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.

We have an appointment!

I talked to June Bond this morning and we've set up our firstappointment to meet with her. She will be here June 23 at around 8:30.Tomorrow I am going to pick up our certified copies of our birthcertificates.

The Stork Is Landing!

Today I played phone tag with our social worker June Bond. I'm hoping that I can talk to her tomorrow. She said she can come out for the first visit this week but Marty is out of town until tomorrow night and then we have other things coming up this week. I'm hoping she can come early next week.Today we received the official adoption packet in the mail fromStefani at CHI. The front of it said, "The Stork Is Landing! IT'S AGIRL!!!". I wanted to jump up and down I was so excited! LOL I just love Stefani for her kindness and everything she does for these babies and for us lucky parents!!!

Our Sweet Brinley

This is the post I made to Children's House International's Yahoo Group today:

Hello everyone from the Millender family! We are just tickled pink tolet all of you know that we are Brynli's forever family and we can notwait to make our way to China to bring her home!!! I have been amember of this board for several months and many of you know that I had a very reluctant husband. Well, time does change things and now weare going to be bringing this little sweet pea home! When list 11 came out we had Hilari's file on hold but my husband was just not ready to adopt. With a sad heart and many tears I let Stefani know that we would not be Hilari's forever family. She and Ginger both reassured me that when the time is right, it all works out and they were so right! (AND I am so thrilled that Kim and her family will beHilari's forever family!!!) We were in church Sunday and out of the blue Brinley's face and name popped into my thoughts. The first thing I thought was, "I couldreally love this little girl!" Hmmmmm.....where did that come from??? We're waiting until October to start our adoption. But Brynli was on my mind often over the next few days. Then when I saw that she was the "spotlight child" my heart jumped. I posted a couple of times and asked if Stefani could tell us her Chinese name in the last post. I don't know why I did that. I just did. Then I went to my bedroom and locked the door and got on my knees and prayed that if this child was our child that there would be a sign so huge that it would absolutely slap me in the face and I wouldn't be able to deny it. A short while later I came back to look at the posts. Stefani had responded that she was called "YaYa". I nearly fainted!!!! My kids have called me "YaYa" ever since Marty and I married and his son wasn't sure what to call me. My daughter told him that I'd mentioned that when I have grandchildren I'd like to be called YaYa. Well, that was it and now all of the kids call me "YaYa". A sign???? It was enough for me!!! I ran and got my 18 year old daughter and told her what had just happened. She just smiled and said, "Okay, what else do you need?" Then my husband came in and I knew that just a couple of months earlier he hadn't been ready to adopt but we had been working hard towards that goal so I wasn't really sure what he would say. He just smiled and looked at me and said, "Well, what do you want to do?" I'd already emailed Stefani by this time and told her that I'd just been slapped with a sign! LOL So, we contacted Stefani again and now sweetBrynli is going to be ours to love forever and we are all so excited!!! She will be living in a small town in the midlands of South Carolina. She'll have 3 older brothers. Josh is 20 and leaving for college inFlorida this fall. Keith is 11 and Brice is 7. Her big sister Kristenis 18 and she will be attending a local college and living at home. (Sissy wants to go shopping tomorrow for new clothes for Brynli! LOL) We have a big, happy family (most of the time! LOL). Our house is on the edge of a big field so she will have plenty of room to run and play. The boys have a huge tree house but I'm sure daddy will be building her her own special play house soon! We have a tire swing and a see-saw out under the trees behind the house. It is 10pm here and the boys are out in the pool right now with their dad. Our pets include a rabbit, 4 dogs, a cat who thinks he owns us, a turtle and a cockateil. For a long time I have wanted to name the child we adopt "Julianna". However, I think I have been outvoted here in our home! Everyone loves the name Brynli. So, we are thinking that her name will be Brinley Elizabeth WeiYa. We changed the spelling because it looks better with our last name. So, now the mystery has been solved and no one guessed! :)Let's go to China!!!!!!!!

Sharon