So Sorry For The Overload...

Friends, thank you for being so tolerant of my constant Facebook sharing….

I know I have been filling up your feed with fundraisers, pictures of orphans looking for their forever families and adoption details.

There are many days that I just hate to post ONE more thing, but then I see sweet MinLan's face and I do it all to get her HOME, so I share again….

We have A LOT of things going on right now and I feel like I can not do them all justice!  I thought I would put together this post and you'd be able to see everything all in one place.  Scroll down to find what you are looking for!  Thank you so much to each and everyone of you who has been reading and following our journey.  We thank God for you.


AMAZON Fundraiser

Planning to do some shopping on Amazon?  Please click our link below and then add things to your cart.  A percentage of your purchase will go towards our adoption at no extra cost to you.

www.tinyurl.com/amazonminlan


COFFEE Fundraiser

Love coffee? Or looking for a great gift?  Please shop at our fundraiser link below.  A percentage of the purchase will go towards bringing MinLan home.

https://justlovecoffee.com/about/beneficiary/parrisfamily/

PUZZLE Fundraiser

Click below and sponsor a puzzle piece for only $2.50 to help bring MinLan home!

http://www.gofundme.com/minlanmatters

T-SHIRT Fundraiser

Click below to purchase one of MinLan's adoption fundraiser t-shirts to help bring her home!  We must sell 50 shirts by January 14th for the order to be placed.

http://teespring.com/minlanmatters

RECIPES For Cookbook Fundraiser

Click below to enter your family's favorite recipes.  Login in with username jmparris and the password is banana671

https://www.simplycookbooks.com

SEVENLY Fundraiser - this week only!

This fundraiser is AWESOME!  It is helping MANY Reece's Rainbow families including ours! MinLan is listed here under her file name of "Laura".  Click the link below and shop for some awesome t-shirts, toys and prints.  You are going to love all of these products!

http://www.sevenly.org

MinLan's Birthday Celebration

I can't believe our sweet MinLan is about to turn TWO! So sad that we are not with her to celebrate but grateful that this is the LAST birthday she will spend without her family. I felt like we should do something to celebrate our sweet precious girl. Could you help me? Each year when we throw our kids' birthday parties, we always ask for "no gifts". Our little ones are beyond blessed and we truly just want to celebrate with our friends and family and not focus on the gifts. But for MinLan's birthday, I'm breaking that tradition just this one time and asking you to give if you are able. Would you consider giving $2 in honor of her 2nd birthday to her Reece's Rainbow account? This will help with our travel expenses and I think with your help we could raise enough in honor of her birthday to buy her plane ticket home. Please visit her page and click the yellow button beneath her picture. You can then type in your $2.00 donation. http://reecesrainbow.org/59580/sponsorparris Thank you so much for helping us celebrate our girl. We are honored to have each of you on this journey with us and so thankful for all the ways you have helped us bring her home. Thank you for praying for her. Thank you for giving of your time and finances. You have truly blessed our family. God bless.

Thank you so much friends for our prayers and willingness to help our family!!!

Details coming this week about our upcoming auction with the Casey family!

Love,
Jenifer

Another Great Day!

So excited for more adoption progress yesterday!

We got this email today from the courier that is taking our Visa applications to the Chinese consulate for us!  They will be ready in a week and our courier will go pick them up and overnight them back to us!  Our passports will be ready to take us to China! WooHOOOOO!!!

We also got a text and an email from USCIS saying that they had received our I-800 paperwork!  Remember the I-800A paperwork we talked about?  That was for Bryan and I to be clear to adopt by USCIS…the I-800 is for MinLan!

After this approval, more paperwork to come but SOOOOOOOOOO WORTH IT!!!!!  We are getting so close!

We are coming sweet girl,

Mommy

Signed, Sealed and Delivered!

Would you just look at that beautiful piece of paper?!?!?!

We received it from our agency on Christmas Eve…best Christmas yet! We both signed it….

