Chop Sticks And Fortune Cookies The Journey 2 U.

Braeley's teaparty

2011-11-07T19:02:00.001-08:00

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Happy 7th Birthday Princess!

2011-11-06T15:41:00.001-08:00

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Happy Moon Festival 2011

2011-09-20T14:07:00.001-07:00

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VBS 2011

2011-07-31T18:19:00.001-07:00

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Braeley's First 4th of July 2011

2011-07-08T18:23:00.001-07:00

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My girls

2011-04-29T20:12:00.001-07:00

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Doing GREAT!

2011-04-29T19:54:00.001-07:00

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Happy 3rd Birthday Braeley Hanna!

2011-03-07T23:00:00.001-08:00

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Happy Saint Patrick's Day everyone!

2011-03-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

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Quick look at the birthday girl!!!!

2011-03-03T20:19:00.000-08:00

Will post more later.

We just got new pictures! Feb. 28, 2011

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hope is fading

2011-02-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

New Princess shoes Feb. 2011

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God is so GOOD!

2011-02-15T16:49:00.001-08:00

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Life is good! Feb. 2011

2011-02-15T15:19:00.001-08:00

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We are doing great! We had a wonderful sunny day today and took time to enjoy it!

2011-02-15T14:59:00.001-08:00

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Getting to know my Nana Ann

2011-02-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

Hanging out at home!

2011-02-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

Lots of welcome home parties! My Papa was so excited I was home!

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Happy Year of the Rabbit!

2011-02-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

Braeley is doing GREAT!

2011-02-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

Braeley is doing wonderful and is making a connection with all of us! She is doing very well out and about. We just had our first of many Chinese New Year Celebrations and she had a blast! Baba took her out for some Ice Cream and she LOVED it. We went to Angel park and she played well with all the kids.

Home!

2011-02-03T21:00:00.001-08:00

Last few days before we leave Taiwan

2011-02-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty easy time getting home. Better than I expected. Braeley did wonderful and each day we move forward baby steps. Her and Alana are inseparable now and Alana tells me everyday how beautiful her baby sister is and how much she loves her. Braeley loves her Baba and she is still working on the mama thing. She doesn't like it when I am not there but doesn't want me to close to her either.

2011-01-26T08:52:00.000-08:00

Day 7 Baba's Here!

2011-01-26T07:14:00.000-08:00

Well daddy, Nai nai and Ye ye got in ok. I was really afraid how all the new faces would effect Hsin Yu as we seem to just be hanging in there. We all woke and Rick went over to the crib to wake her as we had a train to catch to Karoko Gorge. God was showing off when He made this place. Anyway Rick had brought some Slinky's for the girls and woke Braeley and said Hsin Yu Baba is here. And that was it! She was in his arms all day with some trips to Ye ye in between. Grandpa's are great too! We had a day dreams are made of. It is so breathtaking here.

Debby

cHECK OUT THE BAD HAIR DAY!

2011-01-22T22:01:00.001-08:00

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DAY 5 first day at the cottage with us

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Day 4 pictures

2011-01-22T02:56:00.000-08:00

Today Alana and I got to take Hsin Yu to the cottage for her nap and some play time with us. It went well once we got her to the cottage.

Debby

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Last 2 days

2011-01-21T02:11:00.000-08:00

Every day it is getting better with Braeley HsinYu. Yesterday I made a new friend living in our bathroom and still living there! Today was the begging of Chinese New Year Celbration and the kids did not go to school. The whole orphanage was invited to go to a hot spring to swim and to sit in the goldfish pool so the fish could eat off the dead skin! Pretty unique! Alana had a blast. HsinYu could not go swimming as she took sick last night.

