Another Step Closer to Bringing our Boys Home!

It's been a long but very productive day!  Our day started when the alarm went off at 3:45 this morning but honestly, we didn't roll out of bed until more like 4:30 and was out the door by 5:00.  It was very cold and rainy the entire 3 hour drive to Austin but God's mercy was with us, as we arrived at the Secretary of State Office as the doors were opening! 

We had 11 documents with us, including our home study and each one was certified by the state, within 20 minutes!  So, while it only took 20 minutes to complete the process, it was worth the 6 hour drive,  round trip,  for the comfort of knowing our documents arrived safely and returned home, safely. After months of time, effort and energy to gather these documents, I simply didn't have the heart to Fed Ex them and risk losing any of those papers.  The remaining few documents that will require this same process, will most likely be traveling via Fed Ex.  :-)

We arrived home by noon and immediately, I scrambled to complete the appropriate paperwork and copied every document and once again, out the door, driving to the China Consulate located here in Houston.  The documents will be ready for pick up on Tuesday morning!  YEA!

I'm exhausted but it's a great peace of mind knowing these documents have been certified and authenticated by the Chinese Consulate!  Once documents have the China Authentication, they no longer age and are good to go--to be included in the dossier!  All documents have a time constraint and are valid for only 6 months.  If any document is not authenticated by the China Consulate within 6 months, they can no longer be used and the same document must be gathered, again.  Let me tell you, with our first adoption, it was no problem getting documents processed within a 6 month period but now that we have 2 children at home, working full time and running around with other family commitments, 6 months can creep up really fast!  As a matter of fact, one of our documents is due to expire very soon, so we were really thankful to get that particular document state certified and on to the China consulate.

We are tremendously blessed with the opportunity to drive to Austin, today!  Despite the rainy cold weather, we made terrific time and had no snags along the way.  God is good....all the time!

Home Study in Hand--Headed to Austin!

WHEW!  We finally made it to the end, near the end of our adoption paper work, better known as the Dossier!  The Dossier is a huge stack of paperwork that details all sorts of information about us as an individual, a couple and a family.  It's the necessary paperwork required to bring our boys home from China!

We received the home study in hand this past Saturday and now, are driving to Austin to secure the state seal on every notarized document, required by China!!  It's an exciting step in our adoption because it means we are near the end of our paper chase journey....it's not over but it's a great milestone!

The home study is the meat and potatoes for the entire adoption and is a vital 23 page document that provides documentation from a social worker verifying we are "fit parents/a fit family" for adoption.

Now, we will walk through 2 separate steps, at the same time.  While we must have all our documents authenticated from the state office in Austin, we must simultaneously submit paperwork to the immigration office requesting approval to bring our boys into the US and allow them citizenship, once the plan touches down on US soil. 

We had very high hopes of submitting our dossier to China by December but unfortunately, that isn't going to happen.  It takes several weeks to receive approval from the US immigration office and in turn, all of their approval paperwork must also receive the state seal of authentication prior to completing our dossier.  We are prayerful it will be completed and ready for China, no later than January.  We still have prayers our travels will occur in the early summer, 2014 however, God knows our path and desires and ultimately, it will be up to Him.  He has lead us down this journey and knows best....so, we'll travel when God allows it to happen. 

We are happy to have our home study in hand and to be finishing the final steps toward preparation of the Dossier!

4 YEARS A Blessed Family With Sterling!!

Yesterday marked 4 years that our family was blessed with Sterling!  Yes, on November 23, four years ago, we met this tee-tiny little boy, who came waddling into a big room, with a blank scared look and much hesitation but sat on my lap and quickly warmed up to me, when opening a container of Cheerios!

Hard to believe four years have passed, since we met our son for the first time and started our lives, together as a family.  Honestly, it feels as though Sterling has been with us forever; he has been a great blessing to our family.  Here are pictures of that tiny, scared little boy we met on November 23, 2009:

Here he is after 6 months....what a difference 6 months had made-all smiles and giggles!  He had come a long way, yet still had many milestones and challenges ahead of him. It was nothing short of amazing how much he grew and gained weight:

Talking with daddy on the phone, while daddy was on a business trip in China.  It was May of 2009 and Sterling helped mommy put together his toddler bed.  It was time to graduate from mommy & daddy's bedroom to his own bedroom!  He was ready and excited for his own bedroom and a "big boy bed."  He was so tiny when he arrived home and developmentally/emotionally/socially on the level of an infant, that he slept in a crib the first 6 months he was home.  It's very important to meet these children where they are, not their chronological age but rather their developmental/emotional/social age.  For Sterling, he was on the level of a 6 month old baby. 