And sent it back the very same day!  We also sent a copy of our LOA with our I-800 paperwork and our Visa applications!  Bryan is such a good Daddy!  He drove all the way to Anniston, found this obscure Fedex box located on the side of an office building and waited for the driver to show up to personally hand him our packages!  And BONUS, he took pictures!!!  He is DEFINITELY an adoptive parent! HA!

Now we wait for our I-800 approval, then more paperwork!  We hope to travel mid-March!  Please pray with us friends for a continued smooth, FAST process!

We are coming sweet girl,
Mommy

LOA!!!!

We found out on December 19th that our LOA had shown up in the computer!  Considered our "soft LOA", we were ecstatic!

Our agency told us that it could be up to two weeks before the hard copy of the LOA actually arrived at the agency.

I prayed we would receive it by Christmas.

The phone call came from our agency this morning!  Only FOUR DAYS later!!! Two days before Christmas!  God is good!

All of our forms are filled out and ready to go…our I-800, our I-864W and our Visa applications!  Just waiting on the LOA to come from Fedex tomorrow!  Praying it comes early in the morning to allow us time to get it turned around and back in the mail tomorrow!

Our LOA is basically a fancy letter from China that Bryan and I will both sign and mail back saying that we accept MinLan…our Letter Of Acceptance.  Once we have that piece of paper, we can send in our I-800 form which is where the US government says that MinLan is basically allowed to immigrate into this country and therefore we are able to adopt her.  We hope to mail it tomorrow or Thursday at the latest.  That will take a few weeks to get back.  Then we are waiting on some other things so we can fill out the DS-260 for MinLan's visa.  Then we do what is called an Article 5.  Once this is done, China will issue our TA which is our Travel Approval and we can buy plane tickets and GO GO GO!!!!  Our agency says we will most likely travel in March.  The earlier in March the better!!!

Thanks to a sweet fellow adoptive Momma who is an awesome adoption "date cruncher", she calculates that we are most likely looking at a "Gotcha Day" of either March 10th or March 17th!  Woohoooo!!!!  

We are coming sweet girl!

Love,

Momma

Update!

Was so excited to get an update from our agency yesterday!!!!  Updates make the waiting just a smudge more bearable!  We are coming sweet girl!!!!

1. Updated measurements

Height: 68cm;  Weight: 8kg, head 43cm, chest 45cm, foot 11cm, 6 teeth

2. Is she crawling, walking, standing? 

She can sit, crawl and stand

4. Can she say any words?

She likes talking, but just some sounds, no words. She cannot say words yet. But she can understand simple instructions from foster parents.

5. Is she in foster care? Any foster siblings? 

A younger girl, lives in the same foster home.

God Appointments….

Ever have one of those God appointments? Our mail lady brought us our mail and we somehow started talking and our adoption came up (imagine that). She asked lots of questions, asked how we could afford it, asked about who we were adopting….said that her husband would never be on board. I got to share with her how I prayed for God to move in a mighty way in Bryan's heart and for him to be the one to initiate. God answered my prayer! I got to share with her that my God owns the cattle on a thousand hills….if He wants our family to adopt He will make a way for the funding needed. Then she asked if she could pray with me…her sitting in her mail truck…me standing in my apron in my backyard…she prayed a blessing over our family…prayed for safe travels…prayed for God to protect our sweet girl….prayed for God to provide the means to fund the remainder of our adoption. What a blessing!!!! My day has officially been made….God is good!

LID!!!!!!!

Today we received an email from our agency saying that today was our LID!  Our dossier is officially logged in in China!  So excited! One step closer to our sweet girl.

The other day I posted HERE about being so discouraged about our possible travel date being more likely in March instead of January.

I know that God has a reason for every delay and a reason for the numerous hoops we must jump through.  But at the end of the day it is so hard to be accepting of God's plan sometimes.  It's so hard not knowing when the end is in sight.  I just want to bring MinLan home…

I want to be able to kiss those pudgy cheeks…

I want to be able to rock her to sleep…

I want to be able to see her laugh and play with Neely…

I want our kids to see that God answered ALL of our prayers in a MIGHTY way….

In a way that is sitting right in front of them….

In a way that they can hug and love on….