Debby

2011-01-20T02:01:00.000-08:00

Day 2

2011-01-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

Gotcha day night

2011-01-18T23:45:00.000-08:00

Noodles

2011-01-18T23:34:00.000-08:00

Where we are staying

2011-01-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

We Made

2011-01-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

Ok all we made it here! Last night was a long one but we survived. It all felt a little better in the light of day. It was SO cold! I have never been that cold before and I don't think I will ever take heat for granted again! All these poor babies! We are at the orphanage and we have spent several hours with HsinYu. She is a sweet little girl but very shy! Don't tell Rick but one of the little girls here just sits in my lap all day and they told me she needs a family!!?? Rick would kill me :-) If not the trip would! Any way gotcha day has been great so far. She has spent the morning playing with Alana her JieJie (big sister)
Better get back to her will write more later!

Debby

My grand daughter's 2nd birthday! What fun Aunt Alana had!

2011-01-16T11:56:00.001-08:00

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Coming Home

2011-01-16T11:00:00.000-08:00

We will be arriving at George Bush airport Friday 28 at 10:10pm, Continental Airlines flight 594, terminal C for anyone interested in welcoming Braeley Hanna home!
Debby

Coldddddddddddddddddd!

2011-01-14T06:10:00.000-08:00

Did I say I am excited to get to experience what the orphanage is like???? Someone smack me! Bev. called last night and we found out the cottage where me and Alana will be living has no heat! It's in the 40 there!! Can anyone say COLD! I don't even do winter skiing, as I am still waiting for them to figure out how to do it on a beach!!! No heat and it only has concrete floors. I think I might have forgot about this part of what life in the orphanage is like! No really it will be good for us. What a reminder of how blessed we are here .But seriously I don't like the cold so be praying for me. Count down..... 2 more days!
Debby

We got our finger prints done

2011-01-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

Well we got tired of trying to convince them that since it was their mistake they should make it right!
So we decided what could we loose if we just drove to the fingerprinting office and played dumb, and it worked! Thank you God. They never even looked at the date they just processed us through. So now Alana and I are seeing how fast we can get plane tickets as we have been invited to live in a cottage about 5 minutes from Braeley's orphanage. It is on the orphanage grounds. We will spend the day with Braeley and take our meals with all the children who live there. I think this will be good for Alana to see what her life was probably like when she lived in the orphanage. But we are talking China here and not Taiwan. Alana's orphanage had no heat, AC or water. She verily had enough food to stay alive. At 2 years old she only weighted 16 pounds. Braeley's orphanage is Christian and those children are loved. But at least it will give Alana a jumping off place. I can explain the differences in her orphanage. I am excited to get a glimpse at what life in an orphanage is like. We have been told Braeley is not doing well. But I did get an email this morning saying they finally got her to eat. In the 3 weeks she has been there they could not get her to eat much. I am so glad she has taken a step forward. We can take Braeley where ever we feel ready but it is nice to know if it does not go well we can move slowly. We received word that Braeley had her physical and passed with flying colors. We also got updated information on Braeley this morning. She weights 33.2 pounds and is 37.2 inches tall. She will be 3 in Feb. Alana on the other hand turned 6 in Nov. and is 38 pounds and 45 inches tall. That means Braeley is only 5 pounds less at 2 and 3/4 year old as Alana is at 6. Alana at 6 is also only 8 inches taller than Braeley at almost 3.Any way this might be my last post. I will try my best to keep it up while I am in Taiwan. Rick will be traveling to Taiwan with his mother and step dad as soon as the paperwork makes it way there. I will be posting pictures here also.

Debby

Travel date changed!

