We have our Travel Approval!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!

I received a call at work on September 6th. We have our Travel Approval to bring Meizi home! Our social worker, Heather says we received it in "record time".
We should have our definite dates next week and should be able to shop around for our plane tickets. We have to apply for our Visa's too and still have a travel meeting to attend. There is so much to do and we travel in about three weeks. I was up all night last night and couldn't sleep. I was so excited but also anxious about all we have to get done before we travel.

We started this journey in December and it has seemed like the wait has taken forever. Now that we are finally traveling in three weeks and we are going to see our new baby daughter, time is flying by.

AUGUST 22ND, WE GET THE CALL, YIPEEE!!!!!!

On Wednesday, on the anniversary date of our referral for Jade Lin, we got the call from our social worker that our letter of acceptance arrived! We were accepted to adopt Meizi Meilin!!! I was at work when the call came in and all I heard was "This is the call you have been waiting for" when I burst out in tears. My friends and co-workers were crying, cheering and clapping for me with hugs from all, even my office manager. I have only known them for three months and they were so sweet and happy for us. They brought me flowers the next day.
All the fear, worry and anxiety were lifted from my shoulders when I got the call and the relief flowed from me with my tears. I was over joyed too but mostly relieved. I was expecting the worst after not hearing anything for 120 days. My fear was that we were going to be denied to adopt Meizi Meilin and I don't know how I would have handled that. Thank God, it didn't turn out that way and we will be traveling in 6-8 weeks. We have to wait for our travel approval now, which will take four weeks, then we travel 2-4 weeks after that, which puts us in China on my birthday again;-) We could be holding Meizi Meilin for the 1st time on October 28th, my birthday;-) could God be planning this more perfectly?;-)

Now we prepare for our journey. We have to pack and prepare the kids for our journey. Hopefully, we will be taking our 14 year old son, Kelly and Jade Lin. I really am excited for them to see the "Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and take the Hutong Tour, which takes us through the old part of Beijing in a bike-drawn carriage. It was so much fun and I would love for the kids to follow the same journey we made when we brought Jade Lin home.

There is one other family at our agency that received their letter of acceptance the same day we did and I can't wait to e-mail them and meet them. It will be so much fun to have another family to travel with. We could even travel with group 92 from our agency. They are waiting for referrals and could receive them any day. Either way, alone, with another family or with a large group, we will be thrilled to be traveling to China and bringing Meizi Meilin home. It can't come soon enough for me!! Our daughter is 11 months older then the photo we have of her and I know she will have changed so much but a mother knows her child, no matter what age they are. Even though Jade Lin was 6 months older then her photo, I would know her little heart shaped mouth, any where;-)

Now Please! hurry, hurry, hurry TA (travel approval)!! Meizi Meilin is waiting!

110th day and STILL WAITING!

I haven't posted for so long and so much has happened.
My friend left on Thursday to bring her little, three year old son home from China.
It is the 110th day since we sent in our letter of intent to adopt Meizi Meilin from China, who was 16 months at the time and is now 20 months old. Our social worker sent us an up-date on our dossier and letter and told us that we made it past the first review and are into the 2nd review now. I found out from another parent who works with waiting children's families that our dossier is in the matching room with the Waiting Child director in China and if he approves our dossier and match of Gao Shao Qiao (Meizi Meilin)then we should receive our Letter Of Acceptance to adopt her in a week or two.
That would add a month to travel approval which would bring us into September and then we would travel 2-4 weeks after our travel approval, which would bring us into October before we would leave for China to bring Meizi Meilin home. The wait has been indescribable and seeing parent's with the same Log in Date as us, getting their LOA and Travel approval, weeks before us is unbelievably hard!

The girl's new window went in yesterday and Scott has been staining the trim to finish the window today. We will have the shades and valance hung back up and I'm painting the shelf with the pocket-rod that goes over their window today. I'm positive all this nesting will bring on our Letter Of Acceptance this week or next. I just have to believe that and have faith that it is going to happen or I don't know how I will deal with news to the contrary.

We have to school shop for the kids supplies and a new outfit or two, back packs and shoes and we don't want to spend a cent until we are finished paying for the adoption, except for our airfare and hotel lodgings in China. Hopefully we will know soon what we will have left to pay and what kind of airfare we are looking at so we will know whether we can take Jade Lin and Kelly. Then theres the decision on what to do with Jesse. Who will he stay with or who will stay with him when he is in school? So much is still up in the air which leaves me with so much anxiety. I just have to believe it will all work out or I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning and function and go to work.
Please pray that all works out the way God has intended and we hear good news soon!

Day 90 tomorrow and no LOA for us yet ;-(

I have been down and blue seeing other parent's with the same dossier log in date, receiving their letters of acceptance to adopt their waiting children, from China and there has been no word for us. We are painting the girl's room this weekend and are praying the "Feng Shui" good vibes, bring our "Letter Of Acceptance" when we are finished!

