Care package

I really want to send little man a care package but I don't want to do anything to upset the apple cart. What do you think? Is it ok to send a package before getting LOA ?

DTC

Tim just spoke with the agency and we will be dossier-to-China today or tomorrow!

Tonight I was thinking about our journey and everything we have been through to get to this point and I realized; Yu Jun was born almost 9 months after we started our adoption process.
All this time we have been waiting we did not realize that he was conceived only a month after we started our paperwork. I pray that his birth mother somehow finds comfort and peace and could be reassured that we love him dearly. We will always be grateful that she chose life.

Another update!

We received a nice surprise today, look how cute he is !!! He looks so good, I just want to hold him and comfort him and tell him how much he is loved. I wonder if I pack my bags tonight would they let me leave tomorrow? I'm ready!!

Happy , Happy Day !

These last few weeks have been tough and tonight when I got home I sat down at the computer to read emails as I always do, but before I opened my inbox I stopped and prayed.
"Lord, I love you with all my heart and I trust your plan. You know the desires of my heart; you know we want so much to bring this child home to love him and to share your love with him and to help teach others of your love. I trust that you would not have taken us down this path if it were not in Your plans for our lives. If it is Your will Lord, please help us to complete this process.........."

After I had been online for about 15 minutes checking emails and starting to think about what we would do if we did not get approved I noticed a new message from Heritage. The CCAA has given official approval for the transfer of files !!!

Thanks Monica for always listening to my craziness, please tell Lily Mei that everything is going to be OK :-)

Room for Reed

I've been waiting for this day since we sent in our adoption application in May of 2006.
One might think I could have narrowed down my choices for color, bedding, etc. - Not! I looked online and in stores for 4 days before picking out the bedding.
I also have a really hard time picking out paint colors. The problem is that I get a picture in my mind of how I want something to look and I don't stop until I find it. We painted the room 4 different shades of aqua on Thursday and today when I went in the paint store the guy at the counter said "what do you need Mrs Hammond?". Not good morning or how are you, just "what do you need". So, I got 2 color samples and went to a different store for my next 2 when those did not work out!
Anyway- 7 shades later I found the perfect blue (as you can see the first 2 pictures show one of the colors that didn't make the cut)
I don't have any pictures or decor yet, but here's the wall color and the crib. I can't believe we finally have a crib in the house! How exciting!!!

oh, our dossier is back from Houston so I hope to send it to the agency on Monday. The CCAA has still not issued the official approval to transfer the files yet so we're still praying everything gets approved and we can continue without delay.

The paper chase is never dull

Just when we thought we were through with the paper chase; I got a call today from the courier and one of our county certifications is incorrect. Ugh! I don't know how it happened, but the court house listed the notary's name wrong on Tim's employment letter. The state did not staple anything so we will only have to re-do the county level.
All those adoption mama's out there know what I'm talking about. To my family members that are looking at your computer screen right now scratching your noggin, China is very particular with dossier documents and after authentications are attached to your documents you can not make any changes to anything or remove the staples. So, we should be ok as long as Tim can talk the lady at the court house into certifying a notary seal that is not in our possession. Hum.....this outta be good!

We finally managed to get everything notarized and certified. Next step: authentication.
For a mere $410 our documents will be hand delivered to the Consulate- General of the People's Republic of China in Houston. The proper authentication seal will be added to each document and returned to us. THEN we can send the complete dossier to our new agency and the real wait begins. Hold on baby boy, I'm coming!!!

Thanks for the prayers!

We just received an email from Stacey. The CCAA has agreed to transfer all files to Heritage.
Thanks to all our wonderful friends and family who have had us in your prayers.
Now our next step is to see if they will accept our home study since our SW is not with a Hague accredited agency.
PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!

No news yet

Nothing. Please keep praying that the CCAA approves the transfer of files and that another agency takes our case soon!
We've managed to complete our dossier while we're waiting. Tim is going to get everything certified at the county on Thursday and then he will take everything to Montgomery on Monday.
The last step is Houston for authentications and then it's off to our new agency (that's the mystery)

Our precious son

One in every 600 babies are born with cleft lip and/or palate.

To me, he is perfect and beautiful. We know there are many surgeries and therapy sessions in our future. We love him and we will do whatever it takes to bring him home and give him all the love and support he needs.

To read more about cleft lip and cleft palate and to see how you can help: click here.