Pictures of Bobby when he was young!

I received an email from a lady who adopted the little guy in the front on both these 2 pictures.  She recognized our son and sent them on to us.  Bobby  is the child on the far right of the picture, watching carefully.  I really appreciate this gift,  as I have very little in the way of pictures of Him.

In this picture, Bobby is the second child on the left in the back.  He looks like he is about 3 years old.

Finally an update on Robert!

I was so pleased to finally receive the update on Robert, "Bobby", Tian Yang.  He is 8 1/2 years old.  He is 48 1/2 inches tall and weighs 44 pounds.  He is living in a foster home and goes to school from 7 am to 4:30 pm.  He knows about the adoption and is reported to be looking forward to it.  He likes animals and and superman.

I must be a really good writer!

Lately a few of my family members have expressed their concern over how busy I am.  They "Got It" when I wrote about the many pressures in my life.  I must be a really good writer to create such emotion in them.  (college education paid off)  The truth is I have not shared some of the stuff with them because it would "truly" Freak" them out.  But for the members of the Adoptive community.....

It is well known in adoption circles that the minute a family decides to adopt, the chaos begins.... mostly because EVERYTHING is scrutinized, accounted for, and explained regarding your life. You voluntarily place your self on the biggest roller coaster at seven flags, and then say "OK" to taking your seat belt off.

Unlike "The Colossus" that allows you to see the path ahead, the adoption roller coaster has a path on paper (APP, LOI, PA, HS, I-800a, DTC, LID, LOA, I-800, NVC, Art.5, TA, CA, travel ) and The actual path that is: DO this, oops! wrong form, backwards, mixed up, needs more information, needs another signature, needs the signature of the person away on vacation, dated wrong, the wrong amount, done by the wrong person, delayed, dropped off, redone, needs more money, lost, not explained well enough, misunderstood, needs another form signed, upside down, done wrong, broken down, signed wrong, with blind curves.

So, no matter what I do or do not do, I can not plan my life. The estimate of when we go to China literally had a 4 month window.  Life goes on through each step.  So, I am planning a party for my parent's 50th wedding Anniversary.  They were married on June 8, 1962.  Unfortunately, my Dad got seriously sick while under going chemo-therapy, caused the 50th Anniversary party to be delayed till August 4th. ,   Then, quite unexpectedly, we received our LOA in 36 days.  Thus moving up our time line for China.   Now, the TA's will come quickly causing the expected "leave for china" to be right on top of the Anniversary party. Creating the need to hurry up and get ready!

Well, the jokes on ME, don't you think? To have the 2 most important dates of the year right on top of each other. The 50th Wedding Anniversary and the adoption both create immeasurable JOY and HAPPINESS.   BOTH are once in a lifetime events.   How Blessed Am I! Oh did I mention that my birthday is August third?

What do I want for my birthday? All I want is: for all of my family to come over to my house and visit me Friday, August 3d! Now this is a dream come true.

To my family: I love you, my only stress it that you believe I have too much stress.

 The truth is that I have a wonderful GOD who planned every star in the sky and HE plans every day for me. HE is both my party planner and by travel agent. Either way, I am in for the trip of my life, despite any problem that could come up. I trust HIM to help me to perform and complete my everyday.

We are going to have a great party.
The day will be perfect.
The right people will show up to celebrate with us.
When we are done, we will all be so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful event.
It will be as it is meant to be.

We have our article 5 !

We received our article 5 on Thursday July 19th.  Yeah!  We are officially waiting for our TA (Travel authorization.)  The word on the streets is the TAs are coming very quickly these days.  In fact there is a couple who received their article 5 on the 12th of July (just 1 week before us) and they leave on the 26th.  OUCH  that was 8 days for their TA..I am NOT ready to go!   A whole new wave of anxiety has come over me. 

My parent's party is on the 4th of August.  Although the party is at a formal venue, we will be having 40 friends and family descend upon our home for pre and post activities.  We still have clutter everywhere, one room to paint, the trim on another, and touch up everywhere.  The last 2 rooms of carpet will go in on Tuesday and our new bed is delivered on Wednesday,and the donation truck comes Monday.  I still haven't heard from the caterer, whose husband is by computer tech and currently has 2 of our computers in for repair and upgrades, which I need to write the roughly 70 reports that are due before I can leave.  Of course did I leave out that my van has been recalled for faulty sliding doors (yes, they now malfunction) and will need to be repaired before we drive to the bay area in order to fly to China.  I need my car, so I guess I will demand a rental during the repair....... Ha Ha  

Caleb has just informed me that the dog has a problem and will need to go to the vet tomorrow.  But I am taking a van load of teens up to shaver lake for horseback riding.  I will need to delegate the vet visit. OH KEITH  I hope you have gas in your car...... I love you too honey!

Kids, Cameras and Questions

We have been asking for updates on the kids for many months with no luck. So, I decided to hire "Ladybugs In Love" to send a care package including introduction letters, candy and cameras to each of the kids. I also asked them to call the orphanages and request measurements and answer 10 questions about each of the kids. I received the answers back on Kylie Gail right away. So here she is!  Kylie Gail is 5 1/2 years old,  is 43.75 inches tall (just 3/4 inch shorter than Lilly Rose)  And weighs 44 pounds. (same as Lilly Rose!)  She is living in the foster family appartments at the orphanage and is reported to be a happy and adorable child. 

We Are Moving Along the Path To China and Making Plans.

The Before

We are making plans for the girls room this week. The big boys (Aaron and Caleb) prepared the walls and painted the ceiling.   Our daughter-in-Law appointed herself the designer.  She painted the walls herself to make sure they were perfect.  She also has some cute decorations and painted this chest.  You can see the before and the after.  Nice Job Julia!

The After

This week has been busy!  Monday we received our provisional approval of our I-800.  That night, I sent the email to the Nationa Visa Center and received a email back on Tuesday saying the petition was logged into their system.  Today, Thursday, we received the email that it was approved and cabled to Guanzhou.  HooRah!  I emediately forworded it to the Agency and received news it had just been emailed to the agency Rep, also in Guangzhou. So tomorrow, Friday, it will be combined and turned in to the embassy for the final approval.  It will take 2 weeks and the agency rep picks up                   our "Article 5" letter and delivers it to the              
 CCCWA in China who will issue our final travel
 approval. (takes 3-4 weeks)

We now anticipate to leave sometime between August 23 and 30th.  I am hoping to be able to make arrangements 2 weeks in advance so the air fare may be a bit cheaper.  We will go to Chongqing first and pick up Kylie because Bobby is in Guangzhou and we have to end up there anyway.   So this part of the plan is a forsure.  We still do not have a statement from the Chongqing Province as to whether or not they will allow us expidite. (Leave Chongqing early and have the passport overnight curriered to us in Guangzhou) This would cut out stay by three days or so and thus decreasing the cost.  If they will not do that, we will be in China the full 21 days.  

After our trip in 2007, I went back to work and Keith stayed home with the kids.  I had Horrible jet lag, but Keith and the kids did great.  We will repeat this pattern again this trip.  The only differance is that the kids will need to go back to school.  This may give us some challenges.  The new kids will be kept at home for awhile learning english and getting their medical exams.  We have an HMO they pay well but are a bit slow to get the kids into the system.

I am trusting the Lord that he will allow the pieces to fall into place.  All will go smoothly and we will return safely with the kids and our sanity.