Good morning wonderful friends!  Thanks for sticking with me as I get used to this blogging thing again!

This morning I spoke to the NVC to ask them to send my cable letter via email.  This is the next important thing we are waiting for in our journey to bring Maia home.  The very nice lady said that it could go out as early as tomorrow and that she would have it emailed to us!  So we should be getting it maybe even tomorrow!  As I understand it, from there we get our Consulate appointment (CA) and then our travel approval.

We are still really praying that we can travel in September; if we don't, then we pretty much have to wait until the last week of October or so.  We don't want to wait any longer than we have to, and we don't want Maia to have to wait either.

We are still about $6000 short of what we need in order to finish out this process.  God has been so gracious to us throughout and has provided all the funds we have needed all along the way, and we have no doubt He will provide the rest.  We also realize sometimes He uses His people so thought I should tell you about our fundraising efforts just in case He lays it on your heart to help.

On September 8 we are having an event we are calling Cakes for Maia!  It will be at 7 pm at the Foursquare church cafe (in Ephrata, WA.)  We will be auctioning all sorts of yummy cakes that people are donating.  We could still use some more cakes so if you are a baker and would like to make one let me know!  There will be live music all evening and the coffee bar will be open.

Also that evening we will be drawing the winner of the quilt raffle.  My friend Charisma, an amazing quilter (she does it for a living!) has donated one of her beautiful quilts for Maia.  It is the size of a small twin or would make a beautiful wall hanging.  Tickets are only $1!  Let me know if you would like to be in on this!

We also have a storefront where you can purchase great coffee products and some of the proceeds go directly to our "Maia fund."  It is www.justlovecoffee.com/bringingmaiahome.

Thanks everyone for all your support and help.  You have truly shown what it means to "remember the orphan in their distress" and we are so grateful!

Well, here I am back to blogging again!  The last time I posted on my blog it was 2009 and we were still living in Dalian, China.  An awful lot has happened since then!

We are back living in Ephrata, WA and as most of you know, in the process of bringing another little girl home from China.  Her name is Maia Yu Le Wall (at least it will be very soon!) and she turned eight years old last February.

Doesn't she look like a girl with a silly sense of humor?  Don't you think she'll fit right into this crazy family?

Here is where we are in our process:

We began in May of 2011 and received our PA (pre-approval) at the end of that month.  Then began the craziness of paperwork: homestudy, dossier....all the rest.  We were finally DTC (date our paperwork went to China) May 25, 2012.  We received our LID (date our paperwork was logged in to China) on June 25, and our LOA (letter of approval) on July 30, 2012.  Now we are waiting for our final approval from immigration and then we will travel to China to get our dear daughter!

I will post more later today as there is much much more to tell, but right now I'm off to celebrate Alaina's 8th birthday with her!