Meatballs and Confusion

I've been holed up in my room for a few days due to a knee injury. Ethan has been keeping the house running (sort of.) I have been able to help with overseeing baths and bedtime since that happens upstairs where I am. Ethan is a wonderful guy with many great qualities, but being a housewife isn't his strength.

Yesterday I advised him to put a bag of frozen meatballs in the crockpot and dump in a couple of jars of spaghetti sauce. Add in some buns and that would give him an easy supper of meatball subs. Well at bedtime Abigial (who doesn't have a lot of verbal skills) was going on and on in sign language "telling" on Baba for something. I finally figured out the fingers looping through the air was the sign for spaghetti, and she was tattling that he gave them meatballs and NO spaghetti! ROFL!

Apparently we've never given her a meatball sub, like ever, and she thought he messed it up pretty big time. I fessed up that *I* was the one responsible for the "odd" dinner. Kids.

Valentines and Chinese New Year gifts at our auction!

We are hosting an auction on Facebook to help with our family's traveling expenses. All items are brand new, never worn or used. It is a great time to pick up a Valentine gift or something special for your Chinese New Year celebration. Bidding will go until Saturday, January 31. Paid for items will be shipped promptly the following week to allow plenty of time to arrive for those two holidays. All funds will be used for traveling expenses for our family to bring Pat home.

Bidding rules:

1. Starting bid is specified in the description of each item, please bid in whole dollar amounts. You will place your bid by making a comment on the photo.

2. If item is to be mailed postage is additional. I will estimate it as close to actual postage as my little scale will allow.

3. If we are not "friends" on Facebook, please include your email in your bid post or send it via private message so I can notify you of winning bids and any shipping fees if applicable.

4. Unless you are local and I will see you soon, please pay promptly via Paypal after you've received your ending total. Payments should be sent via Paypal through our Reece's Rainbow tax deductible account.  The link is found in the right side border of this page.

5. Let me know immediately after you've paid, and include your mailing address.  Reece's Rainbow doesn't automatically notify me and never includes any addresses.
What will you find?  This and more:  Chinese silks, parasols, jade, pearls, fans, scarves, jewelry (including scripture and adoption themed) hair clips, and  kids art kits.

Where do you find us?  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.334478953419873.1073741828.334160650118370&type=1

Here is picture sampling of some of our items.  We hope you will visit us and help to spread the word.  Thank you!

Thanks for looking!




 

3 Big IFs

Friends, will you pray for us in the coming days? As this adoption speeds towards the finish line we have to plan the travel part. Who goes, who stays, all that agonizing stuff. The big dream (or perhaps little nightmare?) is to be able to take all four of the kids with us. They ALL spent time with Pat over the summer and are all begging to go and bring him home. If ever it made sense for all the kids to go, I think this is it. I have been doing some serious researching over the past several weeks, and it seems it could be possible through a series of IFs.

1. IF we are successful in getting passports for the three recently home from China. You may recall that USCIS misspelled Isaac's name on his Certificate of Citizenship. So, he doesn't actually have a hard copy of this proof, and originals are required. We applied for passports last week and are waiting to see if his passport can be approved with only a copy of the misspelled certificate and the explanation.

2. IF we break from the norm and rent an apartment away from the usual places adoptive parents stay. We have found a four bedroom apartment that would actually cost just a little over HALF of what we paid for the two bedroom we had while adopting Isaac. Taxis don't stop for people with wheelchairs so that adds a whole other complication to the process, but not one that can't be overcome. It is only a five minute walk to the health building and less than a ten minute walk to the US Consulate. Two biggies taken care of right there.

3. IF we can book our flights with a large enough window of time we can ALL travel for what it cost for just the three of us the other times. This will involve the gutsy (or stupid!) booking of flights before we get our official travel dates – correctly estimating far enough out – or hoping for a super speedy process that gives enough time to book but still get there and back before the trade fair in mid April when lodging costs double.

So, there you have it. Our three big IFs. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for wisdom, clarity of thought, and for the IFs to work out if this is how we should proceed. Thanks!

We have our LOA!

The government agency that oversees adoptions in China closed on the 27th to install some computer upgrades.  In the past it has been a common thing for them to "clear their desks" of pending matters before a shut down.  I have had the strong gut feeling that our LOA would be issued on December 25th or 26th before that shut down.

Our agency is closed for the holidays from December 24 until January 5.  I specifically asked if they would be sending my LOA if it was issued between Christmas and New Year's and was told they would not process any documents until their return on January 5.

So I was totally shocked when my LOA arrived on December 29!  The date of issue?  December 26!  I'm very thankful that someone took the time to send this out even though our agency wasn't open.

So what happens now?  There are still several steps, but now they are measured in days or weeks instead of in months.  Today I intend to send the immigration papers that declare "Pat" to be an immediate relative (I-800) overnight to USCIS.  It typically takes two to three weeks for this approval.  If there are no further delays we should be able to complete the adoption towards the end of March.

Thank you! Match Exceeded!

You blessed our socks off!  Our account received nearly twice as much as we needed to receive our full match!  You sent in $4855, and Hand in Hand matched $2500 making the total grant $7355! This will go such a long ways towards our traveling expenses, and we thank you so very much! We've "tagged his bag" with the names of those who helped us to make and exceed our goal for the matching grant! Is this the coolest suitcase you ever saw or what?

Please consider Susy!

Susy is the focus child this month with A Shepherd's Crook. Look at that adorable smile!!!!  This little lady just turned five years old and is waiting for her family to find her.   If you commit in the next few days her agency fees are greatly reduced also.  Please take a peek and give her a chance!  Read about Susy here!

UPDATE:  My advocacy for Susy has paid off, and she has a family working hard to quickly process their paperwork!  WE ended up getting our Preapproval from China in December of 2015.  We are thrilled that we get to be her parents!

Neighborhood Luminaries

Our neighborhood has a tradition of setting out luminaries one night during the Christmas season.  The Little Princesses loved helping put sand and candles into the bags while Isaac was at basketball practice.

But the REALLY FUN part was to see the end results!  Tikvah and Isaac walked with a neighbor friend and her mother while the rest of us rode in the van.