Mom and her Chi's. The Children are getting exhausted from picture taking... "enough already, let's open presents!"

Matt and the kids posing for their Christmas Photo.
Nacho always has to be the center of attention!!

Sierra can hardly wait to open her gifts of Vitamin "B" (dog bacon) and noise maker toys!! "Let's open presents N.O.W.!!"

"We shouldn't have let Sierra eat the entire bag!!"
Check out her Buddha Belly!!

Christmas 2007 was full of surprises. We visited with friends and family, ate lots of food and relaxed our full bellies. The year 2007 has been good to us and we look forward to 2008!! Blessings to each of YOU!

One Step Closer...

Home study Update -check
Mail Update to immigration- check
Fingerprint update appointment- check
Immigration approval-
Matching Room-
Referral-

We received our appointment date for our fingerprinting update today! We are relieved to have received notice that our home study update package was received by immigration and our appointment date is set! January 2nd we will be fighting Atlanta traffic to make it to the immigration office. That will be an experience! Matt reminded me that it is the day after New Years and a lot of people will still be off for vacation. So, hopefully that will be the case and our morning drive will be easier than expected!

To be fingerprinted you have to be "invited" and show up with your appointment document. Also, to enter the building you MUST have proof of the government document in hand. And, you can only enter the building at the time listed on your document. The office is full of adoptive parents and potential foreign immigrants. I have to say that immigration has a well oiled system in place and it runs smoothly.

I have got to share this. We made a total elf of our Chihuahua's! Not sure how long this link will be active, but it is so cute we have to share it. Check it out by clicking the link below.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1221134750

This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax

Merry Christmas. Our tree is up. At night it appears to glow. People have asked us why we have a white tree and decorate it heavily in shades of blue, which are nontraditional Christmas colors. It all began with Matt putting a blue light in the window, which is a tradition among public safety personnel, paying tribute to fallen police officers, firefighters, paramedics, etc. during the holiday season. The tree is meant to reflect that, as well as to pay tribute to the state of Israel, since our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was a Jew and we wanted our tree to reflect the heritage of our beliefs.

Below, we would like to share some of our favorite ornaments. Enjoy!

This is another ornament Matt's parents gave us the year we were compiling our dossier. It is a tiger, which has dual significance. First it references the possibility of a male child. Second, traditionally a tiger is a good luck symbol for babies in China. The tiger is said to protect them from bad spirits and bring good luck. Also, babies are given tiger related gifts on their first birthday.

This Yuan Hong porcelain ornament was given to us by Matt's parents. The white wings accent this Chinese angel's traditional red outfit with tiny white rams on the jacket. She wears a plum blossom headband and holds an open fan. She was given to us the year we were assembling our dossier. We love her so much that we keep her out all year long.

This is one of the new Hallmark 2007 ornaments. This is one of our favorites. It is from the "Joy To The World" collection. The ornament shows cultural details, happy young faces, and homes decorated for the season. Ornaments that show how Christmas unites us around the world. We hung her prominently in the center of our tree to remind us of our hope for future Christmases with our child.

Feliz Navidad from our Chihuahua's
to You and Your Loved ones!!

We received notice that our Dossier is out of review!!! YEA!!! Here's the note from our agency:

"Hello September LID families,

I wanted to let you know that we received word from our Beijing office that the CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with their office before September 30, 2006. Yeah September 2006 is out of review!!!!!! Congratulations to all of you"

This month, the CCAA completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through December 8, 2005. They experienced a 23 month referral wait. Using this as a guideline we should be expecting to hear our matching August 2008- Travel October/November 2008!!! OMG!!! Why all of a sudden does that seem JUST AROUND THE CORNER??

An Adoption Poem

From Tom Fisher

Until Forever

This morning in China a mother cries
She’ll never forget her daughter’s eyes
Her heart is broken and filled with pain
The tears run down like the falling rain.
She has no choice but to leave her there
The cost of keeping is too much to bear
She hopes her daughter will one day know
True love can be found in letting her go.

This morning in China a baby cries
Hungry and scared as tears fill her eyes
Her mother has left her in this public place
Another lost daughter of the Chinese race.
Someone passing by has heard her soft moan
She’s soon quickly taken to a foster home
It’s here she’ll reside in the care of another
Until she’s adopted by a brand new mother.

That very same moment, in the U.S.A.
A woman cries as she starts to pray
Her heart is heavy but filled with much love
She prays for a daughter she thinks the world of.
“Dear Jesus I ask that your arms would be
Wrapped tightly around the one picked for me
Guard her in China ‘till I make my way
And then in my arms forever she’ll stay.”

