He comes over to check out the camera at the end of this video. This one makes me a little sad, seeing all the sweet children who need families. But I am thankful that the orphanage workers look kind and the room is clean and friendly appearing.

Getting ready

We had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus. We got to see lots of family and the kids loved their gifts. It was great but as soon as the kids went to be bed Christmas evening Levi and I took down all the decorations. I usually like to leave them up until after New Years but it seems like we have a thousand things to do before we leave in 5 more days!!!! And I really don't want to come home to Christmas decorations on Jan 18th. During the past week we have been busy completing all our trip arrangements and packing. We are just about ready! I am proud of myself for getting everything for all five of us in three suitcases! Thankfully we will be able to do laundry there so we don't have to take too many outfits.

During our trip we should have good internet access and plan on blogging frequently with trip updates.

I am going to post a few videos of Elliott that we received several weeks ago. I can't figure out how to attach them to this post so they may come up individually.

Elliott

Elliott will be in my arms in 18 days!

We got our travel approval Monday evening and yesterday received our visa appointment so now the fun of travel planning begins!!!!

Levi, the girls and I will leave on Jan 1st to fly to Beijing. Asher will be staying at home with grandparents and my sister. We will spend two days sight seeing in Beijing before flying down to Chengdu on Jan 5th. On Jan 6th we will go to the orphanage to pick up Elliott!!! It is crazy to think that in just a couple of weeks I will be holding the sweet boy that I have been staring at in pictures. I am incredibly excited but also incredibly nervous. Nervous about traveling 18 hours with the girls  and then back home again with our boy who doesn't speak English, doesn't know us or what the world looks like outside the walls of an orphanage. Nervous about leaving behind my sweet two year old son for 18 days. Nervous about what adjustment of life with 4 children will be like after we get home. But I am able to set aside this fear as I focus on the reason we are doing this. Yes the the steps we take are scary and sometimes uncertain but the benefits are enormous! Having the privilege of loving Elliott and have him join our family is worth it. Being able to offer Elliott a forever family where he will always have food, shelter, clothes, and an abundance of love ....those benefits are worth working through the scary parts.

Getting close

We have passed through lots of steps in the adoption process this past few weeks. Today we got our Article 5 approval which is our government giving us permission to adopt Elliott and for him to live permanently in the US with us. Now the only step we are waiting on is TA (travel approval). Once we have TA we will begin planning our trip. We hope to have this in the next 2-3 weeks! I am so ready to know the date we will get our sweet boy.

A few weeks ago the representative from our agency who is managing our adoption was in Chengdu and visited Elliott in the orphanage. She has been wonderful through every step and now she went did the most remarkable thing...she gave him hugs and kisses for us and sent us some precious videos of him!!! Prior to this we had only 8 photos of him. Seeing him in the videos was so special to us and the kids! It was nice to get a little glimpse of his personality and see him looking healthy and happy. I will post them soon...when I know if it is ok to :)

Abundantly beyond!

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think,according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen  Ephesians 3:20-21

Sorry if I am redundant in my thankfulness and amazement over the Chosen Race. The final count for Team Pool was 145! That includes sleepwalkers, kids, half marathon and full marathon runners. Levi and I are grateful for each of you. The race was this morning and was lots of fun...yes running 13.1 miles is fun when you are surrounded by friends and family and running for an amazing cause. I loved meeting the other families and hearing their adoption stories. I loved seeing the huge posters of children who have been brought home with the help of Chosen in the previous years. I loved seeing our children run with their friends, knowing they are participating in bringing their brother home. Chosen is an amazing organization. Levi and I will run it every year. 

Emotions and lockboxes

I never knew that I could be as emotional during the paper pregnancy of adoption as I was during the physical pregnancies of my oldest three children. I cried at Costco yesterday when Levi texted me the picture of our LOA. I cried this morning when the girls got out at carpool with wallet sized pictures of Elliott in their backpacks. Soon afterwards I cried at Fedex when I mailed off our I800 application. So watch out Team Pool...I may bawl the entire 13.1 miles on Saturday.

If I could get one of the lockboxes that you see on the movies that the carrier has chained to their wrist for this file case I would. It has every single oh so important adoption paper in it. I got so nervous when I left the house with it this morning.

LOA

The kids have an announcement to make! We have LOA

This has been the hardest wait so far but thankfully the rest of the steps should be much shorter! I will mail our I800 paperwork to our government tomorrow. That should be approved in about 2 weeks!

One step closer

Sorry there haven't been any recent post. There hasn't been much to update until recently!!! For the past 78 days we have been waiting for our LOA (letter of acceptance from China). I have to admit that this has been the toughest wait so far. Up until this point all the waits had been fairly predictable. The average LOA wait has been 60 days. Once we past that point I was getting a little anxious. However, I clung to to this verse.