Once our dossier was in the mail, our agency mailed us a packet of information that will take us through the end of our adoption process.  In it, is contained the estimated time for each step of the process.  To see all those dates looming ahead it feels like we are so far away from bringing our girl home.

The first date is the step from your DTC to your LID.

Our agency estimates that as a one to three week time frame.

Ours was seven calendar days…some of which were not even actual "business days".

I like being on the short end of the estimate.

My prayer is that we will be on the short end of the next upcoming estimates too.

Will you pray with us?

The estimate time from LID to LOA…our next step…is 6 weeks to 4 MONTHS….sigh….

Amazingly I have seen some LOAs come in thirty DAYS!  But our agency assures me that is NOT the new norm and that most are 60 to 80 days on average.

Will you pray with me that our wait is SHORT?

The selfish, human part of me wants to only pray for short wait times and not instead, for God's will to be done. Can I just say that this is so hard?

Wanting to be in the center of God's will, while at the same time wanting to book a flight to China and scoop up my little girl.

I am finding it hard to balance those two….

Would you pray too that we are faithful in seeking God's will for our family?  Whenever we are supposed to travel, God has a reason.  I don't know if it will be January like we dreamed, March which is more likely, or even some time after that.

An earlier date can happen…

I have seen the lucky few…

I have also seen those that wait…..and wait….and wait….

I don't know if my heart can handle it….

Praying for God's timing and throwing in a little extra prayer that God is planning to work fast. ;-)

We are coming sweet girl,
Mommy

Amazon Shopping Fundraiser!!!!

Are you a big Amazon fan?!?!?

We are!  So easy to shop there…..our packages come quickly and their returns method is so easy!

We love to shop there for Christmas gifts that we can not get locally!

Interested in helping us with a fundraiser that costs you nothing….zero….zilch…..nada?

Anytime you need to purchase something from Amazon, click our link first!

You can bookmark the link and use it each time or if you want, you can visit our blog before you shop and click this button right under the blog header:

The catch is, you have to start with an empty cart.  We will only get credit if you put item in your cart after clicking our link.

We will earn anywhere from 4% to 10% from your purchase and it costs you nothing!  We would so appreciate you thinking of us when you are ready to shop on Amazon.

Planning to buy a Kindle for someone for Christmas?  You can click HERE and click on the Kindle you'd like to order!  This helps us too!

We would love for you to share with any friends or family that you think will be shopping on Amazon!

Thank You!

Love,

Jenifer

DTC!!!!!

I don't think I have ever loved three little letters more!  DTC!!!!  Today an email came from our placing agency saying that we were "dossier to country"!  This means that our dossier has been scanned in and submitted to China's system and our hard copy has been mailed!

I even have the DHL tracking number!  Trust that I will be watching that little envelope makes its way over the ocean!

It will be logged in by China (LID) and then they will begin to translate it and then it will be reviewed.

We are praying that everything goes smoothly, that there are no issues and that things move quickly.  Sadly not a lot goes "quickly" when it comes to adoption but there are exceptions!  Praying we are an exception.

We are so ready to go bring home our little girl.

The ache to hold her is the same ache I experienced during all of my pregnancies.

The difference is, with my pregnancies, I knew right where my babies were.

I knew they were safe and I knew that I was making the best possible choices everyday to keep them safe and protected.

With MinLan, I have no idea….

We pray everyday, multiple times for our sweet girl.

We pray for her foster family.

We pray that they show her love,

We pray that she eats well and is healthy.

We pray that our process moves quickly.

Thank you to those of you that have shared that you are praying for our girl too.

It means the world to us.

We are coming sweet girl,
Mommy

To Pass the Time….

Since I need something to keep my mind busy, I thought I would go ahead and type this post so that I can share it closer to our "Gotcha Day".

Bryan and I attended an International Adoption Clinic in Birmingham in June.  They recommended we send out a letter to friends and family to help describe our coming home experience and help prepare you for some of the struggles and joys we will face.  They even gave us an example to use.  I think I'll share some of it as well as some of our personal thoughts.  

This may be long…please bear with me.  

