Yes, Sam has been home for six weeks!!!

Yes, it's true, we've been home with our Sammy for six weeks now!! And yes, I am just now getting around to updating our blog! Boy, I forgot how busy it was to have a toddler around, getting into stuff and keeping me on my toes (and in the kitchen)!

It's been wonderful though. Sam is such a cutie pie and his smile lights up the room. He is also speaking a lot of English already!! We are so impressed with his language acquisition. Just last week we were all sitting around the dinner table when the phone rang. Sam yelled out "I'll get it!!" We all cracked up laughing. It was too cute.

He speaks mostly in short phrases and says things like "Sam pool", "some milka (milk)" and his favorite is "That's por (for) Sam". Sam is not used to having anything that is his own so he is very interested in what belongs exclusively to him. He is having a hard time sharing, thinking that he will not get to keep his things, but he is making progress.

We are working out all the medical issues and we are seeing a neurosurgeon next to figure out the next step in Sam's care. He is pooping on the potty but still not keeping a dry pull-up. We have hope that he'll be able to control it in time.

Oh, and Sam started pre-school this week...on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.!! Even though he is chronologically four years old, he is developmentally much younger so he is in the three-year-old class. The first day was rough at first, but he eventually came around. The second day Sam was very anxious about going to school but we talked a lot about Sam just staying at school for a little while and that Mommy would always come back. He was sad when I left the school but when I came back to get him he was grinning from ear to ear and said "Sam no crying!" I was so proud of him!!

I'm sorry it's taken so long for an update; I'll try to do better in the future!!

~KV

Leaving Guangzhou

Hi Everyone!

Our new son is a joy!! Our trip has been wonderful. But it is winding down..hooray!! We check out of our hotel on Shamian Island in Guangzhou this afternoon. We head to the U.S. Consulate to take our oath and receive Sam's visa.

After receiving the visa, we had directly to the train station for a two-hour train ride to Hong Kong. We will spend the night in HK and fly out in the morning. We should arrive in GSO on Wednesday at 7:25pm (EST)

We are praising God for an amazing safe trip to adopt our son. We can't wait for you all to meet him! Please pray for safe travels and a calm boy on the airplane home. See you soon!! xoxo

We made it to China!!

Yes, we are here!! We had two and a half whirlwind days of tourning in Beijing. We are now in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. Tomorrow is Gotcha Day!! Stay tuned......

Up, Up, and Away........

We got our TA (Travel Approval) from China on June 26th!! Woo Hoo!!

We are leaving (today), June 12th for China! Our first stop is Beijing, then on Sunday we'll be on to Nanjing, Jiangsu. Then we head to Guangzhou to complete our adoption of Sammy!! While in Guangzhou, we will be staying at the Victory hotel. Guangzhou is the city where Americans converge at the U.S. Consulate to make their adoptions final. We're excited to get to go there and meet up with all our "friends" from around the country!

We'll try our best to keep this blog updated! If you want access to all of our photo albums, please send us a quick email and we'll add you to our list!

Love, K & J

OUR LOA IS HERE!!!!

OH HAPPY DAY!!! We received an email from our agency on June 6th saying that our Letter of Approval for Sam had arrived at their office!!! I read the email at least three times making sure I understand what I was reading and that it was not a dream! My heart was pounding, then I was screaming 'hooray hooray'. This brought the kids running and when I told them they were jumping up and down and shouting hooray as well!!

I went to meet John so he could sign the papers and we went right to the UPS store to send it back out over night. So the LOA is on it's way back to China and should be there while we speak!!

Our agency says that we should recieve our travel approval in 3-4 weeks from the time our LOA makes it back to China! This means travel in July!! Woo hoo!!!! We are so excited to get our little boy and bring him home at last!!!

The catch is that we still need to come up with at least $3,000. I'm praying hard for the airfare to come down. When I looked two weeks ago, flights were about $1,300. When I looked yesterday, they were $1,900. uugghhh. This means we'll need closer to $4,000.

God has brought us this far and He will provide the rest of the way, we are sure of that. Please pray that we would be able to raise the rest of the money needed to bring our little boy home!! We'll keep you posted!!!

Still Waiting

Hi Everyone,

I know that you all are as anxious as we are to hear news about Sam. Right now we are still waiting for our LOA (Letter of Acceptance). With any luck (and a lot of prayers) we will receive this letter sometime within the next few weeks (this week please!).

That should give us our ballpark for travel to China to bring Sam home. Right now our guess is that we'll travel by the end of July. But it's just a guess until we get this letter! Pray with us that it comes soon!

But while you're waiting, please take a look at this video to get a better understanding of why adopting our little boy from China means so much to us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGEPjFfP5TQ

The Adoption Journey Continues.....

I just wanted to give everyone an update on how our adoption journey is going....... Right now we are in the long and tiresome waiting period. Our dossier went off to China on March 12th. It is in the hands of the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs) where it will be reviewed.

Once reviewed the CCAA will issue a LOA (Letter of Acceptance) stating that we want and accept Sam as our own. We will sign that letter and return it to China.

Within about two weeks, the CCAA will then issue our TA (travel approval) stating that we can come and get our little boy! We will travel very soon after that, as soon as we can finalize our travel arrangements (most likely anywhere from one to three weeks after TA is issued).

So right now, we wait and pray for our dossier to be reviewed quickly. The average time is a few months, so we've still got some time left to wait. But you never know!!

We did have some disappointing news this week, that we got turned down for a grant from Shaohannah's Hope, the adoption ministry started by Stephen Curtis Chapman and his family. I've been kind of bumming because the reality of travel expenses is starting to hit has I browse the internet for flight prices, etc.

But God is providing in other ways... For instance, we have the opportunity to operate a concession stand this coming weekend at a horse show. I'm pretty nervous because I've never done anything like that before, but our sweet friends have already started donating chips, drinks, cookies, etc. for us to sell. We're also going to cook hotdogs (on Kym's camp stove), I'll make chili, muffins, and whatever else I can think of. Please pray for a successful day!

We will keep you all posted when we hear any more news from China!!!