Happy Birthday to Sweet Collin Michael

We have waited for you a long time.

Words can not express how happy

we are for him and his parents!

Congrats to Collin, his Mommy and his Daddy!!

We can not wait to hold

you and kiss you.

Love US!

FAITH it is an amazing thing!

Last Friday night, November 16th, 2007 I went to a local Church to listen to an amazing testimony by a Mother and her Daughter, now a senior at a local high school (who happened to be adopted from China.) They both talked about their experiences, their family and their love for God. The women's husband was their video taping their talk and

their other daughter was not their.

Anyways their story moved me. I could not help but cry at certain points during their speech.

I was especially moved when Kali (the high school senior) talked about her life and being adopted. She also shared her faith. It was so nice to listen to an adoptee who has had a positive experience with her adoption. These two women were truly inspirational.

Their missionary friends have written a book about them as they were the first to take care of Kali after she was found in China. Here is a link to their book. Their story is true but some names have been changed to protect people.

I purchased it that night for Simone and

Kali signed it for her and wrote her a little message. It went like this:

Prov. 3:5-6

"I hope through this book,

you will learn more about God's

great love and faithfulness." Kali Jane

The link below is so you can read about it at amazon.com

Baby in a Box

LeRoy Ramsey (Author), Jane Ramsey (Author)

So here is what the CCAA web site said today, "The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 8, 2005."

What does this mean for us? Well the are getting one step closer to finishing 2005!!!!!!!! They did 8 days worth of referrals which is good but I also have heard that their are fewer families with a LID of December 2005. It does not matter to me though. I just can't wait until they turn that web site to January of 2006!

One day a week we receive a "Home Link Letter" from Simones preschool that is all about her and what their focus was for the week. For the first time the area that said "sharing news" was marked and the teacher wrote in there that Simone shared about her Sister and she wrote a smiley face next to it.............I can't wait to talk to her teachers tomorrow to find out what she said? I will post more about this later.

Sophie we are praying for you every day and with God's Timing you will have a forever family with a Mommy, Daddy, Sister, A Dog Named Lew, Family and lots of Friends! We can't wait to hold you and give you lots of hugs and kisses!

Today we went down to the Portland INS/Immigration office to renew our I600 Petition. It is so amazing how high tech every thing is with the fingerprinting. Right after I got mine finished they viewed them and redid one of my series. Simone slept through the whole thing. Some people could understand English slightly some none at all.

As Rick and I sat in the waiting room I soon noticed that we are the only US Citizens. I see people from many different countries with hope, freedom and promise filled in their eyes. As they attentively study their United States study manual I stare at our little Simone. I was remembering the day we sat at the US Consulate in China along with other families adopting from China. The day that she was sworn in as a US Citizen at only 12 months old. Today reminded me of that day because I found myself thinking of the same things that I thought two and a half years ago, I thought about what it is to be an American: Freedom, Fresh safe drinking water, Opportunity, Education, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Choice, FAMILY.....The list goes on and on.

How blessed are we to be waiting for our little Sophie. I just know she is going to be such a sweet little girl.

Today I am feeling like I can do any amount of paperwork, gather any legal documents, apostle or notarize any document just so I can hold my little Sophie in my arms. I will do any thing. Three weeks ago I had enough when I was so overwhelmed trying to set this appointment up....AGAIN! Trying to rush so we could get this I600 paper work in time before it expired! I was feeling overwhelmed.......Today I am feeling lucky, lucky to be one step closer to our daughter Sophie. I also wonder will this be the last time in this office or will the wait continue to lengthen and will we have to come back a third time?

Today I thought to my self, it took us 4 years and 9 months to be blessed with beloved Simone, 23 months so far for Sophie, just remember things happen for a reason. At times I wonder why so LONG?!? Why us?? Still struggling to let go and remember God is in control. Some days it is easy, some days hard. I find comfort with people who have gone through this, especially my bud Windy.

As soon as I see Sophie's little face, see her referral photo, the day I hold her in my arms I will be blessed and know it was all worth it!

