WE ARE ON OUR WAY...

Well God has done it again, I am so blown away by HIS plans and how HE, and I say "HE" has worked things out~  God knew our hearts and  our desire to be here for our sons wedding on August 4th and HE also knew how bad we wanted to leave and bring Sholey Joy home right after the wedding, well HE has done just that, we leave August 8th!  

New Pictures of Sholey...

This is a very current picture of our little girl~  She is just beautiful and will be smiling before to long.  We love her so very much! (picture was taken July 5)

We love you Miss Sholey Joy Woolverton!

We should be hearing from our agency either on July 25th or Aug 1st.  (these are the dates that would either be 2wks or the 3rd week from the Article 5 being picked up and to the CCCWA. 

Our Article 5 will be issued and picked up on July 11th.  It will couriered to CCCWA and we will await the issuance of our travel invitation.    They said it generally has taken two to three weeks.

I-800 Dropoff - Article 5 Pickup

I know you my not understand the title, but for us this is GREAT news!  Let me explain; our documents (I-800) are in China and now at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou and our Article 5 will be issued and picked up on 7/11/12.  It will then be couriered to CCCWA and we will await the issuance of our travel invitation.  This has generally taken 2-3 weeks. We are getting closer to meeting our daughter!

Sholey is definitely a WOOLVERTON

In our referral papers it describes her personality...  
She is strong, active and restless (oh my, I'm gonna lose some weight).  Sholey is affectionate loves to be held and hugged (this is so wonderful cause our whole family loves to hug and so do we).  Sholey is energetic and gets impatient sometimes...lol, I cracked up when I read this and thought; "boy does she already sound like a Woolverton".  
Sholey also gets along with others well and has a ready smile (that is what they say).  She is fond of playing with others and toys and her favorite toy is dolls.  She is a moderate sleeper and eats well, Sholey's favorite drink is milk.  The foods she eats are porridge, minced meat, egg, food made of wheat, vegetable juice, milk, juices and soups.  She has 4 meals a day.  We can't wait to get her HOME and see how she will like American food and introduce her to some great fruits~

I just love this picture of her~

I wanted to also share how I can't imagine how hard or what was going through her mother's mind and heart the moment she place her on the grass at the Labour bureau in the city of Dongguan on October 5, 2010.  My heart aches for this mother, but my heart is joyful that God chose William and I to have the privilege of loving, caring and raising this beautiful little girl.  

I imagine now that her hair has grown and she is walking and running around.  I am so ready to go and hold her in my arms and tell her how much she is loved.  I am so ready for our whole family to see her and for her to feel and know how much God loves her.   

More SHOTS...

OH my the TYPHOID vaccine has left me hurting.  William and I had to go and get the typhoid shot Thursday just another added precaution for our trip (prevent us from bacteria called Salmonella Typhi from contaminated food or water) Typhoid Fever.  I never knew a shot could hurt so much afterwards, but oh my goodness I could hardly move my arm and no one was gonna get close enough to touch it either~  But all this and more is worth every hurt, pain, high, low, waiting and discomfort.  We would do it all over again for Sholey if we had to.  
We also have our Malaria medicine, an antibiotic and Phenergan, along with all the over the counter medicine we might need~  Thanks to our family doctor I think we are prepared~

Care Package...

We were able to send a care package to our little girl and we sent a little summer dress, disposable camera, a pink soft rabbit blanket and photo book of her Daddy and Mommy and of her~

Final Process

We have finally done it, the I-800 provisional approval and the NVC Letter has been received (June 14th) and off that next day and BCS Agency has already sent it off today (June 17th) and it should arrive in China this Thursday the 21st.  Shiyan with BCS will be getting it to the right place and should be in process Friday (22nd), if not, it will be for sure by Tuesday (26th), (Monday is no longer a pick up/drop off day).

In about 3 weeks we will be notified that our "Article Five" has been issued, this means our time to travel will be known and the visa appointment will be scheduled at the US Consulate in Guangzhou. WoooHOOOO I'm SO ready for this moment!

