The Countdown!!

I have a secret Facebook group for all of you fellow face bookers but thought I better update here to those of you that are not on Facebook!  We leave in less than 48 hours!!  We are flying out on Thursday April 23 and will arrive in Guangzhou on Friday April 24.  We will receive Oliver on Monday April 27 and finalize his adoption on Tuesday April 28.  We will arrive back in Evansville on Thursday May 7 at 8:45 PM.  Any and all are welcome to come to the airport!
I will try to post some updates here but I will mainly use Facebook as a way to communicate.  Here are a couple pictures!

This is the last time that we skyped.  Sandra received 4 new babies and everyone has had a cold so it was not our best Skype session!

Oliver taking a couple steps!

See everyone soon!

Becky

Skype....It is a wonderful thing!

Hi everyone!  A little background about where Oliver is located.  Oliver is in the city of Yangchun which is in the Guangdong province.  Sandra King has established 4 homes in China and one of them is The House Of Grace which is located in Yangchun.  She is able to take some of the special needs children from the government run orphanage into this foster home to care for them.  She is such a special lady!!  Oliver is lucky enough to have been picked for her foster home and is thriving there!  And...to top it off...we get to Skype every Friday night with him.  Sandra has mentioned that he is a totally different baby since we started skyping.  He know sings and laughs.  He even says Momma!!
Here a few pictures taken during a Skype session.

Tanner was sticking out his tongue so Oliver did the same thing!   Monkey see...Monkey do!

We received our Travel Approval on Good Friday.  What an awesome day it was!!  We requested our consulate appointment and waited.  We received the email on Tuesday that our consulate appointment is scheduled for May 5, 2015.  We will be flying out on Thursday April 23rd and receive Oliver on Monday April 27!  We are over the moon right now!!!  Stay tuned for our travel information!

Becky

Adoption T Shirt

Hi all!  I am one of those adoptive moms that are obsessed with adoption t-shirts!  So it only seemed fitting to design one of my own and sell them as a fundraiser.  So that is what I did!!  If you don't mind to take a peek at it and share with all of your friends!  I need to sell 50 by April 7th or they won't print any of them.  Hurry and order yours today!!

www.bonfirefunds.com/bringing-oliver-home

Sneak Peek at His Brother and Sister

Our agency, AAC, just traveled to China to visit with some children that are coming up for adoption. While there, they graciously took care packages and visited with the children that have been matched.  We have received one picture of Oliver with them.  I sent a photo album with our pictures in it and in this picture, he is looking at the picture of Tanner and Anna.  He is probably thinking how much fun he is going to have with those two!!

Time to Get Back At It!!

Hello all!  I guess it is that time to start blogging again.  It looks like last June I had posted that we are going back to China to adopt a little boy 0-18 months.  Little does the blogworld know, we have been matched with that little boy and are soooooooo close to travel!!  I can almost taste the Chinese noodles (really....almost....because I won't really taste them there!!)  Anyway, let's start at the beginning, shall we?

After coming home with Anna, Chad and I felt that our family was complete.  We had that perfect American family....husband, wife, son, daughter, and dog.  But...there was this longing....we knew on the other side of the world, how many there were without a mommy and daddy.  We had been there....we had seen it....it's heart tugging.  Could we adopt again?  Should we adopt again?  Remember...we had the "perfect" family.  But we kept feeling that call.  There is another one over there that needs a good home and loving family.  And we felt that we could provide for another child...our hearts could love another child...our family would embrace another child.  So we said Yes!  Then we waited....and waited....should we apply now?  No, let's wait until the kids are a little older.  6 months later...should we apply now?  No, let's wait until the first of the year.  What about now?  Okay...let's go!  But only the One person knew....that when we said yes that January....that a little boy was about to be born that very same month.

