We're In China!

After 38 long hours of travel, we are finally in China! We got to the hotel at 4 pm on Sunday.

Stats from the trip:
Total travel time from home to hotel: 38 hours
Airports: 2
Planes: 3
Buses: 2
Cars: 2

We had bad luck with airline seating, and were very thankful to end the plane travel, at least for a week. Amazingly, our baggage made every flight along with us and was among the first off the plane.

Our driver was waiting for us at baggage. Driving here is every bit as scary as we’ve heard—lane markers mean nothing to anyone, there are very few traffic signals, and cars, busses, trucks, bikers, and pedestrians all converge on the streets at once. It’s a chaotic dance of human masses. Cutting off everyone—including police—is normal. We came within inches of having one bumper or another sheared off by a bus or car more times than I could count.

Our biggest priorities once we got to the hotel were food and sleep -- everything else could wait until morning.

Leaving Tomorrow -- Liya, Here We Come!

Tomorrow Dad and I will board a plane bound for China, and will return home two weeks later with a new daughter for our family. It feels surreal to all of us, and it hasn't really hit that we'll have a little girl in a matter of days. We've waited so long for this time to come that it doesn't seem possible the end of the process is here.

Bohdan seems to understand that Mommy and Papa are taking a plane to get Liya. Everything is ready -- bags are packed, paperwork is in order, and all the details are taken care of. It's probably a good thing that I have some housecleaning to do today so I don't end up pacing all day!

TA Received -- April 23

We got "THE CALL" at about 12:15 on Monday, April 23, that we have our TA! We leave for China on May 4 and will get Liya on the 7th.

I was watching the clock from about 10:00 on, knowing that our other paperwork arrived at AAC on a Monday around lunch time. By noon I was really watching the clock, and when Christy at AAC called to tell us our TA was here, I was expecting it! Jess and Dad were a little shocked when I told them it was here, and weren't sure what to say!

So I can finaly say...we're going to China!

Snowzilla VS. TA

After the huge amounts of snow we got here from 5 big storms in 1 month, a gigantic pile of snow appeared in the parking lot at work from the plows piling it up. I told Jess that it's a race -- will the 8-foot pile of snow melt first, or will we get our TA (travel approval) to get Liya first? Of course, we were hoping the TA would win, and thought that with such a long, cold winter there was no way Snowzilla would win the race.

Well, Snowzilla is about to win. :( Following last week's temps in the 60s and 70s, Snowzilla is only about 1 foot high and 2 feel long right now -- just a tiny shadow of its former self. It's probably only got a few more days of life left.

As for our TA, we found out last week that our file has gotten stuck in China. It's been in the review room for 4 months. It needs to move out of that room and into the matching room -- where our confirmation letter will be generated. A couple of weeks after the confirmation letter is returned to China, the TA will be released. We thought we'd have our TA, or at least our confirmation letter, by now. So it's looking like we have several months at least until our TA shows up, and everyone knows that even a giant Snowzilla can't survive the summer heat.

Speaking of that, how am I going to survive the summer heat -- 90s and 100s + 100% humidity -- in China?

Baby Shower!

A couple of the ladies from my adoption email group threw a baby shower for Liya and me on Saturday. Unfortuantely, the weather wasn't the most cooperative so some people couldn't make it -- including our good freinds from Denver. But the 10 of us who were there had a great time!

The most meaningful part for me was that Kari asked me to share our story of how we came to adoption and how we found Liya. She gave everyone a piece of paper with Liya's picture on it, and asked them to write down things they could pray for as I told the story. Then she asked for specific prayer requests that I'd like everyone to pray for. Then we had a group prayer time for Liya, our adoption, and the family transition when we get home. It was very meaningful to have a group of friends support us in prayer and commit to praying us through the rest of this process.

Then we had a wonderful luncheon and cake to welcome Liya home.

Finally, I opened gifts for Liya that everyone had brought. It was a really nice time of celebrating Liya's imminent arrival!

Fundraising and other updates

Well, there's not much to update on, but here are a few little things that have happened.

The big news is that China approved us to adopt Fu Ni Hua!! We're now waiting for a new acceptance letter China is sending out to say once more that we want to adopt her. We were hoping to get that before Chinese New Year -- which is this week -- but we didn't. Hopefully it will come right after the holiday. Once that goes back we just wait for our travel approval to get her.

