Check out the link below. It is about Mark Richt and his family. Mark is the head coach of the University of Ga. football team. They adopted a child with special needs. This really touches my heart and points to the fact that EVERY person has value and EVERY child deserve a family and a chance at happiness.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/video?id=3663225
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The not-so-slow boat to China
***********Adoption Update*************
Wow, what a whirlwind we have had the past two weeks. Two weeks ago today (10/25) we got a call from our agency telling us we have been matched with a little girl in China. She has some minor correctable special needs to her hands and feet. Our next step was to look over her file and make sure we wanted to move forward with the adoption. Well by Sunday night we had spoken to our pediatrician (who runs the international adoption clinic here in town) and he had forwarded all the information to a surgeon. We were only waiting on this surgeon's confirmation that these needs were correctable (which were already knew from our own research, but needed the confirmation!). Then the bad news came. Sometime between 10pm Sunday and 8am Monday another agency had "locked" this little girl's file and we could no longer adopt her. This is a difficult process to explain, but basically multiple agencies here in the US have access to "waiting children's" files. They are not supposed to "lock" the file until they have a family who is 100% committed to adopting the child. Though sometimes, an agency will see a child they think they can match and they will lock the file before having a family on board. Once the file is locked, the agency has 48hrs to get all the family's paperwork wired to the Chinese adoption agency. If they don't have a family, or the family backs out, then the file becomes open again. Our agency follows all the rules and will not lock the file until the family has truly committed to the adoption. We were a little suspiscious of her "lock" since it occurred in the middle of the night, but all we could do was hope that it would open back up 48hrs later (Wednesday morning).
In the mean time we got word from the local surgeon that this condition can be surgically corrected for normal function. It was devastating thinking we had waited too long and may have lost her, but all we could do was wait. Fast forward 2 days and our agency calls again around 7am on Wednesday (10/29) morning. The little girl's file opened up again and we had the chance to lock her in for adoption. We jumped at the chance!!!! We scrambled around to get all our paperwork wired to China. The next step was waiting for something called a Pre-Approval (PA). Our agency said to expect this in about 2-3 weeks. We did not want to tell anyone our news until we had this first step of approval. Well last night we got an e-mail from our agency that they received our PA (in 8 days!!!). So now she is officially locked to us!
The next step is for us to get a Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) or some people call it the Letter of Approval (LOA). This is the official referral from China. Originally our agency said this arrives 6-12 weeks after the PA. In our e-mail last night our agency said they are seeing the LSC arrive in 30-60 days after the PA. So we are hopeful for a quick process. After we get the LSC we will travel 4-8 weeks later to pick her up!!!!
Needless-to-say we are thrilled!! We will keep you all updated as we get more information. We can't post any identifying information here until we get our LSC. But let us assure you, she is beautiful!!!!!
Wow, what a whirlwind we have had the past two weeks. Two weeks ago today (10/25) we got a call from our agency telling us we have been matched with a little girl in China. She has some minor correctable special needs to her hands and feet. Our next step was to look over her file and make sure we wanted to move forward with the adoption. Well by Sunday night we had spoken to our pediatrician (who runs the international adoption clinic here in town) and he had forwarded all the information to a surgeon. We were only waiting on this surgeon's confirmation that these needs were correctable (which were already knew from our own research, but needed the confirmation!). Then the bad news came. Sometime between 10pm Sunday and 8am Monday another agency had "locked" this little girl's file and we could no longer adopt her. This is a difficult process to explain, but basically multiple agencies here in the US have access to "waiting children's" files. They are not supposed to "lock" the file until they have a family who is 100% committed to adopting the child. Though sometimes, an agency will see a child they think they can match and they will lock the file before having a family on board. Once the file is locked, the agency has 48hrs to get all the family's paperwork wired to the Chinese adoption agency. If they don't have a family, or the family backs out, then the file becomes open again. Our agency follows all the rules and will not lock the file until the family has truly committed to the adoption. We were a little suspiscious of her "lock" since it occurred in the middle of the night, but all we could do was hope that it would open back up 48hrs later (Wednesday morning).
