Sunday, August 29, 2010

SWEET ORGANIZATION


It feels so incredibly wonderful to finally have Halainah's toys organized. I guess you can say that I am sort of "nesting" again for the arrival of our second miracle.


We have attempted to turn our enclosed front porch into a play room for Halainah and her Mei Mei numerous times. Each attempt failed.

But now, we finally got it right. Oh and it feels so good. Gone are the days of being buried under piles of books, stuffed animals, puzzles and art supplies. Everything has a place with tons of room to grow since our family will be growing by 1 more little angel whom I am guessing will have a love for toys as well.

Sweet Organization.

Compliments of Ikea and the totally fabulous Expedit shelves.

Halainah loves, loves, LOVES her new room.





Thursday, August 19, 2010

UPDATES: LIFE & ADOPTION

I know most of you are thinking the same thing that I am thinking, "Where on earth has the summer gone?" I cannot believe that we are nearing the end of August already.

We have had a fun summer full of days spent at the beach, tons of birthday parties, days spent outdoors playing, day trips to the zoo, different parks, and Sesame Place. I have a bazillion photos that I will share soon...hopefully before the summer is over.


September is drawing near and I am already thinking about Halloween,
Halainah's 3rd birthday, and Christmas...I know...I know...don't rush it!!

And as we are trying to enjoy that end of summer and squeeze in all the things that we weren't able to do this summer, or squeezing in as much beach time as we possibly can...we are also running full steam ahead with Mei Mei's adoption.


So in my last update, I posted that:


1. Our Dossier was sent to the Chinese Consulate for Authentication

2. We were awaiting our fingerprint appointments for our I-797 Approval

3. And we were trying to reach our deadline of the end of September to have our Dossier in our Agencies hand.


WELL...and I capitalized that because there are ALWAYS mountains to climb in the adoption world.


1. Our Dossier was REJECTED at the Chinese Consulate for Authentication because it now needs to be hand delivered in person.
Aghhhhhh!! Information my agency should have told us, rather than wasting precious weeks and money since it cost me to send it to them with a return label.

But today, we all jumped into the car and braved the short trek into the city. I like the city...but do not like traveling into the city. But we made it, we drove in ourselves and were able to accomplish the task at hand. So in a few days we will trek back into the city to retrieve our documents...our final step in the
paperchasing phase of our journey.

2. The Great news is that we finally received our appointments to get our fingerprints done and we went and accomplished that task. AND we received our I-797 approval within a week after our fingerprint appointments. For
Halainah's adoption it took 7 weeks to receive our approval from the date of our fingerprint appointments. That was truly by the grace of God.

3. I believe that we will be ahead of our deadline for our Dossier to be at our agency because of this. We have a document that will expire in October that is why it is so important to have our Dossier in China before October 15
th.

So we are so close to finally being logged in. And once we receive our Log in Date, the rest is left up to God. He will find our daughter and bring her to us through this amazing miracle of Adoption. It could be 1 month from Log In....it could be a year...it could be longer...only HE knows. And we trust him fully.


I'm sorry that I have been such a bad blogger and I have neglected some of my most favorite blogs. I promise I will be back to normal...or at least a new normal soon.


Below are a few photos we recently took to submit to China with our Dossier.


God Bless!!








Friday, August 13, 2010

HAPPY 2 YEAR REFERRAL DAY

Happy 2 year referral day my most precious gift from God. Our lives were forever changed the day we saw your sweet smile. You truly are an angel sent from above. We love you so very very much baby girl.

Thank you Lord, for our miracle.





Sunday, August 8, 2010

100 MINUS 1 DAY


"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”

- Winnie the Pooh

Happy 12 year anniversary baby! It truly has been an amazing journey and it just keeps getting better!

I love you, today, tomorrow and forever!!