Surgery Tomorrow

We will be heading to Medical City at 4 am for Shayle's surgery. Please pray for her to have peace and that she will not be scared. Once we get there I think she will realize something's about to happen. God sustained her through her scope a few weeks ago and I know He will help her to have peace tomorrow.

Please pray for: Shayle's doctors and nurses as they take care of her.
The procedure to go smoothly and be a success.
For her heart to remain strong and handle anesthesia well.
For her to have a quick recovery and do well post surgery.
For her not to have reactions to the anesthesia.(vomiting)
For her and us as we hand her off to the nurses. (very difficult)

I will update as soon as I get a chance. Thanks for your prayers!

NVC Letter

We received our NVC letter from the National Visa Center yesterday, April 12th. We were very happy to receive it so quickly. God has been so faithful to grant my requests. Since I began praying for our LOA in early March, God has answered my prayers down to the day I have asked to receive the next piece of paperwork. I had asked to receive our LOA on Ben's birthday, I asked to receive our I-800 approval last Monday the 5th of April and then this past weekend I asked specifically to receive our NVC letter on April 12th. God has granted all three specific requests down to the exact day. What an awesome God we serve!

Our agency has forwarded our NVC letter to their representative in Guangzhou, China. The representative will take all of our final paperwork to the U.S. Consulate this Thursday. The Consulate will have our paperwork for exactly two weeks before the representative will pick it up and forward it with our Article 5 to CCAA. It will be picked up and forwarded on April 29th. The travel approval (TA) will take 2-5 weeks. Families who have recived TA's yesterday waited 2-3 weeks! I am now praying for the 2 week mark, which would be May 14th, in order for us to make flight arrangements and leave on June 4th. Again, I will be praying specifically!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYRANDA!!!!

We now have another teenager in our family. Myranda turned 13 today. She has had a great day. It started with breakfast with dad, then I took her lunch and dropped it off to her at school, after school we went to get a snowcone and then home to get ready for her party. She invited 5 girls over to spend the night and go to an indoor waterpark tomorrow. They have had such fun eating, laughing, going to the spa (mom's bathroom with candles) to have their feet soaked and then mini-facials.

I am very proud to have Myranda as my daughter. God really blessed my life by allowing me to be her mom. She is quiet, one who thinks of others and helps out when someone is in need, she treats others how she wants to be treated, she's a great student, an awesome soccer player, and plays the flute, but most importantly she's a daughter to the King of Kings!

Happy Birthday, We love you!!!!

Update on Shayle

Shayle will need another surgery for her palate, Z-Plasty. She will have her palate lengthened which will allow for her palate to close off when saying certain sounds, like c,k,s,g. She has made progress with speech twice/week but the palate just doesn't seem to be long enough. She has had a hard time with conversational speech. Her words run together and then she omits the sounds she cannot physically produce. We should see some positive results soonafter surgery. However, we will continue to see more results 6-18 months after sugery as the scar tissue softens and thins out, which will allow her palate to become longer. Initially, her speech will become harder to understand as her mouth will be swolen and very tender. She will not have speech for 6 weeks after surgery to allow time for healing.

She is scheduled for surgery Monday, April 19th at 7:30 am. Please be in prayer for her as we haven't told her yet. This surgery will be a weeks recovery with one night in the hospital. She will have four flaps cut in her palate. When she is finished her stitches will be in the shape of a "Z".

Thanks for praying her (and us) through!

Dr. Visit Tomorrow

Shayle will be seeing her surgeon tomorrow afternoon for an evaluation and to discuss surgery. We are in a dilema of not really knowing what to do. Her speech therapy and ENT both said it may be possible for her to improve her speech without surgery, with 3-6 months of additional speech. When the surgeon called me he asked me how I thought she was improving. I know she has improved but I'm around her a lot. However, she is still hard to understand sometimes. I of course do not want to make any decisions regarding another surgery. So we decided to take her to the surgeon for him to evaluate her.

Please pray that the surgeon's decision will be exactly God's will concerning Shayle. I don't want to put her through another surgery but if it will help then that is what we need to do. The surgery will not be the p-flap like I thought. He said he would recut the palate and tighten up the muscles and then stitch it back. That is why I'm not sure what to do, her palate is beautiful right now and I don't want to do anything that would mess it up. I know I have a very precise and intelligent surgeon who will do a good job. I have been praying for God to give him wisdom as he makes his decision tomorrow.

One Step Closer

We received our I-800 provisional approval today. This puts a one step closer to getting Ben!

New Photos

We have had a BIG SURPRISE. You can see what it is by going to Ben's website, look under Journal As We Wait.

Still waiting to hear back from the doctor regarding Shayle's procedure last week. I'll update when I have some news.

Thanks For Praying

Shayle did well during her scope today. I wasn't able to go with her as Payton has been home with a stomach bug today. Darrel took her and he said she did great, squirmed a little but overall did wonderful. I give all praise to God for comforting her and calming her as only He can do.

The results of the test were as we had anticipated, her palate is not closing off when she says certain sounds, like the letters g, k, & c. It is likely she will need the p-flap surgery to create the flap in order for her to build the air pressure in her mouth to create these sounds. The ENT who did her scope today will call our surgeon tomorrow to go over the results. I'm sure I will be hearing from the surgeon tomorrow. I will post more once I know the plan.

Thanks so much for praying for my sweet Shayle today!

Shayle's Procedure

Shayle will have her scope done on Tuesday at 4:45. Please pray for her as this will not be a fun procedure and she can't be sedated. A small tube with a camera will be inserted through her nose and then the ENT will take a look at the back of her palate to see if it closes off as she says certain sounds. This is why she will have to be fully alert and can't have anything to relax her.

In the past, she hasn't responded very well when having her ears cleaned out as her tubes get blocked. She has gone through so much since being with us and I don't blame her for not wanting to go to the doctor!

Thanks for lifting her up. I will post the results after its over.

Website for Ben

I have created a website for Ben and our travel to China. It is password protected. If you would like to take a look at it, e-mail me and I will give you the information. momto6@truevine.net

Ben Turns Two & We Are One Step Closer!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJAMEN ZACHARY GUANG

Today our baby boy turned two and we received a wonderful gift! We received "The Call" we all on this adoption journey love to receive, We have our LOA for Ben!!! What an awesome surprise and it couldn't have come on a better day. Our agency called at 2:15 pm with the good news, just 45 minutes before Shayle's tea party. China actually processed it on Monday the 15th, Shayle and Arron's birthdays! God is so great!

Our agency is so great that they have already mailed our I800 off today as well. I had mailed all of our applications about 3 weeks ago just waiting for our LOA to come in. It was so nice to not have to sit down this afternoon and fill out paperwork. In fact, our DS230 and Article 5 will be mailed to the representative in Guangzhou, China tomorrow. I do have to say they are very on top of things and they do not waste any precious time, which means we will have Ben in our arms sooner.

We are expecting to travel in late May to early June. Please continue to pray for the rest of our process and for Ben to be ready to receive his new family.

Signing our LOA to send back to China

Happy Birthday Arron & Shayle

On our way to get Arron's license

FREEDOM

Shayle's new car

Shayle was excited to get something to drive like her big brother!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!
I LOVE YOU BOTH VERY MUCH!