Hooray It's finally here!

Yesterday the mailman brought the much anticipated immigration letter. Which I sent next day air to the adoption agency. Now what??More waiting. It needs to be certified along with recommendation to adopt letter from the agency. Which will probably take about two more weeks then we can finally submit our dossier.I will be the happiest woman on the planet that day. We may be in another pile but we will be in a pile in China! Please keep praying for the adoption and for Abby.

Sending You the Gift I Know You'll Get

Dear Abby,
I may not know whether you will receive the present I sent you but I know God delivers this "gift" to you everynight. I'm so sorry this is taking so long.
We will be there as soon as we can...love you
KISSES IN THE WIND (The Waiting Child's Lullabye)

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night
anonymous
All Our Love,
Mom & Dad

To Abby with Love

Here is Abby's Christmas gift that is on its way to China. A musical Pooh bear and two Chinese sticker paper doll books.I was thrilled to find the one with the doll named Lian since her Chinese name is Lian Qing Who knows whether they will ever reach her hands but I bought duplicates of everything so in case she does ever play with them, she can make the connection. I can tell her how we were on the other side of the world missing and loving her. Still no paper from Immigration.I think Christmas is going to be a bit emotional for me this year. Since my dad died,it doesn't take much to make the tears start during the holiday season,happy or sad. So this year with a picture of a sad little girl(that is my daughter) on my fridge, it should be real interesting. I cried when I put it in the Ziploc bag, I cried when I wrote out the label. I cry when I think about her getting it and I cry when I think about her NOT getting it because she doesn't even know about us yet. Hopefully, God's plan and my plan are similar and next year she will be here and all this pain and waiting will be a distant memory. How can you love someone so much that you have never met???

and another month goes by....

Four months ago today I got the phone call,"China has pre-approved you to adopt Lianqing." I was so unbelievably ecstatic! When I got the official pre-approval document and saw we had 6 months to get the paperwork into China ,I remember thinking no way is it going to take us THAT long to get the paperwork in. Now another month has gone by,and my paperwork is not over there.I sit and WAIT,for this is no longer in my hands.In my faithful moments,I tell myself it is in God's hands and he has everything under control.His timing is perfect.Then there are my freak out moments,when every possible thing that can go wrong swirls around in my head,when I realize I have just lost another four weeks of her life that I can never get back and my heart aches so badly. 60 days is all I have left and then I will lose her. I know I need to remain faithful and positive. It is the only way to get through these days. I wish I could send everything but the immigration paper,so they know we are continuing the adoption and we want her but that is not possiable.So I sit and wait and dream and pray....

And The Winner Is....

Gracie's Garden!!!! It received 60% of the vote Thanks to everyone that voted. I can't wait to paint the room. I am hoping to do that over my Christmas break. Exciting times ahead:)

One Piece of Paper...

One piece of paper is all we need to have our dossier complete. Brandon had his fingerprinting done on Wednesday,DCFS has issued our endorsement letter,so now it is just a waiting game for one piece of paper from immigration. Once I send that to our adoption agency it gets processed along with the rest and about two weeks after that,it will be on it's way to China. I will be doing a happy dance on that day!!
I am able to send her something for Christmas but it must fit in a gallon Ziploc bag. I am not sure what to send. I do not think that they tell the children they are being adopted until the paperwork has been accepted. Which makes me wonder if she will get it at all or if it will be more like a donation to the orphanage. I have this musical Classic Pooh that I bought many years ago when I planning on an infant. I remember writing in my journal to her about wanting it to be the first thing I give her. I would like to send it but again I am afraid it will not be given to her. Chuck had a great idea to get another one and send one to her and have the other one on her bed when she gets here. Do you think I can find another identical Pooh? Of course not. I bought it at Target in the baby section but they don't carry it any longer. I am going to keep checking ebay. If anyone has any ideas or any knowledge of how things go, as far as when a child at the orphanage receives a gift, please leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you