Fast forward 4 years and WOW, what a transformation!  God blessed him with straight "A's" on his report card and he is now speaking in sentences.  We are continuing speech therapy for more intelligible speech but he has come SO far in four years!  He had absolutely NO language and no speech at adoption-not in Mandrin, not in English.  Zero, notta, none!  We started from ground zero at 4 years old.  He's an incredible kid, who God continues to richly bless!!!

We are blessed daily with the joy of Sterling, our little Ferdinand, who enjoys the simple pleasures in life, is very compassionate and loving, always a smile on his face and is determined in everything he applies himself to; He is our model/example for the ultimate gift of forgiveness and unconditional love, who has overcome so much, in his short little life, yet, continues to have a loving heart and happy spirit, despite his past.  God has BIG plans for Sterling and we are blessed to have been chosen as his parents.  Thank you God, for the blessing of Sterling! 

Birthday Celebration!

We celebrated Sterling's birthday this past Saturday by spending time together with friends at a local park.  We attended 2 birthday parties last year that were at a park and it was a fun time, so, we decided this year that Sterling would have his celebration outdoors, too!  We were blessed with great weather!  The bad rain had cleared by Saturday and it was before the cold snap that is scheduled to hit tonight.  To keep it all in proper perspective, our high tomorrow is scheduled to be 54 degrees with the lows tonight around 34.  We've been experiencing highs in the mid to upper 70's for several weeks, so this is a big change for us. 

 It was a great park that has several wooden structures for climbing and playing, the typical swings and a zip line, that all the bigger kids really enjoyed!  Sterling's birthday is so close to Christmas, that we typically choose a time either before or after the Christmas Holiday Season to celebrate with friends.

Elijah at 23 Months

Eli is 23 months and very handsome!  Before we know it,  he'll be turning 2 years old! 

Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.  Joshua 1:9

October Comes to An End!

It's been a great month and a very quick month!  We celebrated Arabella's 11th birthday, both at home with the family and recently had a birthday party to include her friends.  I was stumped at how to celebrate because while I have plenty of experience planning Justin's birthday parties and those since Sterling has been home, a girl's party is a whole new element and one that can be expensive!  There are plenty of enticing opportunities but with each, came a price and a rather hefty price at that!  Fortunately, we have plenty of friends and neighbors with daughters, so I turned to them for ideas.  It was suggested to have a pizza party and we really like that idea, however we added an extra twist.  We had a Halloween birthday Pizza Party!  We asked all her friends to come dress in costume and had Halloween crafts for the kids to do while waiting on the pizza.  It turned out well and seemed to be a hit.  She has a great group of friends!

Halloween was at risk with tremendous thunder storms that blew in the evening before and lasted most of the morning and early after noon on Halloween but fortunately, around 2:00 pm, the rain stopped and sun came out.  It turned out to be a beautiful evening and Trick-or-treating was saved!  We had fun walking in our area of the neighborhood, allowing the kids to go trick-or-treating and visiting with neighbors along the way.  We are very blessed with excellent neighbors!

Today, November 2 and we already have our Christmas lights going up!!  Yes, our Christmas lights are being installed this very moment, as I'm typing.  I took the liberty of pushing for lights now, so that we're not at the last minute, trying to squeeze in the installation of Christmas lights.  This way, we're ready to go and when Thanksgiving comes around, we'll only need to place the yard decorations.  YEA!  Finally, I feel like there is one area of my life that I'm not 2 steps behind.  <smile>

It's such a gorgeous day and it's hard to concentrate on work, so I'm taking a few moments, savoring the beauty outside our dinning room window and typing this post.  In reality, I should be doing "homework" as the kids call it...but really, it's lesson planning for a group of Pre-K children for the upcoming week.  As a school teacher, when I have work to complete at home, Arabella and Sterling refer to it as mom's homework.  :0) 

We received a message from our social worker today to say that she anticipates our home study being completed this week!!!!  YEA!!!!!!  We have all of our documents gathered and the final piece to the puzzle was our home study.  It will be a great sigh of relief to have the home study and move on to the next step--immigration and the state seal.  We are contemplating a drive up to Austin with all of our many documents to receive the state seal in person as oppose to mailing them and waiting 10+ days for them to return and the risk of having them out of our possession. 

Can't close without the mention of Eli & Ming (Ezekiel).  It was great to receive information on Eli and great news to receive our Pre-Approval from China for Ming!  The year is coming to an end with such jest and joy for our family!

It's been a great month and hard to believe it's already come to a close but new hopes and journeys await us in the month of November!