Travel Approval!

On Friday our adoption agency received our Travel Approval from China! This means that we have done everything we need to do, and they are ready for us to come and get our daughter!! We are so excited!! Our agency is working on making our appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, and that will determine our exact travel dates. But, our agency is thinking we'll travel April 4-19. If those dates work out, we'll be leaving in about 2 1/2 weeks!!! We already have a suitcase in our bedroom which is almost filled up, and there are no clothes in it yet. We have a 4 page packing checklist that we got from our agency so we have been gathering and purchasing all those things. God is providing money for us, and it looks like we may not have to borrow any money to cover our expenses. He really does provide!! We are so blessed. God is so good!

Our Adoption Supporters!!

I cannot adequately express the appreciation we feel for all the people who are supporting us throughout this adoption process! We are truly blessed with wonderful friends and family who are sharing their time, talents and money with us as we travel this path of adoption. I cannot wait for Karis to meet all the wonderful people who helped bring her home! James 1:27 tells us that we should help care for orphans and widows. I do not believe that everyone is called to adopt, but all Christians are called to care for orphans and widows. I believe that helping others who are called to adopt is definitely one way for Christians to help care for orphans. At times it is very hard for us to accept gifts from others who are supporting us. We know people who have great financial hardships who have given to us. Don't they need the money they are trying to give us? Aren't there people with much greater needs who could be blessed by this gift? But, I know that if God has prompted someone to support our adoption, I can not deny that person the ability to follow God and obey his leading in their lives as they seek to obey James 1:27. So, we humbly accept what others have done for us, and we stand in awe of how God continually provides for all of our needs.

Thank you is not enough, but we do say THANK YOU to all the people who have supported us. I am including a list of all the people who have helped us in many different ways throughout our adventure (in no particular order):

Carl & Sara Christensen

Ruth Ann Watson

Tom Taylor

Logan & Allison Preston

Richard & Linda Trotter

David & Jenn Murphy

Joe & Jen Roberson

Scott & Liz Lee

Darren & Tammy Brown

David & Bethany Guthrie

Shelly Embry

Roger & Merideth Van Fleet

Chuck & Betty Young

Sandy Hibbs

Joel & Rebecca Cummings

Tony & Kim Peters

Ed & Eva Brooks

Jason Wilson’s friend

Chris & Sonja Russell

Tim & Amy Elliott

Debbie Bennett

Steven Ballard

Anonymous

Keepers Club

Jason & Angela Wilson

Don & Sue Caldwell

Rodney & Kathy Bradford

Joe Max Williams

Caleb & Melissa Smith

Brandon Young

Bekah Young

Steve & Amber Lawrence

Dana Druin Pat Lee

Josh & Beth Porch

Mark Gardner

Ann Hinson

Lori Recktenwald

Elaine Hart

Kimetha Autumn-Young

Donna Luther

Linda Kliethermes

Joan Dilger

Todd Wallace

Snow Day!

Yesterday we awoke to a beautiful snowfall! We were so surprised to see 4 inches of snow! The kids ate breakfast as fast as they could to get out and play before the neighbors had to leave for school (they were on a 2 hour delay). Here they are enjoying the snow!

The kids always ask if we can make snow cream when it snows. But, the snow really needs to be deep enough to scoop us snow without getting dirt or grass in it, so we haven't had any this winter. I figured this would be our last opportunity to make snow cream until next winter, so I happily obliged! It was super yummy!

The aftermath (Mommy's laundry pile!)

Update on Brandon!

About a week ago my 11 year old baby boy lost his very last baby tooth!

It seems like it wasn't too long ago that I posted that he lost his first tooth! You can check out that blog post by going here: http://heatherbyoung.blogspot.com/2005_11_01_archive.html

and then scrolling down to 11-22-05.

I think my baby boy has grown up! That was 6 1/2 years ago! Now he is no longer a little kid, but has become a young man. Our prayer for him is that he will love the Lord with all his heart and follow Him all the days of his life!

In other news, Brandon had his quarterly endocrinologist appointment this past week. He got a great report and his A1C was 6.8!! That is the lowest it has ever been! We had talked about switching him to a pump last year but realized that even with insurance, it would cost us significantly more than the shots he is doing. It just didn't make sense to spend the extra money for the pump right now as we are trying to save all we can for the adoption. And, since his A1C numbers have been so good, it's not a medical necessity for him at this point. We will probably talk about the pump again later as we have heard that it really helps regulate blood sugar numbers during those crazy teenage years! (Which will be here very, very soon!)

