Videos of Luke from early April.

A huge THANK YOU goes out to Amy Heymann who traveled in early April to adopt her daughter Sarah from Nanjing SWI. Amy got back from China a couple of weeks ago. She posted pics of the waiting children while she was in China and this morning she posted the video that she took during her SWI visit. There were 3 of Luke!!! THANKS AGAIN AMY!!!

LUKE BABY... JUST A COUPLE MORE WEEKS AND WE'RE THERE!!!

THANK YOU LORD!!!

TRAVEL PLANS!!!

WOW!!! It has been a very hectic exciting wonderful 2 days!!! We received our Travel Approval on Monday and then we received our confirmed Consulate Appt on Tuesday around 11:30am. By 3pm we had an itinerary and we were booked for our international travel!!!

Here it is:

Leaving 5/18

Arriving in Nanjing 5/19

Gotcha Day either 5/20 or 5/21 depending on the SWIs schedule

Consulate Appt 5/29

Flying home 5/31

YEAH!!!!

There are so many wonderful blessings from the Lord that I want to list but I want to do it in a proper post. So stay tuned!!!

I will also be updating Luke's website soon. We will be posting there daily when we are in China.

www.myadoptionwebsite.com/Luke

Luke baby.... WE ARE COMING SOON!!!!

TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just got the CALL!!!!
WE GOT TA!!!!!!
WOO HOOO!!!!!!

LUKE baby! We're coming SOON!!!!


-1 happy momma praising the LORD in VA!!!

Fly Baby Fly!

FLY BABY FLY!!!

No TA this week. I am confident that it is on its way!!!

We are desperately praying for NEXT WEEK!!!

(Just in case you're wondering.... our agency is located in Birmingham, Alabama.)

Day 101.

It's DAY 101. I kinda stopped counting once we got our LOA since families know their TA should be following behind shortly. I"m not complaining about 101! Trust me... there are families who have been waiting a lot longer. The more important number to focus on is that today is day 16 since our LOA. Travel Approvals seem to have been coming back within 2 - 3 weeks after LOA so I have been anxious since Monday.

Last night there was a post on the Waiting Children China yahoo group of a TA announcement for someone with the same LOA date of 4/2. That means TAs are starting to come in. AHHHH!!!! So, each time my cell phone rings I get anxious!

Here are our dates:

Letter of Intent (LOI): 9/1/06

Letter you send to China petitioning to adopt a SPECIFIC special needs child.

Pre- Approval (PA): 9/28/06

China's response to your LOI where they say you have been pre-matched with the specific child and you may submit your dossier.

Dossier to China (DTC): 12/22/06

The date your agency mails your dossier to the CCAA in China.

Log-in-date (LID): 1/8/07

The date your dossier is officially logged in to the CCAA. (Time keeping starts here).

Letter of Acceptance (LOA): 4/2

Additional document the CCAA sends you to reconfirm you commitment to adopt the child you were pre-approved for.

Travel Approval (TA): HOPING AND PRAYING IT'S SOON!!!

OFFICIAL invitation to come to China to adopt the child.

Consulate Appointment (CA): comes within 5 business days after your TA.

This is your official appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou, China where you will receive your child's US Visa. Once you and your child land in the US, the child is a US Citizen.

No matter how many times you go through the adoption process, you still feel the same emotions! COME ON DHL!!! FLY THOSE TAs FROM CHINA to the USA!!!

Waiting on the Lord's perfect timing!

Luke's Measurements!!!

Age: 17 months

Weight: 8kg = 17.6 lbs

Length: 75cm = 29.5 inches

Head: 42.5cm=16.7 inches

Chest: 43cm=16.9 inches

Foot: 10cm=3.9 inches

Teeth= 14!!!






Today we received new measurements for Luke from Karla our social worker at Lifeline! This is a WONDERFUL surprise as we had not received any updated measurements for him since we received his referral in August. He is a little bitty man!!!


