Panda Playroom is as ready as it can be!

Eowynn's Panda Playroom is as ready as it is going to be! Dane carved this adorable sign for the playroom door! I put the finishing touches on it!

Well, here it is!

Here is her kitchen play area...

This little bench was my Grandma Sevey's little telephone bench which she had in her hallway at her house. Dane painted it and added the new chevron fabric that we bought. Love it!

The reading nook...

The Art Area...We bought this antique piano bench to use as her art table. Dane painted it. Eowynn can store her paper and other art tools inside the bench.

The magnet board...

The toy bins...

We cannot wait for little Eowynn to play in here! Now, we just have to paint her bathroom and all her rooms are ready to go! Still waiting on our PA (Provisional Approval). Hopefully we will get it this week! :)

The Reveal of EMR!

Last Christmas break, Dane and I began our adoption journey. When we signed on with our agency, we were told a timeframe of 12-18 months from match to bringing our child home. Just this past summer, we saw that the timeframe had extended to 24 months (2 years). We had been looking at children who needed adopted on various sites, as this was another way that we could possibly find our daughter (Either we would wait for our agency to "match" us or we could find her on our own). After seeing 4 little girls and being put on their waiting lists without ever getting an opportunity to view their files (other families accepted their files before it ever got to us on the lists), we didn't get discouraged and kept looking. I'll never forget coming home from work on Tuesday, Sept. 22nd, and seeing the picture and video of a sweet baby girl on our agency's waiting children profile page. After showing Dane, we went ahead and emailed our agency contact, requesting to be added to the list to review her file. We figured that what ever was meant to be for these children and for us, would be. We were in shock when we received the call to review the file of this little girl on October 9th. After consulting with experts in the medical field about this little girl's listed medical conditions, we officially accepted our daughter's file on October 16th. We wanted to make sure that we could meet her needs and provide the medical attention/ surgery (surgeries) that she will need. The defining moment was when we were on a conference call with the head doctor at Children's Hospital who informed us that the doctor who invented the procedure that our little girl will need works at our very own Children's Hospital. This little girl could not be placed in a better area for her medical condition. Right away, I thought back to when my Dad had his brain surgery this past Feb/ March. The doctor who performed his surgery was the one who invented that procedure. It was so very clear, this little girl was meant to be placed with us. Dane and I just keep asking ourselves, "How did we get so lucky to have found and soon will welcome this little girl into our family and call her our own, our daughter." As for her name, we picked out this name for our future daughter years ago. Her initials are EMR, her first name has the meaning: Horse Lover. Ironically, our little girl was born last year, which was the year of the horse in the Chinese Tradition. We are thankful for God finally sharing his plan and vision for our family with us now. His timing could not be more perfect! We are beyond excited to share our daughter. Just click on the link below her little footprint, "Our Adoption Journey" for the reveal.

Our Adoption Journey

Care Package Ready To Mail!

We are ready to send a little care package to our daughter. We can only send a shoebox-sized care package, otherwise China may not accept it. So, we are going to pack all of these items the best that we can. Our agency was kind enough to provide labels in Chinese for the items. Stickers for our daughter "to share with friends" and chocolates "for the Nannies." All other items are for our daughter: PJ's, Outfit with sweater and socks, Doll, Elephant Teether, crinkle elephant book, elephant blanket buddy, and a photo book with pictures of us, her house, her backyard, her room, her toys, her dog, her Grandmas and Grampas, her Aunts and Uncles, and cousin. We are also including a disposable camera in hopes that the Nannies will take pictures of our daughter for us. We hope to get the camera back when we meet our daughter for the first time. Fingers crossed, as sometimes it doesn't work out that way. <

Our I800 and supporting documents were sent out today by our agency. We now wait for our PA (Provisional Approval) which typically takes 2-4 weeks to issue. We are moving forward with the next steps of the immigration process! Once we receive this approval, things are said to move rather quickly. We already feel like they are! :)

HARD COPY LOA!!!

We received our LOA today! Now that we have this approval, our daughter's picture and name reveal will be coming soon! Estimated time until travel is 9-12 weeks! It will be here before we know it! Now, onto more paperwork! One step closer!

Soft LOA today!

We received an email stating that we have soft LOA today! Our official approval from China should come within the week! We are preparing a care package to send to our daughter soon!

We are also working on listing five questions in which our agency can request an update about our little girl (things we would like to know...ex. favorite toys, update on height and weight, etc.). There are several more documents that need to be filled out at this time!

We are on the downhill slope of the process, which is moving quickly. Can't wait until the day we touch down and meet our precious little girl! Picture Reveal coming soon! Until then, here is her tiny footprint!

Big Announcement...

