Christmas Time

As we draw closer to Christmas I feel such an ache to know our Braeley will miss yet another Christmas. I remember telling Alana last year as we talked about how much we wanted our baby home that she would be home by this Christmas. Who would of though we would still be in the process a year later! Pray for us as we enter the Christmas season and that piece of the puzzle is still missing. Pray we see Gods peace and are filled with his joy during this season. I made this video last year and I guess this is the song I will be singing this year too!

Debby

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Here we go!

We got some of the paperwork yesterday and the rest will be coming in the next few days. We are going to really try to get it all back out quickly as in my heart I am still trying to get to Braeley by her birthday. We did find out we will have to update the home study so pray they do it fast and not take forever. Last night I got loads of new information on who she is. Her name means canoe but the new thing in Taiwan is not to worry about the meaning of the name just how many strokes in the name as they believe some numbers are Lucky. So she was probably named for the number of strokes in the name so she would have good luck. She is part of the tribe called Amei and they live in the mountains. She does have some asthma issues. I will be reading up on them. We are so grateful to God as we are finally reaching the end of our journey! We have a Christmas package ready to send off to Braeley. Alana has so much fun getting it ready. We will now start doing a DVD of our family for her to go in the package. Please continue to pray for us. Pray God puts wings on this package of papers and they get back and into the right hands fast so we can get a court date!
Debby

One step ahead!

We heard last week that all the paperwork in Taiwan was done and as of Dec. 10 on it's way back to us to get certified and stamped then back it goes to Taiwan again and we will be in the courts finally!!!!! Please pray it all goes fast so we can get Braeley home by her 2nd birthday! It is all in God's hands and His time! We are praying for a fast judge!!!
Debby

What a gift God has given us!

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Look at me grow!

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Braeley Hanna!!! Coming home soon!!

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Finally good news!

For all of you who are now totally confused, I will fill you in. I know for most of you the story ended when we lost our referral. Well to make a long story short. Deana one of the missionaries we are working with in Taiwan, had to take her child to the doctor when they became sick. It just happen that Hsin-Yu " Braeley" was there too. {This is God!}Same day, same time, same doctor! Deana went to talk to the foster mom and found out the old social worker was now off Braeley's case and she had a new one and this one had already got a court date to get her case going. So being the wonderful person Deana is she called and got Hsin Yu's referral back for us! To finish this long story the court date came and Hsin-Yu's parents who have never seen her, rights were not terminated!! For to many reasons to go into. Soooooooo it looked like we had lost her referral again. Then at the 12th hour and much praying to the wonderful God we serve, we got an email from Deana that Hsin-Yu's social work had sent her information to an official who then stepped in and wrote a letter giving her orphan status. So now we are waiting for permission to go get her. It will probably be after the first of the year! I know Deana doesn't think we will be there by her birthday in Feb. and I am trying to stay realistic but we serve such a big God who had orchestrated this path since the day we felt His call on our hearts again to change the life of one more child. Sooooooo please pray a miracle takes place and we can be with Braeley Hanna by her 2nd birthday! As many of you know we received her referral the week after Christmas last year and watched her turn 1 from far away so I am praying we won't loose another birthday. Also since Braeley has been with the same foster mom since she got her from the hospital after her mother took off and left her, please be praying for them both as our gotcha day draws close! Pray God gives them both a supernatural peace on that day! We will be putting our pictures and Video on here as we get to know our new daughter in these last weeks before we go get her. I am hoping we will also be able to post our Skype sessions on here, I will try.
Debby

Getting ready for CANDY!!!

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Batter Up!

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China Shoes

For her show and tell Alana decided to take what she calls her China shoes. Mrs Danielle told us she took them out of the container and held them up and told her class "these are the shoes I was wearing when God told my mom and dad to go to China to be my mommy and daddy. I was adopted in China, my nanny took me in a basket to my new mommy and daddy. I was sad but now I am happy. My mommy and daddy are my love bugs". I cried.

Star of the week

Aunt Alana

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Alana Aug. 2009

Daddy & Alana

Moody Gardens July 3rd, 2009

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Happy 4th of July 2009

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Still hanging in there!

We have not yet received our new referral but hopefully it will be soon. I am still sad about Xin Yu and I pray every day God will find her forever family soon. We went to the airport yesterday to welcome home another family coming back from China with their new daughter and as we pull up Alana told us " I am sad" and we ask why and she said it was because she was tired of waiting for her baby Braeley to come home. So we used that open door to talk about God's perfect time and half way through I realized I needed to hear it too! The waiting is so hard especially when instead of going forward you find your self going backwards. But through it all I know God has a plan and is in control and I am grateful that in his wisdom He does what is best not what I want. I know in the end life will be so much better. But there is still a part of me struggling to understand and make sense of it all. He has led me to understand I don't have to agree with it, like it or understand it I just need to lay down my will and take up His will. Some things I don't think we will ever understand while on this earth. I am blessed beyond comparison in all that He has already done for us and trust Him enough to know He will soon work another miracle we just need to put our trust in Him and wait patiently(I hate that word!) :-) Anyway we are staying very busy with playgroup, bible schools, swimming, family, friends and home schooling. Keep us in your prayers as we (I,try to) wait patiently for Gods timing.