2010-12-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

We are now planning on leaving the 2nd week in Jan. due to the fact that Homeland security never sent our finger print updates. After a 3 day attempt to get in touch with them we finally got ahold of someone and after a couple of days looking for our file found it on a vacant desk (updates were done 6 months ago) and now they won't use them, go figure, they are the ones who lost them! How do people run businesses the way they do???? We are on like the 5th agency who has lost our paperwork!!! We are now in waiting mode as we wait for our appointment to redo the prints. Then they have to be processed, sent back to the office that lost them and then they will be sent off to Taiwan, all during the holidays. Good luck with that!!Our Visa appointment has been reset but we are afraid to buy plane tickets and make reservations! And to top it off when Brother Skiles went to set the new visa date he was told our passports wwere suppose to be certified???? Our government issued the passports, now they don't trust themselves?? That I do get! I don't trust them either :-) Anyway brother Skiles told them he has done over 400 adoptions and they have yet to ask anyone else for certified passports so why now? The lady said it must of been an over site on their part. Brother Skiles said that is a very big over site if you have over looked it 400 time!! They said they will let it slide for us but he now has to have it done for all the other adoptions. I am starting to feel like we will never get Braeley home. It was a very hard Christmas! We went to all the family functions but we have decided to ask Santa to bring our family presents when Braeley gets home so she will not have missed another Christmas. Ever heard of Christmas in July???? We just might be doing one if we don't get all this paperwork fixed and in the right direction! Anyway Braeley was moved to the orphanage awhile back and brother Skiles sent us new pictures! She is such a beautiful little girl but right now one very sad little girl! We are told she is doing well but she is very stubborn! I wonder what happened???

Please pray for the last part of this journey to finally be behind us! For Safe travels and a easy gotcha day!
Debby

We travel on the 5th of Jan.

2010-12-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

We got our visa appointment and we will be traveling to Taiwan on Jan. 5, 2011. We did hear today that AIT did NOT receive our fingerprints update!!! It never seems to end! They told us it would be sent off but when AIT checked our paperwork yesterday to set up our appointment they found them missing. They think it will arrive in Taiwan in time for us to keep the appointment. So please keep us in your prayers. Home OF God's Love has invited us to stay at the orphanage for the week we are there. I am really excited about getting to see life in the home from the inside and think this will make Braeley's attachment a little easier as we will not just pick her up and leave everything she knows. She will still be in the same surroundings. We can't wait to see the new year in and to get our daughter in our arms!
Debby

WE GOT SECOND RULING!!!!! YEAH!!!!!

2010-12-09T20:56:00.003-08:00

We got second ruling this morning and we will be traveling to Taiwan the last week of Dec. or the first week of Jan. What a great Christmas present!
Debby

Alana Christmas's Thru The Years As A Family

2010-12-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

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Still waiting!

2010-12-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

As of Dec. 6th we are still waiting for 2nd ruling and travel date. No new news! Hopefully soon! We were bless by a group of elderly ladies who got together and sewed pillow cases dresses to send to Braeley's orphanage. 60 of them in all! Now we just have to figure out how to get them there. Hopefully someone will donate the money to pay for the extra pounds.
Debby

Alana's 6th birthday

2010-12-06T12:22:00.000-08:00

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Almost there!

2010-11-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

WE GOT FIRST RULING!!!!! YEAH!!! The judge did say tho that Taitung was the slowest county and that they take about 8 weeks to get the paperwork back to her. But as soon as she gets it she will get our visa appointment and we can travel! I know that God can move mountains so I am not giving up on getting Braeley home for Christmas! Alana sat on Santa's lap last year and told him all she wanted was her baby to come home! So that would be the best Christmas present we could give her this year if we could bring her home by Christmas. Or at least spend Christmas in Taiwan as a family! Even a week after we could just wait to open gifts until then. Anyway we have missed 2 Christmases already so please join us in praying her home for Christmas!
God bless and thank you all who have walked this VERY LONG journey with us encouraging us on when the going got hard! We got Braeley's referral at 10 months the week after Christmas 2008 and she will turn 3 in Feb. so it has really been a long hard 2 years.It's hard enough waiting the normal 4 to 6 months after referral to travel. 2 years has been crushing! So many tears, so many long nights crying out to God. Trying to understand why and make sense of all of it but God is faithful to see us through. So hopefully we will be posting soon we have travel!
Debby

Moving Foward

2010-10-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Well we finally have a new court date. Nov. 10. Please keep us in your prayers before and on that day! Either Hsin Yu will finally be allowed to have a family or those doors will close for her forever. If the courts allow us to adopt her they say she will be home by Christmas! Best Christmas present ever! We are so ready to have her home! Will post when I have news!!
Debby

Tea Party Oct. 2010

2010-10-27T21:19:00.001-07:00

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Paperwork Done!

