Just playing the waiting game....

We have sent everything in for our 1-800A (immigration paperwork). Now, we are waiting on our approval notice from them. After that, we will be getting our travel approval from China. In the meantime, we will be applying for our Visas. I am sure by now they have told Sophie that she has a family. They say they usually tell the children after the LOA has been sent and ours has been for two weeks now. However, I don't know how much she understands since she is only two years old. But, we did send her a photo album of us, so hopefully that will help her understand that we will be her forever family. Now, we are just working on raising the funds so that we can go get her. They won't let us get her until we pay them in full. We are still doing fundraisers. The Flip Flop 2 Adopt fundraiser is over and raised enough to pay for our Visas. But, we still lack the total adoption fee. We have applied for an adoption loan, but that is still pending so we dont know for sure if we have it. If we do get it, we still have the travel costs to raise, which is about $5,000 each. We will have a fundraiser tonight at Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt in Southaven from 7pm to 9pm. We have another one there on May 28. Also, we are having a Matilda Jane Trunk Show at our house on Tuesday, April 30 from 5 to 7. We may have a fundraiser at Lost Pizza Co. soon. Our church is having a basketball tournament fundraiser for us. It will be a Saturday sometime in May and it will be $45  for each team to join. I will give out more information on this fundraiser at our church as soon as I get the information.

This is the hardest and longest wait yet! Knowing who Sophie is and knowing that we can't get her quite yet is killing us. It is like being past your due date when you're pregnant...you are just ready and can't stand it!

Fast Forward

Well, I know I just blogged yesterday, but we just received some awesome news!

Yesterday after I blogged, I had to take my son to be registered for kindergarten, so I guess I didn't hear my phone ring. Then, after the registration I saw this text from my husband "Holt just called, they said that they have received our LOA!"  What?!?  (I just blogged to everyone that we had 4 to 6 weeks.) We were expecting to have a little longer for this time frame. But, the 4 to 6 weeks wait turned into only 2 weeks and 2 days. Don't get me wrong I am very excited, but I am kinda stressed about the financial part. I thought we had a good 6 weeks to come up with the money, now we need it sooner. Because we haven't really had any luck with our recent fundraisers. Just over the weekend, I was stressing about coming up with a lot of money in 6 weeks, and I even prayed to God "If you still want us to continue with this adoption, since it seems like the financial part has kinda brought us to a stop, please give me a sign to continue if that is in your plans". And the next morning, I ran into a woman from China and Dustin gave me the news about the LOA. So, I guess that was a "yes" from God. For some reason, we are just in fast forward mode. Even the lady at our adoption agency said she didn't know what it was, but it seems that China is processing our paperwork at super speed. I guess someone is ready for Sophie to hurry up and come home to her forever family. We are ready also!! So, this means (with us getting our LOA now) that we will be traveling very soon. They told us to start looking at travel dates around June 21 or July 5. So, my wish about wanting Sophie before her birthday, which is in August, has come true! But, we have to give the agency a big chuck of money before they even let us travel. So, now the only thing that is holding us back is the financial part. We will be probably eating a lot of roman noodles. Please if anyone has any creative fundraiser ideas, let us know. Sophie is ready to come home!

All we need now is Sophie

Well, a lot has happened since our match in February. We were told that it would take 3 months to get our LOA (letter of acceptance) from China and 3 months after that to travel to bring Sophie home. Well, two weeks ago, I received an email from our adoption agency that said things were moving faster than what they had anticipated, and we should be receiving our LOA in four to six weeks instead of three months. The good news is that we could be traveling sooner than we thought to get Sophie. The bad news is that we have shorter time to come up with the money. We will be having many fundraisers to help us get this financial part behind us for we can go get our little Sophie.

Upcoming Fundraisers:

March 25- April 8: we are selling flip flops from Flip Flop 2 Adopt

April 17 from 7pm to 9pm: we are having a fundraiser at OrangeLeaf Frozen Yogurt in Southaven off of Getwell Road by Desoto Central Schools.

April 30: at my house from 5pm to 7pm, I am having a Matilda Jane trunk show. 

Also, we are still collecting soda cans. I have a really good friend that will be having a Bunko Baby night to help us raise money. This will probably be some time in May, I will give you more information about this fundraiser at a later date. If you have any fundraising ideas, let us know, we need all the help we can get.

Enough with the money talk. Over Spring Break, we finished Sophie's room. We let David Ryan pick out his sister's paint color for her room. He picked pink. So, we painted two walls pink and the other two walls a light green. Sophie's room theme is Minnie Mouse. There are some pictures below of her room. All we need now is Sophie.

David Ryan is starting to understand more about the adoption. I think having the room all fixed up helps. He will show you Sophie's room, tell you that Sophie is in China, tell you that you have to get on an airplane to get her, and that she is crying for him.