His weight puts him in the LESS THAN THE 1st percentile and his height put him at the 2nd percentile for his age. His little foot is registering in the 0 - 6 months size but he has 14 TEETH!!! 14!!! I think Kiah weighed this much when she was 8 months old!!! HA!!! Well.... Kiah has never really been a SLIGHT little girl!!!! She's always had some CHUNK to her!!! Jake was even chunky when we brought him home at the age of 7 months. I'm finally getting my little "chicken wing" baby (meaning very small) vs THE WHOLE CHICKEN!!!

COME ON TA!!!!

MORE new pictures of Luke

PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

As I stated in a previous post, traveling families have been bringing a list of waiting children with them when they go to China to pick up their child. We just received the above pictures from one of those families. These pictures were taken LESS THAN 24 HOURS AGO!!!

Let me praise the LORD here!!!

He is absolutely GORGEOUS, his lip repair looks wonderful and he obvious has a wonderful personality!

COME ON TA!!!! Waiting for the day I can hold this precious boy in my ARMS!!!

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Just playing around

Jake's 4 yr GOTCHA DAY

Referral pic - received 10/31/02

Trip 1

Trip 1

Trip 1


1st night together - Trip 2

On Saturday April 7th we celebrated Jake's 4 year Gotcha Day. It was on this date in 2003 that Jacob Dillon Ivan Baker officially became our son. He had spent the first 7 months of his life in an orphanage in St. Petersburg, Russia. We feel SO BLESSED that the Lord has chosen us to be his parents. He is more than we could of ever hoped for in a son. He is a beautiful, smart, witty strong little man. THANK YOU LORD for blessing us so greatly.

New Pictures of Luke!!!

Another shining moment for this week!!! (The first shining moment is in the post below!!!)

Today I logged into email after work and there was a post from a family who had recently traveled to Nanjing to pick up their new daughter. Before she left about 3 weeks ago, she asked for names of children that were waiting for their families so that she could try to get updated pictures for us. This is a common practice for this specific group of families. This is how I have received 85% of the pictures that I have of Luke! Since she asked for this information about 1 month ago, I had forgotten about submitting it since I had received other pics of Luke in the meantime. This nice family took pics of all 13 of the kids that she had on her list and she got a great one of LUKE! I had to laugh when I saw it! Anyone that has seen Luke's pictures knows I thing.... HE HAS BIG HAIR! We have watched it grow and grow over the months!

In the 2 pictures we received after his cleft surgery, it looked like the left side of his head had been shaved a bit. I know it is sometimes common practice in China to place IVs in the head when the kids have surgery. So, when I saw his hair in those previous pics I figured that's what had happened. They didn't shave the other side of his head so the hair on the other side was LONG. I guess to fix this.... they have started putting his hair in a PONYTAIL!!! A PONYTAIL! HA! He looks SO CUTE!

Not saying we will start a trend when we bring him home but it did make me chuckle!

He is beautiful. And a wonderful site to this mamma's eyes!

Can't wait to hold him in my arms!

COME ON TA!!!!!

Again.... GOD IS GOOD!!!!

Bad Hair Day.

The pictures should speak for themselves.

NEWS NEWS NEWS!!!!

SORRY I have not posted recently!!! It has been CRAZY!!! Work has been beyond crazy the last 2 weeks.

Despite the craziness, we had a shining moment this week on Tuesday, 4/3. My phone rang at about 3:15pm and I noticed the area code was from Alabama. I answered the phone to hear the fabulous voice of our wonderful social worker Karla at Lifeline Children's Services telling us that.......................

WE RECEIVED OUR LOA!!!!

YES!!!!

WOO HOO!!!
ON DAY 85!!!!