I promise it will make a difference in how you view us bringing our sweet girl home.

Dear Friends and Family,

As we get ready to embark on one of the most exciting events in our lives, we are thinking a lot about the people around us and how much our lives are going to change.  Family has always been important to us.  We are very fortunate to have such loving family and friends, especially our church family.  We appreciate the support and excitement that you all have shown to us as we have made this journey.  We're thrilled about bringing home MinLan!  We've done lots of reading, research and asked a lot of other adoptive parents about this process and we feel prepared to help our little girl become a well-adapted member of our family.

There are some things about adoptive parenting that are the same as parenting a biological child.  There are also quite a few things that we have learned are different.  Through our adoption agency, the UAB International Adoption Clinic, books, other adoptive parents, adoption social workers and more, we have learned that our little one needs a specific type of environment and parenting when she first comes home in order to feel safe and secure and to learn how to successfully bond with our family.

While we know that every child is different, we also understand that there are many possible things that will impact MinLan's beliefs and behavior when she gets home.  These include how much nurturing she received, if there was abuse or neglect, the amount and quality of food received, illnesses, the quality of care and MinLan's unique temperament and personality.  The result of these things can include behavioral issues, emotional disorders and a sense of grief and loss from being separated from the only home and caregivers our little one has ever known.

Adoption is a traumatic and scary event for any age child whether they are newborn or ten years old.  They're being removed from all of their routines and familiar surroundings.  Even babies will feel grief and sadness at an event like this.  In order to help MinLan feel safe and learn that we are her parents, we will be creating the type of environment that will promote security during this time.

When our child gets home, at the recommendation of experienced adoption professionals, we need to implement specific parenting approaches to help encourage a strong, attached, emotionally healthy family member.  MinLan needs to learn that we are her parents.  She needs to feel nurtured and safe.

Here are some things we will be doing for MinLan based on research and experience of other children. We will try our best to live a very quiet life (so hard for us!!!!) with limited trips out and few visitors in for a little while.  It will be very hard for us with our very busy schedule.  We are not exactly sure how this will work in our lives.  We will just take it day by day and make adjustments as we need to.  We also want to be supportive of our other children and not upset their daily lives either.  It is such a blessing to our family that Bryan will be a full-time student during much of this initial bonding period.  God is so good and His timing is perfect!

Social workers and psychologists tell us that when children are first adopted, they may be overwhelmed, scared and nervous.  By keeping our lives as boring as possible at first, we'll be helping MinLan feel safe.  This does NOT mean that we do not want visitors coming to see our little one for the first time.  We will just have to limit it a little so it is not so overwhelming.  We would love for as many people as would like to, meet us at the airport when we arrive home.  That will be a wonderful and touching for us to see so many familiar and supportive faces when we arrive.  We do not want family and friends to stay away from us.  We just can't pass MinLan around for everyone to hold and we will have to be mindful of overloading her with new things and people.  We know you'll want to hug, kiss and help spoil our sweet girl, but it is recommended that we be the only ones to do that at first to improve her chances of attaching strongly to us.  Until we feel MinLan has attached and clearly knows we are her parents, we will need to feed, change and take care of her.  I know that missing out on some sweet sugar and hugs will be disappointing to many of you.  Have no fear; there will be many more once she becomes comfortable at home.

As strange as it may seem, adopted children who act very outgoing and affectionate with strangers is not a healthy thing.  It is called "indiscriminate affection" and can mean that they haven't really attached to anyone.  It would not be a good sign MinLan has attached to us if during her first months home she will just let anyone take her and hold her without searching for her mom or dad.  For sure it is going to be a weird and wonderful experience for us.  We are so excited and can't wait to bring MinLan home so you can all see her and get to know her.  Things are just a little different when you are adopting a baby rather than having a biological child.  She will be adapting to a lot of new things…new parents, new family, new home, new foods, new time zone (totally opposite what she's used to).  That is a lot to swallow at one time.

We appreciate your understanding in reading this.  We're sharing this with you so that you will understand how dedicated and committed we are to helping our new little one adjust and adapt during this stressful time in her life.  We feel confident that everything will smooth out quickly and we will be on more of a normal schedule.

