Project Chosen

We have been selected to share our story on a friends blog.  Our story will be shared on Feb 16, 2010.  There is a new story each day of the month.  I encourage you to go and check it out.  It's very uplifting and encouraging. 

http://threadsoffaithfulness.blogspot.com/

Blessings,
Debbie

Follow our Journey

The time is finally here.  We are leaving on Thursday.  We are mostly packed. Just a few last minute things left to do. 

I want to thank everyone who is helping us out while we are gone. So many friends & family. 

Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue to pray while we are gone.

And please follow us on our travel site.  www.ethanwilliam.com  Send us emails or sign our guestbook.  It will be so nice to hear from home! 

Next time I blog, Ethan will be home.  I can't wait. 

Until next time........

Travel Meeting: Complete

Today we had our travel meeting with our agency.  We found out that there are 6 other families traveling with us.  Most of us will be together in Beijing.  Some are flying in a day or two later.  Then we will divide up to our child's province.  Then we'll all meet up again in Guangzhou for the final week. 

It's almost here.  So close.  1 week we'll be on the long flight. 

Until next time....

1 Week

We will be on our flight to Newark 1 week from when I'm typing this.  I can't believe it's FINALLY here.  This week will go by fast. So much to do.  Everything is coming together.  Packing has begun.  The girls schedules are getting planned & taken care of.  It's all falling together nicely.

Today at 2 PM we have our travel meeting. We'll find out where we will be staying in China, and who we will be traveling with. I'm so excited.  I know 1 family. I've emailed with her for 6 years now (off & on) and we are going to FINALLY meet in person.  They are adopting a little boy around the same age as Ethan. It will be fun to see them in Guangzhou and have the boys play. 

Please continue to pray for us as we get ready to leave.  Anxiety is kicking in for me.  Pray that our girls will do well while we are gone.  And pray for Mr. Ethan.  That his heart will be open to us and that we will bond quickly. 

Thanks!  Until next time....  Don't forget to follow us on the travel site.  www.ethanwilliam.com

Packing for Ethan; Take 1

We are 12 days away from leaving.  And now I'm ready to start to pack.  We have been blessed with so many hand-me-down clothes from friends & family.  So many that it is hard to decide what we should pack. :-)  So I got into the dresser & closet and started going through all of the clothes.  I know that we will re-pack and re-pack up until the 13th.  :-)  But today, I started.  I have 5 pairs of pants, 2 pant overalls, 2 short outfits, 6 PJ's, 7-8 shirts, 10-12 onesies, socks, bibs etc. 

Then I have a basket of things that I also want to pack.  Goodies, toys, bath things, diaper things etc.  I don't think we'll be able to take it all.

I have no idea what size clothes will fit Ethan.  We are taking 6-12 month sizes.  Hopefully we'll be able to make it work. 

So, we've started packing.  Bill & I have shopping to do for us.  I did find a GREAT buy today.  A nice jacket for 80% off.  It was normally $100 and we got it for $20.  Gotta love it! 

12 more days and we'll be in the air.  2 more weeks and we'll be in China touring.  I can't believe it's getting here so fast! 

Until next time....

Dates to Remember

As of Wednesday December 16
-Ethan is 13 months old
-11 weeks (77 days) since RA!
-6 weeks 1 day (43 days) since I-800 Approval
-3 weeks 6 days (27 days) since I800 cable notice
-3 weeks (21 days) since Article 5
-TA!
Wednesday September 30th
-13 weeks 5 days (96 days) since DTC
-12 weeks 1 days (85 days) since Referral
-11weeks 6 days (83 days) since LID
-10 weeks 5 days(75 days) since PA

4 weeks!

In four weeks, we should be on the flight to Beijing. Our agency said that they are calling for our consulate appointment and it looks like we'll be leaving on Jan 14th and coming home Jan 28 or 29. So in 4 weeks we'll be leaving. I had hoped for 3, but 4 is good. We know that in 1 month, Ethan will be placed in our arms, FOREVER! Gotcha Day should be January 18. He will turn 15 months old that day.

When we heard that it will be 4 weeks now instead of 3 when we will travel, we did think about asking if we could leave next week. But then we remembered why we had peace about leaving in January. And we still do have peace. Leaving a week later than planned gives us another week to get ready. We'll have 10 days after school gets back. We will be able to enjoy the holidays without worrying about packing and getting ready to leave. It will all work out perfectly.

I'm praying that we'll be there the same time as Ethan's little buddy Max's family. They are waiting for TA. They should get it in about 2 weeks or so. It's very possible we could be meeting our boys on the same day. That would be awesome. For friends to meet their forever families on the same day.