Our HEARTS are in China

God so loved the world...He gave, so we could live and be chosen
to teach our little girl about HIM~ 
 (see John 3:16)

CLICK, CLICK here comes some pictures...

This was the very first picture that William & I saw with our kids on FaceTime seeing it with us.  She is just so beautiful~  We were all so overwhelmed with emotion.  It was a wonderful time that we had together. We will never forget that moment.


Here's her pretty little room, waiting for her to play...

WOW, can't believe all that has been done, but MORE to do

I want to share some dates and what all has taken place in our adoption and in-between, so here we go...

4/16/12 at 9:06pm we received a call of our referral of our little Sholey Joy and then we had to wait to post any pictures or information about her until we received word of our "LOA" (letter of acceptance). 

4/20/12 Pre-approval  

4/30/12 we received our "LOA" and on 5/1 we shared (on our blog) a beautiful picture of our little girl God had chosen for us.

5/2/12 we had a little mess up on the Letter of Acceptance and we had to have China make a correction and mail it back so we could send our I-800 to the USCIS.

5/8/12 had one of our bathrooms re-painted and finished 

5/10/12 we received our revised "LOA" and now ready for the I-800 forms, William and I stayed up until 1:30am filling out the form.

5/11/12 sent off our I-800 with FedEx 

5/14/12 went to doctor to start our Hepatitis A & B shots

5/15/12 called to make sure travel agency received our pre-paperwork and we finished Sholey's room

5/17/12 we received our visas and had our daughter (Ashley's) Reveal Party and found out the gender of our grand-baby
5/18/12 Kelly, our pastors daughters wedding (it was so beautiful and so much fun)

5/19/12 our daughter Ashley and Bethany (Colby's fiancé) both had their graduation at the same place and the same time. (this was a blessing)

5/20/12 Colby and Bethany had wedding shower, Bethany's church gave them

5/21/12 Sholey received her care package we had sent her 

5/31/12 we received a letter about our I-800 Request for Evidence (mistake) and got together the paperwork needed and got it in the mail the next day for them to be able to finish it (they received it on 6/4/12 by 8am

6/9/12 received our approval for I-800, Ashley hosted a wedding shower for her brother at our house, had about 31 people at our home, it was a lot of fun

6/13/12 finished the last part of the paperwork for the I-800 provisional approval and emailed the NVC (national visa center) to make sure they had our visa petition and they had received it and it's in their system and assigned a case number (this is GOOD).  Now the case has to be forwarded to the assigned US Embassy/Consulate General.  

We are WAITING now for our NVC letter to send to our agency and then off for the appointment to be set for us to make our Travel Plans~  (this can not come soon enough for us, but in fear that it may conflict with our son (Colby's) wedding) God is in control and knows all that needs to be, so I trust HIM in what He provides.  

   

Meet, SHOLEY JOY WOOLVERTON

We are so excited and very proud to introduce you to our Sholey Joy Woolverton.  God has chosen this little girl for us, and us for her~  How blessed, honored and very thankful to the Lord for this precious little girl.  Our hearts are so overwhelmed with emotion and we can not wait to go get her and bring her HOME~

"I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you."
John 14:18

It is official that Sholey Joy is ours!  Yesterday, Monday, April 30th we received the best news...we received our "LOA" (letter of acceptance), which gives us all rights to share her photos and anything else we chose to share about her.  I will share that her cleft lip has been repaired, but her palate has not. We will have that done once we get home and adjusted.  Today, May 1st we received our overnight UPS package from China/Bethany Christian Services with our Post Referral Travel Packet.  We now apply for our travel visas, along with completing our I-800 documents to the USCIS and then we can bring Sholey Joy home.  

  
I still have more work to do and I will share more about Sholey later.  Continue to pray for her and for us.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts~

Received our "PA"

"PA" (pre-approval) from CCCWA (China) on 4/20/12.  Now we wait on our "LOA" (letter of acceptance)  and then we will be able to share her beautiful pictures we have on our blog and also we will then get to send "Sholey Joy" care packages!  I can not wait to share with everyone things about Sholey, God KNEW she was already a Woolverton!  (You'll understand why I say this when we can share this information with everyone).  