We Love You All,
Jenifer and Bryan

Just So You're In The Know….

I know there is a lot of lingo and a lot of acronyms tossed around on here and on our Facebook page.

I thought I would let you know of the next few things that we have coming up to help!

Next we will be:

DTC

This is when our dossier is "dossier to country".  We will be jumping up and down when this happens. It means the BULK of our paperwork process on our end is DONE.

Next will be:

LID

This is when our dossier is officially recorded in China's logs that it has arrived.

Next will be:

LOA

This is the letter of acceptance.  This is our OFFICIAL approval from China saying we can adopt MinLan.

Then we wait for:

TA

This is travel approval from China saying that we allowed to travel and bring MinLan home.

Hope this helps when we are rambling about adoption stuff!

We are coming sweet girl,
Mommy

100 Prayers Quilt

At this point in our adoption journey, we are about to begin a period of pretty intense W.A.I.T.I.N.G.

To know that there is nothing I can do on my end but wait makes this part of the process so much harder.

I told Bryan last night that I wanted to make a quilt to work on for MinLan while we wait.

I am no expert quilter but I am so glad I sat with my Granny Shearon and quilted.  She decided that somebody in our family should know how to quilt.  What a blessing that she wanted to pass it along to me.

When I began to look up "adoption quilts" online, I ran across mentions of a "100 Good Wishes Quilt".  This website shares the following:

"To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to a make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt.  It is a custom to invite friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth with a wish for the baby.  Part of the patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth can go into a creative memory notebook with the wish for the child.  The quilt contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric.  The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation."

Well, I know that the power of prayer is so much more than any good wish.  So I have decided to out together a 100 Prayers Quilt for MinLan.

Would you be willing to send a piece of fabric?

I would love to have a 6 inch by 6 inch square of fabric from all of you that are willing.

It could be from the stash of fabric you already have.

It could be from a favorite shirt that you're kids have outgrown.

It could be remnants from an outfit you made for one of your little ones.

No need to go and purchase something!  Glad to have anything you have on hand that you'd like to include.

Would you say a prayer over your piece of fabric before you mail it?

Would you pray that our wait is short?

Would you pray that our sweet MinLan stay healthy?

Would  you say a prayer for her foster family?

Thank you so much friends and family!

If you'd like to send a square of fabric by November 15th, please post below and I will email you our address!  Then you can mail your fabric piece in just a regular envelope!

Thank you so much for helping occupy this momma's mind while she waits on her sweet girl!!!!

Sad Day…..

Let me just say that this adoption process is a ROLLERCOASTER of emotion….

Whoever said "you  could just go adopt" like it was easy, breezy has lost their mind….

Today was a hard day.

Amazing how one little comment and email can make it all come tumbling down.

I mentioned today on an online group that we hoped to travel to bring MinLan home in January.  A friend commented that there was basically no way that was going to happen because of Chinese New Year and us not having our LOA by a certain date.

Since we started this process, I have had January 2014 in the back on my head.  It was mentioned to me by someone during this process and it has just stuck.  I realistically knew that we could run into snags of course and it could be later.  But so far everything has run pretty smoothly so I thought we were still on track for January.

Even though so many of these steps seem to take FOREVER,  I have been encouraged lately to see people getting quick LID and some getting LOA in like THIRTY DAYS!  I know this is on the SUPER fast side and certainly not the case for the majority of people.

I have just been dreaming that we would be in the minority!

Sorry, for non-adoption folks that I am not explaining all the acronyms in detail….I'm just too upset to focus right now.

For non-adoptive parents, imagine going to the doctor and finding out you are pregnant.  They give you a due date of January.

You work hard to get the room decorated just like you want it…

You buy lots of special baby clothes, wash them all and put them away in the nursery…

You make arrangements to take care of your other little ones while you are in the hospital…

You are ready….

And so excited…

Then someone says "Never mind January.  It will be March."

Sigh….

Please say a prayer for us.

