Love that Smile!

This is my precious baby girl's July picture! She got her care package 2 days ago and this is one of the outfits we sent her and Wu! Man, I just love that smile!!!!! She is just the cutest!!! I can't wait to love on her!!!! Can you tell I'm super excited?!!

Thank you for all the prayers, you guys are good (and fast)! God is definitely answering prayers (not that that was in question,lol)! She got her care package, that was one request on the list. Next, we got our I600A approval today as well!!!!! Such wonderful news all the way around! I can hardly contain myself. Other good news, I think we will get our court date soon. Another couple who requested their court date 2 days before us, received their date today. I think ours will follow soon! My guess is the court date will be August 2, Chris thinks it will be July 30. We'll see, only time will tell.

In other news, I painted Lillian's room this past weekend. It is a pale yellow. And while it is by no means done, it's a start. As you might remember, my aunt is making the bedding. Chris asked me one day about the curtains.... I forgot about the curtains?! So I went back to the fabric store and bought the last of the main fabric I picked out. I embarked on an educational journey and made the valance and curtains myself. I did have to rip a few seams out and do some things twice, but you live you learn! So you can enjoy my work in progress!

Thanks for all the prayers, and keep praying!!! Pray for Lillian, the court date to arrive soon and the birth mother to be present, pray for the workers, pray for the other families picking up their children and those waiting like us, and of course pray for us! You guys are doing such an awesome job! We feel your prayers and it is evident each step of the way! We are soooooo thankful for all of you and the support you've shown us!!! Blessings and Praise the Lord!!!

Papers Arrived in Taiwan

Our papers (translated and authenticated POA, adoption contract, Lillian's visa application, homestudy) were received by THOGL in Taiwan yesterday! They have already taken them to the court to apply for a court date!!! This is wonderful news!

The next steps are to receive the court date, have court date (with birth mother present), and get the court decree back saying Lillian is ours. After those steps happen, provided we have our I600A approval, we can travel in about a month. The court date will take 2-4 weeks to get set, then the actual court date is usually about a month later. There is then a 2 week period after the court date where anyone can contest the adoption. Sometimes the birth mother can waive this waiting period. We are hoping that we will be able to travel by the beginning of September! We'll see, it all just depends on the timing of the next few steps.

Prayer requests:
1. Pray for our Lillian to continue to grow and develop healthy
2. Pray for the workers, adequate rest and health
3. Pray that our court date would be set and received soon
4. Pray that the birth mother would show up to court, for her heart to be prepared, and that God would bless her for her decision
5. Pray for our I600A approval to come through soon.
6. Pray for us during this wait, it is extremely difficult to know she is there and we can't hold her and love on her
7. Pray for the other families picking up their children this week, and those waiting to pick their children up just like us.

How great is our God!!! I tell you what, just processing our adoption process it makes me think of what our Lord has gone through to bring us home. Not only did He have to die for me, He waited 19 years for me to join His family! I can't possibly imagine loving Lillian from a distance for 19 years, wondering if she knew who I am, wondering if she would love me and choose me. I can't imagine waiting 19 years for her to come home! How much I would miss! And yet our Lord waits patiently for us, longing to hold us and love us! Amazing, it really is amazing! How thankful I am that I have Him to lean on and trust in this wait, He has been there! Praise the Lord!

TECO DONE

"He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord!" Psalm 113:9

This morning Chris went to Kansas City praying that our TECO papers were signed! He left on faith that they would be done, not having heard from the office yet. He had lots to accomplish back here with work so he had to leave early. I also worked today, so I could not go. He was 20 minutes from the TECO office when they called to let us know our documents were done!!! He picked them up and then went straight to FedEx and mailed them to Taiwan. Yeah, one more step closer to bringing Lillian home!!!!!!

Well, I think I'm finally done registering..... I really have no idea, so if you notice I'm missing something I really need let me know! We are officially registered at Babies R Us, Target, and Walmart. (Walmart is primarily just diapers and wipes and things of the like.)

I guess next is trying to pick the color for the walls. Oh the paint swatches! Anyone who knows my history with paint knows I'll have like 50 swatches painted on the wall to try and figure out which one I like. Oh yeah, then I'll stare at them for weeks on end, lol!

