Great News! New Pictures of our Jilliana

*Swagger Wagon (Van)- I just wanted to make it clear that we did not buy a van we are renting a van until our new SUV or cross-over is here, which is an Acadia.  It is a GMC and it is smaller than a Yukon, but it still has 7 places to sit, with a walk through to the back.  We are enjoying the van and maybe someday in the future, but for now I am still not there yet!

Now for the really great news, we got our I800 approval.  I didn't post about it because I was so frustrated. We got our LOA on November 15th.  I sent in our I800 the day we got the LOA so the Texas Lockbox got it the very next day.  My agency went out of its way to make it possible for us to send it the day we got it.  Other people who got their LOA's on the same day were not able to send theirs off until two or three days later, because of waiting for the actual LOA to get to them.  We are able to send the scanned copy thus shaving off waiting for the hardcopy to come.  Some people starting getting there approvals who were after me.  I contacted my officer at the Hague Unit and she did not have it yet.  After a few days and she still did not have it she tried contacting the Lockbox to find out where it was.  Then it showed up and she still did not have it.  It was in the building but not assigned to her yet.  She went out of her way to have it sent to her and approved it on Friday.  So now it will be off to the NVC (National Visa Center).  There they will scan it and send it to Guangzhou.  We will try to get an e-mail saying it has been sent and then our agency can drop it off in Guangzhou to wait for the Article 5.  The Article 5 will come two weeks after that and then we wait for Travel approval, which will be 2-4 weeks after that.  At the time it was really hard to see others getting their approvals when mine had made it before theirs, but after praying about it, I came to a place of understanding.  After three adoptions I was finally able to say I am leaving it all in God's hands.  I have done everything possible that I can do and so now it is God's timing that I would wait on.  After all, hasn't he always had just the perfect timing for us in the past?

The other really awesome news is that we sent a cake and some little gifts through a service and Jilliana got the cake and gifts and we got new pictures!  To remind you here are the gifts that were sent.  In the top left is a photo album with more pictures of us, I think the next picture is balloons, then silly bands.  On the bottom is "Pleasant Goat", a character that is as popular as our Dora here, some cute pink boots with pleasant goat, and a camera.

 This is my favorite!  She is looking at the pictures of us and wearing those cute little pink boots that we sent her.  If you look really close, she has the silly bands in her hair!  I think they thought they were rubberbands for her hair.  That is fine with me, because I think she is a little too young for silly bands!  Isn't she just precious?  And check out those leather pants!  When you get updated pictures you spend a lot of time looking at the pictures and what is in the background just trying to get a clue of where she is and what goes on there.  It looks like she is in a office and look at that computer!

 Here they have her with the picture book and some candy, which I think came off the cake you will see in another picture.  Those are some of the coloring books that I sent for the other kids to have along with crayons on her birthday.

 I don't know if this is another day or not.  She is wearing different clothes and I can see a little scratch on her forehead about her left eye.  Also, right sleeve is dirty, so she may have just eaten.  I think her teeth look like they have some food on them too.

 Here she is with her cake.  She is wearing the same coat but with jeans now and the boots are gone.  I think she is blowing out candles.

Look how many Nannies there are!  It looks like one for every child!  And look at the toys!  It looks very clean.

 Look what else I got.  Jilliana's Baby Be Blessed Doll came!

 Here is her scripture patch, Psalm 139 13-18

She is just perfect for little hands.