I burst into tears!!! The LOA or Letter of Intent is the piece of paper that the Chinese Gov't sends you right before they issue your Travel Approval (TA). The LOA is a document you must sign that reaffirms your commitment to adopt a specific child, in our case, Luke!!! Once the LOA is sent back the Chinese Gov't works to issue you your TA which is your invitation to come to China to pick up your child! So... we are now waiting for our TA!!!! We hope to receive it in about 2 - 3 weeks. Karla said we probably won't be traveling to China until the end of May due to the Chinese Labor Day holiday the first week in May. During this holiday all Chinese gov't offices are closed.

So we now wait patiently for our TA.
GOD is SO GOOD! We are praising the Lord!!!

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the doors will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him.
— Matthew 7:7-11

This poor lion can't get any love!

Check out previous post below for explanation!

Easter Egg Hunt #1!!!

Kiah's not too sure about visiting the bunny so she decided to just run past him several times

Jake's favorite part of the afternoon.... THE MOONBOUNCE

BASKETS are ready!!!

Today we went to the 1st of 3 Easter Egg Hunts. This one was sponsored by a local campsite that I never even really knew existed! The Easter bunny was there and they had egg hunts set up for 2 different age groups. 1 - 3 yr olds and then 4 and up. The only problem with this is the 4, 5 & 6 year olds were RUN OVER by the 8, 9 and 10 year olds as they were hunting for eggs. Jake was crushed to only get 4 eggs. However, he was pleased that there was CANDY in each of them!!!

Kiah did a little better with 9 eggs. My mom actually found the SUPER DUPER SPECIAL egg which she knew was a big deal but graciously pointed it out to another child since he didn't have many eggs. My mom made mention of the egg during the hunt but I was so involved with making sure Kiah got some eggs that I didn't realize what she had said. Shortly after the egg hunts were over the mom of the little boy walked up to us and handed this very special egg back to my mom. The lady said, "Please take this. It is really yours." My mom handed it to me and as I looked down at it I noticed that inside the see-through plastic was a scrap of paper that read: You've won $25.00. It was so nice for this lady to give the egg to my mom. My mom is one of the most generous, giving, loving people I know. I aspire to have this quality. She is a great role model. I immediately decided that I would donate the money to a child's cleft sugery though Love Without Boundaries. When we claimed the prize I made sure that they knew that was where the money was going. It was wonderful to see kindness was returned with kindness especially during this special season of Easter.

What was McDonalds thinking???

Last night we took the kids to McDonalds for happy meals. (I promise we DON'T do this often!) Jake quickly noticed that they were handing out new toys. They had both girls toy and boys toys so we, of course got one of each. Jake got a super cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. When the turtles head is smashed down (who thought of this???) a little motercycle guy spills out of his turtle shell.

Kiah on the other hand, was not as thrilled with her toy. Evidently they are giving away Wizard Of Oz figures. When I first saw the advertisement on the big ordering board... hey... I thought it might be pretty cool. HOWEVER, when we pulled the figure out of the bag and opened it... Kiah took 1 look at it, tossed it on the floor of the car and starting crying. WHAT WERE THEY THINKING when they made these horrible versions of the characters!!! Kiah is scared of it and Jake simply said "EW!". This thing has been picked up and thrown down more times than the plastic kicking balls we have in the backyard! Right now it is laying face down.... on the carpet.... in the far end of the family room. Unless it gets up and walks by itself (by looking at it... this MAY happen)... I think it will be laying there for awhile as NO KID in this house wants to look at it let alone PLAY with it!

Next time Kiah will be getting a boy toy.

Saturday pics.

Kiah and her "FAITH" necklace

All dressed up and no where to go.

Accessories include: ducky easter basket, sunglasses, glamorous clip-on purple earrings, HELLO KITTY bandaid box with MANY various size hello kitty bandages plastered all over her body covering her imaginary boo-boos and of course.... her Hello Kitty underwear.

The pictures below are of Kiah putting on her Hello Kitty band-aids.

first nice spring day...

smiling Kiah

so so cute...

first ice cream of the spring season