We can't wait SOPHIE and your Big Sister Simone said that you can sleep on the bottom bed and she will sleep on the top (Simone is referring to her little dolly canopy bed. )

Today I write this as I think of and pray for our little Sophie.

We received our re finger printing appointment in the mail today. They rescheduled us for Portland on October 3rd. It is during the work day but we are so happy not to drive to Seattle!

I am praying that this is a good sign?!?

We all think and talk about Sophie daily. Simone names every thing Sophie now. Here babies names are Sophie, her little pull doggy is named Sophie and she even calls her self Sophie.

Simone tells us that when baby Sophie comes she will sleep on the bottom of her dolls baby bed and she will sleep on the top of the canopy while Daddy sleeps on the floor in their room. (As of now we are going to have the girls share a room.) Simone is so sweet and can't wait to be a big sister.

The Dossiers that were LID during the month of July 2005 just came out of the review room today so I am hoping that is a good sign that every thing is moving along.........Maybe after the start of 2008 they will start moving adoptions a little faster??

Simone is starting to ask us a few questions about her adoption like, "How Come the birth Mom can't take care of the baby?" She also talks a lot about the Nannies aka Ayi's that took care of her. I feel this is good that she already feels comfortable to ask questions, that is the goal and it is good practice for me to talk about these things.....She is just so darn smart!

Preschool is still going good. Tears on day 3, 4 and today on day 5 but she says that she has a great time so that is refreshing.....

Praying and Hope

Praying and Hope15 Months Since our LID (Logged in Date) and 22 months sincewe have started Our Journey to Sophie......Here is the latest:On August 15th we received a phone call from our agency saying that the Immigration office will let us renew our I600A Application for Adoption with out paying the $875.00 refiling fee BUT we needed to get our paper work in by our expiration due date of August 27th. Sounds easy but it is not. (We tried to update this in June but they said we could not because the State of Washington Interpreted the new law statement of one free renewal only applied to people that were doing their I600-A form for the first time. Many adoption agency's requested a clarification on this many weeks ago and we just received notice of this on August 15th. It took them that long to clarify it.Why are we frustrated because we wanted to do it during our summer vacation when we had the days off.....)To make a long story short we first we have to fill out a DSHS clearance form and receive it back before we can file our I600 a form and receive an updated home study. Luckily we have a very understanding Social Worker who decided to interview us so she can update our original home study. She got our updated home study ready so that when we received our DSHS clearance back on August 22nd they could mail out our package on August 23rd so it can get to the INS office before our paperwork expires.Our package did arrive in time. We have also received word back from them that they want us to come in and re fingerprint during the first week of school and drive all the way to Seattle to do it.....This makes no sense since they let us do our fingerprints with the Portland office last time?? So we are hoping that they move our appointment to Portland and to a Saturday so it does not interfere with work. Well see......All of this has gotten me all shaken up again about how long this adoption is taking! We just pray and hope that we can bring Sophie home soon! I know that China has the right to do what they want with their adoption program but I just do NOT understand what is going on....is it a political thing, is it a way to save face and reduce the amount of children that are being adopted internationally by having a quota of how many children are adopted out in one year, does the up and coming Olympics have some thing to do with it???? I just do not know, I just wish they would be honest and say so!I pray every day that the babies in China that live in foster care orin the orphanage can go home to a forever family either domestically or internationally!I can not help but do the math..................If China keeps up with their current pace then we will not receive a referral until 2009 or even 2010.............Please remember that we want this second baby just as much as we wanted our first babyand by telling us that we have one baby should make this wait easier well it does not.We pray for another daughter and a sibling for Simone.We are trying to let go and let God....to have Faith..........Not question why but it is hard and we are human.....our minds wonder time from time......Yes we thank God EVERY DAY for our little angel and we are very blessed, we pray for our family to grow, so we wait.............(Yes, I feel better now that I wrote this. Written from the heart from a Mommywho's heart is aching for her other daughter named Sophie to come home. It has been seven straight years of trying to have babies, I am just ready to move on. Yes it is worth the wait and heartache I am just hoping that by writing this other families will know that they are not alone. I know that there are a lot of us that are waiting this long.)

