Birthday Pictures!

We had a care package sent to Winn for his birthday on December 10, but yesterday, December 4, we got pictures of Winn's party. The orphanage director was going to be busy on December 10, so Winn got his birthday package early. He doesn't look all that happy in the pictures, but who knows what's going through his head. He has a lot of things to think about now. Like leaving the only "home" he's ever known, even if it is just an orphanage. Leaving all his friends. Moving halfway around the world to live with a strange looking family (Oh wait! Tessa and Jerremy look like him!) Having to make new friends. And on and on...

Today we got a call from our adoption agency. Dana told me our Letter of Approval (LOA) came. We have to sign it and return it ASAP. She said travel will be in about four months! That puts us into April - Doug's busiest time of year with taxes. She said we do have some say in the exact date, so we could wait until after April 16 to travel. I was excited to know we could travel a month sooner than we had originally been told, but then I looked at the kids' school calendar and saw that PSSA testing, along with other cyber school testing, will be taking place those two weeks in April! If we push it back until they're done with all of that, we would miss Kendall's grad school graduation. So now I'm wondering how we'll do it. We don't want to make Winn wait for us any longer than he has to. We can't forget our Chinese exchange student who will still be here until the end of May! We will have to find somewhere for him to stay while we're gone for 15 days!

When you start the process of an adoption from China, you're told travel will be anywhere from 10-14 days. It was 14 days for Tessa, but it was 15 days for Jerremy. We never questioned why, that's just the way it was. Well this time we thought we'd only have to be gone 10-12 days because Winn's province is in Guangzhou where all adoptive families have to end up, regardless of what province their child is from. For whatever reason, our agency requires us to fly into Beijing first for a few days to get acclimated to the time difference -- travel around and see all the sights there, like the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, acrobat show, etc. Then you fly to your child's province and spend 5 business days, then fly on to Guangzhou for a week to finalize everything. We thought that since we will be in Guangzhou the whole time, we wouldn't have to be there as long. The travel coordinator for our agency told me that we actually will be in China longer because Winn's province requires us to stay 7 business days instead of 5, but I still don't understand why we have to be gone 15 days. GRRRRR! I need to relax and let God take care of the details. Then my life would be a whole lot less stressful. I wonder at what age I'll learn to do that.

Here are the pictures from Winn's 9th birthday party.

Still Here

I know it's been awhile. I just haven't felt like blogging. I'm not good at putting my thoughts into words, especially for others to read (if anyone even reads this stuff!)

We got approval from the CCCWA to accept our late paperwork! That was an exciting day! Lots of dancing and singing and praising God! We went through so much to get our paperwork done on time and sent in, but a combination of our government and the CCCWA, kept us from getting it logged in before the October 1st deadline. Since our son-to-be is considered hard-to-place, our agency asked for leniency so that he won't have to wait any longer than necessary for his family. They agreed! It looks like we'll travel sometime next spring.

I read some very good news today! We started the adoption process this time around back in March when I saw a blog about a 12 year old girl who was aging out in China. She had a repaired cleft lip and palate, and she looked so sweet and sad in her picture. We started the paperwork specifically to bring her home. There was a family who had wanted to adopt her, but they had 4 younger children at home and had been advised by many people that adopting a child out of birth order, especially a girl, might not be a good thing. So they decided to not pursue her adoption and were advocating for someone else to adopt her. When I heard that, I had reservations too. When our homestudy provider told us they wouldn't approve us to adopt out of birth order, I was relieved to not have to make the decision. I felt so bad for her and continued to see her picture on others' blogs advocating for her. Today I read that the family who originally wanted to adopt her, with the four younger children, have moved forward with her adoption anyway! Such wonderful news! I have read other blogs where families have adopted older children out of birth order and it's worked out fine. Maybe next time! :) I texted Doug today to tell him about the Duggar's expecting baby #20, and I told him we're only 15 away from catching up to Jim Bob and Michelle! He just laughed. Who said I was joking?!

