Package Ready

Well our package to Elliana at her orphanage is ready to send. I just need to throw in some additional paperwork and seal up the box. I hope to have that done and sent out today. Our agency told us that our paperwork was sent to China the week that we sent it back to them so I guess that we are on about day 10 of waiting for TA (travel approval). Here is a picture of the box that we are sending to Ellie at her orphanage. It includes a soft blanket, an outfit for her, a disposable camera to take come pictures of her and her nannies, a toy-she likes ones that make noise (of course opposite to what most parents like!), a picture album with pictures of us in it, and some stickers and candy for the other kids in the orphanage. Included with the package are a list of questions in English and Chinese about her schedule, routine, etc that we hope to get back when we travel to get her and a letter to her orphanage director in English and Chinese.

Happy Mother's Day

We spent most of the afternoon just relaxing which was nice. Jeff and Mackenzie made me breakfast in bed before I had to be up and out for church. The women's 2007 retreat band, of which I play the acoustic guitar, led worship for all 3 of the services at our church this weekend so that consumed a large amount of my time. It was a lot of fun and had a great time with it. We took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner at Mackenzie's request. She thought it would be great for me as I would be able to pick out what they ate..how this was even logical reasoning I have no idea but we did it anyway!:) The girls got me High School Musical and a wonderful card. Now I know some of you may be laughing as that's a teen movie...but I thought it was awesome and really wanted it so laugh away. Jeff got me a Strong's Concordance and a Third Day CD compilation. And while many of you will think that odd and boring, it was what I wanted. I think all of you would agree I am a bit odd so this should not be out of the norm for me.
Anyway, on to other things. We hope that our agency gets our paperwork off to China soon. I am not sure of a time frame but will probably e-mail our agency tomorrow to see if it will get off this coming week or not as we haven't heard that it got sent out yet. On our part, we need to meet with our social worker once again to do an addendum to our home study. She sent us a list of questions to go over and we have to meet with her and talk about them. I think that's the last of what we have to do with paperwork until we get ready to travel.
Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and got to enjoy some time with your family.

Monday

Mackenzie had off school today so we went to the park to eat lunch with some friends and then off to the Children's Museum in Cincinnati with the same friends. Mackenzie was feeling a bit under the weather with a cold but about an hour after giving her ibuprofen, she perked up and was fine. I think that drug is a wonder-drug! Mackenzie had ballet which is one of Ainsley's favorite things to do. You may wonder why? The popcorn machine! Both girls love popcorn so Ainsley gets some when Mackenzie has ballet and Mackenzie gets it when Ainsley has ballet:)
Here are some pics of the girls with their upcoming recital outfits on. Aren't they cute?:)

Announcing...

We would like to share our great news with all of you. After much prayer and deliberation we would like to introduce you to (drum roll please...............)
Elliana Yuchun Miller!!!!!!!!!!





She was born on February 14, 2005 and is currently residing at the Social Welfare Institute of Yiwu City. She is approx 31 inches tall and weighs 22 pounds. We are so excited about our new little girl and hope to travel to get her by September. We selected her off of our agency's special needs list. She has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy but after much prayer, deliberation and consultation with doctors here in the greater Cincinnati area, we feel like that was a misdiagnosis and that we will be able to take care of her needs in our family. The girls are very excited about having a new sister. They are also very excited about the potential of meeting up with our friends in China so we are hoping to be able to work that out while we are there. Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. If there are specific things that you would like to pray for...continued finances for travel to China, for Ellie to be healthy and get "caught up" developmentally and for us as we prepare in the next few months to travel. We are planning on trying to update our blog more regularly with family updates in addition to the adoption so please stay tuned.