A Surprise!!!!!

Last Saturday night, we thought we were going out to dinner with Michael and Kerry (best friends) to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  The funny thing is I kept trying to change the plan all week and say why don't we do this instead or why don't we meet at our house and Michael finally told me we are meeting at our house and don't ask any more questions, please! 
So Saturday night, we drove down the road to their house and saw a bunch of cars.  The first thing I said to Ryan was- is that your parents car?  We also saw my sister's van and my parent's car, etc.  So we knew something was going on. 
Of course, you probably already figured it out!  It was a surprise shower for Rylie.  Most of our Sunday School class was there and our parents and my sister's family! 
It was so much fun.  Kerry and Julie (not me- another very good friend) had cooked and made food all day.  They had decorated the basement and had a beautiful cake for us.  Michael made a flower arrangement that looked like a puppy.  So cute!  And I think there were about 100 balloons, lol. 
The best part was- no shower games.  It was really fun to have a shower before getting Rylie and to get to be surprised.  It is hard missing out on so many of the things women experience when they have biological children.  And this helped make up for that!
We had just gone to K-mart before the shower and I told Ryan "I have NO clothes for Rylie to wear in China that are long-sleeve!  We got to buy stuff."  We were having trouble finding anything we liked. 
NOW- she has plenty and they are all adorable.  It is going to be hard not to take them all to China.  She has a cute jacket and a new doll.  She has a little backpack.  Just for my own records some day when I go back and read this (or Rylie reads it), I'm going to try to list everything here.
So if that is boring, you can stop reading now, lol.
Grandma and Grandpa Pruett gave Rylie a music box, two outfits and a little pink rain jacket.
Grandma and Grandpa Bradley gave Rylie a gift card to Kohl's so we can take her shopping and get her something special.  I'm sure she will love to buy dresses, shoes, and jewelry just like her mom.  Of course, her dad is a pretty good shopper, too.
Fran and Darrell (friends) gave Rylie a pink jumpsuit and her first computer (my own laptop) which the five little boys at the party really liked!
Kevin and Cindy (friends) gave us a cute ladybug dress (which I loved because ladybugs and the color red are good luck and significant in Chinese culture) and they also gave her a cute jacket. 
David and Judi (friends) gave us a purple zebra pajama set (which I also really needed), a purple sweatsuit, and money.  Judi wanted to donate the money she would have used to buy her prayer partner a birthday gift so thank you to her prayer partner as well for the money to bring Rylie home.
Uncle Greg, Aunt Jackie, Logan and Tyson gave Rylie little barretts with buttons, a skirt and shirt from Crazy 8- also with buttons, matching tights and a matching sweater.  I am afraid to go into crazy 8 because we need to finish paying our adoption costs and I might spend all our money, hahaha.
Harold, Julie, and Carly (friends) gave us more clothes from Crazy 8.  And they match the clothes from Aunt Jackie so we can mix and match everything.  They gave us a dress, tights, and more hair clips.  They also gave us a really cute book called paper-doll dress up that is all Asian dolls.  I will try to put a picture of it on here when I get a chance.  Julie also took photos at the shower (she is a photographer) and gave me a CD with all the pictures!  Plus, she helped throw the shower.
Al, Lynda, Cate, and Meghan gave us a gift card to Children's place which will be great to have when we get back and know for sure what size Rylie is and what she still needs.
Barry, Beth, Kyle, and Alyssa weren't able to make it to the shower (they were actually celebrating family day- 7 years since Kyle and Alyssa's adoption!) but last night at choir they gave us a card with more money in it to help with our trip to China!
The last two families came in late and I'm not sure everything got written down- it was a lot of stuff- so I may have missed something. 
Dave, Tina, Carlye, Jacob, and Grant AND Todd, Debbie, Kaci, Kyle, and Kaden gave Rylie her first ever Park Lane necklace.  It is a little ice cream cone.  They gave her a bunch of cute clothes with matching hair bows, two really cute books, and a baby alive doll. 
Bob and Debbie (friends) gave Rylie, Nick, and Alex each their own bucket filled with all kinds of good stuff.  Debbie gave Rylie a very cute dress, hair bows, and tights.  The boys buckets had coloring books, slinkies, markers, graham crackers, fruit snacks, cheez-its, and a bunch of other stuff.  The buckets each had their names on them.  It was very special for the boys to get something of their own at the shower! They also gave us a donation to help bring Rylie home.
Last but certainly not least-
Michael, Kerry, Kaitlyn, Hannah, and Zane gave us an amazing shower and they also gave us a backpack and a cup that will be great to take to China.  I think Rylie will like to have her own backpack to carry around and we can fill it with stuff for the 15 hour airplane ride from Hong Kong to Chicago!!!! They also gave Rylie a cute Dora dress. 
Thank you to everyone who came to our shower and all the wonderful gifts.  Thank you most of all for your encouragement, support and prayers as we get ready to bring Rylie home!

