Adoption Process update

I know I haven't been posting a lot on our adoption, so I thought I would give an update.
Update: there's not a lot happening.
At least that's what it feels like. We originally thought that we might be able to travel by Christmas so many months back. We knew it was unlikely but a slight possibility. Now that seems like a distant dream.
As of right now, we don't have our LOA, letter of acceptance, from China. Everyone else that accepted referrals when we did already have had theirs for a while. We finally contacted our agency after waiting for a long time and she contacted the CCAA. Apparently our file was placed in the non-special needs waiting line because when we submitted our dossier we didn't have a match. I guess our agency had to tell the CCAA that our file needed to be moved to the special needs route which takes time. I just contacted our agency and got an e-mail back saying that they have been pushing for our LOA and that they hope to have it soon. However even if we do get LOA soon, IL still hasn't approved our home study. In what has been the LONGEST process of getting a home study update EVER, I have no idea when IL will approve our home study and what kind of hoops we will have to jump through to get it approved. What we thought would be a 1 month process has turned into a 6 month plus process so far. And still we don't have approval. I am going to try to contact the state directly because going through our social worker has been pretty frustrating. However, I don't hold out much hope that will make a difference. I am pretty sure they are closed for the Christmas holidays.
So we are just trusting that God will have us travel when He wants us to travel. His timing is different than ours. It is difficult for me to understand why, but He knows and I trust Him.
So that's where we stand with our adoption. I guess right now we are hoping to travel by March or April. If it happens before then, we will pleasantly surprised.

Merry Christmas 2011

I love Christmas! Most everything about Christmas-the lights, the cookies, the parties.
But most importantly I love the fact that over 2000 years ago, Jesus was born in a manger. That He made the ultimate sacrifice to enter into humanity and live among us. To be born as a helpless infant, completely dependent, yet completely perfect. This is a difficult concept for me to understand and try as I might, I probably will never fully grasp it. But, that's ok. I don't need to understand everything to understand that Christ came into our world for me. For me and you. So that we can have Hope and Peace. Not just at Christmas but throughout the year.
Thank you Jesus for entering into our world. For living among us and for dying on the cross years later so that we could have Hope and Peace.
Merry Christmas! May each of us enjoy celebrating Christ this Christmas!

Happy belated gotcha day!

So I am WAY late posting a celebratory gotcha day post.

I mean REALLY late.

BUT, better late than never, right??

I can not believe that it has been 4 years since we brought our little girl home. How has the time gone so quickly?!

Ellie-2007

Ellie 2011

I can't imagine our lives without Ellie. She brightens every day of my life and I am so thankful for the journey we have made through adoption.

She's inquisitive-constantly asking questions! To the point of almost driving me nuts sometimes!

She's doing so much better in school this year! Yay!

I just got home from her parent teacher conference and she is doing great! She still has some behaviors that we need to work on, writing skills that need development, and attention that needs focusing, but she's making lots of gains in the right direction!

Happy Gotcha Day to my beautiful Asian girl!

Thankful

Yay! The social worker texted me yesterday to say the clearances all came back and I picked up our homestudy today!!! I overnighted it today to USICIS so hopefully we will get an updated I800A soon! Here's praying that there's a chance we can travel before Christmas...that would be the best Christmas present ever!

So today I am thankful for...

1. Our homestudy being completed and sent to USICS

2. Being able to volunteer at my kid's schools

3. Great teachers for my kids

Adoption news

So I know I haven't updated the blog in a while.

There are always excuses, but the fact of the matter is that while I enjoy reading other people's blogs, I myself don't actually enjoy blogging. Much at all.

So there it is...

Maybe someday I will enjoy it...

However, we do have some exciting news to share to all of our fellow friends in the blogosphere!

We have accepted a referral of a little one year old girl!

Introducing Phynley Xiaoxue Miller!

She just turned one on September 10. She has a diagnosis of 3rd degree Cleft Lip and Palate. We are so excited to bring her home! We hope to travel by Christmas but also know at this point it will take an act of God. I know He can work all the details out and I am trusting in His plan for the timing.

When we moved here, we had to get our homestudy updated. Our agency gave us a recommendation of a local agency to do that update for us. Needless to say, the social worker with the agency is anything but efficient and after almost 4 months, our homestudy update, that would have taken our KY agency less than 2 weeks to complete, is still not done. Because of that we may not have the time to get our I800A amended and approved.

Please pray that we can get it all taken care of quickly and that we are able to travel by Christmas. Or that I can be at peace with the process if it takes longer.

Summertime

We have been busy the last few weeks. Very busy. We left IL the Sat after school let out and drove to NKY for the weekend. We had a great time staying with our friends the Lewis'. The girls had a great time seeing their girls and Ellie loved getting to spend some time with Jonah, their little boy. On Sunday, our old church had a service Sunday and our family helped package food that is delivered to hungry children locally, regionally and internationally. The organization that we partnered with is called Kid's Against Hunger and is a great organization.

Monday we drove to NJ for our annual beach vacation with our friends the Luke's. We had 7 days of fun in the sun, sand and surf. An amazing time with amazing friends!

Then I drove Jeff to the airport so that he could fly on to Boston for a business trip and I headed with the girls to Columbus, OH to visit my friend Kristen. Three days and loads of fun with Kristen and her kiddos and we were off to NKY again to visit with more friends. The girls and I had so much fun catching up with our NKY friends. The older girls had sleepover after sleepover so that by the time we got back to IL, they were TIRED!

Now we are back and I am busy transporting the kids to camps, catching up on laundry, housework, bills and groceries and hanging out with Ellie. Mackenzie has theatre camp for two weeks and Ainsley has Girl Scout camp this week. Both of them are having a blast!

