We are sad to write that Steve's mother lost her heroic battle with cancer on Wednesday, August 29. We are thankful that the end came quickly and peacefully. Wayne did not have to watch her deteriorate. We are sad that she will not meet her grandson or that Zach will not have a chance to get to know his grandmother.
Thank you for your prayers.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
We have our LOA!
Well, Steve teases me about using acronyms, but we have our LOA! I honestly don't know exactly what LOA stands for. I think it is Letter of Acceptance. But it might be Letter of Approval. I DO know it is our LOA!!!
Our Social Worker told us that we should receive our Travel Approval (TA :-) in about a month. After that, it depends on when we can get a Consulate Appointment (CA). In the second half of October, there is a trade show in Guangzhou. This is where the US Consulate is and where we finish our trip. If they can get a CA before the trade show begins, then we should travel the first two weeks of October. If not, we may not travel until the last week of October, since we start out in Beijing and the province, then go to Guangzhou the first week of November. We will just have to wait and see.
Please pray, too, for Steve's mother. She is not doing well in her fight with cancer. She now has hospice care and is getting much weaker. If it is a possibility that she may pass away during the time we are in China, Steve will stay home to be with his father and brother. I will still bring the girls and my sister as we originally planned. God has a plan for us and I trust that, whether Steve is able to travel with us or if he needs to stay home, that God's plan is perfect and for our good. It will be hard on both of us, but God will give us each the grace to get us through.
On a lighter note, I thought I would post pictures of our trip to our friend's cabin. We relaxed and swam a lot. Baylee never stopped moving until the night before we left. If there was a ball nearby, she wanted it thrown into the water for her to retrieve it. Non-stop!
Our Social Worker told us that we should receive our Travel Approval (TA :-) in about a month. After that, it depends on when we can get a Consulate Appointment (CA). In the second half of October, there is a trade show in Guangzhou. This is where the US Consulate is and where we finish our trip. If they can get a CA before the trade show begins, then we should travel the first two weeks of October. If not, we may not travel until the last week of October, since we start out in Beijing and the province, then go to Guangzhou the first week of November. We will just have to wait and see.
Please pray, too, for Steve's mother. She is not doing well in her fight with cancer. She now has hospice care and is getting much weaker. If it is a possibility that she may pass away during the time we are in China, Steve will stay home to be with his father and brother. I will still bring the girls and my sister as we originally planned. God has a plan for us and I trust that, whether Steve is able to travel with us or if he needs to stay home, that God's plan is perfect and for our good. It will be hard on both of us, but God will give us each the grace to get us through.
On a lighter note, I thought I would post pictures of our trip to our friend's cabin. We relaxed and swam a lot. Baylee never stopped moving until the night before we left. If there was a ball nearby, she wanted it thrown into the water for her to retrieve it. Non-stop!
Monday, August 6, 2007
So much happening!
There is really so much going on lately, I don't even know where to start. I finished painting the girls' bedroom. The girls did help (Madeline had a blue paint roller, Eliza a pink and Katie had a paint brush). I figured it didn't have to be perfect and it is their room! They really did a nice job and I finished much more quickly with their help. It really does look great -- Blue walls, pink walls and fushia/red walls and shelf. Lots of color and lots of fun!
Also, we found out on July 26 and confirmed with our SW on the 27th that the cost for a visa to travel to China was doubling (from $50 to $100) on August 1! I asked if there was any way to apply now to save our travel group $300, and thankfully we were able to. Apparently, they are good for either 3 or 6 months and China will automatically issue a 6 month visa if your trip is planned beyond 3 months. We are confident that we will be back by the end of January, so we are grateful that we were able to find out about in time to save so much. And, it is one more piece of the trip already taken care of.
On a more disappointing note, we found out through a yahoo group established for families of children from the Dalian SWI that Zach's "Liaoning School for the Foundling" is actually a boarding school for about 600 kids located about 7 hours away from the orphanage. It doesn't seem like there is much of a summer break or time to spend back with the foster family either. This really just makes it another orphanage. We are sad to learn this, but are glad that we know. We can pray more specifically for Zach and hope that we can bring him home quickly. It also makes it more difficult to figure out how to send him a package. We don't know where to send it. If he is at the school 7 hours away, it doesn't make sense to send it to the orphanage. I don't know if we can send things directly to the school and, even if we do, will someone there have the time to go over the album with him? I am trying to work all this out. We want to send him something, but if it doesn't get to him it's not worth the time and effort.
We also received answers to some questions we asked about Zach to help prepare for his homecoming. We wanted to know things like "What are his favorite toys or activities" and "What are his favorite foods." The answers we received were "he's not a picky eater" (can any child in an orphanage be?), and "he likes typical boy toys, like balls." I am sure no one asked Zach the questions, they just answered for him, which wasn't really the point. Oh well, we will just have to wait until we have him to ask him ourselves!
We had a great time at our friend's cabin last week, Baylee especially! For her, it was non-stop ball chasing in the water, on shore, chasing chipmunks, visiting friends, etc. We humans had a relaxing time!
Also, we found out on July 26 and confirmed with our SW on the 27th that the cost for a visa to travel to China was doubling (from $50 to $100) on August 1! I asked if there was any way to apply now to save our travel group $300, and thankfully we were able to. Apparently, they are good for either 3 or 6 months and China will automatically issue a 6 month visa if your trip is planned beyond 3 months. We are confident that we will be back by the end of January, so we are grateful that we were able to find out about in time to save so much. And, it is one more piece of the trip already taken care of.
On a more disappointing note, we found out through a yahoo group established for families of children from the Dalian SWI that Zach's "Liaoning School for the Foundling" is actually a boarding school for about 600 kids located about 7 hours away from the orphanage. It doesn't seem like there is much of a summer break or time to spend back with the foster family either. This really just makes it another orphanage. We are sad to learn this, but are glad that we know. We can pray more specifically for Zach and hope that we can bring him home quickly. It also makes it more difficult to figure out how to send him a package. We don't know where to send it. If he is at the school 7 hours away, it doesn't make sense to send it to the orphanage. I don't know if we can send things directly to the school and, even if we do, will someone there have the time to go over the album with him? I am trying to work all this out. We want to send him something, but if it doesn't get to him it's not worth the time and effort.
We also received answers to some questions we asked about Zach to help prepare for his homecoming. We wanted to know things like "What are his favorite toys or activities" and "What are his favorite foods." The answers we received were "he's not a picky eater" (can any child in an orphanage be?), and "he likes typical boy toys, like balls." I am sure no one asked Zach the questions, they just answered for him, which wasn't really the point. Oh well, we will just have to wait until we have him to ask him ourselves!
We had a great time at our friend's cabin last week, Baylee especially! For her, it was non-stop ball chasing in the water, on shore, chasing chipmunks, visiting friends, etc. We humans had a relaxing time!
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