Gearing Up

Not sure when we will travel, I've started gathering items for our trip. Evans clothes are washed and I'm trying to decide what to bring. I think we will start packing his items. His little backpack is full and ready for him to go through. We have enjoyed shopping for items he will need. I think the item we bought that made it real for me was his little toothbrush!

Nothing new to report on our wait for TA. We will be sending him a birthday cake at the end of the month as his birthday is Jan. 1st. Hopefully we will receive pictures. :)

It's Been Awhile

I can't believe how long it's been since I've blogged over here. Bob and I had our midterm in our Monday night sign language class. We both missed two questions out of 30. We are still going to our Thursday night class which is good because it actually keeps us going. We start our Monday night class back up the begining of January.

We are still waiting on our TA. For those of you not familiar with the adoption lingo none of this will mean anything to you but for those of you who are this is where we stand. We received our I800 approval on 11/20 and then the NVC cabled our petition to Guangzhou on 11/27. We are offically awaiting for our article 5 to be sent and then our TA should be sent!

We have started washing Evans clothes and buying some needed supplies for our trip. I can hardly believe that it is almost time to travel. Please pray that we can travel before Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is 2/14 this year.

We are inching closer ever day!

Nerves

It seems as though my nerves are getting the best of me these days. Maybe because the time for travel is actually getting closer. There is still so much to do. We've waited for what seems like forever to bring Evan home and now it's right around the corner.

One of our biggest fears is that our time in China will be much like it was with Lia. Lia's fear, saddness, and anger was so overwhelming at times it hurt. There was only one other child in our group who reacted as Lia did. All the other children were happy go lucky. I can still hear Lia's deep cries and feel her in my arms as she tries to push herself away from me. Evan is bigger and even stronger than Lia. Will he react as she did or will he be excited?

All we can do is prepare for the worst and pray for the best! We don't expect Evan to come running to us nor did we with Lia. We know this is a life changing event that comes with many emotions for our children. We do pray that Evan's adjustment is a bit easier than Lia's was.

Drop Intercepted!

For those who have adopted before you know how fast that FedEx guy is. I was bound and determined I was going to catch him today. I swear they drop that package off and run for their life! Well, I caught him. Actually as soon as I saw him hit the end of my driveway I flew downstairs and flung open my door. Needless to say I startled him. Imagine a crazy excited woman with a camera running towards you.

Today has been a crazy day filled with preparing FedEx packages, photocopying papers, faxing the agency and lack of sleep. I am so glad 90% of our paperwork was filled out before hand or I would have been more overwhelmed than I was. Come to find out Evan's Chinese name is actually translated to Lv Bo BUT can be translated to Lu Bo as well. As for our offical documents we will use Lv so there are no delays but for our spelling we will use Lu. I have double checked to make sure this is appropriate and I have been assured by two people that it is.

It feels good to know that all of this paperwork is done and out of our hands. Now to sit back and wait yet some more. We are being advised that our TA could take anywhere from 9-11 weeks and that is if things stay at the rate the are going now.

Right now I'd just like to see my fellow agency friends receive their TA's as they have been waiting for a long time. So if you are reading could you say a prayer for them please?

*Edited to say the packages arrived safely to their destinations! PHEW!!!

LOA!!!

WooHoo, 63 days after CCAA logged us into their system they have officially approved us to be the parents of Lu Bo!! I can hardly believe it! Praise God for only He could have given us a quick LOA. It looks as though we may travel at the end of January if all goes well. :) Only time will tell.

Unexpected Blessings

As of today we've have been waiting 53 days for our LOA. I am hopeful we will see it at the end of next month but earlier would be better! :) This part of the wait has actually gone rather quickly. I'm sure as the numbers creep up it will get harder.

We struggled with the home study process and delays. I know it has added to our wait. I can honestly say that while I am sad that Evan is spending more time in an orphanage without his forever family I thank Jesus for unexpected blessings.

We have found a wonderful church after many months (year and a half) of looking. While doing this I have made some new friends. One (Michelle) is a sign language interpiter and an adoptive mom to one from China and a bio son. She hopes to adopt a deaf child from China in the future. Through her I have met Bev and Marcia who are both deaf and active in the deaf community. They have invited us to a sign language class that the church holds while the kids attend AWANA. So we are taking two classes and learning a ton.

Next month I will attend my first Deaf Women's Luncheon. My friends will be there with me but I must say I am nervous. Most of the women who were at last months luncheon know all about our family and they are excited to meet me at the next lunch. I was surprised to learn that they prayed for us. Oh, I should not have been because this is Christian Deaf Woman's Luncheon. How cool is that.

Had we been DTC sooner we would not have this opportunity to reach out to the deaf community. I am thankful we have this time to learn more and meet wonderful people! Thank you Jesus!

New Pictures!

So we went a head and sent Evan a care package through Ann at Red Thread China. We were going to wait a few more weeks but I was starting to get a bit antsy. We really just want Evan to be fully prepared for our arrival. Hopefully he will understand that we are his family. Please pray that his nanny will be able to communicate that to him.

When we received his first update from the agency I thought he looked a bit different from his referral pictures. His eyes just didn't look as round and his face was fuller. Now we receive pictures that match the referral pictures but not the first set of updated pictures. I'm not sure if it was just because he was going through a chunkier stage or what. What do you all think?

Here are his new measurements -
10/10/2009

height : 118cm - 46.5in

weight : 22kg - 48.4 lbs

head : 51cm - 20.1in

chest : 55.5cm - 21.9in

feet : 18.5cm - 7.3in

teeth : 22

4/16/2009
Updated Measurements:
Height 115.5cm - 44.5in
Weight 20.5kg - 45.1lbs
Head 52.5cm - 20.7in
Chest 54.5cm - 21.5in
Feet 18cm - 7.1in
Teeth 20

2/3/2008
Height 103.5cm - 40.7in
Weight 18.5kg - 40.7lbs
Head 51.1cm - 20.1in
Feet?
Teeth 20
Chest 52.5 cm - 20.7

I'm loving his hair longer. I think he looks much thinner in these pictures. Oh and twice now I've seen his Chinese name translated different. Hopefully we can get that cleared up as we plan on using it as his middle name.

Is he not just sweet!