Liya's birthday was last month -- she turned 1. It was kind of sad not being with her on her birthday, but I know that she'll be with us for all the rest of her birthdays. I went and bought her a baby doll on her birthday to celebrate.

Some of you know that we're raising money to help bring Liya home through Kingdom Kids (www.kingdomkidsadoption.org). We've raised several thousand dollars and greatly appreciate every dollar that's been given. We do still need a chunk of money to finish our adoption fees and pay for the trip to bring Liya home. If you would like to donate to our account, you can donate online or through the mail to Kingdom Kids -- just be sure to make a note that you want it to go to the Rector grant.

Hopefully we'll have more updates soon, and you can follow our trip to China on the blog!

Introducing...Liya!

We are thrilled to announce that we have found our daughter in China! Her name is Fu Ni Hua, and we will be naming her Liya (pronounced Lee-Ya). It means "belonging to God," and in Chinese the name Li means "beautiful" and the name Ya means "elegant."


Liya was born January 16, 2006, so she's 9 1/2 months old right now. She's in foster care in the JiangXi province of China. Our agency is estimating that we should be able to travel to China to get her in about 4 to 6 months. Some of you may think I'm crazy since my last post was about how long the wait it and that we have at least another year to wait. Well, all we can say is that God showed us this little girl on our agency's latest waiting child list and we knew she was ours! We are so excited!

Bohdan is actually anxious for his sister to come home too. He and I went grocery shopping the other day. As we pulled into our driveway he said, "Hey! I thought we were gonna get Liya!" Apparently he thinks China is at the grocery store! He asks several times a day if we're going to go get Liya and bring her home.

The next few months will now be busy as we prepare for our daughter to come home. We can't wait until we can post pictures of our whole family together!

Wait Times Increase

When we first began our adoption, anticipated wait times were 10-12 months from the log-in date to the time a referral would be received. This, of course, is in addition to the months it takes to get the paperwork completed.

Well, things have been going very slowly, and our agency has now increased the anticipated wait time to 12-14 months. Referrals are very slow in coming right now. At the snail's pace they're going, it could be a 2-year wait for us to get a referral. However, we are hoping and praying that things will speed up soon, and many people feel that China won't let the wait get that long. That's the way it historically has gone with China adoptions -- the wait times are constantly fluctuating, sometimes speeding up and sometimes slowing down. Unfortunately, we entered the fray when it was slowing down.

You'll see at the top of our blog that I've added a ticker so you can count with us. This shows how long we've been waiting since our dossier was logged-in with China. If the pace doesn't slow down even more, we have approximately a year yet to wait before we receive our referral. It feels like we've been saying "It will be about a year" forever -- I just want to count down a bit and be under a year wait!

I have been in a bit of a down time with the wait lately -- we are both anxious to meet our Liya and have her home with us. But I pray constantly for God's hand in our family -- that he would give us the children he has hand-picked for our family and that he would give us (and especially me!) peace as we wait to see his plan.

Agency Picnic

On Saturday we went to our agency's annual picnic in Berthoud. It was a lot of fun, and Bohdan had a blast in the bounce house. He even sat still long enough to get a football painted on his cheeck! There were so many cute little Asian kids there. It was a good exposure for Bohdan since Loveland isn't exactly a diverse city. Made it that much harder to wait for our daughter though! But seeing all these families who've gone through the same process -- some have done it multiple times -- showed us that eventually we, too, will have our daughter home.

Adoption Classes, or Everything You Already Know

Last weekend we spent 12 hours (Friday night and all day Saturday) attending Core Training -- state-required classes for adoptive parents. It was held at our agency, and there were about 8 other couples there.

While any time you spend 12 hours in classes in a 24-hour period it isn't the most fun, this was definitely not a pleasurable weekend. The chairs were uncomfortable and so was the room temperature. But aside from the physical discomfort, almost everything that was talked about was something we've already been told either by our agency or during the homestudy. Other "repeats" included baby care and going over the paperwork process. Honestly we didn't learn much of anything. I think I wrote down 3 things on my notepad the whole time. I hate to complain, and I soak up as much as I can about anything adoption-related, but we really didn't get much out of this class.

The best part about it was our talk together at lunch on Saturday and a "God moment."

But hey, at least it's one more thing we can check off on our list of requirements. Now we face "the great void" of waiting with very little happening adoption-wise. We plan to go to our agency's annual picnic next month, where we'll meet a bunch of families on the other side of this process and see that a wonderful child will actually come from of all this craziness!

