WE HAVE I-800 APPROVAL!

This post is a few days late, but I just wanted to share that we received our I-800 Approval on Friday! For those of you following my timeline to compare with your upcoming dates, that was 25 days after LOA. This is our final immigration document and it is good to know we are moving quickly toward travel now!!

Now we await our NVC (National Visa Center) letter any day now. Then our Article 5 which should be in about 2 weeks. 3-4 weeks after that, we will receive TA (Travel Approval) and we will travel 2 -3 weeks after that!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOB!

Yes, it is Birthday week around here! Happy Birthday to my loving husband, Jacob. He is my best friend and boy do we like to laugh a lot! There are times when we get to laughing so much. It's usually about something crazy that happened at work or about one of our funny work friends. We also enjoy talking about everything and anything that is on our minds. He supports my ideas, hopes and missions totally. I love him tons!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET 16

Happy Birthday Christina! She is sweet 16, and yes it's true, she is pretty darn sweet. Ok, well she does have an opinion with a splash of occasional drama :) , but I have to say that having a teenager is not anywhere as bad as people make it out to be! Whenever I say I have a now 16 year old daughter, people will usually say either, "oooh good luck with that" or " oh wow, how's that going?". Why do people automatically assume having a teenager is a negative thing? Anyway, it's a very positive thing for us and we love every minute as a family. She never complains about going as a family to sporting events, kids' concerts, church, or wherever. She is respectful, GREAT with kids, a good student and loves girl time with me. Happy Birthday to my little girl who is growing up too fast!

WE RECEIVED AN UPDATE!

We received an update, along with 3 new pictures of our waiting girl, Katie Grace Xi Hua!

Here is what the update said:

Please forward this to the Haines family.

Xi Hua's personality is quiet and shy. She is afraid of strangers. Her physical development is good and is going to the preschool in our orphanage. She is studying in the little tod class. She can feed herself and can climg up and down the stairs. She likes to watch cartoon, listening to music, likes to play games with other children and outdoor activities, and play toys. Her height; 84 cm; weight: 10.5 kg.

We are so happy to have new pics of her little preciousness and are glad to hear she is developing well!

MOMS ROCK!

Super busy week and I haven't had a chance to give Mother's Day shout outs! I hope you beautiful moms out there had a great Mother's Day and were treated like queens. :)

I am so thankful for my mom. She instilled in me my faith in God without placing judgement or legalism within it. She was so kind and affectionate when we were kids - lots of loves and hugs! I NEVER once heard her talk badly about another person. If she did, I never heard it! Who can say that about themselves? She never spoke a negative word about a person of another race or socioeconomic background. Pretty awesome mom to have and I'm so glad for the grace she passed down to me.

Below are a couple pics of my wonderful mama, Alberta, aka Mimi!

I also am so grateful for my mother in law, Susan! She is so much fun to be around. She is very generous and does so much for our family. "Lolli" is totally a hands on type grandma. She and Pops love to take the kids and they always do awesomely fun activities. We appreciate them so much!

Below is a photo of Christina and Matthew's Abuela, Altagracia. Even though am am divorced from their dad for many years, I still maintain a lovely relationship with his parents. They are kind and loving and generous. The kids love to go to Puerto Rico and visit and enjoy all of the delicious foods "Lela" prepares!

WE HAVE LOA!!!

We are jumping for joy here at the house today as we received good news!

I was really starting to get weary. We passed 20, 30, 40, 50 days of waiting, and when I asked some others about their wait, someone told me they waited over 100 days for LOA! So last night on the way home from work I said something like this to God, "Ok PLEASE, it has been too long don't let us wait past tomorrow. I don't think I can take it! Please don't make Xi Hua wait any longer!" This morning we got the call on day 60... LOA! Letter of Acceptance. Our final approval.

So this is not concrete, and someone who has recently been through this, please share your timeline from here. But what I am gathering is this: About 2 more weeks for I-800 (immigration) approval. Then perhaps 2 weeks for Visa notification. Then a couple weeks for Visas. Then we wait for TA and plan for travel. So about 12 more weeks-ish??

We are getting closer!!

HAPPY EASTER! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

1 Peter 1:3-4

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

Hope you all had a wonderful, fun, family filled Easter! Here are some pics of our weekend.

Matthew and Christina dyeing Easter Eggs

Joshua enjoying the Easter Egg dyeing!