New Information

Ok how to start this...? First off I have to say we serve a Great God. He is so awesome to us. He has taken us on such an incredible journey and I trust in Him to do what is right for our family. We got news today from the missionary's we are working with that we lost our referral. I am not going into details and I am fine and very much at peace with all of this. I knew this could happen from the very beginning and kept a detachment in place just in case. I didn't think it would happen but it has and that sweet little face who is Zhow Xin Yu will be in my prayers. Please join me in praying someday she will join the forever family God has chosen for her and she rightly deserves. And pray God will lead Deana to where the child He has chosen for us is! We were hoping that by the end of this year we would be done and moving on with our lives but that now seems unlikely. It feels like we have been doing adoption forever! But again we are totally at peace that God is in control and will lead us where we need to be, so don't worry about us as we are doing fine with all of this. At least it feels good to know where you are at and we can take it from there.So we are once again waiting for our referral. Please pray we are matched soon and can finish the process quickly!
Debby
PS: As you will see I spent the morning taking all of the referral information off and all the pictures. As much at peace as I am about all of this it was a little hard. My heart is so sad for that sweet little face that she will still be without a family and I guess taking the pictures off made it seem real and finial. I guess maybe I am kidding myself a little about how much unattached I was. I am finding it hard to choke back the tears and say goodbye. But I do trust God to know what is best for us,so I will trust Him to get us where we need to be!

Starting the summer off right

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We still have no news about Braeley and no clue where we are in the process. We are keeping very busy and waiting for some good news. Please keep us in your prayers.
Debby

Vacation May 2009

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We still have had no new word about Braeley Hanna. Still waiting on updated pictures and information and pre-approval. We learned a good lesson with Alana this weekend when we were packing to go on vacation! Nie-nie, Alana and I, was packing her suitcase when all of a sudden I thought I heard her say something about an airplane. I ask my mother in law if she heard the same thing and she had heard it to so I ask Alana if she thought we were going on a airplane and she looked me straight in the eye and said yes we are going to go get my baby sister Braeley! So I had to do some major back paddling! But with all I did to explain that we were not going to get Braeley right now it came up several time on the trip! She would see a baby and tell me it was her baby Braeley and we had to hurry! So lesson learned from now on I am going to be a lot more clear when we pack a suitcase!! I had a great mothers day but I felt like I had a hole in my heart! It was tinged with a sadness as I feel we are not moving at all closer to getting Braeley home! Pray we move forward this month!

Debby

Summer is here!

We had a great start to the summer today!

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Still no word on Braeley or any new information! I am praying hard for it to move forward soon! Please pray with me!
Debby

Picking Strawberrys May 1, 2009

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Old McDonald's Farm April 2009

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Go fly a kite!

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Still waiting to find out where we are in the wait.

Well Easter has come and gone and we still trug on in our wait to get Braeley home. Easter was really hard as it felt like a piece of our family was missing so there was a sadness just below the surface. Alana lost her balloon today and drove that point home as she proceeded to tell us it was ok because the balloon was going to Taiwan and baby Braeley was going to grab hold of the string and the balloon was going to bring her home to us. So now we know even Alana is feeling the missing piece. But all in all it was a quiet Easter the highlight being that we got to see our new grand daughter. Alana is still upset that she didn't get to hold her baby Edie! Alana was very happy when she got up today and found the Easter bunny had left a basket for her baby Braeley also! I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and remember with joy we serve a risen Savior!
Debby

Spring time 2009

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Smile

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OK check out the missing teeth! Alana had to have 2 teeth pulled a few days ago.She was already missing the middle top one but now the teeth on both sides have had to be pulled! My poor baby! So now speech is even more behind with out her 3 top front teeth. We can never win! The dental care she did not receive in the orphanage has left her teeth in a very big mess. We will be going again in a few weeks for another round, and many more after that! At least I think we are through the worse of it! I Hope......

Blue Bonnets March 2009

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After the wedding we stopped on the way home so Alana could see the blue bonnets. It was her first time. It was hard for her to not pick them as it is against the law. Try telling that to a 4 year old. Since she did pick a a few before we could stop her you might see her picture on a wanted poster someday :-) We have heard from Deana and ATI has consented to let us send our information in so they can pre-approve our paperwork without having Braeley released to us first. The flip side of this is that they release the child to you then AIT will not issue a visa. This has happened to another family. So please pray that the paperwork ends up in the hands of the person God has chosen. That it is approved quickly so we can get to work on the court part and get our daughter home! Pray God smooths out all bumps and clears out any obstacles in the way! Pray for this all to start moving quickly and for God to help us finish getting the money we need to get Braeley home!
Debby

Flower Girl March 2009

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Alana was a flower girl again in our niece's wedding. She had such a great time. We love family gathering when all the kids get to be together!

Easter 2009

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We have been very busy getting ready for Easter. My new grand daughter will be in town soon and Aunt Alana is so excited!

We have now got our homestudy translated!

We were contacted by the person who is translating our home study into Mandarin so it should be done by this week. One more step down! I got a big surprise in the mail today as I received some new baby pictures of my sweet love bug Alana from Half the sky! I love the one of her at 3 months! What a mo-hulk she has! I must say the surprise made my day and I needed a uplift as this wait for Braeley feels sooooo long.
Debby