Adoption Update, August 07

This month, the CCAA completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through November 21, 2005... (our LID is 9/18/06) it has been confirmed that the CCAA has completed the review of dossiers registered through June 30, 2006.....The families from the last referral group, experienced a 21 month referral time frame. Based on the CCAA’s referral process over the last several months we expect that referral time frames will continue to lengthen. We do know that CCAA is taking steps to address the growing referral time frame, but when we will begin to feel that impact is, at this time, undetermined.

Based on this information our dossier may be reviewed with in the next 3-5 months and Possibly matched June 08, travel Fall 08. Of course, this is all just a guesstimate, it could be sooner, it could be later. We will keep everyone posted on any updates we receive. We appreciate everyone's prayers!

Julia

Today I (Julia) met my Mother and Grandparents at the Georgia Aquarium (This was my first visit to the GA Aquarium). Unfortunately Matt had to work and was unable to go with us.

We had a fabulous time! Despite the 1,000+ children on their final summer camp field trip! The highlight for me was seeing the infamous GA Beluga Whales. They were very active! The picture here in the front is the male. He swims with 3 other Beluga's (all female). You can tell this is the male by the upturned front flippers. Females have straight front flippers.

Also, the petting station... there were 20 or so small sting ray and 3 small hammer head sharks~ all waiting to be "petted". We arrived at the petting station during the 15 minute "no-pet" break. I patiently waited while Mom and Oma/Opa walked onward. Once the petting began I chickened out! YES!!! 100's of kids all had their full hands in the water and I could barely contain my fear with just one finger in the water! I managed to keep all my fingers but did not manage to "pet" a single animal.

This is the first of several Layouts I created today of Matt's accomplishment in running the 5K. 36 minutes, 44 seconds. You ROCK!! I am SO VERY proud of YOU!!

Day #304 and counting

Today we began the paper chase for the home study update (for immigration). We sat in our Dr.'s office for 1-1/2 hours waiting to do another physical. We were told to arrive with fasting blood. However, once there we were told we would have to go down the street to LabCorp because our insurance does not allow the Dr. office to pull blood. Once at LabCorp we found out they close for lunch. With growling stomachs and attitudes of "why us" we waited...impatiently.

Also, today we spoke with our home study agency to confirm dates and expirations. We found out we can wait until November 07 to turn in the documents to CIS (immigration). Our current paperwork expires Feb 1, 2008. We are attempting to get as close to that date as possible~ in hopes of not having to re-do everything for a 3rd time.

Both our agencies are projecting a 24 month wait from LID (log in date) to referral (matching w/ child). According to our LID (9/18/06) we are looking at referral (9/18/08) and travel early 2009. Thus our paperwork needs to be good thru Summer 09~ for filing adoption paperwork when back in USA.

This is Matt. Today, I ran in my first 5K. The race was run at Tribble Mill Park in Grayson. It was called the 5-Alarm 5K and was run to benefit the Gwinnett County Fire Department Benevolent Association. I had been wanting to run a 5K for awhile and this sounded like a good one to start with in terms of the course description. Also, Fire/Rescue is a cause that is near and dear to our hearts.
I had heard about the race last week and told Julia about it. She heavily encouraged me to register for it, so I did. In order to get over the "mental" portion of it, last Sunday (7/8), I went to the gym with Julia and did the distance on a treadmill. For those of you who may not know, a 5K is 3.1 miles. Last Sunday, I did the distance in 38:41. This was doing a combination of slow-running and fast-walking. The couple of days after the "dry run", my right knee bothered me a little and the muscles in my legs were definitely sore. For several months, I have been going to the fitness center at the CDC a few mornings a week, walking on the treadmills there. In my walks there, I had been doing an average of 1.5 miles at a time. I had really not been doing any running, however. I was typically going at a 4mph pace on the treadmill.
This past week, I went to the fitness center on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and just did some light walking/running, mostly to try to work out any soreness or kinks before this morning. I came to the conclusion that my primary goal for this was to finish and not come in last.
Well, this morning, we got up at 5:45 and arrived at the park around 7:30, with Penny. It was really great conditions for the run. The skies were overcast, and it looked like rain. I got signed in and ran into James Mason, an old friend of mine from Gwinnett Fire, who I later introduced Julia to.
The start point for the race was marked by Gwinnett Engine 8 (out of Grayson), and Gwinnett Truck 12 (out of Snellville). In a nice touch of patriotism, a huge American flag was suspended from the extended aerial of Truck 12. The participants gathered by the apparati, and shortly after 8:30, both trucks hit their sirens, signaling the start of the race.
The course itself was along a paved path, around a large lake and in and out of the woods. The first mile was the toughest portion, in that it was quite hilly. I quickly formulated a strategy, which was to run the downhill and flat portions of the course and fast-walk the uphill portions. Along the way, I befriended another participant who was at approximately the same level I was. He's in the top picture with me. It felt like it took forever to get to the 1 mile marker. After that, the mile 2 marker felt like it came along a bit quicker. A good portion of the 3rd mile was rather flat, but by that point, we were fairly tired. On the approach to the finish line, FF Doug Kalmbach (24-B) was standing by the side of the path. He let me know that it appeared I would finish in under 37 minutes and high-fived me. This was energizing and pushed me to pick up the pace a little bit. As I crossed the finish line, I grabbed my time card to fill out from a race worker. My final time was 36:44, which I was very pleased with. I met both my goals and will definitely do more 5Ks in the future. I am also considering attempting next year's Peachtree Road Race, which is a 10K (6.2 miles). We'll see if that actually happens.
It was a great experience and something I enjoyed getting to share with Julia and Penny.

