Not warm and fuzzy but real...

I'm including a link to a blog for a little girl named, Lucy.  She is in DESPERATE need of family to adopt her right away.  Unfortunately her heart condition doesn't allow her the luxury of waiting.  She is darling, precious, perfect, innocent and 1 of millions that need a family.  Please read Lucy's story and pray for her.  She ideally needs a "paper ready" family and China is willing to expedite her.    www.dreamingofteafortwo.blogspot.com/


Romans 12:12- Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer

I took the sentence below from Lucy's blog.  WOW!!!!!  It's a very good question and for myself, I don't have a very good answer.

Uh-Oh Spaghetti O's

So we thought we'd see what Wyatt thought of Spaghetti O's....

Come on mom, can I talk you into dessert first??????

OK, I OBVIOUSLY lost this battle...Are you mad that I smeared spaghetti sauce all over myself?

PHEWWWW, apparently not if you were goofy enough to give me the spoon!

Alright mom, so I attempted the O's. Now may I 

please have my pears!???  Pllleeeaasssseee....Look 

how cute I am....How can you resist me???

DOSSIER TO CHINA!!!!

What a great way to start off our weekend!!!  Our dossier was sent to China today...It made it before the weekend!!!!  We are so excited and relieved that the paper trail part (for this phase) is complete!  Time to celebrate!!!  We are hoping that we'll be able to travel to China prior to August but time will tell, we're not sure how realistic that is...We'll truly know more after China gives us our LID.


Now getting ready for our trip FL, next week!  Can't wait to see my family and soak up some warm weather!! :))

DOSSIER TO MADISON!!!!

We are so excited!!!!  We sent our completed dossier off to Madison today!!!! YAYYY!!!!!  We are hopeful that our dossier will be sent to China before the week is over and at that point we will be waiting for our LID (login date).  SO EXCITED!!! Another step closer to Hadley!

Our precious baby girl has a name!!!!

Ever since we saw our little Lou Wei's face we've struggled with giving her the perfect name.  She's so special, chosen by God to be part of our family and us chosen for her.  Not being able to decide on a name that separates her really bothered me.  We kept going over zoodles of different names.  We prayed, went through meanings of names, consulted friends and family until we were completely confused, just looking for the perfect name that jumped out at us when we saw her face.  We kept coming back to square one...nada!  Well.....That brings me to when we began the adoption process about 4 years ago.  We both wanted a little girl from China when we started out but it wasn't the right time then and we were lead to Vietnam.  As we got deep into the adoption process somewhere along the line we fell in love with the name Hadley...We knew that would be our little girls name!  Well coming back to the present...When we got the call about Lou Wei, everyone asked if she was Hadley? I kept thinking...No, she was not Hadley.  Hadley was a sweet little girl we would never know that was in Vietnam.  I  eventually realized I was wrong because every time we'd look at her picture and say a new name we liked, it didn't fit and we both felt like Hadley did.  We kept it on the list and finally both of us in talking realized she really was Hadley.  Hadley was the beginning of our adoption journey.  She is the little girl we had prayed for and she was still Hadley but in GODS TIMING, not OURS.  


Proverbs 16:9- In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

Camo Wyatt

I took this picture of our little man with my phone and I thought I'd post it...He's just such a precious lil stinker!!!!

If you have time, please read the blog below.  It left me convicted, in tears, speechless and in a fog...knowing yet again that there is so much more that's expected of me... www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/  

Last, I'm working on creating a, "China Travel List" in the right column of our blog.  I would love contributions from those who have traveled in the past.  I'll be adding to it as we learn more about what we should/need to bring.

Sweet potatoes

Apparently Wyatt thinks I look good in sweet potatoes.   

And then there were 3!

So ever since Wyatt got his 2 bottom teeth back in December, I've been sticking my fingers in his mouth like I'm hunting for Easter eggs looking for more to pop up.  Well yesterday,  I'm happy to say that I got bit!! :)  We have tooth number 3 and what appears to maybe be #4 right beside it, up top.  I don't think there is anything cuter than a babies smile with a few teeth.  On top of the teeth he's crawling like crazy and chasing the dogs now.  It's a good thing that they are all tolerant of him pulling on there lips and noses.  The only one who protests is Peyton, when Wyatt gets a fist full of his long hair.  Poor little guy is going to be traumatized between Wyatt and Lou Wei.  He still looks at me and stares when I'm holding Wyatt as if to say..."WHY MOM????!!"

Happy Sunday to all!

A minor hiccup

This morning was our big trip to the Sec. of States office to get the state seals on our documents before sending them off to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.  It was as smooth as it could have ever gone!  B and I prayed before I left to head downtown and I have to say I was shocked at how fast and smooth everything went, although I don't know why...God is a God of details :)  I found a parking space which in and of itself is a miracle downtown :)  I had to parallel park my monster and managed to do that without hitting anybody.  Then went into the Sec of States office at lunch time and there was not one person waiting.  Those of you who have been through this process know that is rarely the case.  I sat down, read for about 15 minutes while they processed our docs and I was on my way.  Mission accomplished!

The minor hiccup happened early this morning when I realized that 2 (out of state) docs that I thought had the appropriate state seal, did not.  I wasn't born in IN and we were married in FL, so both of those documents needed additional authentications.  The good news is we were able to get those overnighted to the appropriate places and we'll just wait until they return in hopes of sending them to our agency within the next week or so.  Longer than we planned but knowing the timing will be perfect in the end.  One step closer to Lou Wei!

We received our I-800A approval!! Yay!!!

There are different steps and milestones that get us steps closer to Lou Wei.  I'm planning to include a brief time line on the right side of our blog to show the steps and timeline.  One of the big milestones in the process is receiving the I-800A approval which is also called your I-797.  It's basically the approval notice from USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services)...Its simply the U.S. government stating that we have been "approved to adopt a child from People's Republic of China."  Now that we have received this document, we will be going downtown to the state capital to have all of our other documents sealed with our state seal.  From there we have our documents couriered to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, IL., hopefully later this week to receive the final touches.  Once that is completed and we receive those documents back (which could take a few days) we will send our final paperwork to our adoption agency (Madison Adoption Associates) and they will send our completed dossier (the compilation of required paperwork) to China, this is called DTC.  Once our dossier goes to China we will be waiting for our LID (login date) and then from there, our LOA.  After the LOA, the next step is the "Article 5" and then TA (travel approval).  Once we receive our Travel approval, we will be able to travel to China to meet our little girl!!!  So we are praying that these remaining steps will go smoothly.  After we submit our dossier the rest of the process will be simply to continue to wait and pray for Lou Wei.

Psalm 27:14-
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord