Sweet "Asa"

So I have to admit the I (Chrissy) am addicted to adoption blogs.  There, I said it.  I enjoy finding new adoption blogs through websites like We Are Grafted In or through different list-serves we are a part of. (If you are looking for a website that gives some good perspective on the good and bad of adoption, I really recommend we are grafted in.)  Some of the blogs I read and move on and some of them I continue to follow. Right now I am following the stories of three "heart babies" from China, JJ, Rachel and Elisyn. It is amazing to read their stories and watch as these children are welcomed into families, loved on and have surgeries that will change the course of their lives.  I love watching God work in their lives. 

Now you are probably wondering what my blog addiction has to do with Asa or even who Asa is.  Well, during one of my forays into blog land, I came across a blog on Asa (which I can no longer find the exact blog). Anyways, the first picture I saw of this little guy was

And I thought man he is cute!  So I started praying for Asa.  Then about a week later my mother-in-law forwarded me the news letter for some friends of theirs who happen to be missionaries in China.  And whose story should I read, but Asa's!!  I was so surprised!  I thought about how I had been praying for this little guy and here his pictures pop up in my inbox and oh he is even more of a cutie!

Don't you just love the hair!! Now before anyone thinks I have lost my mind and am thinking about adopting again before we even get Li Rose home, we aren't, yet.  But I do want to advocate for Asa, who is only 4 weeks old in these pictures.  Perhaps you or someone you know will fall in love with Asa.

Here is some basic info on him and his special need:

"Last month, we received a call on a Friday morning asking if we could help a newborn baby in need of emergency medical care.   Within a few hours, the baby and caregivers were on a bus, and we were on the road to meet them at the Guangzhou bus station.  It was a bit nerve rattling queuing up among several hundreds of people waiting for taxis with a 3 day old baby, and then inching our way through the Friday afternoon rush hour, but we were finally successful in getting little “Asa” admitted to Children’s Hospital by early evening.   The surgery was successfully completed sometime well after midnight, and a week later our newest baby took up residence at the foster home.
 Asa will require another surgery in a couple of months, but at the moment he is doing great.  We rarely receive babies this young (3 days), but we are so glad that we were in a position to help this handsome little fellow.  Perhaps Asa’s first few days in this world were a bit rough, but he has enjoyed constant care and affection ever since.  Asa spends almost all of his time now sleeping, eating and being cuddled.. in other words, exactly what a 4 week old baby should be doing!"

 If you or someone you know if interested in finding out more about Asa, feel free to email me at nursechrissy at hotmail.com or check out the website for the agency who is looking for his forever family Lifeline Adoption.  If you want to follow Asa's story along with those of the other children currently in his foster home you can click here. 

Lots of things going on in the Cobb world

A lot of things have been going on in our household since we received our LOA about a month ago.  We submitted our paperwork to USCIS as quickly as we could, and we went ahead and applied for our visa's to travel to China.

About a week ago we received our passports back from the Chinese consulate in San Francisco with shiny new visas good for 1 year in them.  Then this past Wednesday (10/12), we found out that we got our approval from USCIS.  This is where the US federal government officially approved of us adopting Li Rose!  So now we have the approval from the Chinese government (LOA), and approval from the US government.  All that is left is for USCIS to mail our approval to the national visa center, which will then cable the approval to the US consulate in China.  A person who works for our adoption agency will then drop off a form (DS-230) at the US consulate, which will then issue an Article 5.  The Article 5 is sent to the Chinese agency that runs the adoptions and it is signed by the director.  It is at that point that a TA (travel authorization) is issued, and we are free to travel to China.  It has been averaging between 4 and 6 weeks between USCIS approval and TA.

Once we receive TA, we will be asked when we would like to travel.  We will say, "AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!"  So our adoption agency will try to get an appointment with the US consulate in China.  Once we have that appointment, they will count backwards two weeks, and that is the day that we fly to China!  Confused yet?  Basically, we are anticipating traveling sometime around the end of November or beginning of December!

