DTC! LOI! PTL! LOL!!! What a day...

I love this picture. How do we look? :)

Okay, for those of you non-China adoption types, let me explain. This was a BIG week for us and it has all been God's timing. DTC is Dossier To China-- we sent off our huge mountain of papers that says everything there is to say about us for our entire existences. Paperchase is DONE!!! Obviously, we will have more paperwork to file a bit later for immigration, but for now, a sigh of relief. LOI even more importantly is Letter of Intent-- we have written and sent in our letter and petition to adopt a sweet little girl. In short WE FOUND HER!! She was on our agency-specific list (something I have prayed for since the beginning-- the shared list is hard, as we found out with our last referral and this way, we had a LOT more time to decide) and we saw her for the first time last Friday. I can't give all the details until a little later down the line, but I can tell you, she is lovely and we simply cannot wait to meet her in about 6 months.

Thanks so much for all your prayers... keep em coming, we still have a lot to get through and a wait that right now looks really LOOOOOONNNNNG. In the meantime, all I can say is Hallelujah!

New 100 good wishes fabric!

Check it out here!

Huge thank you to my sweet blog friends Tiffanie and Elizabeth who took the time to choose and send some really wonderful fabrics!! I love them all and I am so thankful for all the e-support (that's a technical term :)) that I have received from both of you. It makes the Body of Christ alive, even in the e-world.

"I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6

BLAST OOF!

Samuel has been learning to form his letters, sound out words and read lately. With every new step he takes, I am amazed! But the other day, as I was minding my own business, I heard Samuel really working on sounding out a word-- I had no idea where he was going with it until he got to the very end. He seemed to be working so diligently on it, though, that I had to go see what he was up to. So, I got up and went over to where I thought he was just drawing. As it turns out, he was WRITING what he was sounding out! His words: "BLAST OOF!" Of course I gave him a hug and told him how proud I was, but knowing that my little man has a very good sense of humor, I asked him what the letters "oo" sound like together. Naturally, he said "oo" as it should be, but then he realized what he had written. OH MY GOODNESS!! He laughed about that for a half an hour! It was quite a scene. But keep in mind, people-- this child just turned 4 in January. Smarty pants.

I have taken to photography when it comes to cute or neat drawings that I want to save and I desperately wish I had a picture of his accomplishment, but of course, the camera was no where to be found and I have since LOST the paper. So, instead, enjoy the picture at the top that Little Man drew of his Great-Uncle Dave (with beard) playing "Ding Dong" with Timothy (uncle turns them upside down, grabs them by the ankles and swings them back and forth-- they can't get enough of it). Also note, Samuel drew himself to the right of uncle Dave in the picture and he says that he is ten years old and you can tell by the really long legs.

Bowling, Skating and Birthday fun

I've posted a lot lately about our adoption, but I think it's about time to bring you all up to speed on our lives here and now! We've had lots of fun lately, been very busy. One Very Important Post that I missed was DH's 32nd birthday. We drove up to see his parents and have a lovely salmon dinner for the actual day. The boys were in heaven as they are always asking to visit with "Gramma and Grampa Johnson." A week later, we invited all family to come celebrate with a little bowling. Now, Samuel and Timothy have never played REAL bowling, but have played it with toy sets and on the W*i. They already knew they loved it and were BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS with excitement all day long, waiting for the The Big Game. Here are some pictures from the event.


The day preceding this major event, we had another first. Samuel was invited to a skating birthday party for one of his preschool buddies. And while Samuel had attempted the skating rink one other time, Timothy was new to it. I thought for sure that the skates would only stay on for a very short time (I gave it 5 minutes), but I was wrong! They both had a blast and DH and I even thought it was really fun!

I love this one, Samuel was totally focused on the cake. It looks like he is trying to use the Force to get it into his mouth.

Getting it Together

The response to my last post was so unbelievable... I was so blessed and so encouraged. This adoption community is just awesome! On the other hand, I have heard a lot of really hard news for a lot of wonderful people related to their adoptions and I am going to ask that you remember all these folks in your prayers. And if you happen to be one of those people, count on being lifted up from little ol' me!

Well, we sent off that big huge envelope that sums up who we are and what exactly we're doing and why-- almost our entire dossier-- to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco today. This is the last step before heading back to our agency and then off to China! We are so close. One explanation for what happened last week that I think is very feasible (and probably what happened) was that the little one we locked required that you have your dossier already logged in. In order to do this, a bit of fudging was done (obviously a bad idea, but they learned a valuable lesson), CCAA may have found out and hence we lost the referral. That is why I have really been feeling strongly that we just need to GET THIS DONE and get ourselves logged in, already!! Samuel and Timothy were VERY confused about what happened last week-- Timothy said to me at one point, "Want to go to China's house and get mei mei?" Of course, my little friend, soon I hope.

Feels Like a Miscarriage

I'm so sorry to anyone who has ever had a miscarriage before. I can't even imagine the pain of hope lost in that, but now,I think I can relate. We had a referral (so this should be a good story, right?). Our agency called yesterday morning and told me about her, our little girl-- an actual little one who had been locked on our behalf from the shared list. Our SW sent the file over and we started to plan and dream and gather the documents that we needed to pursue her. I drove through nasty traffic to Seattle to have a doctor check out her records. I stayed up till midnight composing the perfect letter for our intention to adopt her. I sent everything over to our agency. Then this morning, my mom and I had plans to drive to the state's capitol in order to get our documents authenticated. We had a lovely time, chatting about the ins and outs of the adoption process and about how we would probably travel sometime around September. We came home, our task completed and I thought I would check email, just to see that confirmation from our SW that our documents had been sent. Instead, the email I read from her said something to the effect of, "I'm at a loss for how to tell you this. This morning when I checked on your file for ___, it was gone from our system." That's it. Child lost. The agency is not even sure how it happened. I am so unbelievably sad. I had no idea how quickly love could begin.