new toy

It felt like Christmas today as I clicked on the link to track our new toy. It arrived at Andy's office earlier than I anticipated and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it!
 Our anniversary is coming up (as well as a new member of the Lynch household) so we gifted each other a nice camera. For today, I had to take a picture of it with my iPhone. The lenses will arrive over the next several days and I can begin having some real fun. I already know who my first victim subject will be :)

A special thanks to Nathan Mah for all of the great advise and handy camera spreadsheet. Now I just have to figure out how to work the thing!

mail

As a kid, I remember eagerly running to the mailbox when I was expecting something. Like a letter from a summer camp friend or my cousin Kathy. As I got older, the anticipation changed to college acceptance letters and then career-related items. Now, it's China's Waiting Child info packets, letters from adoption agencies and appointments to be fingerprinted! Our appointment is October 17th and is the final piece we will need to send off our dossier to China!

In other news, I had lunch the week before last with a new friend, Weinji. We met at Gene and Tina's wedding in NY. By the Lord's provision, she sat to my right during the ceremony and was kind enough to explain things to me as they were happening. What was going on (since it was all in Chinese) and what the different foods were. I really enjoyed her company and found out at the end of the night that she tutors children in the Chinese language. My light bulb was going off! So we decided to have lunch and she showed me some of her books. She graciously offered to teach me some phrases as we prepare to meet our daughter. What a wonderful resource she'll be when I have questions about culture, foods, language and more. And she only lives about 10 minutes from our house. Just another confirmation for me that God has His hands all over this adoption!

Tuesdays

Today was a good day for a couple of reasons.

We began the fall semester of International Friends at FBC. So I get to see some sweet ladies once again on a weekly basis from now until December. This ministry began, so I hear, over 40 years ago!

This is an older photo of our annual Spring Picnic

We invite spouses of Duke & UNC students to come and practice their English, make new friends, learn new recipes, crafts, etc. Our intention is to share the love of Christ with them by serving them, building relationships and sharing our faith. We love because He first loved us! And I really do love them!

These ladies (and sometimes a few brave men here and there) are so gracious. And oh SO smart! We have much to learn from them and it's a privilege to spend some time with them while they're here.

The second reason today was a good day is because this was waiting for me in the mail when I got home:

Doesn't look very exciting but it is! It's our I-797C which means our I-800A has been processed. Now we wait for our biometrics fingerprint appointment. Each of these steps moves us closer to our daughter.

Once we get our fingerprints taken (which could still take a little while), we can prepare our dossier to send to China. This is a BIG step in the process. It means most of the paperwork is over (for now anyways) once we send that off. I have a few more documents to gather in order to move forward once we receive our approval from the US Government.

Moving right along.

NYC or bust

Andy and I made a whirlwind trip to NY last week. We drove up on Monday and back on Tuesday. That's right. One night. Hurricane Irene kept us from our original plans of driving to upstate on Friday to see visit Grandpa Keeler and then over to the city on Sunday for our friends' Chinese wedding on Monday.

But we made it to the wedding and even fit in a few US Open tennis matches before leaving. We pulled into our house Wed morning at 2:45 am, completely tired and completely happy with our last minute decision to go.

Between all of the gowns, the elegant food, the people, the different ceremonies, there were just too many colorful photos to choose from! Here are a few that give you an idea of what it was like:

Jene and Tina's wedding at The Grand Restaurant, Flushing, NY

 The asian market on the 1st floor of the building

 The lovely bride in her first of four gowns

 The elegant room where the ceremony and reception were held

 Father-of-the-Groom giving a speech

 The happy couple afterwards

And then here are a few from our day at the US Open: