Yay!

All of my CANs have been received, and our Homestudy is complete! I've filled out the I800A and will take that to our agency today. Real progress.
We still have a little girl on hold, trying to get more information. We're reviewing her medical files and have requested updated photos and video. I feel like we need to make this decision soon - I actually already told the girls that this wasn't the right little girl for our family, so I feel torn every day. My prayers are that she is being loved and cared for, and that she find her forever family quickly - whether that is us or another family. It is in God's hands.
 Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have for you," declared the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”.

Making Progress

Our Homestudy is in final review, although it's still missing CANs (Child Abuse and Neglect clearances) from two states. Some things are just really slow, and I'm trying to appreciate these lessons in patience! So, even though this stage isn't totally complete yet, it does feel like we've finally made significant progress and are on our way to finding our little girl.
We have actually placed a hold on one little girl on the Special Focus list. We have a lot of questions about her file, but I'm confident that God will provide those answers clearly and quickly so that we will be able to make an informed decision. I'm at peace about the process, because I know that our little girl is in China waiting for us to find her, and God is directing our path.
I strongly believe that the lengthy paperwork process is important for teaching us to remain calm, vigilant, and patient. The road is rocky, and filled with many forks and dead ends. By learning to negotiate the paperwork, we are learning to trust in the process and not let our emotions take over when faced with decisions and challenges. All very important lessons.

Step Two

Last week we had our final interview for our Home Study. This process is long, frustrating, difficult, and even scary at times. But we're working through it, taking it at our own pace, and learning so much along the way. We still have a long way to go, and the paperwork continues to seem insurmountable, but it feels like we're finally in the second trimester. We're talking about it more, telling our friends what we're doing and praying for our new little girl every day.
The next step is to finish the paperwork and assemble our Dossier. I hope we'll get this completed in the next month.

Step One

Perry and I have talked about it for years, always saying "someday, maybe." Well, lately we've felt many signs telling us to make a decision. Adopt, or close the door to the possibility. Last week, we attended an information session and left with the confidence that this is our path. Today, we filed the paperwork to adopt a Waiting Child from China.
When I told my mom, she asked "Why?." At first, I laughed, thinking she was asking why I would want to go through it all again, the sleepless nights, the potty training, and even bigger issues like attachment that we've never had to face. But what she really meant was "what made you decide the time was right?" We've had many signs lately. The precious adopted children of a friend at church, both Waiting Children from China. Random questions from Sarah and Abby about going to an orphanage and getting a baby sister. An old friend from high school who found me on Facebook and told me about his adopted girl from China. And then this information session, a week after I went online to start getting information.  That night at the meeting, we just felt such an overwhelming sense of peace. While other couples were struggling with which country, or even more basic questions such as domestic or international, we just felt confident that we were being called to China.
So today I filed our application with Lifeline Children's Services. It's a long process, probably 12-18 months, but we are filled with excitement and anticipation.

June

What a busy summer! June has been crazy - the girls went to summer camp, my parents celebrated their 50th anniversary, and we celebrated S&A's 7th birthday all week.

Here are pics from the girls' birthday:

Fondue Night

Sarah has been begging me to make that meal "where you cut up your food into little pieces, put it on a stick, and dip it in yummy stuff." So this week I did that for her, and it was fun, but I remembered why I don't do it very often - what a mess!!!
After dinner, Perry told the girls that he was going to be looking for a new job. Sarah asked a ton of questions: Why did you leave your old job? How will we get money? Will we be able to buy food? Where will we live? We assured her that we were going to be OK, we're in God's hands and He will take care of us, we have money in the bank so we can still buy food, etc. During all this, Abby sat silently. Finally Abby asked, "Can I have dessert now?" Ha!!! I love how different they are!

These Eyes

I've been praying about these eyes - Abby's eyes. Ever since she was a baby, people have noticed her eyes. They're big, and bright blue, with impossibly long eyelashes, and they're expressive and beautiful.
Lately, people have been noticing her eyes for the wrong reason. In late March, her teacher noticed that one eye seemed to be drifting out on occasion. Not all the time, and not severely, but it caught her attention. (By the way, her teacher is a super star!!). I took Abby to an ophthalmologist who diagnosed her with intermittent exotropia, strabismus, or occasional drifting, but classified it as a very mild case. He said it was possible that she had always had it but we'd never noticed, because it was so mild. He advised us to watch it and try a little patch therapy to see if that helped.
Less than three weeks later, the drifting had worsened considerably. Her pediatrician noticed it, her friends noticed it, and she even saw it in the mirror. Her vision is so far unaffected, but I was very fearful of what this would mean for her cosmetically. I took her back to get rechecked, and the ophthalmologist recommended eye surgery. My prayers became more fervent.
This morning we took her to another ophthalmologist, one who has come highly recommended from several sources. He was so caring, so calm, so completely reassuring. Yes, she will need surgery. Yes, of course that scares me. But I feel confident we're in the right hands, and headed down the right path. With clarity comes peace. We will probably have it done this summer, and I hope and pray that she won't ever have to think about it again.

lots of pics to catch up

A pic from Easter Sunday-

Abby worked on a project to share with her class. These are all the planets, in order, approximate relative size and color. This wasn't a required project - she just loves space and wanted to do it.

At the DVDads' Dog Wash/Car Wash:

Camping in our driveway in our new popup camper:

At the Alice in Wonderland ballet with the star, Emma:

Riding the trails:

Making the Loop

Our Spring Break plans made me a little nervous. First, we were going to 3 cities, and I wasn't really familiar with any of them. Second, I hadn't done much planning (not like me!). And third, Perry was still recovering from ankle surgery and was wearing a boot, so I thought he'd either be in a wheelchair or on a Little Rascal most of the week!

We started our break with the traveling Broadway presentation of The Wizard of Oz, and it was great. The girls really love shows like this, and I think this one was even better because they've seen the movie and read the book so many times.

Monday morning, we headed up to Huntsville to the Space and Rocket Museum.

I'm not sure what I expected, but I was a little disappointed. There's a new building that was incredible, but that only took us about 30 minutes. Then we headed to the other

building, which was much older and really run-down. We did see a great IMAX film called Walking on the Moon, and I don't regret going, but we won't be headed back any time soon!

We left Huntsville and drove to Chattanooga. Much of this drive was on a highway, and it was really beautiful. We arrived at our hotel and realized how perfect it was: in the heart of downtown Chattanooga, near the aquarium, the Children's Museum, and lots of restaurants, free breakfast, and an indoor pool! I can't say enough great things about this Residence Inn!

The first thing we had to do upon checking in was to pull Sarah's tooth.

She was determined to lose it in Tennessee, and had been working on it the whole drive up! Perry and I both tried unsuccessfully to pull it (we're both squeamish!), so I decided to try tying dental floss around it and slamming a door. After about 10 tries, it finally came out! Sarah was so brave.

The girls swam for awhile, and just as we were deciding where to go for dinner, we got a call from some friends who were also in town and heading to dinner, so we joined them. This was our favorite meal of the trip. The restaurant was great, the kids were entertained by each other, and the adults were able to relax and enjoy the moment.

More on Chattanooga later...

At Least it Was the Front Seat of the Police Car!

I pray that my sweet girls will never get into trouble with the law! I will admit that it felt pretty odd yesterday, watching them get loaded into a police car. Fortunately this was all in good fun. As one of the prizes for the Cheetah Charge fundraiser, the girls won a ride in a race car. Last year they rode in a real race car, but this year they rode in the Hoover police's Porsche! They got to work the lights and siren, and they said it was AWESOME!