A Season to Share

I am loving the support that I see among fellow adoptive families.  We cheer one another along, share each others fundraising efforts and pray for one another.  I love it! 
Our family is featured on another mom's blog who is posting blurbs about other families who are adopting.  If you'd like to see her blog and read about other families like ours...go to http://www.daysmadeofnow.com/

My dear friend, Anita, is having a Kindle Fire raffle, just in time for Christmas.  Please help her to bring home her 12 year old daughter who is waiting in China.  Visit her blog at http://milesoftheheart.blogspot.com/
btw...her son Jacob was my Sabrina's best friend in China! 

Read about a different family and their adoption journeys by clicking on the link to the right...24 days of giving.

Listen to the voice of a recently adopted 14 year old girl explain why we need to provide homes for the children who are waiting. 
http://elliourgiftfromgod.blogspot.com/   and click on Xiaoyun speaks

I800A

We have finally moved to the next stage of the adoption process. Our I800A was mailed on Nov. 30th. Now we wait for it to be processed. We will be working on getting documents authenticated and we will be getting our fingerprints taken when we receive the notice to do so. Praying that our wait is on the shorter end of the range. Average wait for this step is 2-3 months.

Christmas Frenzy Link

Help other families who are in the process of adopting by shopping through their fundraisers.  Click on the link above and see what they have. 

I am doing a fundraiser selling jewelry and other items to help fund our adoption. If you are interested, you can contact me if you live in Palm Beach County or you can place an order directly with Be A Voice at www.beavoice.me/shop . You can click on the link under favorite links.  When you place your order, enter "Jacquelyn" in the coupon code box. Below is one of the jewelry items that you can purchase. 

Do you collect gifts from the sea? You’ll love our Pewter Starfish Necklace and Earrings Set! Meticulously crafted from durable lead-free pewter with an overlay of highly polished Sterling silver. The unique three-dimensional design offers a striking presentation from every angle. Lighthearted and fun, and great for gift-giving too! Other details of the Pewter Starfish Necklace and Earrings Set include:

•Sterling silver over lead-free pewter

•Highly polished

•18” black cord included

•Pendant approx. 1 5/8” x 1 3/8”

•Back bail

•Earrings approx. 1 3/8” x 1 1/8”

$20.00

So I never finished updating about our vacation.  Maybe I'll come back to that later.  For now I wanted to begin sharing our adoption journey.  I managed to figure out how to add additional pages.  You can click on Xialan to read about our precious daughter who is waiting to come home from China.  I've also added a page on adoption with links to some of the sites I like to visit.

Glacier Point Drive

Our last day in Yosemite we drove to Glacier Point where there are great views of the valley and Half Dome.  There are people on that dome...see the little bumps that look like ants!  We hiked up to Sentinel Dome with it's 360 degree view.  Wow!

More photos

Updates

So, I've played around and changed the look of my blog.  We'll see how I like it. 
We had a busy summer.  In June Allison had her 2nd dance recital.  She was recognized as the most improved dancer! 

We took a quick trip to the Ichetucknee River to float down the river.  We enjoyed the time spent with our friends.

We also took a 2 night cruise to the Bahamas with Grandma Long.  It was a nice relaxing trip. 

At the end of June we left on our big trip to California.  We were gone for 3 weeks.  We flew in and out of Vegas and rented a van.  We put 3000+ miles on that van! 
First we drove through Death Valley.  Hot does not describe it!  We could hardly tolerate getting out of the car.  The next day we went to a cooler place...a shopping mall.  While the kids saw a movie, Greg and I walked around, I had a pedicure and we shopped.  Later we met Christina D.  Her family was in China when Hope Haven opened 10 years ago.  This is the program that Sabrina was in.  Christina was given the privelege of choosing an English name for our daughter, she picked Sabrina.  We liked it so much that we kept the name. 

We then traveled up to Sequoia and King's Canyon National Parks.

We spent 2 days exploring these parks and then moved up to Yosemite. We stayed in Angel's Camp which was about and hour and half drive from the park. We spent a week there, but only went into the park 3 days. The park was beautiful. We went on a few short hikes but mostly just enjoyed the scenery.

I'm going to try to use my blog once again. I don't want to make public on Facebook that we are on vacation. So. only trusted friends and family should be able to follow us here.

We've been to Death Valley...122 degrees and barren and yesterday to Sequoia Nat Park. Amazing trees! Today we are going to King's Canyon Nat Park before heading to the time share. It will be nice to unpack for more than one night and to do laundry. We spent Friday at a mall in Victorville and met Christina D, the girl who held Sabrina as a baby and named her.