Nursery Love

Here is Abigail Mei's nursery!

It's a Dr. Seuss / The Lorax theme. Andrew drew everything, and we both painted it (with some help now and again from my friend, Felicia, and my in-law's - thank you!)

We started this in late December, not knowing a movie was going to come out in March!

To our precious Abi Mei: Your room is ready! We can't wait for you to be in it!
-Mommy and Daddy

Andrew, the artist!

Autumn kept me company while painting!

Trust me when I say, painting all this (and the other three walls) was no small feat.

The fabulous paint! Let the fun begin!

Felicia!

Andrew needs to paint the walls, and not me!

Andrew's mom made omelette's for the hard-working painters!

This is my favorite wall! I love the flower, and the bright pink Truffula tree too. The dresser will eventually be in the right corner.

A view before the crib went here.

With the crib!

A view with the "grass". :)

Andrew painted all the letters and made the back-board. (The picture makes it look like the letter are dripping, but they aren't.) :)

"In process"

I'm so excited to share with you that we found out from our agency that our dossier is "in process" at CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). This means our dossier is no longer sitting in a queue waiting to be processed, but that someone is truly reviewing our dossier and the next steps will come soon! Our agency believes we will receive our LOA (Letter of Approval) in the next two weeks!!!!

Glory! Yes, Lord! Thank You!

First pediatrician appointment today!

Today, Andrew and I have an appointment with the pediatrician, Dr. Wren, whom we’ve chosen for our precious girl. We’re going to show him her medical report, hear his feedback, and his plan of action for her in terms of the brachial plexus. I’d also like to hear who he’d recommend for her physical therapist.

I’m excited! Feels so amazing to be a mom. Thank You, Jesus, for this great privilege and honor!!

Worth It All

Yesterday, March 28, was the day, three years ago, on which we decided to begin our adoption journey.

As I pondered that day, I thought about how excited we were as we begun the process. Looking back now, I would call it the “honeymoon” stage. At the time, I had no idea that we would go through eight long and tough months of gathering all of the required information, going through the required interviews, surviving insensitive comments people would make, etc. Then, after our dossier had been in Nepal for another eight long and tough months, I had no idea that the US would close the doors to Nepal. August 6, 2010. It took us seven months to recover from this “adoption miscarriage”—and it was for a child we never even saw or met. We began our China adoption journey on March 21, 2011. Nine months later, on Dec. 1, 2011, our completed dossier was logged in at the China Center of Adoption Affairs. And on Dec. 20, 2011, we received the call of a lifetime. Now, literally 100 days later, we are awaiting the call to go get our precious daughter.

Many of us in the adoption community talk about how hard it is to adopt. And it’s true. The hoops you have to jump through; the paperwork you have to complete; the incredible amount of money it costs; the volumes of books you need to read; the waiting you have to endure; and for some of us, the years of infertility prior to this process—all of this is extremely difficult, and unless you’ve been through the process, you really have no idea what it’s like.

But what we don’t talk very much about (at least while we’re in the middle of the process) is the anticipation and joy that is welling up inside of us. The joy that we’re following a dream. The joy that we’ll get to be parents to a child who was once an orphan. The joy that we’ll get to go to another country, be handed a child who was rescued from the side of a street, knowing that it was our arms that ultimately rescued her. Yes, it cost us a lot of tears; yes, it cost us a lot of time; yes, it cost us a lot of money. But what would it have cost HER if we had not followed our dream? The cost would have been far, far greater.

For you, my dear sweet daughter, I would do it over, and over, and over, again. And over again. You are worth living a dream that required much; you are worth all of the time and effort spent—and far more. There is no actual worth we can put on you that would suffice, except the worth of the blood of a Son who came to defend the cry of the fatherless, your cry.  Soon, your cry will be comforted by laying your head on the hearts of two people that knew you were worth it all.

Still here, still waiting!

Hello, everyone!

It's been quite a while since I posted, and I wanted to say hello to all of you!

As of 3/23/12, it will be 90 days since we received pre-approval for our precious daughter. Each day our longing for her grows. I am praying we receive our LOA (Letter of Approval) from China ASAP so we can get this show on the road! After LOA comes the i800 process (next step for US), then finally...TA...travel approval from China to go get our little munchkin! She is now 15 months old.

Meanwhile, we continue to work full-time (oh my goodness, it is HARD to stay focused), pastor our amazing church of amazing people, and get our house ready for our precious girl. We have the nursery pretty-much done (I'll post pix this weekend)—we just need to frame two pictures, get the dresser/changing table from my sister-in-law, and buy curtains. In other news, Andrew is also building a gate for the top of the stairs by the living room.

I have a long "nesting" list of things I'd like to do before our girl comes...cleaning out closets, do a spring yard sale, etc., etc. I'm making my way through the list while I also do other things like keep up with the bills and do laundry and take care of myself!

Did I mention how amazing our church is? Well, they are giving us a three-month sabbatical starting from when we head to China to get our daughter. How ridiculously cool is that??? We are going to have a precious time together becoming a family of three! It will be weird to go to church but not preach, or teach in the kid's class, or lead prayer house sessions, or any of the other things (that we get to do, and are so honored to do!). We will just go to church as a family, and enjoy being a part of the church family!! That will be a blessing!!

As we wait for our sweet girl, we most of all are drawing near to Jesus, thanking Him for His incredible presence, and thanking Him that He first adopted us. We are His adopted son and daughter. When we hold our baby girl in our arms, we may possibly know for the first time, what it was like for our heavenly Father to hold us in His arms the first time we invited Him into our hearts.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, 

but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 

“Abba, Father.”

—Romans 8:15

To my dear heavenly Father: It is so great to be your daughter.

With love,

Heather

Here she is!!

We have pre-approval from China, which means they have said that we are approved to adopt this precious girl. HALLELUJAH! This also means we get to post pictures of her, and we get to send her a care package!

Here she is! We can't tell you any of her personal details yet, like her Chinese name or date of birth, etc. We don't know what we are naming her yet, but we are working on it, and praying about it. :) She is 12 months old.

Need I say more? Those dark brown eyes, chubby cheeks and charming smile says it all. We are in love!

Happy parents-to-be,
Heather & Andrew

We've been matched!!

We received the best Christmas news anyone could ever want! On Dec. 20, we got a call from our agency saying we had been matched!

When the phone rang, I saw that it was an Alabama number, and I wondered...why would my director be calling at 9pm (her time)? It could only be for one wonderful reason!!! I quickly answered, and she said, "Heather, have you checked your email in the last little bit?" I said, "No...why?" She said, "You better go check it!!" I screamed for joy and called for Andrew. We had friends over for dinner, and they started praising God! Andrew and I ran to our office, opened up our email, and fell in love with the little girl in the pictures. Our director was on the phone with us because she wanted to experience everything with us, and tell us about this darling little girl.

We are in love!!! I wish I could post pictures and tell you all about her. The only thing I can tell you is that she is 12 months old, and she is beautiful and amazing. As soon as China has processed our LOI ("Letter of Intent") paperwork, we'll have approval from our agency to post pictures and tell you about her.

They say it takes 2 to 3 months to receive travel approval from China, and I am praying it isn't more than that, and that it is actually less! We are now busy getting the baby room ready. We can hardly wait to go get her!

An expectant mother,
Heather