I am trying to remind myself that this is all part of God's plan.  He knows exactly when we need to travel.  He knows the path ahead.  His ways are so much better than ours.  He knows exactly what we need.

It's just hard to be even one moment farther away from bringing this sweet girl home.

We are coming sweet girl,
Mommy

iPad Mini Giveaway!!!

Congrats to our winner HALEY JARVIS!!!!
Thank you all so much for donating 
to help bring our girl home!!
We are so grateful!


So excited that we finally mailed all of our dossier documents to Houston, TX yesterday!!  

To celebrate we are excited to share about a 

giveaway fundraiser for our adoption!

I sooooooooo would love to have an 

iPad Mini 

so I figured you would love one TOO!!!!

Here's all the details on this fabulous piece of mini-ness!!!!

iPad mini features a beautiful 7.9-inch display, iSight and FaceTime cameras, the A5 chip, ultrafast wireless, and up to 10 hours of battery life. And over 275,000 apps on the App Store made for iPad also work with iPad mini. So it’s an iPad in every way, shape, and slightly smaller form.

- 7.9 inch LED-backlit display
- A5 chip
- 5MP iSight camera with 1080p HD video recording
- FaceTime camera
- Up to 10 hours of battery life
- Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n)
- Over 275,000 apps on the App Store
- iOS6 and iCloud
- Cellular data service on Wi-Fi + Celluar models (sold separately)

• Maximum Resolution: 1024 x 768
• Display Features: Touch Screen
• Computer Features: Built-in Speaker, Built-In Bluetooth, Touch Screen
• Processor Brand: Apple
• Processor Type: Apple A5
• System Bus Speed: Up to 2.4 GHz
• System RAM: 512 MB
• Maximum RAM Supported: 512 MB
• Data Storage Capacity: 16GB Hard Drive Capacity
• Wireless Standard: IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n
• Input Type: Microphone, Headphone Jack
• Audio Features: Built-In Speaker
• Built-In Webcam Features: Built-In Webcam
• Battery Charge Life: Up to 10 Hours
• Includes: USB Cable, Power Cord Adapter, Power Adapter

Here's how to enter our giveaway!  All you have to do is make a donation towards our adoption!  

For each donation of $10, you'll receive one entry.

So if you donate $20 you'd receive TWO entries or 

if you made a $30 donation you'd receive THREE entries!  

After we reach 100 entries we will draw at random to giveaway the iPad Mini!

Don't have a Paypal account?  No problem!  Click the donate button above and look towards the bottom where it says "Don't have a Paypal account?" Click there to use your credit card or bank account.

I'll keep you posted along the way on this post so you'll know how many entries we have!

We figure it might take a couple of weeks to get to 100 entries but the sooner the better!  Maybe we could reach 100 before then!

Please feel free to click the little Facebook icon below this post and share on your Facebook page to help spread the word!!!!

Thank you all so much for helping us bring our sweet MinLan HOME!!!!

We are coming sweet girl!
Mommy

If you would like to be entered without making a donation towards our adoption, please email me at 

jmparris@cableone.net.

100 Envelopes to Bring MinLan Home!

100 Envelopes 

to Bring MinLan Home

Thanks so much for checking out our 100 Envelopes Fundraiser!

We have 100 envelopes numbered one to one hundred.

We are asking for friends, family, complete strangers, anyone, to sponsor an envelope or MORE than one if you like!

When you sponsor an envelope, you are volunteering to fill the envelope with the number of dollars corresponding to your envelope number.  So if you have envelope number 7, you commit to fill it with 7 dollars and send it back to us. If you have envelope 21, you commit to fill it with 21 dollars and send it back to us.

Keep in mind that you do not have to come up with the money all by yourself.  You are committing to raising that amount of money.  You could ask your friends and family for help, you could have a yard sale, sell baked goods...whatever!  The more creative the better!  Maybe your small group at church would be willing to sponsor an envelope, maybe a group of people from your office!  The possibilities are endless.

You could choose envelope 21 because you have a precious sweetie with an extra 21st chromosome!  ;-)

You could choose envelope 40 because you are celebrating your 40th birthday this year and to celebrate you'd like to ask friends to make a donation to help bring MinLan home!

