Fall Activities

Before I get to the pictures...we have travel approval! It arrived today. Now we apply for a consulate appointment, which should be confirmed in two days. Once we have a confirmed appointment, we buy plane tickets. We hope to leave somewhere around Nov. 15!

Peter's class went to a local farm last week. They saw and held animals, played in a corn maze, and brought home a little pumpkin. Here's Pete's class having a great time:

Our church had their annual Reformation Celebration on Sunday night. The kids dress up and get to play carnival games that teach them (and the adults!) about the Protestant Reformation. The whole church is invited to attend, help out, and eat dinner together. It is a wonderful time for all!

The Reformation Celebration brings even the bitterest enemies together!

Pin the theses on the door

Waiting to Travel!

We are officially two days into our wait for travel approval. Our Article 5 letter was picked up on Monday from the US Consulate in Guangzhou. It is now in Beijing, and we are just waiting for them to tell us we can come get Leah! We estimate receiving travel approval in about 1-3 weeks. As soon as we get it, the craziness begins. We have to confirm a consulate appointment, schedule flights, apply for visas, pack...the list goes on and on. Please pray that everything will go smoothly. Of course there is no way to predict for sure, but we very much hope to be in China around Thanksgiving.

We're up to 334 sponsored puzzle pieces! To those who have donated already, we honestly can't thank you enough. If you haven't donated yet, the details of this fundraiser to help us with travel costs are HERE. Please consider helping us put China together there in the middle!

I have neglected my camera lately. Argh. Halloween is right around the corner, so I'm sure I will have lots of costume pictures to share very soon. Here are a few shots from last week when Thomas and Ruthie were playing very sweetly together:

This precious boy and those dimples...oh my goodness

She likes cake!

Can you believe it?? Even MORE pictures! We had a birthday cake sent to Leah, and her birthday just happened to be the same day that Christine's family visited the orphanage. We have had very few pictures of Leah, and then all of a sudden we get tons of pictures of her taken on the same day!

Curious

Love this with a huge mouthful!

I am so excited for next year's pictures to be at our kitchen table.

Pictures and a Puzzle Update!

Last week, another family adopting through our agency from the same orphanage traveled to pick up their daughter. Christine was gracious enough to contact us before they left. We sent her some pictures, and she laminated them to take to Leah on their orphanage visit. We are so grateful for the time they took to do that. We did not know that they were going to be able to take pictures while on their orphanage visit, so imagine our delight when we opened up emails from Christine with tons of pictures of our little girl!

Checking out a picture of Mommy and Daddy!

Now we know she likes lollipops

Of course she has a musical shirt :)

With friends who will be adopted very soon too!

Leah with Ivy-Ann

Thank you so much, Christine!

Then today we received an email from our social worker with our final update on Leah. It is so amazing to be getting emails from her with the word "final" in the subject line. We're so close!! As you can see on our adoption timeline on the right sidebar, we only have a few dates left to fill in. The final update is very basic and is mostly weight and measurements. Leah is about 35.5 inches tall and weighs 29 lbs. 12 oz. My best guesses are that she is wearing size 3T clothes and size 8 shoes.

Leah's puzzle piece count is up to 244 pieces!

Thank you again to all of you who have sponsored pieces. As you can see, there are still holes to fill. If you would like to contribute, you may click the paypal button to the right, or you may contact us for our church's address and write a check to their adoption fund. All the details about the puzzle fundraiser can be found by clicking here. As we have previously shared, the primary expense that the puzzle fundraiser will help us with is our travel to China. Some of you have been curious as to how much this whole trip will cost. Our agency's current estimate for travel fees is $17,095.00. This includes everything: official in-country adoption/consulate fees, flights, hotels, transportation, food, tips, etc. If you look under our "cost breakdown" tab, you'll see that we have already spent nearly $16,000.00. You do the math. The point of sharing these numbers with you is to emphasize that every $10.00 puzzle piece sponsorship counts. We promise you that every penny of our fundraising has gone toward this adoption and is an integral part of bringing Leah home. This puzzle is also a way for so many people to communicate to Leah that she is loved. Of course she won't understand it right away, but as she grows in a loving family, she will see this puzzle as a tangible statement by her family, friends, and community that she matters. She is a child of God, created in his image. Leah is an image-bearer. In her short life, Leah has known abandonment and grief. The world has and will continue to tell her that her genetic makeup means she is a burden. Please join us in showing her that she is loved, cherished, and a beautiful child of the King. We're not being sentimental here, folks. This face is beautiful:

 "I saw the brokenness more clearly in those with an extra chromosome, but I was starting to understand that their brokenness was no different from my own."  -Amy Julia Becker, A Good and Perfect Gift

To Leah, as you turn 4

To Leah, as you turn 4.

Words don't flow easily for us this week. We want to excitedly wish you a happy birthday! But how do we do that when we don't even know you yet? We don't know what kind of presents you would like. We don't know if you like cake or what kind is your favorite (but we had one sent to your orphanage anyway -- we hope you like it!). It has been a very long and difficult road that brought us (almost!) together, and yet it has been shockingly easy to open our hearts to you once we found you. You are our child, even though you don't know it yet and even though you don't know us yet. So on your birthday, we are anticipating even more earnestly the time when we can tell you:

We love you.
We are thankful for you.
We are proud of you.
We are so excited to see the woman you will become.
We are grateful that God has placed you in our family.

The best part about your 4th birthday is knowing that it is the last birthday you will spend without us. This time next year, Lord willing, you will be here with us and we will celebrate your day with your brothers and sister, with presents and cake, and with laughter, love, and joy.

Oct. 2012

Update 3: A Puzzle for Leah

We currently have 214 pieces sponsored, and you can see the outline of China! Thank you again to all who have contributed to our puzzle -- family, friends, and even a few people we don't know well at all! We are so happy that you all want to help us Leah home. There are plenty of pieces left for anyone who would like to be a piece of Leah's story.

Adoption update: I'm just going to be 100% honest here and say that I don't fully understand what is happening with our paperwork right now! I fill out what I'm told, send it where I'm told, and wait for approvals. I do know that our paperwork is currently with the National Visa Center. I was extremely concerned that the government shutdown would hold us up, but so far we have not been affected. We are awaiting an approval from the NVC so we can then send information to China requesting travel approval. TRAVEL APPROVAL...did I just type that?! I long to meet Leah, bring her home and get to know everything about her. Normally it seems like it is taking forever to get to her, but just the fact that I'm even mentioning travel approval is encouraging. It really is coming soon!

Sweet big brother reading a bedtime story