Laikyns Play Space

This week, we took a plain corner of our family room and turned it into a play space for Laikyn.Since she is having to share Jillian's room for now, we wanted her to have another space that was created for her. We set up shelving with baskets, laid a little town play carpet, bought a trunk for play clothes and made an art table from a cheap coffee table by adding a dowel rod with a paper roll. I also painted a chalkboard on the wall and stenciled and added some silhouette kids at play type murals. I hope this will make her feel at home when she arrives! We had a lot of fun doing it and I really appreciate her daddy taking a personal day to help out everything together! I spent a lot of hours on Pinterest and Houzz getting ideas and threw a lot of different ideas together! I can just see her playing here for many years to come!

GO UK

Jillian and I are celebrating the Kentucky Wildcats beating Kansas to win the national

championship! Our house is a house divided as the girls are UK, Rob and Korbin are UL and Bran is Alabama. We have decided Laikyn must be a Wildcat and are already buying her UK duds! She will soon not only have citizenship in a new country but a championship state as well! KY sent four teams to the NCAA this year and two made it to the final four!!

Visa approval in China!

Not a lot of news to report, but we just received a letter from the National Visa Center that Laikyns visa approval was sent to the US Consulate in Guangzhou on the 23rd. We forwarded it to our agency who forwarded it to their reps in China. They said that they will now deliver all our paperwork to the consulate tomorrow and then our Artcle 5 should be ready in 2 weeks. When they pick up our Article 5, the reps will forward it to Beijing where they will issue our travel approval. So it looks like about four weeks until travel approval.

Missing Hope!!

Is it possible to miss someone you have never met!! I would have never thought so until Laikyn Hope became my daughter! With Jillian, we traveled eight weeks after seeing her picture and accepting her referral. From then it was a whirlwind, so I didn't have as much time to dwell on what was happening. It has now been eight months since we first saw Laikyn in August. When we received our update in December, I was shocked. She had grown so much that at first I thought they sent me pictures of the wrong child! I began to realize how much I was missing. I began to think about what her birth was like and how fragile and scared she must have been as she was brought to the orphanage at six months old. Then how scared she must have been to be admitted to the hospital surrounded by only strangers and no mommy to comfort her. Then after a year of milestones and settling into a routine, to be suddenly sent to a whole new home with foster care. The strongest of us may not have survived it, but my girl did! That must be why God led me to name her Hope! She is the picture of Hope in a seemingly hopeless situation! Her pictures don't show a scared and fragile baby. She looks confident and happy to me. For that, she is my hero and I miss her like crazy! We are supposed to be getting an update on her before we travel, so everyday, I open my email with great anticipation, but nothing so far... I just long to see her face again. I want to know how she is doing. Her Hopeful Mommy!!!

One Step Closer

March 19, 2012 - Today we received our I800 approval which is our approval by immigration to declare Laikyn an immediate relative. We were told that it would take about two weeks and it arrived in exactly two weeks on the dot. I am comparing this to being in labor and your doctor telling you that it's almost time to push!! Now this will be faxed to China so they can process her visa and we can apply for our visas through the Chinese Consulate in WashingtonDC.

Everything is on schedule right now and we are praying it stays that way.

Thank you Lord!

Still waiting...March 9,2012

Since receiving our letter of acceptance, we have accomplished several tasks. We immediately filed our I800 which is the immigration approval to declare Laikyn an immediate relative. We also sent our her Visa form to our agency on Thursday. We also have a travel packet that we are now trying to complete by next week. We have it all filled out and now have to take Jillian for a travel physical and have everything notarized. The next step will be to apply for our Visas. We are hoping and praying that everything stays on schedule! I had forgotten that we had so much paperwork to do between approval and travel. I have been sick with a virus this week and have spent a lot of time in bed. I found myself on YouTube watching Gotcha Day videos that people had posted and imaging what our day will hold. Of course every child seems to have a very different reaction. Some scream, some shut down, some look indifferent and very few look happy. When Jillbug was handed to me, she was wide eyed but quiet. Since she was so small, I was able to hold her to me and cry for a while. I'm not sure how a two year old will take to a trembly, blubbering mom! I'm imagining she will be very fearful and maybe hysterical, but I hope not. I'm trying to think of all kinds of goodies and toys that might help distract her , but in the end, I guess we will just have to work through whatever happens. Whether it is beautiful and sweet, or traumatic and frustrating, Im sure it will be everything I've ever dreamed of.

LOA

JOYFUL NEWS YESTERDAY!!! WE WERE APPROVED!!

Since our dossier was logged into China's CCCWA on January 16th, we were told that it would be approximately 8 weeks until our letter of acceptance. As our dossier worked through various depts. we would not receive any news and to consider no news to be good news. I made it to week 5 without too much fretting and then last Wed. through Fri. we got a series of emails from our agency about travel. I began to wonder if that meant they knew our LOA was coming. So then the fretting began. I had a really grumpy and emotional weekend! When I didnt receive a phone call by Monday afternoon, I resigned myself to the fact that it just wasnt time yet. So as soon as the last bus left, I settled at my desk to finish some paperwork and check email. The very first email was from CCAI and said, "Congratulations, your letter of approval has arrived!" I'm glad the students were gone because I cried like a baby! Happily Rob had just pulled into our school for a fundraiser meeting, so I was able to tell him right away. The siblings were all thrilled and couldnt stop talking about Laikyn. She has already been part of this family since August and they are so ready for her to be here. For me, the milestones have been the hardest part. When she turned 2 on the 13th, I could hardly stand it. I am so thrilled to be so close to bringing her home and loving on her. As I went to bed last night, I was scanning through Pinterest and it was so cool that an adoptive mom had posted pictures of some of our favorite memories of our last trip to China; the White Swan, Lucy's and our coming home Barbie. Amazing how those things happen at just the right time. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt God called us to this. It was only one year ago that we moved from turmoil to certainty that we were to make this step. Now this has confirmed what we already knew! She is really ours!! What's next for us? Tonight we finished our acceptance letter and Visa application. We will overnight it back tomorrow and from there it is estimated that we will travel in about ten weeks. We will wait for her Visa and then China will cable the travel approval which is an invitation to come get our baby! From there, the agency will make our consulate appointment and travel arrangements.