We're in the Homestretch!

We found out today that our Article 5 has been issued and overnighted to Beijing.  This means that the U.S. has approved everything related to Kenzi's adoption.  Now China will issue our Travel Approval (TA).  Our agency tells us that TA could take up to 3 weeks to arrive.  We've been hearing of people getting TA MUCH earlier than that, though.  Once we get TA, we'll be able to make travel plans and we'll know when we're leaving.

I feel like I can see the light at the end of this tunnel.  This has been a hard wait and we just can't wait to get Kenzi home.  We know that having 3 kids with very unique needs is going to be a big adjustment.  We're ready and we want her home with us, where she belongs.  We know that this will not be easy, but following God frequently is not easy.  He has called us to do this, which means that He has prepared us and He will be with us.

Kenzi belongs in our family and we feel like we're missing a piece of our hearts right now.  I can't wait to fatten her up a little and show her what being in a family is like.  We're in this for the long haul and we're ready!

Here's a great blog post about what happens after all the excitement dies down.  It's long, but the writer brings up some really important issues.  HERE  Adoption is awesome and it is wonderful, but it is not easy.  Kenzi has been abandoned and has lived in an orphanage for the first 18 months of her life.  Those are very formative months, and we will need to help her as she grieves.  Her entire universe is about to be turned upside down.  But the important thing is this:

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you" (Deut. 31:6).

We know this will be hard, but we know that God will never leave us.  Never.

New Pictures!!!!!

We got some new pictures this week.  Here's a couple of them.  She has more hair and check out those cheeks!!!!!!!!!  She looks healthy and that makes this mama's heart happy.  We can't wait to go get her!!!!!!!

Thankful

I am very overwhelmed today at the support we have in our lives.  Here are some things I'm talking about:

1. Jacinda's new speech teacher - For so long, we've been frustrated at Jacinda's lack of progress in her speech.  We knew she would be getting a new teacher this year, so we decided to hold out and see how that went before we decided what to do.  Going back to a private therapist would have cost us a lot of money because our insurance doesn't cover it any longer.  But if that's what she needed, we would have figured it out.

Her new teacher has been wonderful.  She told me today that she spent the weekend researching ways to best help Jacinda.  I am so grateful to this teacher for investing her time and energy into Jacinda.

2.  Luke's teachers - They are both just wonderful.  Luke is a pretty unique kid and his teachers have been so unbelievable in helping us figure out what works for him and making this a good school year for him.  The structure of this particular classroom is exactly what he needed.

Here's the really crazy thing.  When we first bought this house, I told Aaron that it was a good thing we'd be moving before Luke got to Kindergarten.  I said that there was no way our kids were going to school at this particular elementary school.  Yet here we are ..... God knew that these teachers were exactly the ones that both kids needed at this exact time.  Boy was I wrong.  Just another lesson for me to learn that God really does know better than I do what we need.

I am also thankful for everyone in our lives who is excited for Kenzi to come home.  You have all been so supportive and we are so moved by the love you all have shown us.  It will be hard to have 3 kids who all have very unique challenges, but God is with us and I know that everything will turn out exactly the way it's supposed to.  Our family has been missing a member and I can't wait until she's here and our family is complete.  Exactly the way it's supposed to be.

Kenzi's Middle Name ........ Part 3 of 3

A few weeks ago, I was starting to stress out about Kenzi's middle name.  We just couldn't come up with anything we loved.  We tried to find a Chinese name, but nothing seemed right.  Several names we liked just didn't sound right as a middle name with Kenzi.  So I started going through baby name websites and we talked about names all.the.time.  Nothing.

I LOVE the name Lorelei, and as much as I love it, Aaron does not.  No amount of discussing it was going to make him like it.  So I dropped it.  One night, I was looking at a list of family names and the name Sarah was on it.  Sarah is a classic name that we like, but Kenzi Sarah doesn't sound right to us.  Randomly, a song by Caedmon's Call popped into my head ... I thought it was called Saralai - pronounced Sarah-lie.  Aaron wasn't home at the time, and I just dismissed it as a silly thought.

The next day, we were all in the car, and Aaron decided to play that Caedmon's Call CD on my iPod (I hadn't said a single word to him at this point).  Before he picked up the iPod, he said we could use the name Saralai, just like the song.  At this point, I couldn't believe he came up with that on his own.  He finds the song and we were both WRONG. The song is called Sarala.  So we had a good laugh and went on about our day.