Once you sign up here for your specific envelope or envelopes, we'll mail them out to you in a self-addressed, stamped envelope.  When you fill your envelope, you'll mail it back!  It's that easy! 

Our fundraiser goal date is December 8th!  That's 7 months from the date we received pre-approval to adopt our sweet girl HOME!

If all the envelopes are filled and returned, this will raise a little over $5000!!!!  This will almost cover the entire cost of our required orphanage donation.  What a blessing!!!

Thank you in advance for helping us with our fundraising efforts and for helping us spread the word about our "100 Envelopes to Bring MinLan Home"!!!  We are so blessed by all of you and are so thankful!

CLICK HERE to sponsor your envelope!

We are coming sweet girl!
Mommy

I-797, Notice of Action…….

So excited to receive this SWEEEEEET piece of paper in the mail yesterday!  We waited 64 days for this I-800a approval and it felt like forever……

This is the United State's Department of Homeland Security approving us to adopt.

Today, I took this document, our power of attorney (since Bryan will not be traveling with me) and another important letter for our dossier…..had them all notarized by our fabulous church secretary Robin….drove them all to Anniston and had them certified by Calhoun County's probate judge….then mailed them to my mom in Prattville.  She is going to drive them over to Montgomery to the Secretary of States office and have them state certified….then she will mail them back to me.

Once I receive them, I will mail them to a courier in Houston, TX who will then take them personally to the Chinese Consulate.  Once they are certified there, the courier will mail them back to me.

I will make copies. mail one copy and all the originals (gasp!) to our placing agency in Delaware.  They will scan each document, along with each certification…two to three per document and upload them into the Chinese system.  Once scanned in, she will wire fees to China and mail in the hard copy of our official dossier.

THEN.WE.WAIT.

Within about two weeks (hopefully), we should receive a LID (log in date) and then the wait begins again for LOA (letter of acceptance).  That is a HUGE day in adoption circles!  So just know when you see us posting that we received LOA, that we are hopping up and down at the Parris house!!!

Friends, please pray with us that there are no issues, no hold ups….that everything  is completed accurately and that we are on the SHORT side of the all the waiting estimations! So ready to go bring our sweet MinLan HOME!!!!  FOREVER!!!!!

We are coming sweet girl!
Love,
Mommy

Waiting on our I-800A….and a prayer request….

Are you super confused so far about all this adoption jargon we toss around?

Don't feel bad!  There are days I have to remind myself what some of it is!

Right now in the process we are waiting on approval of our I-800A from USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).

For those of you who are also friends with the Casey family and the Hill family and have heard them mention their I-600A, you are not going crazy!  Correct me if I'm wrong ladies!

Theirs is required for adopting a child from a non-Hague country and our I-800A is for adopting from a Hague country.

Still confused?  Moving on….. :-)

I know it seems crazy to others who are not adopting, but I am praying for those precious forms that were delivered to that lockbox in Texas.

I am praying for the hands that pick up and open that envelope and assign our case to an officer….

I am praying for the officer that reviews our paperwork….

Praying that he or she finds no errors….

Having our fingerprints done again is also part of this process.  Once you get your receipt from USCIS that your paperwork has been received,  you wait on a fingerprint appointment.

Our agency has suggested we could attempt to take our receipt and head to the fingerprint office in Birmingham and see if they would take us as a walk-in.  This could shave 2 to 3 weeks off our process!!

Would you pray with us that we when we get our receipt in the mail and go to Birmingham that they will graciously accept us and do our fingerprints early?

I know that might seem like a silly thing to pray for….

But I know that God loves to give us the desires of our heart and I believe that every minor detail of our adoption of MinLan is important to the Lord.

While we wait on our I-800A approval, we will continue gathering documents to complete our dossier.  We already have some of them, some are super easy to pull together and some just take a little legwork.

I have a page protector in our dossier binder with each document we need labeled.  All we have to do is fill in each sheet protector and then we are done with our dossier!

Now to fill up that little pink binder!!!!