Where We Are

Still waiting...of course! 
We are very close to finally bring Rylie home.  Here is the update I sent by e-mail to friends and family.

Yesterday we received our NVC cable (from the National Visa Center). This will be e-mailed to our in-China representative (who works for our adoption agency). She will take this cable and our LOA (letter of approval from China) to the US Embassy in Guangzhou, China.

In about two weeks (hopefully) they will issue an Article 5. This says that Rylie will be allowed to immigrate to the USA after we adopt her.

The Article 5 will get sent to the Chinese Consulate. They will issue Travel approval. This will hopefully only take another 2-3 weeks.

Then we can apply for our visas, book flights and hotels. We'll need a few weeks to do that.

We are hoping to be leaving around November 1st or 2nd. We are thinking we will be able to fly into Hong Kong and spend the weekend getting over our jetlag. Then we will fly to Rylie's province- Fujian and get Rylie around November 5th. We will spend about a week in her province to complete all the adoption papterwork and then fly to Guangzhou to complete her immigration paperwork. We probably won't make it home by Aunt Jackie's birthday (November 14th) but we should be close!

Oh, and a lot of people have asked about Nick and Alex. They are not going with us. For one thing, it would cost a lot more money, but the bigger issue is that it is a very difficult trip and it would be very hard on them. And it would be hard for us to give them the attention they need while also trying to take care of Rylie and the adjustments we will have with her. So the boys will be spending a week with Grandma and Grandpa Bradley and a week with Grandma and Grandpa Pruett and will be completely spoiled rotten by the time we get back, lol. We know they will be in excellent hands but it is going to be VERY hard to leave them for that amount of time!

Thanks for your prayers and we will try to keep everyone posted when we know a for sure travel date. When I have time, I am going to start a blog for this trip.  (Look, I really did!)

Where We've Been

Who knows when this journey really began.  Perhaps God has been preparing us for this our whole lives- that is probably true.  What we do know is that about seven years ago we finally decided getting pregnant probably wasn't going to happen and we wanted kids.  Adoption seemed a good option to add to our family and we heard there were lots of healthy baby girls in China who needed a home.  We could apply, do our paperwork, and travel to bring our baby home in about 9-10 months.  However, we had to wait until we turned 30.  So we waited and things changed.  The wait times drastically increased.  We did our paperwork and sent our dossier to China in January 2007.  The wait times have increased so much that we would still be waiting to bring home a healthy baby girl with that dossier if we hadn't taken a detour.
A few months later that same year, I saw a picture of a little boy on our adoption agencies website.  I knew instantly he was my son.  He was three years old and had a special need.  This was not at all the direction we had planned to go, but I was shaking all over and knew he was special.  When Ryan came home and I told him, he said "Call them, call right now!"  Of course, it was like 8 p.m. and they weren't open.  When we did call they said someone else is looking at his file.  We waited two days and then got the call.  He is available.  You can pursue his adoption.
We did and brought Nicholas home that August.  He changed our lives.  He is an amazing kid.
Six months later, we ready to do it again.  We thought for sure this time we were meant to bring home our daughter, Rylie.  But then we saw a picture of another little boy.  And in the summer of 2009, we were finally able to bring Alex home.  We can't imagine life without him.  It was a big adjustment and we looked at our finances and said we have to be done.
But last summer, I watched our friends bring home their second little girl from China.  I cried every time I read their updates and I knew we had to start the process again.  We started looking at every possible option to find something we could afford.  We put our house on the market.  Long story short, here we are.  Finally able to bring home our daughter.  So yes, it has been a very long journey to bring Rylie home but she will be worth the wait.

Who We Are

We are a family of four soon to be five.  We are all followers of Jesus Christ.  God has led us down this path of adoption and both Nick and Alex have made the decision to become Christ followers.  Ryan is a pharmacist, teaches an adult Bible study class at church, sings in choir and praise team, and loves football and baseball.  Nick is eight.  He is doing amazing in third grade at a new school!  He loves to sing, watch Star Wars, sing Star Wars songs, build Lego Star Wars sets, draw pictures of Stars Wars stuff, etc.  He is very kind and thoughtful (just like his Dad).  He is very creative and asks a lot of questions!  Alex is seven.  He has transformed from the kid who wouldn't hug us or look us in the eye or even smile a whole lot to the kid who needs a hug every morning and is always laughing and teasing.  He is smart and funny (just like his Dad, lol) and also asks a lot of questions.  He is really good at video games and likes to play with action figures.  We are super blessed with amazing friends and amazing family!