The Great Paperchase

Today Tad and I went for our physicals. I took all 3 of the kids yesterday for theirs. All 3 kids required shots and it was a tough day! The boys did well as I told them that if they cried then they would scare Izzie. They were very brave big brothers, I am so proud of them! Izzie paniced as soon as she saw the dreaded rubber gloves! During her hospital stay at CHOP for her open heart surgery she encountered many people with rubber gloves who subjected her to many shots, IVs and blood draws. She does not like ruber gloves!!! Poor girl. She still has the bandaids on the injections sites today and will not let me take them off!! We should be getting our packet for the dossier checklist this week. We are pretty sure we have it almost completed. WE just have to make an addendum to our homestudy for the update then Eckel's can sent our I-800a on it's way! We are also waiting for our clearances to come back to go to Eckel's and to AAI. Then I am pretty sure we can send our dossier to China! Tad has done an amazing job with the paperwork again for this adoption! He is feeling a bit stressed because he knows our little girl is waiting for us and he wants to get through all of the red tape and get on a plane to bring her home. I am trying to remain calm - but would really like to getour PA (pre-approval) this week so we can share our good news with our friends!
We get to help set up and serve at a fundraiser dinner for our friends Morgan and Sherry White this weekend. They are adopting their 2 kids from Europe! It is so exciting to see how God is bringing orphaned kids to Troy, PA and uniting them with thier families! I feel so blessed to get to share this journey with Morgan and Sherry! I can't wait to tell them that we are adopting again!!!
Izzie just asked if wecould go outdoors - but it is very cold! We are supposed to get some snow tonight! I am ready for spring!
Zach has decided to attend public school at Troy High next year. I am excited for him and we sat down and picked classes for him this morning. I will miss having him at home, but he is growing up and I know that he will enjoy the high school experience. He is a good kid. He has a lead in the upcoming high school play of Godspell. He is playing Lamar and will be singing a solo, "All Good Gifts". I can't wait to see the play! He has made many new friends and is enjoying the experience.
Jacob has joined 4-H and will be raising 2 market hogs to sell at the Troy Fair this summer. He spent time at the bar this weekend with Grampy building the pen. He is good with animals. I am not sure how he is going to feel when he has to part with the pigs. He has a big heart and gets attached to animals easily. This will be an interesting experience for him!
Yesterday we were excited to see 2 bobcats in our backyard! They ran so fast! It was pretty close to the house, which made me a bit nervous, but we are so blessed to be able to see God's creatures as they play in our yard! I love living here in Troy, PA.
Last weekend was Grandma's 88th birthday. We celebrated at the Chinese Buffet in Sayre, PA. She is an amazing person and I love her so much. My friend, Nancy, makes glass beads and fashioned a beautiful necklace for Grandma. Gary and Bonnie sent her a beautiful lamp with dragonflies on it as dragonflies remind us that Grandpa is in Heaven with his new body waiting for us to join him!! I have rambled on and changed the subject many times - so now I am going to sign off and make Izzie some cocoa!

Here we go again!

We received a file for a little girl from China on February 12, 2010. Tad and I agreed to move forward and attempted to call and email our adoption agency. They had already closed for the day so we tried to find our agency rep on Facebook! We actually found her and sent her a private message in hopes she would get. We asked her to lock in the file for Dang Xushu, DOB 6-1-06. Then we waited. We were very nervous because with the shared list of waiting children any agency can lock in a file at any time. With the long holiday weekend (President's Day Feb 15) we were afraid we would lose her. I tossed and turned and prayed for God's direction and guidance. I prayed for this little girl - if she was to be a part of our family or if He had different plans for her. After getting Izabelle and myself ready for the day, I checked my email! There was a note from Ky! Just at that moment Izabelle informed me that she had to use the potty! That is her impeccable timing! I called tad and he read the email! Dang Xushu was still on the list and Ky locked her file for us! I guess that means that God has plans for her to be a Culkin! So we wrote our LOI (Letter of Intent), filled out our financial status, sent a family photo and passports to our agency and are currently filling out out I-800! We are on the path to adopting our second little China girl!!! This is my first Blog - so I have every intention of going back to fill in the beginning of our story when we adopted Izabelle! Also important information about our two amazing sons, Zachary and Jacob! I hope I am diligent enough to keep this up! It will be good to have a record of our journey!