Marlee and Russell have been home a little over 2 weeks now. We've had a great time catching up with them and spending time playing with their two beautiful kittens! We will be so sad to say goodbye to them on Saturday, especially since they'll be moving to Alaska in April for four years!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll update more often.

Still nothing!

So much for the help of our congressman! Still nothing from the USCIS. We've been in touch with our agency and another homestudy provider. Just waiting to hear what we need to do and how much it will cost. The director of our adoption agency, the person who told us we had plenty of time to get our paperwork done and logged in before the October 1 deadline, isn't there anymore! We got a phone call Friday afternoon telling us he is no longer with the agency. We don't know why, but we do know the interim director is the same man who was the director when we adopted Tessa and Jerremy. He had left the agency to do mission work with his family in Vietnam. They are back in the States and he will be taking over until they can find a replacement. We have a lot of respect for him, so we're not concerned.

On the school front, things are looking up! The kids are still doing cyber school, but just as I was about to crash and burn, God intervened and an angel stepped in and rescued us! I now take the kids to a cyber school building, with a wonderful real teacher who guides them through their lessons and has patience like no other! We're so thankful for Miss Patty and Achievement House. And when the snow flies this winter and I don't want to brave the snow covered roads to get them to school, we can still do school from our cozy home! Thank you, God! You're awesome!

Our exchange student comes from a very warm part of China, so he doesn't like our fall-like weather we've been having. He wore his big heavy winter coat to church on Sunday, and he asked if winter will be this cold! Oh my! He's in for a real surprise when it gets below 0 deg.

TGIF

I'm so glad it's Friday! This cyber school stuff is very stressful! I'm almost ready to give up, but I won't! Tessa and I don't like it at all, but Jerremy likes it a lot. We get started around 8:15 a.m., work until almost Noon, and are still at it at 4:00 p.m.! We stop just because we can't take anymore, and then after we eat dinner, we finish up what we didn't get done. I'm thinking I might be able to handle traditional homeschool better than this. It's just making us so unhappy and it's not a good feeling.

Our exchange student is very nice. He seems to be over the jet-lag-tiredness now. He told his mother he likes my cooking and he likes how Doug jokes around with him. I made him plain rice the second day he was here. He said, "I eat rice two times a day for 16 years. I no want anymore rice!" We laughed. One of our favorite meals is a microwave chicken and rice dish that I make every few weeks. So the night I served it, I made him leftover ravioli that he liked the night before. Turns out he liked the chicken and rice so much, he had 3 servings and didn't touch the ravioli.

It's almost October 1, and we haven't gotten our paperwork back from the USCIS. Our adoption agency told us to get our congressman involved. We did that, but it's too late now for us to get it back, drive it to Harrisburg for certification, overnight it to New York City to the Chinese Consulate and wait for them to review it and return it, and then have our agency send it to China and be logged in before October 1! It's looking like we'll be having to find a new homestudy provider, pay thousands of dollars more, and then send that to the USCIS for another 90 day wait!

There's nothing easy about adoption. I was thinking today that had we not decided to adopt again, our lives would be moving along at a comfortable pace, with the kids still at their small Christian school and me probably only working one part-time job. None of this crazy cyber school stuff trying to save money; no stressing about the paperwork getting back in time. It sounded pretty good, until I thought about Winn still in China with no family to call his own. And as much as the thought of a comfortable life is, I wouldn't give up one day of the process to bring him home! God will get us through, no matter what!

Disappointed... but thankful!

Our yard sale fundraiser was disappointing. My expectations were too high. I feel let down in a lot of different ways, but I am very thankful for the few people who helped us and for those who donated things. We are so very grateful to our friends Wes and Tricia who have gone above and beyond what we could ever ask for! Thankful for Kendall, Brandon, & Allison's help, and the help of our CCCS friends! It was a lot of work and we're exhausted. Still trusting God, who never disappoints, to provide what we need in one way or another!

