8 Month LID

8th Month LID Anniversary

Today is our 8th month log in date anniversary. Even though it is still a long time before we bring home our daughter, I have to say that these last eight months have gone by pretty quickly.

Our little guy turned 3 1/2 just recently and we are enjoying him immensely He is so excited about St. Nicholas coming to our home. What would he like for Christmas? A garbage truck and dump truck of course!

Tribute to Mom-Mom

My grandmother that we affectionately call Mom-Mom passed away today. She will be greatly missed by all of us. We hope and pray that she is now resting eternally with our Heavenly Father.

7 Month LID

7 Month LID

Today is our 7 month Log In Date Anniversary. Unfortunately, we still have a long was to go to bring home our Elizabeth. We pray for her and her family every day and hope that the wait time will go quickly. Families who had Log in Dates up to Dec. 8, 2005 just got their referrals. That is almost two years after they were logged in. It is taking several months to get through one month of Log in Dates at this time. There have been rumors of the time getting longer and other that it will shorten after the first of the year. Who knows!

Halloween 2007

John-Paul was an alligator for Halloween. He was very generous when he went "Trick or Treating" as he tried to give some of the candy back to the people as he went house to house in our neighborhood!

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Trip to St. Louis

John-Paul and I traveled to St. Louis for a few days to visit with Jenna. She moved to a new convent in the Town and Country area. The weather was wonderful and John-Paul enjoyed visiting the pumpkin patches with his sister. We also had a great time at the St. Louis Zoo! Enjoy the pictures!

6 Month LID

I found this graphic for our 6 month LID (Log in date) and posted it a few days early! We are now at the six month point which a few months ago I would have been really excited about. However, someone on my March/April Yahoo list got an email from CCAI and basically it said that the wait for adopting from China is much longer than we have all anticipated (how long? nobody really knows.) I actually found this out just before our 5 month LID anniversary. That is part of the reason that I didn't post anything last month. The wait has been very hard. It will be two years in January that we started this process. It could go another two years if things don't speed up soon. So for now, we hope, pray and trust in God that His timing is perfect.

On a positive note, the fall is my favorite season. Unfortunately, living in Florida we don't get much of a fall. My little guy and I are traveling to St. Louis to visit with my daughter and hope that there will be more fall-like weather there.

Ave Maria Univeristy and Town

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4 Month LID Anniversary and Miscellaneous

Today is our 4 month LID anniversary! Overall, the time has gone by pretty quickly. It has been a busy month with vacation and getting back to work. Unfortunately, the pile of work at my job didn't go on vacation permanently!

John-Paul has learned to pray some of his prayers including grace at meal time and can say the Hail Mary prayer all by himself. If I can figure out how to upload video on this website, I will. It is so cute to hear him pray!

John-Paul can't wait to go to fly on an airplane and go to China to get his siter, Elizabeth. A few weeks ago, he said with a big sigh that all his sisters are far away.

Eric traveled with us on our vacation and to my conference at the Franciscan University. I think both he and his little brother are getting more attached to each other as they spent so much time together this summer. Eric left for Ave Maria yesterday. John-Paul is really going to miss him.

Check out the new link to Ave Maria University. They just opened their new campus a few weeks ago. Eric is down there helping move the library from the old campus to the new.

Three Month LID Annivesary!

Today is our three month anniversary of our LID! So we are now three months closer to bringing Elizabeth home with our family. Overall, the last three months have gone by pretty quickly. I just hope the the rest of them pass just as quickly or better yet, that the wait time speeds up.

Squishes that I sent Out

I finally sent out all my squishes last week. A squish a a quilt square and a wish for the family that you are sending it to. I belong to a group of people who have LID's in March and April. They put together a group that wanted to exchange quilt squares and wishes with each other. Here is a copy of my squish.

November 2005 Referrals

Families that have been logged in (LID) up to November 14, 2005 are finally getting their referrals. Many of these families have waited 19 - 20 months for their referrals and will travel in the next 6-8 weeks to bring home their babies. We are still hoping that the wait time does not increase much more. Actually, we have been praying that things will speed up!

John-Paul wants to go on a big jet to China to bring home his sister, Elizabeth. The other day he said that all his sisters are far away (his older sister is in St. Louis.)

2 Month LID Anniversary!

We have now waited two months since our LID! That means that we are two months closer to bringing Elizabeth home to our family. Yesterday, John-Paul said he wanted to go get his sister from China now! He also said that all my sisters are far away.

Fr. Tom Reports From China

Human Life International President, Fr. Tom Euteneuer is currently in China. He wrote an interesting article about some things that are going on in China that probably many Americans are not aware of. Click on the title for this blog for the link to Fr. Tom's report or read it below.


Spirit & Life
"The words I spoke to you are spirit and life." (Jn 6:63)
Human Life International e-Newsletter
Volume 01, Number 71 | Friday, June 08, 2007
................................................................................... www.hli.org
Fr. Tom Reports from China

This message comes to you today from China where I am on the pro-life mission trail. For security purposes I am not able to disclose the names of the people or places that I am visiting, but suffice it to say, HLI's mission of life finds many willing ears in this vast country so infamous for its coercive abortion policy. I can honestly say that I have never seen people so hungry or grateful for the pro-life message than the Chinese. Our network of pro-life support in this country is the Catholic Church, those who recognize the authority of the Vicar of Christ in Rome; and although they are a small flock relative to the massive population, they are tested in their faith like few others I have seen.

