Thursday, February 28, 2013

Thursday

Lannie... thank you!

As for the adoption, we are still waiting for our dossier to go to China.... estimated travel time is around September, which Im actually ok with....

As for other news, our house has been hit with the sickness that is going around... ugh, thankfully I dont think its the flu or anything, just yuck.... Wallace and Daniel got hit last week, then Gabe at the beginning of this week, then Emma went down Tuesday and I finally caught it yesterday.

Ugh... felt aweful... achy and just tired.... so I went to bed at 6:00... and got up at 6:00 this morning... and was still tired.

Feeling better, but my throat hurts and Im still a bit tired and not 100% myself, but hopefully Im almost over it.

And ugh, where is this cold weather coming from?  Seriously... its supposed to be highs in the 40's this weekend.... has the weather forgotten that this is the deep south?  We dont do 40 degrees in March... come on!

Besides all that, not too much going on besides everything... ha ha... I always have a million things happening and can never seem to catch up... but I guess thats the way I like it b/c that is what I continually do to myself... :) 

If you havent already checked out Wallace's pic at www.addietalley.blogspot.com, then you should do that... :)

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

2nd dossier mailer

So we got our I800A approval Saturday!  So exciting... :)  A huge, huge step done....

So yesterday we overnighted all of the remaining documents for our dossier... once they get to our agency, they will have them authenticated and translated and then send our dossier to China!

So exciting... :)

So our timeline as it stands, if everything goes according to the average timeline, we will be over there around September.... which is 2 months after we wanted to be there, so its a bit of a disappointment, but we are hanging on to the hope that no matter what the timeline, we will be getting a new daughter.

sweetness... :)

Friday, February 22, 2013

Friday

I dont know about you, but Im so glad its Friday.... definitely looking forward to the weekend.  We have a ton of stuff to do so it should be pretty productive.

Still havent gotten our approval in the mail yet... so Im hoping its going to be in the mail box when I get home today.... eeek... Im so excited about it.

Oh how my mama-heart was missing my youngest daughter this morning.

I guess thats normal though... having experienced both a pregnancy and a paper pregnancy, I can tell you the paper variety is alot harder.  You have to wait longer to meet your little one.... while you are waiting the 9 months for a typical pregnancy, your baby is growing inside you - you get to feel them and get to know them.... in a paper pregnancy, you have to know that they are growing up without you - someone else is watching their first steps, feeding them, making them laugh and tucking them in at night and kissing their sweet face.  Our little girl is going to have changed so much since we first saw her picture... it makes me sad to think of all the firsts we are going to miss.

Thankfully we will have a lifetime to make up for those.

Happy weekend... :)

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Thursday

Lannie... thank you, thank you, thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Is it Thursday already?

Tuesday, Wallace went to the ear doctor to have the rest of the wax scraped out of his ears.... it was alot and it was painful... poor thing...   but because of his allergies, he has alot of pressure behind his ears, so they still cant do a hearing test, so will have to wait a little bit longer for that.

We should be getting our I800A approval in the mail any day now.... once we get that, we have to get one piece of paper notarized, stick everything in an envelope and fedex it off.... super excited!

So Daniel and I totaled everything up that we still need money for and its still coming out to about $15K... super scary, but I know we will make it.... it is beyond comprehension though that we will need that in 5-7 months.... crazy!

So any prayers you want to send up that I start booking some weddings, I will definitely take... :)

Or any ideas for fundraisers?

Or are there any local youth groups that would help us out with a project?

Otherwise, we are doing pretty good at our house... just trying to get through the daily grind... :)

Thank you again for your encouragement and support!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Approved!

So yay.... I found out that our I800A was approved today.  So really that snag probably pushed us ahead a few days, so what could have been a mess turned out to be a blessing.

So all we do now is wait for that piece of paper to come in the mail, and then we send in the rest of our dossier documents to our agency... they will get them to authenticated and translated and then they go to China!

That is a huge step in the process... and it definitely helps the estimate that we could be traveling in July... crossing our fingers!

Although once we have that approval, then we have a large payment to make to send with our documents.... we are going to be scraping everything we have saved to make that payment which is super stressful, but I know God's got this, so Im trying not to worry about it.

Although to be honest, our puzzle fundraiser has fizzled, and not a single response from any church in the area.... so yeah, kind of feeling down about the money part, but trying not to let that get to me... it will all work out... it will.

If anyone has any ideas for fundraising, Id love to hear them.... especially b/c our daughter's birthday is coming up soon, so I would love to do something for that..... im all ears!

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement... it keeps us afloat on the rough days... :)

Monday, February 18, 2013

Freaking Out

Friday, we got a notice in the mail that they need more info for our I800A application.... ugh.... Im freaking out that this is going to delay us getting there even longer.

