It's A Wonderful Life

After a lot of phone calling and emailing we finally got out GUZ# from the National Visa Center. It has been forwarded to the Consulate in Guangzhou. Yeahhhh! We are now hoping to get our Article 5 in one day and then our TA, or Travel Approval, next week. After chasing this down for three days I lost hope this morning. I follow a blog of a woman that volunteers in China with the orphans. I read what she had to say today and the Spirit told me that the Lord is doing all the work I just need to watch and see. He did pull this through and we are supposed to go get Ben. Doug will be there sooner than we know!

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Primary Children's Hospital to get Gideon's heart checked. To make a 2 and a half hour visit short, this is what our doctor found. Gideon's valve is getting worse. He started with mild regurgitation. That means when the blood is pumped from one chamber to the other some of the blood leaks back down and doesn't get circulated into the lungs and body. Gideon now has mild to moderate regurgitation. The doctor wants to watch it still but we have a complication that we don't know if it is caused by the valve or what it might be.  Gideon has lost weight in the last 6 weeks. This could be because he's not getting enough calories or because of the heart. Children with heart issues can tend to have small appetites. We really don't know what is causing his lack of eating but I have noticed he doesn't eat much and what he does eat isn't the best for him. I have an appointment with the pediatrician on Tuesday to address t

Last Saturday we got to spend the afternoon at our city's Country Fest. It is a tradition we all look forward too. The city provides free activities as well as the normal carnival rides. We all have lots of fun. These pictures are courtesy of Tyler. He doesn't know it yet but I stole them from our family blog. Thanks Tyler!! Jessica and part of the family as we watched the kids do the Fireman's obstacle course. Bria and Hyrum  being Firemen. Russ, they would love to come visit you at work! Bria's just a little unsure but once she got going nothing stopped her! The kids got to use the fire hose. I kept waiting for one of them to turn and get us. :) Hannah carrying the hose. Emma and Clayson waiting patiently for their turn. Our oldest, Tyler, taking his turn.     Emma surprised me with her speed and focus. We don't see that focus very often but her teachers assure me she focuses at school. We were told she counted to 30 the ot

Yesterday we received our LSC. We signed, scanned and emialed it to our officer the same day. We should see our I800 approval from the USCIS today. The officer will overnight the approval to the National Visa Center and with the help of a supervisor we should have our GUZ# 24 hours after receipt. That means we should get our GUZ# Monday. We hope. From there the information gets processed at the consulate in Guangzhou. This is what is called the Article 5. We already know that the consulate will process as soon as they get the information from the National Visa Center. The hope is to travel to pick up Gui July 12. That is a week earlier than we expected. Pretty good.

I know, I don't like multiple posts in a day either. It makes it hard to read all of them because of limited time. I just couldn't wait, even though I wish I could. I love to post pictures but still can't. Once we get through the USCIS and Visa process for Ben I can take the computer in to get cleaned up but for now Ben is more important than you seeing my very cute children. Sorry :) Bria had an appointment for her club foot today. It had been 18 months since we started her visits with Shriner's. She has done so well and Shriner's has been fabulous. On the way to the doctor, mind you, much earlier than Bria likes to be out of bed, she said with real enthusiasm. "I love my doctors!" We got the all clear to stop using her daytime brace. We handed it over to the doctor to send to Mexico as a donation. I am so glad to see it go. I now get to take Bria to go get some cute sandals. All she has wanted for year is some sandals. Well, I take that back, today sh

This last week as been full of overcoming hurdles with our adoption of Ben. Our Supplement 3, or addendum to our homestudy, was delayed at the lockbox, which is where everything goes before reaching our officer at the USCIS. We tried all the avenues we could find to speed the process up with no luck. For the first week I wasn't overly concerned about the delay causing problems in the adoption because we thought that the CCCWA would accept our original I800a for this adoption. It then became apparent that the I800a needed to be updated to get things moving. We also discovered a mistake in submitting our I800 to the USCIS that also caused a delay. We have taken care of that problem. This mistake may or may not hold up the process depending on if the CCCWA will issue our Letter Seeking Approval without the I800a updated. Oh, what a complicated mess this has become. We have now received our updated I800a and it is at one of the Chinese Consulates getting authenticated and will be