2010-10-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

We have now redone all the paperwork and sent it off yesterday by Fed-X! YEAH!!!! Rick just looked and it is just now leaving Alaska!! Ha ha :-) They are expecting it in Taiwan and the day it gets there they will grab it and run it to the court so we can get logged in and get a date for first ruling!! HOME STRETCH!!
Debby

New Pictures!! Boy has she gotten BIG!!!

2010-09-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

New information

2010-09-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

We were blessed today by getting new information about Braeley's birth. I am putting together a baby book for her just as I did for Alana but we have not found out much information for her. So every little bit I get is exciting! Braeley was born at 33 weeks.40 weeks is considered full term. She was a preemie and only weighted 4 pounds and 11.6 ounces. She was born at 1:27 PM on Feb.23 2009. We should be getting new pictures any day now!
Debby

2010-08-28T01:06:00.001-07:00

One of the last summer days for 2010.

2010-08-27T19:37:00.000-07:00

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VBS July 2010

2010-08-27T19:36:00.000-07:00

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Still working to get Braeley home!

2010-08-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well as of Aug. 25 we now have new paperwork in Taiwan waiting to be translated. Braeley's case has changed hands and they won't accept the old paperwork so we had to get the home study redone, new power of attorney ect. It will be translated then sent back to us to go to TECO again. For those of you who have followed our journey you may remember what a pain TECO was last time! We drove the papers to them {to save time HA} and waited and assumed they were sent on to Taiwan when they had the stamp done and the day our papers were to be put into the court system in Taiwan it was discovered TECO was missing from our file. We called and called them but no one would answer the phone so we drove back in town to see what was going on only to have them tell us we were mistaken and had never been there before. Thankfully Rick had kept the $400 receipt to show we had which shut them up quick and they finally had to admit that our file was lost. AND THEY ONLY TAKE THE ORIGINAL COPYS!!!! So we had to start all over in Taiwan to get new paperwork and get it translated. Then we show up and insist they do it while we wait only they won't refund our money from the first time and they keep saying they have to put a check on top of our file or it can't be stamped but they don't carry cash there so they can't give us our money back {by the way they lost our file the first time but manage to cash the check we paid! Go figure} It was a pain fighting them. Now we have to do round 3 and pay again!!! After 2 years of fighting all this it is soooo hard not to give up! This adoption has been such a roller coaster! Please pray for strength to finish this race God has placed before us , for God to quickly get our papers in through the system again, for a quick court time and for patience with TECO this time around, for a smooth trip for us to bring Braeley home and most of all for a peaceful and joyful gotcha day! My heart is sad for Braeley as 1 month before we leave to go get her, she will be moved to a new orphanage. I know the change will be hard and her little world will fall apart. She is going to be so scared, and alone! But maybe the new environment will make the separation from her foster family whom she has been with since she left the hospital easier, and make for a easier gotcha day! I am praying!

Debby

First day of Kindergarten 2010

2010-08-23T21:28:00.001-07:00

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Last days of summer 2010

2010-08-12T18:06:00.001-07:00

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Rainy day fun!

2010-07-22T17:15:00.001-07:00

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Day at the Park!

2010-07-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

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Alana came through surgery like a champ!

2010-07-07T17:04:00.001-07:00

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Happy 4Th of July! Me Miss Braeley Hanna!

