And the wheel turns round and round...

Jan 25th 2005

It seems like forever since we have posted, I'm sure some of you are thinking. It feels that way to me as I write. Once again we are in the waiting stage. We now must wait for a travel approval from China to go and get Laney. This can take up to 5 weeks, leaving some families only a weeks notice for travel. Not to worry for us, I am so ready to go!!! I really have packed and repacked Laney's bag about 5 times now. All thats left is to throw a few clothes in for us and we are out the door!!

Since our referral we have recieved a travel packet from our agency, informing us that we had 5-7 days to send in for our visa's. This was very sad for us, as we STILL had not gotten Wesley's passport, and Austin STILL had no Birth certificate. The expense for them to come was just too much for us even if we had these documents. We trust the Lord, and know his plans are perfect. So our boys are staying with some dear friends of ours from our Church Family.

We have also sent Laney a care package, with a few things that our agency suggested. We sent a coat, toys, a soft photo album with family pictures in it. (the nannies start right away showing it to the children and getting them used to our faces) a camera in hopes they will take pictures of her for us, and a big chocolate Kiss for the Nanny !! We were given some Chinese characters to put on each item, so they would understand what to do with it all.

We also recieved information on Laney's past, yesterday. This was a little emotional for me, as I picture everything in my head. Her orphanage sent the information that....
"On Feb 13, 2005 a babygirl was left at the gates of the Xinyi Socal Welfare Institute. The police were called and an investigation to find her parents was conducted with no results. She was left in a set of plaid clothes and weighed 7.5 lbs. She was 19.6 inches long." They estimated her birth to be February 5th 2005, as she had no note with her to inform of her birth.

The information stated how she has been fed over the last year and her monthly progress in muscle and mental development. It was said she loves to play with her feet as toys. (see last posts pictures) "She is a good girl, and cares about others, she is willing to share." She is extroverted and active, and is especially interested in things red in color. (maybe that is why they gave her a middle name meaning red??)

We also got a copy of her shot record, which is not much. No doubt we will have to start from scratch when we back from China.

Things are moving along, just not fast enough for me. I want to be with her NOW. We estimate travel in about another three weeks. We pray we can be with her on Kevin's Birthday. We hope to get a Travel approval before the Chinese New Year, Jan 29th - Feb 2nd, as everything comes to a stand still for about a week.

Our Church is giving Laney a birthday shower on her birthday, and I will post at that time with more pictures etc.. Until then...

Referral Day!!!

Jan 5th 2006,

Wow, what a crazy ride this has been the last few days!! We were informed on the 29th of Dec that our referral was sent from China and would more than likely be here on Jan 2nd. Our hopes were dashed when we found out that is did not arrive. Kevin and I had made reservations at a motel in Denver as we wanted to be at CCAI personally to get our referral. We had to call and change that reservation. On the next morning we were all sure that the referrals would be in, at around 9 am we were informed that the package with our referrals were stuck in customs in NY and our agency did not expect them in their office for another day or two.

We were crushed!! Our boys reluctantly went to school expecting us to pick them up early to head to Denver on Wed the 3rd, and now we needed to give them the bad news again. We put off the task as long as possible, calling the motel and changing the room date for the second time. The motel staff was wonderful about it and went out of their way to help. (Thank you Lord) I went off to lick my wounds and drive around for a while. As I am an Animal Control officer I was able to use patrolling as an excuse.

At 11:15 Kevin called rather jovial and asked why I was working when we needed to head to Denver. I could not believe my ears. He had just gotten word that the referrals did make it to our agency and we needed to get on the road, "Go pick up the boys, I'll pack the car" In a flash I informed my boss who wished me well and sent me on my way.

We got to Denver and had a nice dinner where we ended up being seated across from a family that had two little girls from China! Torture!!! I could not eat! Nor could we sleep. It was a very long night. We were told to expect a call around 10:30 the next morning, I was awake by 3:00 am. At 9:00 am we went for breakfast and at 9:30 we got a call from Emily at CCAI.

We really did not want any information over the phone. We wanted to be there looking at a picture and getting the info at the same time, but despite our best efforts, Emily could not understand that we had driven to Denver the night before. We did get alot of Laney's information, and when Emily stated that her package would arrive tomorrow, I cut in and again told her to not send it off as we were just down the street!! She was shocked and pleased.

Once at CCAI, Emily opened the file and showed us our daughter. She is sooo beautiful!! and that was all I could say for a while. Later that day I thought back on that moment and knew that my Heavenly Father was having the time of his life!!
"The Lord you God is in the midst of you, a Mighty One, a Savior. He rejoices over you with joy... He will exult over you sith singing" Zephaniah 3:17. Laney was the most beautiful song I could have heard at that moment. I could feel my Lord smiling over our family.















She had three pictures and a good medical report from two months earlier. Another sweet sound was, that we had received her referral on her monthly birthday. She is 11 mo today!




































She is in Guangdong Province and we will get to stay in Guangzhou the entire trip!! That is the exit city, where all the adoptions are finalized, by the US Consulate. No extra travel for us, and great weather to boot!!! It has the same climate as Florida, and has been in the 70's.

Needless to say, we signed the acceptance of Laney without hesitation and now.......

We get to wait again of course!!!!!! But at least we have pictures this time to help us through(I think!). The agency estimated that the earliest we would travel would be February 19,2006 through the first week of March. That would be Great!!

It was great to see the boys reaction today. I think it finally hit them today that it is for real and they were excited for their sister. They will be some really good big brothers. Now they're just as eager to travel as we are.