Updates

As usual, it has been quite a while since we have posted anything.  Most of the time since our last post, we have been waiting.  Our dossier made it to China in the beginning of April, and after that was the wait for approval.  After 41 days of waiting, we received word this week that our LOA (letter of acceptance) had come!  Honestly, we didn't have to wait as long as a lot of people, but that is probably a good thing because we stink at waiting.  We are much happier being involved and doing things with the process, which is good because after LOA is quite a bit of paperwork.  =)  As of now, our immigration paperwork for Lily is en route to the National Benefits Center, our visa applications are ready to be mailed to the courier, and Lily's visa application is ready to be returned to our agency for processing.  Having to put her American name on official forms is really making it real!  With the timeline our agency sent us last night, we're looking at perhaps 12 more weeks before we can travel, depending on how quickly all of our paperwork can be processed by the various entities involved.  Not much longer!!

In the meantime, we've been gearing up for our huge garage sale on May 31 and June 1.  Our good friends, the VanderMeers, are graciously letting us hold it at their house since they live in a subdivision in town and not out in the country like we do.  All proceeds go to adoption fees.  We have quite a large chunk that needs to be paid by the end of June, so the sale is coming at a good time!  Here is a link to the sale details:
http://www.yardsalesearch.com/yss-garage-sale.jsp?id=60077715

Also, the Walk-4-Orphans went well in early May.  We are very, very thankful for those who walked for our family or donated to us!  The Walk brought in enough funds for our family to pay the fees that were due at the time of LOA, so we weren't delayed in getting our immigration paperwork filed!  It also helped as we have not had the best success with grants.  Out of 7 grants that we applied for, we really only have 1 that is still a chance for us.  We were turned down for 4 grants, 1 grant suspended applications shortly after we sent ours in due to lack of funds, and 1 more we found only meets once a year in October to award grants, so that is too late.  We will be under review for this last grant in the first few weeks of June, so we are hoping that maybe we'll hear some good news from them.  Either way, God has been so faithful through this whole process in providing what we need exactly when we need it, so He'll provide regardless!

We are very excited to be moving along in the process and can barely wait to bring our beautiful Lily-Mei home.  Here is her passport picture that we were blessed with last week.....isn't she sweet??

Again, thank you for all of the prayers!  We certainly have needed them and will continue to!

Blessings,
Kathie =)