What a busy Christmas, but so wonderful!!

After many takes, finally a decent family pic!!!  ;-)

Opening Aunt Randi, Uncle Joe, and Max's gift

She was sooo excited... thank you!!

Christmas morning.  Got used to opening gifts pretty quickly.  She cried when they ran out!!!

Stinker!

Our cat Jake loves cozy spots.

Christmas morning, after Mommy had put the train set together!

WOW, her new big girl kitchen from Nie Nie and Yea Yea!!

Thank you, she loves it!!

Grandpa and Nana got fun accessories for it too!!  ;-)

What a great year!  We got our confirmed travel dates to get our precious Leah on Dec. 24th, and the celebrations began.  We honor our Lord for the birth of his son, Jesus, and get to share that love and many blessings with family and friends.  God is so good!!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and I hope the Lord blesses you beyond belief this year.  Thank you for sharing in our story and I look forward to sharing our journey to bring Leah home in UNDER 2 WEEKS!!!  I cannot believe it.  Please pray for us to be ready on time and that Leah's heart is prepared to have us as her forever family.  Also, please pray for continued healing for my ankle.  It is going to be quite the interesting trip.  Also, pray for my wonderful husband who is picking up a lot of slack for me while I heal.

Love and blessings, Dawn, Pete, Bekah and Leah!!!

CONCRETE TRAVEL DATES!!!

Rejoicing with the Lord today on Christmas Eve...

We just got word that we will be leaving on Jan. 8 and getting home on Jan 23rd!

We couldn't be happier.

Now we just wait for flight confirmations etc....  Although that is a challenge  for our agency now that it is Christmas Eve.  UGH... we have to wait yet again until Friday or Monday for final itineraries...  

God is so perfect and couldn't have shared this news with us at a better time.

Merry Christmas to you all, and Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Love

the Dagenbachs

Thank you Lucy!!!

Thank Lucy for my great books about being a sister!!!!

They are just perfect!  It is going to teach me a lot about what a sister should be.

So thank you soooo much!  And, you can see I love cards too....

I Love opening cards!!!!

Visiting with the Lord today

As we wait for yet one last approval from China, I really felt I needed to spend a day visiting with God, and what a special week to do it.  We celebrate Jesus' birth and everything He stands for.   Today I give thanks for all my blessings and offer all the joy to Him since He is the one who gave it to me.

We are waiting for the consulate to approve our request for the final appt., and now we wait again.  Once that is set in stone, we will be able to book our flights.  They put the request in on Friday afternoon, and I pray God sends us word tomorrow.   Hang on sweet girl, we are coming very very soon.

While I was reading my bible today I came across a very powerful verse I wanted to share with you all.  I hope it hits your heart as it hit mine.  

"The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler (shield), and the horn of my salvation, and my hightower."  Psalm 18:2  KJV

God was so good to me today... giving me just what I was asking for.  Peace and grace in Him during this last part of the wait to get our Leah home.  And, with the ankle problems I am still having, I pray it heals completely before we leave, but only the Lord can take that on!!!  ;-)  

I pray for peace and joy for you all this Christmas and that we take time to pause and remember Jesus is the one to celebrate!!!  

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are overjoyed, overwhelmed, and over excited!!!!!!!!
Praise the Lord for his perfect timing. We should be leaving on Jan 8 or 9 to get our precious Leah.
Here we come baby and we couldn't be more excited. I am crying tears of joy and giving all thanks and praise to God.
I cannot wait to hold you in my arms for the first time Leah, and your Daddy and your sister are sooooo excited to have you home too.
Please Lord let everything go smoothly and fall into place from here on out.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. We couldn't go through this process without you all.
We love you sooooooo much!!!
Mommy, Daddy and Jie Jie Bekah

Waiting

I can't explain how my heart has felt over the past week or so.  My wanting and needing for our precious Leah to be home with us has grown soooo much stronger.  The "average" wait time for TA for us has come and gone and now I can only pray to God that He brings us TA soon.  With word from others that have gotten TA (I am soooo happy for them), my heart is heavy wanting ours.  I know the Lords time is perfect and it will all be clear soon enough, but our Leah need to come home to us!!!

I have been praying and hoping that we are able to leave on Dec. 26th, but if TA does not come on Monday or Tues, than I know God has other plans.

This is definitely the hardest part of the wait in my opinion... the CCAA has officially told us she is ours and now we just wait for them to tell us when we can come to get her!!  

