The last week has been very exciting. First, on July 29, we found out that we got our LOA. What exactly is a LOA? I still am not sure what the significance of the LOA is; however, it is a letter that comes from China. The letter states that we do in fact want to adopt Dang Yi Lin. We sign the letter and return it to China. It only took us 35 days to get our LOA. We have heard that some have had to wait 75 or more days for their LOA. After the LOA comes the travel invitation. We have been told that that could come as quickly as 2 weeks. We pray this is true. We never know what kind of impact the Olympics will have on all of this paper work. We are very hopefull that we will get to travel in early Oct.

The second exciting event, was getting new pictures of Hannah. The pictures let us know that she did receieve our care package. They cut her little pig tails off, but we still think she is adorable. In fact, she looks like a baby now. I get more amd more anxious to hold her everytime I see a new picture.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.

Tonya

1 Month

Today has been one month since we found out that Hannah was ours. In many ways, I can't believe that it has already been a month, but I also think, "it's only been a month?". China sent our agency an update today. No new pictures, but they did verify that she is still in foster care and doing very well. She is no longer on a bottle and knows how to eat with a spoon on her own. We have heard many reports from other adoptive families, that their 2 year old children were still only taking a bottle. So, developmentally it sounds like her foster family is taking very good care of her and that she is right on target for her age.

It is getting harder and harder to wait for her. Hopefully we will have some travel information coming very soon. Thank you again for all of your prayers .

Tonya

Care Package

We haven't receieved any new news this week, but we did send a care package to her. It will probably be several weeks before it reaches her, but we hope that once it does reach her, we will get some new pictures. The package had some little outfits, a bear and photo album for Hannah; as well as some USA treats for her caregivers. We are anxious for her to see our pictures and hopefully become familiar with her mommy, daddy and big brothers.

Big Girl

This week we received an update on our little butterfly. She is now 20 months old ,weighs24lbs and is 30 in tall. She looks like such a big girl. I think I have compared her to every 1 1/2 year old that walked into the office this week. She really is a tiny little thing.
Since we thought we were getting a baby, we had a closet full of little baby clothes. So,mom and I had a good time shopping for her yesterday. We just can't wait to have her home.

Hannah's Room

I wanted to share a few pictures of Hannah's room. Sarah (my sister-in-law) paited the mural. She did a beautiful job.

Here is our Little Butterfly!!

Pictures

Last night, Brian, the boys and myself came home from a fun filled July 4th. I decided to check my e-mail one last time and found a wonderful surprise. We had updated pictures of our baby girl. Thru several friends who have adopted, we were directed to yahoo groups specific to where Hannah is. These yahoo groups were then able to direct me to a group in China that helps supply medical care to special needs children. Hannah is one of their babies!They sent us 13 pictures. We are so excited.