Referrals are here!!! YIPPY!!!!!!!! China updated their web site. Read below:

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 21, 2005.

The CCAA updated their web site today and it says the following, "The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with their office before June 30th, 2006."

Happy Birthday to me! (The above photo was taken from a web site off of the internet. I think you can find out where by right clicking on it and looking at its path.)

Great book by Rose Lewis.

Simone received this book for her Birthday from the Watson's. We all like it and I highly recommend it.

I found these photos on the internet. I thought it would be easier for some of you to understand if you had photos to look at. This photo is a photo of the Dossiers in the review room.

Possibly Dossiers going to the matching room. (That would be us as of Thursday :O)

The workers hard at work.

We are out of REVIEW!!!!!! Big Day TODAY for us!!! (China has updated their web site. What this means is: Since we have an LID of Mayb 30th, 2006 this means that our file has been moved to the waiting pile in the matching room. So now what?? We just wait. The next big step is our referral of our little SOPHIE! This is a big step although this next waiting period could take many months......Needless to say we will celebrate today!!)

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before May 31, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.

That Little Box on the CCAA Web Site change the other day:

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before April 30, 2006. (WACAP, our agency told us that they are through May 18th, 2006 so I am not sure why their web site does not reflect that information? I guess I will have to call on Monday. We are getting closer to review or even we have been reviewed by now??)
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.

(Since so many people have been asking I thought that I would just post an email that we recieved from Elizabeth Rose, our adoption cordinator, since she does such a good job explaining what is going on with our Next Adoption. These are her words below.)

"Dear families,

This month the CCAA matched dossiers logged in from November 2–7, 2005. The families waited 19 months from their dossier log-in date to referral. In looking at the CCAA’s recent rate of matching, we believe that wait times will continue to lengthen for adoptions from China. Based on recent rates of matching, we believe new families and families who submitted dossiers in 2007 may wait three years for a referral. We estimate that families who submitted dossiers in 2006 will wait 24-36 months for a referral. Because international adoption will always be unpredictable, the actual wait time may be longer or shorter than this. As wait times are increasing each month, the wait will be longer the later your dossier was logged in. Please keep in mind that although adoption agencies publish different wait times, all families adopting children from China, regardless of agency, will experience the same wait.

We know this is very difficult news because many of you have waited so long already. We also understand that all of you, regardless of when you started your adoption journey, dream of having your child in your arms sooner than these projections. However, we also know from years of experience that it is very important for us to give you as accurate projections as possible to help you prepare for your future child.

Each month the CCAA matches the children whose referrals are available with families. They begin matching based on log-in dates, and work through log-in dates until they do not have any more child referrals. The number of available children varies month to month, and the number of families whose dossiers are logged in each day also varies, so unfortunately it is not possible for us to predict how far the CCAA will match each month, or how long it will take for them to reach your log-in date. In our discussions with the CCAA, they have cited fewer children available for international adoption, a very high volume of dossiers in China, and an increase in domestic adoption as reasons for the slowdown.

Lengthening wait times do not affect families adopting waiting children; that process remains expedited. WACAP will continue to receive information about waiting children in China two to three times a year, and we will continue to make these children’s profiles available to our families waiting to adopt from China first.

In most of the countries where WACAP works, the majority of children who need families are boys. Because of this, several WACAP programs require families to be open to adopting a child of either gender. If your family is open to adopting a boy, you may meet the requirements for a different country. If you are interested in considering other WACAP options, please visit our Web site at www.wacap.org for information, and speak with your adoption coordinator. WACAP staff is here to help you bring a child into your family whether the child is from China or another country where we work. If you are open to considering other countries or types of children, we are very happy to help you identify other options.

