Merry Christmas!

The boys and I decorated sugar cookies today and attended the Christmas Eve service at church this evening. We're planning to be up early in the morning to spend Christmas Day with Adam at his work. He won't be returning home until the 26th, but the boys and I are allowed to spend the day with him on Christmas, which is so awesome!  I can't say much more about Adam's job on here to try to keep some semblance of privacy as to our location and etc.  But we are excited to see him tomorrow!

Here's a little picture collage thing I made on my phone of the boys dressed up for church tonight!  They looked very handsome. 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Form I-797C and Christmas in the Barn

Today we received Form I-797C, Notice of Action from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  This isn't a huge deal, as it's just to notify us that our I-800 was received, the date it was received, and where they are sending it next.  However, it's right on schedule and shows that our paperwork is progressing as it should!

On another note, we had a lovely time at "Christmas in the Barn" tonight. Christmas in the Barn is an annual happening in our church fellowship, where a ranching family from the church hosts an evening of worship in their very cool and historic stone-walled barn which was built in the late 1800s. (It's a bit drafty!)

We sat on hay bales and sang Christmas carols together, listened to a message given by our pastor, and had a delicious potluck supper (which consisted mostly of cookies and other goodies, especially on all the kids' plates)!  There was plenty of coffee, cocoa, and hot apple cider to warm us up, too.  I can't express how much I truly love the body of Christ and enjoy fellowship with these brothers and sisters. They are such a blessing!

Singing to our Savior

A Christmas message

And...a selfie with Levi...with some shadow issues.  Apparently I need practice.  ;)

Adam is better. He took this one of him and Drake. 

I love this guy!

Last one. You can see how we were against the back wall of the barn...there were hay bales stacked up like "bleachers" against the back wall, and Levi wanted to sit up high. So we joked that we were the rowdies in the back of the bus. ;)

Letter Seeking Confirmation & I-800

WACAP received our Letter Seeking Confirmation from the Chinese government today!  They emailed it to us, we printed it, signed it, scanned it, and emailed it back to them so it could be included in our I-800 paperwork that went out today to the Department of Homeland Security!

Check. 

So it will probably be a few weeks before anything else happens, but in the meantime we're allowed to send a care package to M in her orphanage!  We will find out more details from our caseworker tomorrow.

I love progress. :)

Here's a pic of Adam signing the LSC today...he was helping with the addition at our church building, so the kids and I brought it to him to sign after they finished their schoolwork for the day. 

Our caseworker told me on the phone today that the typical wait to travel from this point (I-800 submission) has been running about 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 months!

Letter Seeking Confirmation update and a call to the base clinic

So exciting!  We received word from our caseworker at WACAP (our adoption agency) on Monday that the CCCWA website shows our Letter Seeking Confirmation as complete!  She said they will probably receive it within a week, and then the I800 (next round of US immigration stuff) will go out.  It feels so great to be one step closer to bringing our little M home!

On another note, I've been dreading figuring out all the medical stuff for M, as far as who her doctor will be (whether we want to "deal" with the base clinic in her circumstances or not) and how to go about working all the adoption medicine/cleft palate stuff through the military system.  Unfortunately, we have learned to be wary of base clinics over the years.  We use them, but it is always cautiously, with eyes wide open.  And in dealing with stuff for the kids, I have my alter-ego "assertive persona" ready to pull out at any minute if I need to advocate for my children or keep the clinic staff in line.

Sooo...I had been dragging my feet, but I decided to put in a telephone consult today to speak with someone in the base Pediatrics clinic (where our boys are seen) about the logistics of M being seen there.  Usually when you want to put in a telephone consult, you have to give your message to a receptionist from the appointment line, and then they relay your question to someone in your specialty clinic (in this case, Pediatrics).  Then the Pediatrics clinic has 72 "business hours" to call you back; that means, for example, that if you call on a Wednesday afternoon like I just did, they don't have to return your call until the following Monday afternoon.  Sometimes they call back sooner, sometimes they wait until the "deadline," and occasionally they just fail to call you back at all, saying they "have no record" that you called.  (It's aggravating.  Honestly, the federal government does a poor job of running a healthcare system.  There is a lot of wasted time and wasted money.  A lot of mix-ups, whether it's lost files, misinformation...etc.  Military members and military dependents have experienced the original version of the "ACA" for decades, and honestly, I wish the rest of the country would have asked us how we felt about it before jumping on the bandwagon, but I digress...)

So this afternoon I called the base clinic, went through the automated system to put in a telephone consult, and instead of being transferred to the appointment line to leave a message for Pediatrics, I was patched right through to a pediatric nurse who happens to be our boys' doctor's nurse.  Whoa!

She talked to me immediately and answered all the questions I could think of off the top of my head (since I wasn't expecting to actually get to talk to anyone from Pediatrics yet)!  It all sounds like very good news.  I was also super pleased to hear that our boys' doctor will most likely be here through June of 2015, whereas we had been under the impression that he would be leaving a year earlier (which means that if we choose the base clinic for M, she will have at least some continuity of care).  Good news on all fronts!  Adam and I will be discussing all the other information the nurse gave me today in order to make a decision about M's care, but I am relieved at how cooperative the base clinic has seemed to be so far.

I will update the blog again when the Letter Seeking Confirmation has been received by WACAP.

O Christmas tree

We got the tree decorated last night!

It's been very, very cold here. Like below zero. (We're supposed to have a high of -8 on Friday!)  Swimming lessons, women's Bible study, and Awana were all cancelled this week - and folks in our neck of the woods rarely cancel anything due to winter weather!  So I'm very thankful that we've already got our Christmas tree so we don't have to venture out too far.  :)

Here's a picture of coziness...Adam and me relaxing after getting the kids in bed tonight. Ahh...

Wow.

Heard this song (Merry Christmas by Third Day) for the first time yesterday.  Sweet, sweet song that made me cry.  We are in such a unique situation that I didn't know they even wrote songs about it!

Christmas tree hunting

Even though the temps were dropping and snow had started falling, we decided to go up into the mountains and get our Christmas tree today. The weather is just supposed to get worse for at least the next week. It was a good time!

Dad and the boys

Mom and the boys.  Don't let the lack of snow on the ground fool you!  It was REALLY cold, and snowing lightly by this point.

Drake thought the saw was pretty cool!

Here's Levi helping Dad pull the tree up the hill to the truck.

Taa daaaa!

So pretty, and I think the deer knew that hunting season ended yesterday!

This doe and her two fawns were hanging out by the road just looking at us!

Even saw some wild turkeys, too. 

Pretty fun little trip, and by the time we got back to town, it was snowing like a blizzard. Nice to have it done!