Thank you for praying for this moment and please continue to pray for her and in preparing her to receive us in her little heart.  God Bless~

Sholey Joy Woolverton

We are JOYFUL to announce we've been MACTHED!  
God continues to shower His grace to us and we are so overwhelmed.  We are extremely excited and will be sharing more details in the days to come. 


"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."  James 1:17 (NIV)

Saturday Morning, March 24th

Spring is here and everything is coming to life again with beautiful colors all around.  I sit back and think about the day when we will have Sholey and she will be running and playing around in the backyard and I'll be sharing with her "that all this beauty, especially her, God has made"!  I can't wait to share with her about Jesus and how much He loves her.  Oh how she's gonna love it here~
We still wait with JOY in our hearts for the day we get a referral of our "Sholey Joy", but the news this time around was a little different (which took place this past Monday the 19th).  We did not get an email just saying "NO MATCH", we received a email explaining that they (Bethany Christian Service & other U.S. Agency's) were having technical difficulties signing into the CCCWA website to do the matching.  The CCCWA was even saying they were having problems too and would extend the band-with next go round.  So with all this said we did not get a match, but not because Sholey wasn't on the list.  Now, we wait with great expectations for April and pray, pray, pray that this will be the month we will be able to meet our little girl.  

Monday, March 5th

I'm so excited! Ashley & I started a new Beth Moore Bible study tonight at church. It's gonna be GOOD!

I'm ready for God to move in me and continue to shape me into who he wants me to be.  

February 27th...

NO MATCH this time around again, we are a little discouraged, but we know it will come and when it does there's gonna be a CELEBRATION!  So we just continue to pray and we want to thank all our family and friends for the steadfast prayers.  We love all of you and are so thankful for how God has blessed us with genuine love~  

Love on Valentine's Day

Wow! We have had a Valentine's we will never forget...
     Our hearts are filled with so much love and we are so thankful to God for allowing us to be so blessed.
     Life is gonna be so different for all of our family.  First we are still waiting on a referral of our "Sholey Joy" which could come Monday, February 27th (we are praying that it will), we have had a great-nephew turn 1, and our son (Colby) had his Senior day at his last basketball game (on home court) at his college, Colby is also getting married in August,  our adoption agency called us on Valentine's Day and wanted to know if we would be interim adoptive parents for three days to a 15 day old little baby boy (we of course said YES and oh what joy this was), and last but surely not least our daughter (Ashley and her husband Shane) told us we are gonna be GRANDPARENTS come this October!!!  Oh how EXCITED we are.  Here are some pictures to share the joy: 


Our son's last home court game...

Colby's Senior Day (last game on home court)

Oh how I love to watch him play,

but one day we will get to see him coach and lead young men in this game of life~

Here's a great article on my son, the love of the game is in his heart and that's how he plays:  http://eagles.ozarks.edu/mbasketball/Default.aspx?tab=0&newsID=4635

Our son getting married in August...

Valentine's Day 

(we got a call to be interim adoptive parents and what joy filled our souls)

Oh the days that William and I have talked about this and how exciting our lives are gonna be and it's here, our Ashley and Shane are pregnant~

We are gonna be GRANDPARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

January Matching...

We did not receive a referral this time, but it will come~  Thank you to everyone that is praying for this moment for us to bring Sholey Joy home.  We appreciate it so much and ask that you continue to pray for us and for her.   
The next matching should be the last Monday in February unless they let us know sooner.  

"We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom

our faith depends from start to finish"

Hebrews 12:2

We Are Waiting...

Just a update on our adoption:  

We are waiting on a referral of our little girl (Sholey Joy).  We didn't get matched in December so we are praying for January for us to receive a match and meet our little girl by picture for the first time. So we wait and continue our trust in HIM, because He is in control of everything.   

T-Shirts we designed...

We can all have the choice of accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior and being adopted and becoming "children of God".