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Its been awhile since I've written. We are still waiting to bring our son home. We are still looking to travel in late July/August. My mom is coming to help when we travel. We couldn't do it without her. She's been there for the birth of all the children and will be here for the "arrival" of Corwin. The children are all looking forward to summer. This is a letter we are sending to our friends and family
Dear Friends and Family As many of you know we are adopting a little boy from
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We have more great news!! Sorry I haven't posted in so long. WE have received our LID (long in date)!! Our Timeline
11/28/06- Contacted Small Word in inquire about their waiting child program
11/29/06- Asked Small Word if we can look at "Shane's" medical file
12/8/06- Contacted Kathy at Small World to express an interest in sending a letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt "shane"
12/20/06- LOI Letter of Intent oni ts way to China!
The remainder of December was spent visitng with our social worker doing our home study for China.
January was a blur, was spent gathering all the neccessary mountains of docuemnts for our dossier, VERY time consuming! And getting it all notorized. Also planning garage sale.
January 30 HOMESTUDY DONE!! Thank you Jesus!
February 1 Homestudy and USCIS Application sent to Oklahoma City!
February 8 Received FBI fingerprint appointment
February 14 Samuel and I fingerprinted!
February 23 USCIS Approval!!!
March 1 CIS approval and homestudy off to Small World
March 2-20 Our dossier travled the state getting all kinds of offocal stamps and approvals from various government officials.
March 23 WE ARE DTC!!!! (Dossier to China)
April 16 We have our LID! (Log in Date) CCAA offically logged our dossier in!
July/August Baby here we come!! |
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Double Happiness! Just a quick update....We were DTC (Dossier to China) on 3/23!! This is a huge step and the last step for us as far as paperwork goes before we actually go to China! The next thing we should hear is our approval to travel and get our son. We are trying to get as much school done as possible because I know that we will probably take a bit of time off after we get our son. Our two oldest girls ages 10 and 11 will take the Stanford Achievement test later this month. We are going on a field trip to a radio station next week. Our son, in kinder is learning to read and he is doing great! He amazes me! Our 2 year old...well he is keeping me on my toes, ever a dull moment. Our 8 year old dd (2nd grade) is happily going about her life....I think she is the happiest by nature of all the kids. |
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We had our FINAL garage sale on Friday 3/16. We made about $1000 for our adoption from this sale. We are so blessed to have friends that care about us to host this sale for us. We are so tired and are glad it's all over! God did truly bless our efforts! |
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Saturday March 10, we had such a huge garage sale. This was the garage sale to end ALL garage sales! I am not kidding. I hesitate to post on a public blog how much we made to help with our adoption so I'll just say it was in the thousands! God has blessed every step of this process. We were dead tired though. We all gave our blood, sweat and tears! Thank you Laura, Ernest, Amy, Diana, Heather, Cyndi, Sui, Kim and all the kids! We are doing it again this Friday. I hope I can endure! My brother and his family is coming this weekend to help us with the kids. More news on our adoption: today we received an email from our agency, Small World that our dossier was sent today to the Chinese consulate in Houston. That should take about 4 days and then after that we will be offically "DTC". Then we wait....for the CCAA to give us travel approval to get our son! News on homeschooling: We are taking the rest of the week off, its spring break here! |
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Praise God! We received our 171 on 3/1/07. This is the approval from the US to adopt a foreign child. This is a HUGE step. Our paperwork is now being authenticated in Austin and that should take a week or so and then our Dossier will be sent to China! Yes! God answers prayers! On the fund raiser: We have received MORE donations and have to rent a U-haul to pick some of it up tomorrow. The items donated fill up a THREE car garage! Are you hearing me? A three car garage!! And more keep coming. Its incredible! God is surely blessing this! Our sale will be Saturday. Please prey for a great turnout. |
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Our adoption fund raiser has been my LIFE lately but here is some homeschool stuff. Our annual homeschool bookfair is coming to our area in May. I don't feel like we are even close to looking for stuff for next school year. But its fun to go and I always run into someone I haven't seen in awhile. I have brought our oldest daughter the last few years. She saves up all her money for the book fair. She loves going. So here is what we are using this year: 11 year old 6th grade Apologia General Science /Taking class with labs at a local homeschool education center Math U See Zeta Total Language Plus/currently reading The Lion The Which and the Wardrobe Easy Grammar Wordly Wise All American History AO English (supplement) Plus all kinds of other various things Abeka science Christian Light Math Total Language Plus/Caddie Woodlawn Easy Grammar All American History A reason for writing 8 year old 2nd grade Christian Light reading Christian light math The light and the Glory for children
