HAPPY NEW YEAR!

WOW, the year 2007 ended with a bang! I can not wait to see what God has in store for our family in 2008. It is still hard to believe it is finally over and Faith is home. I think we finally got back to our regular schedule today. After traveling to China, Christmas, and everyone being sick we have been in disarray for about a month. Faith is slowing adjusting to her new world. She is now going to Daddy regularly and allows him to hold her. She is starting to play with our daughter, Miranda. However, I think it is going to take some time before she is ready to bond with Ethan. They have been competing for Mommy's attention from day one. She is still giving the cold shoulder (literally, she turns her back) to anyone but Mommy & Daddy. I will tolerate this for a bit longer but it is extrememly rude and will have to come to an end soon.

I am going to try to update our site at least once a month. Here are some pictures from Christmas.

This is the new and improved "Ladybug Room". As I stated in my last post my wonderful friends from church give me a surprise baby shower. They set me up with a new crib & changing table which matches the white furniture already in the room. (They had heard me whinning about the light oak crib I had that did not match) They gave me bedding for both the twin bed and the crib and a cute ladybug lamp to match. They also showered me with other thoughtful gifts & lots of quilt squares. Words cannot express how much I appreciate their thoughtfulness. They were so attentive to my heart's desires. I love you guys!

Yesterday was a big day!!!! We received our Consulate Appointment for 12/17, this is the final step before returning home. We also received an update on Faith. They have pictures & medical reports they will send with her. She also received the package we sent. YEAH!!! We bought our plane tickets and expect our Passport/Visa delivered today.

The biggest surprise was last night my Ladies Small Group surprised me with a baby shower. I was overwhelmed with love! They basically gave me my dream room for Faith. I will post pictures later.

So, we will leave next Thursday 12/6, gotcha day 12/10, return home 12/19. We don't have our itinerary yet. We will have our final travel meeting on Monday.

We received TA today!!! They are trying to get us a Consulate Appointment for December 17th. Tentative date for departure is next week December 6th. Which means we could have Faith in our arms on December 10th. I will update when we get more info.

Update on Faith

We received an update from the orphanage today. The slide pictures above are from today's update. Faith weighs 20.7 pounds and is 30 inches tall. I don't know how accurate the weight is I can't believe she gained 4.5 pounds in 4 months. If you notice in the pictures she has on several layers of clothes. She has 6 teeth. We still do not know if her palate has been repaired. Our agency is going to ask again. God Is Good, she is growing and thriving and we are grateful.

Finding Ad

Today we received the finding ad that was placed in the Jaingxi Business Newspaper. When a baby is found abandoned they place an ad in the local Province paper to try to locate the parents. While we were disappointed that the picture was not clear we are so fortunate to have this information regarding her finding spot.

Translation: Xing Fu Xiang, Female, She was born on March 20, 2006, On March 22, 2006 She was found under the Xingcun Stockade Village in the County. She has a round face, single eyelids, thick black hair, and has a cleft top palate and top lip.

We used Brian Stuy with Research-China.org to get our finding ad. We were very happy with his service here is the link to his site. Research-China.org

LOA HAS ARRIVED

Today we received our Letter of Acceptance from China. One more step closer to going to get our little girl. The LOA will be mailed back to China tomorrow. The next step is to wait for TA(travel approval). The current waiting time is 2-4 weeks. Once we receive our TA we can go! We will start making travel plans while we wait for TA and make final plans once it arrives. Here are some pictures of us officially signing LOA saying, "Yes, we want Xing Fu Xiang to be our daughter".