What's up

We had our final home study visit with the social worker and she hopes to have the updated home study done in about 2 weeks. We are beginning to gather documents for our dossier(paperwork for China). I am really hoping to have our portion done by early September so the adoption agency can do what they have to and get it to China!
You may have noticed I changed the name at the top of the blog to Abby-Grace. We have talked a lot about what to do about her name. We don't want to completely ignore the fact that right now her name is Lian Qing, however our family has called this faceless dream of a child Abby for 5 years, I definitely wanted "Grace" some where because it is only by the GRACE of GOD we are receiving this gift.I thought long and hard and remembered this darling little girl at school who's name is Alexis-Grace and so after talking with Chuck, her name will be Abby-Grace Lian Grimm. We will start calling her Lian when we first meet and gradually teach her Abby.
I did a little clearance shopping at Target. It was so fun to look through the little girl section. I don't really know her size but I thought I'd be safe with a 5.(she is suppose to be a little peanut.) I got a pair of shorts, a little top and a giraffe raincoat all for seven bucks.I can't even tell you the feeling in my heart when I think about this actually happening. I am going to have a daughter! After 5 long years of dreaming and praying and waiting and crying and crying some more, it looks like God is finally leading us to where she is.

I am getting excited

It is all starting to sink in that this time my dream may actually come to pass. That we are going to have a daughter! I was in Target today and I passed the little girl section, stopped as my heart skipped a beat and proceeded to look around with joy and anticipation. We have our last visit with our SW on July 23rd,hopefully our home study will be done soon. I spoke with the agency which told me now that we have approval and have begun working on the dossier,they can request updated photos and measurements of Lian Qing. I think the ones I have are about a year old. That really excited me as well.I feel a calm,that God is with us and now that I have given up control and given it to him,everything is going to be OK.

THEY SAID YES!!!!!!

Well,here she is,our future daughter Shen Lian Qing. We got the call today that we were pre-approved by China. We only have few hundred more hoops to jump through and she will be ours forever. I have a swirl of emotions running through me. Everything from giddy excitement to"OMG"fear. I will continue to put this in the Lord's hands&ask for his guidance. I will write more soon,right now I am going to go do a"happy dance"