I800A Mailed

We have mailed off the I800A to the Immigration of the United States or USCIS. Our home study was finished and through review on February 24th, but we didn't get the final copies until March 2nd. As soon as I could get that final copy in my hand I rushed it to Fedex and sent it overnight to USCIS in Texas. Today I received a text that they got it! How exciting to know that our paperwork is waiting to be reviewed to see if we qualify to bring an orphan into the US. I'm sure we will pass with flying colors, but we have to wait about 60 days to get that approval. In between there we have to be fingerprinted, so we have been making sure our hands are well lotioned because we can't have any cuts or cracks on them for the fingerprinting. I am busy getting our dossier together so it will be all ready when we get our I800A approval. We are still thinking of travel in September or October, but we will know better as time marches on...

COLLEEN

Final Homestudy Visit

Mary Beth came over this morning for our final homestudy visit! We did find out we have one more document to fill out, but then we should be all finished. She is planning to write our homestudy next week and then turn it in to her supervisors who will take a few weeks to peruse. Then it will be sent to our agency who will take a few weeks to peruse and then when it is finished I can send it on the US Immigration! Lots of steps but each step is progress....

As for the rest of the family....Josh has been busy working and doing some missionary work, Alyssa is hanging out with friends and working on college documents (she will be going to Lake Superior State in Sault St. Marie, Michigan this fall). Aaron is busy with basketball - 2 teams and lots of practices. Lia is just being her sweet little 5 year old self - so much fun to have around!! Molly is getting excited about Chinese New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choy!!!

God Bless,
Colleen

It's been a while....

Welcome back to our blog. I am going to attempt to keep this up better this year (my New Years resolution??? - maybe...) As some of you know we are in the process of adopting again. We are paperchasing for Fan Ping An and he is waiting for us at a wonderful foster home in Beijing, China. We will name him Cameron Edward Ping'An Hall. Cameron was 3 years old on December 24th and has a heart condition called TOF (Tetralogy of Fallot). He has already had surgery in China for this condition, but will need another heart surgery to correct an additional issue before he turns 4 years old. We are all very excited to bring him home and Lia keeps asking when he will be here...

Which brings me to our process. We began the process of adopting again in July. However, we started the process with the same agency that we adopted Lia through. That agency had some issues with China and was put on suspension just as we were nearing the end of our homestudy. This prompted us to look at other agencies and other children available for adoption. We found Cameron, had his file evaluated by Lia's cardiologist and decided to pursue his adoption. However, the agency we had the homestudy with would not let us transfer our homestudy to the new agency. Sooooo, we had to start all over with a new homestudy and a new agency. This all happened in early November. Our homestudy agency had a few issues to work out and we are now almost finished with our homestudy. Looking at other adoptive families timelines I am hoping we get to travel to bring Cameron home in the late summer or early fall. China has already granted us pre-approval to adopt Fan Ping'An and has given us 6 months to submit our dossier to them. I am pretty confident that this will not be a problem. We have received a few pictures of our new son and get updates on him every few weeks. I have to wait until LOA (Letter of Acceptance) before I can post his picture so as of now - you will have to trust me that he is a doll!

Please pray that our paperwork will all zip along and we can bring him home sooner rather than later! I want him to know us and trust us prior to surgery, so the longer he is with us before surgery, the better....

God Bless,
Colleen

Carnival Legend or BUST!!

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated my blog. I guess Facebook is kind of taking over my computer time lately. Let's see- since my last post this is what has happened in a nutshell:

Molly arrived on August 14

Josh left for Switzerland on October 30 (1 day before his 19th birthday)

Charlie and I went to Switzerland to see Josh for a short 4 day visit on December 10th.

Our family had a wonderful Holiday but missed Josh terribly

Josh left Switzerland on January 14th and went to South Africa - he will stay there until April 3rd

Now we are caught up to today!!

