New look!

Thanks Carla L. for my amazing blog makeover!!! Carla is an adoptive mom of a beautiful little girl from China. She and her husband are already talking about returning to China to adopt again. Being a planner she is doing blog makeovers, among other things, to start her adoption fund. She makes amazing hairbows that you can see and order at www.ladybugbowtique.blogspot.com
Thanks Carla! We love the new look.

TAs....Hopefully this week we'll get our TA and concrete travel dates. Still praying for a SN group to be able to leave mid-March instead of having to wait until the 27th. God has had perfect timing throughout this entire process and we know he has the perfect travel time planned out for us as well. Just wish I knew when it was.

We have an amazing park in Sumter called Swan Lake. It is beautiful and houses swans from all over the world. Today after Church we decided to go to Swan Lake. It was a little chilly, but we had some quality time together as a family. We cannot wait until we are able to take Abby Grace to see and feed the swans. V was saying today that maybe this will be our last trip to Swan Lake without Abby Grace, I sure hope so.

Look how our sweet girl grown!

We sent Abby Grace a care package earlier this month through Adele at blessed kids. To our surprise and delight she received 3 updated pictures of Abby Grace taken when she received her bear and clothes. She is getting so big! I hope the clothes we bought fit. If not we'll donate them to the orphanage and do some shopping. It looks as though she is still sleeping in a crib. So hopefully this weekend or next we'll put our crib up. It is kind of comforting to know that all 4 of our children will have slept in that crib. My grandmother bought us the crib when we found out we were pregnant with V.

Some families in our agency received their TAs today. They were told to expect travel on the 27th of March. However, AWAA is expecting more TA's next week (hopefully ours) and if that happens they will get together a SN group and travel earlier than the 27th. I can't wait to go to China!!!

Clothes and hair bows! It is so fun shopping for a girl again.

Well I must admit I did a bit of shopping this weekend for Abby Grace. It will still be cold in China when we travel in March. But when we get back to SC it will be spring weather. So I found some fantastic sales on winter stuff and even a few bargins on some spring/summer stuff. I bought mostly 2Ts but I did pick up a few 24months outfits as well. Since we really don't know what size she needs I figured better be safe and take both. If the 24 months are too small we will donate them to the orphanage.
We also found some cute hair bows for her to wear in her beautiful black hair. V would have bought more but I told her we'd get more when we got home. She insisted on pink of course, so I guess no matter what color her clothes are she'll be wearing pink bows or barrettes.

Guess who??????

It's Abby Grace and Hudson Teague!!!!!!!!!!A priceless snap shot and link to her past from the orphanage Christmas party care of another Ping Liang mom. This makes the 8th picture we have of her. Boy has she changed from her first picture when she was so small to this most recent one. It is so great to see Abby Grace and Hudson together since we'll be traveling with his family March. And V thinks it is great to see her sister with some hair! When we got Abby's first pictures she was very concerned because her hair was so short. I guess since they orphanage knows she is being adopted they are letting her hair grow out a bit. I sure do hope they don't cut it back again before we get her, I just went and bought her some barretts and a cute hairbrush today.

RA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have been waiting 104 days to finally get to post that. Stephanie called today and said they received our RA and it is being Fed-exd to us to sign and return by Wednesday. It was so funny. Sean had brought my z-pack to me at school this morning because I have a killer sinus infection. Then right after recess he showed back up at my classroom and said, "It came." I felt like screaming with joy but with 16 6-7 year olds I did not think that was a great idea. I think he was happy he was the one who got to take the call this time. He has to be at our house at 10 in the morning to get the package. Then he'll bring it to me to sign and return ASAP. From what Stephanie said we're looking at 4-6 weeks. March travel!!!!! I am so excited. I did a little shopping this weekend for Abby Grace. I found some great deals at JC Penney and Belks. Now I have to finalize my packing list and get busy packing. Boy that should be fun:)

I did get a special message from Cindi. She and her husbad had received Abby's referral last summer when the CCAA sent it to their agency. They prayed over it and decided that she was not their daughter and returned her file. Then a few short months later we received her referral and knew she was our daughter. Cindi shared with me that she and her family and church friends had been praying for Abby (Ava to them) and they were all excited to learn that we indeed were her family. She sent me a few pictures of Abby that I did not receive with her referral. She is a few months younger in the pictures that Cindi had. It is so amazing that someone has been praying for our daughter. I am so thankful to her and her family.

Thanks for all of your continued prayers. In just a few short weeks we should be heading out on our trip from SC to China to bring home Abby Grace. So stay tuned for an amazing journey.

100 days and counting

I sat and watched (and cried a little) as our waiting counter reached 100 days this past Thursday. 100 days of praying and waiting. 100 days of worrying. 100 days of thinking when will the phone ring and when will it be our RA? 100 days may not seem like a long time but when you are waiting to bring your child home it often times feels like an eternity. I can only imagine how much Abby Grace has changed in these 100 days. I wish I could play 20 questions with her SWI director. Here are a few of the many questions I'd ask. How much has she grown? How is her heart doing? Is she staying warm in the -17* temperatures? What size clothes should I bring for her? Bottle or cup? Crib or bed? I she scared of dogs? Is she close to a particular friend? The list could go on and on...... I just wish I could know what is taking so long. I wonder if they have even pulled our dossier from the room and begun to review it or is it still sitting on the shelf with the original DTC group. If we don't hear something by Wednesday of next week I have a feeling it will be at the end of Feb or early March before we get our RA. The CCAA is closing for a week for the CNY on Wednesday and won't reopen unitl 2/12.


Great news!!!!!!!!!
All of our families who were in China getting their children have arrived home safely. It was wonderful to be able to follow them as they were united with their children. Welcome home everyone:)

Prayer requests:
Please pray for the weather in China. They are experiencing the coldest temperatures in 50+ years. Many airports have shut down as well as the trains.
Please pray for Abby and the other children in the orphanages. Many orphanages are not heated at all and are packed with children needing warmth and love.
Please plary for all of the waiting parents who are longing to travel to China and bring their children home. Grant us peace knowing the God is in control of the timing.
Please pray for the December DTC/LID Peppermint Pearls group. Many of these families are feeling depressed at the long wait for their children. Many of them have mentioned considering special needs children. Pray for them as they think about bringing a special needs child into their families.
Pray for our family as we await word on our RA. May the Lord grant us patience and ease our anxiousness.