We Meet Maria Li on August 23rd!!!

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no-one can fathom.  He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.  Isaiah 40:28-29


Well,  I'll have to admit there were many times over the past 3.5 years that I did grow weak and weary, but God has sustained us and we can see the end to this journey. (You can read our journey by clicking the link to the left.)  I wish I just would have known in 2007 that it would take 3.5 years, but we'd have a beautiful 2.5 year old daughter.  There were many times that I didn't think it would happen.  There are definitely some upsides to this long wait.  We've gotten stronger in our faith, we've made some wonderful friends and I've changed my perspective.  At first I just wanted to adopt because I selfishly wanted a girl.  Now, I've become less selfish and really want to adopt because these children need parents.  After looking at all the children on the waiting list, I just knew this was the path for us.


We will leave for Hong Kong on August 19th.  We don't actually get there until August 21.  We'll fly to her province and meet her at 2:00pm on August 23rd.  (That's going to be a long morning waiting for her.)  Then she'll be with us!!!    We'll still have paperwork to do for a couple weeks.  We fly home on Sept 4th.  Wow!  It actually is hard to believe that we're leaving so soon.


Here's another picture of her.  She's looking at her pictures from her 2nd birthday party.

Trisha

TA!!!!!!

We got our approval to travel!!!!  We are so excited.  The boys and I have been driving with my parents the past couple days from Ks to NH.  Yesterday evening Kraig called and said our agency had e-mailed and had our TA.  I couldn't believe it.  It's actually sooner than what I thought.


We're hoping to leave around August 20th, meet her on August 23rd!!!  She'll stay with us in her province until around the 28th and then we'll all go to Guangzhou, China for the final paperwork.  We'll come back around September 3rd.  This is just tentative until next week.


We're in NH visiting my sister and her family.  There is so much to do now.  Kraig is suppose to be painting her room this week.  We don't have much girl stuff so, I guess I'll have to go shopping while I'm here in NH.  We also want to take some donations of clothes and toys for the orphanage.  There's no sales tax in NH so, that will help.


Trisha

More pictures

We got some more pictures of her. She just looks so sweet.

New pictures!!!!!

The pictures finally came through this morning.  We can't wait to meet her and give her big hugs & kisses.

Update

First of all, we got our documents signed and sent back.  Now, it's just another waiting game until we get approval to travel.

Also, we heard back from the lady who visited our daughter's orphanage.  I am so happy that she got to visit her and give her some love from us.  Here is what she had to say:

"Yes indeed we saw your gorgeous baby, LiLi !  We hugged and kissed her and
cuddled and played with your little LiLi and she is just perfect !  Chun Li
is a very good little girl, no crying and not demanding.  She can focus and
interact although quite shy, but a lot of that is undoubtedly from being
institutionalised."


Of course we already knew she was perfect, but it's good that others see it also.  She also said that she had sent us some pictures, but we didn't get that e-mail :(  I've asked her to resend them so, hopefully we'll get them tonight.

Maria Li Krause

We got our final approval!!!! I am so excited.  Actually our agency has it and sent it to us FedEx so, we'll get the actual document tomorrow.  We just have to sign it and say we accept and send it back.  Then it will be 3-4 weeks before we get approval to travel.

Below is a couple of pictures of her.  They are a few months old.  We're still waiting for updated pictures.

A little news and fundraisers

I e-mailed our agency about our approval. She said she's been checking on and it and looks like it was mailed last week so, she hopes to get it tomorrow. When she gets it, she'll send it to us to sign and send back. After that, it's 2-3 more weeks before we have approval to travel.

A couple wonderful friends of mine are doing a fundraiser for us to help with our adoption expenses. We are selling Tilez jewelry. Janis has already had an open house and Nancy's invitation is attached. A lady who goes to Christ Community designs and makes the necklaces. I've attached the invitation and a few pictures of her necklaces. They are made from tiles and she has hundreds of designs - pretty much anything you're looking for. If you're intrested in buying one, tell me and I can get you more information. They sell for $10 with a chain and she has a special going - buy 3, get one free. You can also send her a photo and she can customize the necklace for you.

Thank you for all your prayers and support!  Please continue to pray for Chun Li.