On another note, we have mentioned in the past that our orphanage is notoriously closed lipped with information about the children under their care.  We decided to go ahead and send a care package to Li Rose in the hopes that it would get to her.  The most important part of that care package was a photo album where we have labeled pictures of her mommy, daddy, and big brother.  We heard that the director of the orphanage was replaced about six months ago, and that gave us more hope that they might be more open, but everyone said it was still very closed.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, a woman on a list-serve that we are members of said that she had sent a list of questions to the orphanage, and they answered them!  So we sent a list of questions, not daring to hope, but seeing if they would be answered.  Well they were!  We got an update on Li Rose!  No new pictures, but some information so that we can plan better, since the last information that we had was when she was 9 months old (she is 17 months old now).  Here are the questions we asked, and the answers we recieved:

1. Can we get updated measurements?  As of 10/10/11 her measurements are: Weight - 11kg (24 lbs), Height - 76 cm (30 inches), Head Circumference: 46 cm (18 inches)
2. Can she walk independently? She can walk if she holds someone's hand.  She can walk for about twenty minutes when someone holds her hands.
3. Does she live with a foster family? Yes
4. Can she say any words? She cannot talk yet but babbles.
5. What kind of food is she eating? She is not picky with her food.  She has rice twice a day and drinks milk three times a day.  Her staple is rice, vegetables, minced meat and eggs.  She has a good appetite.  She can finish one bowl of rice each time.  She can drink about 220 ml (7.5 ounces) of milk each time.  She loves fruit.
6. Did she receive the care package that we sent her?  Yes, we received the package in August of 2011.

We were very happy to get these updates, and we were even told what medication she is on for her epilepsy.  We will talk with our pediatrician about it soon, but it sounds like she is on the lowest dose possible of a very common, easily available, and low priced medication, so that is good.  We will have her levels tested and everything else checked out once she comes home to see if she even needs to be on medication.  Our initial report about her said that she had not had a single seizure since going on the medication.

Our upcoming travel has spurred us to finish up home projects that have been ignored for a while.  We finally finished installing all of the baseboards and quarter rounds in the entire house, caulked, and painted them all white.  We are almost finished doing all of the touch up painting.  We got rid of our muscadine grape vine in the back yard, and in its place will go a swing set that Chrissy's cousin is driving down in a Uhaul truck to give us tomorrow.

We are also starting to do planning for our travel.  It is still hard to make any definite plans, as we still don't know exactly when we will be traveling to China.  Chrissy has been putting things into a "China" box for months now, and we are trying to figure out how we are going to keep one toddler happy for 19 hours of flying to China, and then two toddlers happy coming home.  As for flights, it is starting to look like the best flights will be to fly from Jacksonville, FL to Beijing, China.  From Beijing we will fly to Kunming City, where we will be for a week.  We will then fly to Guangzhou, which is where all adoptions in China are finalized.  We will be in Guangzhou for about a week and then we will fly or take a train to Hong Kong and fly back to the US.  We are starting to get really excited, but at the same time we are very tired of waiting!

We are hoping to stay busy and not worry too much about the wait in the next few weeks.  It is possible that our paperwork can process faster than the averages and we would appreciate you joining us in praying that that would be the case and we could leave to get Li Rose very soon.

So Much Joy in 3 Little Letters!!!

LOA... we received our LOA today!!!   We are so very excited about receiving our LOA today!

For those of you who do not remember, this is the next step in our road to bringing Li Rose home!  We sent our dossier to China on July 29, and it was officially logged in on August 1 (our log in date, or LID).  After the LID, we had to wait for the dossier to be translated, and then to be approved by the Chinese government.  Official approval to adopt Li Rose is given in the form of a letter of acceptance (or LOA)!  So we have been officially approved to adopt Li Rose!!!!  We were told on our LID that it takes an average of 2.5 months from LID to LOA, and we have been seeing on a list-serve that we are part of that some families have waited well over 100 days (158 was the most we have seen).  We received our LOA after just 51 days!  PRAISE THE LORD!!! (Can you tell we are excited?)

We are now on a new paper chase.  We have to fill out a new USCIS application.  The first one we filled out was for generic approval from the federal government to adopt a child from China.  That approval became part of our dossier.  This next form will be to get approval from the federal government to specifically adopt Li Rose!  Fortunately this process only takes a few weeks (as opposed to a few months the first time), but it is the most time consuming part of our next portion of work, so we are moving as fast as we can to get all the documentation together and get our USCIS application in the mail!

There are some other things that go on, with the Chinese government sending stuff to the US government, then the US government responding (it is all confusing).  But our next momentous achievement will be to be granted TA (or travel authorization) from the Chinese government.  We could leave as soon as two weeks after that, depending on how quickly we can get an appointment at the office in Kunming City in China.  The average time between LOA and TA is about 2 months, which means that we may be traveling to China by the end of November or early December!!!!  We can hardly contain our excitement, and cannot hardly wait until the day when we can go get our little Li Rose and bring her home!