2010-07-07T14:18:00.001-07:00

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News

2010-07-03T11:12:00.000-07:00

OK, I know I have not been good about keeping everyone up to date on what is going on. Everyone has been emailing and asking so I am updating on here for everyone. It has been so hard to even talk about where we are. We went from she will be home by Easter at the latest to she can never come home. This adoption has been such a roller coaster! But God has been in it with us, shinning a light when things get dark! When a door has slammed shut He would open it right back up! We serve a might God thank goodness or I would of hung up my towel a long time ago! So here is the story from the last update. I think the last time I posted was that we had a court date. Well 2 days before that court date the AIT (American Embassy in Taiwan, THE VISA people) came to look over Deana's new unwed mothers home. While the head of AIT was there she ask them about Braeley's situation and they told her point blank that the adoption would go through in Taiwan but she would never receive her Visa. We told Deana the minute we found out to pull our file from the court as we know of 3 people right now who have children over in Taiwan that can not get them home! We only had 1 day to get our file pulled before it was to late! So the day before our court date we pulled out. Since then we have had another Christian orphanage home "Home of God's Love" step in and come up with a plan as they have already dealt with the same situation several times. So as of today the plan is that Braeley will be taken to Home Of God's Love and left there by the social worker. At that point when the social services step out of caring for her the responsibly will revert back to her parents and then she will be declared an orphan. Sooooooooooo here we are again waiting......... I feel like that is all we have done for 3 years! But God is so good and I know there is a few lessons in all this that we needed to learn. We were suppose to hear this last week when she will be moved. The last I heard on Monday the social worker was giving them a problem. Barely is in speech as she is not on target for speech. After testing it was determined that the problem was the foster family was doing everything for her without making her ask. So she is now getting speech to help her catch up. The social worker is using this as the reason she does not want Braeley moved. But I think it is because the foster family does not want for her to be moved or to be taken to the orphanage. And I can understand this. My heart is so sad it has to be this way and my daughter will be so scared and along and I will not even be there once again to comfort her. But I have found a peace in this plan as it will let her grieve for her foster family and break that bond and be ready to bond with us. She is very close to her foster parents and they to her. So I think this will be good for both. The man who runs the orphanage is American and he can start to help her learn some English words to help her go home. There is a family in Taiwan right now that is dealing with the very same situation as us. Their daughter was in a foster family for ever, very close to them and spoiled and on gotcha day the foster family stayed for 4 hours crying the whole time and when the social worker finally took the child from them, 2 hours in, they took her right back. Back at their hotel the child stayed curled up in a corner for 4 days crying nonstop the whole time, hysterical. It scares me to read this blog as it felt like I was reading the story of our own gotcha day! I felt that I had went over in my mind the worse case scenario but I never even came close to what this family has been going through! I can't believe the social worker did not tell the foster family to either get control or leave. I think seeing her foster family crying uncontrollably scared her and and sent the message she was going into a bad situation. These families know the children will be leaving and I don't understand why they don't spend time getting them ready. I know it would be a hard job to raise a child and then give it back but they only make the child's transition so much harder when the pretend that day will never come! We will always be grateful for Braeley's foster family but it is now time for them to start the process of letting go. They were given the chance to adopt her but they choose not to so they could keep the door open to take other children who needed them. Anyway off my soap box. Please continue to pray for us for God to speed things up (we have now had our referral since Braeley was 10 months old and she is now 2 1/2), take out any remaining bumps in the road, and for safe travel. We have been told we will have her home by Christmas. I think that is a worse case scenario. I am thinking we should travel in late Sept or early Oct. We will see, after everything we have been through it is sometimes hard to believe we will ever get her home. But as always it is in God's time and we serve a GREAT BIG WONDERFUL GOD!!!!! I will post when we finally hear what is going on. Praying she does go to the orphanage. We have had such a hard time getting updated information and pictures. In the 2 years we have had our referral we have only got pictures 4 times. One with the referral, one the social worker took and some Deana went and took when she delivered our Christmas package, and 2 really bad ones in May that the foster family was forced to provided from her birthday. If she goes to the orphanage we will get pictures, videos and get to skype. We will finally get a chance to know our daughter!

Praying to find the end of our rainbow sometime soon :-)

Debby

Our Soon To Be Family

2010-07-03T10:11:00.001-07:00

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com

May 15, 2010

2010-05-17T16:23:00.000-07:00

We took a break from paperwork!