I'm also praying that another friend, who I've never met personally, will be traveling with us. We "met" through our agency 6 years ago, when we were paperchasing Abby. We've chatted on and off the past 6 years. But reconnected about 6 months ago, when I saw her posting again on our agency's yahoo group. She is also adopting a little boy. And she also received TA yesterday. They are praying about if they should leave next week. I selfishly and praying they leave with us in Jan. :-)

So now that we know tentatively our travel dates, we can start to plan. We are trying to get the girls taken care of. We have plenty of friends who have offered to take care of them. Our dogs will be taken care of by another sweet friend. We just need to make the final arrangements for everyone.

Now I get to enjoy Christmas and not worry about paperwork. I love this feeling.

Soon....we'll be in China! I'm so excited.

TA!

We're going to China! We just got the call. TRAVEL APPROVAL! We are so excited.

Tentative travel dates are Jan 7th OR Jan 14th. Keep checking the blog for the dates. We should know in the next few days.

Be sure to follow us on our travel website. www.ethanwilliam.com

Less than a month and we'll have a son! Praising God!

Love,
Debbie

Update

Well, I'm so anxious. The closer we get, the more anxious I get. It does not look like we'll be leaving Dec 26th. I'm a little sad about this. But I know it will all work out perfectly.

-Do I really want to leave my girls the day after Christmas?
-Do I really want to skip Beijing?
-Do I really want to fly 24 hours and then meet Ethan the very next day?

The answer is NO. I want to enjoy Christmas with my girls. I don't want to feel rushed. I want to enjoy Christmas vacation with them. Maybe we'll even get a couple of Disney days in there. I want to experience Beijing without the girls. I want to take it all in. I want to have the 2 days to get adjusted to China before meeting Ethan.

I know all I keep saying is "I want". I know that God is not having us leave later than expected because of "my wants". But I'm just starting to understand WHY we are not leaving with other families who we thought we would be traveling with. And it's starting to make sense to me.

I contacted my agency yesterday and they are going to check on Article 5 for us. It's been 3 weeks since it was cabled. They feel that it should be issued very soon. The next tentative travel date is Jan 7th. This is what I'm praying for now. I'm praying Article 5 will come THIS week, and TA will come by Dec 28. If we leave on Jan 7th, then we will meet Ethan on Jan 11. Just a little over a month from now.

I thank you all for the prayers & support. Continue to pray for Ethan. Pray that we will bond and that his adjustment will not be too hard for him.

Until then, I wanted to leave you with 2 photos we took last night. These photos did not make it to our Christmas card. :-) Merry Christmas! I can't believe Christmas is in 2 weeks.

Still Nothing

Still no word. I'm getting anxious, and worried. So I emailed our agency. I asked if they could check on our Article 5 status. They agreed they would. They think we should be hearing something soon. I hope they are right.

I also asked if they had tentative travel set for January. She said they do. Right now they are thinking Jan 7th. So that is what I'm praying for now. That we can leave on Jan 7th. That would mean we would meet Ethan on Jan 11.

Ethan's little buddy Max might be meeting is forever family that same time too. That would be amazing and so neat.

This wait is getting old. It's been 10 weeks since RA. Why on earth is it taking so long to get travel approval. It should not take this long.

God's timing IS perfect. I know I will look back and understand this very soon.

Until next time......

Travel Website

We have set up a website for travel. No, we have not received travel papers yet. But we are just getting prepared.

I emailed our agency and asked if our Article 5 has been issued. She said they have not received word yet. She also said if we get TA by Dec 16 then we will be with the Dec 24 travel group. That is 2 weeks from now. Since Article 5 is not in yet, then I'm not sure we'll make the Dec 24 group. This makes me sad because I heard our old guide Rosa is going to be the guide for this group. And we really want to be with Rosa again. So please keep praying.

Here is the new site. www.ethanwilliam.com

Until next time....

Update

We received a letter today from the National Visa Center (NVC) saying that they recently received our approval form I800. Our petition has been forwarded to the appropriate visa-issuing post where the adoption interview will take place.

Soon (and I pray very soon) they will issue an Article 5. We will receive an email from our agency when the Article 5 has been sent to CCAA (Beijing). Then we wait for CCAA to issue us our TA (Travel Approval).

We are getting so close! I think we should start packing. :-)

More updates soon.......

Ladybugs N Love

I just have to say a HUGE THANK YOU to Ladybugs N Love. They were so nice and kept checking and checking until we got the updates we requested. They even went over and beyond. We are very thankful to Angela & Ladybugs N Love. If you are reading this and waiting to bring your child home from China, I highly recommend hiring Ladybugs N Love to get updates on your child.

Thank you again Angela! We are so grateful!

Celebrating Ethan!

Yesterday my friends from church threw me a wonderful baby shower. I was so amazed with all that they did for me, and for our son. So many friends showed up with wonderful gifts for him. We played games, ate cake and had good fellowship.