Please continue to pray for the following:

• Li Rose is kept in a living environment that is loving, and that she has someone that she can trust, attach to, and love until we can come get her.
• That the orphanage gives Li Rose the care package that we sent her, or at least the photo album in the care package, and that someone will sit with her each day and show her who her mommy, daddy, and big brother are.
• That all the paperwork can go through the respective agencies just as soon as possible and that we can leave to get Li Rose as soon as we can.
• That we stay sane as we wait for the each of the next small steps to be completed until we can bring our daughter home.

Fundraising Items Still Available for Purchase

So this post has been delayed much longer than I would have liked, partially because of illness in our house and partially because of busyness. 

If you see any items below that you are interested in purchasing, please email me at nursechrissy at hotmail.com and let me know what you would like to purchase.  If you live outside of our immediate area, then I will let you know how much shipping will be and you can include that in your check.  Thank you for taking time to look at our blog and help us bring Li Rose home.  Please feel free to forward our blog to anyone you think might be interested!


 This is a receiving blanket that has a million uses including swaddling a baby or doubling as a pack and play sheet.  A must have for anyone with children!  This shot was intended to show you the size of the blanket.  Scroll down to see all of the patterns available.  These blankets are selling for $12 each.

Custom made burp clothes for $5 each

The tutu below were donated by Megan.  You can find more of her creations at her Etsy site.  The Gator tutu are size 6 months - 18 months and is selling for $20.

We are continuing to sell Ugandan paper bead necklaces as well.  These are $20 each an coming in a variety of colors.

Fundraiser Update and Family Life

Wow how times flies.  We had our fundraiser a week ago and it would say it was quite the success.  We were blessed to be surrounded by friends and family as we thought about and prayed for Li Rose.  We were able to raise quite a bit of money, but still have items available for sale on our blog.  I will have a new post in the next few days listing the items that are still available.  We feel very blessed to so have so many people contributing to help us bring Li Rose home.  You are all amazing!


So there are a few things that I have been wanting to share with you guys for the last few weeks, but just haven't been able to find time to blog.  So here we go...

Li Rose's News:

We were able to send a care package to Li Rose last week.  We kept it simple, sending a picture album, a letter for her and the nannies who care for her and some goodies for the nannies as well.  We had hoped to send her a birthday cake (months ago as her birthday was in May), but our orphanage doesn't do cakes.  In fact, from what we have been able to find out, our orphanage doesn't usually give a child their care package until a week or less before you got to China to meet them.  Knowing that, we still felt it would be a blessing to Li Rose that she see our faces before she meets us for the first time.  Our prayer right now is that she would be given the photo album now and that someone would take the time daily to show her our faces.  You are welcome to join us in praying for her in that way.

We received our Log In Date (LID) for China.  It was August 1st, which is just 3 days after our paperwork was sent to China.  That is the fastest we have heard of someone getting a LID.  Our dear friends Scott and Haley are also adopting from China and are on the same time line as us.  We are praying that we get our Letter of Seeking Confirmation for Adoption (LOA) at the same time and are able to travel together.  It would be huge blessing to spend time together in China.  (After all, it was Haley who introduced us to Erin, who runs a blog for waiting children in China.  Erin sent us Li Rose's picture and encouraged us to view her file.)  We would love to be able to bring Li Rose home before the end of the year, so please join us in praying that our LOA would come quickly.  I am trying really hard to not count the days since our dossier went to China...

Josh's News:

So I just have to brag on my little son for a minute.  I have been looking for ways to streamline some of the things I am doing around the house and include Josh in some of the chores.  Well, he has taken quite the intersted in laundry.  My 20 month old son loves to do laundry with Mommy!!  Now I know what you might be thinking, can he really help?  Yes, yes he can!  He pushes the laundry hamper or diaper basket out to the laundry room (needing just a little help for our step).  He then helps me unload the laundry into the washer (Mommy does the diapers).  He then helps me run the controls.  When it dings to say it is done, he lets me know and goes to the baby gate to wait for me to come open it.  He helps me load clothes from the dryer to the basket and pushes the basket to the couch for folding.  Once everything is folded he takes the basket back to his room or our room and helps me put away the clothes.  Maybe other people do this with their children, but I am quite impressed.  Since he has done so well with laundry, we are now working on having him help me with sweeping.  This isn't going quite as well since he likes to walk through by dirt piles, but we are getting there.


Josh's vocabulary is also increasing rapidly.  He has been watching a baby signing video, so he is learning new signs too.  Both of these developments have helped to decrease his frustration in communicating with us.  We are building up to his transition to a big boy bed (toddler bed) too.  We got him new bed linen that he loves, so now we are just waiting for Mommy and Daddy to be ready for the transition.  Hopefully within the next few weeks we will be able to say he is in his big boy bed.

