We got it!!!!

We have our TA!!!  This is our last step in the process of getting our beautiful girl!  We will actually be given our daughter on Easter!  We are so excited!!  This is a great time to help out if you are lead to do so and haven't gotten around to it yet.  We are currently about 5000.00 short .We have to have all of our in-country expenses wired to China before we travel.  In this post I have included a little information and a picture of  the orphanage that Lou has spent her life.  I encourage you to be in prayer for the children who are still without their forever homes.

Baoji Children's Welfare Institute:
Address:No.2 Futan Road ,Weibin District ,Baoji City, Shaanxi Province
General Information:Baoji perfectura is a city located west of the province of Shaanxi.
The Baoji orphanage was founded in 1951.
Baoji City is located on the 2nd child welfare Fu Tan Road Weibin District of Baoji City, is a professional child welfare agencies, is mainly responsible for the city's orphans, abandoned children for adoption, management and protection, medical care, rehabilitation and education functions. The hospital covers an area of 60 mu, building area of 18,000 square meters, set up beds 400, May 2010 and put into use. Hospital under the Office of the adoption department, management and protection, Medical Services, General Services Section five sections, the existing 170 workers, orphans and abandoned children in the hospital 300, of which 98 percent are disabled.

Can you feel the excitment ?!?!

This has been a very productive week on the adoption front!  We received two very important articles we were waiting on.  We got our passports back from the Chinese consulate complete with China visa's!  We also received our cable letter from the NVC(National Visa Center).  This letter is forwarded to China in order to get our Article 5.  Your Article 5 is what you need to get your travel approval from China.  If everything moves along as planned from here we are looking at travel the first or second week of May!!!   We are still about 8,000.00 short of funds. The funds have to be turned in before travel.  If you feel you would like to bless us with help please take a few minutes to look at our "ways to help" link on the right of this page.  

Moving right along!

We received our 800 approval yesterday!!!  YAY!!!  It is pretty much just a paper trail game now.  We are looking at travel anywhere from mid April till the first part of May!  I am filled with excitement and anxiousness all at the same time.  I can't wait to meet our new daughter in person and at the same time really praying the funds come in to make it all possible. Here are how we are progressing financially.  If you would like to help us on this journey, you can click on the "ways to help" link on the right side of the blog.
Thank you all!

Happy New Year

These are some items we had sent to Lou in celebration of the Chinese New Year.  She will also receive a cake that will be shared with other orphans.

Our little Lou!

Here she is!  Beautiful little Lou.  She is six days younger than Fang.  She was born with congenital glaucoma.  After she was abandoned as an infant she was given an operation to correct the pressure in her eyes.  We only know that she has "poor vision".  We will have to wait until we get her back home to see exactly how well/ poor her vision is.  I can't wait to hold her!!

Remember to check out our "Ways to Help" link!!  We need to raise approx. 15,000.00 in the next couple of months. :)

Our fur baby adoption

About a month after Fang's open heart surgery we were going into a pet store to pick up food for Jake-our old man boxer-and several area rescue groups were set up for "adoption day".  We spotted Sally and fell in love.  We brought her home after some consideration for a trial run.  She was heart worm positive, had been "dumped" while pregnant, and had been neglected to the point where her front right leg was deformed.  The rescue had only had her for two weeks and was not sure how she would react to small children.  Fang had come with a few "tactile issues"-very common in institutionalized children.  He had never really experienced touching things and was scared to feel certain things.  Jake was one of those things.  He had no need,want or desire to pet him.  So, we were pretty sure he wasn't going to try to get to close to Sally anyway.  Well, we couldn't be more wrong.  Like they had an unspoken bond of "yeah, I know where you're coming from".  They began to heal one another.

remembering why we went to China the first time :)

I'm still amazed how this little guy who was raised in darkness does nothing but spread sunshine everywhere he goes.

He was born with a major congenital heart defect (CHD).  He was purple when we received him.  He was three years old and couldn't walk, hold a spoon, had no language skills, and still wore diapers.  Most of his problems were due to neglect.  The back of his head is still flat because he spent the first years of his life doing nothing but laying in a bed.
Now he runs!  Always smiles.  He loves people, animals, and cars.  He will talk your ear off,even if you can't understand everything he's saying.  He is thriving!  He has had several outpatient procedures and one major open heart surgery since we have brought him home.  He's doing great and is no longer purple.