Waiting for news...

Mamas, you know that feeling when you're 37 weeks pregnant and every day you wake up wondering how far away until you get to hold your little one in your arms? That feeling where you try to keep your mind on the present but your heart is just racing to get to that day to touch your baby's fingers and kiss their head. I'm there. Asher, I can't wait to meet you. To hold you. To introduce you to your sisters who love you so much already. 

Today we reach our last "step" in this long process of adoption. Now we wait for the phone call. Two words- travel approval. As soon as we get that phone call we get to actually know that date that we will hold our precious son in our arms. 

We love you kiddo, and we're coming.

1 step closer!

Friday we received our letter of acceptance from China! What does this mean? According to the Chinese government, we are now the parents of Asher Jiang Bryan. Now instead of waiting, the next few weeks are a flurry of paperwork and visits to fed ex to get US immigration stuff in order, then travel! Hopefully as early as mid September. Also, this gives us the freedom to communicate with Asher's foster family- we are so grateful to them for raising him in a home so far instead of an institution. In the next couple days he should be receiving a little care package, including a letter to his foster parents and a little picture album so he can learn our faces over the next few weeks. 

We are so excited to see him soon!

9 weeks!

9 weeks since we said "yes" to our beautiful baby boy. Guys the wait is so hard. I look at his picture every day. When I am putting my girls to bed he is just starting his day. I think about what he is doing. What his life is like. Is he loved? I pray every day that he feels God's love and knows that he will be home soon. 

Hopefully we will receive our official approval from china in about a month.  Then it's another 3 months until immigration approvals come so we can bring him home!

I would love your prayers and encouragement as I am feeling impatient these days. Thank you.

Waiting...

We are about 6 weeks through what we hope will be about a 3 month wait to receive our official approval from china to adopt our beautiful little boy. After that is another 10-14 weeks of immigration paperwork until the US approves for him to come home! This is the worst part for me, knowing every day is a day I don't get to hold my son and tell him I love him. We're hoping once the china approval happens to be able to communicate with his foster family and hopefully see more pictures. Until then, I have to keep busy, and every opportunity to help someone in need just speaks to me right now.  

Anna hosted a lemonade stand for an orphanage in Ethiopia through a national lemonade stand day another bloggers daughter started called Lemonade for the Least of These. Y'all, our friends and neighbors were so generous, we raised $161 in just an hour and a half! I don't know about you, but I don't know if I even broke even at our lemonade stands growing up.

Several of you have asked how to help with our adoption. Everyone's been so generous, I would love for you to take a look at the Love Without Boundaries organization. You can follow them on Facebook or lovewithoutboundaries.com.  They are the most amazing people who have a heart for helping kids with medical needs who are orphans in china. Through sponsorships and fundraisers they raise money for kids who need surgeries or medical care before they can find their forever home.  

I saw on their page today that they are starting a backpack drive for kiddos in our child's province today. It's a very rural area, and most kids have to walk a long way to school, carrying their books in plastic bags or wrapped in a towel. For just $15 you can donate some backpacks so the kids can make it to school ok. The average income in this area is $200 per year.  The website is http://www.lwbcommunity.org/a-backpack-of-ones-own if you want to help. 

Thanks so much for your prayers and support and I hope to give more updates soon!

We have a boy!

I'm so so excited to share we have a beautiful little boy! I can't share a lot of specifics yet, but he is gorgeous, has a beautiful smile, and I can't wait for him to come and join the craziness of our family. I love him so much already. I check my email 10 times a day waiting for new pictures. We hope to travel by October to go bring him home. 

The wonderful librarians at the Norman Library have helped so much with talking with Anna about her baby brother. We've brought home a few books about adopting a sibling, and it's been a great avenue for her to ask questions and told us what she's ready to learn. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers. We love our community of friends and family and are so blessed by you all.

Officially waiting!

This has been a big week in our adoption process! We finished all our paperwork about 10 days ago. We submitted it to our agency last Tuesday, who then sent it on to China Friday. We were told it would take about 2-6 weeks to review. I just got an email that the waiting child organization already reviewed our file and today is our Log in Date! I can't believe it went so fast! So now we wait. 

   It's been reassuring after working on this for so long that it's now out of our hands, only in God's hands. So what does this mean? That now we are eligible for a referral (match to a child) at any time. The Chinese waiting child organization usually has a few different match days depending on the region of the country they are looking at.  So it could be as early as next week! We would love your prayers as God guides our child to our family in the coming weeks and months.

A little help from my friends

Anyone who has been through an adoption can tell you it is a long process and you most certainly can't do it alone.  We knew this going in, and expected red tape, meeting individuals along the way that were not so eager to help. We are so blessed that this has not been the case. We received our immigration approval this week! The last official paper to add to all of the other papers we've gathered over the last 5 months. Today I went to the OK Capitol to have all of these documents authenticated by the Secretary of State. It's been a while since I've been there and there were no field trips going on so it felt like I was the only one there and I just got to enjoy and reflect. 

Even in a big government agency, everyone was so friendly and wonderful to work with, from the security guard to the secretary, to the custodian in the hall. I have truly felt God with us in every step. Next all of our paperwork has to go to the chinese consulate in Houston. Then hopefully by the month we will be Dossier to China!