What We've Been Up To...

My Aunt Barb was a high school math teacher for years. Every once in a while when she comes to visit, she spends a teaching day with the kids. They always have a BLAST! She helped the boys with some math concepts that seem to be giving them some trouble :-) and had activities for almost the whole day - boy, was it a wonderful break for me! :-)

She kept their attention so much better than I ever can! :-)

We, also, have been having a little small group at our house with a couple of other families. It has been a fantastic time of Bible study, fellowship, prayer, and worship! One of the families is also in the process of adopting their second child from Ch*na. Their daughter, Julianna, is starting an orphan awareness "club" of sorts for raising orphan awareness and doing multiple projects to help different organizations in Ch*na. She is 16. I absolutely love it that she realizes that although we aren't all called to adopt - we are all called to "take care of the widows and the orphans".....it was a great reminder that there are things that we can do even after we get home with CJ and Landon to take care of the widows and the orphans...things that you can do, too! Check out this link for another great organization that was started by another friend of mine...another fellow New Day adoptive mamma http://www.waitinginchina.com/ It has great ways for you and I to help care for orphans!

All the small group kiddos - Julianna in the middle with some things we collected to send to Maria's Big House of Hope!

Asking for Prayer

Some of you may remember an older post (sorry, I am not blog savvy enough to know how to post a cute link saying "here" :-) where I posted pictures about my friend, Laura, who is battling metastatic breast cancer. Well, she is still fighting. She has said on her CaringBridge site that she doesn't see herself as "amazing"...I beg to differ because during all of her treatments, she is constantly pointing to Jesus and bringing the Father glory - all while being Mommy to 3 young kiddos. On Monday, Laura begins 6 weeks of a chemo AND radiation combination treatment...apparently, chemo and radiation aren't normally done simultaneously. Please pray for her...pray for her body to respond well to this treatment, pray that this will knock the cancer out for good, pray for minimal side effects, and pray for strength for her whole family during this process.

I know that there are some GREAT prayer warriors who read this blog! You guys have emailed me and been a huge encouragement to me. So, let's all get on our knees and lift up Laura over the next 6 weeks and see how the Lord works!!

Oh, and if you want to check out her CaringBridge site - she is listed under lblack. :-)

Second Little One Cabled!!! YAY!

At this point, we are just waiting on Article 5, which normally takes 2 weeks, and then TA! :-) Come on TA!

Cabled!!! (well, one, at least!!)

So today we got the fabulous news that one of our little tykes has been cabled!! YAY!! One step closer to TA. I was so excited to get this news that I called our Ch*na contact at Villa Hope to ask her some questions. She and I have gotten to be pretty good friends through this whole process, so while we were chatting, I told the kids to get into the car so that we could run to Sam's. We were talking about all kinds of fun stuff...travel, changes to the program that the CCCW@ has implemented, etc. I hop in the car, shut the door, get ready to pull out...only to hear Maggie and Emily scream - "MOM! We don't have everyone!" I won't mention any names....

but everyone better start getting REALLY good at listenin' to Mom, or we are going to be in real trouble when we are trying to navigate through multiple airports and there are SEVEN kiddos!

I800 Approval!

Just a quick update to say that we received our I800 Approval!! It was forwarded last Wednesday to the National Visa Center. Things are getting so real now! I took the kids to the grocery store, and in the middle of the store panic began to set in...packing lists, making sure papers for travel are all ready, clothes for the boys, carseats (gracious, I forgot about carseats?), on and on...my mind began to go into overload in the middle of the pasta aisle. I know better than to do that. The little girls were fighting in the cart, Emily was jumping in and out of the cart...in and out, in and out, and the boys were practicing their PIG Latin LOUDLY. Really?? Honestly, the boys were speaking so loudly and so strangely that I received some very sympathetic looks from other shoppers. I about had a come apart. I just said to myself, "Focus. Focus. The Lord will make sure that everything is done, if I lay everything at His feet and work diligently." We made it to the car, and I had to just put my head on the steering wheel and breathe for a couple of minutes before driving home. :-)

Update from our agency!!

We have been furiously working around here...cranking out schoolwork, buying a new to us BIGGER vehicle that will hold our whole family, getting taxes done, visas applied for, cleaning out rooms and closets, and anxiously awaiting our I800 approval so that we can move on to that next step! Our agency sent us this fun update of our boys, which included their measurements so that we can bring clothes and shoes that will hopefully fit these 2 precious additions!

Landon working hard in therapy

Our little indian enjoying a roll during the Thanksgiving celebration at New Day

CJ heading to the playground.

Our little camper..."Me? Touch the guitar?? I didn't do anything of the sort."

Chinese New Year (late again :-)

We had a great time celebrating Chinese New Year AND celebrating getting little CJ's LOA. I have had many friends ask us, "So, what does that mean for travel?" I'd like to know the same thing. :-) We can estimate...our agency says April. Right now, we are waiting for our I800 approvals for both boys. Then, our info will be sent to the National Visa Center...then, we are cabled to Guangzhou...then, Article 5 pickup...then Travel Approval. Easy, right? It seems like a lot has to happen, but all these things at the end happen very fast (hopefully and typically :-)

Ch*nese paper cutout that we got from a friend at Mike's work. These things are amazing! Each one is so intricate in design and beautiful and lightweight.

All the kids taped them to the windows.

We hung them at night, so we didn't realize how beautiful they really were until the next morning and the sun was shining through them. Next year, we will have four more little hands helping to hang these things!! Can't wait!!