I-800 Filed

After a crazy day Monday, got our immigration paperwork sent out.  Fed Ex was suppose to deliver our package to us on Friday...waited all day on it and it was never delivered.  Found it in the mailbox on Monday!  So evidently it was delivered to the wrong house and someone put it there!  Needless to say, got eveything done and shipped the paperwork overnight to CIS.  Now comes the wait again!  Once we get this paperwork back, we will be filing for a DS230 which is Kara's visa to come to the good ole USA.  We will be applying for our visas at the same time using a courier to hand deliver them to the consulate in Chicago.  Once we receive the DS230 back we should be receiving travel approval!  Still looking like July!!!!!!

LOA!!!!!

Got a call yesterday from Betty, our FTIA corordinator!!!  They have received our LOA!!!  Once step closer to Kara!!!  She said we could possibly traveling in 12 weeks!  So now if feels like I am 6 months pregnant...LOL!!!!!!!

So today, I am waiting on the Fed Ex Man to bring our paperwork to us for the next step which is filling immigration paperwork.  Hopefully he comes soon!  Still hate the waiting part!

Please continue to pray for everything to continue to move along swiftly and smoothly!  Our God is so Good!

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Tom Petty sang this some time ago......boy it is so true now!  Not sure he was singing about adopting a little girl from China in this song but it seemed to fit!  LOL!!

This Saturday will be Kara's 2nd birthday!  I know she probably won't remember  us not being there but I really wish we could be...... stretching across the miles and miles I just wish I could give her a big hug and a kiss!  Oh!  I can't wait to get her home!

I just want to Thank God for all that he has done for me!  So many blessings........

PA!!!!!!!!!

We received our Pre-Approval today!  The next step is to receive the Letter of Acceptance (letter seeking confirmation of adopter)!  These are the steps that will happen once we receive the LOA according to our agency:

Once you get LOA, you'll submit the I800. That takes about 3 weeks for CIS to issue an approval; then you file the DS230, which also takes about 3 weeks. The DS230 actually goes into the US consulate in China and 10 business days later they will issue you an Article 5 letter. We have this sent back up to Beijing and then delivery it to CCCWA. They'll issue your TA then about 2-3 weeks later and travel is about 3-4 weeks from then.


Estimated time that we will be traveling to China to pick up Kara is July-August!  Please keep praying for everything to go smoothly! 

Well.....what do you think of her name change?  Just seems to fit this little girl....we wanted to keep her Chinese heritage so we changed it up a little bit to make it flow..now she has a beautiful name to go with our beautiful daughter!  Can't wait to get her!  Still waiting on Pre-Approval from China~hopefully we get it this week!!!

Could It Be....

It has been so long since I blogged that I am not really sure if I remember how! Time has flown by and here were are...close to the end of our journey! It is with praise and gratitude that we are on Cloud 9 right now! We have reviewed a file of a little girl...not yet 2....(born aprroximately April 20, 2011). She had an abdominal hernia which she has had 2 surgeries to repair. She is beautiful, adorable, cute, cute, cute!!! We have moved forward and the paperwork is in China now and we are waitng for Pre-Approval. While there is always a chance that China could not approve it, we are confident that God is in control and that this is our daughter! God never fails us! His timing is Perfect. We praise Him and give Him all the glory! Please keep us in your prayers!

Kara

Ok...so it has been awhile since the last time I blogged....lots has happened. We signed up for the special needs list last fall and in January we received a referral. It was one of the hardest decisions that we have ever had to make. To explain the special needs list a little bit the way it works is that you have a checklist of special needs that you have to go through and choose which one you would take....talk about hard! We chose mostly minor correctable needs....so when we got this referral we were estatic! She was 3 1/2 with a heart problem and umbilical hernia...not too bad BUT she was saying only 1-2 words and not saying them clear. We had her file reviewed by an international specialist and it just seemed that there was some underlying problem. Other characterics pointed to a possible genentic syndrome....Fear kept crawling in...at one time we were ready, the next moment that fear would grip us again. We went from yes to no, yes to no......what do we do? This decision should not be this hard....what is God telling us....we can't hear you God....please God, help us make this decision...lots of prayer...no answer...God please! In the end, we just couldn't say a definite yes. I cried, Tony held me and I am sure his heart was breaking too. What if this child was God's will for us and we let it pass by. So many emotions. Well, another list is due out Monday night. It is our prayer that God has our little girl on this list. In fact, we have a feeling that He is going to bless us with our desire. Please if you are reading this, keep us in your prayers. Kara Lin (new shorter version) we love you wherever you are....Baba and Mama can't wait until the day we meet!