In the mean time we got word from the local surgeon that this condition can be surgically corrected for normal function. It was devastating thinking we had waited too long and may have lost her, but all we could do was wait. Fast forward 2 days and our agency calls again around 7am on Wednesday (10/29) morning. The little girl's file opened up again and we had the chance to lock her in for adoption. We jumped at the chance!!!! We scrambled around to get all our paperwork wired to China. The next step was waiting for something called a Pre-Approval (PA). Our agency said to expect this in about 2-3 weeks. We did not want to tell anyone our news until we had this first step of approval. Well last night we got an e-mail from our agency that they received our PA (in 8 days!!!). So now she is officially locked to us!
The next step is for us to get a Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) or some people call it the Letter of Approval (LOA). This is the official referral from China. Originally our agency said this arrives 6-12 weeks after the PA. In our e-mail last night our agency said they are seeing the LSC arrive in 30-60 days after the PA. So we are hopeful for a quick process. After we get the LSC we will travel 4-8 weeks later to pick her up!!!!
Needless-to-say we are thrilled!! We will keep you all updated as we get more information. We can't post any identifying information here until we get our LSC. But let us assure you, she is beautiful!!!!!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Birthday re-cap
We have been very busy around here and I have not made it a priority to keep this blog active. F had a birthday last month and he is now 3 years old. He wanted a dinosaur cake so we (Susie) was able to find a cake design on-line and fulfill that request. Here are some pictures... 
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
School Time
It is (already!) that time again to start school. In a way we are very happy to be back in the swing of things, but it does seem like summer is too short. Anyway, A has started 1st grade and he just seems older by the minute. C has started Pre-K and he is very excited. So far both boys like their teachers and have been looking forward to the next day of school. Let's hope that keeps up! 
Two teeth down
A lost his first tooth while we were at Hilton Head and the second fell out 24hrs later in Clarksville, TN. The toothfairy is getting her workout chasing this boy around the country! This is the first picture following the first loss. (It's a little graphic!) He looks much better now that they are both gone. 
Island Magic
We had such a wonderful time on our trip to Hilton Head Island. Everyone we talked to told us, "you will love it!" And we did! This was our first "real" family vacation where we roadtripped and stayed somewhere for an entire week. It was absolutely perfect and very relaxing. We have already decided that we will be returning yearly from now on each summer. Anyone want to join us? Here's a run down of our trip:
1. every day spent some time (most of the day) at the beach
2. daily bike ride
3. most days hit the pool for a few hours.
4. ate lobster twice!!
5. saw two aligators! yikes!
6. saw one shark!! more yikes!
7. went on dolphin cruise and saw ~10 dolphins and 3 babies!
8. played 9 holes of golf
9. relaxed
10. 34 hours in the car....not relaxing, but necessary.
11. had professional family pictures taken on the beach.
1. every day spent some time (most of the day) at the beach
2. daily bike ride
3. most days hit the pool for a few hours.
4. ate lobster twice!!
5. saw two aligators! yikes!
6. saw one shark!! more yikes!
7. went on dolphin cruise and saw ~10 dolphins and 3 babies!
8. played 9 holes of golf
9. relaxed
10. 34 hours in the car....not relaxing, but necessary.
11. had professional family pictures taken on the beach.
Can't wait until next summer!!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
7/4/08
We had a great 4th of July in Texas. This was probably our best trip to Texas as far as the kids and their behavior and our overall good time!! The drive down was awful, but once we arrived, we had a wonderful time. Most of the time we spent lounging by the pool. That was perfect for us and the boys had so much fun. This was probably the first time we have been in Dallas and all the boys have enjoyed the pool. On the 4th we went up to Dave and Jane's country club. They had a block party type thing with bounce houses for the kids. Then we watched the fireworks from there. On Saturday we went to Six Flags. This was so much bigger than I expected. The kids had fun and Dave and Jane survived 7 hours in 100+ degree heat!!! I dragged Susie on the "Batman" ride and then I rode solo on some other roller coaster. I can't wait until one of the boys is old enough and willing to ride more coasters with me!!
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