Easy GrammarA reason for writing various science read alouds 6 year old Kinder Explode the Code Math U See primer A reason for handwriting various science read alouds Rod & Staff prechool bible (I know its "labled" preschool but I think its great for this age) Also Draw right now Beautiful Girlhood Lots of reading aloud Kenneth Taylor Devotional book for children The Princess and the Kiss Raising Maidens of Virtue Hinds feet on High Places for Children And I'm am SURE that there are a bunch of things I totally left off buts it late and too tired to remember it all. |
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We finally set dates for our fundraiser. Friday March 9 and Friday and Saturday March 16 and 17. We are having a HUGE garage sale fundraiser to help raise money for our adoption of our 2 year old son from China. We have been blessed beyond belief with donations for our garage sale. Yesterday I went to my friend's house where the garage sale will take place and spent about 4 hours pricing things and preparing for the garage sale. Boy, its hard work! But so worth it when I think of finally holding our son in my arms! Today we went to piano lessons for Donya and then to the library and then to The Book Cover to drop off some books and then FINALLY home. Then we ate lunch, I put Kai down for a nap and then we started school at around 1:30pm. Typical! |
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http://www.muztagh.com/map-of-china/index.html Our son is in http://www.muztagh.com/map-of-china/map-fujian.htm Our son is in Here is a small update We mailed our I600A application to USCIS on I hold you in my heart and in my dreams. You are here each day with me, that’s how it seems. I know you wonder where we are. It’s been so long. Just remember child that God will keep you strong. Now go outside, feel the breeze and let it touch your skin. Soon you’ll have a family, I promise you again. Miles away we wait for you, but it’s coming to an end. But for tonight, just as always, I’ll blow you kisses in the wind. May God hold you in His hands ‘til we can get to you. I promise you that we will see you soon. May He wrap you in His arms and hold you tight, and let the Angels bring our kisses every night. author unknown |
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A wonderful friend offered to help us raise money for our adoption by having a garage sale for us. She put the word out to many friends and boy, have the blessings come rolling in! We have so many donations for the garage sale it is so awesome! We are astounded. Now we are running out of room in her garage and we have a storage unit pretty full of donated items. We have alot of work to do to get ready for it. The children and I are going over to help her tomorrow. |
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I have not had time to post. So now I will try to give a little update on our adoption. Our agency is Small World Adoptions. We choose this agency because of the wonderful recommendations we had about them. Our son Hou De is in Fujian Province of China. He is in Fuzhou City. He is two years old and was born 11/1/04. He was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. His lip and palate were repaired by Love Without Boundaries, however he will need several additional surgeries once he is home. We need a family size waiver from China because we have five children at home. We are currently waiting for CIS to approve our application and then our paperwork will be sent to China for their approval which is known at DTC (Dossier to China). Then hopefully we will be able to travel to China by mid summer to get him! So that is the short story! Adoption paperwork is long and agonizing. So much we have no control over. But God is in control and HE has gotten us this far and blessed us every step of the way in our adoption journey. I will try to post updates when we get them...now if only I can figure out how to post sidebar entries and photos! Now on to homeschooling.... Homeschooling through all this had been exhausting and I do feel a little guilty that it is taking up alot of my time. I try to do most of the adoption stuff after the children are in bed. We have five children 11g, 10g, 8g, 6b, and 22 month boy and of course Hou De 27 months old in China. Our 10 year old turned 10 today! February 21, 1997 I has holding a new little baby in my arms. Its hard to believe she is 10 now! Anyway, as you can imagine we are busy here with five kids at home, teaching different ages. I'll post more in that next time. |
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We are adoping a two year old special needs boy from China. He was born on 11/1/04 with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. He is on Fujian province. We are so blessed to be adding a new child to our family. |