Room is Ready!

It was so sweet putting Norah's things in order in her new room!  It only took a day and a half to paint, put up new curtains and get the furniture and clothes in.  It's such a pretty space.

 

The picture on the door was painted by my friend Jenn of a quail.  At my shower she gave it, and said that the Lord had given her the picture in her mind as she was praying for Norah.  Quails are a symbol of grace, provision and timing.  Quails need wind to assist their flight, and they wait until it comes to help lift them off the ground.  This really was encouraging to me, as it's been such a difficult wait to have our girl.  But God's timing is perfect.  It's gotten so cliche to say that, but I know it's true.

The Dresser is from Ruth.  It belonged to her grandmother, and the rocking chair is old as well, and that belonged to a dear family friend.

 

This is the sunniest room in our house!  Norah means Sunlight, Honor and Compassion.  All the "words", scriptures and prayers that other people have given me have been about sunlight, or sunny in some kind of way, and most folks don't even know that about her name;)  I really think she will be the sunshine that fills our family. 

OMG we leave next week!!! Time to transition.

I know this blog needs a new face lift.  The picture on the right is old, and needs to be changed, but I don't know how to do any of that.  Dave kinda threw this blog style together as best he could, and we do need to update with more photos.  And since we are leaving next week, we will!!  Holt confirmed our travel dates just last week, and we leave October first!!  Sam is thrilled to be coming, and Will is just happy to get to spend some time with Grandma and other friends:)  I have been cleaning the house like a crazy person, and painting stuff, redecorating, and purging out the old.  It has felt wonderful. 
Yesterday David and I had to finally transition our Joy Room into Norah's room.  Not an easy thing.  I guess it's pretty obvious it wasn't gong to be an easy thing, or I would not have waited until 10 days prior to travel to do it.  We had a beautiful time commencing the season of the Joy Room with praying and crying in the room together.  Worshiping our Good Father for his gift of Joy, the room and what it has meant to us, and a new season with a 4th child coming.  Our hearts were so full with emotion as we took out the first piece of furniture.  Then the next.  By the time the room was empty of furniture, it wasn't hard anymore.  It's time to honor our sweet Norah with a beautiful space.  To prepare her a room that will honor her and make her feel "I'm home!  I am included and have a great space set apart!"  Of course we have been holding her in our hearts as an incredible place of honor and joy, but preparing a space is a real expression of that love and anticipation.  Amazing!  A promise that we have held onto for so long is being fulfilled.  NEXT WEEK!!  I will post pictures of Norah's room when it is totally done... just needs a few more things to be complete:)

First Approval!

We finally got "the call" we have been waiting for 10 months to come!  On July 17th the Thai  board responsible for approving adoption cases reviewed our file, and said YES for us to adopt Watsana Charoensuk!  (aka Norah)  This call came to Dave, and at the time we were driving in separate cars.  He pulled over and so I did too, and he yelled out the window that we had "GOTTEN THE CALL!!"  I raced out of the car, jumping, yelling, crying, laughing, without any shame in the middle of the CVS parking lot!  It hit me in that moment of how much I love my daughter.  All this tension building of waiting.  Waiting.  Waiting...  And she isn't really mine yet but I love her and how do I manage these feelings when I've never even met her... and my most natural response was to cry and and act like a crazy person when this wonderful news came!  Our daughter is waiting half a world away and now we have been given permission to go get her.

The next step of this process now is to get clearance from the US immigration to bring her to the United States.  This step takes a few weeks to get approved.  Once that happens we will receive our travel dates and be on our way to Thailand!  I filled out and sent all we need to, and now we wait.  Again.

Thankfully, we just got an update on her.  Updates only come every 4 months, and I LOVE update time!  New pictures and a progress report!  From the sound of the update, Norah's foster family is really prepping her for her adoption to our family.  It says she likes to look at our pictures and is getting ready for placement into our family!  Her new measurements are 24lbs., 31" tall and 18" head and chest circumference.  No shoe size yet.