Other News:

I [Chrissy] continue to go and see my Dad frequently at his nursing home.  Dad is doing quite well and we are hoping to have him moved to a community nursing home soon.  I have also started working on a packing list and have started a collection of things to go with us to China.  I want to be sure to be super ready to go when the time comes.   I am also learning and growing in my role as a stay at home mom, working on setting up routines and finding ways to streamline cooking and such to make things easier when I have both my children home with me.

Flip is doing well at work, traveling some and working on business development.  He has been super busy finishing up our project list before Li Rose comes home.  With the help of Uncle Rick, they were able to do a small bathroom remodel so that the bathroom that Li Rose will be sharing with Josh will be completely finished for them to use (we will post before and after pictures here in the next few days). It was a blessing to finally have this done as we have been slowly saving up for it for the last two years.  He has also been working hard to get the remaining baseboards installed throughout the house (the baseboards have been sitting in our shed for the last two years).  It is exciting ot get these projects out of the way so we can focus on Li Rose when she comes home.  His next big project is to build a step stool for Josh and Li Rose to help us in the kitchen.  I am looking forward to having our kids helping in the kitchen.

Adoption Fundraiser Preview!

This Friday from 7-9pm at Vineyard Christian Fellowship, we are being honored by a group of friends who are hosting a fundraiser to help us bring Li Rose home.  We are very thankful for the work they have put into it. If you need details about it, you can find them here. 

We wanted to include this note fro one of the host families because we don't want anyone to feel like they shouldn't come. "Please do not feel that you need to donate in order to come! This is a chance for all of us to celebrate with the Cobb family. We are providing this fundraising opportunity for those who would like to be a part of their adoption in this way. However, your presence and prayers are their greatest support, so please do not let this deter you from coming!!"

I wanted to give you a preview of some of the items that have been donated that will be available for purchase.   If you can't make it to the fundraiser, but would like to purchase an item, you can email me at nursechrissy at hotmail.com.

This first set of items was handcrafted by Dawn:

 

 This is a receiving blanket that has a million uses including swaddling a baby or doubling as a pack and play sheet.  A must have for anyone with children!  This shot was intended to show you the size of the blanket.  Scroll down to see all of the patterns available.  These blankets are selling for $12 each.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next are taggie blankets, which are great for babies when they begin to chew on everything. There are two available.  These are selling for $12 each.

 

 

Custom made burp clothes for $5 each

 

 Custom made onesies size 3-6 months.  These were handmade, selling for $5 each.

 

 

 

 

The tutus below were donated by Megan.  You can find more of her creations at her Etsy site.  Both tutus are size 6 months - 18 months.  The tutus are selling for $20 each.

 

 (Festive Christmas tutu - buy now and be ready for Christmas photos!)

 

 (Go Gators!!  Need I say more?)

That is it for preview items for right now.  I will post more items as I am able during the week.  Feel free to forward our blog to anyone you know who might be interested in purchasing something you see here. 

Adoption Fundraiser August 12th!!

Throughout the adoption process we have been very blessed by our amazing friends and family.  Whether it is someone praying for us, babysitting, advising or offering finacial support, we are very blessed.  Just like when Josh was in the NICU and we weren't sure how we were going to make it day to day, our friends and family have been there to support us yet again.  We love you guys!!  Thank you to everyone who has already purchased necklaces or coffee.  If you want more info on how to do either, look here.

Now what about that fundraiser, I mentioned... Well, we have a group of friends, Sarah, Haley, Dawn, Carrie and Alison, who have put together a fundraiser for us! They have arranged/made a variety of things for sale from jewelery to baby blankets and everything in between.  Here are the details for the fundraiser - we would love to have you join us in celebrating Li Rose and her addition to our family.

When: Friday, August 12 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Where:Vineyard Church Community Room 
           3536 NW 8th Avenue
           Gainesville, FL 32605

What:  Come and celebrate with us as Philip, Chrissy and Joshua prepare to welcome Li Rose into their family!  We'll have dessert, fellowship and prayer.  Additionally, we'll have tables set up with jewelry, baby blankets, and other great items for sale with all proceeds going to help the Cobb family bring Li Rose home. 

Contact: Please leave a comment here if you need more information or have any questions.

We would really love to have you join us as we celebrate our little girl!  In honor of our Li Rose, we found two new pictures of her (in her original file) we would like to share with you.

 

(She looks a little peeved at having her picture taken. :-)

 

(Sweet, beautiful baby girl up close.  This picture just melts my heart)

Just seeing new pictures of her (even if they aren't more recent) makes us long to have her home with us.  Please continue to pray with us that we would be able to travel to China much sooner than anticipated.