She knows.

Baby Girl knows she has a mommy and a big sister and two big brothers. She has seen our video, looked at our pictures, and received our gifts. The social worker said she was very excited when watching the video, especially when Little Pud came on the screen. I wish I could show you all of the pictures (the one of how excited she was about the recorded book is absolutely priceless), but you will have to be content today with seeing her little hand reaching out to touch her big sister.

I am grateful. Not too long now, Little Sister, not too long now.

I800 approval!

Today I called the Hague USCIS office to find out about the status of my I800 for Baby Girl. The kind officer told me that it had been granted provisional approval yesterday afternoon! Yippee!!! Next they forward all the paperwork to the National Visa Center who will look it over and then "cable" the approval to the consulate in Baby Girl's country who will issue the Article 5. After that begins the wait for the court order and finally travel. It still looks like we will likely be travelling between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The sooner the better...I am starting to pine away for this sweet girl.

A post about four kids, none of them mine...

My fellow Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree Warrior Stori is offering matching grants to two families who travel soon to get their children. I love Stori's heart, and she advocates for sweet Kai (who lives in the same country as Baby Girl) and my little love Suzanne 15H. Kai and Suzanne are two of my very favorite children on Reece's Rainbow...two of the ones I would be SO EXCITED if I saw that they had families coming for them.

The matching grants offered are for two families who are going to be travelling SOON to very expensive countries and need additional funds to be able to travel to get their children. One of the families just received the devastating news that the child they were planning on adopting passed away. This is very real, folks. Kids are literally dying. That family is now pursuing a blind referral. I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers as they grieve and process and move forward.

Go check out Stori's blog to get the details of the matching grants for the families who will be traveling THIS WEEK and prayerfully consider what you read there. Look at what Stori and her husband are personally offering and ask yourself if you could give something to one or both of the families.

And finally, here is a picture of my sweet Suzanne who has already been transferred to an institution. Are you her mommy or daddy? I will help you fundraise if you are!

I'm in love!

Yesterday I received a surprise package from my agency. In the package was an updated child study on Baby Girl, new photos, and an eighteen minute video of my sweetie!!! (Just filmed on Monday!)

This is the first time we have seen her in action. It is also the first time I have seen her smile (all of her previous pictures were serious, sad, or with an irritated expression. A lot of them were also blurry, and now I know why.

She is amazing and beautiful, smart and active, funny and strong! I am just stunned that I get to be this adorable little girl's mommy! I think I'd better go re-childproof my house, though. She is going to keep us on our toes! She is standing on her own and can even play the tambourine and/or dance while standing unsupported. Her child-study says she can take about four steps unassisted, but the video didn't show that. What it did show was her scooting on her tush, crawling, standing, dancing, playing, looking at a book, laughing, smiling, responding, and so much more. The whole family is absolutely in love with her. The waiting hadn't gotten painful at all before yesterday. Well, suddenly it has. The three to four more months I will have to wait stretch out in front of me. I feel I could go crazy, but I won't...I'll enjoy my current kiddos, spend as much time with them as I can, and rethink the storage in the lower cabinets in my kitchen.

Since I can't post a picture of Baby Girl, I will post a picture of the other three taken just after The Philosopher got back from his first Boy Scout high adventure trip. He spent nearly a week canoeing the Minnesota Boundary Waters! We sure missed him, but he had an incredible time. Maybe someday I'll actually post about the fun stuff we did this summer, but right now my brain is all in the future, and it seems that future isn't coming fast enough.

Surprise phone call!

The phone rang at 7:30 this morning. I rolled over (I have fallen off the early-rising wagon this summer). The "you've got a message" tone beeped. I ignored it. A few minutes later the phone rang again. This time I got up, but still missed it.

Hmmm...it was not a number I recognized (I truly had expected it to be my dad asking the kids and I if we wanted to come over for breakfast).

I listened to the message. It was my wonderful worker at my adoption agency. She asked me to call her (she was calling from her cell which was why I didn't recognize the number). I seriously still didn't think too much of it because just yesterday I was scheduling something with her that wasn't directly related to my adoption and I thought maybe there was a scheduling conflict.

I called her, and she said the magic words: "You have matching approval!"

AMAZING!!! I screamed! Little Pud then told me that she had just prayed for MA. The fastest I have ever heard of anyone receiving MA recently was three and a half months. We broke the record with three months and ten days! Yippee!!! I was hopeful for mid-August and wasn't even thinking (much) about it yet. The wait hadn't even gotten difficult.

What does this mean? It means that I am officially matched to my sweet Baby Girl. It means that I am in another paperwork flurry. It means that I can send Baby Girl a photo album and a video so that she can be introduced to her family. It means that her child care home will start transitioning her to the name I have chosen for her. It means that Baby Girl will be home before Christmas...maybe even by Thanksgiving. Soon I will get Baby Girl's birth certificate and send off for the next step of immigration approval and then it will go to the court in her country. The long wait is over. Smooth sailing from here!

THANK YOU to all who have prayed and given. I have lots of wonderful things I would love to share, but as my recent posting history has shown, this summer has not been a good blog summer for me. However it has been a lovely real-life summer and with the coming of the school year will come more frequent posts (hopefully).