Under the sun

So I've been pretty busy lately. The last post was about our little prophetess and that was from several days ago. I'm sad to say that the same little girl who teaches her imaginary students about the one true God, is now banned to the upstairs for the entire weekend {minus meal times, etc} with no TV, no iPod, no computer. She made some bad decisions this morning...namely, giving me grief about school work {home school day} and speaking to me in a very sarcastic tone with eye roll and gestures to match.

Uh, not having that at all.

So. She's now cleaning out drawers in her closet. Lessons are hard to learn. Especially if you don't follow through with consequences. It will be a long weekend around here. That's for sure.

I shot my first real wedding this weekend. Yikes. I have second shot before {small scale} and did photograph one this summer for a widow/widower couple. It was precious. But very small and simple. So this was a biggy for me. I'm fairly happy with how things turned out. I have some images I'm proud of...others that I know fell flat. But it was a good experience in testing the waters. I could really get used to the L-series lenses I rented for the big day. Holy moly. It's amazing what $5000 worth of lenses will do for a girl like me. :) The bride was my first cousin, my mom's sister's daughter. She asked me a year and a half ago. I refused. Then tried harder to talk her out of it. But not staunch enough because by fall of last year...I had agreed. I'm glad I did. I'm not sure if she will like them or not...she's still cruising around in some blue water somewhere. But I believe I will have met her expectations. The jury is still out on whether or not I exceeded them. :) Here are a few that I'm proud of though.

I haven't had a chance to write about all the Lord is doing with our new adoption as of late. The last time I posted, I told you about how He had begun it all...with the surprise gift from a friend and the very unexpected WACAP grant. I have been visiting that area of the living room floor each morning since. Not in superstition. Just the desire to see God's hand move pushes me there. And the hope of provision. And the sweetness of fellowship between He and I as I call out to Him for my children. All four of them. It is precious and quiet and revealing. And convicting.

It reveals to me how dependent I am on Him. How utterly lost I am and how within myself, lies no good thing. But again and again, He is faithful. I told Jase in September that I was asking the Lord for 25 One Girl sessions. I have now booked 17 in only September and October. That astounds me. We are just about $1000 from our goal of having the needed funds for locking our boy's file, completing home study, applying for immigration and paying our first agency fees. That's just unbelievable to me. So, only five more sessions will cover it. And I could be way off, but I think it's totally doable. I'm trusting our great God to show us His hand over and over.

Our paperwork went to China via email last Friday on October 7th. This {if I understand it correctly} is the LOI {Letter of Intent}. We sent in a financial statement, medical statement, pictures, and personally written {typed of course} half page letter about our little boy and what we understand of him...and how we intend to adopt him. The Letter of Intent. So it was there last Friday. The next step is for China to issue to us pre approval to adopt him specifically. Pre Approval. And I just read on one of the forums that those who had sent their LOI's on 9.27, received their PA's on this past Tuesday, 10.11 {2 weeks, or 10 business days to us...but I have heard of the powers that be working on weekends. So who knows?}. But that means, maybe, that the earliest we could hear of PA would be next Friday, 10.21.

I would love to hear sooner...but it is what it is. WACAP has encouraged us to not begin our home study until we have PA from China. This makes sense. I mean, why pay all of the money up front to have a home study written for China when China may say, "you can't adopt from China!"? I agree. But man, it's hard to wait to begin. I'm such a task oriented person. I want to make a list and cross things off of it! China requires that all documents be less than six months old when your dossier is sent to country. So you really can't begin gathering all of that too soon. Or you run the risk of it expiring if you don't have your dossier ready in time. A lot of that is out of our hands...like the immigration I-800. We have to have the completed home study to apply for it...but the I-800 approval must accompany your dossier {less than 6 months old!}. And you know how it is when you are waiting for the government! There's just no telling! :)

So that's where we are with the adoption. Anxiously waiting and standing still until those two little letters come from China. PA. And then, we'll be like a sprinter...crouched and poised at the line, hearing the gun sound and blasting forward! It will be super fast and probably nuts with the holidays coming soon. But what are we to do? Take our sweet time while our little guy waits? Nope. That's not an option. As long as God is providing the means, we will continue to jump through the hoops to bring him home. I'm crazy excited and stressfully tired already. :)

So that's what's new under the sun for us. Not a lot of anything but a whole lot of something.