On a positive note, we are now 2 months post-DTC and we haven't lost our minds yet over the wait. This is especially significant for me as I have very little patience. Although Jess might say I lost my mind long before we started adopting...

God's Awesome Promise...If we listen and OBEY!

This is my first post (sorry for the long delay) but thank you Kristi for your work on this Blog. You are the best.

I just wanted to give an update to family and friends on a quick trip I just took to see my dad back in Pennsylvania.

He has been struggling the last 4 to 5 months. He has not been able to breathe very well, requiring him to be on oxygen 24/7. Also his heart slows down when doing any kind of physical activity and it's only operating at about 36%. He found out a few weeks ago that he needs to have both a heart and lung transplant. He went to the doctors to be evaluated for the transplants and found out they will not do either transplant because of his age and condition.

When I heard all of this I began to pray and ask for God's leading on what I should do. It became very clear that I needed to go back, see him, and share the gospel with him. Many of you know the history with me and my dad, so you know how difficult this was to acknowledge. So I decided to go back but could not afford airfare and rental car. So I decided to drive but I would needed help to be able to do it. I asked Kristi's dad if he would like to go, and thankfully he was eager to go on the open road. From the time I decided to take the trip and figured out I would need to drive to the time we hit the road was less than 3 days.

It took 27 hours straight on the road to get there. It was by no means a pleasure trip, but one that I feel God was in control of. We hit very little traffic, had no car troubles, and best of all it was a great time for Kristi's dad and me to have together. He is a great dad and we had lots of great conversations. Unfortunately, Kristi's dad got to see all my family and their wonderful disfunction in the 3 days we were with my dad.

We shared the gospel with my dad and I shared my testimony with him. He listened and had questions, which was very good. Dad was wondering why God is punishing him and why he lets bad things happen in life. I hope we explained this all to him correctly and if not, hopefully he heard what the Lord needed him to hear. He seemed to understand our explanation and it was very clear that God is giving him one more chance to come to know the Lord. He did not have a Bible so I got him one. A quick side note on how I know God was in control of this trip...When we went to get Dad and my sister a Bible, God was leading us and we did not even know it until we got to the store. So we went to the small mall in Meadville, which is where the phone book said there was a book store. Well, there was not one there but a very friendly lady told us there was a book store just up the street. We get back in the van and head up the street to find the store, which we saw, but there was no parking anywhere on that block or several blocks around the store. We drive around and finally find a spot...right in front of a Christian bookstore, which was not listed in the phone book. We noticed the store as we were getting out of the van. I have to admit I got tears in my eyes and at that moment I gave praise to God.

We got dad a men's NIV devotional Bible. I did not want to get him a study Bible or anything that was going to over complicate his reading the word of God. After I gave it to my dad, I shared with him again and told him that he really needs to read it. We suggested starting with Romans and the Gospel of John to get him started. He said he would read it and again he understood that God is giving him one more chance. Later on he wanted to give me some of his stuff to bring back. He wanted me to have one of his guns. I told him I have no use or need for it and that if he really wanted to give me something that it would be to read his Bible and come to know the Lord. So please pray with me that Dad will read his Bible and that he will come to know the Lord. I am glad I obeyed the Lord and followed his leading. I have not always done that over the years and was very glad to have listened this time. He taught me that trusting in him and obeying his commands does bear fruit, and if we trust in him and try not to control things ourselves that things always seem to work out. God has given me the opportunity to share his word and only good will ever come from that. Maybe I will be more open to his leading to share the gospel again. It is not always easy working for a Christian company to have daily opertunities to do it.

One last note on God being in control..... The day we were preparing to leave I was out side cleaning the van. I had a CD playing that I created that had 140+ praise songs on it. I was playing it very loud and just really enjoying this time worshiping God. When all of a sudden the neighbor lady comes up to me from across the street. My first thought was oops, I guess I need to turn it down. This is when God does it it again. She asked me who the singer was and what CD it was I was listening to. I told her it was a praise CD I created with 140 of my favorite songs on it. She smiled and asked me to turn it up. She said it was some of the best music she has heard in a long time. WOW! God is so amazing that he can use any situation to touch someone's life. Not only to embolden us in our own walk, not only to encourage us, but to use our lives as a witness to those around us. Kristi's dad had a comment on my visit with my dad that caused my heart to jump... it was simply "You brought peace and comfort into a house in a time of frustration and chaos, and it was noticed."