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Update

2010-05-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

All the paperwork made it back to Taiwan but unfortunately we are still not in court due to the birth mother's name being misspelled on the birth certificate. But they are hoping to get it fixed early this week. We did get a new picture of Braeley from her birthday in Feb.

Debby

TECO at LAST!!!!

2010-04-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

We got the last paper in Thursday but TECO was closed Friday. We tried to get it done yesterday but that didn't work out so today we finally got it all notarized and made it to TECO just to be told our paper was suppose to be taken to Austin to get certified!!! Now they tell us!!! No one has ever told us this before! I ask why then did the last lady who lost our file never say a word to us about this and went ahead and processed our paperwork??????? No answer to that one!!! Any way God answered our prayers as the person that helped us today spoke English and was very helpful and she did do our paperwork while we waited ( for a extra $100) Plus they did make us pay another $100 to do the paperwork again! Can you believe that??? They lose our paperwork and charge us more to redo it!!! And we had to pay for notarization again!!! Who do you think came out ahead on this one???!!!!! At least it is done. We got back to late to over night it out from UPS so it will go out tomorrow! I hope Deana will get it by Thursday and maybe if we are lucky it might make it to court by Friday but if not by next week! So be praying for a 1st court ruling and Braeley's VISA stamped!! We are finally getting back in the game! Alana and I sent out one last package to Braeley with a birthday present and a Easter gift! Alana had a great time getting it all ready. She is so ready to have Braeley home as we all are!!!

Thanks again for all the prayers about TECO it really helped!!

Debby

TECO at LAST!!!!

2010-04-13T21:08:00.001-07:00

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YEAH

2010-04-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

The last piece of paperwork is finally on it's way to us from Taiwan! THANK YOU GOD!!!!! It should be here by Monday.So hopefully we can get it all notarized again and back to TECO on Tuesday! And since they lost it all last time and cost us all this time in court please pray they will be willing to do it while we wait so we can overnight it back to Taiwan and get it into court by the end of next week or the beginning of the one after!

Debby

Still working on it!

2010-03-27T13:19:00.000-07:00

Ok here is the latest update! We never heard back from TECO so we began redoing our paperwork. We now have all of it except one paper we need from Taiwan. It has to be signed by the birth parents and the social work could not locate them. She now has the father's signature but he faked the mother's signature and you could tell it was his signature so the social work has to make another trip back and get the birth mother's real signature. Sooooooooo please be praying they get it fast and it gets to us quickly! Please pray TECO does not loose it again and pray they will do it while we wait! That is the least they could do after they caused all this delay! But anyone who has adopted knows they hold all the power and you have to be soooooo careful and nice or it just might go missing again! So pray they do it fast and God puts wings on it to get it back to Taiwan! Our Barely has waited so long! She has gone from a 8 month old baby to a 2 year old while we has tread-ed this process. Alana still calls her baby Braeley! Pray we get a fast judge and the biggest prayer is pray Braeley gets her Visa! As some of you know a couple went a few weeks ago and got their daughter as the adoption was complete and had her 2 weeks. When they got ready to return home AIT (American Embassy in Taiwan) would not issue her a visa!!!! So please be praying God will put the right person(His person) there at the right time and God Himself will stamp Braeley's visa! He has taken down so many mountains and wall on this journey. He must have something GREAT for Braeley to do as the fight to bring her home has been bigger than any I have ever known! She must be going to be the next Billy Graham with all the fight satan has put up to keep her from coming home! :-) So please get the word out and put her on every prayer list you can think of!

Matthew 18:19 and 20 "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven." Thanks,
Debby

Rodeo 2010

2010-03-14T20:19:00.001-07:00

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Chinese New Year 2010 Year of the Tiger

2010-02-27T20:04:00.001-08:00

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Happy 2nd Birthday my sweet Hsin Yu!!!! We miss you so much!

2010-02-26T20:04:00.001-08:00

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What a week!

