LOA Today!

Our agency called today to say that we had LOA. LOA stands for "Letter of Acceptance". Which means that all our paperwork has been approved by the Chinese government. We should be traveling in November! What a feeling! This means we really have to kick in hard with the fundraising and number crunching! The only thing that could have topped this was an update on Mia!

Mia & Anna's Adoption Fundraiser! WOW!

The fundraiser was a huge success! We had the most beautiful volunteers show up for the evening. WOW! All of Claude and Ruthi Coats' daughters came all dressed up, long hair curled with head bands, brightly colored clothes that would fit right in with the 70's "flower power" child. A very good friend, Margie DuBois came early and didn't leave until she knew we were in good shape. She knows the church hall like the back of her hand. Our daughters, Jen and Julie, and grandsons, Austin (6) and Matthew (4) came early and stayed late! The little boys kept the girls busy with their "super hero" stories! Vicky was especially sweet and patient with the boys. The girls were so enthusiastic about there jobs and went right to it. Some of the other special highlights was when Morgan came in from walking down to Casey's for an ice cream cone and told Phil that he was going to be proud of her for giving someone directions on how to get here to the event. Phil later found out that Morgan had given directions to his mom and sister. Penny sat next to me at the ticket table and handed out "live auction" numbers and expertly wrote down their information. She welcomed everyone who came in and smiled so sweetly! She said she felt so important with a clipboard! Kate wanted to handle the raffle tickets and was so excited! She would get bored and get up to socialize but while she was gone someone would come up and Penny or Gracie would help them out! When Kate would come back they would tell her she had a customer. This went on for most of the night. Gracie sat quietly at the end of the ticket table. I would look over at her and she would give me her sweet little smile! Ruthi had Kim, Judy, and Addie helping her with the dessert table. They would help everyone pick out their desserts while flashing their smiles and showing their charm. They were a lot sweeter then the desserts!
Speaking of desserts, we had so many beautiful desserts from family, friends, and the community! There was a lemon meringue and coconut meringue pies, apple pies that were "heavenly", an ultimate lemon cake, key lime bundt cake, pecan pies, and all kinds of chocolate!
I think everyone got to go home with something either from the raffles, silent auction, or live auction. I had some of the younger kids pulling out names for the raffle and Kate ended up pulling out her own number. She was so excited! Those moments are what makes for a successful evening. We had so much fun!
The live auction was done by Joe Orwig. He has to be the best auctioneer in the country! He would "egg" them on and tease while the prices of things climbed! He played husbands against wives, bidders against bidders, and sisters against sisters (especially when it came to an IPod Touch).
Clean up went fast! The only hitch in the evening is when we went to lock up and had no key. We stopped by the home of a neighbor to call someone with a key and they came out to lock up. You can't think of everything!

This was sent to us today from our "Secret Pal"!

We received a special package today! Phil opened it and then gave me a call to let me know that we received something from our "Spring/Summer DTC Group". Once he got a good look at what was inside, he gave me a call and told me to stop off and pick up more Kleenexes because we were going to need them. He wouldn't tell me what was waiting for me at home, only that we received a package. The package had two handmade necklaces. And if that wasn't special enough, one necklace said "Big Sister" and the other "Little Sister" both in English and Chinese. And if you looked really closely, you could make out a map outline of China. Once I got home and saw them for myself, we were both crying and absolutely amazed at what we were looking at. We know that Mia and Anna will be our daughters, but to think about them as sisters comes to the forefront when you glimpse the necklaces. This special person was so detailed in this design. We love it and I know the girls will love it! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

LID - July 9th!!!

One step closer for us to be,

we have gotten LID!

Hang on girls

were on our way.

It won't be long

for LOA!

