Beauty and the Beast was a hit!

No new adoption news to post, but Beauty and the Beast closed yesterday afternoon, and it was a phenomenal run! I believe every single show sold out (and there were 21 performances in all!). What a cast it was! The talent was impeccable, and just some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Geoff, Anna Grace and I felt we truly gained some special friends through this run--that would be you, Matt and Sarah! Now I have even more reason to visit New York!! And, we made other wonderful relationships and connections that we will not soon forget. It was a fabulous experience!

Next Wednesday, August 13th, is my concert at Riverchase United Methodist. Please keep it in your prayers, and if you're around on that date--I would love to have you come out!

Have a great week and thanks for reading!

Some Discouraging News

I spoke with our social worker tonight and she shared with me some discouraging news. We have been anxiously awaiting our approval from Immigration in the mail--checking every day. Our homestudy has been at Immigration since May, and it had been taking 2 months to process---so, it is time for ours to be approved. Her news was that Immigration has experienced two big turnovers in staff since March--and they have someone new overseeing things---and she has come in with her own set of rules and expectations. So, there is a HUGE backup of homestudies getting cleared (they are only processing March currently). It could be another 2 months to get clearance. Hahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (sigh) I keep reminding myself that God has a child specifically chosen for our family. But, it is so tough to keep getting delayed while so many others are pushing on ahead.

I received the sweetest email from another Journeys of the Heart family that is awaiting their referral news any day. Michelle spent the better part of a day creating a chart for me showing me how many people are waitlisted and waiting for referrals. She did that so I could have a good idea of what kind of time frame we are looking at---at this point in the game. The good news is that there are about the same number of families ahead of us right now as there were ahead of Michelle when she was wait-listed back in December. The stressful news is that there are 7 other families (just like us) who are awaiting their Immigration approval and are "waiting" to get waitlisted. So, needless to say, we are eager to get cleared on the list asap.

Please keep our adoption in your prayers, and thank you so much for reading.

July Update

Hi friends! I haven't posted in a while because there has truly been no news to report. But, we are getting very close to the time our Immigration approval should arrive. We check the mail every day hoping for good news. That will be a big milestone for us and will allow us to finally get on the waitlist. Up to this point, we have been waiting to wait. Once we get that clearance, we will actually get in line! That will feel like we've actually accomplished something. I'll certainly post as soon as I hear.

Thanks for continuing to follow our journey! Have a great week :-)

June Update

See bottom of today's post to see a clip from my adoption concert :-)

I haven't posted in a little while because there has really been no new adoption news to post. As it stands we are still awaiting approval from CIS in Atlanta (Immigration). We expect to hear word on that by the end of July--and to get waitlisted about the same time (end of July early August). I am estimating that it will be roughly a year from the time we get added to the waitlist to the time we travel to Taiwan---so maybe we'll be traveling by September 2009.

I did hear today that our service plan is completely approved---our education courses were approved--so we can check that off our list!!! Yahoo!! That is great news.

I am currently in Red Mountain Theatre Company's production of Beauty and the Beast. It is an amazing cast and a phenomenal director, choreographer, music director (they are some of the most inspiring and excellent people I've ever had the pleasure of working with). This (music theatre/performing) is my love and my passion, and to be able to do this and use the income I make to put in our adoption fund is truly a gift from God. Not many people are able to do what they love doing and get paid for it. I'm thankful for this opportunity--and I hope there will be more to come.

Geoff and I have made it a date every morning to set the alarm clock "early" and have our quiet time, Bible study and prayer out on our back porch with fresh brewed coffee. It has been the best thing we have done---great for our attitudes, mindset, our marriage, and our spiritual lives. Although we still don't have all the answers (about this adoption journey, about how we will bring it all to pass), we have a peace and a grounded feeling that we haven't had in a long time. I recommend carving out that time and making it a daily appointment---it's actually become our favorite time of the day.

Some other good news is that I am scheduled to sing the adoption concert "Unabandoned Love. . . the Orphan's Road Home" on August 13th at my church. I can't wait to see what comes from that! I hope it will light a spark that will catch on---and maybe more families will be brought together--more children will come into loving homes as a result! I hope so. Enjoy taking a sneak peek below at one of the pieces I sing in my concert.

I will be updating as soon as I have news to share!

We've passed DHR!!!

Daddy and Anna Grace "sing-along" on porch

Singin' and dancin' to daddy's songs

I love these photos we took last week, and thought I would share. Special memories :-)


I received a phone call today from our social worker who gave us the good news that our homestudy passed the state level (DHR) and has been sent to CIS (Immigration) as of May 30th! From this point, it will take approximately 2 months. Hopefully, by the first of August, we will have a notarized, final homestudy (and more importantly) we'll finally be added onto that wait-list!! Yahoo!!!

Also, I received notice that our "Service Plan" has been approved!!!

And, I mailed off our hard copy of our photo pages to Tien today!!!

Feels great to make these big steps! Thanks for reading along.

Service Plan Completed and Submitted!!

Yesterday was a big milestone for us as we completed typing up our 16 page service plan. For those who may not know what this is--it is a list of goals and subgoals that we respond to focusing on all the ways we plan to prepare ourselves, educate ourselves and better ourselves to become parents to a child through adoption. It is very comprehensive and covers a range of topics. The point is to have the adoptive parents thoroughly and realistically plan and prepare for the "realities" of parenting.

Yesterday was also my birthday, and it felt great to finish the service plan and send it to the home office!!

Now that our photo page photos have been reviewed--we are ready to have those printed and submitted for our dossier as well.

We are on our way!! The photo pages and service plan are 2 HUGE steps that have to be completed before we can be given a referral. And, now it is done!!! :-) Yahoo!!!!

We still await word from our social worker that our homestudy has been approved at DHR and has been sent on to Immigration. That news should come any time now.

Thanks for reading!!

Conquered the Photo Pages!!

The last two days, I have worked an embarrassing amount of time on our adoption required "Photo Pages". It seems so very simple, and yet, when you don't know how to do something--it doesn't matter how simple it is. I spent a total of 9 hours trying to figure it out-----and FINALLY I did!! :-) Now, I'll have to see whether they are accepted and approved by our agency. The purpose of the photo pages is to give agency in Taiwan a look into your lives. It is to reflect the lives we live, our home, our activities, our vacations, our families, etc. But, there are rules about how it is to be formatted---picture size, number of pictures on a page, captions, no sunglasses, no swimming suits, no sleeveless tops-Whew!

But, it is done, now and it feels great to have it accomplished. Now, I will email it to Tien (our Taiwan facilitator) to see if she approves my photos.

My hope is that next week will bring good news that our homestudy has passed the DHR hurdle. Will post when I hear something!