Our Chinese exchange student will be here in the early morning hours on Saturday. He's going to need a dresser, and when Winn comes home, it will be his. We found an antique dresser two weeks ago that was nice and solid and the price was great. Should have bought it then! We went back today to get it, but it was already sold. Live and learn. We've never gone to yard sales or been antiquing, but because ours was coming up, we hit some yard sales and antique stores two weekends ago to try to see if we could get an idea of how to price things. We had so much fun! But now we'll know that if we see something that we really like, and the price is right, buy it then!

We had another chicken given to us two weeks ago, but it turns out she's a rooster and he can't stay. He's mean to the hens and he's mean to anyone who gets too close to him. He refuses to go into the coop at night with the others. We just couldn't tell at first that it was a rooster. He's only 5 months old. I looked online to see what the experts had to say. Over the past two weeks, his tail has gotten longer and his feathers are very shiny, both signs of a rooster. The real giveaway was his weak, new crowing that we thought we heard occasionally, and now he's started crowing in the early morning hours. Bye bye Brownie!

Tomorrow starts the last full week of summer vacation. It's gone by so fast, as usual. The kids are bummed, but even though they'll be home doing cyber school this school year, I'm ready to get into a routine again.

Well, I'm so tired I could fall asleep at the computer! Goodnight all!

Fingerprint Appointments

We got our fingerprint appointments! But they aren't until August 30 in Pittsburgh. The October 12 deadline is definitely looking doubtful. Prayers would be appreciated.

I'm so proud of my firstborn! Kendall got a 4.0 for this semester! She graduated from high school with a 4.0+, college with a 4.0, and aiming for a 4.0 for graduate school! Can't figure out where she got her brains from... Congratulations, Kendall!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Waiting (not so) Patiently

It's been almost 3 weeks since we mailed our paperwork to the USCIS office in Dallas. Still waiting for fingerprint appointments. I was hoping for something in the mail today, but it didn't come.

The kids are going to try cyber school this year. We've been cutting costs every way we can, and short of sending them to public school, we've decided cyber school would be a good thing to try. We tried a Christian-based online school last year, and it didn't work out at all! We were so disappointed, but after only a week I couldn't deal with all the crying (me!) They had to type everything, and being 8 and 9 years old, they could only hunt and peck and it was very frustrating being behind after only 3 days. So we sent them back to the Christian school. Anyway, we got a desk for Jerremy at a yard sale over the weekend. Their books for cyber school came last week and their computers were delivered Monday. Praying for a great school year.

We are getting an exchange student! Ran is a 15 year old boy from China! He will be here in a few weeks and will go to school at the Christian school. We're hoping to learn some key phrases in Chinese that will help Winn transition to our family. Maybe Ran will even still be here when Winn gets home and we would have an interpreter!

I haven't baked a gob cake in almost 2 weeks! I'm not complaining. I was so busy with work and baking that I was getting pretty stressed, so until my second part-time job is over in November, I'm not going to push the gob cakes. Once that's over, I hope to be baking up a storm, including some pumpkin spice gob cakes!

Marlee's birthday was yesterday. I can't believe she's 20 already! We got to skype with her and Russell last night. It was so good to be able to at least see her on her special day. Kendall and Brandon are at the beach. They stopped at Marlee and Russell's on the way there for a few days. It makes me so happy to have my girls spending precious time together and loving it! As kids they didn't get along much, so to see them as adults wanting to spend time with each other is a great blessing!

Off to work on yardsale stuff!

Chickens

Our chickens make me laugh! I could be in a bad mood, but as soon as I see a chicken running, I laugh so hard! We have 26 chickens now. We've had a good supply of eggs for almost a year. But now that people are finding out how good fresh brown eggs are (I won't mention any names, but you know who you are), along with me using so many in my gob cakes, we're having a hard time keeping up with the demand. I told Doug we're going to have to add on to the chicken coop and get more. He's all for the idea of getting more chickens, but he insists there's plenty of room already for more.