We also recently sent Sophie a photo album of us, her grandparents, her aunts, uncles, and cousins, friends, her "home", and her Minnie Mouse room. The caregivers will show Sophie this picture album to help prepare her for the transition. 


Before Pictures ( Sophie's room was once our storage room)

After Pictures (Sophie Wei's Minnie Mouse Room)

It's a Girl!

Well, we were not matched for Valentine's Day, but we were matched in the month of February!!! I got the call on Tuesday, February 26 at 12:30. I was sitting in class reading with my seniors and my phone vibrated, I didn't pay much attention to it, because I figured we were not going to be matched in February since China pretty much shuts down to celebrate their Chinese New Year during this month. So, our school secretary comes down to my room and says a woman has called twice for me and said it was urgent. I looked at the number, the area code was not MS or TN, could this be the CALL, I thought?!? I went across the hall to ask a teacher who was off that period if he would watch my students while I made a phone call. I went in his room to make the call and it was them, it was our agency!!! The adoption rep was about as happy as I was. She said the child was older than what we were expecting, we were wanting one around 18 months. She is two. After getting off the phone with her, I called Dustin and told him we were just matched! He couldn't believe it either. My planning period was coming up in 30 minutes. So, I received permission to leave early. That way Dustin and I could open the email together to see her profile and pictures! We were told we had until 6:00 pm tomorrow to decide yes or no on this child referral and send in our LOI (letter of intent). But, who could say no to any child? When we saw her picture, we both fell in love with her. There was no way we could say no that precious face! She doesn't look like she's two, she is so tiny!


Her name will be Sophie Wei. We are keeping her first name as her middle name. She is two years old. She loves music and dancing. Her favorite toy is a doll ( I know what I will be shopping for now). She is very shy (as my sisters and I were growing up). She is from Guangzhou, China. She is healthy.

Here are the referral pictures that made us fall in love with our sweet Sophie Wei:

So, of course, we sent our LOI in for Sophie as soon as possible. We are now waiting on the LOA and our travel approval. More paperwork and financial stress! We have to have so much money before we can even go get her. So, be on the look out for some upcoming fundraisers. We want to bring this little girl home soon. Her birthday is in August, so we would love to bring her home before her birthday!

Pray for us as we continue through our adoption process. We started this process in March almost a year ago and now we have our Sophie. We just need to bring her home!

Our dossier is off to China!!!

We have just completed a big step! As you know, we have been done with our dossier for awhile now. We were just waiting to pay our processing fee. We have had several fundraisers since then to help us with that fee; such as, Scentsy, Origami Owl, Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt, and Lost Pizza Co. Thank you to everyone who supported us with participating in these fundraisers! We were able to make our payment with these fundraisers. We mailed in that payment last week and yesterday our adoption agency sent us a email confirming that FedEx just picked up our Dossier to be mailed to the CCCWA in China. It will take the CCCWA up to four weeks to log in our information. After we are logged in, they will put us on the child referral list. This is where they will start matching us with a little girl. When you are matched, they send you pictures and a profile of a child. They say this process usually takes from one to six months. However, they said they are experiencing low family lists, so this could be on the shorter end for us. It is sad that there is not a lot of people adopting right now, but it is good for us being matched sooner. Once we are matched, we have to send them a LOA (letter of acceptance). Then, we owe them the biggest chunk yet!!! We have to pay them that before we can even go get her. Then, they will send us our travel information. So, we will still continue to have fundraisers to help us pay this fee. We will probably do the Orange Leaf and Lost Pizza Co again when it gets a little warmer outside. I know we will have some fundraisers at the church soon like a Spa Day and/or spaghetti dinner. I will keep you posted about these when we get closer to the time of the fundraiser itself.

Here is the picture that we sent in with our Dossier that the CCCWA people will use with logging us in and matching us with a little girl:

 Three months ago, I was hoping that we would be matched by Christmas that way we would have the best Christmas gift ever, but things didn't work out that way. But, we still have a very handsome boy that we love so much to spend Christmas with. He needs a little sister to love and protect, also. I will take China getting our dossier as a Christmas present. Maybe we will be matched around Valentine's day!?!

Merry Christmas everyone! Somewhere out there, there is a little girl who is not going to have a family to celebrate Christmas with this year, but she will next year. Sophie, we love you where ever you are and can't wait to bring you home to this loving family. 

Sorry it has been awhile...A lot has happened since...

Here is a monthly overview of what has happened since last time I blogged:

April 9, 2012

            We had our first home study appointment with our case worker. It was very informational and successful. Our home study agency is located in Jackson, MS, so we have to drive out there for our home study appointments. Luckily, we know another couple, who works with me, that is going through this adoption process and they are in the same stages of the process. So, we can car pool now. Our home study will take three to four months to complete. The home study part of the process will cost us $1,600. We had to have $700 up front. We had a fundraiser at school selling flip flops and with many kind people and praying to God we did raise the $700.