We did receive notice from China that they received ALL our paperwork and have officially logged it in. The date that the Chinese government logged in our paperwork was on July 9th. Why is this so important? Because from July 9 we start the countdown for LOA (Letter Of Acceptance). This usually takes anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months. I thought I had completed all the paperwork that we needed to have completed by the time we receive LOA so I wouldn't be scrambling at the last minute. I completed all the necessary paperwork and sent it to our agency to proofread. It was all okay. Now the Chinese government decided to add a new policy for families traveling after August 1, 2012. The demands were tight so we decided to fill out yet more paperwork and apply for our Visa's before August 1. We sent everything to Denise Hope to hand deliver our Visa's to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago on July 30th. We will see what happens from there. Now I truly believe that all the paperwork is complete until after LOA has been sent in. Why do we have to send in our LOA you ask? So we can be granted travel approval. Sound confusing? No, not at all (yeah right).

We also wanted to share a few more pics of the girls. 

"Anna"

"Mia"

We Sold The Boat and Missed the HS Reunion!

Phil and I were preparing to go to Phil's 35th High School Reunion on Friday when we received a call about a half hour before we were to leave that someone wanted to come and look at the boat. We decided it was more important to take a chance on more money coming into Mia and Anna adoption account. We decided that we would arrive late for the reunion. We went right out and pulled the boat up in the driveway in order to show that it starts. Phil hooked up the water to the motor and went to turn the key only to find out that the batteries were dead. I went to get the extension cord and started to charge up the batteries when he noticed that the gas wasn't getting pumped into the engine. An o-ring had been replaced a week ago and we never tested it to see if it was going to work. Well guess what, as the guy was driving from 30 miles away we decided to call him to let him know that we couldn't get it started. He and his wife decided to come look at it anyway. Once they got here we talked for a while and the guys went back and forth on a price. Once the deal was made they tried hooking it up to their truck only to find out that the wire connections were both "female" and we had to cut off our connection to our truck and give him that one to splice into the boat end of the wire connection. From the time we received the call to the time when the boat was leaving our driveway took about two hours. We started picking up and putting things away when we noticed a part that was needed in order to hook up the water to the motor. Phil grabbed it and went racing down the road to catch them (in his truck). He caught them about 4 miles up the road at the stop sign. We ended up missing the reunion (Phil always wanted to go to a class reunion, but for some reason they never had any reunions officially set up before this one). We are happy the boat sold and we can continue to push forward. Phil's comment about the whole situation was, "God put those people in front of us for a reason. I'm glad we had said yes." I know he was really disappointed in missing his reunion. I also know that a lot of people enjoy seeing him and spending time with him. Maybe they will decide to have one every 5 years instead of every 35 years!  We knew there would be sacrifices and know that the smiling faces in the photos of Mia and Anna will all be worth it!

Our Auction was a success!

Last month we went through our house and anything that wasn't being used on a regular basis or needed for future use was put into an auction. Yes, even the tanning bed went. We sold guns, filing cabinets, desks, letter folder, baseball cards, kerosene heater, peanut dispenser, paper drill, light table, fishing stuff, dog kennel, just to name a few. We had almost 4 pages of items we sold at an auction yesterday. We really did quite well in spite of the temperature being over 100 degrees. It wasn't a surprise when our kerosene heater went for just $10.00. I am not sure what we were thinking! I am not sure what the tanning bed sold for yet, but based on what the heater sold for, I would guess about the same. We had a few people hanging around the filing cabinets the entire day and they were the last of our things to be auctioned off. We couldn't give these things away before the auction! The 4-drawer vertical filing cabinets went for over $100.00 a piece (we had four for sale). You can buy them new for this much. It's always amazing at what you think something is worth and what it actually sells for. Here are a few pictures of what we sold at our auction.

Doing The Chicken dance

We are now finally Dossier to China (DTC). This means that all of our paperwork was sent to China today. This has been such a long process. We thank God for getting us this far! We are that much closer to bring home our two innocent angels.
Please go to the link below and see Anna doing the chicken dance when she was with Asia. She is the tallest one who is on the right hand side. This is a must-see! 
http://asiahope.blogspot.com/2010/08/chicken-dance-mark-henry-jimmy-annaoh.html#links