This is long but well worth the education. There is a concerted effort to strip us of our right and responsibility to parent our children and turn it over to social workers and government entities. There are groups that have been fighting these efforts as most of us as Americans are blind to what is going on.The UN is putting great pressure along with the Obama administration for our government to ratify a treaty taking away our rights as parents of healthy and special needs children in two different bills.We are headed in the same direction as the country of Scotland and Germany. Please take the time to read this and go to ParentalRights.org for more information. We need to fight this!! Sign the Petition Donate Volunteer Learn More View Online June 11, 2013 Bill Proposes Massive Invasion of Every Family The government of Scotland is proposing the ultimate invasion of the family in order to “protect” children. According to legislation proposed by the government (and

No, Bobby is not another one..... Bobby is my new name with Gideon.  This is Doug by the way. This name evolved from the Mama and Baba titles Deanne and I have with the new Chinese children.  Gideon says both of these terms at least 100 times a day as he needs to get our attention to the simplest little actions.  As he learns a new trick like balancing on the side of a chair on his stomach, a new dance move or just dumping water into his food, he will not allow us to ignore his new talent and calls the name of whomever is closest to watch rapid fire.  About 3 times in 1.5 seconds. He has heard the other children call Deanne mommy, and since it was an easy transition from mama, he started to call Deanne mommy on occasion.  Well, Gideon, being the logical type that he is, figured if mama can evolve into mommy, why can't baba turn into bobby.  Therefore, my title now is bobby...on occasion.  If he needs to get my attention quickly for a new trick, he sticks with baba since it

Yesterday I spent the WHOLE day trying to find some help to get through the USCIS paperwork. We had everything set up with our officer to get our paperwork processed quickly. That was great until it came down to doing it. Unfortunately for us, our officer is out of the office through next week. Her files were passed on to an interim officer who has no intention nor inclination to help us. I then called to talk with the supervisor and she is out for the week. Next we were hooked into the Section Chief. Awesome, we may get somewhere. NO, I was told we had to just sit and wait for the paperwork to be transferred from the lockbox to the officers desk. Unbelievable!!! This is not how they expedite an adoption? I was given the name of another supervisor that other agencies have had good luck getting help. She too is out of the office but only until Monday. I then went the route of getting help from our elected representatives. What would you know, not one of them has called me back after

There are quite a few steps in the process of adoption. Typically it takes about a year to bring a child home, but not this time!! There were two steps that we needed to have done by Friday of  this week. One, getting our paperwork back from the US State Department and Chinese Embassy in DC. Both entities had to authenticate the documents before they could be turned in to the CCCWA. We hoped that they would be here tomorrow but Friday morning would still work. Through great effort and fantastic coordination they came back two days early, today! Two, we needed to get some paperwork through at the USCIS and were hopeful that it would clear before Myriam had to go to China but I wasn't hopeful. Myriam had a scheduled visit to China that will allow her to also push this adoption through on the other side of the ocean as well God's timing is perfect. Well, that paperwork cleared today as well. We are moving right along. There is power in fasting and prayer!! Please keep prayi

Today I saw this picture...   My heart swelled and the tears fell from my eyes. Why would I feel this way? I know. It's because this young man is my son!!!! Meet Gui  (sounds like Gway) He is almost 14 and has lived his life as an orphan in China. He had no one to call his own. No one to hold him, play ball with, learn to read with or all the other things children do. He watched many of his friends be chosen. Chosen to be a part of a family as he watched from the sidelines. He wanted to be chosen.  He wanted his own family!! He is the one that leads at the orphanage. He is called the big brother to the younger children. He acts like the big brother as he loves and cares for the children.  He was chosen as leader of the class this year and takes the responsibility seriously. He is very helpful and cleans. Just today we received our preliminary approval to adopt Gui. We now have 7 week

This is a post by Doug.  I figured I would announce that right in the beginning so you didn't get halfway through this post and realize it may not be Deanne. I had a moment a couple of Sunday's ago that reminded me of the part it the movie While You Were Sleeping when Jack brings a box of donuts one Saturday morning to talk to his father about his plans and his father shared the feeling of having "just one minute when life is perfect.  Just one minute." For that "one minute" I found myself staring out our kitchen window between the normal Sunday comings and goings.  I am not sure why it is called the day of rest becuase Sundays can get a little hectic, but while I was looking at this scene below, I was granted a moment of peace.  Here is what I saw: The neighbor's horse was grazing in the abundant pasture next door, the mountains capped with the snow that will provide the water for our use this summer, the new deck and gazebo we build last su