June 12-13 2012

            We had two more home study appointments. June 13 was a couple interview. Then, on June 14 we had our individual interviews. Another success!

June 26, 2012

            I spent a few days getting ready for this home study appointment with doing some heavy duty cleaning. This is when our case worker came out to our home to inspect it and to make sure it was safe for a child. Everything went fine. David Ryan was on his best behavior, which we had nothing to worry about there; he is a pretty well behaved child. The only thing was our fire extinguisher was too small and we will have to replace it. Our home study will be complete in a few more weeks; next, we will begin to work on our dossier.

 August 2012

A lot has happened in August with our adoption process. First, we passed our home study!!! Our home study agency sent our approval to our adoption agency. A few days later, we received an approval letter from the adoption agency.

We also had to do an I800A, this is where you have to apply to the Homeland Security Office to be fingerprinted with the FBI. This was a pricy process, but with the help of Dustin’s summer job painting the school (a great blessing), we are able to pay for this, especially since we had to come up with the money in two days. A week ago, we received a letter in the mail from the Homeland Security Office in Memphis saying our appointment to be fingerprinted is on September 6. After this process, they will send us an approval letter within two weeks. Then, we have to send this approval letter to our adoption agency to go with our dossier. We are almost finished with our dossier. We are just waiting on the Homeland Security’s approval letter, and we have to compile a collage of pictures of our family’s everyday activities. They are very picky about the pictures; we can’t be in casual dress and we have to wear shoes. After our dossier is completed, our adoption agency will send it to China. However, they won’t send the dossier to China, until we pay them another big chunk. This is our biggest expense so far. So, we have started collecting empty soda cans. After our dossier is sent to China and reviewed by China, we will then be matched with a baby. They will send us a photo and profile of the child, and we will have 48 hours to accept or deny. But, who could deny any child ?!? After we accept our child, we will travel anywhere between 5 and 8 months after that to go get her. We still have a long way to go, but we are one more step closer in bringing Sophie home. Hopefully, soon we will be able to share a real photo of her. 

September 2012

We received our approval letter from the Homeland Security Office! So, now our dossier is complete! That is a big stress relief; the dossier was months of stress and paperwork. Our adoption agency now has our Dossier, but they won't send it to China until we finish paying them their fee. We are at a stand still now until the dossier is sent to China. However, we are doing several fundraisers to help with this fee. We just finished doing Scentsy, which helped a lot. Thanks to all those who purchased from Scentsy! We are still collecting soda cans. Soon, we are having an Origami Owl fundraiser party at my house. So, I believe we can do it; it is just hard knowing that Sophie is out there somewhere waiting for us to come get her and that this fee is the only thing holding us back. We still don't know who she is, but she is out there. That is why we are so anxious about getting this fee paid that way the adoption agency can send China our dossier. Then, China can start matching us with a little girl.

David Ryan is starting to understand a little more about the adoption. But, it is still hard for him to fully understand when you don't have a visual (picture) for him. He can show you Sophie's room, which is still the storage room. We will have to start working at that soon also. For now, we just want her home.

We will keep you posted as we go through this process of bringing home Sophie. Keep us in your prayers as we go through this long, yet exciting process and keep little Sophie in your prayers as well. God has already done so much for us to get us where we are now. We just can’t wait to bring Sophie home!!!

Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight

Someone's thinking of me and loving me tonight

Somewhere out there someone's saying a prayer

That we'll find one another in that big somewhere out there

And even though I know how very far apart we are

It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby

It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through

Then we'll be together somewhere out there

Out where dreams come true

And even though I know how very far apart we are

It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

And when the night wind starts to sing a lonesome lullaby

It helps to think we're sleeping underneath the same big sky

Somewhere out there if love can see us through

Then we'll be together somewhere out there

Out where dreams come true

One of my friends suggested that I blog (which I have never done) about our journey through international adoption, so here it goes....

THE BEGINNING

A few months ago, we started discussing adoption. We talked, researched, and prayed about it. (We were kind of leaning toward adopting a little girl from China. ) Then, one morning at church after praying about it there was a picture of a little Chinese girl on our church bulletin. A SIGN!!! Then, we meet up with two couples who have already gone through this. Seeing their little girls just made us realize even more that we wanted to do this. So, we then started the process. Dustin filled out the application and sent it to our agency. A few days later we were approved!!! Now, we are about to start our Home Study this Monday. Everyone has been really supportive about our decision. My mom is already wanting to buy some girl clothes. We will keep you updated as we continue this journey and blessing. We know there is a little girl somewhere out there waiting for us to bring her home to a loving mom, dad, and big brother.