So my encouragement to those of you who read this is simply.....we bring peace and comfort into a world full of frustration and chaos and it is noticed. God bless.

10 Years!

On June 1, Jess and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We've actually known each other for about 19 years. It's hard to believe 10 years have passed already.

We spend 4 nights in Estes Park at our favorite bed & breakfast -- Taharaa Mountain Lodge. We reserved a small suite, but when we got there, they were having work done on the deck. So they upgraded us to their top, 2-room suite! We had a great time of just relaxing and having fun together.

It was the first time that Bohdan and I have been away from each other overnight. My dad came to our house and stayed with Bohdan. They had a great time together -- they went to the children's museum, the zoo, the mall, and played a lot. They did very well together. Bohdan asked about us a lot, but he wasn't upset that we were gone. We called him every night to say hi and goodnight. I actually did well being away from Bohdan too, although I missed him a lot. At 48 hours away I had a little trouble with really missing him, but I managed.

This trip gave us all confidence that our plan for Dad to stay with Bohdan while we're in China will work. But at the same time, I don't know how I'm going to manage being away from Bohdan for 2 weeks! It will definitely be a challenge, but we'll also be very busy with a new baby, adoption appoinments, and sightseeing.

Speaking of the adoption, we also got our Log In Date: May 24. That's when our paperwork was officially logged in in China.

Finally -- We Are DTC!!

As of May 18 we are DTC -- our Dossier has been sent To China! That means the paperchase is finally DONE!! It kind of feels like we are finally allowed to get in line to wait for our baby.

Right now wait times from DTC to referral are running 10-12 months, so we probably won't find out who our daughter is until this time next year. Of course, we'll keep praying for the wait time to shorten and certainly not to get longer (either is a possibility).

Now we can focus on putting in our 24 hours of training. We have a class in July through our agency, and we'll be reading books and watching videos. We're also going to learn some Chinese that's geared specifically for adoptive parents -- how to explain family relationships (I'm your mommy, I'm your daddy, etc.), say "I love you," comfort words, and so on. And we will continue to learn all we can and follow other families' journies to their daughters through online groups.

Dad and I are each making a blanket for her -- I am quilting and Dad is knitting.

Bohdan will share his room with his little sister, so we don't have a nursery to set up. We just need to get a new mattress for the crib.

Our First Munchkin

Last week, on April 18, our little Bohdan turned 3 years old. I can’t believe it – where has the time gone? I keep saying I never gave him permission to grow up! I look at him and have to admit that he’s no longer a baby…he’s a little boy.

But he is truly an amazing little boy. His imagination has started developing, and it’s so fun to watch. Lately he likes to pretend he’s a puppy – complete with crawling, panting, and trying to lick us. He also acts out things he sees in movies, such as wanting me to be the Heffalump that he captures.

It’s also fun hearing him talk and how he says things. I was pointing out some robins outside, and being the Winnie the Pooh fan that he is, he calls them Christopher Robin birds. Other cute phrases are: “Mommy, I carry you” (carry me, Mommy), “That’s my sit-down” (that’s my chair), and “I cuddle you” (I want to cuddle with you).

Bohdan loves trains, so we had a Thomas the train birthday party for him. Jess and I made a 3-D train cake – Thomas and two passenger cars – that he’d been asking for about 5 times a day for a month.

Despite what everyone says about terrible twos, I really enjoyed age 2 and will miss it.

Happy birthday, sweet boy!

Another approval -- THE BIG ONE!

We got a letter today from the Department of Immigration and Homeland Security. They have given us "favorable" approval to adopt and have sent this approval to Guangzhou, China. That is where our adoption will become final. This letter is our I171-H approval -- the big one everyone waits for as their final approval before the dossier can go to China!

There was also a form stating that our fingerprints are cleared until May 6 of next year, so let's all pray we can travel to China to get our little girl before then! If the prints expire, we'd have to redo them and pay for them again.

We've had two minor problems with some paperwork in the last week. One has been taken care of and the other is in the process of being resolved.

We are close to having our dossier sent to China!!

Approved!

We got word last week that our homestudy has been approved by the state! That same day it was sent back out for a "second filing," which means it goes to the US Immigration Dept. for approval. That will generate our I171-H form, which should be the last piece of paper we need to receive for our dossier to go to China! Our agency expects that to come in about 4-6 weeks.

