39 Days

That's all! 39 Days and counting to the LOA! It feels like time passes slowly - you try not to think about it and then you realize it is all you can think about!

In As Much

All week long, I had talked with Kevin about wishing I could apply a Bible verse to our blog. I knew the verse would have to be a certain one... and I could only remember a few words... "the least of them". Yesterday, we were doing an outreach for church and pulled the brand new tee-shirts out of the bag to put on for the day. After looking all week for the verse, and not being able to find it - there it was printed brightly on the back of our new blue shirts!

One Month LID

One month ago today, CCAA (China Adoption Affairs) logged in our dossier. It was amazing that it was logged in so quickly because it was not ready to be picked up by UPS in Charleston until the 14th of March and then logged in 5 days later. Some dossiers take two weeks to log in.... every day matters in the wait for the next step. We are so thankful!

The Update

We just got an update on Mia! Although we can't share any specific information about her, we can tell you she is still sweet and we are in love with her sweet face! When we read the information about her, it just makes us want to have her in our arms even more! She seems to have a very tender heart according to her caretakers!!

We would LOVE to share her precious pictures.... but we will be waiting until she is officially ours in the eyes of China to share her photo on the internet! One picture showed her eating one of the lollypops we sent in her package and another picture showed her with one of the toys we sent. So we know she has the package and is now aware that she has a family!

Happy Birthday Mia!!

We celebrated Mia's 2nd birthday with our Sunday School class last Sunday. It was bittersweet... so happy to have supportive, loving friends to celebrate with and so missing the celebration with her!

So Happy Birthday Mia! Just wait until #3!! We'll show you what Birthday Celebrations are all about!

LOA Predictions: 48, 58, or 88?

Two of my friends at school have made predictions about when the LOA will come... Bonnie says, "Somewhere between 47 and 49 days!" So I'm thinking she is guessing Day 48. Lorraine is saying, "Day 58". Of course I like Bonnie better right now! And Bonnie... tomorrow is the half way point to your prediction! If Bonnie has any pull over the CCAA, we will be able to travel sooner!

On one set of data, the average wait from LID to LOA is 88 days! UGH! Maybe Lorraine's prediction doesn't sound so bad! If you want to add a prediction, feel free to leave it in the comments section!

Mia's Orphanage in China

Mia is in China and she has lived in an orphanage for much of her young life. On the same day we saw her face for the first time, we also began to look for pictures of her home. Here are some of the pictures of her temporary home... until we welcome her to her forever home with us. Mia's orphanage is in Shenzhen City in the province of Guangdong. Shenzhen City is a very modern city that borders Hong Kong. As you can see from the palm trees, we will be in a tropical climate while we are in China. We hope that we can make the trip from our hotel in Guangzhou to the orphanage a few hours away.

A Letter from Emma

Dear Mia,
I am so excited about you. When my mommy and daddy sat me down and told me I was getting a sister from China, I thought they were tricking me. I thought my mommy was having a baby, but she wasn't. I couldn't believe it. When you get here I will start crying really really badly. Me and you will have a blast being together. I will play with you anytime you want me too. I think you will be really dark, but I will love it (no sunscreen for you). I wish we could go today and get you, but we can't. In a few weeks, mommy and daddy and me and Savannah are going to decorate your room really pretty in ladybugs. My mommy and daddy can't wait to come get you.
I love you very much
love,
Emma

Some Back Story...

When you are adopting from China, there are SO many steps to the process. The first step if you find your child on a list, is to send a "Letter of Intent" to the CCAA, Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs. We sent it off before Chinese New Year. About the same time, we sent an application to the US Center for Immigration Services to be allowed to bring Mia into this country. So we were dealing with the Chinese government in Beijing and the US government, our branch located in Charlotte. WELL, not many people can say this, but we were rejected by the Chinese government and the US government on the very same day! We had not given enough information on the LOI and had sent too much money to the US government.

We had to re-do the LOI quickly and resend a new check and application! This picture is the day that we received our pre-approval (PA) from China!! We had been waiting on our PA for several weeks and after school I called my neighbor to look on our doorstep. It was there!! On the same day, we received were fingerprinted in Charlotte as a result of the application being accepted. So I guess you could say we were rejected by both governments on the same day and recognized by both governments on the same day! SUCCESS!

The Grandparents

Granna and Paps















Grandmama and Pops

Welcome to Our Blog

Welcome to our blog! This is the place where we hope to record our journey to Mia Faith King - our soon to be daughter from Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. Although we are quite limited as to how much information we are allowed to share about Mia, we can say that she is absolutely adorable and precious.


Our journey began about 5 years ago, when Kevin began talking about adoption. I (Bridget) couldn't even imagine adding another child to our family when we already had two wonderfully healthy daughters, Savannah and Emma. But then something happened, it has to have been God moving my heart and opening my life to our little girl... because during that same month of my heart opening to the wonders of adoption, a list of children in China was being compiled and it had Mia on that list! We found Mia in January, knew she was ours, and began the paper work.

The months of January, February, and March are like a blur to me now... collecting every piece of paper that validates our existence, every record of every breath I have breathed, writing our autobiographies, taking courses on international adoption, spending hours doing research... and then having every piece of paper notarized, authenticated, sealed, and express mailed.... Whew! On March 19th, we were officially finished with our part and logged into the system in China.

Now we wait.

They say it could be about 90 days until we receive our "Letter of Approval" from China for the adoption of Mia into our family. We would love to travel in July. As new things happen, we will post them here.