu
Abigail (middle name TBD) Webb
Date of birth: September 24, 2007

Location: Xiushan Tujia & Miao Autonomous County Social Welfare Institute in Chongqing City

What else can I say but she's beautiful and we are so in love!!!

More details to come.

Overjoyed

They're here!!! Matches - wait a minute - OUR MATCH (among the many others of our fellow 1/27th lid'ers) have arrived at our agency and we will receive the call tomorrow. We are totally completely beside ourselves with joy!

As we are on vacation at the beach ~literally where this adoption began as we made the decision to go ahead with it here, only fitting that God would bring us back to this place we call 'Paradise' to receive such amazing good news ~ we are already enjoying an amazing day in the sun, fishing, swimming, playing.

Yahoo!!!

Hangin' in there

LITERALLY!!!

Many of you might remember the old "Mervyn's" ads where the gal was outside the store thumping her fingers on the window while chanting "Open, Open, Open"?!?!

Well, picture this instead~ expectant parent sitting at her laptop chanting "Monday, Monday, Monday" and then of course doing a little Lamaze breathing in between chants!

Hangin' in there
R & B

To Nest or not to Nest...?

I'll admit, with it being the weekend an all and no 'new' news to report I am officially nesting (well in the blog sense anyways.) Thought it could use a new 'face-lift' to hold all of the most important news coming in the near future.

Happy Saturday.

Look...it's a bird, it's a plane, no it's not Superman

It's THE stork! Yep, you guess it, matches have been officially mailed from China and they are on their way to the USA (among other countries as well). We hope for a very safe landing sometime early next week.

We still do not have an official confirmation as to what the cut-off dates will be but we remain hopeful that our referral is safely flying over the ocean at this moment!!! All prayers welcomed.

Labor Pains

Labor pains, braxton hicks, what's the difference ~ they're both painful and I'm feeling all of it!!!



Zip, Nada, Zilch, Nothing...that's the word right now. All I know from my agency is that the CCAA is still matching and they don't know what the cut-off date is nor when the referrals will be mailed. So, as is the case in labor, the baby comes when it's good and ready to come and it appears it's no different in this case. We hoped and prayed we'd see her sweet baby face this week but it is looking more like we'll have to wait until next week (of course while we're on vacation ~ good timing huh?!?)



We'll keep you posted...until then I must go suck on some ice chips (90+ degrees today) and continue my breathing.