the hardgrave family

As of this post, we are about 30 days past what is reffered to as our “Login Date” or as is commonly said in adoption lingo, 32 days LID. (I’ve discovered that you have to learn to speak with a whole new vocabulary of acronymns to be able to communicate meaningfully with anyone involved with international adoption. example: “So you are 30 days LID, but you’re 60 days DTC . . .wow, how is your DW holding up while waiting on the TA from CCAA?”) Anyway . . . at the present, we’re still hoping to get our “TA” (travel approval) from the “CCAA” (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) sometime in the next several weeks. The earliest that we would expect to see it would be around the middle of December. If we do get it then, we are hoping that we can get in with one of our agency’s two travel groups leaving around the start of the new year.

For all of you who have so gracioulsy responded to our letter and given your support, prayers and encouragement, we just can’t thank you enough. So far as we can tell at the moment, we are only about $5K short of where we need to be before we travel. While we still have a respectable amount to make up, we just can’t say enough about how overwhelmingly blessed we are to have gotten so close to our goal so quickly. We know that it is only by God’s grace and your kindness. Please continue to keep us in prayers and rejoice with us that God has been so good to us thus far.

In other news, two weekends ago, we finished our last “home improvement” to get ready for Hua Yin/Lily Faith’s arrival. To the great pleasure of Sarah and Kathryn, we’ve finally added their much anticipated bunk beds (big thanks to Michael, Melissa, Jesse and Matthew for the beds!) and repainted the room in “Princess” pink. All we need is princess #3 and the room with be complete!