Merry Christmas!

We had a very Merry Christmas with our family this year, but it seemed like a part was missing. Sophie is that missing piece, but our prayer is that she will be with us next Christmas. Although she was not with us, Sophie's Nana, Pawpaw, and Aunt Brenda gave her a Cabbage Patch Doll, and her cousins, Emily and Amy, gave her a couple of great books. Thanks for the gifts! We really appreciate them.

Finally, we are out of review!

Well, after several months of waiting, we have finally made it out of review! That means that our dossier has been reviewed in China and has been approved for us to be moved to matching. That's really good, but as you will notice on the picture, matching(placement of children) for 2005 is still being done, and we are in September 2006. So, quite a while to wait for us in the NSN line, but thank goodness we are at the head of the SN line for the next group. We are praying that this group will come before Christmas, but there's no guarantee. Keep praying for us

We Received Our New I-171H!!

Well, the good fortune Jack 'O Lantern paid off for us this week. Today we received our new I-171H. This means that we once again have all of the paperwork necessary to travel to China to bring Sophie home. Now we just have to wait for God to show her to us. We know He will in His time.

Jack O Lanterns and Good Fortune

Tonight we carved a pumpkin with the Chinese symbol for "Good Fortune" on it. It was the first time in a VERY long time that either one of us had carved a pumpkin. Bo did all of the work. I assisted, when needed, and was the designated photographer. Someone on one of the Yahoo groups that I'm a member of posted the stencil for the "Good Fortune" symbol, so we decided to give it a try! We could use some good fortune. Maybe our I-171H will come now!

Bambi and all of his friends have come for a visit!

We live in a rural area of South Alabama and constantly have wildlife all around us. When we got home this afternoon, there were 7 deer in our yard. We have oak trees all around us, so they come to eat the acorns that are falling from the trees this time of year. They also love the Indian Hawthorns and daylillies that we have in our landscaping around our home. The Indian Hawthorns have been stripped of their leaves, and the daylillies are nowhere to be found. They even ate the geraniums right out of the pots on my front porch.

After spotting the deer this afternoon, I snuck out on the front porch to try to take pictures of five of them, but they were wise to me right away. They ran off and then stopped to look at me. If you notice in the picture, you can see 4 heads peeping up over the hill at me.

Cybershower gifts are here!!!

This week we received our Trick or Treat cybershower gift from Pam Follick and her family. They sent the cutest little Halloween pj's for Sophie and book for us to read! I can't wait to see her in them and read the book while we rock in the rocking chair. Life will be grand!

Thank you, Pam Follick!! We love the gift!!

We are in review!!

The CCAA has now reviewed applications dated through August 31, 2006. Since we have a LID of September 8, 2006, that means that we are now in review!! This is a really good thing. If we find Sophie in the next group of SN kids, chances are, our application will have already been reviewed and the wait time between Letter of Intent(LOI) and Letter of Acceptance(LOA) will be shorter than for some of the other families with our agency. I also found out today that our updated homestudy had been approved by DHR and was sent on to INS for approval last month. We should have our new I-171H by the end of the month!! Yea! This also is very important because it says that the government has cleared up to adopt an orphan and that they will be expecting us in Guanghzou at some point to finalize the adoption.

More Thank You's for our Bib and Bow Swap Friends

Over the past couple of days, we have received more sweet bows and bibs for Sophie from our bib and bow swap friends. We just love them!

1st Anniversary of our LID

Well, today is the first anniversary of our Log In Date, which is the date that China gives us when they have logged our information into their computer system. It is also the sacred date that is used to track the time that everyone waits for their referral. When we started this process a year and a half ago, we had hoped to have Sophie home by this time, but God has other plans for us. Sophie is just not ready yet. He will show her to us, when He has her ready. Until then, we will (not so patiently) wait. While we are waiting, we are receiving little gifts in the mail, just about on a daily basis, which is alot of fun and really helps to pass the time. Sophie will have so many cute little things when she gets here. See them below!

Welcome to our Blog!

Hi, everyone! This is my first post on our blog. As you all can tell, we are adopting a little girl from China. We've been waiting for 11 months now and are hoping to get our referral soon. We are staying as busy as possible while we wait. We've been working on Sophie's room lately. It's not complete yet, but hopefully will be soon. We are also participating in a bib swap, bow swap, and cybershower, which have been a lot of fun. We've received bibs from two waiting families, so far. They are precious! I know Sophie will love wearing them.