Praise the Lord!!! We are finally out of review!!!

After waiting for over 2 months (usually takes around 2 weeks to a month) the CCAA finally posted last night that our application to adopt from China has been approved!!! I have been really stressing about this lately. It seems that I am hearing of more and more families that are being denied to adopt from here. We knew we shouldn't have any issues getting approved, but we could have easily had glitches in our paperwork which could have caused us further delays. So now our file moves to the matching room, but will probably sit on a shelf somewhere for at least another couple of years. Even though the wait will still be long, this is a huge milestone for our journey to our little girl.

More Disny Pics and 1st day of School

WOW, it's been awhile

I can't believe it's been so long since our last post. Time sure has gotten away from us this past summer. I guess I need to do a quick recap of our summer. June and July were pretty much a blur with chaotic baseball schedules. Our Disney trip was a much needed break during the middle of July. We had a blast as usual . The boys soon realized that the end of the trip also pretty much marked the end of their summer break.

We got the two older boys in school around the 2nd week of August. I can't believe I have a Jr. High er. Where does the time go?

On the adoption front, referrals are still coming VERY slowly. CCAA is still matching 2005 LID's. Hopefully they will finish Nov. 2005 with the next batch and I pray they will move into 2006 LID's by the first of the year. We are hoping to travel before 2010. Ugh, that sounds so far away. We've been keeping busy with updating our homestudy. We have a homevist this Friday with our wonderful social worker, Julia. She is absolutely wonderful! We think our paperwork (dossier) should be reviewed and approved before the end of the year, so that's exciting news for us. Right now CCAA is reviewing dossiers that were logged in during August 2006, so ours is next! Yeah us!!

We celebrated our 1 yr LID anniversary on Saturday, Sept. 8th. We attended an adoption seminar hosted by our agency. It was good for us to go and talk with other adoptive families. It keeps it real for us. There are some days that this doesn't seem like it will ever happen, but we just have to keep our faith in the Lord and know there is a reason behind this excruciating wait.

I promise we will do better at updating. Thanks for coming by!!

"If God leads you to it..."

"If God leads you to it, then He will lead you through it." I saw this on a church sign on Monday. It spoke volumes to me in regards to our adoption journey. Yesterday (Wednesday) our adoption agency posted their newest Waiting Child List. We (Tammy and I) have looked and prayed over the list several times. Our agency will begin accepting applications tomorrow morning. We are planning to submit applications for 7-8 little girls on Saturday. The families chosen to review the children's medical records will be notified on Monday. We continue to believe that God is in control of our journey. Our prayer is that each child on the list will be placed with their forever family. We ask that each of you will also pray this prayer. We also ask that God will prepare us if our daughter is on this list or not. He has placed us on this journey and we know He will see us through until the end and the beginning of our journey as a family of SIX!

A few pictures

Being a very big boy at the dentist!

Much happier at Chuck E Cheese!!

Still slow moving!!

Will we ever get through 2005 LID's? Will we ever get in the review room? Hopefully by the end of the year, we will accomplish both of these!!!

As frustrating as the wait can be for us, time really is going by so swiftly. The boys' summer activities keep us going every day. Between our 2 older boys, 2 nieces, & 2 nephews, every weeknight ( & most Saturdays) in June is booked with baseball and softball games.

In May, Hudson had to have his 2 front teeth pulled. They began decaying shortly after they came in. So now he can't eat corn on the cob for at least 3 or 4 more years. He really did pretty good for the dentist, even the dentist said so. He had the teeth out in about 3 minutes! I think Hudson was more freaked out about feeling numb, but after a trip to Chuck E .Cheese, life was good again.

We still can't decide for sure on a name, but we have plenty of time to decide! Our agency's new waiting child (Special Needs) list will come out next week. Chris and I are still open to this possibility, if it is God's will. It is always exciting to see these beautiful children find their forever families.

Our boys are looking forward to our vacation next month (Disney of course) and Hudson is asking every day if today is the day we are leaving. We leave 4 weeks from today, but I'm not counting down the days or anything. HA! It will be a nice break from our day to day chaos. Even as chaotic as our summer are, I love every minute of it and cannot wait to add even more craziness to our lives.

Mother's Day 2007

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers reading this and especially our mothers, Mary Lynn and Marlene.

God truly blessed Tammy and I with two amazing and Godly women as our mothers. We were both brought up in Christian homes and were taught to love our Lord with all our hearts. Our adoption truly began when God spoke through Tammy's mom. One day she reminded us that we had considered international adoption early in our marriage. From that point on, our hearts were in China.

Today we had the opportunity to spend time with both of our moms. We began the day worshiping God with Tammy's mom at her sister Jennifer's church. Jennifer and her husband Ralph dedicated their daughter Emerie to the Lord today. During the worship time, God spoke to me through a statement made by the worship leader. He said "Are we willing to wait on the Lord for our children?" WOW! We have always prayed with our mouths and most of the time with our hearts that we want God to bring our daughter to us in His time. However, sometimes I (Chris) want God to bring Hope or Mia to us tomorrow. So my prayer today is that I am willing to wait on the Lord for our daughter.

Two other mothers have been on my mind and heart today. I see what an amazing mother Tammy is to Morgan, Jackson, and Hudson. These three boys will one day be three Godly men because of their mother's love. They can see God's love through this woman. An amazing thing about Tammy is that she has enough love for a little girl waiting many miles away. And this love extends to another mother who is making or has made a difficult decision to give up her baby. Through this whole journey, Tammy has always had Hope's or Mia's birth mother on her heart and mind. And I know this will never change.

Please continue to remember us in your prayers as we WAIT on God to bring our daughter home.