Please God hear our prayer and if it is your will, let us be to our sweet girl by the end of this year!  I am trying so desperately to wait for you Lord, and follow your will for us, but my human heart is finally getting the best of me.  I pray also for patience and peace in knowing that your plan for us is perfect!!!

Hopefully not long now Leah.  We are coming soon sweetheart!!!

Love, Mama

Thankful...

for so many things, but mostly to my Lord, Jesus Christ, from whom my eternal salvation comes. I am so thankful for my family and friends, and especially for my wonderful husband and my two precious daughters. Even though Leah is not yet with us here at home, she grows in my heart each and every day (to see her most recent picture, scroll down)! I feel like I have seen her face even before her picture was showed to me, thank you God. I long more and more each day to have her home and as I was reading scripture today I came across this passage which hit me like a ton of bricks. If you are waiting for something to happen in your life, please hang on to your faith in the Lord, and if you don't have complete faith in Him, know I am praying for all of you that you find it in Him. Through Him all good things come!
Enjoy this passage on patience and faith.

James 1:2-6
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations:
Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
If any of you lack wisdon, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Blessings to you all and Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Update on LEAH!!!

I woke up yesterday morning to a wonderful surprise email from Angela with Lady bugs n love. They are sooooo absolutely amazing to work with I cannot even say enough wonderful things.

She got us two new adorable pictures and new measurements, and she just grew 1 cm since the last update.... we will take it!! She is so stinkin adorable I just can't wait to get my arms around her! Please Lord let us get to her quickly as possible. We are faithful knowing that your timing is perfect, but our human hearts want us to be with her tomorrow! ;-)

Enjoy the pictures, and Leah, we love you so very much and cannot wait to have you as a part of our forever family! Not long now precious girl!

RA/LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got it!!!!!!! Praise God!!!!!'
Leah is officially ours!!! We are now waiting on TA, and we should be traveling in late Dec. or early Jan! I can't hardly believe it. Tears of joy are overwhelming me, and all glory and happiness was being lifted up to the Lord! I get to post her precious picture now.
Enjoy and I will hope to post about TA very soon!!! Thanks for visiting and love to you all.

Here is our precious girl...

(above) Through the Grace of God, we connected with a family who traveled to China for a heritage tour of their older daughter from China, and they went to Nanchang (Leah's orphanage) and took pictures of the precious children waiting for their forever families, hoping to be able to provide "baby" pictures of these precious children when families received their referrals, somehow, God Willing. WELL, God is so amazing that He led us to this family through emails of others... and they recognized our precious Leah's referral almost instantly!!! And, this is what they sent us back. Out of all the thousands of children and thousands of adoptees... we found each other!

This was a referral picture

And this is what they listed as her visa picture

These two are precious updates from Lady bugs n Love!!! I just LOVE her smile!!!

Hang on baby... here we come!!!!
We love you soooooooooooooo much!!!
Praising our faithful Father in Heaven!!!

Happy Birthday Party Bekah!!!

Well, Bekah's official birthday isn't until Tues, but we had our immediate family for her 3rd birthday party!! We soooo wish Leah could have been here to celebrate, but we anxiously await her arrival and are soooo excited to celebrate Leah's 2nd birthday in May!!!
We are very tired, but thought I would post some (well lots) of pictures of her party. I also posted a bunch of pictures yesterday too. WOW, this is what life is like when you are NOT super busy with work, work, and more work!! ;-)
Enjoy...

Our beautiful Birthday girl with red squeaky shoes! She loves them!

Someone enjoyed her cake!! She snuck back for more... and I caught her!

She LOVES her new "laptop" Mommy and Daddy got her...

But I think she might like the backpack Nei Nei and Yea Yea got her!!

So excited to play with her playdough!! Mommy too... ;-)

The birthday room before kids came and destroyed it.. which they did! That is what parties are for right???

Wow, finally get to update!!!

Boy, I cannot believe how long it has been since I had a chance to update my blog!!
Wedding season is finally coming to a close for the year, and I am now able to get back into a routine of being a Mommy and Wife.... Yea God!!!! I love being a wedding planner, but it sure does take it out of you.

We still have no more news on Leah and are waiting for our RA on about day 74 now. Please God let us get RA by the end of Nov.!!! With His hand on things, anything can happen, we are praying to be in China by the end of the year. That is our prayer.

I have LOADS of pictures that I have taken so I will start uploading some.
We have some from Vacation in CO, some from Halloween, and just some odds and ends. We have been so busy, but with my sprained ankle, it is very difficult to get anything done around the house. I am wanting so badly to get Bekah's big girl room done, but I can't do anything like that right now. Please pray for a speedy recovery for my ankle!!!
Enjoy the pictures...



