handsful

Our boys this morning, praying for “the form”

Our I-171H worries are over! The USCIS faxed it to our agency TODAY! We are so relieved, happy, and thankful – especially for everyone prayers! We were able to speak to the representative for our local Congressman, John Mica, this morning. We gave her all the information and faxed over a release form and our formal request for help around 11am. She mentioned that she had a good relationship with the officers at our local USCIS…obviously!

Our agency assures us we will travel with our group on 2/13 (yes!!) and they are requesting our consulate date, which we will hear about in the next few days. Praise God!!

Now, Lainey, your days are numbered in that orphanage. We have been praying that the nannies are doing what they can to prepare her for her big life change. Specifically, that they have been showing her the photo albums with our labled pictures in them so that she learns what we look like. We would love for you to join us in praying for her!

We’ve received no word from our local immigration office regarding the status of “the form” we need (I-171H) in order to travel soon. We’ve called, we’ve emailed, our agency has called and they’ve emailed. Nothing. So, the next step…

Today we faxed our local Senator, asking him for help in our case. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear from him today. (notice a theme here?) Tomorrow, we’re going to call his office and the office of our Congressman. We would very much appreciate your prayers in this matter…the clock is ticking on us being able to travel with our group on 2/13. We know that God has this under control and that His plans will work out. We are just so ready to meet our Lainey. Thanks :)

…the elusive immigration letter that we’ve STILL not received (more on that later…), here is Randy’s bench creation!

He designed it himself.

It’s the perfect size for 3, with Abbey and Lainey on the other side. We’ll take one of the other chairs out and put Lainey’s clip-on chair.

About immigration. Our agency has been calling and emailing this week, and only today got notice that they’ve READ one of the emails, but not responded back. We’ve called and left a message and sent 2 emails…nothing. Our agency isn’t panicking yet, they say that we’ll be okay as long as the form is received by the end of the month. I’m still praying that I find it in the mailbox tomorrow. We’re so ready to begin making flight arrangements!

I know, I already posted this picture on another post, but do you really ever get tired of seeing her little face??

We received the call today, China has sent our Travel Approval! Our travel dates are 2-13 through 2-28. However, there is STILL something we need before our agency can begin making travel arrangements for us. We’re still waiting on our I-171H form from the US immigration. It should be here (I think I recently said this?) any day now. Our agency is making a call tomorrow to double check on it. The gal in travel told me today that even if the form doesn’t show until next week, our travel dates should still be fine. Chinese New Year in China is 2/7 and the whole place shuts down during that week. This actually worked out well for us…it’s allowing us to be home for Ab’s 12th b-day (2/9) and giving us more time to wait for that pesky form.

We are so thankful to God for working all these things out for us, and so anxious to meet our little girl!

What do you do when you should be packing for a trip to China? Make funnel cake, what else?! I was browsing around the blog “life in a shoe” (on my sidebar) and found that they regularly make funnel cake at home. We all love funnel cake, so I just had to give it a try. Big hit! Payton said it best…”Mom, yours are way better than at the fair!”. I love that boy. I’ll go back to stressing over my to-do list tomorrow. Today, we’re makin’ memories!

Randy loved making them as much (well…) as eating them

Abbey’s turn to dust with powdered sugar, with Marley anxious for her turn. The boys were in there helping too, just didn’t manage to get a good pic of them!

Still waiting on the elusive “Travel Approval” from the CCAA. We did receive a call from the travel department of our agency on Friday, confirming a few things with us (who is traveling, how many hotel rooms will we need, our port city, etc.) They expect our TA to show up next week! After that arrives, they will work with the CCAA to make an appointment with the Chinese consulate in Guangzhou. Once that appt. is made, they decide our beginning and end dates of travel. They’re guessing our travel will be from about 2/13-2/28. This is all assuming that TA does come next week. And, another hiccup is that we’re STILL waiting on our re-newed I-171H form after being fingerprinted again on 1/7. Yes, again. Our fingerprints had “expired” so we had to go through all that paperwork again. Randy wonders how our fingerprints could expire? So, our lovely US immigration dept has to approve us to travel to China once again. I think we’ve contributed to the devastation of at least one forest, with all the paperwork we’ve done with this adoption! lol…

Here’s to good news next week…TA and Immigration approval!

Our church family group gave us a wonderful baby shower on Sunday! Our friends Anne and Jon (“life is a zoo – Anne” on my sidebar) hosted the shower at their home. I gathered all the amazing gifts on our table when we got home…

Adorable clothes! Can’t wait to see Lainey in these outfits. There is also an adorable “welcome” mini-flag with…yep, a ladybug on it!

More clothes! Plus, 2 so-soft blankets, a night-light ladybug, a stuffed ladybug, a personalized tag for the diaper bag, and an adorable hand-made ladybug bracelet for Lainey. In fact, the bracelet, tag and flannel tie blanket were all handmade by Angie :)

The most surprising gift?? Easy…our 100 Good Wishes Quilt! We were floored that our good friend, Rhonda, had already finished it! It was so emotional, seeing all those squares that I’ve collected for almost 2 years, finally made into a quilt. Take a look, it’s gorgeous…

Here is a close-up…can you see what I see?

ladybugs!! Yes, there are ladybugs embroidered all across the quilt! We adore our quilt!

Here are some more pics from the shower…

That cake was SO good! Chocolate through and through…

It was a couple’s shower, so Randy got to join in on the fun ;)

Smile, ladies!