Up and Down and All Around!!

My stomach has been doing flips since Friday. I can't sleep because every time I wake up there is something else that I need to remember to add to my ever growing list of things to do, questions to ask, people to call, etc. What a whirlwind! But at the same time I am so extremely happy and in love with my little girl. I have had many friends who have done this before, offer me advice and answer some of my questions. I am forever grateful to each and every one of them. So far this has been such an amazing journey. I have been able to meet and become friends with people that I never would have gotten to know otherwise. They are all such amazing people! Thank you all for being there for me and praying with me. But most of all, thank you for being so super excited with me!!!!!

We have a referral!!!

My, sweet, Jessa, you were right. How could I possibly keep this a secret!

We are EXTREMELY excited to say that we have a referral! We locked her file early Friday morning. We now have to wait for Pre-Approval (PA) before we can give out any information. All I can say is that we are very blessed!

Jessa, by the way, we did tell the kids last night after we got home. You were right, I couldn't keep this a secret. We are way too excited! They were so excited too! Lianna said, "Now I have a sister!" Too precious!

We Have LID!

Hello from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico! We are on a trip with my husband's company.

Yesterday was the first day that I was able to check email, and lo and behold, I had an email from my agency. It said that they received our LID. Our LID is March 23, 2009. That was yesterday! We received it the same day it was logged in! God is so good! Thanks for praying for us. Now let's see if our little girl is on the shared list which should be coming out this week sometime.

Update on LID

I was told yesterday that we do not have a LID yet. I kind of figured this. It has only been two weeks from today since we were DTC. So it looks like we will not be able to lock a file this month if one came up. We will now be waiting until the end of April for the next shared list. I am sure we will have our LID by then. Then again, nothing is "normal" in this process of ups and downs. Things change all the time.

Please Pray

I spoke with our Waiting Child coordinator yesterday about being out of the country next week when the Shared List should be coming out. She was going to check and see if we had been issued a LID (log in date) from China. Please pray that we have one so that we will be eligible to lock a file next week. If we have not been issued one, then we will just have to wait until the end of April. We should definately have our LID by then. I know that this has already been planned by God, so we will find her when we are suppose to. I just have to say that I do hope it is sooner verses later. Thanks for praying for our little girl.

Help Me Make a Quilt for Ashlyn

I have this on one of our other sites, but I have only received one quilt square so I thought that I would post it on my blog because I know my bloggy friends won't let me down!

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a "Bai Jai Bei", or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is a custom to invite friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth with a wish for the new baby. The quilt contains the prayers and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.I invite you to join in our "Bai Jia Bei" project by contributing one 8" square of fabric (100% cotton) and a wish or prayer for our precious daughter written on a seperate note card. The notecards we collect will go into a scrapbook for her to always have. In working to keep her culture and background very alive in her life and in her home, we felt that she would enjoy this special keepsake when she is older and can see how many people joined in the prayers to bring her home.

If you would like to contribute to Ashlyn’s quilt, here’s what to do:

1. Cut an 8 x 8 inch square of a piece of fabric that you like or is meaningful to you.

2. Make a "good wish" or prayer for Ashlyn on a notecard.

3. Attach a small piece of the fabric to the wish (so we know which fabric goes with which wish.)4. Sign who it is from (you can include your family picture if you would like!)

Email me at gretchen.sloan@yahoo.com and I will give you the information on where to send it.

Thank you for participating and contributing to our quilt project. I know in the years to come Ashlyn will treasure each and every one of you for being a part of her journey home!

We are Dossier to China!!!!!!!

After five months of paperwork we are finally Dossier to China (DTC). What a relief to get those papers where they belong. Please pray that we will get our Log in Date (LID) soon. I would really love to be eligible to lock a file at the end of this month. Although I am glad that we are done with this part, I sure am going to miss Jessa. She has been amazing at helping me through this process. But her part is done (for now) so I will be on to the next department (the referral department ~ YEAH!)

Shot Number 2

Yesterday I went and got my second Hep A/Hep B shot. Only one more to go, and I don't have to get that one until August. I did ok...I had other things on my mind to distract me. There was a little girl on the shared list that grabbed my heart and squeezed yesterday. She is a very sick little girl. I could not stop thinking about her all day yesterday. I prayed and cried and prayed for her. We are not eligible to lock her file yet, but we had decided that if she was meant to be a part of our family that she would be and there was nothing we could do to change that. I was extremely excited this morning to get an email that said that she has a family now! God is so good! What a great answer to prayer! We need to lift up the orphans of the world. There are so many out there that need forever families. I asked God yesterday what He wanted me to do. In this case, I just needed to be praying for this precious little girl. And we needed to open our hearts to her in obedience to God. We did, and He answered our prayers that she would find a family and be able to get out of her present situation. I know our Ashlyn is out there. God will bring her to us one day, hopefully soon. In the meantime I will wait on Him and watch to see what He would have me do.

Our Paperwork is Heading to China!

I just talked with our agency and they said that they had received our Dossier. She said that she had already looked through it and it was perfect. So now they will be mailing it off to China on Friday. That will be our Dossier to China date (DTC). China will get it on Monday and we wait for them to give us our Log in Date (LID). This is a very important date for us because we can not lock a file for a child until we have this date. Please pray that this will go smoothly and quickly so that we will be eligible this month when the next shared list comes out. And please pray for God to prepare our daughter for this very traumatic transition that she will soon be going through.

For my friends who are right behind me in this process (you know who you are ~ smile), I will be praying that you finish your paperwork super fast and that you too will be waiting to be matched with your little one from China this month!