Baby Update :)

We received updates on the baby this week!!!

At seven months she weighs 16 lbs and is almost 27 inches long. She can now sit on her own and can stand when both of her hands are supported. She responds to her name and makes babbling sounds, but not words. She hasn't cut her first tooth yet, which is so funny because our other three girls all cut teeth late too.

She still doesn't seem to like having her picture taken, as you can see from her little frowny face but at least she is dressed in a only one layer of clothing, which has to be more comfortable ;)





We finished all our paperwork this week and got everything FedExed to where it needed to go - YEAH! So now we wait for TA (travel approval) and continue to gather things on our packing list. - M

Two More Pictures!

Look at all those LAYERS!!! These pictures were taken in March when her medical exam was completed. We hope she is dressed a bit cooler for the summer months :)




Here is the one that makes us want to go scoop her up as quick as possible!!! :(




Yesterday, after receiving the referral packet from the "hit & run" FedEx driver, we took her medical info to the pediatrician. From all the information we have, she is healthy! Next we rushed to FedEx to overnight the Acceptance Letter to our agency. They will gather these letters from all the families in our group and send them to China and await word from the CCAA on our TA's (Travel Approval).

For now we are working on sending this little peanut a Care Package :) - M

We got the call!

She is 7 months old, born 11/13/08 in the Jiangxi Province. Her name is Guo Dan Rui, "Guo" is her surname and "Dan Rui" means red pistil, as in part of a flower. She weighed just under 12lbs and was just under 24" long in March when the photo was taken. She does not currently have any teeth but is healthy and normal. We are jumping over the moon with joy. We are anticipating travel in 5-7 weeks. That will give us some time to agree on a name, we'll need every minute of that time I'm sure. Praise God - We have fallen in love again!

Matches have ARRIVED!!!! Come on MONDAY!!!

Our agency just updated their site to say....

6/19/2009Matches Arrived!!!

We just received a group of matches today! The CCAA matched our families with log in dates of March 15, 2006! We also received matches for our expedited families due to Chinese Descent who were logged in through April 10, 2007! At this time, the CCAA has not updated their intranet website, so we do not know the official cut off date.
Congratulations to all of our families who were matched in this group! We are excited to be calling these families on Monday!

COME ON MONDAY!!!!

Stay tuned everyone... it's getting GOOD :) - M

The WAIT is almost over :)

Here is the update from our agency!!!!!!!!!

6/17/2009

Matches Completed!

We have learned the CCAA has completed the next group of matches. We do not know the cut off date for the next set of matches at this time. We do hope the CCAA mails matches soon! We will update this website as soon as we have new information

So what does this mean??? It MEANS that on someone's desk in China our file is now sitting with the baby's file :) Someone, down here on earth, knows who our child is, where they are, how old they are, what they look like!!!!! OMG!!

I hope that DSL already has the packages in the air. DSL will be our Stork, lol :) If matches are received at the agency on Friday we will get our "call" on Monday...if they get them Monday we get called on Tuesday. Either way.... we will finally, finally, FINALLY see the face of our newest addition!!!!!!

We are literally on the edge of our seats! I hardly slept last night, my head is just spinning! We are sooooo ready to share our news as soon as we have it!!!!!!!!

We are NEXT!!!

I can hardly believe it as I type it out... we are definitely NEXT!!! Last week matches were received, from China, for LID dates through March 14, 2006. Congratulations to all those families who are finally getting to lay eyes on their child for the first time :)

Since our LID is 3/15/06 that means we ARE going to be in the next set of matches. We're hoping that we will know something within the next two weeks about WHEN to expect referrals to be mailed and then we will ready ourselves for "The Call".

Words can't describe how anxious we are getting!! After all this time is it really possible???? Will we be ready??? Only God knows for sure and He has brought us this far :)


Stay Tuned - M

Never a dull moment!

On April 10th our home was hit and destroyed by an F-4 tornado that hit Murfreesboro. I was home with the girls but had enough time to get them, and the dog, safely into the closet under the stairs. Madeline and her sister Regina were in the car trying to avoid it and saw it hit our home. Everyone is safe but we unfortunately lost most of our belongings. We are so thankful for what we do have...each other, family, friends, and our church family. We have been overwhelmed with the love, support and generosity of so many. It is amazing how unimportant all of the material things become when a disaster strikes and we thank God to be so blessed with so much! ~ A