Shower!

This past week, our church threw us a shower for Karis! We are so blessed to have a wonderful church family. They have been very supportive of us throughout this adoption process! Here are a few pictures from the shower:

I got to wear the Mommy-to-Be crown and sash!

The cake was so cute! You can't really see the hearts on the front of the cake, but one says Brandon and one says Bekah!

These are the best cookies ever! They spelled out Karis Joy and then the other cookies said things like hope, chosen, loved, etc.

Opening the gifts is always fun!

This was the decor on the entrance to the shower!

Karis Joy Young

Well, we've been holding out on showing off pictures of our new daughter until things were official. I think we've waited long enough, so here is our daughter...Karis Joy Young!

So, we had figured out that we'd probably be travelling to China to get her sometime in April. Then we got an email from our agency several weeks ago that said we should be ready to travel in late March or early April! Then, this week we got another email that said it could be even in late April! Ugh. I am soooooo tired of waiting. I feel like I've been pretty patient throughout most of this process, but I'm quickly running out of patience! I want my daughter to be home with us now!! It's still a possibility that we could travel in late March or early April, but there are no guarantees. We are confident that we will go at just the right time that God has planned for us. So, you can pray that my patience lasts that long! And while you're at it just pray that the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) gives us travel approval quickly and that we can get at appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou soon!!

New Room

We have been working on getting everything ready for Karis's arrival. She'll be sharing a bedroom with Bekah, so we've had to do some work in there getting things ready. We took out Bekah's bed and added a bunk bed instead. We got a bigger bookshelf and took out the smaller one. We also took out my old toybox and added a second chest of drawers. We also had to touch up some paint and re-do the border that Bekah had ripped off when she was very young. Here are the before and after photos!

Before...

Before...

After!

After!

Now we just need a little girl to sleep in that bottom bunk!

Valentine's Day!

I think our kids were slightly spoiled this year for Valentine's Day! But, I guess that is okay every once in a while! When they got up I fixed them heart shaped french toast for breakfast! Bekah had received a heart shaped straw from someone recently so she got to drink out of that!

We also had our first snow of the winter! It wasn't a whole lot of snow, but the kids were thrilled to get to go out and play in the snow. The schools were delayed for 2 hours, so they got to play with the neighborhood kids before they all had to go in to get ready for school. Brandon and Bekah got the day off from school though; it was our snow day/Valentine's Day holiday!

After playing in the snow, the kids opened cards from Grandmom and Grandpa. They got some money to spend, so after everyone got warmed up with hot chocolate and changed clothes we went out for them to spend their money. Mommy and Daddy pitched in a little bit of money also and Bekah ended up with a stash of clothes and accessories for her American Girl doll. We got the clothes at Michaels and they were actually pretty cheap (unlike the actual American Girl clothes). Brandon ended up with 2 pre-owned games from Gamestop. We stopped for lunch at McDonalds while we were out and the kids spent their gift certificates that they had received for Christmas. And since they had more money than the cost of a happy meal, they added cookies to their order! I did have to stop at the grocery store while we were out, but then we headed home. Daddy left work a bit early and came home and took everybody to the theater to see Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (we had a gift certificate to pay for part of that also!). After the movie we had dinner at IHOP which is a favorite for everyone! We stopped by Target and got a new game to play and came home and played it. We celebrated from the time we got up until the time we went to bed that night!
And here are the beautiful roses that Todd got me for Valentine's Day! He also got me some chocolate covered strawberries which everyone enjoyed! And he got the usual....A Reese's peanut butter heart!

Adoption Expenses

Adoption is expensive. I never really understood why until we started our own adoption process. You don't just write a $30,000 check to some adoption agency who is getting rich from adoptions. I've been tracking all of our adoption expenses so that I can explain to others why it is so expensive. To date we have spent $12,246.63 and we still have the bulk of the expenses left to pay as we travel to China. I'm sure this information will be quite boring to most people, but if you are interested in why adoption is so expensive, here is our list to date of our expenses. I'll post the final list later on. (Although it won't really be final for 5 more years as we are required to pay for post-adoption home study reports for 5 years after our adoption!) I also want to mention that we have had many people who have helped support us financially throughout this process. I also plan on posting a list of those people's names when it is finalized also. We are currently selling tickets to an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast to raise money! God has been so good to provide for all our our adoption expenses up until now, and I trust that He will continue to provide the rest of the money that we need!

