Happy Chinese New Year, Jing-Qi!

Well, I know she can't read this yet, but she is in my thoughts this Chinese New Year. It has been fun to learn about a holiday that is probably quite special to her. I went to a chinese market to purchase a hong bao (a red money envelope given to children on New Year's day) and was excited when I could pick out a couple words in Mandarin from other customers. I could recognize the word for hat and the word for computer. OK, so I have a long way to go. At least, I will be able to better empathize with her struggles learning a new language when she comes. I filled the envelope with 8 US coins that amounted to 88 cents. I hear multiple eights are good numbers in Taiwan. Sam tells me that 8 is the number for new beginnings. How perfect! Having just signed the adoption agreement a couple days ago, this Chinese New Year is an interesting time to reflect on the year's possibilities. I so hope to have our daughter home soon, and to my Jing-Qi, I hope she will discover the unconditional love of family in the new year. Please continue to pray for our adoption process. I, of course, am hoping for a fast judge, but it is comforting to know that my Lord knows the future and will bring our daughter home to us at just the perfect time. Happy new year everyone!

Finally...Paperwork with my daughter's name on it!

I'm so excited! We received the adoption agreement from Taiwan and signed it yesterday. I was thrilled to see my daughter's name for the first time on the adoption agreement. All our dossier paperwork came in at the same time, so we were able to turn it all in and send it off to be authenticated. Next, I think we go to the Taiwan courts and wait. More waiting. This doesn't get any easier, not only for me, but for our youngest daughter as well. Her prayers only seem to get more earnest and more frequent as she hopes to have her sister home with us soon. I love to hear her pray for her sister. I'm hoping maybe I can send something to her for Chinese New Year, but I'm waiting to hear. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. I'm hoping for a fast judge. : )

We Have Immigration Approval!

Well, the USCIS approved our I600-A form. We are very excited to have yet another piece of the puzzle that we need before we can bring our precious girl home. Now, we continue to wait for the adoption agreement to come from Taiwan as we prepare our dossier paperwork. Sam and I went and received our local police clearance today. That was easier and quicker than I thought. We are waiting to hear from our doctor to see if we need to do another physical for the Taiwan medical form. We had full physicals done for the US homestudy in August, so I think we probably can go off of that to fill in the new form. We have to get the doctor's signature notarized, however, and there isn't a notary in our doctor's office. I will have to wait to see how we work out this one. 

In the meantime, we have been preparing Christina and Jing-Qi's room. I have lovingly painted clouds on their ceiling, although they don't look as much like the originals as I was hoping. It was fun, though. I also found glow paint that looks white in the daytime, so I painted stars and a crescent moon with it over the clouds. Now, the family gathers at bedtime in their room to star gaze with the lights off. It's pretty fun, and it seems to help with the wait. I miss my girl more and more and wish I could hear her cute little voice trying to convince me in Chinese to come outside and play. By the way, please pray that my efforts to learn Mandarin would be fruitful. I am notoriously horrible at picking up foreign languages and seem to be better at reading it than hearing it on the Rosetta Stone. Also, please continue to pray that God's hand and timing will be upon our whole adoption process. We are so grateful for the prayers. 

Chung Yi Approved Our Homestudy! Please Pray!

I just received news that the orphanage had approved our homestudy, which is great news; however, without going into too many details that I'm not sure we are allowed to share, we need to wait for one more event to occur before we can officially start the dossier process. Please pray that this will go smoothly and quickly, if it is God's will.

In the meantime, Sam and I are going tomorrow to have more fingerprints taken for our USCIS I600A form. I guess this will give us our FBI clearance. We are also starting to collect the paperwork we will need to submit for our dossier. Please pray for us as this whole process is new to us, and we want to make sure we are remembering everything we need to do. I would hate to get to a point where everything is halted because I didn't order certain paperwork that takes months to acquire.

I miss my little girl and wish we had her here with us this Christmas. I keep seeing little Minnie Mouse t-shirts and things that remind me of her, and I know she would like for Christmas gifts, but that time will have to wait. She absolutely loves Minnie Mouse and pink! : ) Anyways, I am so grateful to God that things are moving along with the adoption process and that we might be blessed with this precious addition to our family. She was such a joy to host this past summer, even in her trying moments when her little lip would stick out and she would fold her arms and look at me stubbornly. It was hard not to laugh. I miss her. Please continue to pray for us and especially for her. Whatever happens, my prayer is that she will know how much our Lord and saviour loves her and that she will be placed with just the right forever family for her that will love her as their own. My thoughts and prayers are constantly with her.