Wait on the Lord: be of courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord. Psalm 27:14.

Knowing that my God is not only sovereign (in control of the entire universe) but also that he knows what is best for me gives me peace. He knows the precise day that Elliott should and will come home. So I will trust that our wait of 78+ days for LOA is in Elliott's and our best interest.

It looks as if our wait is almost over! On Friday our agency told me that we are showing up as approved for LOA on China's online system. So now were are just waiting for the hard copy to arrive. I am hoping we have in the next week or two.

One we have the hard copy of LOA there are several steps before we travel but they are much more predictable... a week here, two weeks there. Hopefully I will have frequent updates as the next 2-3 months will be full of forward progress. As I have written before, one of our prayers was that we bring Elliott home before his second birthday on January 15. There is a very good possibility that will occur!

On another note....The Chosen Marathon is next Saturday. Team Pool has 124 people on it! We are just overwhelmed but the amount of support we have received. Thank you everyone who has signed up! We are so grateful and look forward to seeing many of you on race day. For the sleepwalkers, I hope that you sleep in a little extra and have a restful day :)

Meet Elliott Levi Pool

A couple of months ago we saw a little boy on our agency's shared list (a list that anyone in our agency can see). When I inquired about him I was told that our agency didn't have his complete files yet so we couldn't move forward with anything. We thought that if he was our son God would bring him to us and if he wasn't ours we prayed that God would put him in a wonderful family. But there was nothing else we could do but wait.

Three weeks ago I was quite surprised when our agency sent us his file. It included the pictures we had already seen and his medical records. We had 72 hours to review it and say yes or no to him. I wish I could put into words how hard that process is. I assumed that looking at files would be tough. How would we know what child was our child?  Each and every one of them needs a home and a family to love them. As I looked at Elliott's face I wondered if that sweet boy was one that I will get to hold, to kiss, love and watch grow up. It is was so hard!!! We knew that the only way to get instruction was to fervently seek the Lord in prayer. After three days we felt God reassuring us that Elliott was ours. Once we said yes we were both very much at peace with this decision and now we are ready to bring him home!

He is 20 months old and in Chengdu, China. He was born with intestinal atresia which means that his intestines didn't develop properly. He has had surgeries to correct this. Right now we still have several steps before we can bring him home. Currently we are waiting on our LOA (letter of approval from China). That can take anywhere from 30-100+ days. The average being around 60 days. My prayer is that we bring him home before his second birthday in January.

So thankful!

102 people!!! 

That is how big Team Pool is! I am so appreciative for all the people who have signed up. Thanks to them we won the contest and will have extra funds for our adoption expenses. This is a HUGE blessing!!! Our adoption adventure is amazing and we are so so excited about bringing home our little guy. But it is an expensive journey and this race lightens the financial burden in a big way.

We have a good mix of sleepwalkers, full and 1/2 marathon runners and a bunch of kids!!

If you have not signed up yet but want to you can sign up until the race which is October 26th.

A few more days left...

Thanks all you who have signed up so far. We are currently in 2nd place for the Chosen Marathon contest and not too far behind 1st place. Please sign up before June 9th!

http://www.chosenmarathon.com/race/register-2/



Also I thought  I  would update you on where we are in the adoption process. We turned our I800A application in 3 weeks ago. This is the application that goes to our government. It is our government saying that we are approved to adopt. As part of this application, Levi and I had to be fingerprinted last Friday. As soon as that gets approved we can send all of our paperwork to China!!

Run with us or sleep in for us

Chosen Marathon is having a contest!!! The team who has the most runners registered THIS WEEK will get significant bonus money towards their adoption fund.

  Sign up by June 9th.

The race is in New Braunfels on October 26. There is plenty of time to start training, even if you have never run before!!!

Lots of options to participate

• Full marathon
• 1/2 marathon
• Kids fun run (our kids loved running a "real race" last year)
• Sign up as a sleepwalker (don't have to run or go to the race)

All of these options will count towards the contest!!

ALL of your race fees will go towards our adoption fees. 

To sign up go to www.chosenmarathon.com    

Go to Race èNew Braunfels èRegister 

Please sign up under Team Pool 

We loved participating in this race for our friends the two past years!! We hope you will have the same experience.

We appreciate your help in bringing our son home from China.

Thanks and please share this with your friends!!!!

Already a family of six

Elizabel brought this drawing home from school the other day and explained that it was our whole family. I love that she already considers us a family of six.