Heroes
Certain people in every culture stand out as icons of the goodness and heroism of their people, and China certainly has many of these. This week I met a bishop who had been in Communist prisons for over 20 years. This man has a permanent smile and a look of serenity on his face and just exudes holiness. He constantly thanks God for those very difficult years because he sees how they strengthened his faith and even protected the Church. He was allowed no communication with his family at all - for more than twenty years - except for rare visits where the family members were only allowed to see him at a distance to know that he was alive. The prison guards often put him and the other priests on a stage wearing dunce caps or mock bishops' miters with blasphemous sayings on them and taunted then to publicly denounce the pope. Of course they refused and paid the price for it. Some were suspended by a rope from the ceiling with their arms tied behind their backs for a whole day; others were beaten, had their feet frozen in ice and various creative forms of torture that their captors dreamed up. Many died from their mistreatment.

Humility
Finally, after the government policy changed in the 80s, this bishop was released from prison and they apologized to him for the "mistake" of imprisoning him for close to a quarter of a century! They expected him to demand compensation, but he and his people said that they would not ask for anything but would forgive their captors. This is the core of the suffering Church in China today.

As Providence would have it, he and many other priests were in prison during the entire time of the Cultural Revolution in China which saw a brutal persecution of the Catholic Church and the murder of many clergy and religious. It was actually safer for priests to be inside the prisons than outside during those years. This bishop told me that "God kept His Church alive in the prisons in those years." I then understood why this humble man of the Church is grateful for his two decades in prison.

Horrors
Now the Church in China struggles with another ungodly persecution of their most innocent citizens, the unborn. In certain areas, women have to undergo gynecological exams every three months to assure that they are not pregnant with any "excess pregnancies" (meaning more than one child.) The law is strictly enforced in some places and others not, but every family fears this policy. I was told by many of the people here that Catholics and non-Catholics alike know that abortion is wrong, but the policy's overwhelming and often coercive nature puts the consciences of good people in between a rock and a hard place with regard to family and childbearing issues.

Hope
Please pray for the Church in China which, despite its poverty and diminutive status, is strong in many ways. Its clergy and religious have zeal and orthodoxy and its people love Christ and His most holy Mother fervently. These tried and true Catholics are actually growing in number and from them the Lord may well bring about the conversion of this whole marvelous civilization.




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Sincerely Yours in Christ,


Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International

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Happy Birthday, John-Paul

Today is John-Paul's 3rd Birthday. He has been so excited about his birthday and has been singing Happy Birthday to himself for weeks. He loved his Thomas the Train cake and balloon! Pictures to come soon.

One Month Since LID!

It is now one month since we were first logged in to China. One month down and 17 - 19 months to go if CCAI's guestimate is correct! Anyway, we are one month closer to our Elizabeth no matter how long the wait.

100 Good Wishes Quilt Squares Arriving Daily!

I joined a group of other parents who are adopting from China a couple of months ago. Someone at our adoption agency recommended doing this to help pass the time away and to get to know the people who we will be traveling with to China.

One of the things that the group has started is a 100 good wishes quilt. Basically, you send out an 8 X 8 cotton square to everyone in the list. When we are done, I will be 37 square closer to the 100 that are needed to make the quilt. One of the best parts are the little wishes, prayers and poems that come with each square. Each person sends this little note with a piece of the same fabric of the square that they sent and this is placed in the child's scrabook. I am going to take some pictures of the squares so you all can see them.

I am hoping that family and friends will also send us a square too!

Do We Know Who Our Daughter Is Yet?

We constantly get asked if we know who our daughter is yet. The answer is no. In about 18 - 20 months, we will get something called a referral that will have information about our new daughter including her birthday, height, weight and any medical information that they may have. Also in the referral will be pictures of her.
We have requested a baby between the ages of 6- 12 months old. The youngest that I have ever seen come out of China is around 7 months old. Most of the babies seem to be more around 10- 12 months old for those requesting a 6- 12 month old. However with that said, we qualify for a child between the ages of 0-24 months old and the final decision is with the CCAA (the Chinese government who is in charge of the adoptions in China.)
There is a large Chinese adoption community on the web and I am trying to keep up with a couple of Yahoo groups during the wait. I don't have time to post much on these sites, but do try to read the emails so that we are fully informed about this process especially by those who have already adopted from China. The people that I have met on these sites have been wonderful and some of the most patient people that I have ever met.
The wait time has increased drastically since we first began discerning whether God was calling us to adopt a child. When we first looked into adopting, the wait time from the log in date (LID) was only six months and not the 18 - 20 months that we are now facing. As our little John-Paul is a very active almost three year old, we are kind of thankful that our little girl has not arrived yet. We know that God has chosen the perfect daughter for us and it will be in His time when we get to bring her home.

We Got Our Log In Date Today!

We finally got our Log in Date today. This is a very important date as this is what the CCAA uses to officially start your countdown to your referral. So our official LID is 4-13-07! I just read information from our adoption agency that says the wait for referral is currently 18 - 20 months long. We are hoping that the wait decreases, but will be planning on the wait to bring Elizabeth home to be at least that amount of time. Please, please pray that it doesn't take that long.

New Log In Dates Came in Today

Just found out that families who had dossiers sent to China on March 22 just got log in dates. Hopefully, ours will be soon. I was hoping that it would be this week, but it will probably be more like next week.

Happy Easter, Elizabeth! Jesus Christ Has Risen Today! Alleluia!

KISSES IN THE WIND

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.
--- Unknown

Elizabeth's Family Celebrating Life!

Our Dossier is at CCAA!

We just got our email from CCAI that our dossier arrived in China at the CCAA. Now we just have to wait for that all important log in date (LID).

The Coughlin Family

This is a recent family picture- January 2007.