Happy Father's Day!!!

I told Chris this evening that I don't think I'll ever get tired of telling him Happy Father's Day! Finally having our Lillian (although not home yet) makes saying that phrase sooooo sweet! So to celebrate Father's Day, Chris got his first Father's Day card. (He is going to be an AMAZING Dad!) We finished registering at Target. We also spent it working on Lillian's room!

Last night Chris put the crib together.

I also washed the Lillian's clothes. I cleaned out the closet in her room, bought a few hangers, and hung the clothes up!

Starting to put the room together makes it truly feel like we will be bringing our precious Lillian home for real soon! It's just amazing! I would add, though, that it also makes the wait all the harder! I want to hold her and love on her NOW! How can you miss someone so much that you've never met?! In the meantime I will stare at my current favorite picture of her and pray!

Maybe Monday....

Well we went to drop off our niece and nephew in Kansas City yesterday. I miss them already. The house is so quiet without them. And despite what most think, I miss hearing: "Aunt Amy, Aunt Amy"! They are with Nana and Papa now, having a blast I might add!

Our next stop, with only 1 nephew in tow, was the TECO office. We had expected to be able to pick up all our authenticated documents, but alas they were not ready. We were bummed but understand the lady at the TECO office had done everything she could to get them ready for us. Her boss that needed to sign them did not come back to the office to sign them that day. So she told us maybe Monday and that she would call us when they are ready. So we wait. That's okay, though, all in God's timing. Although we ARE eager to hold our Lillian, so the sooner the better!

So we returned home last night, only to awake this morning and drive the other direction to meet my Dad and brother to drop off our other nephew, Michael, to go home. Sad to have our last one leave. Some great memories this week though! What fun to watch them grow and to love on them! We got to spoil them and send them home, just like good aunt and uncles should!

Getting Closer!

Well, our nieces and nephews have been out this week for Cousin Camp! It's been great fun! This is the reason for our delay in posting. We have been a touch preoccupied with 3 kids here this week, ages 6, 5, and 2 1/2. We've been going to the playground, at Bonkers, playing Wii, going swimming, painting photo frames, playing games, reading bedtime stories, and many other activities!

During all the chaos of going from none to 3 for the week, we did receive our adoption contract, POA, and translated home study! So we took an afternoon trip to Jeff City to get our papers authenticated by the Secretary of State with the kids in tow. The following day, Chris took the papers to TECO while I took the kids swimming at a friend's house. Soooo....tomorrow we are taking all 3 kids with us back to KC to pick up the papers from TECO and FedEx them to Taiwan! The documents should be ready around 3pm! We are also meeting Chris' parents while we're there and they are taking 2 of the kids for the next week. Larkin and Sheldon will spend a week with Nana and Papa before they drive them back out to North Carolina to be with Mommy and Daddy again.

So we will be down to just our nephew in the house. We meet back up with his Daddy (my brother) on Saturday for him to go home. The house will seem so quiet without them all here. Cousin Camp is a treasure and such a great time to get to know our little niece and nephews! It's not often that we get to spend this kind of time with them since they live so far away from us. I will miss them tons!! It's bittersweet for me. I will miss them, but at the same time I can get back to focusing on our Lillian and preparing for her to come home!

Upcoming Tour of Missouri, LOL

Well we just got word this morning that our homestudy is done being translated as well as our POA (Power of Attorney). They will be sending it to us tomorrow!!!! Yeah! After we receive it, we get to make a couple of trips around MO. We have to go to Jefferson City to have them notarized and then authenticated by the Secretary of State. After that's done, then it's off to Kansas City to TECO (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office) for them to authenticate it as well. They will then send it back to us or we can pick it up a few days later.

We're getting closer and closer each day to our little girl coming home! Oh how I wish it could be tomorrow! In the end it will be worth it! And besides, if it were tomorrow, I would have no where for her to sleep, lol!