I know there isnt anything I can do, but I feel like I set myself up for disappointment by thinking things were going so smoothly.

Hopefully we will get it figured out soon.

UPDATED TO ADD: I think we have figured out the problem, but the office is closed today for Presidents Day, so everything should be cleared up tomorrow... hoping to be approved soon!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope it is wonderful for all of you!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Happy Fat Tuesday!

pic taken last year at the Mardi Gras parades in Gulf Shores, Alabama... very family friendly... :)

Monday, February 11, 2013

Monday

ok, so lets see if I can remember what all has happened... :)

We had a meeting with all of Wallace's teachers and two people from Central Office (heads of all the schools) and apparently, we are only seeing regression with Wallace at home - none at school.... hmmmm, which doesnt really fit with the notes that are sent home every day with him.... also, the school is not allowed to administer tylenol - even with a dr's note, which I think is weird, but whatever

So yeah.... nothing really got accomplished.... as was predicted.... except that Daniel and I had to take off work, which meant Daniel didnt get paid, I had to work overtime to cover it, but everyone else at the meeting got paid for being there... nice how that works.

Blah.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

We did get a notice that they had received Wallace's Certificate of citizenship application, so hopefully that will be approved soon, so we can get him a SS# and then get our taxes done.

Wallace has his next ear appointment next week where they will scrape some more wax out.... not sure if this will be the last one or if we will need to go some more before they can do a hearing test

He has an eye appointment in March

----------------------------------------------------------------------

We go for our fingerprinting for the currect adoption really soon... and hopefully our I800A approval notice will be in the mail soon!

I have written several churches asking if we could come speak to their church or youth group about adoption and so far, not a single response.... not even an acknowledgement but no thank you - just total ignoring.... yeah, it doesnt surprise me that Im not a huge fan of organized religion... :)

And yeah, starting to get a little freaked out about the costs of this adoption... trying to have faith, but feeling a little weak too.... we still need about $15,000 - thankfully most of that is needed right around when we travel, but since we are hoping to travel during the summer, well, that means we need to come up with $15,000 in about 5 months... Id be lying if I said I wasnt freaking out a bit.... ok, maybe more than just a  little bit, but trying to remain positive.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Happy Chinese New Year... it started yesterday and its the year of the snake (think of the snake in Kung Fu Panda, not scary, real snakes).... :)

Otherwise, life is going on as it does.... :)

Monday, February 4, 2013

Fingerprints!

We got our fingerprinting appointment this past Saturday... so excited to see this moving along so quickly... :)

In Wallace news... Im tired of dealing with this whole Wallace/school situation.... it has left me so exhausted... but supposedly a resolution is in the works..... but Im not holding my breath that things are going to change.

Even writing that has left a bad taste in my mouth.... nothing much else to say.

Lots of prayers are appreciated.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Friday Friday

So I just wanted to brag on Gabe a little bit lately... :)

Yall, if you could meet him in person, you would just want to hug on him.... he is the quietest of my children so you would almost not notice he is there, standing in the background... but he is also the most compassionate and sensitive and I seriously could not be any prouder of him.

The kids dont really ever see this blog much b/c well, they are kind of aware of what goes on in our day to day lives, we keep them informed of whats going on in the adoption, and we dont really want them worrying about what is going on at wallace's school and all the drama of it.... plus, I think they would just plain out think it was boring... :)

But Daniel reads it, and one day, he had it pulled up on his laptop and Gabe came up behind him and saw one look at the donate button and told Daniel that we should give that family some money because they were adopting... I so love his heart.... he just sees a need and wants to meet it, no conditions, no requirements - just give... :)

Also, Gabe has been playing upwards basketball.... its mostly about just learning the game so thankfully they dont keep score b/c Gabe is probably one of the least competitive people when it comes to athletics, but he tries his hardest.... and after every shot in a game that isnt made, he goes over to the other player (on his team and the opposing team) and pats them on the back and tells them it was a good try or good shot.... this melts me as his mother... twice he has gotten the "most Christlike" star (everyone gets a star for something after the game) and I could not be prouder.

And wow... he is beyond smart... he is already building complex geometric shapes and understands most math concepts after hearing about it once.... such his mother's child.... and he his career goal now is to become an astronaut so he can walk on the moon.... :)  His other reasoning behind wanting to be an astronaut is because they make alot of money and he wants to have alot of money to give away to other people.

Seriously...  most of the time I am amazed that I had a hand in creating someone who is so awesome... who is one of the bravest people I know... and who I know is going to change the world one day - I hope Im still around to see it, so I can get the first hug afterwards... :)