Gotcha Day Video

Sorry I couldn't post here while we were in China, but Blogspot was blocked.

Click here to read about our trip in China.

This will be my last post here as I'll be posting to his sister's blog so I can just make one update instead of two.

So we finally made it home on Friday July 31st and just trying to get back to our daily routine. Things are going well with both the transition and sleeping, with Elijah that is. Camie is like her momma, can't sleep, up at all hours.

I've put together the above video of Gotcha Day as well as his finding spot and pictures of China during our trip.

A Note From Cathy in China!

She is unable to post to Blogspot in China but you can go to This Link and follow their blessed trip!

2 days and counting!!

We are getting ready to leave on a jet plane to the most adorable little boy in the world! Ok, so this momma is a little biased. :)

I was just talking with our agency gal and thanking her for all she has done for us in helping us find our son! When our agency closed last November, she is the reason we stayed with the agency we are with now, because they hired her on. Aisha will always be very special to us.

It has been almost 1 year since we saw our little monkey's face for the very first time and here we are leaving on Saturday to bring him home!

We are truly amazed at God's work in our lives and especially for allowing us to bring home this child, soon to be our son! Now there's one less orphan in the world. Thank you God!!

We are getting closer to our goal!

UPDATE

We did it!!! We met our goal!

Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts and thanking God for providing!

Now this is the way to spend the day at a yard sale

We had another yard sale on Saturday and it was a rather slow day. Not sure why. It might be that we didn't know that our sign at the end of our road was taken until half way through the day. It might have been it was so darn hot that no one was out, going to yard sales. No way to know for sure.

But with that said, we made $46 and since our son sold something of his and he bargained with the guy we are giving him that money. So $14 will be going to his savings to help him buy the materials for the one man boat he wants to build.

$250 left and we will have reached our goal and we leave in 6 days! :)

UPDATE

WE ARE SO THANKFUL!!!!

God continues to amaze us and he has heard ours and everyone's prayers for our funds!!

We received two donations yesterday. One was from someone on one of my Yahoo groups and one was from an anonymous donor.

So with those two donations, there's only $280 left that we need!

Thank you so very much to our two donors, we are humbled and we truly appreciate it!!

We leave in 9 days!!

We are getting closer and closer!! :)

We're down to needing only $1,300 now. That will take care of the in China incidentals.

We will be having a yard sale this weekend to try and help towards that.

Please say a big prayer that we will make it!

And again, thank you all for your help and prayers in bringing Elijah home, we appreciate it so much!!!!

Little Brother, Big Sister

Well I had some time today to put together a couple of shirts for Miss Magoo and Lil' Monkey to wear in China.

I know his isn't a monkey but I thought the Panda was too cute and of course the lady bugs, how could I not use lady bugs? :)

We are blessed!

We had our spaghetti fundraiser dinner this past weekend and not only were we blessed with folks that came to our dinner but we were also blessed beyond measure with donations!

Then on Saturday we went to our friends that had a yard sale and we brought some things to sell, we even had a bake sale. Well they donated their entire funds they raised from the yard sale to us! Again, blessed beyond measure!

So with the wonderful weekend we had we are even closer now to our goal. We still need, $3,700.

I also wanted to say that we still have some items left from our on-line yard sale and I have reduced the prices, so please take a look.

The Koolzees are really cool, no pun intended. :) This really is a great way to stay cool during this time now that it's getting hot! These are hand made by Elijah's papa and we will be taking one for all of us when we go to China.

Thanks for taking a look and happy shopping!

My Soul Sings

You're invited!

We are having a fund raising dinner to help us with our adoption trip to bring Elijah home!

Friday, June 26th
6:30 pm
Westminster Chapel, 13646 NE 25th Street, Bellevue, WA

$5 suggested donation can be made to Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries.
https://www.kingdomkidsadoption.org/308208.ihtml

Please indicate Cecil and Cathy Worrell in the designation box.

So come enjoy a spaghetti dinner and hope to see you there!

TA!!!!

We got the call very early this morning, 6:30 am our time. :)

We have TA!!!!

Hold on little monkey, Momma and Papa are coming!!!

Our official TA came today (6/10) by UPS and when he walked up I asked if I could get his picture delivering our package. :)

He didn't know what to make of me, and you want to take my picture, um ok? I told him why and he was happy to oblige.

BIG ON-LINE YARD SALE to Help Bring Elijah home!!!

***UPDATE 6/7/09***

As you can see on the ChipIn button we have raised $709.75 so far. That leaves $5,690.25 to go!