The Easter Egg Hunt at our church on Saturday

Me with the boys

Easter morning after the Easter Bunny's visit. Happy candy eaters.

Me with the Florida Highway Patrol guy. Ok, so actually that is Jacob, but we did laugh about Jacob looking like FHP this pic!

Easter morning before church.

Easter morning outdoor service at church.

Pray For Kirill! Click here to read their story.

Please click on this post title to read about this family and their desperate hope to bring home Kirill.

Waiting.... waiting..... waiting.... for LOA.

Not much happening on my blog lately. I have been SUPER on-the-go, working like a maniac, and of course, taking care of my busy family and home.

We are 5 weeks into the final "big wait" of this process. This wait can be anywhere from 20 - 60 days. We are waiting for LOA (Letter Of Acceptance), which is the final approval from China. Once we receive that, we will be heading through our last couple months, with a couple more immigration docs, and then.... Travel!

JOSHUA LOST HIS FIRST TOOTH!

Joshua is 5 1/2 and he lost his first tooth this week! He was SO excited, jumping up and down, and he couldn't wait to put it under the pillow for the Tooth Fairy! I know that the Tooth Fairy is unusually generous in some parts of the country :), in fact, I know a house where when the Tooth Fairy visits, a $20 bill is left for each tooth. Wow! Really??? But here at our home, the Tooth Fairy visits and keeps it pretty simple :). After all, I think it is meant to be just a token of fun, not another opportunity to well...overindulge. Heck, when I was a kid, it was never over 50 cents! So Joshua put his tooth under the pillow, and sure enough the Tooth Fairy came and left him two $1 bills and some change. Joshua popped up at 6 AM and immediately looked under his pillow. You would have thought it was Christmas! He was jumping for joy with his treasure!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

It's my Birthday and I am posting this picture because I need the strength of Captain America to wrangle this busy family for another year!!

My age?? Let's just say I am over 40 and leave it at that. :)

I took the kids to Denny's this morning for my free "Grand Slam" Breakfast. Oh yeeaah, happy tummy.

I told Jacob I only wanted 1 thing for my B-Day. A traditional Puerto Rican Birthday Cake. We found someone to make us one! He also got me some needed items for my camera. :) :) :)

I am so thankful to God for another year of love, family, friends, faith, health and life. I look forward to and welcome whatever new adventures He has in store for us! As long as He is in the boat, I'm going for the ride!

INTRODUCING KATIE GRACE XI HUA! She is currently 3 years old as of 3 weeks ago.

So we received an email today from our agency that we have LID for our little girl, Katie Grace Xi Hua (pronounced she-wah)!!

Xi Hua just turned 3 years old. She has 2 minor heart defects. She lives in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, China.

LID is means Log In Date. Which means our dossier has been accepted and now we wait for LOA (Letter of Acceptance (or Approval?) ) This next wait will be anywhere from 20 - 60 days. After that we will be moving quickly toward travel after a few more documents.

So guess what this all means??? I can now post pictures of our little girl!!! And even more exciting is the fact that I have many pictures to share because a few families who have recently traveled to our orphanage as they were adopting their children took pictures for us! What a blessing that is!!

Here we go. I am posting them in order of youngest to oldest. Captions are below each photo:

Xi Hua's Finding Photo. This is the photo that is taken at the child's finding date and is attached to her original information. She was 9 months old and obviously quite frightened by her situation.

This is the referral picture we received of Xi Hua with her medical file. She is approximately 2 years and 7 months here. She only weighs 16 pounds and is not very tall either. Just a tiny girl.

Here is another of her referral photos. She looks so apprehensive in many photos, precious girl! She needs a mama.

This is Xi Hua this past December, 2010. She is 2 years 10 months here.

Our friends from our CWI yahoo group took these photos. She is looking as if to say, "don't come any closer, Mister!"

Still not so sure about this man with the video camera.....

"Wait a minute, I see myself in the camera viewing screen!"

"I like to see my sweet little pixie face!"

"I don't get to see my reflection very often, this is a hoot!"

These next 3 photos were taken last week! Xi Hua walking into the cafeteria for lunch.

Putting her lunch smock on.

Precious little angel waiting for lunch.

"Is it coming yet?"

One Of My All Time Favs!

