We're getting there!

Today we received an email from our agency stating that our Article 5 has been picked up and delivered to the proper place. This is our paperwork and a letter that says that everything is in place for an international adoption to be completed and the US Embassy is aware of it. Now all our paperwork and approvals are at the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption. They will determine when we are allowed to travel to pick up our daughter and complete the adoption. So we are now awaiting Travel Approval. This is the last step until we fly all the way to the other side of the earth to bring home the youngest member of our family...Rachel!

Rachel - in the lower right corner

Ready to Go!

We're ready to go to China to bring home our darling daughter, but unfortunately we have 2 more steps to go before we receive our travel dates. We should hear about the next step around July 29th. Then it could be 2-4 weeks until we receive travel approval. Once we have travel approval our China appointments and reservations can be made and we'll know when we can leave. Yippee! We're almost there!

Rachel receiving a book in June of 2010

I've been buying a few things here and there that we will need for the trip...travel size this and travel size that. We are limited as to how much luggage we can take, and I'm a little nervous about fitting all our necessities in the amount of luggage we are allowed. That doesn't even take into account things we will be bringing home. We want to bring a few things home that we can give to our daughter over the years on special occasions.

The best news of all.....we are fully funded! We have all the money we need for the trip! God is sooooooooo good!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. It means the world to us, and we hope you will continue to pray for us and think about us throughout the rest of this journey.

So Much Beauty

Rachel is from the Shanxi Province in China. The name Shanxi literally means "Mountain's West", which refers to the province's location west of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi is surrounded by mountains. East of Shanxi is the Yellow River. The scenery I have seen in pictures is absolutely beautiful and will take your breath away. I can't wait to see it.

The capital of Shanxi is Taiyuan City, Rachel's birth city. Taiyuan is the largest city in Northeastern China. It has a population of 4.3 million. Its name means "Great Plains". It is an ancient city having been formed in 859 B.C. It is one of the biggest stainless steel producers in the world. It is also one of the top 20 most polluted cities in the world. This could explain why Rachel has allergy symptoms.

 

It will be so exciting to take my own pictures to share on this blog in the near future!

What do I see? And where are we now?

Can you believe it? We received another update. This time the update was about Rachel's vision. It sounds as if her sight is even better than we had first imagined. They say she can see things close up as any child does. When she tries to look far away she squints her right eye, turns her head slightly to the right, and looks with her left eye. They also say the left eye opens larger than the right eye. Our guess is that she is definitely near sighted in her right eye, but it's possible that she has good vision in her left eye. Of course, we'll know more when we get her home and checked by a pediatric ophthalmologist. All in all it was a very encouraging update!



We're awaiting immigration approval at this time. The form which we filled out and mailed to homeland security is called the I-800....it is less than half the length of the previous immigration form, but it was still 10 pages long. We were approved in January to bring a child from China into the United States. Now we are asking to bring this particular child into the country. We're hoping to hear something very soon. We would appreciate prayers for a quick process.

It's about time....

I'm sure that's what you are thinking. It's been awhile since I updated the blog, and really nothing was happening for so long. But that is not the case now...as of Monday...we have been formally...

....to adopt Rachel! We received our Letter of Acceptance. That sent us into a whirlwind of activity to get our I-800 filled out and sent to immigration! We signed our Letter of Acceptance saying, "Yes, we do want to adopt this child," and we sent it off pronto! We hope that each step from here on out goes much faster than the last one which took 76 loooooooooong days. Our agency said we could possibly travel in late September. We would love to shave that time down to the end of August or the first part of September. It could happen!

We were hoping the great start to our week would continue on throughout the week and IT DID! We asked for an update on Rachel a little over a week ago and just days later, today, we received the update. Rachel is said to be outgoing and gets along well with her peers. She likes to jump, sing, and dance. And the one thing that made us laugh out loud was, "She is a popular girl." Isn't that funny?!

Victory!!!

Look at that gorgeous smile!

She's being serious for the camera!

She's a fun loving girl!

Good news/Bad news

I've been waiting all day for a call from our adoption placing agency telling us we've received Letter of Acceptance. I guess today just wasn't the day, BUT we did receive great news! This is the good news portion of this post....we received a letter stating we will be receiving a $3,500 grant from Show Hope founded by Steven Curtis Chapman! Yippeee! We are so excited and sooooo very grateful!!! That puts us that much closer to our goal.

Speaking of goals...this is the bad news portion of this post....we are going to have to up our goal to $12,000 from $10,000 for our travel expenses because the cost seems to be going up daily. If our timeline stays on track we will be traveling during a peak period and add to that higher gas prices and the increasing value of the RMB...well that makes for an increase in practically every aspect of travel. And believe me, we'll be praying for good deals and we're pretty good at making pennies stretch...so we'll do our best to keep costs down.

Please pray with us as we venture toward the next leg of this journey!

Yard Sale...Success!

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

How true that statement is! A few weeks ago we asked family and friends to donate their unwanted items to us so that we could have a garage sale to raise money for our plane tickets to China to bring Rachel home. Many people stepped out in a BIG way and our house was overflowing with items for the sale. We had things in our basement, living room, bedroom, kitchen, garage, and our front porch was TOTALLY full! I was drowning in clothes, books, and household items! We spent many hours sorting and pricing and moving things from here to there.

Finally the day came...we had table upon table full of items...so many we couldn't put them all out at once. Would we have customers? Would we sell enough to make it worth all those hours and hours of hard work? The answer is YES! The first day we brought in over $700. We were in awe! The second day started out raining with a spotty-looking radar for the day. We took a leap of faith and pulled it all out anyway. And God showed up in a big way and kept the rain at bay! We made over $300 the second day bringing our total to $1030! Ahhhhh....success....it feels good and we are praising God for it!

We are totally exhausted, but it's the good kind of exhausted...the kind that comes after hard work that pays off big time! Thanks to EVERYONE who helped in any way...your donations are very much appreciated and we couldn't have done it without you!