Quick Update!

I am so excited! I talked with our social worker last week and we have set up our first home study appointment for February 16th. I also registered us for our first workshop on February 2nd. We are both excited about finally beginning our journey! Also, our first fundraiser was a huge success!! Hugs and kisses to everyone who came!!! We had so much fun! Most of the ladies who came worked on their scrapbooks but one brought her knitting and worked on that. We had good conversation, a lot of laughs, and ate a lot of good food! (Thanks Lorene for the eclair cake!! Yummy!!) My niece, Kelly Anne, worked on her very first scrapbook and she outdid all of us "scrapbook veterans". She completed....are you ready for this......NINETEEN PAGES! (They were 12x12 size pages, too!) What a record! She has set the bar very high for the next craft day in March!! I felt like I needed to present her with a prize or something!! Needless to say, I was very proud of her! I will give another update soon!! Goodnight!!

We Have Been Assigned A Social Worker!!

Our agency called us Monday afternoon to let us know that they have assigned us a social worker who will be calling us in a few days to set up our first home study appointment!!! I am SO EXCITED!! The agency told us in orientation to expect a wait of a week to two weeks before being assigned a social worker once our application was received. We just mailed in our application last Tuesday, the 10th, and we heard from them in less than a week! I'll just take that as another sign that we are walking down the right path. I will post again as soon as we schedule our first appointment!! Yay!!

My newest idea!

Hello! I just wanted to let everyone know my newest idea to raise funds for our adoption. I just signed up to sell Avon. It's a fun way for me to make a little extra money to contribute towards our Abby Fund. If you are interested, please email me at Matisse1124@hotmail.com and I will get the most recent book to you for you to look through. Or, you could go to their website at www.avon.com, look around at the products, and email me at the above address if you would like to order something. I will place my first order this Wednesday (the 18th) night and I do not collect any money until the product comes in. I appreciate you visiting our site! God bless!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. To follow up on the last post, Kelly did make it home just in time for Christmas...such an answer to prayer! Brandon and Carson seemed to really enjoy themselves. Brandon was so excited that he couldn't sleep on Christmas Eve. It was 2:30 a.m. when we finally decided to break out the Benadryl. LOL! Poor little guy. I thought he would sleep at least until 8 or 8:30. Nope! He was up and crawling into our bed at 7:40 a.m. on Christmas morning. He was so excited that he couldn't stand himself any longer. He ended up confessing that he had snuck downstairs and peeked into the living room and saw one of his gifts. About two weeks before Christmas, while watching the Polar Express DVD, he proclaimed that he wanted the Polar Express train and he was going to ask Santa for it. That became the one gift that he consistently asked for. So, as you may be able to guess, "Santa" was able to find it on ebay after calling all local stores that sell Lionel trains only to find them sold out. Thank goodness! I would've been heartbroken for him if Santa had not found it. It was such a "big gift" that Santa decided to give it to both Brandon and Carson but I don't think Brandon minds sharing it with his baby brother. It's a really neat train, too. It has a headlight, a whistle, and a smokestack that has real smoke puffing out of it! They were so excited on Christmas morning!

I wanted to take a couple of paragraphs and answer some questions that we have been receiving from friends and family about our adoption. The whole process will take us about 18 to 20 mos to complete. Babies from China are typically around 10 to 13 mos in age when they are brought home, so Abigail won't be an infant but will still be considered a baby. I have had questions asked about the adoption process so I thought I would try to briefly explain it here. The first thing to do is to decide on an adoption agency and apply to their China program. We have just mailed in our application and are currently waiting for a call from our assigned social worker so we can start the home study process. The home study will consist of three visits with our social worker, one in our home and two in her office. Apparently, each visit lasts about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. After we start our home study, it's my impression that we can start gathering documents for our "dossier". This is basically a packet of paperwork that is sent to China. It includes things such as intense background checks, Homeland Security approval, fingerprinting, and various other documents such as copies of our marriage certificate, deed to our house, etc. It is very time-consuming to complete the dossier as it will take us about 4 to 6 months to gather everything up. All of the paperwork also needs to be notarized and also needs to be "stamped" by the US Government.

After the dossier is complete, it is sent by our agency over to China for review (our Date To China or DTC for short). China will then enter all of our information into their central computer (our Log In Date or LID for short) and we will wait for review. When it is time, our dossier will go into review and China will go through the papers with a fine tooth comb and then approve us for adoption. We will then wait for our referral. Our file will then move to the "referral room" where we will be matched with our daughter. Apparently, China examines every little detail about your family and goes to great lengths to match up just the right baby with the right family. Once they match a baby to us, they will send all papers and pictures of her to our agency who will then contact us with the news of our referral. The referrals usually go out at the end of every month with the families being contacted by their agencies around the beginning of each month. They have currently completed referrals for those families whose LIDs (see above) were in April of 2005. So, the current wait time once your dossier is locked into their computer is about 9 months.

