Merry Christmas!

Our paperchase is now finished! I picked up all 12 of our documents today at the Chinese Consulate in Houston. They were all authenticated with no problems. We are now ready to send our dossier to CWA the first week of January (they are closed next week) and it should go to China on January 10th. It takes two weeks to get logged in to China, so I'm guessing January 24, 2007 we will be logged-in in China, which puts us on the waiting list for our travel announcement. That should be around 90 days. (18th of April?) So my best guesstimate would be that we will be traveling to China in May. Two months after that will be Brighton's 10th birthday!

I was doing so well waiting, being patient, understanding delays... until Christmas got closer. It is so hard not having our son home for Christmas. I keep thinking about the kids sitting by the fireplace in their pj's with messy bedhead, going through their stockings with huge grins on their faces, and one son sitting in China wondering what his family is doing. I miss him so much my heart aches! Please pray for safety and comfort for our little boy!

We sent out a huge package two weeks ago for the orphans and for Brighton. We hope we can get a confirmation soon on whether or not he received his package. I ordered stamps from China and sent self-addressed stamped envelopes in hopes that he might write to us.

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone and may you have a very blessed, Christ-filled New Year!

Love, Tina

"You will seek Me and find Me..." Jeremiah 29:13

Our I-171H is Finally Here!

We received our 1-171H in the mail from the Department of Homeland Security clearing us to bring Brighton home! Now we can finally get our dossier to China. Once we are DTC, it will be 3-4 months before we get TA (travel approval). Once we get TA, we must travel two weeks later.

Please pray for us to get all of the necessary stamps from the Secretary of State and the Chinese Consulate in Houston in a timely manner so we can be DTC by Christmas. Please also pray for provisions for all of the fees. We've only payed for about half of the adoption fees. The Lord has provided exactly what we've needed when we've needed it! We are going to continue to trust Him for His provisions. He has been leading this adoption from the very beginning and we are faithfully following His lead.

I took Dani to her Christmas Around the World dress rehearsal today. The parents were allowed to sit in the stands and watch the entire performance. There are several children from different countries skating to songs from their countries. There was this sweet little Chinese girl who skated to Chinese festival music while skating with Chinese silks and firecrackers, which are always lit for festivites in China. She was so precious, and it brought tears to my eyes thinking about Brighton not being home for Christmas.

My computer crashed this week, and it's been so frustrating not being able to check my email or post to the adoption forums we're on. Every time we think we're getting ahead, something else sems to crash or go haywire! We had to completely gut our kitchen two weeks ago because we had a bad leak that caused black mold under the cabinets. Two weeks before that it was our car. I'm beginning to think a horse and buggy and a tent would be just fine! LOL!

Our social worker told us to call her if anything changed. I'm wondering if the kitchen qualifies? I was nervous about this because we haven't been able to afford to finish it, then I heard on the news that her Taekwondo school was infested with bats. I'm sure she understands better than anyone how freak things can happen!

I will post more news when I know something else. Sorry about the huge paragraphs. Blogger isn't being cooperative again.

Tina

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!" 2 Corinthians 9:15