On a discouraging note, I'm hearing rumors on the China adoption boards that the time from DTC (dossier going to China) and referral (when we're given the information on who our little girl will be) could be extended to 12-18 months. We originally were thinking we'd be traveling to get her around March of next year. If this new time frame is true, we wouldn't be traveling until possibly fall of next year. Very disheartening. Please pray with us that the process in China will speed up and we won't have to wait longer than we were already preparing to wait to bring our little girl home.

Homestudy done

We got word that the social worker sent our homestudy report to our agency, so there's one more hurdle down. Just 2 more documents need to come back from the government and our dossier will be complete!

Remembering Mom

Mom passed away three years ago today from a rare disorder called amyloidosis. Many of you knew her, prayed for her, and shared her struggle with her health during her last year.

The irony of me coming here to our blog to post about her is that she was very anti-technology. She would probably kill me for putting anything about her online. But to follow Jess's direction to remember happy times, I'd just like to post some of my favorite memories of Mom...
...Baking Christmas cookies and bubble bread together for the holidays.
…Learning how to cook and bake by watching her and learning from her.
...Snuggling in the rocking chair while she read to me.
...Marathon mall shopping for the perfect shirt or formal dress.
...The birthday cakes she made me every year -- from the beautiful ones to the one that fell over like the leaning tower of Pisa, causing tears from all the laughter.
...The special dresses she sewed for me.
…Coming home from school, knowing Mom was waiting at home for me with a snack.
…Having her take care of me when I got sick.
…Mom and Dad listening right outside the door while Jess proposed.
…Her knife-waving while she talked and all the food experiments while Jess and I were dating and engaged.
…Every present she gave always had a story to go with it of how or why she got it.

There are many, many more wonderful memories of Mom. Just typing out a few has brought back so many more than what I could put down. Thanks for letting me share them today.

I love you, Mom, and I miss you.

We're Done!!

Today we brought the last of our paperwork to our agency, AAC! There are still a few things we need for our dossier before it can be sent to the US government to be authenticated -- the homestudy report our social worker writes, the central registry clearance, and the 171-H form from immigration -- but those things are out of our control. We've done what we need to do for them. So every piece of paper that we're able to get on our own is done and turned in to our agency! Whew!

Last one!

I'm a little late in posting this, but our last homestudy visit was Monday night. While not quite the grilling of last time, this visit still had plenty of probing questions.

At the end, she once again said that she doesn't have any reservations about us. Now she'll go and write a report on our home and family. We'll get to review it before it's sent to the state and to China. Both of us are relieved to have this part of the process behind us.

We won't see the social worker again for a year when she does our post-placement visits.

Homestudy Visit #2

Wednesday was our second homestudy visit with the social worker, and this time it was a grilling! We had previously filled out very long, detailed questionnaires about our past and present - growing up life, relationships, how we deal with conflict in our marriage, some about our parenting, etc. This visit was basically the social worker meeting with us each individually to go over our answers in detail.

It was a rather grueling evening. But in the end I asked her if she had any concerns about recommending us for adoption, and she said, "No, not at all." Whew!

Monday is the final visit with one more questionnaire to fill out. She said this one will focus on the present - our marriage and family life now.

On another note, today was my physical exam for the adoption (Jess's was last week). This is to verify that we're healthy and have no physical reasons why we couldn't raise a child. We weren't able to see our regular doctor for these, but the guy we got was very cool about the whole thing. He's done adoption physicals before and knows how picky China is about the paperwork, so he made sure to do it right!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, beginning the Year of the Dog. We're not planning to do much -- just order some Chinese food for dinner!

We've focused on my Irish heritage in our house since Jess and I got married. It's always been important to me, and Jess has an interest in the culture. Our trip to Ireland a few years ago was a real dream come true -- an unforgettable trip. When we bring our daughter home from China, we'll be incorporating some of her culture into our family too, but it won't be our sole focus. We plan to celebrate, learn about, and honor both heritages in our family (with a bit of Italian thrown in there too!). Right now the Chinese culture is new to us and we're learning all we can. We will have a truly American home -- a melting pot of cultures combined into one.

Homestudy: 1 Visit Down, 2 to Go

Well, our first homestudy visit went pretty well. I was really nervous and stressed about it, expecting it to be more of a "grilling": "Why do you think you're good enough for us to let you have a child?" type of thing. But it wasn't at all. It was more informational than anything, with her telling us about the process and expectations. There were a few questions, but they were basic, like why do we want to adopt and why did we choose our agency. The next visit may be more of an inquisition than this one was because we'll be filling out another questionnaire and talking about our answers with her -- each of us separately. I have no idea what will be on this questionnaire.

