Tuesday, May 10, 2011

RA and Show Hope

Mother's Day ended with both children puking, and I woke up Monday morning and joined them. We all laid around in front of the tv on Monday, because that was about all we could do.

Monday afternoon we got a letter in the mail from Show Hope saying we got a $2500 grant!! Then, less than an hour after another session of puke, we got a call from our agency saying our RA arrived! This means that China has approved us to adopt Brendan. And this means you can now see him!



We also found out that we will most likely travel in August. And if we receive our travel approval in July, like expected, we won't have to pay the additional $2750 we thought we would have to due to changes in post placement requirements. So as soon as Pete got home from work, he had to head over to the Fed Ex office to send in a form to USCIS.

We got the Welcome to Travel email Monday as well, and I was once again overwhelmed by all the next things that need to get done. I can't believe we're not done with paperwork! And then it hit me...we are traveling to China in 3 months! So much to do!

We are praising the Father for all His good gifts to us, even in the midst of sickness.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

waiting

I feel like I'm in phone-stalking mode again. We are waiting for "THE CALL" from our agency telling us they have received our RA (referral acceptance). Technically, we will probably not hear back until around 5/18, but now that it's May I'm getting antsy. We have our I800 and DS230 documents complete and waiting, so we should be ready to submit as soon as it comes.

Meanwhile, we're trying to finish the school year, going on field trips, and prepping the house.

You know you are adopting when things break and craziness happens. All in the same week. I'll just leave it at that.

We're beginning to think about Brendan's care package and working on the video we'll release of him when the RA arrives. We've been applying for more adoption grants.

Next week is Iona's 3rd birthday, so maybe I'll post photos. :) She will tell everyone who will listen that she is SO excited to be 3 because she gets to go to AWANA and ballet.

The week after is our adoption fundraiser garage sale. Our garage is half-full, and we're getting leftovers from other sales soon. Let me know if you have anything to donate to our sale!