New Pictures!!!!

We finally got the update on Kenzi we've been hoping for.  She has grown a lot, so that's good.  She can sit up by herself and walk a few steps if someone holds her hand.  She has 6 teeth and it seems that her cleft lip and palate don't cause any problems with eating and drinking.  She appears to have normal hearing.  Her lip has not been repaired (obviously) and we think it will not be repaired in China.  We're still not quite sure about that, so we're trying to find out more.  Our surgeons here don't have a preference ... they're ready for whatever situation is presented.

A Non-Update.....

Nothing at all has happened this week adoption-wise.

1.  We are waiting for an update on Kenzi.  We're hoping to get new pictures and some answers to questions we submitted.  Our agency said it could be 2-3 weeks from when we asked.  Today has been 2 weeks and 2 days.  So hopefully any day now ....
2.  No LOA yet.  We're at 28 days and the average is around 60.  Lots of people do get them around the 30 day mark, though.

So that's it.  Nothing.  Luke and Jacinda pray every night that Kenzi would get home soon and safely.

An Update ..... of sorts ....

There's not much going on, but I thought I'd post an update of sorts.

1.  We FINALLY got our tax refund!!!!!!!!!!  YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2.  We sent a few questions to our Agency regarding Kenzi.  It could take a couple of weeks to get the answers.  We're hoping to get some new pictures, but we aren't counting on that.
3.  We have a few low-interest adoption loans we need to apply for.  We are waiting to hear about a grant we applied for.  I believe our application is being reviewed in August.
4.  Waiting.  That's mostly what we're doing.  It seems the average wait for LOA (our approval from China) is around 60 days, and we're at about 21 days.  But the LOA wait seems to have no rhyme or reason and we could get it much sooner than 60 days (or much later).  I need to get our next US Immigration form (it's a long one) ready to go so that when we get that LOA, the form is ready to go out the same day.  We're REALLY hoping to go to China by the end of the year, and we may be down to a matter of a few days making the difference.
5.  We sent Kenzi's photo album to our agency and it's getting sent to China today.  Hopefully by next week sometime, she'll be looking at all of our pictures we sent her!  We also included a few sheets of stickers and a CD with Lullaby songs.  I hope they can play it for her!  (Click the pictures to make them bigger.)  Aaron works with a guy from China and he has been so helpful to us.  He translated the captions for the pictures.

 The kids drew pictures for Kenzi!!!

What's Next?

Now, we wait.  We are waiting for China to issue our LOA, which is our Letter of Acceptance.  This means that China has reviewed all of our paperwork and we are officially approved to adopt that specific child.  Right now, the average wait is around 60 days, with some people receiving it in as few as 30 days.  While we wait for that, here's what we're up to:

1. Jacinda's Readoption paperwork - I still have not submitted the last few documents to our local circuit court.  Once we get her readoption done, we will be able to get an English birth certificate for her.  Theoretically, this should make it easier to enroll Jacinda in things that require a birth certificate.
2. Photo Albums - I'm a little behind on organizing our pictures and putting them in albums.  Like, about 7 years behind.  Oops.
3. Figuring out bedrooms - Jacinda and Kenzi will be sharing a room.  So we need to figure out what kind of beds they need and getting that set up.  Their room is VERY small, so we need to figure out how to maximize the space.
4. Tax Refund - We STILL don't have our tax refund.  We should hear something any day now.
5. Travel Plans - We're trying to figure out who is going to go to China to get Kenzi.  At this point, it's looking like it might be Aaron and my brother, John.  There are a few reasons I may not go, namely that we have no one to take care of both kids while we're gone.  Plus, I'm not a good traveler.  But we're still working all of that out.
6. Yard Sale - We're having another yard sale on July 16th.  Our wonderful friends are hosting it for us!  We made about $400 at the last one.
7. Stuff for Kenzi - We can send her a small photo album.  Aaron has a friend at work who will translate the captions for the photos into Chinese for us.  We can also put in a few sheets of stickers and pictures colored by Luke and Jacinda.  The last thing we can include is a CD of lullaby songs her caretakers will play for her.  We're hoping they will be able to play the CD for her and then we can play it at home and it will be familiar to her.
8. Medical Questions - We can submit 5 questions to Kenzi's orphanage.  Her medical report we have already received was just done in May, so that is fairly recent.  We're waiting to hear back from our cleft team to see if they have any questions/requests.  We will also ask if she uses special bottles since her lip is still unrepaired.  There are special cleft bottles that you can squeeze because cleft kids can't suck out of a regular bottle.