Fast forward to June 2014...we decided on AAC as our agency and started the paperwork process.  The third go around was pretty easy.  Our home study was completed and all our paperwork came back without a problem.  We were just waiting on one piece to our dossier before we could submit.  Our agency wanted that piece of paper right when we received it.  And then guess what?  We got a call.  There were three little boys that they wanted to discuss with us.  Now, most people think that a little boy is hard to get from China.  Actually, it is just the opposite.  Most people request a girl so there are so many little boys waiting for a forever family.  We discussed the three little ones and decided to review a file for a little boy with a limb difference.

Here is where my heart pours out:  Limb difference is not something that Chad and I had picked that we would "accept."  It actually never crossed our minds to even think about it.  We checked the "comfortable" needs:  cleft lip/palate, hernia, club foot, minor heart condition.  Everything was minor and correctable.  Limb difference is minor...but is it correctable?  I just couldn't grasp the fact that my son would not have a lower left arm.  But he is perfectly healthy.  The international doctor said that she never sees a file of a child so healthy!  But he doesn't have a hand.  Can we really refuse him because he doesn't have a hand?!  We talked and prayed...and talked and prayed....and the next day I prayed for God to show me a sign saying that this little one was to be named Oliver Wesselman.  About 10 minutes later, Chad texts me and says "I am thinking that our next son is not going to have a hand."  That is all I needed!!  We accepted him and started the process of bringing him home.

Fu Xiang Yang (aka Oliver Matthew Wesselman)

On February 4, we received LOA (letter of acceptance) which basically says that he is ours and that we can start working on getting him approved to come into the US.  On March 3, we were approved by the US so now we are working on getting his paperwork ready in Guangzhou, China.  Our paperwork will be pick up on March 30 and then we will wait for our travel approval...which says COME GET HIM!!!  We are hoping...and praying...that comes quickly after March 30 and we can fly out on April 17.

I will try to be more diligent in this blog thing and keep everyone updated.

Here is an updated picture that we received yesterday from a family that traveled last month.

Keep praying for us!
Becky

7 and 5 year Pictures

Tanner and Anna had their 7 and 5 years pictures done recently.  I am not as strict for their pictures as I used to be.  Before, I wanted them to be "just perfect!"  Now, as long as I get at least 1 good one, the rest can be silly and show their personalities.  Tanner is very photogenic so all his pictures turn out great.  Anna, on the other hand, not so much!!  She almost tries to hard sometimes!  Here are some of the favorites.

On the adoption front, our home study is complete!  Wahoo!!  I have mailed all of the documents today to AAC and should receive our fingerprinting appointment soon.  After that, we will have everything we need to turn into China and wait for our baby boy.

Hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather!
Becky

And we are off......

Well....it's official!!  We are going back to China!!  We are requesting a baby boy 0-18 months with minor, correctable special needs.  

I am busy collecting all of our documents for the home study and dossier that will be sent to China.  We chose AAC this time around due to the fact that they have just partnered with several new orphanages.  That will give us better odds to get matched sooner, rather than later. 

And on to the rest of the summer....

The kids just finished with swimming lessons.  They now feel more confident in the water but I don't feel that they can actually "swim" yet!  

We are anxiously awaiting our vacation to Destin, Fl.  My parents have rented a condo for my whole family to stay together.  We did that a couple years ago in Gulf Shores and it was a lot of fun.  

We just celebrated Tanner's 6th Gotcha Day a couple weeks ago.  He likes to go to Holiday World for his Gotcha Day.  We couldn't have asked for a better day this year.  There was a threat of rain throughout the day so I think that kept the crowds away.  It only down poured for about 15 minutes and it stayed cloudy so we didn't get hot.  Plus, there were no lines!!  The kids didn't even have to get off some of the rides....they just started them going again!  I think this is the first time that we were able to ride everything they wanted plus some of them multiple times.  

I am sooooo excited to be at Holiday World!!!!

On the train!

He looks so little in this picture!

Chad wasn't able to get off work so Papa went.  He was a trooper!!

That was awesome!!!!!

I will definitely keep you all updated on the progress going forward!  Thanks for stopping by!

Becky