So, you can see why the process will take as long as it does. We know without a doubt that we are meant to bring our daughter home from China so that will make the waiting a little easier. Please feel free to leave any comments you wish to make here on the website. All you have to do is click on the word "comments" below any of my posts and this will take you to the page where you type in your comments. We would love to hear from all of you as we would like to know who is visiting the site!!! God bless!!!

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick entry to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Here's to good health in 2006! I know that's what the entire Harrell family is praying for in the new year. We have had a lot of sickness in the family this year. From me....to Todd's step-father......and now Todd's niece, Kelly Anne. She has cystic fibrosis and is back in the hospital with an infection for the second time in two weeks. When you say your prayers at night, please remember her name and pray for a quick recovery for her. She is 10 years old and we are scared that she may not get out of the hospital by Christmas. Thank you.

GOD BLESS!!

The Harrell Family

Brandon is now 5 years old and having a ball in Kindergarten! His last report card said that he is progressing well academically but would rather socialize with his friends than listen to his teacher during group time. He is so much like his mama!! Carson is now 2 1/2 years old and is a little stinker! He has tons of personality and makes us laugh all the time. Being a mama to them is so much fun and I can't wait to be a mama to a little girl!

Here He Goes!

Here's Brandon getting baptized. He was so excited. When the pastor asked him if he wanted to go first, he immediately said, "yes". I was so excited that I cried! 

Brandon's Baptism Day

November 27th...Brandon gets baptized by immersion. Todd was able to be in the baptismal with Brandon since he is a yolkfellow (or, a deacon in training). I know it was an honor for Todd to be able to participate and something that he will never forget.

We Have An Agency Picked Out!!

Well, we went to our meeting at Coordinators 2 last Tuesday. It was very informative and we decided to use them for our adoption. We really liked the social worker who conducted the meeting. She was adopted as an infant and was a birth mother herself almost 25 years ago...having given her own son up for adoption. She was able to talk with us from both perspectives which was very interesting. There were about six other couples there, all either interested in adopting from the US or from China/Guatemala. Even after reading everything I have online, I learned a few new things myself. I know that Todd learned a lot, too. The next step for us is to submit our application. This includes basic information about us along with a list of references. We are now contacting those people we want to be references for us just to be sure it's okay with them. We are going to wait until after the first of the year to submit the application, however, because there is a $150 application fee (due when we submit the application) along with another $1800 for the home study fees and $1000 for what they call the post-placement supervision fees which will be due about 60 days following submitting our application. We need to be sure we will have that money when we need it before we submit an application. That's all the news from here! I hope this finds everyone well. And, thanks for visiting our site! God bless and have a Merry Christmas!

The Announcement Has Been Made!

Well, Todd and I finally announced our news to our families and our church family. Everyone seems to be supportive and Tracey, Todd's sister, told me that she is excited for us. It really means a lot to us that everyone is okay with the idea of us going to China for our daughter. I already love her and I doubt she has even been born yet! We also had it announced in church Sunday (the same day Brandon got baptized by full immersion!) and everyone there also seems very supportive. The pastor jokingly announced that the "Harrell family is going to adopt TWO children from China"! Todd and I immediately said, "Just one!" Hee-Hee! Anyway, we are very excited and it seems that talking about the adoption seems to be rolling off of our tongues easier now. We are going to an informational meeting tomorrow night, November 29th, at Coordinators 2 in Richmond, after which we will make our final decision about which agency to use.

It's Just the Beginning

It's only the beginning and Todd and I are already feeling a mixed bag of emotions. We are really excited but at the same time, scared to death. We want a daughter for our family and, after a lot of prayer and a lot of discussion, we have decided that God wants us to add a daughter to our family through adoption. I'm especially feeling pulled toward China and I am convinced that is where God wants us to go. (Although, I don't know how confident Todd is! LOL) We are starting to investigate agencies and I have emailed about a dozen so far with questions about my cancer history. To our surprise, we have actually received a wide variety of answers...from no waiting period to adopt after cancer to a waiting period of five years. Five years!!! I can't wait that long! We have found an agency in Richmond who will work with us and we are going to attend their informational meeting on November 29th. I am so excited!!

We do have other concerns, however. The total cost of the adoption process is going to be about $20,000. We have already come up with a few different ideas for fundraisers. Todd's company is also giving us $3,000 to assist in the adoption costs. It is an awful lot of money but we are faithful that God will provide and that in the end we will reap the rewards by holding our precious daughter in our arms.