Meet Henry.

Since I just set the alarm that I didn't know existed off in the car I'm still getting used to, I decided to introduce y'all to our newest member of the clan...

No, your eyes haven't deceived you. Yes, that is a min-van. And yes, I remember saying I would never drive a mini-van. Multiple times.

I should have known those words would come back to haunt me. I mean, when you take your driver's test at age 15 in a Ford Club Van that seats 8, that's got to be some sort of precursor to your future in a van of some kind.

And even though I've eaten my words and actually paid money to drive a mini-van, at some point my priorities changed. At some point I stopped caring if I had the coolest SUV. Or what my friends might think if I drove a [gasp] mini-van. At some point I stopped caring about what the stigma of a mini-van means.

Right now it means I'm a mom to almost 3 kids. And I have room for at least two more before I have to bump up to a 15-passenger. It means my kids come before my car fashion. Or that I don't care about that anymore.

Yes. I'm a soccer mom. In all it's glory.

And I love it.

So embrace Henry the Honda. (Yes, I named him. While Kenny rolled his eyes at me.) He's spacious, shiny and most importantly has a functioning transmission. And super cool sliding doors that the boys are obsessed with.

And no, he's not new. Just gently used.

He fits in pretty well around here. And is at the ready to have another car seat added.

SOON.

Amazed. Yes, again.

Today was another one of those days you can't help but see God at work and know He has a special plan for our family...

Our church family put together an Adoption Fundraiser in the form of a church wide yard sale and many (many!) people spent many hours organizing and sorting and planning and pricing and donating. And then spent their entire Saturday at the church welcoming people, selling stuff and then packing up all the leftovers to take to Goodwill.




Our family and another at our church in the process of bringing home a little one from Ethiopia benefitted from over $3100 in profits from the fruits of this effort!!




I'm continuously blown away by the generosity of people! But incredibly grateful to be given this opportunity to make adoption a real and tangible thing for our church family and community. And to be given the chance to have numerous conversations today with complete strangers about adoption!

Just like with the boys, those around us are falling in love with a little girl they've only seen in pictures. As scripture promises, He knows the plans He has for our little Ellie Kate. He knew on October 9, 2011, that this child He created was His and she would one day be a part of the dysfunctional Cook family in Small Town, Kentucky. It was no accident that she was born in a city in the Guangdong province of China. It's all part of the story our heavenly Father had planned from day one!

Thank you, church family! Thank you for your support, thank you for your caring, thank you for giving sacrificially!

Thank you for loving on our little girl before she even arrives home!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Waiting...

When I last left y'all, we were waiting on our Article 5.  The last official sheet of paper needed to allow us to go get Ellie Kate.

Well, it was picked up TODAY from the consulate and sent on to the CCCWA........which means we are officially waiting for Travel Approval!!!

Yeah.  You can get excited!

Technically it's a 3-4 week wait for Travel Approval, but I would be lying if I didn't say most of the blogs I'm stalking have gotten their TA's in roughly 2 weeks.  And I'm hoping for a similar timeline.  Or maybe a touch longer since they are working on a computer upgrade next week at the CCCWA.

And last night we received out final update on Ellie Kate....along with pictures!!  I just about fell off the couch trying get the email opened and pictures downloaded....only to find out that it was the same pictures they sent us a few weeks ago.  Boo.

But they did say she weighs 17 pounds (I think someone most have been off on the 14 pounds at the end of April), she is 28 inches tall, has 16 teeth and is walking while holding onto someones hands!

It's officially time to begin packing mode!

Momma's Boy

The boys have been home almost 4 years.  Coming up in August.

And as cliche as it sounds, it's hard to remember life without them around.  And at the same time doesn't seem like it's been 4 years at all. 

We've seem tremendous growth in both of them over the course of time, but the thing I've enjoyed the most is Sam turning into a total Momma's boy over the last year. 

He needs to be where I am, know what I'm doing, see what I've got going on all the time.  I've cooked dinner with him wrapped around my waist, done paperwork with him sitting in my lap and pooped with him laying outside the bathroom door....too much information??  Occasionally I have to banish him to the basement playroom to have an adult conversation...

He also worries me the most.

I know he is head over heels in love with his little sister who he hasn't even met.  But he's also currently getting more than half of mommy's attention.  (Charlie's not quite so needy.  He's also a 10-year-old boy.  Who thinks he knows everything.  News flash...  He doesn't.)

His tiny world will most definitely be turned upside down when we bring home his little sister.  Although the first hurdle I'm worried about is leaving him here while we are in China.  I'm hoping the ability to Facetime and Skype with the boys will help, but I preparing myself for tears.

