Letter of Acceptance

We got it!  More details on what comes next, when we expect to travel, and our son's name coming soon!

90 Days

The phone rang today. I saw that it as an Alabama number.  I've been waiting for a call from an Alabama number for weeks (our agency is based in Alabama). Waiting for news regarding our LOA.  The last I heard, our dossier was still being translated into Chinese.  And that translation started 90 days ago.  90 days.  So this morning I saw the Alabama number on my phone, my heart leaped, and I answered.  

There is good news, she said.  Long story short, our dossier has not only been translated.... it has also been reviewed and matched.  My understanding is that this means we essentially have our approval. We are just waiting on getting the actual LOA hard copy!  And that should come soon.  "I'm not going to cry" I said to her as I was getting all choked up.  I had been praying our dossier would just finish translation this week. God did abundantly more than that.  He did what I thought wasn't possible.

So, August you may end up bringing us our LOA afterall.  And I am praising God for that!

Chinese Class

 The girls have been taking a Chinese class this summer.  There were only four classes (and they missed one of them), but even with such a short time it was neat to see them learn some words.  The class was half language and half culture.  They made a Chinese dragon, did Chinese paper cutting, and on the last day made Chinese dumplings ("jiaozi").  

 They also had some egg rolls and a traditional pork dish ("lu rou fan") over rice for us to taste. 

 Cooked dumplings - so so yummy!

 This is Chinese candy that is kind of like a wafer and it is wrapped in seaweed.  Not a favorite with my girls but they did try it. :)

Leah with Sunny ("laoshi" = teacher in Chinese)

I loved this experience for my girls and hope to do it again soon!

New Pictures!

We were so excited to find this little face waiting for us in our email this morning!  My first thought was "wow, he has grown so much!"  He has gotten so big!  And this is a good thing - it means he is eating and growing and that warms this momma's heart!   After those thoughts, we realized the preciousness of his outfit (by preciousness I mean that it's so an orphanage outfit) - pink shoes, Angry Birds shorts, and yes a girls sailor shirt.  I do realize that they make boy sailor shirts, but based on the low cut top and the frilly on the collar and sleeves, I'm confident it was meant for girls.  I also think the sweet orphanage nannies might have thought they would put on the nicest shirt they had to take pictures for us... or maybe it was just what he was wearing that day, I don't know.  Either way, I will treasure this picture!

Oh, little buddy, we can't wait to get to you!!!

It's August

Hello August!  We've been anxiously waiting for you!  We thought that you would bring with your our LOA (Letter of Approval).  But, it seems like maybe you forgot.  You left it behind.  You passed it on to September?  If it is possible, can you get it back?  We're glad you're here, but we'd be even gladder if you had our LOA in your hand.

Sigh.  It looks like at the rate things are moving in China, our LOA will probably not come in August, like we previously thought.  China changed the way they do their database, which means there are tons of kinks in it and LOAs are coming very slowly because of that.

I know in my heart that God is sovereign over our wait and that he is with our son.... and overall, most days, I'm okay with that. Okay to trust him.  But some days (some moments), I just ache to be with my boy.  It happens a lot when I'm spending sweet time with Daniel. It just hits me that my other son is living life without a family right now (and has been his whole life)... and I want to run to him and it hurts deep in my gut to not be able to do that.

We'll share updates when we get them, but we're in the thick of waiting, friends.  This (not the paperwork, not the fundraising) is the hardest part in the adoption process, in my opinion.  The waiting and waiting and waiting... while your child is without you.

Speaking of fundraising, though, it's time for a little update.  Thanks so much to everyone who donated during our Give1Save1 week!  Every dollar helps and we are so grateful.  In addition to that, in our mailbox the other day was a sweet card from a friend along with a very generous check!  It was an amazing thing to get that in the mail.  Praise God!!  So our total raised comes to just over $25k!  Wow!  We are so close to our goal, friends.  We are humbled and excited by that!   Once we do get our LOA, we want to be ready to roll with the next set of fees.

Pray for our son, as you think of him!  Pray for God to be near to him during this time.  Pray for China's database kinks to get smoothed out (there are lots of families waiting just like we are right now).  Pray for us to be patient and trust God that His timing is perfect all the time.

And, because it's fun to share pictures and give you a glimpse of our family (and because when I look at these, I am beyond grateful for these 3 blessings, but I also picture our other son. He belongs in pictures with his brother and sisters. He belongs there, y'all!), I thought I would share these first day of school pictures. This school year holds some exciting times (and the best field trip ever) for these kiddos.

Give1Save1

We are so excited to be the featured family on the web site called Give1Save1 this week.  Since we started our adoption journey to China, we have been following it and have "met" some amazing families.  We have seen God graciously provide for their adoptions.  So, we are thrilled to be featured on their web site this week!  The idea of their site is for people to give at least $1 to the family of the week.  Click here to go to their website and see their (very sweet and gracious) post about our family.  Thank you, Give1Save1, for having us - it is an honor!

And, we have something else so fun to share! The very talented Josh Sliffe made a video for us, capturing our adoption journey.  Here is our story:
Harmon Adoption from Josh Sliffe on Vimeo.

Little Feet

 Leah is learning to tie her shoes.  Today, for the first time, she wore her "tie shoes" out to the park.  

 As I was taking pictures of her tie shoes, Molly and Daniel wanted to get in on the action:

 I love pictures of feet.  Sweet little shoes can tell so much about personality of a kid.  I can't wait to have another little pair of feet to take pictures of.   We do have this picture of our other son's feet:

He has on the new blue light up insect crocs that we sent him.  Well, a sweet lady in China picked them out for us and sent them.  She was super excited about them and just knew he would love them.  I do love having this picture of his feet.

Every picture of him or tid-bit of info we can get from the orphanage is a treasure for us.  We are trying to piece together his story, but there are lots of things we will never fully know about him.  I wish I could know his true birthday (not just their estimated birthday for him), how much he weighed at birth, when he started sleeping through the night, when he started crawling.  Little milestones that mean more to a mommy than to anyone else.  

I'm so thankful though, that his story doesn't end there.  It doesn't end with milestones unnoticed.  What is broken (the fact that he doesn't have a family) is being restored, renewed, redeemed (he does have a family now) and friends, that is beautiful.  It's also our story - that we are broken sinful people yet we are restored, renewed, redeemed in Christ, and that is the most beautiful thing there is.  

And, just because it's fun, here are some pictures of pre-trip-to-the-park bubble blowing on the back deck.  I can not wait until our family is all together, until our son is home blowing bubbles on the back deck with us! Can't you just picture him right in there with these 3?  I can and it makes my heart so happy!