I love the main color of the walls! It is a warm, sunny, creamy, buttery yellow and so cheerful and comforting. I can see the cheery room, filled with our two daughter's, this winter and even in the coldest, darkest day, it will still be warm, sunny and cheerful;-) The light rose, stripes on the top of the wall, will go on tomorrow, to coordinate with the Chinese lantern boarder. I can't wait to see it finished! I think the walls will remind me of happy memories on a carnival, merry-go-round and I hope the room brings the girl's as much joy.

We want to get the girl's room done as soon as possible so we can move Jesse into his new room. He is so excited. The two boys are at Scout camp this week and the house will be so quiet without them. I miss them already and they just left today. Thank-God I will have the two rooms to keep my busy, after work. I'm usually so exhausted after the eight-hour day that I'm hoping I will be too tired to miss them. Somehow, I don't think it will matter.

My friend received her "Travel Approval" to bring her little boy home from China. She leaves in August and will be home before school starts in September. I was secretly wishing we would be traveling together, but with the delay in us receiving our "Letter Of Acceptance to adopt and then having to wait another month for our "Travel Approval", there will be no chance of that;-(

Please pray that we hear good news to bring our little girl home. She is 19 months now and getting older by the month. The wait is excruciating and getting harder by the week.

My friend received her LOA after 109 days!!!

I just found out on Friday, after getting home from work that my friend received her letter of acceptance to adopt a little three year old boy from China! We traveled with her husband when we brought Jade Lin and their daughter home from China in 2002 and have become good friends. The girls have been in preschool together and dance since they were 4 years old. They should be traveling in August sometime. I'm so happy for them! She has waited longer then most, 109 days for her Letter of acceptance and I'm thrilled she finally received it! If we get our letter of acceptance this week or next, to adopt Meizi Meilin, we could be traveling together! We are with the same agency and it would be a dream come true, if we could travel with friends!

The letters of acceptance that were received by other families went up to April 19th, that I've heard of and I pray we get our call this week! My mother's birthday is on June 28th and our dossier to adopt Jade Lin, went over to China on her birthday, 5 years ago. It would be so special if we received our letter to adopt Meizi on the same day. One can only hope and pray.

I'm taking the kids to a movie today. We haven't done it for years, as a family and now that I'm finally working, full time, we can afford to do it and it is a nice reward for being away from home all week and the boys doing so well on their own;-)

WE COULD BE NEXT!!!!!

It's day 59 in the wait for our LOA (letter of acceptance) to adopt Meizi Meilin Rose. I read on my April, special needs group that an agency received LOA's for parents that had a "log in date" of April 18th! We have a log in date of April 24! WE COULD BE NEXT! I'm praying we get a call this week from our agency! I keep my cell phone in my pocket and it's on all the time, when I'm at work. When it rings, My heart jumps and my adrenaline races.

I finished my first week at work and by Friday, I was feeling much better about placing customer's orders and answering questions about our stock of eye wear. I stuck gold when I landed this job! The 6 women I work with are so nice and go out of their way to help me and the two owners that I have met are such nice people. In between calls, we visit and catch up on everyones lives. I am so blessed to have found this position in this company. I found out this week, there are three owners and they aren't such a small company and they are in the process of buying another company so it is a great time to get in with this company, as it expands and grows. I don't know how I was so fortunate to be hired but I think God had a hand in this also. This job will afford us to adopt Meizi, sell our home and buy a larger one (which we will need with our growing family) move into a better neighborhood and put our kids through college. It is such a blessing!

Hopefully this will be our week to receive our LOA and we will know for sure that Meizi Meilin Rose will be our new daughter. Jade Lin is talking about her and her coming home, every day and she is so excited and tired of waiting for her too. Hurry up, LOA, I have a little one here who can't wait to be a big sister to her little Mei-Mei (little sister);-)

Day 56! 2nd day of working full time

I finished my 2nd day of working full time and I feel better then I did yesterday. my work is extremely busy on Mondays, which is good for business but a little hairy when you are starting work for the first day and trying to absorb all you can. I went to sleep thinking about what I was suppose to remember from that day. I know after a week, I will remember how to enter orders, I just have to give myself a break and realize, it just takes time. It was only my 2nd day and my 1st day of entering orders and I made a mistake, which I felt awful about. I have a way of being really hard on myself about making mistakes and just hate it when I do. I know I'm going to after one day but I'm a perfectionist and really take it hard. I'm really excited to be working and I know I'm really going to like the people I work with, they are so nice and really helpful, it's just learning and feeling comfortable with what I'm suppose to know. I met the 2nd owner today and he is great too. I couldn't find a more wonderful place to work.

It's day 56 in the wait for our Letter of Acceptance to adopt Meizi. It's coming from China, from the Chinese Center Of Adoptive Affairs and parent's that had Log In Dates of April 1st through April 12th received their letters, so I know they really are being mailed out and our turn should be next! We have a Log In Date of April 24th, so we should be in the next batch, which could be in two weeks! Every time I get an e-mail or a phone call from our agency, I go nuts and my heart skips a beat thinking our agency is calling with our Letter Of Acceptance.

Hopefully, in two weeks, we will have our acceptance and can start waiting for our travel approval!!;-) Come on LOA's!!!!! Meizi is waiting