Last Document to Houston

Whew...finally we have fedexed off our last document to Houston for authentication! Hopefully we will receive this final doc back in 7-10 days. We will then be DTC (Dossier to China). This will certainly be a glorious day when that happens. This will mean that all of the paperwork we have worked on the past 5 months will finally be complete and on its way to China. We are getting closer...

Shelby is Grace-Hope Sponsored

I just found out that Shelby is one of the few children who has a personal sponsor through http://www.grace-hope.org/. Amazing!! I should be able to get a monthly picture and report from her life since she was placed in foster care at 2 months of age. This will be incredible information and history for Shelby to have as she gets older. I believe this is awesome proof that God has had his hand on her since she was born!

Here is the organization's mission statement:

Our Mission
The mission of Grace and Hope for Children is to be an agent of God's Grace in the lives of Chinese orphans. By recruiting and training foster families in China and by raising financial support for these families, we will strive to get eligible children out of orphanages and into loving foster families.
Our work beyond foster care will always focus on fulfilling the needs of the children. As we build and maintain relationships with families in China, the United States, and around the world we will seek to share the love of Jesus Christ as we endeavor to follow His leading.

Official LOI logged in

Our official LOI (letter of intent) logged in date is 5/22/07. We hope to now receive our PA (preapproval letter) within about 30 days from our 5/22/07 LOI date. We are also working feverishly on completing our dossier to send over to China before our PA even arrives. I would LOVE to be DTC before June 15- so we could be official LID by the end of June.

LOI Sent to Hope

Today I hand delivered a very detailed LOI (Letter of Intent) to our agency. This is the documentation that goes to China to the CCAA for us to get PA (preapproval) to adopt Ning Fu Hong. The english letter will first go to Hope's contact in China who will go ahead and do full translation of the LOI before sending to CCAA. I hope to have the official received in CCAA's hands date soon. That is an important date in the Waiting Child Program.

THE CALL

Today was finally the day of acceptance from Hope. See we had been on pins and needles waiting on the "committee" to meet to decide if we were going to be the ones to get Ning Fu Hong. I was told that they would meet on Monday and then that my agency would notify me on Tuesday between 9am-12pm. Well here we are at Disney World trying to have a great vacation not thinking about the outcome. Needless to say,we decided to skip the parks today to wait on the final word from our agency. We took to boys swimming at 10am just to give me something else to try to focus on. Well right about noon, I couldn't stand it anymore and I started calling the agency directly. They said no news yet :( I called about every 30 minutes, and still nothing. Finally we decided to leave the campground and go out for lunch.

We went to a mexican restaurant in Disney for lunch. Finally, while waiting for the food, my cell rang! I quickly answered it and with a simple, Donna I have the best news for you! We GOT HER!! Of course, I started crying like a baby (or new mom), and had to ask the agency to give me a moment to think. Once my emotions were more in check, I asked all the details of now how do we get her home.

It was a long day to wait for the CALL, but once we had it the day flew by as we were calling everyone we knew to announce our newest addition to the family. Here she is Ning Fu Hong, soon to be Miss Shelby Ann Fuhong Straight!!