On the lighter side, I just wanted to share one of my very favorite scenes ever! We love to do family movie nights and we like to have the kids watch some of the classics. We have watched so many Alfred Hitchcock classics and also a lot of old musicals. Since we are theatre performers, we love to be inspired. My kids love the show "Singin' In The Rain". You have to watch and be amazed by the Tap Dancing talents of Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. Not just tap dancing, but they are triple threats. I haven't seen anything like this since. Unfortunately, I cannot embed the video from youtube, so just click on this link below and you just have to see it! It will make your day!! :) :) :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKlub5vB9z8

Consider Becoming a GAL or CASA in your county!

I hope to continue to post every few months about my volunteer work as a GAL (Guardian Ad Litem, also called a CASA Court appointed Special Advocate) in the foster care system.

I feel it is important to volunteer or do outreach, adopt, speak out or relieve suffering on a global level as well as right in our own community. There are so many ways we can help no matter what walk of life in which we may find ourselves. We always say, "I wish I could do something..." Well then, do something! Anything! Just step out and make a choice and do something. You will personally grow and change so much through your volunteer experiences.

Being a court assigned child advocate is a priceless opportunity. Every child deserves to have a voice. Not from the parents' point of view, not from the caregiver's point of view, not from the case worker's point of view, but from THAT child's point of view. Taking everyone's input consideration of course, but working solely for the best placement of that child who finds themselves in a lonely, vulnerable and fearful situation through no fault of their own.

Proverbs 31:8-9

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.

DON'T BUY INTO THE LIE

There has been some buzz being perpetuated by a small percentage of people who believe they have the answer to the complex issues of the world's orphan problem. The lie is that adoption is only the drop in the bucket of a worldwide problem and that if we care so much about orphans we would just send money or mind our own business if it is not in our backyard. It may be a drop, but every drop counts. I actually had someone tell me, "there are too many kids, ONE can't possibly make a difference" and "let those countries with high numbers of orphans take care of their own problem, it's not our problem". I say we should consider adoption in addition to giving of our finances and time and work toward family preservation and national preservation goals first.

- I believe adoption is not only a blessing to both the family and the child, but I will take it one step further and declare that every well functioning family, who has an extra space for a bed and is throwing away food at the end of a meal, should highly consider adoption. Come on, think about your life... In the end wouldn't we want to say that we didn't hoard everything in our "circle", but that we had space in our homes and hearts for one more precious little soul? Wouldn't that be amazing??!!

- There are approx 550,000 children in U.S. foster care. Of these, 127,000 are available for adoption. Since we as "the church" claim to have a responsibility toward the orphan - I read that if ONE family from every ONE church in America would adopt ONE child from foster care, and the rest of that church's congregation would be willing to help that family with support in some way, there would be zero children waiting to be adopted from foster care! Awesome thought!

- Adoption domestically or internationally is valid and valuable! EVERY child deserves a home. YES, I AGREE and I will say it again.. preserving a national and ethnic heritage should be the first goal! But we have to look at the facts and the facts are, there are 147 MILLION orphans in the world. We have to put THEIR human rights first IF national ethnic preservation is NOT possible for that individual child.

- Can we properly parent a child of another ethnicity? Of course we can! It is 2011 and a multi- ethnic family is acceptable and beautiful. What is this, the dark ages? Why would we have to look at skin color in order to love? We are past that and can embrace and help the child learn of their culture and heritage.

- Adoption IS a ministry! We as parents often times would like to be involved in outreach or ministry of some sort. Many of us are average working families and missions may not be possible, yet, but you know what I can do? Be a MOM! I am good at being a mom and if that is the case, one thing I can do is parent another child. This is a sacred job and is beyond valuable.

- Why don't we just send our money to a feeding program or an orphanage? We do. And we will continue to do so! In fact I would venture to say that most families who adopt are also the very same families who give of their time and money on a regular basis to charity. And yes, adoption is expensive, but it is PRICELESS in view of the child's options. The investment is an entire human's life! Building a child who will be a productive part of society and will go out when they are adults and make a difference!

- Hadn't some children been adopted illegally? Sadly yes. This issue is constantly being scrutinized and the process has become extremely stringent now. This has to be considered and highly scrutinized. Corrupt practices must stop. But, we cannot throw out the idea of adoption because there are a percentage of evil-doers. That would be like never sending your child to a Dr because some Dr's were accused of malpractice. Adoption must remain an option. There are many very solid and dependable programs. It be a part of the puzzle.

Don't buy into the lie. Adoption is an option for ministry. A valid, giving, healthy, valuable option.