She toured our house, including the basement. I had the house looking really good, and was proud to show her around. The funny thing was, when we got to our bedroom, Jess opened up our closet door!!! I said, "Don't show her that! I don't think she wants to see our dirty laundry!" That was a literal statement, as I had just shoved piles of dirty laundry in there! I almost died. She agreed that she didn't need to see our laundry!

We learned some good things, and she recommended a lot of books and other resources for us. I think by the end we all felt good about things. She gave no indication that this wasn't a good choice for us and didn't discourage us from adopting, so I'm taking that as a good sign. And everything she talked about was in reference to "when" not "if." I hope she saw our hearts as far as our love for children and our commitment to adoption.

Bohdan was great the whole time and showed off his charming side. At first he sat at the table with us and was telling the social worker his own story -- very seriously -- while Jess was trying to tell her why we want to adopt. It was really cute. Then he played with his trains most of the time and we finally put a movie on for him toward the end when he was getting tired.

Next Wednesday will be our next 2 meetings in one where she meets with us each individually, and the final meeting is a week from Monday. I'm surprised how quickly we'll be getting through all of them.

So thanks for your prayers, and I'll let you know how the next one goes.

Homestudy Scheduled

We got a call from our social worker today, and our first homestudy visit will be on Wednesday evening, the 25th. It will be a 2 1/2 hour meeting at our house.

The homestudy will be a total of 4 visits -- two with us together, and then one each with Jess and I individually.

I'm nervous about the homestudy because it feels like a really big job interview...for a job we'll have the rest of our lives! It evaluates everything about our lives: our home, our finances, our health, our personalities, our family, and more. Nothing like having someone come to your house to see if you're fit to be a good parent...especially when you already have a child!

I'll be in frantic cleaning mode for the next four days. Guess it's time to finally take down the Christmas tree! (For the record, all the other decorations -- including the ornaments from the tree -- are packed up and put away. We just have to take the actual tree down.)

Deeper Into the Pile

We've actually gotten quite a bit of paperwork done already. All the easy stuff is done -- things where we just have to fill in applications or sign papers and return them.

We've also completed some of the more complicated things. We sent for and received our birth certificates within 2 days -- I wish everything would go this quickly! We sent for our marriage certificate. Long questionnaires about our past and present family life are done. Questionnaires have been given to our 3 references (big thank you to those of you who are doing this for us!). Passports are copied. And we have appointments made for our physicals.

The next stack of papers are all things that have to be notarized. Thankfully we have a notary at work, so that should be easy to do. I'm also compiling the required 8 photos of our family that will go with our dossier to China. And we have a draft of our "Petition to Adopt" letter to the Chinese government, explaining why we want to adopt from China.

We've paid the fees for our homestudy, so now we're just waiting to find out who our social worker is and when we can get the meetings set up with him/her. We'll need to meet with the social worker 3 times and then he/she will write up a report on our family and household. Kind of nervous about that, just because I'm not sure what to expect. And I think the nesting instinct has kicked in because I feel great pressure to get our house in top shape before the social worker comes!

Our agency has been great so far, especially considering I've called or emailed almost every day with paperwork questions!

So that's where we are at 2 1/2 weeks into the process...

It's a girl!

We are happy to announce that we're "paper pregnant" -- we are adopting a baby girl from China!

God put adoption on our hearts a year ago after the tsunami in Southeast Asia. Shortly afterward, he put China on our hearts. Since then we've been researching, networking, and learning all we can. Over the holiday we met with our agency and began the formal application and document-gathering process known as the paperchase.

The whole process, from application to receiving a child, is taking approximately 12-14 months. We will probably learn who our new daughter is sometime around next Christmas or New Year's. Then we'll be traveling to China to bring her home about 4-8 weeks after that. We anticipate that she will be between 9 and 18 months when she comes home.

We are very excited to be moving forward with this since we've been planning it for a year now. We've already completed a bunch of paperwork, although there's even more to come. We got fingerprinted at the police station for the first of two fingerprint background checks.

The first date we're working toward is February 28 -- the deadline for all of our paperwork to be completed and compiled into a "dossier." This dossier will first be authenticated and approved by the US government, and then it will go to China for approval. Aside from the mountain of paperwork, the next big step will be starting our homestudy.