It's hard to believe summer vacation will be over in a month! The kids have been working on some summer homework (grudgingly) and still have some reading to do. I can't understand their dislike for reading. I love to read and, if time allowed, that's what I would do all day, every day. If anyone has any recommendations on some books that might keep their interest and make them look forward to reading, I'd love to hear them.

That's all for today. Have a great weekend!

Hot Summer Day

Yard sale date is August 19 & 20! Not August 18 & 19. :)

Can you believe how hot it is outside? I don't like the heat, but I don't like the cold more, so I'll try not to complain!

The kids were at church camp last week. They had a great time! I'm so glad it wasn't this week when it was so hot.

We did spend some time in the heat this week. Our church had a mission event in our Jerusalem! We had wanted to go somewhere to work on a mission project, but we just couldn't find anywhere that needed our help (hard to believe, I know!) So our pastor had a brilliant idea (a God-given idea, if you will!) We used the money we had budgeted for a mission trip and stayed at home and worked in the community -- painting, cleaning, building, prayer walking, and finished the week up by having a children's fair! It was so much fun working together all week and seeing what we had accomplished for the Lord! It was great seeing the teens and little kids helping with every aspect of it.

Our USCIS paperwork is FINALLY ready to be mailed. We had some glitches that had to be worked out, but it's ready. Not sure if we will make the deadline to be logged in before October 12, though. If we were still able to send it to the old PA INS office, we wouldn't have anything to worry about. The PA office was so fast and both times before we had it processed and returned in less than 3 weeks. But that was then. Now everyone has to send their paperwork to Texas and it takes at least 45 days. After that we have to drive our dossier to Harrisburg to be state certified, and then overnight it to the Chinese Consulate in New York City for authentication. I don't remember how long that takes, but after that, it gets mailed to China to be logged in. The October 12 deadline seems out of reach for us, so please pray for mountains to be moved in order for it all to happen by that date. If it doesn't, we're ok with that. God has the timing all figured out, and we'll just go along with whatever He says!

Our 5K fundraiser is tomorrow at Yellow Creek State Park, 9:00 a.m. We're finishing up some last minute details for it. We haven't had as much response to it as we had hoped, but I think it will be fun. As much as we need rain, I'm hoping it will hold off until after the race.

We were going to have our big yard sale fundraiser here, but a few people told us they thought we should try to do it somewhere else. My friend's husband has a building on his business property that we can use, and they have offered to help us move all our stuff there on his trailer. We're so blessed by great friends! It will be August 19 & 20. If you have anything you'd like to get rid of, please let us know.

My gob cake sales have increased, thanks to my niece Leah who made me my own "book of face" page - Gob Cakes Galore. In addition to the gob cake venture, I started a second part-time job, temporary until the end of November, giving me 40 hours a week. God is surely providing for this adoption!

That's all for now. Have a great weekend!

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated with a picnic at the home of some friends yesterday. The food and fellowship was great! As usual, I forgot my camera at home. It's kind of a joke with us. We never get pictures of anything we should. I thought when I started to blog that when I learned how to post pictures, I would be taking them all the time! Old habits die hard, I guess. No excuse!

Anyway, I'm so thankful for the men and women who have fought to make our country free. We are so fortunate to be able to live in a free country and worship the one true God whenever and wherever we want.

We're going to see some fireworks later with Kendall and Brandon near their house. Wishing Marlee and Russell could be there, too.

Our 5K run is coming up quickly - July 23 at 9:00 a.m. at Yellow Creek State Park! I need to make some posters yet with adoption facts to put along the route. We've picked August 13 (and maybe the 12th) for our yard sale, to be held here at our house. We were looking for a place with a lot of traffic, but since we live along a major highway, why not have it here and save us all the work of dragging everything to another location? Parking may be a problem, but we'll make it work.