Elizabel and Olivia talk about him frequently, pray for him often and wonder about what he may be doing. Olivia asked the other day how we will find him and I explained that God is using our adoption agent to help us find him. She then asked how we would know he was an orphan. I told her that the Chinese government and ours would make sure of that. Since she is 4, that answer satisfied her. I didn't tell her that he would be found abandoned, most likely in a busy place such as a train station, hospital or steps of an orphanage. I didn't tell her the Chinese government would require a newspaper notification (a Finding Ad) and that it would be unanswered by his biological parents before he would be considered an orphan. We will most likely see this ad one day and I wonder if his biological mother watched the ad go unanswered day after day.  I have no anger towards his biological mother, in fact my heart hurts for her and I pray for safety...physically, emotionally and spiritually.  These heartbreaking thoughts ran through my mind as Olivia asked the questions. One day I will have to answer these questions to my son and will give him the hard, honest answers...when he is ready for them.

When the girls pray that he has a full tummy, a warm bed and toys to play with I think that there is a good chance his doesn't but I pray fervently with them that he does. I trust that no matter what he has or doesn't have that God is with him. Olivia told me that God takes care of the birds so of course He will take care of us! I love that she is learning and believing the Scriptures!! Elizabel will tell you that God is keeping little brother safe while he waits for us to get him and I am so thankful she is right. So at the times when I worry and get anxious I will follow my girls' in their faith!!!

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  Matthew 6:26

Chosen Marathon

Ok all my runner and nonrunner friends...we have signed up to run the Chosen Marathon in New Braunfels as fundraiser for our adoption. We ran this the past two years for our friends to help them with their adoptions and loved being a part of it. I never ran long distance before but started to enjoy it after running the first one for the Halvorsons to help support them bring their precious Hannah home from China. Since then both Levi and I continue to run and hope to participate in Chosen for years to come for other families.

We are super excited to have Team Pool this year. The race is 10/26/13. You can sign up for the whole or 1/2 marathon, there is a kid's fun run that our kids loved being a part of last year and for all you nonrunners you can even sleep in. All of your entry fees go to help our adoption fees. We would be so thankful for your participation in helping to bring our little guy home. When you register sign up under Team Pool. Please pass the news to your other friends! If you sign up and are interested in training with me I would love it!!! Levi and I will be doing the half and all three kids will be doing the fun run. Thanks!!!!

                                                                Team Halvorson 2011
       

http://www.chosenmarathon.com/race/register-2/

10 years ago....

This Friday Levi and I will celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It has been an amazing decade and we are very thankful for the things the Lord has done. It is fun to think back on the early years that started our in a tiny apartment with Levi traveling most of the time for work while I studied in PA school.  I am so grateful for the man that Levi is. His love for the Lord, me and the children is constant and deep. His humor, generosity and patience always amazes me.  I could go on and on about my husband but most importantly I will share that since the foundation of our relationship is based on the Lord it strong, committed and filled with joy that could only come from Him.

When we got married I prayed that God would one day bless us with children...and my goodness how He has answered those prayers. Each of our children are very special and unique and we love them all fully!!! I would have never imagined 10 years ago that one of our children would be brought to our home the way of adoption but I am so glad that God's ways are not mine! 

We spent this past weekend in Austin relaxing, getting caught up on much needed rest, some delicious food and little pit stop to the Secretary of State's office. We got a pile of documents certified for our dossier that will eventually be sent to China. It feels so good to mark something off the to do list!

The Journey begins!

The Pool family will be bringing home our new son sometime in the future...near future I hope! Our youngest child won't be grown in my body but is already grown in my heart and I long for the day I get to hold him for the first time.

 Levi and I have talked about adoption for many years. We were quite sure that God wasn't done growing our family when we were finished having biological children. At the beginning of this year we dedicated ourselves to pray daily about when to start the adoption process and where our son would come from. I am not so good about always waiting on God's timing. Thankfully Levi tends to do this a little better so I told Levi that I was praying that God would make it apparent to him when it was time to go! On February 17th after church Levi said it was time to start the process of bringing our boy home. So now our adventure begins! Our son will be born in China. We are requesting a boy under the age of two. We haven't been matched with a child yet, that could be anywhere in the next weeks to months. Currently we have been busy working on the large amount of adoption paperwork required by the US and Chinese governments.

Originally I wasn't going to blog. I am not a writer. Those of you that followed my first blog, Elizabel.com know that it was short lived.  The last post was sharing my pregnancy with Olivia over 4 years ago! But I decided this blog will be a great way to update our family and friends. I hope to keep you updated on where we are in the process and describe how God is guiding us through this. Also I hope that this gives me a way to journal for my son, allowing him to get a better understanding of the how God put him forever in our family!