Thanks so much to all of you who donated towards our iPad Mini giveaway and our American Girl giveaway!  We are truly blessed with the BEST friends and family and we are so thankful for your support!

We found out on Saturday that we have been awarded a $4000 grant with Brittany's Hope!  What a blessing!  Here's how that works:  we raise half of the money through fundraisers and donations for a total of $2000.  Once received by Brittany's Hope, they match those funds, for a total of $4000 that will go towards our travel to China!!!!

We are so overjoyed by this gift and will work hard to raise our part of the grant.  Soon we will have details about where you can make a tax deductible donation directly to Brittany's Hope towards our adoption.

We still have bracelets for sale, are planning a yard sale with our sweet friends the Casey's in September, our coffee website fundraiser, another iPad Mini giveaway in November and several others in the works!  Thanks again for all of your support!

Can't wait to tuck this precious little girl into her new pink room next to her sisters…..

We are coming sweet girl!
Mommy

Crop 2 Adopt Adoption Fundraiser!!

So thankful for our sweet friends who are putting together this fundraiser to help with our adoption!

Here's the details:

Crop 2 Help the Parris Family Adopt! Friday, August 16th 6:00pm to 11:00pm Don't scrapbook? Come and do any type craft, cross-stitch, clip coupons, watch a chic-flic, catch up on any project or just come to chill and chit-chat! Dinner, snacks and drinks included!!! $10 per person ALL PROCEEDS go to help the Parris family with adoption costs to bring MinLan home! Sign up and get your tickets NOW at:  www.crop2adopt.eventbrite.com DOORPRIZES given away every hour!!! *Park and enter on the side, outside basement door - not through the front doors. Please feel free to share on your Facebook page or email!

American Girl Doll Giveaway Fundraiser!!!

THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED. Thanks so much to all who donated!!!!

Update: Congrats to Carin Vogelzang on winning our giveaway for 
an American Girl Doll of her choice!

So excited today to be sharing about a 

new giveaway fundraiser for our adoption!

Ellie loves her American Girl dolls!  I remember being so excited to give her her first doll!  She wanted Julie….born in the 1970's just like yours truly!  Can't go wrong with that!

She has loved that doll, taken her everywhere, dressed and redressed her countless times, read all her books and truly considers her a friend.  I am so thankful that Ellie still has that sweet innocence that loves playing make believe with dolls.  I pray she holds onto it for years to come!

So in order to help bring our sweet MinLan home and in honor of my BIG girl, I thought an American Girl doll giveaway would be tons of fun!

And to make it easy for not only Moms to enter but little girls TOO, each entry is only $5.00!!!  Make a donation towards our adoption via our Paypal link below and you get one entry into our drawing!  

After 100 entries, we will draw to giveaway an American Girl doll of  YOUR CHOICE with the accessory kit, that is currently for sale (up to $129) on the American Girl website!

You could choose a Historical Character like Caroline….

You could choose the Girl of the Year, Saige…

(Doll value $129)

Do you have a little girl who would rather have a Bitty Baby or a set of Bitty Twins?  No problem!  If you're the winner, just let me know and we'll send one of those instead (up to $129)!!

Here's how to enter our giveaway!  All you have to do is make a donation towards our adoption!  

For each donation of $5, you'll receive one entry.

So if you donate $10 you'd receive TWO entries or 

if you made a $15 donation you'd receive THREE entries!  

After we reach 100 entries we will draw at random to giveaway an American Girl doll!

Don't have a Paypal account?  No problem!  Click the donate button above and look towards the bottom where it says "Don't have a Paypal account?" Click there to use your credit card or bank account.

I'll keep you posted along the way on this post so you'll know how many entries we have!

We figure it might take a couple of weeks to get to 100 entries but the sooner the better!  Maybe we could reach 100 before then!

Please feel free to click the little Facebook icon below this post and share on your Facebook page to help spread the word!!!!

Thank you all so much for helping us bring our sweet MinLan HOME!!!!

We are coming sweet girl!
Mommy

If you would like to be entered without making a donation towards our adoption, please email me at 

jmparris@cableone.net.