Black and White Wednesday ~ A Surprise Update

So, I know I haven't updated lately, but I will continue to use the same excuse as before, we are so, so busy. Part of that business has been working on getting together a new and exciting fundraiser to bring Keliah Faith home, but more on that later. I had planned on posting something entirely different for Black and White Wednesday until I saw these in my e-mail.

Speaking of Keliah, I am so happy to share with you the updated pictures we got just tonight. We had asked for an update about a week ago, and quite honestly, I had forgotten about it today. I made a mental note to e-mail our agency just to see if they had heard anything about getting an update so when I was checking my e-mail this evening, I was completely surprised to find these, new pictures of our gorgeous girl. She is absolutely beautiful.



Along with the two pictures, we got updated measurements as well. I was pretty excited about these two and had Emma run to get me the tape measure so I could compare Keliah's measurements to Emma's. Emma is 50 inches tall and Keliah is 48.8 inches. Keliah is 60 lbs and Emma (last we checked) was around 60 as well. We got measurements of her head, chest, and feet as well, and all but the feet are withing a 10th of an inch of Emma. Keliah's feet measured 5.9 inches and Emma's measure around 8 inches.



This process has been quite different than the other three. With Mylee's adoption we were able to get updated pictures from other traveling families about once a month. You all already know how Blessed we were with Drew being at New Day. I think I have more pictures of him than any other child. Jaxon was a "surprise" so we don't have a whole lot on him either, but for only knowing about him 6 weeks before we traveled, I can't complain.

We think the orphanage Keliah is from is new to adoption and this may be their first round of adoptions. They will let us send a package but will not let her know she has a family until we get out LOA. So if we do send a package, they will just tell her it is from a kind family in the US. We have decided to just hold off for now and send her lots of goodies along with lots and lots of pictures of her new family as soon as we get LOA (which at this point seems so far off).



I just cannot get over the fact that we are adding a 7th child to our family, but I am also just as excited about getting on that plane and bringing her home. As soon as Emma saw her pictures she asked if I could print them out so she could take them to school and hang them in her locker for everyone to see. She is probably the most excited.

As for where we are in the process, we were supposed to have our Dossier in China by February 4th which is completely doable. In fact, our goal was to have it there by January and were estimating a travel date of mid summer. Well, at this rate, we will be lucky to be DTC by April which would put us at an estimated travel of October. Why the delay you ask? Well, we have been waiting almost 3 months for Matt's updated physical and labs to be released from his doctor. He has no medical issues, and is perfectly healthy, but he uses VA and before they can release any information you basically have to do a "dance." pull teeth, and promise your first born.

The good news is that as of today, our home study agency has everything they need from us to finish up our home study so we can file for our I800A. We are just waiting on them to approve it, sign it, and get it back to us. I am hoping and praying we can mail it to Homeland Security sometime next week. From what we are hearing it is taking just under 2 months to get the approval back. Again, we are hoping and praying we are on the shorter end of that. We are also praying that there is a massive speed up and we will still travel mid summer. A summer travel date would be ideal because that is the best time for us to get help with the kids while I am gone and Matt is working. We know at the end of the day, all of this is out of our hands, but it still doesn't hurt to be hopeful.

SO, enjoy the pics, I know I am. I have been looking at them over and over all night. I am hoping to be able to post about my fundraising project in the next couple of weeks.