We also have a Kingdom Kids account now as well! If you would like to donate on-line, Click here and note our name, Cecil and Cathy Worrell in the designation box.


As we get closer to bringing our son home, we continue to fund raise and we're still needing to raise $6,400.

So below are some more things we are selling to help raise the funds we need.

Please feel free to email me with any questions you may have.
minnie.goofy@comcast.net

There's a Blue ChipIn Button " Bring Elijah Home" on the right hand side bar for your convenience to make your donation.

*** Please be sure to scroll down to see everything we are selling. If you would like to see a close up, just click on the picture. Happy shopping!

First up...

So, are you going to China for an adoption trip? Heading on a mission trip? Or elsewhere where it's hot? Like to work in the garden? Want to stay cool?

Then beat the heat with your very own Koolzees!

These are hand made by Elijah's Papa.
Neck bandana's with polymer crystals when activated will keep you cool.

How it works...
Soak in clean water for 20-30 minutes and tie around your neck. It's that easy!

Adult and child sizes available.

Prices:
Adult: $7.50 ea or 2 for $12
Child: $5.00 ea or 2 for $8
Shipping included

To order:
Please email me at (minnie.goofy@comcast.net) and indicate if you want adult or child, quantity, color (see color samples in photo below) and your mailing address

Elijah's Papa and Big Sis, Miss Magoo modeling their Koolzees

Look what Elijah's Grandma did for us!

Hand made toddler blankets. They measure 52"x43"

Price: $20 each / Shipping included

Pink Butterfly - SOLD

Camo Frogs

Purple LadyBug - SOLD

Bright Green Wild Animal Print

Brand New, Never Been Used

3 piece Froggie Crib Set - Includes: Quilt, bumper and 1 fitted sheet

Also included is bed skirt and 1 extra fitted sheet

Price: $125 $100 / Standard shipping (7-10 days) included




Great Little Digital Camera - We bought a new camera and no longer need this one

*Kodak Easy Share Digital 3.1MP with 4x Optical Zoom and Video
*Docking Station with one touch picture transfer. It also charges the camera.
***Please note, this is not a printing dock.

Price: $135 $100 for both
Shipping Included






Willing to part with my Beautiful Aquamarine and Diamond Ring (10)
Size 5 1/2

Price: $225$200
Shipping included



Bracelet and Earring set - SOLD

I believe this is gold overlay on Sterling Silver. Never has tarnished or discolored.

Price: $30
Shipping included

One big blessing!

I started yesterday off, like any other day, reading my emails.

I came across an email from a gal I know through our online adoption community wanting to donate to help bring Elijah home.

Well let me tell you how this started from her kind donation to being what I call a God shot all the way!

You see she is fund raising for a mission trip to South Africa and she is taking her daughter, who believes she is to help the orphans. Her daughter is also from China and only 6. How sweet is that!

How sweet and kind (ok, it's so much more than that) that she felt led to donate to us. Well she emailed again to say that when she got to work, she had received an anonymous donation for the same amount she donated to us! I absolutely love how she said it. "Just like Jesus." Boy oh boy is she right!

I am still in awe how God blessed both of us yesterday, today and always. Thank you God!!

Cleft Bottle Donation to Elijah's Orphanage

As you know we are waiting for our Travel Approval (possibly the end of June, first of July) to bring Elijah home who has Cleft Lip and Palate.

I have been thinking about what might make a great Orphanage donation and how important it is for the cleft babies to have a bottle that is specific to their need.

Cleft babies can't use a regular bottle as they are not able to suck because of their open palate and there are bottles that are made just for cleft babies.

So I thought I would love to take some Cleft Lip/Palate Nursers to donate to Elijah's Orphanage.

There are two different types of bottles and I've decided on the Enfamil Ready-to-fill Plastic Nursers. They come in boxes of 6 and I've found them on the Enfamil site for $19 a box.

So I would like to ask if any one would like to donate (any amount) towards helping us take some of these bottles, as many as we can. We would be so grateful!

Just click on the "RED" ChipIn button at the top of the sidebar to the right if you would like to donate.

Thanks so much for considering to help another cleft Lip/Palate baby thrive! :)

A little update on our Travel Approval

We got an email yesterday from our agency saying that we should have our travel approval (TA) in 4-6 weeks and then travel 2-3 weeks after that. So end of June or beginning of July to travel?

Wow oh wow, it's seeming more and more real now!