We would appreciate your prayers during this time, specifically for:

• Health and safety of our daughter in China until we can go get her
• Speedy processing of our paperwork through the US and Chinese government agencies
• Finances for the adoption to come together

We will be using this blog to keep all of you up to date on our progress, and yes, we'll be better at keeping it updated! We hope you'll join us in prayer for this exciting adventure we've begun!

Cha-Ching!

At the risk of sounding like a boring, frumpy housewife, I have to report my great grocery savings this week. And, yes, I'm really excited about this.

Albertsons is having a promotion on General Mills and Betty Crocker items (cereal, brownie mix, Chex mix, bread crumbs, taco shells, flour, soup, crescent rolls, and more), buy 10 get an instant $3 off, plus many of these items are on sale for 10 for $10. So armed with a fistful of coupons for these same items, I made four separate trips to the store over the last week. Much of what I bought was items included in this promotion, but I also got some general groceries that we needed.

Everything included, here's the bottom line:

Total number of items purchased: 118
Total dollars spent: $127
Total dollars saved: $224 (That's almost 60%!)
Keeping more money in my wallet: priceless

Ebay

I have created a monster! I showed Jess how bidding on Ebay works and now he's hooked. We're shopping for Christmas for Bohdan -- Nascar hot wheels type cars from Jess and Thomas train cars and track from me. Jess has found some good deals. I, however, have found that Thomas stuff is extremely popular and the prices get driven up quickly. I'm hoping I can at least get some things mor cheaply than in the stores because that stuff is expensive! Bohdan really likes his trains and I love a good deal so hopefully we can both be happy.

Wish us (and our Pay Pal account!) luck!

The Vacation Report

Well, I wrote out a long post telling all about our trip. It took me a couple of days to do it, and I was dumb and didn’t write it in Word. So the blog program timed out and I lost the whole post! :(

So here I am, working in Word, to tell you all about it again!

We had a really good time in Moab. It’s an amazing place to see – the scenery is so unique and just seems to pop up out of nowhere. Bohdan was amazing the whole week. He never once complained about being in the car a lot, and each morning he was ready to go for a “ride” somewhere. He had fun exploring new places and climbing all over the rocks. The trip went way too fast but it was so good to just get away for a little while.

Here’s a breakdown of what we did and what we saw:

September 2
We left Dad’s house in Denver at 5 am and got to the B&B at noon, stopping at a couple of scenic overlooks along the way. We ate the picnic lunch we brought and rested from the drive for a while. That evening we had dinner at a nearby lodge – good food and an amazing view of the cliffs right along the Colorado River. After dinner we went to look at some nearby rock formations. Bohdan crashed in the car while we enjoyed watching sunset on the rocks. He was so worn out that he immediately went back to sleep when we brought him into the cabin! The place we stayed was in Castle Valley, about 25 minutes outside of Moab.

September 3
This day we headed south of Moab to Canyonlands National Park, the Island in the Sky district. After stopping at the visitor center for advice on the best picnic and viewing spots, we headed to the very end of the road. We had a picnic there and let Bohdan climb around for a while. There was a ledge with no railing where you could look several hundred feet down the cliff wall. Jess got very brave and actually looked over the edge. Our biggest concern was keeping Bohdan far away from that edge, though! Then we slowly made our way back on the road, stopping at all the scenic overlooks. Toward the end we took a break while Bohdan napped in the car. Jess and I just relaxed, listened to some music on the radio, and watched a rainstorm come in over the cliffs.

That evening brought the most amazing sunset – brilliant colors that lit up the sky and make the rock formations glow with a fiery orange. I learned the light changes very quickly at sunset time, and there’s literally only about 2 minutes to take pictures with the awesome light before it fades.

One thing I was looking forward to on this trip was practicing my photography hobby. About halfway through the day, my camera decided to break. The auto focus wouldn’t work and the camera flat out refused to take pictures in auto focus mode. So it was manual focus most of the trip for me. Also, some dust particles got deep inside the camera body and many of my shots, especially those with sky, had spots on them. I’ll be doing a lot of Photoshop work to clean up the dust. Grrr…I was really frustrated with the camera by evening!

September 4
We decided to take it easy today, so we just walked around downtown Moab for a while then hung out at our cabin.