On September 22nd, I came home from school and saw a new little girl posted on our agency’s home page. Dane and I watched her video and sent an email to our agency contact requesting to be put on this little girl’s waiting list to possibly review her file. We had requested four other little girl files prior, but families accepted the files before us on the list. We just kept telling ourselves that it is “all in God’s timing.” Friday, October 9th, we kicked off my birthday weekend by driving out to Carter Caves for a two-night camping trip. We arrived there around 4:30, started to unload the truck, and began setting up our tent. Once our tent was up and ready, we proceeded to put up our netted kitchen tent. All of a sudden, it started to drizzle and then just poured down rain! So, we quickly finished getting the kitchen tent secured and went into our regular tent. We sat there for about 10 minutes, and the rain finally stopped. By now, it was closer to 6:00. Dane brought our kitchen table, chairs, pop-up kitchen, and other food necessities into the kitchen tent for me to set up. Just as I finished putting the table cloth on our table, I heard Dane say, “Tava, come here.” I looked at him and noticed that he was standing by the side of his truck looking at his phone. I then started putting the weighted hooks on the tablecloth, when again, he said, “Tava, Come Here!” I saw him look away from his phone and then back down at it. Right away, my heart sank, thinking something was wrong. Something had happened and we were going to have to pack up and head home right away. I ran over to the truck and asking him “What is it? “Is everything ok?” He began reading an email to me: Dear Dane and Tava, I left you a message on the phone as we are able to share the file of little _____ with your family today. Her name is _________________ and she was born on 7.21.2014. We looked at our phones for missed calls. Dane didn’t have any, but I did! I had two missed calls from our agency rep, one at 5:55 and again at 5:56!

As you can imagine, our eyes welled up with tears which began to fall as Dane continued to read. She was born the day after our wedding anniversary (7-20)! She is 14 months old, and will be closer to two years of age by the time we go to get her. We opened several attachments with pictures, medical information, and a video, etc. Oh my sweetness! Then and there we realized that she was just the perfect fit for our family! However, we would need to consult medical professionals to be sure that we could meet her needs. It was 7:00 by the time we came to the realization that this was happening, and we were losing daylight. We debated about whether or not we should head back home. After much discussion, we realized that with it being the weekend, there wasn’t anything we could do until Monday. So, we finished setting up our campsite and stayed. We went to the little gift shop on Saturday, and they had this little Panda on a key ring. The Panda’s name ironically rhymes with our little girl’s Chinese given name. So, we bought it as a souvenir to remember receiving the best email and news ever!

We returned home on Sunday, and told our families about how we were in the process of reviewing a little girl’s file. We didn’t give them much detail, as we wanted to check with doctors first on medical conditions listed for this little girl. So, during the week of October 12th, we were busy sending her file to medical experts: a nurse friend, a neighbor pediatrician, and the doctors at the International Adoption Center at Children’s. We just had a week to give our final decision-if we accepted, she was ours; if not, she would be passed onto the next family on her list. First and foremost, we agreed that we needed to make sure that we could meet this little girl’s needs. Thursday at 4:00 we had a conference call with the head doctor at Children’s. She basically agreed with the other information we had gathered. Moreover, she told us that the doctor who invented the one procedure that this little girl would need was at our Children’s Hospital!!! We could not be in a better area for helping this little girl!!! That pretty much made our final decision-she was just meant to be our daughter! Thursday night, we went and told our families our decision! Friday morning, Dane and I called our agency and left a message for our agency rep, telling her that this little girl is our daughter!!! Some additional medical information was requested by the doctors, which our agency was amazing in providing within 24 hours. Dane later spoke to our agency contact. She told Dane that we were #7 on this little girl's list and there were many families inquiring about her after us. Our next steps: We must submit a LOI (Letter of Intent) to China. Then, we will wait for LOA (Letter of Approval) from China. At this time, we cannot share pictures of her and other information until we receive our LOA (as stated by our agency and the CCCWA). Hopefully we will have LOA by Thanksgiving/ before Christmas. As of now, we should travel to get her February/ March of next year!

Today, Sunday, October 18th-What a beautiful thing to wake up and see our little girl moved on our agency Home Page from “Looking for my Forever Family” to “Matched!” She warms my heart and brings tears of joy to my eyes already! We now know what it feels like to see your child for the first time! Now, we will look forward to meeting her and holding her for the first and forever time! Thank you for all of your continued prayers! God could not have led us to a more perfect little girl to complete our family!

Playroom almost complete!

We are just putting the final touches on the playroom. Dane has been hanging all of the things that go on the wall. I created some little signs, banners, and other things as accents for parts of the room. Here are some snippets of the playroom: We ordered Chinese for dinner the other night. This is what my fortune read: "A beautiful, smart, and loving person will be coming into your life." We cannot wait for the day when we see our daughter's face for the first time! All in God's timing. Til then, we are preparing for her arrival as much as we can. That's all for now! ~T