From both of us.

He loves to watch the video of Ellie Kate and imitate everything she is doing...

Although I can imagine her smacking him if he keeps that up once she gets home.

We spent a half hour yesterday looking through our American Sign Language dictionary because he was convinced she was signing something to him in this picture...

Turns out she is saying "beard".

Probably not really.  But he was satisfied with that answer.

Just pray for his little heart.  Pray he knows his status as Momma's boy doesn't change.  Pray for his little heart to understand when Mommy needs to spend more time with baby sister.  Pray he will continue to love his little sister even when she is competing for attention that used to be his.

And pray that Kenny and I will both be intentional about making sure we are giving him quality attention and time.

Things are about to change around here. 

But I'm soooo ready for it!

Cheap shaving gel & PDF's.

I got a little giddy today while I was at Kroger...

And no, it wasn't good deals or fantastic coupons (although I did save 43% today and got Gillette shaving gel for 57 cents!) ...but today we received the email with the attached PDF that files one of the last three steps we need to go get Ellie Kate!

Article 5.

No, I don't really know what that means, except we are getting pretty darn close!

The giddiness came in when I got an email that said we could be traveling to China in 6 weeks! Yes, Sarah, I got that you put ESTIMATED in bold and all caps, but you could have yelled it at me in a really mean voice and it wouldn't have matter...

We are headed to China SOON!!

New pictures, remembering God is in control and paperwork.

I should have posted this last week, but time always gives us a better perspective and a more positive outlook on things.  So, today I can write a more upbeat-typical-Jana post instead of a down-in-the-dumps-out-of-sorts post.

Last week we got an update on Ellie Kate from the care package we sent.

Monday morning started bright and early at 5:45am with an email from China with pictures and a video of our little girl. I was even actually able to get Kenny awake the first time I tried by telling him I had a video of his daughter!

April 24, 2013.  I am 18 months old!!
 

Sister needs a toy...doesn't know what to do with her hands!!

I was thrilled to see our baby girl's face again and to see her actually move in a video (although not walking, not completely sure if she is doing that on her own or not).  We also were able to ask a few questions about her routine, how she is communicating and her size.

It was the answers to those questions that really did me in.

I know her basic needs are being met, but I just have this mental image of her sitting in a crib all day, no one interacting with her because they don't know how since she can't hear them.  And she is currently losing weight/barely holding steady at her current weight (14 lbs and 27 inches, 1 lb less than her 15 lbs in November), which just adds to that Mommy worry.

I had a few days of emotional train-wreckage while I freaked out about all the different scenarios I was playing out in my head.  Plain and simple, I was worried about her.  It took me a few days to shake that and come back around to my senses, remember all the pep talks I've given other adoptive families when they are worried about development, weight gain, etc, and most of all remember that God is in control.  He knows what she needs and when she needs it.  He knows when it will be the perfect time for her to come home.  He knows every hair on that precious little head.  And He knows how to calm an overanxious Mommy separated from her baby.

It's hard knowing your child is without you and you can't do anything about it.  It's hard seeing a sad, pitiful video, void of anyone trying to interact with and talk to your child, when you know how far a little love and attention would go.  It's hard when you are 11,451 miles away and are trusting government agencies to process your paperwork in a timely manner.

(Side note:  I did a Google map search to see how many miles away we were.  It gave me turn by turn directions, including "Sail across the Pacific Ocean for 2,756 miles".  That made me smile.  We are going the airplane route instead of sailing though.  My name is not Christopher Columbus.  That's just nuts.)

But the good news that came out of last week...

• Our passports returned with Chinese visas securely affixed inside.  Technically I can go to China now.  So if I come up missing....you'll know where to look.


• We also received notice of our preliminary I800 approval on Saturday.  The boys came busting into the bathroom while I was taking a shower to tell me.  (I didn't mind being interrupted for that!)  It had actually been approved on Tuesday, April 30, but took that long for us to get notification.


• Which meant today I called the National Visa Center to check on the status of our cable letter.  The nice lady gave me a case number and said our file was being processed to call back in a day or two.  Which translates to me sending another email and calling again on Wednesday to see what kind of progress they've made!

What happens next?  We get that letter from NVC and it's cabled to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China.  After that we are waiting on a letter called the Article 5 and after it is received by the CCCWA (China's Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption), we wait for Travel Approval.

I'm still crossing my fingers for travel the end of June.  So far all of our paperwork has beaten or been on the short end of what they gave us for timelines.  I'm just praying we continue to kick butt in the paperwork department and we can work on travel plans sooner rather than later!