Again, we understand that news of a lengthening adoption process is disheartening. If the wait is insurmountable for your family, we hope you’ll keep in mind the needs of the countless numbers of orphaned children around the world and consider other options at WACAP. Please contact us with your questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Sincerely,

The China team

A note to Chinese-expedited families: The wait times for families who are expedited because of documented Chinese heritage will also continue to increase, although the wait will be slightly shorter. WACAP’s most recent Chinese-expedited family to receive a referral waited 13 months, as opposed to the 19 months that other families experienced. "

No Such thing as a free extension for us! I thought it would be too good to be true!!!!!!!! Only people filing a new form can have one free extension. So not for us.

Check with your adoption agency or call the government.

As of today we have been LID for one year. That has gone faster than I thought. We pray for our next blessing to arrive soon!

Some good news. It looks like we will get one free extension for our I-600A!! We were planning having to pay extra tbis summer to update our home study and I-600A paper work but it looks like we might not have too!! Is it true or too good to be true???

For those of you that do not know what I am talking about the I-600A is for Immigration to adopt and bring your child home through INS/FBI. Along with updating that you also need an updated home study from your social worker. We did not have to deal with this issue because with Simone we only went 6 months. Tomorrow it will be one year since LID but longer since we did our first I-600A form.

The following words below are from the China Adopt Talk Web Site that I follow. I am posting this so those of you that do not read that web site can find out about this information and check it out. You will have to go to her web site for the links.....(A link to her web site: http://chinaadopttalk.com/

Please read below:

"USCIS Announcement 29th, 2007 The USCIS website is stating they are going to allow “one free extension of your I-600A by filing a new I-600A without fee before the first expires.”
I guess that softens the fact that fees go up as of July 30th.
You can download a PDF showing everything here.
I’m guessing I won’t get a refund from them for my second I-171H, but this is great news for everyone about to have to renew."

As of today we have been logged in China for 11 months.......Today I dream of our little Sophie.....

There will be a new preschool series that will start on Nickelodeon in August.

This information is from an email I recieved from my Adoption Group.

"It is hoped that the half-hour episodes will be to Mandarin Chinese what ""Dora the Explorer" "has been to Spanish."

We are so excited and can't wait because we think Simone will love it since she loves to listen to her Chinese Music all of the time!! A little fun to help pass the time as we wait for our little Sophie.

I thought I would use these photos

for our new update on Sophie.......I love them!

We are coming to the realization that we have around 12-14 more months before our referral but some good news is that along with us, My Mom and possibly my Cousin Carole we will also have another very special friend going with us!!!!!!! Guess who?

Chinese New Year Celebration Performance at the Oregon Convention Center.
These are not even good photos but I wanted everyone to share in the fun we had on Sunday. I can't even wait to post these photos.....The first photo is of when we brought Simones Chinese Class out on Stage. (2 classes together)

The plan was for me and a couple of Mom's to stay on stage just in case......Well Simone did JUST FINE! We were so proud of her and we both could not stop grinning ear to ear. You can slightly see me in the photo above. I could of moved to the back of the stage and SImone would of been fine but I stayed close just in case.

Here we are pointing out where Daddy is!!!

When Love Takes you In By Steven Curtis Chapman

I posted this on Sophies Blog because it is one of my favorite songs and it reminds us to be thankful for what we have and what we have been through.

China Updates their website this afternoon.

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 22, 2006. (What this means for us is that they are ALMOST to our Dossier, we were LID on May 30th 2006. It is so good to see them finally update this sentence on their web site because it has been a couple of months since they changed this portion!! Only two months away before we are in the review room!!!! Progress!!)

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 13, 2005.

What this means for us is that they are getting moving and getting closer to handing out our referral!!! Just not close enough.

8 DOWN ??? More to go. As of today it has been 8 months since we were "LID" with China. We have been told maybe 14 more months to go before we see a referral......We were hoping for only 4 or 6 more months!!

The wait is getting harder and starting to be like the wait for Simone!! We are trying to keep the Faith and remember that all things happen for a reason.

Carter at Christmas.

The CCAA finally changed their web site today and referrals are arriving for many blessed families!! Congrats to them all.......

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before September 27, 2005

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

After my Mom came in from Chicago she stayed with us for four days and we really enjoyed our time with her.