Our little Alligator!!!

Bekah and her BFFs

Dancing Queen!!

Our little Princess!!!

Loving the Pumpking Patch!

Love you girls and miss you soooo! We need a FULL group shot next year.

We miss our Chatty Sisters ssoooooo much!!!!!!

Bekah's first time in a big girl bed!!! She LOVED it!

I could get used to that view every night. I LOVE CO!!!

Boy does someone love her some smores!!!

Bekah loved riding on Uncle Geoffs tractor with Daddy in CO

UPDATE ON LEAH!!!!!!

What a great morning!!!! I woke up to an email from Angela with Lady Bugs N love. It is a wonderful company that calls your orphanage while you wait and gets updated photos and information on your child. What a blessing and a gift they are!!!! We were able to ask 10 questions and we got 2 updated photos. We had NO recent info on Leah, and our agency won't ask for it until we get RA, which is the official referral acceptance. Lady bugs n love will call when you have PA, pre approval! So, I am going to copy the email I got today with the questions we asked and her answers. It was really hard to think about questions to ask, and I did it in a hurry a little bit so we would hear back as soon as possible, so here they are!!! I will post pictures as soon as we get RA! Hopefully within 2 months.
Just got another email from Angela while I am entering this... I had asked her about the tainted formula and she is going to call the orphanage and let me know if they had any of it! Wow, she is really amazing!!! Neat Neat lady...
Love Dawn

1. Does she crawl on her own?

Yes.

2. Is she walking, or at least learning too?

Yes, she is learning to walk.

3. What does she eat other than a baby bottle, such as any solid food?

She also eats rice, noodle, various of vegetable and snack, etc.

4. Has she had one nanny take care of her since she has been there that she has bonded to?

She’s been in the orphanage always. Her nanny’s name is Li Man Qin.

5. Can you tell us if she is a light or heavy sleeper?

She sleeps pretty heavy.

6. Does she sleep in her own crib or share?

She sleeps in her own crib.

7. What is her personality like?

She is fairly extroverted, active and restless.

8. Has she been in this same orphanage her whole life?

Yes.

9. Does she have a favorite lullaby, and if so, what is the name of it?

She loves to listen to music. No certain lullaby.

10. Is she attached to any other children at the orphanage and if so how old are they?

She has a close friend whose name is Hong Yun Ting. She is 14 months old.

11. Her updated measurements:

Height: 74cm; Weight: 9kg; Head: 43.3cm; Chest: 43cm; Foot: 12cm; Teeth: upper 2, lower 2.

12. Two pictures are attached. She is a happy girl!!!

What we have been up to...

Finale for the Labor Day fireworks... wish I could have captured how truly beautiful they were!

The fireworks were awesome!!!

Wish these turned out better, they seem so far away here!! Not such a good photographer for this!!! :-(

City view from my parents house before the Labor Day fireworks. We will be able to watch them from here! ;-)

Playing in the dirt at Nana and Grandpa's house with her cousins...

Enjoying the water park...

Bekah loves to mow the lawn with Daddy!

One of my favorite pictures!!! They do love each other...

Thank you Mr. Matt for letting me drive!!! ;-)

Someone loves boating and her Bff's Mommy, Miss Melissa!

Bffs have to make sure each other are safe!!

Having lunch at the pier restaurant. Two Peas in a Pod!!!

Loving our friends boat with her BFF!!

Hey everyone!!!
Soooo much has been going on over the past month or so. I have been extremely busy with weddings and we have been keeping busy as a family to try and help the wait time for Leah to go by... I have a horrible feeling we may not be able to get her home before the end of the year, but if God wants her to be home with us by then, she will be. So, I pray that He wants her home with us before Christmas, just like Bekah!!! We are getting so excited, but still sooooo much to do. We are leaving for vacation this Sat. yeah!!! and we are getting our basement finished, so that has consumed me, along with all the painting we are having to do! (needed to cut costs somewhere!) So, needless to say, the summer is flying by and I am ready for fall!

One exciting thing, a family with our agency is traveling right now and had their Gotcha Day yesterday... BUT the cool thing is their daughter is at Leah's orphanage... SO, if they are allowed to visit the orphanage they are going to see if they can "check in" on her for us!!! PLLLLLEASE Lord let them lay eyes on her so they can report great things back to us!

I have lots of photos to add, so here it goes (I should really be painting), they are long overdue.
Love to you all and many blessings!