The mom of two of our Awana girls told me of a fundraising venue we can use in September. Now I just need to come up with something to sell. I'm sure I'll make some gob cakes(moist chocolate cake with a really creamy, delicious icing), but I need to come up with some easy crafts that the kids and I can do to sell there as well. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!

Hoping everyone has a safe and memorable 4th of July!

Here he is...

Our agency locked Winn's file in for us today! That means no one else can take him! Here he is!

Isn't he so cute? We think he looks a lot like his older brother, Jerremy!

Our homestudy is being reviewed and then we're going into the home stretch for the completion of the paperwork. Woohoo!

I don't know if anyone actually reads my blog, but the 5K fundraiser for Winn is Saturday, July 23, and our yard sale to raise money is going to be either Saturday, August 13, or Saturday, August 19. We've had some wonderful people donate things to us already. Thank you so much! Every little bit helps.

Please keep praying for Winn. I so wish I could see his face when he's told he has a family!

Later!

Home Visit

Today was the day! I cleaned and sorted, and cleaned and sorted some more for days. I should have just been cleaning and not sorting, but because I was cleaning, I kept finding many things for our yard sale in August. I had a mess on every level of the house!

The day didn't start off so well. If our SW was here when the kids were getting ready to leave for school, she would have said, "This family (the mother of this family) is not capable of parenting any children!" I was yelling at J for doing something that he does that drives me nuts, and I said, "I am going to cut your hands off and rip your tongue out of your mouth!" Haha! Yes, I did say that! And then I laughed at myself and said "Oh, my! If M, our SW, were here now, she'd say no way am I going to approve you to adopt another child! Just so you know - J knew I was only kidding!

Today was the kids last day of school. They got out at 10:30 a.m. I was racing around the house trying to finish everything up and I knew I had to mop the floor before they got home, so at 10:30 when I just started mopping, the kids are coming in the front door! Grrr!

Then I had a conference call for work. It normally only lasts 15 minutes at the most. I can put the phone on mute and not worry about background noise. Well, it was an unusually long call, and the kids are hungry, and then the dog starts barking like mad. I had to run to the basement and shut myself up in the laundry room because it was the end of the call and when the boss says your name, you have to say what's been going on the past week. I just knew he was going to say my name while the dog was barking! The dog never stopped barking and I finally realized the guys were here to haul away our old freezer and I had to let them in the garage. How was I going to do that if it was my turn to talk? I was sweating up a storm! Thank goodness I was able to give my brief summary, mute the phone, and run upstairs and sign the paperwork without anyone on the other end knowing I was having a nervous breakdown!

Finally, it was time for M to come. She was here promptly at 2. The only room of the house she asked to see was the bedroom where Winn would be sleeping! She didn't want to see our clean bedroom, or T's clean room, or any of the clean bathrooms, or the semi-clean basement. She did want to look at the gate around the pool and told us it wasn't secure enough. Other than that, I think we passed.

We're still working away at the paperwork. Seems like there's something new every day. It will be such a relief when it's all complete and stamped and in China, with no questions asked!

So looking forward to summer vacation starting tomorrow.

Paperwork and more...

I'm a terrible blogger! Maybe it gets easier. I can tell you that the paperwork this time around seems much more involved than the past two times. I just can't seem to get it all organized. I have papers everywhere! I took my medical forms to the doctor this morning. My employment letter is being worked on as we speak (or as I type!) We met with our social worker on Monday and we're still on schedule to have her come here to "inspect" our home on June 9. I don't think the house will be as spotless as it was when she checked it out before. There are not enough places to hide all the stuff we've accumulated over the years. We are having a big yard sale in August so we can unload all this junk (I mean bless someone else with all this great stuff) then.

