Adoption Update

All adoption paperwork, forms and needed documents are gathered and complete! Woo-Hoo!!

We received our approved homestudy in the mail yesterday and I sent a copy along with our I-800A forms off to USCIS today!!!

*Breathe*

I'm not sure how long it's been taking from I-800A submission to receiving approval nowadays??? Does anyone know?

I was looking back at our timeline to Sophie and it was only 4 weeks...somehow, I think it's taking longer now:-(....but then again...I have to remind myself as always, It's in His time.

It's been quite a busy few months here....and all **** seems to have broke loose literally the day after we sent in our LOI for Qiu Yan on Apr 21st...

Apr 22 John's Mom passes away.
May 3rd My mom is admitted to hospital for back surgery. The surgery goes well, but on May 28th while in rehab, she develops an infection in the wound site and spikes a very high fever. She's readmitted to hospital and undergoes surgery that night to clean wound out and determine what type of infection it is. Turns out she has MRSA. Not responding to initial antibiotics, 3 days later she has to go back into surgery to clean wound out a second time. Mom remains in hospital until the end of June when she is transferred to rehab again. She is finally strong enough to be released from rehab and comes to my house on July 18th. To date, she is continuing rehab here with in home PT and home health care. Hopefully the ID doctor and her Neurosurgeon will release her to travel back home by the end of August.

Through all this Nate and Owen had 2 pretty intense baseball schedules going on during the regular season and then both boys made their respective All Star district teams which played into Mid July. Owen's team made it into the district semifinals and Nate's Babe Ruth team won Districts, advanced through the State tourney and lost the State title by 1 point in the bottom of the 7th;-(!! It was a good run, but I'm definitely enjoying the much less hectic schedule now.

Sophie and I had to practice and prepare for our violin and piano recital which went very well in Mid June. I'll have to upload some video at some point soon! Sophie is very talented!!

Along with ALL the other day to day and summer things going on, I really have no idea how we managed to go through home study visits and gather all the necessary paperwork and documents.....but we did it!!!! PTL!

And NOW if you've read this far;-)...I was blessed with being contacted by a family who adopted a daughter several years ago from the same SWI QiuYan is in. They are in China now making a return visit to the orphanage with their daughters. I received an email that they were able to see QiuYan and took pictures and video of her!!!! They related she seems like a very sensitive child who is attached to caregivers but she seemed very wary of strangers. They have been having difficulty uploading the photos/videos in China, so I have been waiting anxiously patiently, but stalking my email, as you can imagine. The pictures we have of Qiuyan are almost a year old now!!! SO, I can-not-wait see her now! We did receive updated measurements in April from the SWI and she is growing, but remains very tiny. At 2years 10 months, she only weighs 10kgs and is 85.5cm tall. Not uncommon for a heart baby, I just pray her nutrtion is adequate. Her speech is also delayed, but her comprehsion seems good, as well as her gross and fine motor skills.

So, that's the update for now. if I can share pictures, I'll upload them, asap.

Please say prayers she remains healthy and strong, and for a speedy process to get her home ASAP, where God willing, she will blossom.

As always, God is good!!