New Accessories for the Van

We are making final preparations for the homecoming of the Little Princesses -- look what the UPS man brought to us!

A pediatrician that we trust very much recommended that Tikvah stay in her booster until she weighed 60 pounds.  We decided to follow that guideline with our newest family members also. These booster seats seemed very appropriate!

I have been pondering Psalm 37:4 the past couple of months.  It is a popular verse that most of us have memorized.  "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."   The adoption process has made this verse take on a whole different dimension for me.  I've found that my delight in the Lord doesn't magically make everything I desire come to pass, but rather it changes the desires of my heart.  Who would have thought we would welcome booster seats back into our vehicle?  I have to say though, I simply cannot wait to have these two little ones join our family!

This is day seven on the wait for the invitation to travel.  It is hard to be patient.

Watch our Fun Music Video!!!

 Our oldest daughter and son-in-law put together a music video for us, and wow! It is fun!  It is a two and a half minute chance to see most of my kids and grandkids, and celebrate the joy we are feeling now as our date to travel quickly approaches. And by the way, for those of you who know us in real life, you've never seen us quite like this before!

The video was made for a fundraiser.  What Give1Save1 does is to introduce a family each week who is adopting and encourage you to donate a dollar to help with their expenses.  This is our week!  Share the video and encourage your friends to donate a dollar. You may use the Reece's Rainbow donate button to the right to donate. Donations are securely handled through Paypal and are tax deductible.

Nearly EVERYONE can afford to donate a dollar, and right now those dollars are doubled through our matching grant.  We still need about $15,000 to complete the adoptions, and a little help from a lot of people will go a long way.

The song is really snappy and it is easy to miss some of the words, so here are the lyrics to read ahead of time.  Enjoy!  (And a huge thank you to Sarah and Aaron who wrote the words, filmed, and edited the video!)

We Will Find You in Shenzhen

Could it be that you're our daughter?
A member of our family?
Could it be you have a sis,
Waiting there with you like this
Two girls hoping endlessly?

We can find a room in our home
An empty place within our hearts
Just in need of being filled
We can even say we're thrilled
To see that this is where it starts

We'll fly higher
See it transpire
Soon you will see when
Little Abigail and Jen
We will find you in Shenzhen

We've been tangled up in red tape
Filing forms a mile high
We've been pulling out our hair
Ink is getting everywhere
While we're dotting all the i's

The whole family is longing
Sisters, brothers, Grandma, too
Nieces, nephews, want to play
Just can't wait until the day
When we board that plane with you

Flying higher
It will transpire
Listen here again
Little Abigail and Jen
We will find you in Shenzhen

We'll fly higher
See it transpire
Soon you will see when
Our dear Abigail and Jen
We will find you in Shenzhen

Girls you know it's true
We are coming fast for you
And we'll find you in Shenzhen

We want you to know
Just how much we love you so
We will find you in Shenzhen

Na na na na na na....
Abigail and Jen
Find you in Shenzhen

Fundraiser Updates

People who aren't my "friend" on Facebook have been having trouble claiming bracelets from the ApParent Project fundraiser.  I've moved the photos into a public album.  If you are looking for them, you'll find them here now: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.165087946979518.1073741826.140680712753575&type=3  If you don't do Facebook but would still like to see the bracelets, let me know and I will be happy to post or email some photos and details for you.

Our month to be a featured family on Owls for Orphans is nearly over.  If you'd like to order one of these sweet creatures to live in your house, check them out!  Click on the owl banner lower on this page and to the right.

We have gotten word of a MATCHING GRANT!  We are still trying to work out the details with the grant organization, so stay tuned! 

Where are we in the process?  Our Article 5 is scheduled to be picked up a week from today on March 26.  After that it should only be a couple of weeks until we are given our invitation to travel.  We will take the first available consulate appointment, but there is a huge trade fair and a couple of holidays going on in the city we are going to during the month of April.  We are still HOPING to travel in April, but each day that passes makes May a stronger possibility.  We are SO READY to bring our girls home!

So close!

I got an email from our case manager at the agency today.  She has received confirmation that our paperwork for the girls was dropped off at the consulate in Guangzhou, and pick up is scheduled for March 26.  This is the step where they declare that Jennifer and Abigail are our IMMEDIATE RELATIVES upon adoption!  Once the courier picks up our Article 5 on the 26th it is mailed to Beijing.  Our invitation to travel should be issued 2-3 weeks thereafter.  I'm reading 7-10 business days from some people!  We are close.  We are SO close!

Look what we got today! A box with 250 Apparent Project bracelets! If it is possible, they are even nicer than the ones we got last fall. If you missed out on those, or if you'd like another to update your spring wardrobe, I've begun listing them with photos. They are $10 if they need to be mailed, $8 if you are local. Half goes to Haiti and half will help to get us on that plane to go get our daughters in China. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151458785268190.1073741826.537343189&type=3

 If you aren't familiar with the Apparent Project, you can find out more about them here http://apparentproject.org/

Our last step with immigrations

At last!  We have received the pdf files from the National Visa Center and forwarded them to our agency.  When they get in on Monday (about midnight in China) they will forward them to their representative to hand carry to the American Consulate there, hopefully to arrive on Tuesday. 

They tell me it is "always" two weeks to the day that they are to pick up our Article 5.  We've heard of others in our online communities taking three or four weeks, and our documents have certainly not been moving at the customary pace lately.  We're really hoping that it is an uncomplicated process for this last step with immigrations.

Once our Article 5 is picked up our approval documents are all sent to the CCCWA who is in charge of the orphans.  They should issue an invitation to travel 2-3 weeks later.  Even though that will be during the big trade fair, we are still hoping to go get our princesses in late April.

On a Roller Coaster

It has been a roller coaster kind of week.  On Monday we received our written provisional approval on the I800s and were so excited to finally have that step done after four weeks!  This high point came crashing down about mid-week as we discovered that the National Visa Center didn't have any record of us or our approvals.  They seemed to be a bit concerned about that.  It has been an up and down ride throughout the day today, and to make a long story short, the NVC now has our information entered in their computer, and we are hoping for a speedy delivery of that all important pdf for our agency to email to their representative in China.  My excitement is somewhat subdued because our agency is closed all day on Friday for staff training.  It can't possibly get to their representative until Tuesday, no matter how quickly it comes tomorrow.  I have been told this immigrations step of the adoption process works "like clockwork" so apparently our clock has a low battery!

Some other high spots were getting new pictures of the little princesses -- this time with Jennifer's birthday cake, and the arrival of our passports with our visas to China!