We're pretty sure we've decided on our newest son. Still waiting for some info from our agency, but if it all checks out, then he will be the one. I'll let you know more details when I know for sure.

Milestone

Yesterday was Jerremy's 10th birthday. I felt bad that we didn't get to spend his big day with him, but instead we were working at the school's annual spring fundraiser. He and Tessa had fun at Kendall and Brandon's, though. We celebrated later with pizza, wings, and his favorite gob cake.

Today was a milestone birthday for me. I was really dreading it. I know it's just a number, and you're only as old as you feel, but I have to say it just wasn't one of those occasions I was looking forward to. I did have a great day, though! My hubby surprised me and had some dear friends and family join us for a yummy Chinese lunch, and Kendall made me a delicious cake. Marlee and Russ couldn't be here for it, but when Russ texted me and told me 50 is the new 29, I felt a little better about the whole getting older thing!

Now that our school festival is over, I need to sit down and get busy with our homestudy paperwork. I also need to whip this house into shape for the homestudy visit on June 9. So much to do and so little time!

Miscellaneous

Thanks to my friend, Elisha, for letting me know my Chipin account wasn't working! Hopefully I've fixed it now. Thanks so much to anyone who contributes to our fundraiser.

Another friend, Tammy, is organizing a 5K walk/run fundraiser at Yellow Creek State Park for us on July 23 (tentatively). She's doing this in honor of her daughter Mayah, adopted from Ukraine last year. Thank you, Tammy!

Doug went turkey hunting this morning and brought home a nice one! Good job, honey! We won't be eating it, though. He tells me wild turkey doesn't taste the same as Thanksgiving turkey. I'll take his word for it.

Please pray for a blog friend, Lori, whose husband is in China now with their TWO new sons! He's been gone almost two weeks already and the separation is hard for everyone. He will be home with the boys next week at this time. Lori is home with their other four children.

I guess that's all I have to say today. Have a great weekend!

Happenings

We've been given three files of boys with repaired cleft lip/cleft palate, in the age range we specified - 7-8 years old. It breaks my heart to have to choose one over the others. We had been given pictures of 6 boys and had to narrow it down just to make it easier on us. But it's never going to be easier, really, choosing one boy to get a family of his own.

The director of our agency called me this morning. I told him we were going to take the weekend to pray about which boy we would pursue. He said that because we were looking at boys, it would be fine to take our time and not worry about another family grabbing up one of the files we were looking at because no one wants to adopt boys. Everyone wants little girls, or even older girls, but boys are so very hard to place.

Did you know that, in China, when an orphan boy with a repaired cleft lip & palate leaves the orphanage, he will most likely not be able to get a job and probably never marry, due to the facial scars and being an orphan? Oh my goodness! I can't imagine Jerremy in that situation. I'm so thankful that he's here with us and will never have to figure out for himself how he's going to get through life.

That's why we're going back again.

Oh well. On a much brighter note, our 30th wedding anniversary is this coming Monday! It sure doesn't seem like we've been married that long. We make a really good team, Doug and I. We were so young when we got married, but we knew then that it would last forever. Praying for at least another 30 years together!

Getting Started

I feel kind of silly sitting here trying to decide what to say in my first blog post.  I'm not a gifted writer, and I'm not exactly the humorous type.  I don't even know how to post pics yet!  I guess I'll just be myself and learn as I go along.

I wanted to start a blog so that family and friends could follow along on our adoption of Winn.  There is a boy somewhere in China who has been waiting for a forever family to call his own.  As my three daughters, and my son, would probably tell you, I'm not exactly a boy kind of mom.  Because we had three girls first, I was so not prepared for all that a boy entails.  Some would question why we are even adopting another boy instead of another girl.  Let me just say I love my first son so very much!  I just don't understand boys at all.  The craziness, the strange noises, the way their minds work.  I just know in my heart that Jerremy needs a brother to just be a boy with.

Thanks so much for following along.  I would love to hear your comments!