So as you can see, we have plenty to keep us busy!!!

We have big news!!!! Or, How Disney World really is a magical place!

Well, we have some pretty big news to share.  A few days ago, we were spending the day at Animal Kingdom at Disney World in Orlando.  The Director of the China Program at our adoption agency called and said, "You didn't think you could go on vacation and not get a call from us, did you?"  She was calling to give us the details about our next little girl!  Her first name will be Kenzi and we haven't yet decided on a middle name.

She just turned 1 year old and she has an unrepaired cleft lip and palate.  This is the same condition that Jacinda had, but Jacinda's lip was repaired while she was still in China.  We are unsure if Kenzi will have her lip repaired before she comes home or not.  That is something we will be discussing with our agency and the staff in China.

The news is still sinking in for us ..... we were totally shocked to receive a referral this week.  It's been a whirlwind these past few days ......... shopping, going to Disney World, seeing family, consulting with doctors, doing adoption paperwork!!!  We're just absolutely over the moon!

Travel ...... our agency is saying that we should travel 4-8 months from now.  We are really hoping to go by the end of this year. 

Updates ......

Well, there's nothing too exciting to update.  But I'll tell you what's going on these days.

1.  Referral - We are still waiting to be matched with a child.  It could be at any time.  Our agency does expect us to be matched this summer, most likely.
2.  Yard Sale - This coming Saturday, we are having a yard sale to help raise money.  We are not pricing anything, we'll just be asking for donations.  Hopefully, we'll raise a lot of money!  But also, we're clearing out a lot of stuff from our house!!!!!!  It's been great because a lot of our friends have stepped up to donate stuff to sell, or to help out with the actual sale.
3.  Money - I think I mentioned previously that we are being audited by the IRS because of Jacinda's adoption tax credit.  We still do not have our tax refund yet, and we don't expect it until August or later.  It's a very frustrating situation, but at least we'll get some interest on our refund!  It won't be much, but every little bit helps!
4. Donation - You'll notice on the right side of our blog, that we've added a Donate button.  That is a way that people can donate directly to us through Paypal.  I believe that if you use a credit card, you don't have to have a Paypal account.  Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that!
5. Jacinda's Speech - Jacinda finished up the school year going to speech therapy 3 times a week.  She qualifies for "summer school" for speech, but it's only for a few weeks, twice a week I believe.  We do have some things to work on with her this summer at home.  When the next school year starts, she will go to speech therapy 4 times a week.  Luke will be in Kindergarten at the same school, so I'm hoping I can coordinate her times with dropping Luke off and picking him up.  The school is close to our house, but I still don't want to be back and forth 4 times a day!!!!!  Jacinda's teacher in her class at church tells us that each week, she can understand more and more of what Jacinda says.  That is awesome!!!!
6. Summer - We have lots of fun things planned for this summer.  Luke wants to learn how to read, so we're working on that.  We are tagging along on a vacation to Florida with Aaron's family.  They have a timeshare in Orlando, and they have graciously invited us to stay with them!  If it wasn't for them, we probably would not be able to go on a vacation this summer, so we're looking forward to that.

That's about it from here.  We're just trucking along, scrimping and saving every penny we can.  We have become the coupon king and queen!  We rarely go out to eat any more, but when we do, we use coupons!!!

Our Dossier is in China!

Our Dossier (all of our paperwork) on May 13, 2011.  Our agency told us that China has been taking 4-6 weeks to let them know what our Log-In Date (LID) is.  That LID is important because once our agency knows that, they will start looking for a child for us.  Well, our agency found out our LID 5 days later.  Yes, that's 5 days later .... not 4-6 weeks!!!!!!!  Our LID is 5/18/2011.

So we could be matched at any time!  It's very exciting and nervewracking at the same time!  The way it works is that our agency calls us, then we have about 48 hours to make a decision whether to accept the referral or not.  During that 48 hours, we have to consult a doctor to have her evaluate the medical information.  We also do a lot of praying and research about the special need in order to make a decision.  So that's a lot to do within 48 hours.  If we decide to accept the referral, we submit a Letter of Intent to adopt the child and then China gives us (hopefully) a PreApproval a few days later.

We will definitely keep you all posted!