 This little dress we sent to her last September.  It's so good to see that she is with a foster mom who loves her and really takes good care of her!  I know that will be a hard transition for Norah to leave her foster family!

Financially READY!!

THANK YOU to everyone who has given toward this adoption!  We have officially met our goal financially through your gifts and fundraising!!  Here is a pic of our last garage sale, just a few weeks ago.  It rained, it was cold, it was windy, but we STILL managed to raise lots of money:)

It's Almost June...

I remember this time a year ago... We were waiting for a match, and had no idea who our little girl was.  I just knew good news would come in June!  And then it didn't.  Tears and frustration.  And now, as This June approaches, I am really believing for our first approval call to come!  I guess this waiting game keeps going through all legs of this journey, and I'm getting pretty well versed in it!  We did get new pictures a while ago, sorry I haven't posted.

  For everyone following this blog, we have been informed by our agency that we are not allowed to put pictures of our daughter up on an "open" blog site, so we have removed it from any search engines.  Would you please check with us before sharing with anyone?  You have been authorized to view it because we have invited you to.  Just send our way anyone's email that you would like us to send an invitation to!  Thank you!

Update on Finances

First, I want to thank everyone for your support in praying for us, Norah, and our process!!  We really feel surrounded by such an outpouring of love and interest in our adoption.  What an honor!  Dave and I sent out a newsletter a few weeks back to most of you just updating our journey, and the financial goals we still hope to reach before we travel.  I just want to clarify, because there was some confusion in response to the letter.  David, Sam and I will be traveling to get Norah when Holt tells us to come, whether all the money is raised or not.  The finances has nothing to do with getting her any faster.  We wanted to invite others to support us in the process, because there is a beauty and strength in partnering with friends and family in this endeavor.   It invites others into our process deeper, and it gives others the opportunity to share in some rich blessings. 
I want to thank everyone who has given!  It's wonderful to get notes in the mail and emails from people who are thinking of us and hoping along with us for a speedy homecoming.  I have the best friends and family:)  As of today, we are still hoping for around $6K. 
We are able to send Norah another package here in the next week.  I love package-sending time!  Holt has restricted it to every 3 months now instead of 2, because of the influx of mail and all the effort it takes to send everyone's packages.  We need to update a pic to her of Dave's new look:)  He recently got glasses, so here is the new Dave...

Any news yet!!??

So the next step in our process is waiting for that dang phone to ring, and for our agency to tell us we have "first approval"!  So when Holt called my phone Thursday, I about jumped out of my skin!  Alas... they were just checking in on us, to see how we are doing, and if I had questions.  AHHHH!!!  No news yet.  Well, I guess there is progressing news.  We are in the middle of about 20 families waiting for first approval, and it still may be a few months before we get our much awaited call.  I/we are doing ok, but it's getting frustrating.  Our little girl is half a world away, and she needs to be here! 

In the meantime, we are reading and learning how to parent an adoptive child well.  I guess we can be preparing as we wait 'eh?  AND we are collecting more stuff for another fundraising yard sale that we will do the end of April.  I have not brought myself to take down my Joy Room yet to prepare her nursery.  I think I probably won't do that until we do get our phone call, because that still leaves me 6-8 weeks before we travel. 

I don't know if I mentioned in previous postings, but we will be bringing Sam with us to Thailand!  We are excited to have him with us!  We really thought and prayed about the boys coming, and there was something that I just couldn't shake about leaving them home.  Wisdom says to leave them at home, but my heart wants something different!  So we sat the boys down and asked them what they wanted.   Sam exuberantly made a case to come, and explained to us that he feels like he would be missing out on an incredible opportunity, and he wants to be a part of the first meetings and interactions Norah will have with our family.  Case well taken.  I turned to hear Will's thoughts on the matter, and he said, "Nah, I want to go to Grandma's!"  So we sat on it awhile, had more conversations and prayer around it, and felt like it would be wonderful for Sam to come, and Will to stay with Grandma!