Date	Reason	Amount
01/17/11	FTIA Application Fee	200.00
01/18/11	Postage for Application	1.22
01/26/11	Todd's birth certificates	45.00
01/26/11	Heather's birth certificates	40.00
01/26/11	money order fee for GA birth certificate	5.00
01/26/11	postage for GA birth certificate request C&RR	5.54
02/03/11	Marriage certificates & Brandon's birth certificate	55.00
02/03/11	AHSS Application Fee	100.00
02/08/11	AHSS Fee	500.00
02/08/11	Dr. co-pays for Todd and Heather	40.00
02/15/11	Heart of the Matter training program	174.00
02/16/11	Money order for criminal history check	19.00
02/16/11	Postage for criminal history check C & RR	5.54
02/23/11	Dr. co-pays for Brandon and Bekah	40.00
03/04/11	Fee for Floyd County Criminal Records Check	16.00
03/11/11	Final AHSS Fee	1000.00
03/12/11	Passport Photos	18.40
03/16/11	Passport Fees	220.00
03/16/11	Post Office Fees for Passport	50.00
03/18/11	Dr. exams for H & T not covered by insurance	288.00
03/22/11	Postage for KY child abuse checks C &RR	5.54
03/22/11	Locking gun cases for home study	104.82
03/23/11	Lab work for H & T not covered by insurance	186.50
04/15/11	Ship documents to FTIA via UPS	8.23
04/29/11	US Dept. of Homeland Security 1800A application	890.00
04/29/11	Ship documents to USCIS via UPS	9.12
05/16/11	GA Sec. of State Fee	10.00
05/16/11	Tn Sec. of State Fee	4.00
05/16/11	Ship to GA, TN, and IN Sec. of State via UPS	53.49
05/17/11	KY County Clerk certification fees	45.00
05/18/11	KY Sec. of State Fee	45.00
05/18/11	Ship to KY Sec. of State via UPS	10.96
06/02/11	Ship to GA via UPS again	14.63
06/16/11	US Dept. of State Fee	80.00
06/16/11	Ship to US Dept. of State via UPS	19.37
06/22/11	Money Order to Chinese Consulate & Fee (Texas)	30.00
06/22/11	Ship documents to TX consulate via Fed Ex	39.32
07/14/11	Ship documents to IN Sec. of State via Fed Ex	24.81
07/21/11	Ship documents to IN Sec. of State via Fed Ex again	29.00
07/27/11	Money Order and fee for Consulate in Chicago	106.00
07/27/11	Ship documents to Chicago via Fed Ex	49.82
08/01/11	Money order to Chinese Embassy & Fee (DC)	202.00
08/02/11	Ship documents to Caring Hands (DC) via Fed Ex	62.04
08/03/11	Caring Hands Courier in DC	73.50
08/04/11	Walgreens - photos printed	1.83
08/11/11	CCCWA Fee	1090.00
08/11/11	FTIA Dossier submission fee	2800.00
08/12/11	Office Depot - copy dossier	7.90
08/12/11	Ship dossier to FTIA via Fed Ex	10.24
11/12/11	CCCWA Pre-Approval Fee	80.00
12/19/11	Home Study Addendum fee to FTIA	200.00
12/21/11	USCIS Fee for Supplement 3	360.00
12/22/11	Ship documents to USCIS via Fed Ex	12.94
01/05/12	Ship I-800 to USCIS via Fed Ex	34.51
01/16/12	Visa Fees and Courier Service	350.00
01/17/12	Ship Visa Application via Fed Ex	38.51
01/31/12	FTIA - Final agency fee	1000.00
01/31/12	FTIA - Humanitarian Aid Fee	500.00
01/31/12	Fee for Karis's passport and visa paid to FTIA	436.00
01/31/12	Ship documents to FTIA via UPS	8.85
02/03/12	Immunizations for Todd and Heather	190.00
02/16/12	Immunizations for Todd and Heather	200.00
	Total	$12,246.63