The location and accommodations at this B&B were very nice…but we weren’t very happy with the owners. Even though we’d called ahead to make sure it was okay to bring a toddler (we were told it was fine), the man was extremely high-strung and freaked out about things Bohdan did that any toddler would do. He got all uptight when Bohdan put his silverware in his juice glass. (Note to self: Always remember to bring sippy cup to breakfast from now on.) There’s also a little water feature on the grounds. This guy got totally freaked out and mean about the fact that Bohdan wanted to put his hands in the water. I’m thinking, if you don’t want kids to play in the water feature – which most kids would be naturally drawn to – either don’t put one in or don’t say kids are welcome!

September 5
Today was our day to visit Arches National Park, which I was really looking forward to. We couldn’t get over how unique and interesting the landscape was. We did a lot of hiking to get to the views of the arches. It was very hot – no doubt we were in the desert!

Our favorite place was Sand Dune arch. It was in a crevice, just a short, easy walk on red sand from the parking lot. The maps specifically said this one was good for kids, and they were right. Bohdan had a blast playing in the sand and climbing in and out of the crevices. We got some good photos of him here.

By the end of the day we were exhausted and our shoes were full of sand, but the hikes were worth it for the scenery.

September 6
Our one splurge for the trip was to take a private off-road jeep tour. It was a half-day tour around the rocks above Moab. On some of the hills he took us up, I don’t know how he kept the jeep from going over backwards they were so steep! All the bumping and jiggling actually put Bohdan to sleep! Midway through the tour we took a break to watch a group of people with jeeps challenge each other to get in and out of something that could only be called a big hole in the ground! It was just big enough for a jeep to fit into and bowl-shaped with very steep sides. I don’t know how those guys got out of there, and I sure wouldn’t want to be in the jeep while they tried it! Bohdan finally woke up and watched a black jeep go in and out of the bowl…it was love at first sight. He got upset when we left without that jeep!

After a late lunch we decided to take the long way back to our B&B by driving along the La Sal Mountain Loop road. It went up into a small mountain range, where we took a rough side road to a small lake. We stayed there for a couple of hours and walked around the lake. The road eventually comes out into the back side of Castle Valley, giving amazing views of the valleys and formations all around the area. It seemed like we were stopping at every curve to admire the scenery and take pictures. It was a nice way to end the trip.

September 7
We arrived home at exactly 3:10 pm. I know this because Jess said we’d get home earlier but I predicted 3:10. The clock rolled over to 3:10 just before we pulled into the driveway, so we each claim we won. But it was 3:10 when we rolled onto our property!

So that’s our trip report. It’s a very nice place to go in less than a day’s drive.

Since we’re still very new to this blogging thing, we’ll try to figure out how to post a few pictures from our trip. Watch for those soon!

Ready to go!

We took Bohdan to the doctor yesterday. While he has a summer cold virus, his ears looked great and the doctor felt there was almost no danger of him developing an ear infection. This is very good news since he never shows the classic signs of ear infections so we don't know he has them until they're full-blown. He actually seems to feel much better today too.

So we're ready to leave on our trip now...except for the packing of course!

Any guesses on how many Disney movies we'll watch/listen to over the course of a 6-day trip with a 2-year-old?

Can't wait

We're getting ready to leave on an actual family vacation at the end of this week! We're very excited since we haven't taken a vacation (more than a weekend away) since our trip to Ireland 3 1/2 years ago. We'll be going to Moab, Utah, for some relaxation and awesome scenery. The place we're staying is a B&B cabin right by Arches National Park and Canyonlands.

Our one concern right now is that Bohdan has had a runny nose all day and he had a fever this evening. He just doesn't seem to feel quite right, so I'll be trying to get him into the doctor tomorrow morning. Hopefully he's not getting an ear infection. We're praying that he's well by the time we leave, and that Jess and I don't get sick too.

Welcome to the Rector Writings!

Can't believe we're keeping up with the Joneses (well, the Chases) by creating a blog. LOL!

A bit about us:
Jess -- I just celebrated my 7th anniversary at Group Publishing. Kristi and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary in June. Some of my favorite activities include online gaming, playing board games with my wife, playing with my son, watching movies, and watching my favorite TV show Stargate SG-1.

Kristi -- I'm a full-time wife and mommy, part-time copy editor for Group, and a freelance writer and editor. I love spending time with my family, scrapbooking, chatting with friends online, and reading.

Bohdan is 2 years, 4 months old. He loves Woody and Buzz from Toy Story; Winnie the Pooh; trucks, cars, and trains. He loves to go outside, jump, take bubble baths, talk, giggle, and have tickle fights with Daddy.