Good Wishes Quilt

Many of you know that I am not very good on my sewing machine, but I would like to make Hanna a quilt and I need your help! I am asking friends, loved ones, and other adoptive families to send me quilt squares and then I'll assemble them (with some help hopefully!) into a quilt. This is what you need to do if you'd like to send Hanna a wish. I am asking for a “fat quarter” of material with a poem, saying, or bible quote, a family picture, picture of you waiting child if you have one, and your name. I will put the passage pic and a sample of the square in a scrapbook and quilt the material. A "fat quarter" is a quarter of a yard of fabric which measures 18" x 22" (in other words, 1/2 yard of fabric which is then cut in half parallel with the selvege); a regular quarter of a yard of fabric measure 9" x 44". Fat quarters are useful as you can cut a larger variety of pieces from them given their "extra" height and allows for more pieces to be cut on the vertical grain of the fabric. Just email me if you have any questions or if you need our address! Thank you in advance for helping send Hanna wishes!

God is soooooo good!

I've been telling God that it would be a wonderful anniversary present for Jerry and me if we could get our LOA for our anniversary. On the 30th (our anniversary) Jerry and I had to get our fingerprints done again so we made a day of it. As we were leaving home, I told Jerry that our social worker was going to call us today. Jerry didn't believe me. Sure enough, she called! We didn't get our LOA, but we did get our pre-approval (PA)! God listens!

Everyone - please start praying that we get our LOA soon so we can travel in September. I've begun telling God that since my birthday is in September, that would be an awesome birthday present - Gotcha day on September 20th (do you think that is too much to ask for??!) Of course, if He can get us there sooner and we might be home already for my birthday that would be awesome!!

Prayer works! Please pray for Hanna, for the boys while we are gone, and for speedy, safe travel!

Belize

We had a good time in Belize. I worked harder that week than I have in my entire life! We had a 30 minute walk on the beach (not bad!) to the school then worked all day with VBS too and then walked back. We painted, put down floors, hung hurricane shutters, and made wonderful connections with amazing children. I truly miss the children. We got hugs each day and huge smiles. It was wonderful. We missed the boys terribly though. We're not sure how we are going to manage the trip to China! They didn't miss us much though. They had too much fun with grandparents!

Hanna News... Our LOI has officially been submitted to China. I thought that happened before we left for Belize, but I left out a checklist that I needed to send when we got home. Bummer, but we heard that it is officially there. We are now waiting on China to respond to that with what is called a Letter of Approval (LOA) or a Letter Seeking Confirmation. Either way it means China approves. Then we'll wait on our travel appointment(TA) and we'll be all set. We are still praying for September, but I think that dream is slipping away each day. Pray for a miracle! God can do it. We just have to ask! There are pictures of Belize in the photo gallery...email me if you need the password stuff. Here are a few though!

Fireworks at the Gregg's!

Happy Fourth of July! We went to our dear friends, the Gregg's, last night for a cookout and fireworks. We had a great time. I ate way too many toffee pieces, but fun anyway! It is always fun to gather with friends. I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July. We're not sure yet how we are celebrating today. We leave too early in the morning for Belize. We are supposed to be at church ready to go before 4am!

No new news on Hanna yet, but we may have updated pictures of her when we get back from our missions trip! I can't wait to get back home. I'm going to miss the boys terribly. We've never been away from them this long before. They are excited about going to Mamaw Long's and want to leave now. They just can't understand why we want to hang out with them today! I'm adding new pictures in the photo gallery as well.

July

We found out yesterday that our agency has all of our paperwork ready to be basically emailed to the CCAA. They are just waiting for a couple of things to be translated. We should find out soon that our LOI is officially in China. Now we wait for the LOA, travel assignment or invitation, and the consolate appointment! Continue to pray for September!

Jerry and I leave on Saturday for our missions trip to Belize. Last summer when we first started talking about going, we told our minister that we would go if we didn't have a referral or were close to having a referral. God had other plans! He also has a sense of humor! He gave us our daughter not quite 2 weeks before we leave! He always intended for us to do both! We are anxious to get down there, do our work, and come home. We know we are going to miss the boys terribly and we are very anxious for some good news from China. When we get home, we'll have exactly one month before school begins to enjoy the boys, the pool, and summer!