"By adopting a child and helping them reach their potential, they help us reach ours. An adopted child is not an unwanted child; to the contrary. They are a child who was searched for, prayed for, cried for, begged for; received by arms that ached, making empty hearts full. Love is meant to be shared." Author unknown

Monday, April 25, 2011

I-800a Approval

Out of impatience today, I reluctantly sent an e-mail this afternoon to the NBC to see if we had been matched with a case worker yet.  This was after sending an e-mail a week ago and being told we had not yet been matched. Behold, I got an e-mail back stating we were processed and approved today, letter will go out in the mail tomorrow!!!! YIPPPPYYYY. 

For those of you next in the I-800a line:

Received date: 3/9/11
Approved: 4/25/11
Received: later this week!!!!!
Total processing time: 47 days, approx 50 days till received

Next step, get our DTC (Dossier to China)!!!!!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Please pray for Noel

Per my request last week to bring some closure to the possibility that we would still be able to bring Noel home, our agency contacted her orphanage to see how she is doing. The returning news isn't good. Her condition has gotten worse. In addition to the large amount of fluid around her heart, she now has fluid on her brain and her kidney is getting large. They believe her organs are overworked and that it doesn't look good.

I had prepared myself to hear that she had gone to be with our Heavenly Father, which I think would be better than this. My heart sinks; I pray that she is not in any discomfort.

Thank you for all your continued prayers. I firmly believe that we were brought into Noel's life to shower her with prayers, with His grace and mercy; with your help, we have done that. So even though I still desperately pray that God would miraculously cure her of what ails her precious body - I know and understand that His will will be done, whatever that may be.

I will have our agency check in on her again in another 6 weeks or so. They said just to e-mail them when I want that to happen.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Fingerprints Complete!!!

Our fingerprints have been taken, now we wait for the I-800A approval. Expecting it to arrive in about 2 weeks.

Care Package Sent to Tegan

On March 15th, I ordered a care package to be sent to Tegan. On March 21st it was received by the orphanage.  Included in the care package was a toy, blanket an outfit for Tegan, a camera for the caregivers to take photos of his life at the orphanage plus a letter thanking them for taking great care of him and asking some questions.  Also included, were candy for the kids and staff and several shirts as a donation to the orphanage.

One week later, March 28th (mine and Jason's 20 year dating anniversary), we received an e-mail from the courier we used with answers to the questions we asked. Here are some of the things we found out about him:


He is called Ai Geng by his nannies,but sometimes they will use Shanghai language and call him  "MO MO" (I believe it is pronounced mua mua and means affectionate, but that is the translation I found, not theirs)


The orphanage staff hope this child can keep Chinese culture.


He likes to eat candies and cookies ,because normal the orphanage staff will not feed him too much candies or cookies ,because that is not good for children teeth...Ai Geng is not picky with his food ,he likes to eat whatever nannies give him



He is a little shy in new place but he is quite outgoing under his familiar places !!

He likes somebody to play with him, he does not like to sit in his walk by himself.

We were also told that at 21 months old he is 32 1/4 inches tall, and weighs 26lbs.  Height wise he's about the same height Angel was when we brought her home, at 22 months old, but weighs about 2lbs more than she did (though that could be due to the multiple layers of clothes).  

This will help us track about how big he should be when we bring him home.  Especially since his medicals included all the well baby check up measurements beginning at 10 days old.  He has kept a pretty consistent growth rate.

Can't wait to get him home!!

Pictures of our Journey to bring Tegan and Corban home!