The next day, I brought up the name Saralai again.  We had a very brief discussion about it, but it was mostly along the lines of .... wasn't that funny that we both thought of the WRONG name?  We chuckled and then got distracted by something.

Maybe later that day or the next day, I asked Aaron if he would consider it as a serious contender.  We talked about it for a few minutes and looked it up online.  Well, we attempted to look it up online.  It's not a common name at all.  In fact, I don't think it's an actual name!

One thing we like about the name is that Sarah is a name that's in my family.  Sarah is also the name of a dear friend of ours who has helped us a lot with this adoption.  She has written recommendation letters quickly for us and made things for us to sell at our yard sales.  Even though she lives across the country from us, she has been such a good friend and we're thrilled that part of Kenzi's name will remind us of her.

So her full name will be ....... Kenzi Saralai Wolfe.  There you have it.  The long awaited middle name announcement!  Whew!  My brain is very happy to not have to worry about that any longer.  Now I can focus on freaking out about our packing list!!!!!

Middle Names - Part 2 of 3

Again, we decided pretty quickly on the name Jacinda.  It was a name we had heard and we both just loved it.  But her middle name caused many .... discussions.  Originally, we were sure she would be Jacinda Claire.  I'm not really sure why we decided against it.  At some point, we started discussing other options.  We decided not to use part of her Chinese name because her name was given by the orphanage workers just going down a list.

We put the name Jacinda Catherine on the paperwork we had to submit.  Catherine is Sherry's middle name.  I (Sherry) had always wanted to give my daughter the name Catherine because I figured I would drop it when I got married.  But when we got married, I ended up keeping all my names, so it wasn't as important to me to give it to her since I still had it after all.

So when we left for China, I think we were still debating between Claire and Catherine.  We weren't in love with either one, but we really just couldn't decide.  The second day we were in Beijing, we were having dinner at a Peking Duck restaurant with some colleagues of my dad's.  The girlfriend of one of the men there was named Kai-Li.  (We have no idea how she spelled it, though.)  After we got back to the hotel, we Googled various options for how to spell it and decided that night that her name would be Jacinda Kai-Li.  It is pronounced Kai-Lee.  It's not pronounced like Kylie, it's really 2 separate names.

Kenzi's story is coming soon!

Middle Names - Part 1 of 3

We are getting close to announcing Kenzi's middle name.  But first, we'd like to document the stories of how we chose the middle names for Luke and Jacinda.  Their first names were all chosen quickly, but their middle names have been the subject of much discussion each time.

When I was pregnant with Luke, we had TONS of girl names we liked and no boy names.  Several weeks before the "big" ultrasound, I just knew it was a boy.  Sure enough, at 16 weeks, the ultrasound tech told us it was a boy.  So we began the task of choosing a name.  I don't really remember how we decided on the name Luke, but I'm pretty sure it was Aaron that suggested it.  We decided pretty quickly that Luke would be his first name.  We looked up the meaning of Luke and it means "Bringer of light", which we thought was pretty appropriate, given our infertility history.  His middle name was not chosen quite as quickly, though.

We spent months talking and looking and debating and not deciding.  We were in the car, driving to Maryland for our baby shower and we decided to just spend the whole car trip discussing it.  We started with Bible names and just named Bible name after Bible name.  One of us said Isaiah ...... we put it with Luke ... Luke Isaiah and right there, in the car, decided that was it!  We had already told everyone his first name, but we decided to keep Isaiah a secret until he was born.  It was kind of fun having that secret all to ourselves for a little while.

In the next day or two, Jacinda's story!

Moving Right Along ......

The adoption process is moving right along.  Right now, our paperwork is at U.S. Consulate in China.  We will probably get Travel Approval in early November and then travel in late November or early December.  We're hoping to be home before Christmas!

Other updates ......
- We're working on some applications for adoption grants and no-interest loans.  If you'd like to make a donation to our adoption fund, we'd be very grateful.  We have paid all the agency fees, we just need money to pay for our trip.
- We think we have actually decided on Kenzi's middle name.  We're still discussing it just a little, so I will wait to share it until we're sure.
- Luke is recovering from a pretty bad bout of strep.  He missed an entire week of school.  So this week is like the first week of school again ... we're all trying to get back into the swing of things!
- Packing - There are strict weight limits for luggage these days, so we're working on paring down our packing list to only what we absolutely need to take with us.  We have pretty much everything, we just need to shop for a few more little things.