God bless and Merry Christmas!

Announcing Our Thanksgiving Raffle!

Announcing the Winners to Our Thanksgiving Raffle!!!
Well, it's time to announce the winners to our raffle. I cannot thank all those who donated enough for their participation. We were able to raise $560! I think it's a good start on our next set of adoption fees. Here are the winners...

1st Prize (Princess House Pan) : Ray & Shannon

Runner-up Prizes

(1) Santa Ana Zoo Pass for 4 people: The Reynolds Family
(1) Santa Ana Zoo Pass for 4 people: Leah Munoz
Solomon Beads Bracelet & Earrings: Stacy Richards (strange, I know)

Please continue to pray for our adoption process. I just heard back from USCIS today that they received my form and are processing it. It's a nice relief to know that it wasn't lost in the mail. Also, we are waiting for pre-approval from the orphanage in Taiwan. I think our home study has been sent there this week, or it still may be being translated. Please pray that we will be approved by both the USCIS and the orphanage and that it will all happen according to God's perfect timing. Thanks again!

UPDATE TO THANKSGIVING RAFFLE...

It has been brought to my attention that some people would like to enter the raffle, but are not comfortable using their credit cards over the Internet. Therefore, if you would like to enter the raffle by mail, feel free to do so, but make sure we receive it by November 23rd! You can mail it to my office address at 17742 Irvine Blvd. #205, Tustin, CA 92780. Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

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I was at the Home Depot the other day and a perfect stranger gave me two passes to the Santa Ana Zoo that get 4 people in each. I thought, "Hmmm, Lord, what would you like me to do with these?" Then, my wonderful co-worker, Angie, who sells Princess House, gave me a gorgeous 15 qt. stainless steel roaster along with a roll of raffle tickets, and the Thanksgiving Raffle was born! Stacy Richards also is donating a lovely pair of Solomon Bead earrings and a bracelet.

Check out the prize descriptions below and enter today by donating through my "Chip-in" to the left. For every $5 you donate, your name will be entered in our raffle. For example, if you donate $15, your name will be entered 3 times. Be sure to donate by November 23rd to be entered in the raffle! All winners will be announced on the evening of November 23rd! Needless to say, 100% of all donations will go directly towards our adoption expenses. Thanks again for all your prayers and support!

Top Prize

(1) 15 QT. Stainless Steel Princess House Roaster w/ Rack

Click on the link to view more information about Princess House's beautiful, high-quality products.

Two Runner-Up Prizes

Two people will be selected to receive a pass to the Santa Ana Zoo that gets four people in! Click the link to be taken to their website for more information on the zoo. Note: Passes expire 12/31/2010, so you will need to use them soon!

One More Runner-Up Prize!

One fortunate person will be selected to receive a bracelet and earrings from Stacy Richard's Solomon Beads collection. Click the link to see some samples of this beautiful jewelry!

Be sure to donate by November 23rd to be entered in the raffle!

To enter just click the orange "ChipIn" button to the left to pay securely via PayPal with your credit card. 100% of all donations will go directly to our adoption expenses to bring Jing-Qi home.

We have raised our USCIS fees!

The Lord has been so faithful! Between neighbors and friends from church we have raised the needed money to send off our I-600A form to the USCIS! Yea! To all the people who have prayed for us or donated, we cannot thank you enough! Please keep praying! It is so appreciated!

We are now trying to save for the "Referral Phase" of our adoption expenses. We will need to raise $8000. There is a wonderful sister in Christ who is selling jewelry and other various items on her "Making Footprints" website to help raise money for families that are trying to adopt. 30% of the proceeds will go to our adoption fund if you mention "Jing-Qi" when you purchase. Thank you again for all your support!

Putting the Finishing Touches on our APPROVED Home Study!

I just received word from our social worker that our home study has been completed and was APPROVED! Yea! She has forwarded it on to the person that will be translating it into Chinese for a final review, but we should have it by the end of today or Friday. I am so excited that we are almost done with the home study phase of the adoption process. It's nice to feel like we are moving forward. Although we are completely new to the whole adoption process, I hear the next step is to send in our completed home study with our I-600 A form to the USCIS. I have completed the form and am ready to mail once I receive our actual home study. We need to send in $830 to the USCIS when we submit our form. Our wonderful neighbors have already donated $288 to go towards our fees, but we are scrambling to come up with the rest so we can mail our form. Please pray that the Lord will provide the funds for this. Also, if you are able and would like to contribute, please click on our chip-in button to the right. All money will be sent securely via PayPal. Thanks for all your support!