Pray that the papers do NOT get lost in the mail. Pray that we can get them to Jeff City and KC all in one day and that they return to us quickly. The sooner we get this paperwork back to Taiwan, the sooner they can get our first court date! Also pray that our I600A will be approved soon. It must be approved and sent to Taiwan before we can travel. Also, pray for decision making on some things already scheduled (nothing to do with adoption) and wisdom on if and when to do them. As always, pray for Lillian and THOGL!

Blessings,
Amy (and Chris)

Lillian's Room

We are so excited about getting Lillian's room together! Unfortunately we can't start that yet as we have no furniture, no bedding etc. All in due time though! I have been looking at bedding but have not found anything that I particularly like. Everything is SO pink. I have nothing against pink, I actually like pink, but I don't really want a room full of it. That is really hard when it comes to baby bedding for girls. Soooooo.... I went fabric shopping. My aunt agreed to make Lillian's baby bedding, and I just can't wait! What a wonderful gift Aunt Carolyn has with sewing and how much more special will her room be because of it! Below are pictures of the fabric I picked out.

Top: Dust Ruffle, Crib Sheets.

Bottom: Quilt Fabrics, Inside/Outside Bumpers

Now before you write me any notes telling me about the controversy about crib bumpers, I am aware of it. I have read about both sides. I have no objection to the crib bumper. Disagree if you will, that's okay.

Anyway, I can't wait to see it all put together! I'm calling the theme "Love Grows"!

Praise the Lord!

It's a girl!!! We named her Lillian Mei Earhart! She is absolutely gorgeous and adorable! We can't wait to meet her! Below are the 2 pictures we have of her. The one in the pink blanket is the most recent, the one in white is when she was 10 days old and her first day at THOGL.

We found out yesterday morning that she is ours! She is 7 weeks old tomorrow, born on April 17, 2010. We spent all of yesterday calling family and friends! The first picture(at the top) of us we sent to my Mom, Dad, and brother which was immediately followed by phone calls! Chris's parent found out by a return from their little man.... He had been traveling and came back home with a letter that told them they have a granddaughter waiting in Taiwan!

We had April at Shon and Michelle's church give them this onesie to anounce that they were going to be an Aunt and Uncle.

The timing couldn't have been more perfect! It's amazing to see just how God cares for us! I had been praying that we would find out before our fingerprinting appt in St.Louis. I really wanted to be able to register while we were in St.Louis as well as make a Build-A-Bear to send to Lillian (we did not get our registry finished, but started). Well, yesterday we went to St.Louis to get our fingerprinting done! That is also another praise! The system that sets up the appts for fingerprinting is all automated, so I had an appt yesterday, but Chris' wasn't for another 2 weeks. It's a 2 hour drive to St.Louis so we had been praying that they would allow us to do both at the same time. So we took our letters and had no problem getting both of our fingerprints done! God is amazing! It was the best government experience we have ever had. It took a total of maybe 15 minutes for both of us to be done, the staff was extremely friendly, and they even had us fill out a comment card at the end!

Our next stop was Build-A-Bear! We made a tiger to send to Lillian and in it's left arm we were able to record our voices for her to hear until we get to go pick her up! Her Chinese last name is Wu (we cannot pronounce her given name in chinese, and for privacy sake we'll leave that off here). So we named the tiger Wu!

We also picked up two outfits, a couple blankets, a rattle, and a photo book we can put our family pictures in, and then of course Wu is in the picture. All of this we are going to mail on Monday to her.

As of now, there is still a ton of paperwork to be done and more of the great paper chase has begun! Bev said to plan emotionally for about 5 more months until we get to go pick her up. That is going to be a long 5 months, but it will be totally worth it!

In the meantime, please pray for a smooth process and that the court date in Taiwan will be set soon! Pray for Bev and THOGL staff as there have been some major events there and lots of babies waiting for their Forever Families to pick them up! Pray for us as we prepare to be parents for our little Lillian and that we will be able to get our side of the paperwork done without any problems. Pray for Lillian in her time left at THOGL and that she will attach to us once we get to meet her! Most of all, praise the Lord for our new blessing and just how much our Lord cares about us right down to the little details!

Blessings,
Amy and Chris

PS--Please don't post anything on Facebook as of yet, as this is a request of Bev!