The Swine Flu and Travel Approval

Will we or won't we travel? That is the question.

At this time our agency is saying we will.

Praying we will also.

I-800 Approval!

We got the coveted I-800 approval in the mail today! We did get a phone call from our NBC officer last week letting us know we were approved.

One step closer to TA!

Mailed overnight on 4/9
Received on 4/10
Approved on 4/23

A little update and great big Thank You!

We had our "travel" call yesterday morning and all went well. So much easier the 2nd time around. Not near the questions I had the first time when adopting Miss Magoo. I felt like an old pro, lol. :)

But we did find out it looks like we will be traveling closer to the middle or the end of June now. I know that means one more month away from our boy, but we really need this time to raise some more funds.

God is so good and we are starting to raise some funds now. Thank you God!

I want to say THANK YOU to Cheryl who purchased the Wii and also to Patty for buying the camera.

I can't forget my dear friend Terry for her donations and her friendship and her love for God, she was and still is instrumental for me becoming a Christian. This is huge!

I also want to say thank you to another dear friend, Lavonne for helping us out in more ways than ever! Her time and her friendship, mean so much to me!

I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. I apologize if I have. Please know Elijah's papa and I are so touched and humbled by every one's help, support and prayers. THANK YOU all!

Oh yeah, I wanted to say that our yard sale went rather well last weekend. We were able to raise $500. Thank you again God!

On-Line Yard Sale!!

Both the camera and Wii with games have SOLD!!

Well we are gearing up for our yard sale this weekend but wanted to post that we are selling a Samsung Mini DV Digital Video Camera and Wii.

All funds raised will go towards our adoption to bring our son home!

So please pass the word around.

We bought the DVC 2 years ago for when we adopted Miss Magoo and have since bought a different all in one camera.

Works great, great quality!

Asking: $100

Product Features

• Features 680,000 pixel CCD and 30x optical/1200x digital zoom
• 2.5-inch LCD, color viewfinder, and SD/MMC slot
• Captures still images up to 800 x 600 resolution, as well as MPEG4 video recording
• USB 2.0 compatibility for easy file transfers
• True 16:9 wide mode allows widescreen footage to be displayed on a digital TV

Technical Details

• Brand Name: Samsung
• Model: SC-D363
• Media Type: Mini DV
• Lens Type: Zoom lens
• Optical zoom: 30 x
• maximum_aperture_range: F/1.6
• Shooting Modes: Digital photo mode, Frame movie mode
• Video Input: Camcorder
• Display Size: 2.5 inches
• Optical Sensor Resolution: 680000 Pixels
• Optical Sensor Technology: CCD
• optical_sensor_size: 1/6"
• Viewfinder Type: LCD
• Audio Input: Microphone
• microphone_operation_mode: Stereo
• Height: 3.66 inches
• Weight: 0.77 pounds
• Depth: 4.1 inches
• Width: 2.09 inches

We are also selling our Wii. I bought it back in Aug 2008 for my birthday and it has only been used a few times and now we don't use it anymore.

Comes with 2 remote controls, 2 nunchucks, Wii Sports game.
Additional games also include, Wii Game Party, Wii Play and Kung Fu Panda.

Asking: $300 for everything, including games

Another stack of paperwork...

Well we got all the paperwork needed for this part of the adoption completed and it's on its way to the USCIS!

We also got an email today from our China Coordinator and so that means one more step to getting things done!

Woo hoo!

We have LOA!!

Well it looks like we didn't have to wait until next month after all.

We got "the call" today and we have our LOA!!

It came on Day 84.

Now we have more paperwork to fill out and to be sent in before we can travel.

Here's Miss Magoo with her baby brother. She is so excited to bring him home. :)

Still Waiting...

We are 2 months and a few days into our LOA wait.

No news yet. Maybe next month. I hope, I hope, I hope! :)

I can't wait to share Elijah's picture.

He is pretty darn cute, if I do so say myself. You'll have to take my word on it. :)

Until next month.

Waiting for our LOA

Well here we are 1 month into waiting for our LOA for Elijah.

We have been told we could receive it anytime between 2.5 to 3 months from the LID.

We also found out there is another step for the LOA process before we can travel. Oh the up's and down's of adoption. But we will do it and our little guy will be home before we know it!

P.S. I'll post a photo of him soon, I promise. Just as soon as we have our LOA. :)

We have our LID!

Woo hoo!!

We received an email today from our agency saying our LID is today, 01/05/2009.

Come on LOA!