finally! a blog

Hi family and friends,

You are about to share with us a most incredible journey! We'll be traveling in just a few days to meet our daughter who resides in China. We are very excited and filled with joy to finally hold this blessing!

This isn't something that just happened. Since the early 90's, I have considered adopting from China. Then I met Vince, married, and had two wonderful sons. However, a little girl named Grace started "following" us around in the early spring of 2005. First the circus, then Kroger, and then the playground. I finally had the nerve to ask her mom about her (thanks for making it so easy, LT). Indeed, she was adopted from China and was I interested? I took her adoption agency business card home and truly prayed about this. I asked Vince and he said "I've been wondering when you'd ask". Figures. So, we started the task of choosing an international adoption agency. Families Thru International Adoption (FTIA) located in Evansville, IN was our choice. We were soon accepted into their program and the paperchase began.

Not meaning to belittle the paperchase, but let's just say that you know those 300+ trees we planted? Well, by maturity, they may cover the amount of paper we used to complete our dossier (and subsequent paperwork)! It is not an easy task, nor is it for the unorganized, lazy or fingerprint challenged! Our dossier was sent to China on 31Mar06 and we were logged in with the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) 5Apr06 (4-5-06). At this time, the wait time for a referral was about 10 months with travel 8 weeks later. And it just kept getting longer and longer...

FF, spring 2007. We have submitted paperwork for the Waiting Children program. This program encompasses orphans who have special needs or may be older (our boys aren't getting any younger and btdt with "as young as possible") . Our call from FTIA came over spring break while we were vacationing in Calabash, NC. There is a 3-year-old who appears to match our profile and would we be interested? When we arrived home, we were able to read her file and see the first photos! She is so beautiful with the saddest eyes. And so, our wait had ended and we started the paperchase again!

LOI (letter if intent) 11Apr08
PA (pre-approval) 21Apr08
LOA (letter of acceptance) 1May08
TA (travel approval) 23May08
travel dates 18Jun08-2Jul08

In early April, we were looking at Sept or Oct travel. At our LOA, July travel. And with our TA, June travel. Yikes, it is coming up fast and "bust my boiler, Thomas", let's get the show on the road!