2010-02-26T20:03:00.000-08:00

Feb. 23rd our sweet daughter turned 2. We watched from a far as she turned 1 never thinking a year later we would also watch her turn 2 and still be so far from having her in our arms. We were suppose to enter the courts early this week and found out at that time we were missing our TECO paper work. We called and called but TECO in Houston would not return our phone call. So we drove there and when we ask about the status of our paperwork we were told we must be mistaken as they had no file on us. But it just so happened { thank you God} Rick had saved his receipt from them and brought it with him. When we showed it to them they were not happy and finally had to admit that our file was lost. They said they would look for it and call us the next day but we never heard a word from them. We drove there today to find out what is going on only to find it was closed. So we spent today reprinting our forms and paperwork so we can start all over. Some of the forms were sent from Taiwan so we are not sure how long it will take to get it all back together and notarized again. So we can start with TECO again. But I can tell you this it has been a very long time since I have felt this tired and discouraged! But God is so good to us I know He will come through for us once again!

Lord let us rest in you!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

2010-02-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

We have just been ticking off the holidays waiting to get to Easter so we can go get Braeley and bring her home. Well yesterday we got word we will once again not be traveling at Easter to bring our sweet baby girl home. The paper work never even made it into the courts yet and we have to get a date for first ruling and then wait around 6 weeks for the final ruling then get a visa appointment. Soooooo as we once again deal with the pain of watching our daughter have her 2nd birthday from a far as we did her first we ask for all the prayers we can get. Please pray we don't have trouble getting Braeley's visa and we can travel soon. Pray for a speedy court process. I know it is all in God's time and He does have a plan! This wait has been so hard on Alana our 5 year old. She has waited so long to get her baby sister home. I pray we see the light at the end of the tunnel soon!
Debby

Braeley and her foster family looking at the family pictures we sent her.

2010-01-12T14:37:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

2010-01-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

I know it is a little late but me and Alana was sick all Christmas and we are just now getting back into life! She got sick Christmas eve and shared :-) got to love them! Well at the last minute we were allowed to send Braeley a package for Christmas but it was so late it didn't arrive in Taiwan until long after Christmas. She got it yesterday and bless Deana's heart she took pictures for us. But I have to admit I am a little worried about her foster father, as in the pictures he looks like he is trying hard not to cry. So I am thinking the package made it real to them! Please pray God will give them a spirit of peace and healing as they prepare for gotcha day! They have had her for almost 2 years so I know it has to be hard and their hearts will grieve.

Braeley weights 24.2 pounds and is 35.4 inches. I sent 12 month clothing in her package as I have never been told and could not get her information and I am hoping it fits. Deana said some of the shoes didn't but some did. She didn't say anything about the clothes so I am worried. She only wrote 2 lines and had unexpected company and said she would finishing writing later. She did find out Braeley is still on bottles and in diapers. She also sleeps with her foster parents! UGH :-) I need a bigger bed!!! My queen already feels like a twin with just Alana when she sneaks in and we have been working very hard to break her of our bed! I guarantee she will not stay in her bed if Braeley is in ours! I am thinking it is time for mommy to get a new bed! :-)
We are STILL waiting for the home study to get back to us! I am so frustrated!!! First we were fighting Christmas and New Year here now we are trying to get it back to Taiwan and get a court date set before Chinese New Years there! Still no sign of it!!! Everyday I walk out to the mailbox and say a prayer before we open it. I know it is in Gods time but my heart and arms ache to hold my baby close! I want her home yesterday! :-) And I have to admit after losing the referral several times I just really want this behind us! Just pray the home study comes tomorrow so we can get it to TECO and get it stamped and they can get it sent back off to Taiwan and we get a court date. So close but so far, that is how it feels right now!
Debby

Christmas Time

2009-12-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-02T14:36:00.001-08:00

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Look at me grow!

2009-12-02T14:33:00.001-08:00

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Braeley Hanna!!! Coming home soon!!

2009-11-10T10:47:00.001-08:00

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Finally good news!

2009-11-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

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