Brennan's Baptism

Our seven year old, Brennan, was baptized this past Sunday
We are so proud of him and so grateful to God for His goodness. Here's a pic. of some of the family members who were there to support him. Thanks guys. We are SO BLESSED to have the most incredible family! Truly!

It's back!!!!

Well, we sent our dossier to the Chinese Embassy in Washington for two more steps, and we got it in the mail!!!! Yipee!!! Doug is making copies and checking everything thoroughly tonight. He will send it officially to our agency tomorrow. Shew!!! At this point...if all goes well, our agency will complete thorough reviews and translate our dossier and we will have our DTC (dossier to China!). So exciting!!! It will be a couple of weeks after it's sent that we should receive our log in date. Keep praying that all goes smoothly and that we haven't messed something up!!

Thanks for your support and prayers!

Our trip to State Capitol

Here's a pic of me and my boys at the state cap! Good times!

We went to the Capitol!

Well, we did it! We visited our state capitol to have our docs. authenticated. It started off really well. We were told it would only take @ 15 min. to do it. We thought we were golden! Doug, the boys, and I would take a mini road trip and make a 1/2 day of it...or NOT. We went to the Courthouse 1st, then headed for the SOS (Sec. of State's office). When we arrived a sweet young lady took one little look at our birth cert. (which Doug had gotten in APRIL so we'd be prepared) and said that we would need to go to the Human Resources building and purchase new ones as there was a new registrar AND we needed a LIVE signature. (no biggie, right?) So, I said to the fam., "Let's just think of this as a family Scavenger Hunt"! What a dork am I!? Anyway, we continued on our "scavenger hunt" and arrived at the Human Resources building. We waited in line, paid for the new birth cert. and the man said "it'll be about 2o min.". NO SWEAT, RIGHT? Well, that was the longest 20 min. EVER. It turned out that we were there for 1 hour and 40 min. The LIVE SIGNATURE REGISTRAR had gone to lunch. Perfect timing, huh? Oh well. I took the boys outside and played under a tree. They saw two ladybugs and were letting them crawl up their arms. (The things we do to occupy our children.) And the ladybug is supposed to be a sign of good luck for those adopting from China. lol. So, we get the birth certs. go BACK to the Sec. of State's suite and complete this process.
Now we must send our docs. to Washington for more authentication. We have two more minor steps...when we get these back, our dossier is reviewed by our agency, translated, and sent to China. Can't wait!!! Getting antsy for a DTC and LID!! (Dossier to China and Log in Date)
Thanks for keeping us in your prayers!
Pray Pray pray!!!!

It's HERE!!!!

Finally! Our I171-h arrived. My family went out to lunch yesterday. On the way up the driveway, my husband opened the mailbox. As he did, I said..."each time we do this my stomach hurts!" He looked up at me with this face and immediately I knew it must be the form we have been waiting for. I couldn't help but to get emotional and scream at the same time. Our boys were elated, too. I think they thought we were going to get our China Doll right then! Ha! I wish! Receiving this form only brings us one step closer to getting a LID (log in date). This is the date when China has received all of the paperwork they need from you and your 20 months of waiting begins. (As of now, the average wait for a fam. is 20 months. I know! It's crazy!) We should be going straight to our state capitol Mon. morning to get everything Authenticated. Doug called our adopton agency yesterday, and they said we have ALL of our required docs. So, as soon as we do this final step, we can send our dossier (paperwork) to our Angency. They will check everything thouroughly and translate it. Finally they will send it to China. We're very excited. Pray that all goes well in the final steps we have to take.
************************Praise be to God, for HE is good!!******************************

Summer Fun

These pics. are of us at our Home Study Agency's picnic. It was so amazing to be with so many other families who were in this process with us. We are standing next to a Chinese flag.

This summer has been a blast, but has flown by!

We have been to Myrtle Beach with the whole fam. which was a complete blast and much needed. The boys totally love the beach. They are quite the boogie boarders! Doug and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary while on the beach. We went to one of our fav. resturaunts ALONE and enjoyed the adult conversation, which doesn't happen very often. (lol) We took a stroll down the beach and sat on a patio listening to some live music. We really enjoyed each other that evening. As for the big gift??? We agreed that our baby girl is the greatest gift we could receive for our ann. so instead of spending our $ on ourselves, we chose to put it towards the adoption cost.

Doug and I also just attended Student Life youth camp in Cleveland, TN with our youth group. It was HUGE for us to leave our children for 5 days, but we really saw God doing some amazing things....including working in our lives. He spoke to me that week and said that HE must be first. I am guilty of putting my family before God. I love being a Mom and taking care of my children. It's a HUGE part of who I am, so HE reminded me that HE needed to be first. Thank you, Jesus for that gentle reminder. I think we all need to be taken out of our "normal everyday" routines and lives and attend a camp to refocus and get back on track....an adult church camp if you will. Our boys did well while we were gone...well, sort of. Brennan cried everyday, but they were WELL taken care of. Thanks, Donna!!

Well, we're STILL waiting on our I71-h (immigration forms). Each day we go to the mailbox with great anticipation and....... NOTHING. It's getting a little frustrating, but we're reminded of who is in control. When we were at camp our worship leaders introduced us to their daughter they'd adopted from China. We were in awe of her and our hearts ached for our Lily Hope. His timing is perfect. We still have a LONG way to go...so in the mean time, we're LOVIN' life with our boys!!!!

Please keep us in your prayers. We certainly could use them throughout this process and forever!

Until next time.

God Bless.

Julie

Home Study Complete

Hey all! Sorry it's taken so long. Our net has been down at home, but we're back in the saddle!!

Well, since we've last logged, we have had our home study visits. Our first one in our home went very well. We were anticipating an eventful evening with our agent here and the boys having to behave for 2 hours. They were ANGELS!! I was even a bit concerned they were "too good" while she was here. (Is that possible? I am SURE I will NEVER hear myself say that again!) Our Home Study Agent was SUPER nice. She had adopted two children from Guatemala. She totally made us feel at ease and completely comfortable. We scheduled our 2nd visit which was out of the home. It also went very smoothly. We felt like we were just talking to a friend about our life story. We have since had a total of four visits with our agent. She just sent us a copy of our home study to review, and I was thinking that everyone should have a home study completed. It is an account on paper of your life story. How cool is that? (I am sure our children will enjoy reading it someday!) So, our home study agent is sending our home study to our adoption agency to review. We will soon begin the "paper chase" . We have to have all of our documents we've acquired authenticated, certified and notarized! All I know is that I'll be traveling to our state capitol a lot this summer! Road Trip with the boys! Woo hoo!!

We're holding up well all in all. We're still early on in the process we know. We have been extremely busy with the boys and the end of the school year programs and such. We're very happy that schools out for the summa! Looking forward to some serious bonding at the pool!!! We still think about and pray for our baby girl each day, but we're trying not to be consumed by WAITING. We've decided that if we wish the next two years away that we're also wishing the lives of our two boys who happen to be right here in front of us away ...and we're not doing that! Time has flown since they were born.

Keep us in your prayers! Thanks for checking in! Hopefully we'll have more news to tell ya this summer about our dossier (paperwork) being sent to China soon.

Take Care and God Bless!!!