New Year Celebration

Here are a few of the pictures I received from a friend waiting for her daughter (thank you Eva). The girls had a New Years celebration. It looks like they had a great time.

I love this one of Iris. It looks like she is trying to share her lollipop with her friend.

It may be the year of the Tiger, but here is the year of the Pig

While I pass the time waiting and waiting, checking the mail box, checking the computer to see if anyone else has gotten their LOA yet, checking the mailbox again. I sent Iris another care package. Here is the photo album we had sent to her. It is a pink pig. Iris was born in the year of the Pig 2007. While China is getting ready to celebrate the New Year, the year of the Tiger, we are celebrating the PIG. Hopefully I will get new pictures of her soon enjoying her new years cake.

Love Is An Amazing Thing

The waiting is getting tougher. We are so anxious to go get Iris but we are still a few months away, at least. The love grows stronger every day and we wish we coud just hold her. I may have said this before but it is amazing how you can love someone so much and have never been in her presence. The prayers continue that all delays and roadblocks will be lifted so our travel will come as soon as possible.

We also pray for all of the orphans in Haiti.

Love getting suprises

This morning when I opened my email there they were! Two pictures of Iris. Thank you Jiaoli. She really looks happy. She is at her foster family home and she is laughing. It feels so good to see her full on laughing. I can practiaclly hear her little giggle. Pictures always cheer me up.

Log In Date

Today we decided to call the adoption agency and hopefully get an update. After all our dossier was sent to the agency on December 9 and we have not heard anything. We were informed that our "log in" date was December 25, 2009.

The next step is to recieve the LOA (letter of acceptance) from China. The average wait time for LOA is about 80 days. However, the feedback we are getting from our contacts on the internet says that people are reporting about 45 days. We suspect this is due to the up coming Chinese New Year which starts on February 14. SO, if they are trying to "clear their desks" before the holiday then maybe we will receive our LOA before Valentines Day.

Once the LOA arrives we then send the I800 to Homeland Security for another round of waiting. Once this is complete we can expect travel in 10-12 weeks.

With all of this said - it looks like the best case senario is going to be May. We will continue to pray that God will lift all roadblocks and obstacles for bringing Iris home.

Where in the world is Iris?

This is a map of China's providences. Iris lives in Hubei(green) which is central China. The next map is of Hubei. Iris lives in Jingmen City. We will fly into Wuhan which is the capital city of Hubie.

Here is Iris' care package

This is the care package we sent to Iris. I also received a photo from another family who sent a cake to their daughter. Iris got to eat some to. She doesn't look to happy. It really makes me want to get on a plane and go get her now.