Today we finally had an opportunity to sit down and talk with our homestudy agency regarding our options. We discussed having a concurrent adoption~ having 2 adoptions in process at the same time. Apparently because of the long wait (with China) many families are choosing to move forward with other countries~ while they wait for their China adoption to finalize. Vietnam, Korea & Thailand are some of the other countries most looked at. However, because China requires any child be in a home for a minimum of 1 year before another child is brought into the home we need to consider the real possibility of overlapping and missing our chance to continue with China.

Also, we inquired more about domestic adoptions. Our agency gave us some contact names and phone numbers and will be mailing us a reference list to review. The homestudy for domestic adoptions and international adoptions are completely different. Therefor, should we decide to continue with a domestic adoption we would have to do a homestudy all over again. Should we be interested in pursing a domestic adoption we were encouraged to look into open adoptions thru an attorney. However, a major concern with this type of adoption would be that if the birth Mother changed her mind at any point we would lose the money we put forward.

Our thoughts go back to China... Worse case "At this point" we will receive referral January-February 2009. Best Case "at this point" we will receive referral news June-July 2008. Most likely, we are expecting referral to arrive September-December 08.

We find comfort in God's promise in Isaiah 40: 31. A few days ago Matt, myself and Penny went on a short Geo-Caching jaunt- which are what the pics are of up top. Of course I played around a little with the bricks on my pic, lol... having a little fun.

Sierra "THE Incredible" Chihuahua Avenger!! She is able to make giant leaps in one bound when she hears her nightly "Vitamin B" call for bed time - BACON!!!!!!!!

As we approach late summer (hard to believe) we ponder our next step with the adoption process. Yesterday we spoke with our agency to confirm expiration dates of our immigration paperwork and to discuss time lines to update paperwork.

Our agency said there is a high possibility that the wait time for referral will reach 24 months from LID (Ours is Sept. 06). With this in mind we do not want to start too soon on updating our paperwork due to the possibility we will have to do it a THIRD time! The thought of this just sends us both into a mental breakdown!

Recently we received the necessary papers from our Homestudy agency to update our homestudy (which is nec for immigration). We plan to begin completing these and have them finished by the middle of July.

The USGovt did give a bit of "win" to all "waiting parents". As of July 31st the renewal fee (for the immigration paperwork) will be waived! Yea!!! However, should we have to re-new a 3rd time the fee will be re-instated. The only caveat here is that we have to re-new before our current paperwork expires (Sept 07). Thus we plan on waiting until August 01 to mail in our renewal paperwork (but no later than late August). Again, we find ourselves with our fingers crossed that this process will be over sooner rather than later.

Also, we asked our adoption agency what would happen if we received a referral before our paperwork was received from USGot.... luckily she said the agency would make calls for us in hopes of rushing the paperwork and if need be push back our travel dates until the paperwork arrived.

Another concern is what happens if we travel around the time of the Olympics (summer 08). She said the agency is already making plans to bypass Beijing and send adoptive families directly to their children's Provence's.

In the meantime we are starting to research other possibly quicker options. We are in the early stages of discussing ideas with our homestudy group. Likely at this point it may be just as well that we stick with the Chinesse adoption. We shall see and keep everyone posted.

Please keep us in your prayers as our journey to having our own family continues.

I have to share this quote, it pretty much sums it up...

"No, still waiting.
No, no news.
YES, make it a double!"