The waiting continues...but getting closer!

So, I am really not very good at keeping this blog updated.  It is very true that some people have the gift of writing.  I do not think I am one of them.  (Probably why I struggled so much in college English...only class I made a B in in college:).

But we have had an eventful summer.  We spent several weeks at the beach.  Thanks to a very gracious family that offered up their beach place several times, I was able to spend some very sweet time with Emma and Liam.  Because Brad is saving up all of his vacation days for our travel to China, he was only able to come with us once.  But we were also able to have other sweet friends come down a couple of times.  It was a very very fun summer, and I could not be more thankful for it.  To get to spend so much one-on-one time with my kids all summer before we have some hugh life changes was priceless.  Thank you thank you to the Hawke family!!!

First "toes in the sand" of the summer!

Sweet friends came down to stay

BFFs

Couldn't be more thankful for these two!

Sweet summer of memories!

So much fun with two of my very favorite girls!

That's right...nothing says Florida like shuffleboard!

 I also went on a backpacking trip with 6 of my YL girls to Colorado.  That will be have to be a whole separate post, but it was a huge highlight of my summer! And Brad took 5 guys on an amazing road trip.  Maybe I'll get him to write about that (granted it would be only the second time he's written anything here:)

And because we can't stay put for long, we also decided to move this summer.  As though we don't have enough craziness going on in our lives right now, we thought we'd add a little more.  We moved about a mile down the road into an incredibly unique house.  We are still in our same neighborhood (which we love), but we now have 5 acres, our house sits back in the woods and we have a pond in our back yard...all right in the middle of our 'hood.  A huge blessing just fell in our laps...this house was drastically reduced and we sold our old house without even putting it on the market.  Clearly we knew that God was in control and that He orchestrated all of this.  So, we're in house #8 in 11 year of marriage and WILL NOT be moving EVER again (yep..you can write that down!)  But we do love it and are very thankful.

One other HUGE update...we got our LOA!!!!!  This is the official "letter of acceptance" from China.  This is another hugh step.  We have been waiting on this since April.  We waited a little over 100 days for this piece of paper.  Some people wait 30 days, some 60 and some for as long as we have.  To say it was an exciting day would be an understatement.  This mama was on cloud 9!

So, as for where that puts us in the adoption process...we are on the very last leg of the process.  We have mailed everything to U.S. Immigration, we're applying for visas and now we just wait for our TA (travel approval) which we will hopefully get in the next 8 weeks or so.  So, we're hoping to travel to China in late October/early November.  It can't come soon enough!!

Last week I had a tough week.  For some reason, the waiting just got to me.  My heart was weary and worn-out.  So very little is in our control during all of this waiting.   And as we get closer to bringing him home, I think I get a little more impatient.  A good portion of last week was spent crying and in frustration....and on my knees in front of our Heavenly Father asking him to give me peace and strength to finish this journey.

I think it made it even harder because Wren turned "1" last Friday.  Knowing that he was on the other side of the world.  Praying that he was loved and taken care of.  Trying to fight feelings of "worst case scenarios".  Just wanting him to be home with us.  Dreaming of all of the rest of the birthdays where he will be home with us.  It was tough! But we did have a small "birthday party" for him with some very good friends...and cookie cake, of course.  It helped to think of what future birthdays will be like when he is home and to share in this journey with great friends who have walked alongside us and prayed for us during this last year.

Ok.  So this was a long post.  And as I write I realize that a lot has gone on this summer.  I need to update more often.  I will try to be better!  Thanks to those who still actually "check-in" on us from time to time and continue to pray for us.  We're thankful for you!