Traveling After CNY

Our agency received TA's today but ours was not one of them. :( It looks as though we will be traveling after the Chinese New Year. We needed to have our TA by this Wednesday in order to be in next weeks group. Very unlikely our agency will receive another batch of TA's this week.

I was told they have a group leaving 2/18. The next hurdle might be getting a consulate appointment. I know I'll be glad when we are home and settled in with our boy!

Simply Beautiful!

I long for the day when we can sign as well as the people above!

Party Pictures!

We received a email from Ann at Red Thread with pictures from Evans party. It looks as though he has lost some baby teeth and it looks as though he has freckles. We can not wait to go get our boy!

Article 5!!

We received our Article 5! It was sent to the CCAA on December 29th so we have one week down on our estimated 2-4 week wait! I can't believe it took that long but I'm just glad I know we have it! Our agency has a group leaving the 14th and possible the 21st. It will depend on if TA's come in before then or not. If not then we are probably looking at traveling after CNY which is 2/14.

Thank You!!

I just wanted to thank all of you for all of your encouragement the past couple of days! I'm in a much better place and really feel missing Evan's birthday was the icing on the cake so to speak. It won't be much longer and we will see his sweet face.

I received a couple of very sweet emails and was unable to respond. Somehow they ended up getting deleted from my inbox. If you emailed me please send me a little note again. I promise I'll send one back.

Happy 7th Birthday Evan!!

Here is the birthday package we sent our guy minus the cake. The books are in both Chinese and English. More than anything we though he might like looking at the pictures. I'll be anxious to develop the camera and see the cake. I don't think we will wait to develop the cameras, we will do them in China. Had we done Lia's in China it would have revealed so much and made our trip much easier.

This is the last year without our boy for all holidays! :)

Mixed Emotions

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit"

Psalm 34:18

I'm sure from the verse you can tell I'm feeling pretty down.  We had a great Christmas and I only broke down once as thoughts of Evan came to my mind. Today though is much different. I think it's been building. In exactly three hours, in China it will be Evans birthday. We are not with him. We do not know when we will be with him. He knows we are coming but does not know when. I'm sure he is wondering what is taking so long.

At some point in the night while we are sleeping our guy will be celebrating his birthday with all of his friends. This year he will have a cake and presents to open. He has a family that misses him so much and would do anything to jump on a plane to bring him home today if they could.

I feel like our agency has let us down. They have poo pooed my questions stating they would get back to me asap. That was well over three weeks ago. We have paid them enough money to answer our questions in a timely manor and with honesty. They have cost us numerous delays in this adoption process.

Now I do believe everything happens for a reason and God is in control. What I do not believe in is incompetence! When the same problems and errors continue to occur with more than one family, then there is a problem that needs addressing. Right now I am angry and sad!