The China Plan

I-797 APPROVAL Yippeee!

…Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. —James, James 4.2b NLT I heard this verse in my head yesterday, and I felt that I have not been praying sufficiently to God, for our adoption needs. Last night while praying, for my husband and son and their upcoming trip to Haiti, I also began to pray, for our I-797 approval. I woke up this morning and could not believe my eyes, when I saw an email from CCAI- congratulating us; on our USCIS approval, nothing had come in the mail yet? Sure enough after the email, the letter of approval was in the mail. Sigh-Hallelujah. Time to get rolling...my two eldest men (hubby and Frederick) are setting off for Haiti tomorrow at 4am, it will be my son's first missions trip. I pray they will be safe and that this tropical storm will not affect them. Please keep them and the rest of the missions team in your prayers. All that is left to do now, is to get our original home study copy and I 797 certified and authenticated as well as the other docs that had errors on them. Then we'll be off to China soon enough-God willing...friends of ours are still waiting for travel dates and we're hoping to get caught up with them and travel soon as well;) We'll need 6 visas for China-since we are planning on taking the little ones along with us for this adventure!

Tippy toe-steps

This fall, all four kids will be enrolled into a Classical Conversations community, that just opened up by our house-yeah! I will be one of the instructors for Hope's class, not my plans but apparently God's plan-and I'm up for the challenge;) I am also psyched that, that part of our life seems to be in order for us. Despite, not hearing anything yet from the Department of Homeland Security. I am just hoping that it will not be much longer.But while we wait, we can always raise more funds and keep busy. We are applying for grants for this adoption we will remain in prayer and leave it to God. On another note we got a pet fish; not a real fish, but Hope is swimming on her own like one...well, she would say 'like a mermaid'. Our movie selections these days are a repeater of Mulan, Tangled and Secret of the Wings. We will also be trying ballet and baseball again this fall. I was hesitant in getting involved in activities because of China. But we do not have a real idea of when that will happen. We know that our agency does send us out n groups and most of their clients are going to the Henan province. I guess there are positive and negatives to that. A lot of friends and family, have been so supportive and we are so honored and humbled. We thank God first and foremost for calling us on this journey again, and we thank our loved ones who have a heart for adoption. We do not know when our dossier will be in China at this point since there was a large error in our paperwork;( But we will be obedient and patient and persevere!

Summer Madness

Happy Belated 4th of July!

We decided to watch the fireworks from our boat this time;it turned out decent, despite the rain that poured soon after. We were in good company as well-our newest friends from church and their children. On July 3rd, we went in for our biometric appointment barely on time! Sure enough we walked in, it was quiet which made me feel...uhmm d-u-m-b because we sooo should have done this sooner! We probably would have had our approval by now! But no, we waited until Freddy asked to take off and went in on the 3rd of July,

knowing the next day nothing was going to happen for us-administratively! Sigh...its all ok, because the security guard kept asking us about Hope (as usual she gets way too much attention-seriously). We told him all about her and then she told him all about meimei that we're adopting from China. He was seriously interested-he kept insisting that he wanted a son! So we of course forwarded him our blog, our agency and 4kidsofsouthflorida info! I think no matter what, we were supposed to come on the 3rd (our scheduled appointment) just for that man. God is Great! Tonight, I am putting together the kids' student portfolios for their evaluation on the 12th. I am tired...and I am not too impressed with my organization this year, but I know that I am a work in progress, and we did ok this year considering the craziness. I pray for a stronger school year to come and it will....because our boys will be enrolled full time in Classical Conversations and I am going to get certified as a tutor for Hope and Noah's class...I'm very excited for this challenge. I had no idea I would be taking these steps in my life...and sure enough God's plan continues in my life-Amen for that...because I make horrible choices! Blessings!