All of the guests got the opportunity to decorate a onesie for Ethan. They turned out amazing. Some are in the slideshow. I also received some fabric & good wishes for his quilt.

It was a GREAT afternoon. Thank you to Kris, Pam & Billie for all the time, energy and money that you put into celebrating our son! We appreciate it so much.

Enjoy the photos.....

I800 APPROVAL!

I was so happy to receive the mail yesterday. We got another notice from USCIS and this time it says that we are "provisional approval". We are so happy. After the big mess up, we found out that they received our papers Monday at 4 PM and they approved it on Tuesday. Praise God! I also found out a travel mate also received their approval a day before us. So we are not behind at all.

Now we wait for travel approval. We would LOVE to leave the first week of Dec. Then we would be home for Christmas and we would also be able to get cheaper tickets. Please continue to pray for our travel plans.

Also pray for Bill & I as we do prepare to leave the girls at home. We went to the airport last night to welcome home a new baby from China and it hit us both. We are not going to have an easy time leaving the girls. So please pray for us, and also pray for our girls that they will not be too sad while we're gone.

Thanks!

Nov 4

Today is a special day for us. 5 years ago today, we boarded the flight to China to adopt Abby. I can't believe it's been 5 years already. 4 years ago today, our dossier was sent to China to adopt Jadyn. Amazed it's been 4 years. Now here we are, Nov 4th and in another adoption. I had hoped maybe TA would come, but with the week we had last week that is unlikely.

We received a letter from USCIS saying that I filled out our I800 wrong. All of the information was correct. Except Bill should have filled it all out, not me. So we had to redo it and send it back. We had to send it USPS because it was going to a PO Box. It was supposed to be delivered last Thursday or Friday. It did not get delivered until Monday afternoon (4 PM). As you can imagine I'm very upset about this setback. I've been told that this should not delay us in getting TA. I don't see how it won't. BUT, I'm trusting in God. He has it all planned out. The trip is already in the works and we will go when He wants us to go. We will have Ethan in our arms shortly. It might not be December. But it could be. We just do not know. And the unknown is what is killing me.

So here we are, Nov 4th. What could happen today for us? I'm now praying that our I800 approval gets cabled to Guangzhou. That would be awesome if it did.

Please pray for my sanity. :-) Pray that I can get through this wait. Pray for Ethan as he waits for us. Thank You!

Notice from USCIS

We received in the mail today a notice saying that USCIS has received our I800 (Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative). This is good news. This means they are working on our file and they have our address and can contact us if they have any questions.

Now they process our petition, then send it off to the US Consulate in China.

We've been waiting 2 weeks now. Hopefully we'll get TA within 5-7 weeks MAX.

Just keep praying.......

Homestudy is GOOD!

I heard from our agency today and our homestudy is good to go. No issues at all. No updates needed, for now. Praising God tonight!

Now pray that our RA/LOA arrives soon and that our TA will get here soon after that. We have a deadline of Jan 25th to be back or else we'll have to update local clearances for the homestudy (homestudy is not valid after Jan 25th).

Waiting for RA/LOA
Wait for TA (travel approval) after RA is approximately 7-10 weeks
Wait for travel after TA is approximately 2 weeks (if there is a group traveling).

All things are possible with God!

Thanks!

No word from agency-but some Hope

So today I was trying to find our referral email for Ethan. I want to print out his Chinese name so I can label things we hope to send to him soon. Well as I was looking through my emails I came across one from our Family Coordinator in July. It was long, but I read it all. At the bottom was this sentence.

For families adopting a known Special needs child, the approval must state that the family is approved for “special needs” as “medical needs” is not sufficient.

So to me, this is saying that our Homestudy should be fine. I have peace and hope that it will be fine.

No word about RA's. Hoping it comes very soon. I'm ready to meet my son.

Until next time.....

Pray please

I need prayer. I'm stressing out. Bill told me to calm down. That I do not need to be worrying about anything. Here is my concern:

I'm hearing that now the homestudy has to state the specific Special Need of the child that we are approved for. Our homestudy does not state the specific need. I have emailed our agency and have emailed the FL office. I have been talking with the FL office and she has not heard of the HS needing to state the specific need. She has had FL families go and come back with the "general wording" and everything has been okay.

Other friends who are using our agency have had to have their homestudy state the specific need. So I'm confused to why FL does not. Then I'm hearing that it could be a state requirement.

I'm trying not to worry about this. Worst case is we have to pay more money ( a lot of money) to change the HS to say his specific special need. Best case is we do not have to do anything and our HS is fine.

Also please pray that we do travel and come home before Jan 25. This is when some of our local clearances expire. We do not want to have to re-do this.

Thanks for your prayers. Day 72! OH, I did hear that RA emails will be sent out in the next 1-3 business days. Praying we are in this batch.

Until next time......