Introducing......

It is with great joy and thankfulness that I introduce our daughter, Ellie! We saw her precious face for the first time about a week ago and fell in love. We submitted our letter of intent and just received word that we have pre-approval from China. We are THRILLED!!

Our precious girl is currently 18 months old and waiting for us in Guangxi. We have discovered she is in a wonderful foster care program call Grace and Hope for Children. We are so thankful our girl is getting great care and knows the love of her foster family.

Needless to say, WE CAN'T WAIT to go get her. It's hard to say for sure at this point when travel will be. There's still lots of paper that has to move around. In addition, Jack turns 18 in September which adds a kink. We will have to update our homestudy to include him as an adult, and he will have to get fingerprinted in Nashville. Happy Birthday Jack.  I will, of course, do everything within  my power to move all that along as quickly as possible. So travel? The very soonest best case would be November with December looking much more likely.  I'll keep you all posted as the paper moves and update the travel estimate as we get closer.

The next piece of paper we need is called LOA. This comes from China and is issued after they review our dossier with a fine tooth comb and decide that we are "fit adopters".  Families are currently waiting about 2 months, give or take, for this piece of paper.  So here we go!!

Praising God for this amazing blessing!!!

Jack is home

Jack is home, safe and sound. (big sigh) He has grown up a lot over the last 2 months. Living in China and taking care of special needs orphans will do that to a 17 year old. I'm so thankful he was given this opportunity. I'm so thankful for what he learned. I'm so thankful he embraced it and let it change his life. And, I'm really, really thankful he is back home!

Here are a few photos Jack took in China.

Here are 6 babies that came to live at the foster home while Jack was there. There was a little bug going around the regular baby room when these kiddos arrived, so they stayed in the volunteer apartment for 2 weeks until they could be safely moved in with the other kids.

This is my favorite photo. Jack holding the hand of precious little one.

I think all those babies wore Jack out!!

That's not really his bed, of course!

Jack got to go out and see some of the country side.  He went with some local folks he met to hike up a mountain.

I'm not sure how I would feel about crossing a "terrified" bridge. Hmmm.

While out in the country, they saw these kids...

And their family was selling this...

Which Jack said was delicious.

Jack is still telling us stories of all of his adventures. Most of them are about the babies he met and grew to love. Jack said Amanda told him that now that his volunteer time was over to go home and do something big with his life. You know, ... I think he will.

My boy is coming home!

Jack will start making his way home from China in just a few hours. He's leaving Starfish for the Xian airport at 10:00. (AM on Friday to him, PM on Thursday to us) I simply cannot wait to have him home! I know he has had an amazing experience. I can't wait to download the photos he has taken, and sit on my bed with him while he tells me all about his adventure. But mostly, I just want him HERE! :)

And I keep getting asked what's going on with our adoption. Well, let me just say it has been a pretty wild and emotional couple of weeks here. But, things are much brighter now, and I should have some very exciting news to share very soon. But ...... I have to wait on two little letters from China first. :)