Will post pictures soon of our adventures! (once I find the time to download them onto our computer:)

Girls on the Run 5k

Mackenzie has been involved in a program called Girls on the Run. It's a great program that encouraged girls to get up and moving, talks about self-esteem and positive role models for girls, etc. We have really enjoyed it. She had practice 2x/week for the last 2 1/2 months and on Sunday morning she compete in her first ever 5k with me. We were up at 6 to get ready to make the trek to St. Louis for the run. Jeff, the other two girls and my mom made the trek with us to watch us run in the rain and cold. It was rainy and cold...and did I mention rainy and cold...rainy and 51 degrees.

Mackenzie did great! She ran the whole way and completed it with a time of 34:59. I think when she does the program again in the fall she can improve her time. But I have to say getting around all the girls that stop and walk in the middle of the course is a bit tricky. There were over 5000 girls that ran! Pretty amazing! We probably could have shaved off a good 2 minutes without all the detours :) We are so proud of her for competing and completing her first 5k!

Here are some photos from the day...

All of us on our way up to the arch post-run

Mackenzie post-run

Mackenzie and Ainsley post-run

Mackenzie and I post-run

This is Mackenzie and I pre-run...

A New Day

I don't know why I haven't been taking the time to blog. I have the time but I would rather read other's blogs than write on my own!
We are enjoying our new area here in IL. The area has lots going on and we have begun to meet some new people.
The girls are all enjoying school and have met some new friends. Ironically Ellie is the one who seems to miss her KY friends the most. She talks about them fairly often and is really excited about going back to visit sometime this summer. We are leaning towards holding Ellie back for another year of Kindergarten. She has done well with this move but I think another year in Kindergarten for her to develop socially and to improve her writing skills would do her a world of good. The school has agreed to allow her to stay back but we have till the end of the year to make the "official" decision. Both Jeff and I think it's a good idea but we have asked the opinion of her current Kindergarten teacher too. I think he agrees but I will wait it out till the end of the year and make a final decision then. Ainsley will be moving to the school that Mackenzie currently attends and Mackenzie will be staying there for one more year. In our school district they break the schools into Primary (K-2) and Intermediate(3rd-5th). So Ainsley will be moving to Cassens in the fall. I think she's pretty excited and many of her friends are moving to the same school so that's good. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better transition to a new school system. We have been so pleased with how this year has finished up. Only 5 more weeks of school I think!

And I am slowly but surely meeting people and making friends. I love the area, the church that we have found and the mom's small group that I am attending. I love that God allowed there to be a family here that we already knew a little bit. My friend Lauren has really helped make the adjustment here so much easier! I already feel like I have connected with some of the women in the small group that I attend and I am meeting other women through volunteering at the school too.

I love volunteering! Trying to decide whether to pursue some kind of work opportunity for next year or just stick with volunteering for now. Praying for God to open doors and make it clear to me what He wants for me in the coming months too.
On the adoption front...slow going. We have to update our home study which we are in the process of trying to do. We have an agency and I am waiting for the social worker to call me back after her vacation to set up a time to come for a home visit. But I did e-mail Meg at our agency and she thinks the wait time will be closer to 12 months than 6 so it looks like it won't be till next year that we get to "meet" Phynley. I was hoping for this fall, but this allows us time to save up the money that we will need for the rest of the adoption. Waiting is always tough though! Patience isn't always my strong suit!

A few pics from the last few weeks...

Mackenzie was picked as a volunteer for the magic show at City Museum...she loved it!

Mackenzie posing the ball pit at City Museum

Ellie at her friend Emma's birthday party

Most of the kindergarteners for the Easter egg hunt. Ellie's teacher Mr. D is the guy in the photo giving the directions

Our flat terrain

Kicking Cancer kickball tournament-Ellie's teacher has the pink wig...

Mackenzie field trip to the historical Ben Stephenson house

All the girls in Mackenzie's class

City Museum-an amazing museum we took the girls to over spring break here in St. Louis

Kitchen Update...

Before...





After...

And the countdown is...

4 more days until Grammie I comes!

The girls are very excited that their Grammie I is coming for a visit!

She is not our first guest in our new home but she is the first family to come visit.

Back a few weeks ago we had some friends stop through on their way from Taylor University to Colorado. It was a brief overnight stay on the way there and then again on their way back from spring break. They were our first "official" guests.

However we are very excited for our first "official" family guest to come and stay!

Here are some pics of our new abode...

The stairs and hallway

The girls bathroom

Ellie's Room

Ellie's room #2

Ainsley's room#1

Ainsley's room #2

The living room

Dining Room

Main Floor Bathroom

Front of the house-yay for 3 car garage!! :)

Happy Almost 6th Birthday Ellie!

So we had Ellie's birthday party this year at Chuck E. Cheese.

She has been asking for a party at Chuck E. Cheese since shortly after she became a part of our family and I have put her off the last two years so...

Here is her birthday in pictures (and not very good ones at that since I left our camera on our kitchen counter)...

Ellie and dad in the ticket blaster...

Ellie and Chuck E. Cheese

Ellie with her Happy Birthday crown

Ellie

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of any of Ellie's friends. I used my camera phone, which isn't exceptional, to get the few photos that I got...

She had fun but she wasn't feeling great. She has had a virus all week and is still not feeling great today. She also got a bloody nose that took almost all of her play time to get to stop bleeding. We did let her stay longer at the end of her party to play because of her bloody nose and she did say she had a fun time. I was just sad that she wasn't feeling well and that she seemed "out of it" for a lot of the time.

Her actual birthday is tomorrow and that's when we will give her our gifts.

We have leftover cupcakes from Ellie's birthday and cookie cake from Mackenzie's birthday.

This is NOT good...and by not good, I mean really NOT good...