2 years and counting...

Referral Photo 2008

Our Beautiful Daughter Hannah!

It's Official...

We received our PA {Pre-Approval} today from Ch!n@ for our newest daughter...

Meet our baby girl; Bella XiaoHan so cute!and Full of Giggles...

Yes, ... uhhh, well, ...we are adopting again ... and... Yes, ...Over the Moon with Joy!, as we are once again Humbled, and Blessed Beyond Belief to be able to have yet another daughter.

She is age four and waiting for us in Henan, China.

Our Family cannot wait to bring our newest daughter home.

Please Pray with us, as we begin our "paper-pregnancy" to bring our daughter and our children's sister home, in what we hope will be a short 9 months.

"Grand" day for Pictures

When Grandpa says "jump", you can imagine :o) "We Jump" .

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit this June and out of the blue,...

in the late afternoon on one of those festive days;

Grandpa says "Get dressed we are going to go get our new family portrait." :o)

Sweaty from work and play, hair a muck, and no appointment reserved,...

And well, we managed to find some clean clothes and brush our teeth,

as we quickly headed out the door in record time for a party of 8.

Drumm-m-m Roll-l-l ...please!

and...

Here we are!The Grand Picture! :o)

The kids are adorable. awhhh, aren't we cute.

Mayana

This was a special visit for Hannah. Mayana was Hannah's foster sister in China.

Extra "thank you" to Mayana's family for coming all the way to Colorado just so they could see each other.

Athena & Scott's first Zoo trip.

Football Camp

3 day summer camp for Jacob.

Ladybugs:

Ladybugs are believed to be good luck in the adoption community. Several years ago, while numerous people waited for their referrals, there was a huge infiltration of ladybugs across the nation. Immediately following the ladybug sightings, a flood of referrals came in for many of the waiting parents. Many people now believe that when a ladybug is seen, a referral is not far behind.

~
When you're having a biological child, you KNOW you are expecting all along the way and you get to hear the baby's heartbeat and see him/her on the ultrasound monitor, you can count the weeks of pregnancy, you begin to feel the baby move and of course your body changes daily. With the adoption process, we wait and wait with no confirmation (except a pile of government forms & an email from our agency to download another newsletter), until we get a referral; a referral is only the beginning on the Special Needs Journey. Then, it's faith and hope that get us through, along with lots of prayers, doctors and "thoughts for "WISDOM" to guide us" on the right path to our daughter... and a few days like today when it feels a little more "real"... maybe even a step closer. A cloud is lifted... and we suddenly spot a Lovely Ladybug.

Update: As I trekked on a 4.3 mile walk to my son's football camp today, at my destination I saw a sweet little flying ladybug. :o)

5th Grade Graduation

Scott wanted his best friend in the picture.

We are so proud of them, they have come so far in just 1 year.

Days' of Thunder (or snow)

Scott had a Track Meet today, the high jump was his sport.

His first jump was at 3' 6". You only get 2 attempts per height.

Round 2 was at 3' 8".

The cold and "snow" was getting to Scott...
After over 30 min. in the cold they moved the bar up 2" to 3' 10".

Scott's hand hits the bar on his second try, he should feel good... He was able to beat kids much taller than himself.

Excellent Job. :)

...the beginning of our adoption for... Bella

Yes, It's true! We have started the process... one more "final" time, to adopt. We are so excited to be able to be blessed to have yet one more precious gift from God, our child another daughter. This is our milestone and journal page of our families journey to adopt; our youngest daughter. She is somewhere waiting for us in China.

We submitted our Application on 04/19/2010, and Our MCC {medical conditions checklist} on 4/22/2010; and we were approved on 05/06/2010.
We have decided on a name for our littlest one; Bella ^(Insert Chinese Name) Mystique.
We downloaded the Dossier Guide tonight, 5/23/2010, it was the last day of School for your siblings, "Bella". It is now Summer time, ~ mommy homework time ~ time for your mommy to do the Dossier {loads of Paperwork & Documents} to get all of them to China, so we can meet and bring you home, ...forever our daughter.

Guess what??... We know who Bella is. We are

over the moon with joy. Today is 6/10/2010 and we have seen Bella's Face. Our Hearts have grown 10 sizes bigger and our eyes full of tears of joy. We have been Humbled and Blessed to be the parents and family of this child. She is a beautiful little girl, age four from AnYang, Henan, P.R. China. She is an orphan in foster care and she is most desperately loved by us, her new forever family. Our prayers have been answered yet once again for a gift from GOD, a child to call our daughter, forever.

We Sent our LOI (letter of Intent to adopt) today 6/14/2010 to Ch!n@.
We recieved PA (PreApproval) to adopt our youngest daughter 6/21/2010.
Welcome our newest baby girl; her name means "Beautiful Aura of the Sky or Firmament"; aka Beautiful Heavenly Aura ~ Bella XiaoHan Mystique.
We started our Homestudy by attending our Orientation at our agency on 6/25/2010.
Today is 08/12/10 and the dossier paperchase for you, "Our Bella" is coming right along. We mailed our last documents that we have control over (timeline control) to the S.O.S. for certification, and Jan M. our family Social Worker, emailed and said the Homestudy has just been reviewed (read 3+ times or more) by Judy at our agency :o)... so we are underway my girl. We have to sit back and let the governments now weigh in with their approval notices, and fingerprint invitations and a whole bunch of acronyms for your adoption... but we are well underway. Hang tight our littlest lotus blossom, we are coming in 2011.

Today is 08/24/10 Our Homestudy is at our State-AA (Adoption Alliance) for approval... which should take one to two weeks, then on to USCIS (United States Customs and Immigration Service), where they will invite us to be fingerprinted and then approve us (mommy & daddy) as fit parents to adopt an orphan (our beloved Bella) from an International Hague Country.
This last step is very lengthy, waiting possibly up to 90 days for this last document (I-797C) for the Dossier, but it is in place to protect the children and families... Pray for us and Bella that everything will move smoothly so she can have us and us have her and she will no longer be an Orphan, but the child born of Our Hearts.

I last wrote on this page we were expecting our fingerprint appointment-- well that came, and we stopped by our agency to deliver our Dossier-- and then when we got home--- WELL we found Deanna staring back at us on the Waiting Child Website!! A complete and perfect circle to our children-- Welcome and follow along I can't keep up with this page any longer! LOL!!!