Our family is now getting ready to go on a week long cruise with the Freeby's. Their daughter Zoe was adopted at the same time as Lia from the same orphanage. Our families have become wonderful friends and we have spent time at each others houses and even went to Wisconsin Dells with them last year and shared a condo with them. We have so much fun and laughter with them and our kids get along really well so I know we are going to have a really fun time on board the Carnival Ship Legend. It will be so nice to be in the sun and warm weather for a week. Also, the day we get off the ship we are going to jump in the car and head over to Disney World for the day - wow, we sure a packing a lot in but it will be so memorable!

I will post again soon with pictures from our vacation!!

Chicago with our Travel Group

Aaron and Ruby


Zoe, Lia, Grace, Abigail, Mia and Ruby


At the American Girl Lunch


The girls all waiting for the Metra Train

We spent Friday - Monday in Chicago with our travel group (well 6 families - there were originally 12 in all). We arrive on Friday about lunchtime and 20 minutes after we pulled in our great friends, the Freeby's, arrived. We met them at their car and Zoe got out and her and Lia just acted shy and stared at each other for about a minute. Within 5 minutes they were running around and tackling each other - Yep I think they are best friends!! Then within an hour or so the other 4 families all arrived. We spent the evening talking, relaxing, swimming, eating and looking at each others photos from our China trip. The girls all played very well together and even the older siblings got acquainted and were playing together.

On Saturday we got up and headed into the city via the Metra, the El Train, and the Subway. It was fun, exciting, and tiring all at the same time. The girls headed to American Girl Place for shopping and lunch at the cafe. Some of the group headed to the Sears/Willis Tower. Then we met up with everyone at the Lego Store and then hopped a trolley to Navy Pier. Many of us took a ride on the Ferris Wheel - highly recommended!! Then we headed back to the hotel by taking a very relaxing water taxi back to the Metra Train. However, when we finally reached our destination we realized the train was leaving in less than 5 minutes and we had to run to get to the train. It was a close call but we all made it! That evening we spent time swimming and just hanging out again. We even ordered a Chicago Deep Dish pizza - VERY YUMMY!!!

Sunday morning we got up a little earlier and headed out for Chinatown. Tiffany (Ruby's mama) made all the girls matching dresses and, wow, did they ever look cute!! We used the transportation as the day before and this time it didn't seem like such a long commute - it was fun! When we arrived at Chinatown it felt like we were back in China again. Many of the same sights, smells, and sounds that were in China were here in Chinatown! They were having their Summerfest so the street was packed with people and vendors. I got some great deals and a few new items for Molly's room. We spent time shopping and then all went to a Chinese lunch. After lunch we had more shopping and then all met up for the ride back to the hotel. That evening back at the hotel we swam and ate dinner and then the girls had a few games of Ring Around the Rosy and London Bridges - they were all giggling and having a great time. Aaron had a difficult time that night because he knew it would be his last time playing with Ruby and MiaRose. He really became attached to the 2 girls and spent time grieving about them leaving in the morning. Ruby lives in Atlanta area and MiaRose lives near Chicago so hopefully we will get to see at least MiaRose sometime yet this summer. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but I know we will see them all again. We are planning to rent a cabin in the Smokey Mountains next year - FUN, FUN, FUN!!! Hoping more of the group can join us next year!!

We feel so blessed to have such a wonderful travel group and feel like we are all one big happy family! It's amazing how the adoption of these lovely little girls has brought us all together!

Miss you all!

Our House is DONE!!

I can finally say our house is "DONE". Well, at least 95% done. We do have a few odds and ends to finish up but we are now inhabiting our new rooms and deck and absolutely loving them! We ordered furniture for the new sun room and it will not arrive until early Sept. but we still hang out in there occasionally. I think we are going to get much more use out of our hot tub now that it is more easily accessible. Here are some pictures of the finished product!

Josh has Graduated!!

Here are a few pictures of Josh at his Graduation last Thursday night. We are so proud of him and the young man he has become. He looked so handsome and so ready to take on the world. I also spent the night with his class at their "All Night Long" party after graduation and I must say they were the most polite respectable young people around. I heard many compliments from them and they all had a wonderful time. Their class will truly be missed as role models for Comstock Park High School.

Its a NEW JOSH!!

BEFORE



AFTER