Article 5

We were notified this morning that our Article 5 was picked up last night at the U.S. Consulate in China and forwarded to CCAA! We will now wait for just ONE more APPROVAL, our TRAVEL APPROVAL. The agency said it is taking 3-5 weeks from this point to receive it. Most families I have seen receiving their travel approval have been in 3-4 weeks, a few came in 2 weeks. Please pray ours will come sooner than later so that we will have more time to book our flights. We would like to leave on June 4th which would make our gotcha day June 7th. This date is special because it is exactly 18 years and 6 months since Darrel and I were married. It would also work out best for Darrel's work schedule to go then and for our family who will be watching our kids for us while we are gone.

We also mailed our visa applications today to get that taken care of. It always makes me a little nervous mailing my passport!

Shayle is doing well, recovering nicely. She still wants chips and she can't have anything like that for a little while longer. She also loves popcorn and drinking from a straw. These things have been the hardest for her. She will go back to the surgeon on May 25th for her check up and then she should be able to startgoing to speech again. Most everyone I have talked to can understand her better, PTL! I know her speech will continue to improve for up to 18 months as the scar tissue thins out and makes her palate longer.

Have a great weekend!

Home and Recovering

Shayle did get to come home yesterday from the hospital. She is doing well, already showing some improvement with a few words! We are very thankful for that. She has been eating much better than last time, so hopefully she will not lose any weight. I have to make her take it easy and slow down to rest. She will see her surgeon and ENT at the end of May for a check up and then will be able to start speech up again. Please pray she will not develop any fistulas in her mouth and that it will heal perfectly!

Last night was very hard on the kids and us as we went to the vet to spend some time with our dog, Reveille before she was put to sleep. She was 13 and we have had her since she was 8 weeks old. She has grown up with our kids. It has been very difficult for our oldest who was three when we got her. Please continue to lift them up in prayer, as we will have to bury her tonight.

Pray for the rest of the Pierce kids

Tomorrow when we get home we will have to take the kids to say goodbye to our sweet sheltie who has been a part of our family for over 13 years. She began having arthritis in February in which we put her on some medications. Last week she began to get worse, not walking around much. By this past weekend she couldn't get up at all, which was extremely hard to watch. Her appetite decreased and we knew something else was going on. We stayed up with her a lot of the night Friday, Saturday, & Sunday night as she wanted someone to be with her. I think she knew she was slowly dying and didn't want to be alone. This is why Darrel will be with her as she is put to sleep, which just breaks my heart. He also needs prayer for this. I don't think I can be in there when the time comes. He has spent most of the time up in the middle of the night so he is exhausted and in need of sleep. He just went to the hotel and will be able to get some good sleep tonight I hope.

With Shayle's surgery today, we had to have a friend go to our house and pick her up this morning to take her to the vet. The vet called to let us know, after doing a blood test, that she did not have many platelets, red blood cells or white blood cells in her system. They could give her blood which would allow her to perk up for a couple of days, but likely she would return to her current state. It is a possibility that she has Leukemia. Anyway, the news has been hard on us and we only told our two oldest kids tonight by phone to see if they want to go see her one more time. Our younger three do not know, I can't stand the idea of not being able to comfort them when they find out. It was hard for me to know that the older two had to find out without us all being together under one roof. Please keep each of us in your prayers as it is always so difficult to have to make the decision to put them to sleep.

Thank You........

for praying for me today. Thank you Ms. Tenny for coming to visit me and thank you to my friends at school who sent me a present and book of get well wishes. I'll cherish it forever. I miss all of you at school and hopefully will be back next week. Love, Shayle

Shayle's Surgery Update

God is so good! He is so faithful to supply us with all our needs. Shayle had such a peace about her this morning and I give all credit and Glory to God! We had prayed for her to have peace and not be scared when she found out she would be having another surgery. She not only was o.k. with it, she was very cooperative with the nurses and staff. In the past she would fight them just to have her hospital bracelet placed on her arm. Not today, it was as if God took her by the hand and walked beside her as she got ready for her procedure. Then He took her into his arms and carried her through her surgery. She was such a brave little girl and I am very proud of her!

She did very well during surgery, along with having her palate lengthened she had new tubes put into her ears. One had fallen out so we decided it would be best to put new tubes in while under anesthesia. She did well with her anesthesia and so far has only vomitted once. Much better than last time. She also woke up thirsty and drank gatorade for us while still in recovery. This is much progress, as last time she did not drink until the next morning.

Thank you for praying for our baby girl. Please continue to lift her up as she recovers!

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.