New Website! www.highwaytoevan.com

Thanks so much for following our second adoption journey! As previously mentioned, we have begun the process of creating our own website to document Evan's adoption process.

So from now on, please visit us at www.highwaytoevan.com , if you want to keep up with everything! Thanks!

The sacred 171-h has arrived!

Well, finally, our 171-h arrived. Our social worker just told us that the average wait is 7-11 weeks and we received ours in 5.5 weeks. We were so shocked. Tomorrow we make a trip to the county court clerk to have all of our notarized papers county certified and then on to Nashville to have them state certified. Then we will send them to a courier in Washington who will take them to the dept of state to have them certified and then finally on to the Chinese Embassy. After that, we will send them to Childrens Hope and they put our dossier folder together and send it to China. That will be our DTC (Dossier to China) date. From there our dossier will be translated at the CHI offices in Beijing and sent to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) to be logged in, reviewed, and matched with our approval for Evan. Within 2-3 months we should receive our travel approval(TA) and travel to China within 2-6 weeks to get him! It is looking like we'll have a wild Christmas this year.

We also got his measurements last week. If they are correct, he is smaller than Mira. She will be 2 in August and is 35 1/2 inches tall and weighs 28 lbs. He turned 3 in May and is 35 inches tall and weighs 25 lbs. He is gonna be a tiny little guy.

Here's another picture of Evan I haven't posted yet.

We have decided to have a website for our trip instead of the blog, people have had lots of trouble in china with blogspot. We'll post the address as soon as we get it.

Woo Hoo!!

Hey y'all! We had a huge yard sale yesterday for our adoption and we made $721!! I couldn't believe it.

We've been talking to Mira more and more about Evan. She recognizes him in pictures but of course, I still don't think she really realizes he's gonna be around for good.
We still have no 171-h, Tuesday will make 3 weeks since we were fingerprinted. Let's keep praying it comes quickly. We have new pics of Evan and also some of Mira(in stripes) Hope you enjoy!!!

Good News!

Hey!! We found out that Evan's palate has already been repaired! It is such a relief to know that we will not have to worry about putting him through another surgery so soon. Now we can dedicate our time to getting to know him. He is living with a foster family in Luoyang. He has a foster sister just a little older than Mira, so he's used to having a pesky little sister around! Just wanted to share the news.

PA arrived!!

Well today we received our Pre-Approval for Evan. That means that China approved us to adopt him. We can now post his pics as our son!!! We are now able to send him a package with a photo album of our family so he can become familiar with our faces.

Now all we are waiting on is our 171-h from the CIS. That is the one thing that we need. We were just fingerprinted last Tuesday. Send up extra prayers that it will come soon and we will be able to get to Evan as soon as possible!!!

One more step forward

Well our letter of intent went to China on May 12. We should get our pre-approval in about 6 weeks or so. Our homestudy will be done this weekend. Then our next step is to be fingerprinted by the CIS. Then we will wait for the precious 171-h. It is a form that gives us permission to bring Evan home. Some have waited lately as long as 3-4 months. We got our last one in 3 weeks. Everyone say a special prayer that we will not have to wait very long this time. That one paper is the one thing that could possibly put us very much later getting Evan than we expect.
We got new pictures of him this week. They are very cute. We spend a lot of time looking at them and dreaming of the day we will finally have him in our arms where he belongs.Mira loves to look at them and laugh and say "Ev Ev Ev" or "Bro Bro Bro" I know she doesn't understand what is about to happen to her world though Ha Ha.

I can't wait to share Evan's pics with you all!! As soon as I get that PA he will be all over this blog!!!

Surprise!! It's a boy!!!!!

Well, we decided to adopt a waiting child. He will be 3 years old on May 11. He is living in the Luoyang Child Welfare Institute in Luoyang City, Henan Province, PRC. He has a cleft lip and palate. His lip has been repaired but we will have to have the palate surgery after we come home. He looks like a happy little guy. He is smiling in all his pics. He also looks a little mischievous. I'm sure he and Mira will be getting into all kinds of trouble together. (that is if they can stand each other) LOL We have to send a letter of intent to China to get pre-approval to adopt him and our dossier will go to China as usual. After dossier goes at the end of July, our travel approval to go get him could come in 2-4 months. Then we could travel in as little as 2 weeks. There is a possibility we could have him by Christmas!! What a Christmas that would be.
More realistically, We are looking at traveling in January. If it is earlier, that would be a great surprise. We cannot post any pictures of him until we get pre-approval so as soon as that comes, we will post. Until then, here are some new ones of Mira.