One more day

Tomorrow, July 30th, Sabrina and I will leave for China.  We will arrive in Zhengzhou on Wednesday and take a bus to Jiaozou.  We will spend 5 days there and then return to Zhengzhou.  Rebekah Xialan will become part of our family  on August 6th.  We will fly to Guangzhou on the 10th.  We will flyout of Hong Kong on the 16th, arriving around 5:30 at PBIA.

 Rebekah's 8th birthday with her friends at Eagles' Wings.  I wonder what kind of birthday she will want next year?

Rebekah and Abbey, her very special friend who lives in Australia.

we received our TA on July 20th.

Waiting for TA

Our article 5 was picked up on July 12th. We should receive our TA (travel approval) in about 2 weeks. Then we need a CA (consulate appointment). The CA is the last thing you do in China before coming home. Usually it is about 1 month from your TA. So, I am hoping to have TA by July 27th and confirmed travel plans by Aug. 1st. I am hoping to be home before the end of Aug. Hoping to be in China around Aug. 10th.

                                  L   O   A
                                        as of June 1st, 2012
We are happy to report that we have approval from China to adopt Fu Xialan, soon to be known as Rebekah Xialan Smith.  We have a few more steps to take before we can travel.  We anticipate traveling mid August.  Since that is the time that school begins, we are tenatively planning for just Sabrina and mom to travel, leaving dad with the 3 older kids to start school.  We have a lot to do this summer.  We will be finishing up Matthew's room the first week of summer vacation by putting in the new flooring and then setting up his room.  Then we will begin work on the bedroom that Sabrina and Rebekah will share.  I think we will start with shopping for bedding and curtains first and then decide what colors to paint the walls.  Since we have some blue and green left from the boys' rooms, we may go with those colors and maybe some yellow.  After painting we will put in new floors and then set up their room.  If we have time, we will paint Allison's room and do her floors.  It will be a busy summer! 

LID

We found out our log in date was March 1st!  So now we start counting down the wait for LOA (letter of acceptance) from China.  This part of the wait can vary greatly.  The average wait is around 60 days.  Some get theirs sooner, some have waited over 100 days.  We are praying to get ours sooner! 

Update

Our dossier was sent to China on February 24th so we are officially DTC!  We are waiting for our LID (log in date) and then we begin the wait for LOA (letter of acceptance).  Although I am still praying for travel before August, I am trying to accept the possibility that it won't happen until August or even September (ugh, please not that).  From reading my adoption yahoo groups and RQ (a chat site for adoption), I can see that we are not the only teachers who would like to travel during summer vacation.  I hope that many of us do get to.  I know that once I have Xialan in my arms, all the waiting will fade from my memory and not matter.  Until then, please join me in praying that things move along quickly and that we might travel sooner, not later. 
Yesterday and today have been 2 of the best days!   I received about 18 new photos and a short video of our daughter.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those who sent me photos.  SB and LS both visited Xialan and the other kids at Eagles' Wings while working with Bring Me Hope.  This group sends groups of volunteers to spend time with orphans in China to bring Hope and Love to their lives.  I am so grateful to them for bringing a smile to my daughter's face on several occasions.  Visit their website to learn more about their work.  Bringmehope.org

Making progress

Our homestudy was approved and in our agency's hand on November 30th.  Our I800a was received on Dec. 1st.  We were approved on January 19th.  Our dossier is being authenticated at the Chinese consulate in Texas.  Our dossier should be on its way to China by the end of next week. 
We are still hoping for travel during the summer and praying that we can be home by the time school starts August 14th. 
In the meantime, I have set up a fundraiser with Adoptionbug.  They have wonderful t-shirts.  I have the woman's T in the Faith Hope Love design and love it.  It is so soft and comfortable.  If you want to purchase a shirt, make sure you do so through our link or from their website through our listing under adoption fundraisers.  Thanks for your support!

12 seconds of love

I've added a video clip in the right sidebar.  12 seconds...that's all, but it says so much.  I can't wait to hold her and tell her how I love her. 

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.