Expanding Our Family...

Just a recap...

July 7, 2008-- Received "the call" from Jessica stating Bethany Christian Service received our referral.

July 8, 2008--We went into Bethany's Lancaster office where they received our referral packet from the UPS truck.

The above pictures were taken by Jessica as we were seeing our daughter, Alissa's picture for the first time. Benjamin wanted to make sure we had the camera as he was certain Mommy was going to cry. And I did! The picture of Brent is signing our referral acceptance.

Some information we have since found out about our daughter:

She was born in Guilin- Province is Guangxi, China

She's been with a foster family (we don't know if she still is)

Favorite toy: doll

Favorite thing to do: play outside

She likes to: play ball/throw ball/play outside (Benjamin was excited to hear this!)

She eats: an egg and milk for breakfast/rice for lunch & supper/snacks/fruit

She sleeps: 9pm-7am/naps 1-3pm

What is next...

• We signed our referral acceptance. Once our entire group (we'll be traveling with 5 other families) submit their referral acceptances they will be sent to China. We'll be waiting for our Travel Approval. It looks like the Olympics will delay our travel a bit. Our agency has said they thought we might travel September or October. Benjamin's been praying for early Sept travel!
• Booster shots for all of us
• More paperwork
• Shopping! (We already did some last night as a family. So much fun!)
• Packing
• Lists, lists, lists!

Prayer Requests...

• Please pray for Alissa and her foster family
• Pray for good health for everyone
• Pray for attachment/adjustment when we travel to China and come home
• Pray for a September travel date! Alissa's birthday is September 7th! We would love to be with her on her b-day!

This is picture of beautiful Guilin. Alissa is from a very beautiful countryside! It is known for hiking and backpacking. It is also known for the Li River--they have tours on it. We will not be traveling to Guilin, but the capital of Guangxi--Nanning. Please check out the links to the right for Guilin. They are great resources to learn about our daughter's country!

Once again thank you for your many prayers, well wishes, and kind words! We feel so blessed!