Passport Photos!

There was a post on our Yahoo! Groups that P.A. was received for 3 families yesterday. Stefani (the director of Chinese adoptions at our agency) is out of town. I am hoping that our's is one of them that was received yesterday. I'm practically sitting on the phone waiting. I know we have the 'unofficial' P.A. but we are really anxious to have the OFFICIAL one, too!Keith, Brice, Marty and I had passport photos taken today. Marty had his done at WalMart during his lunch break. $30+ for 6 pictures. Keith, Brice and I went to CVS Pharmacy and got 16 photos each on a sheet and each sheet was only $7.99. Wow! What a difference! I guess Wally World is NOT always the lowest in prices.Marty's mom and dad came over for supper tonight. It's always nice when they come over. We showed them our vacation video. They laughed at Marty and the boys jumping off into the lake! Keith is leaving Saturday to go on vacation with Maria and her family. He is really excited about going. He loves spending lots of time with Thacker and Doris!I know Brice will miss him while he's gone, though.Mom is supposed to be coming to visit tomorrow and stay for a few days.....that will certainly perk Brice up if his "Dee" is here!

We have PA!

PA!!!!!!!! We have official word that our PA has arrived at CHI. We are going to be Brinley's mommy and daddy!!!! OH HAPPY DAYS!!!!We received an email from Stefani today letting us know that it did arrive and that she will mail it to us next week! HOOOOOOORAY!!!!!We went and took care of all of the paperwork for our passports today. So, Marty, Keith, Brice and I will all have passports in just two weeks. Hopefully, by then we will have everything we need to finish up the paperwork and send it on to China! What a glorious day that will finally be!!!Mom is here today! I'm glad she was here when we got the PA! She is so very excited and happy about Brinley! :)We are going shopping tomorrow for a high chair and a carseat for Brinley.Josh has decided that he may want to attend college in Charlotte rather than way down in Tampa. I hope he will decide this is what he wants to do. Tampa is so far away!!! We would miss him so much and he wouldn't get to see his new mei-mei very much......or the rest of us!!! Please keep him in your prayers!Sharon :)BRINLEY'S MOMMY!!!!!!!!

Hooray!

Okay, I take it back! We just received a letter from DSS. Our homestudy is on it's way to USCIS!!! HOORAY!!! Everyone remind me about patience, okay????? :)

I-171H

Today we found out that our homestudy hasn't made it through DSS and on to USCIS in Charleston yet. Our best guess as to when we will get the I-171H is August 22 if all of the processes run on average times. We have to have the I-171H before we can send our dossier to China. That is why it is so important to us. Once the dossier is logged-in in China, it will be about 4 months before we go for Brinley. That puts us going in January now rather than in November or December when we were hoping to go. Please, everyone, pray that we will get our I-171H in record time so that we can bring our daughter home as soon as possible. I realize that it is in God's hands and that it will work out in His perfect timing. I just have to keep reminding myself of that......sometimes it's not easy."Wait for the Lord; BE STRONG, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord!"Psalm 27:14

We have PA!

We went on a little vacation to Oconee State Park. We left Wednesdayand returned yesterday evening. Thursday Rachelle called and told usthat PA (Pre-Approval) is on it's way!!! I started crying when I gotthe message!!! HALLELUJAH!!! Marty and I were so happy to finallyhear something!!! Then Saturday I had another message fromRachelle.....the girls aren't going into foster care after all. I amrelieved because I think it would be too much change for them in sucha short amount of time. I feel even more strongly about this now thatI found out that Brinley and Gracie would only be with a foster familyuntil 30 days before we go for them and then they would go back to theorphanage. So much change for these little ones!So, now we are trying to get our passports as quickly as possible. Weare going to have them expedited so that we don't have to wait 6 weeksfor them, just in case we get TA (travel approval) quickly.One step closer, Brinley!!!! :)BTW...I guess I should mention that Rachelle and her husband Tim are also adopting a little girl from Guilin and we are using the same agency. We have become close friends in the past month! It is highly suspected by some that our daughter's may, in fact, be fraternal twins. We shall see. We are hoping to travel together! It will be interesting to watch the girls interact if we are able to go together!

Homestudy

We have an official, notarized copy of our homestudy! YAY!!!!We received it Saturday, July 16!We're almost there!!! Now we are just waiting on the i171h to comeand then all of our documents can be sent off to the Chinese Embassyin Washington, DC for authentication! HOORAY!!!Not much longer, Brinley!!!!

Happy 4th of July!

Wow! A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Our homestudyhas been completed and we have been fingerprinted.The homestudy was a breeze. June Bond is our social worker. Shecame very highly recommended and I can see why. She really gets thejob done!We had our fingerprints done on July 1! We were in good companywith VJ Allred, her husband Dave and their 3 year old daughter Jada.It was the first time Brice, Keith or Marty had been around a littleone from China. I think they all would have brought Jada home withthem if they could have because she is just so incredibly cute!Now we are waiting on our I-171H to come back from USCIS (thefingerprintin' folks).Our LOI is sitting in Charlene's office in Utah, just waiting on theFedEx man to pick it up tomorrow. It's been sitting there sinceFriday. They must have missed the shipping time Friday. We are allanxious to watch it's progress to China.I've bought some cute little clothes for Brinley and we've evenbought her a few toys. Not much available right now for Fall orWinter so I cruise through eBay frequently just hoping to findsomething oh-so perfect for our little Miss Brinley!Marty is getting really excited about Brinley. We talk about her alot and frequently he is the one who initiates the conversations.He's even talked to Alissa Furtick at church about adoption when sheasked him some questions about it.More later.