Mei's Finding Ad!

Well, today is day 40 of our wait for RA (out of an average of 90 but some are waiting 100+). We are hoping to be on the 90 day side of things. Yesterday we received Mei's finding ad. The ad was placed in the "Southern Farmer's Daily" (of all names!) on September 28, 2006 (just after we filled out our application for a special needs child). It has a picture of her (from a year ago) and says that on May 15, 2002 she was found at the gate of Xin'An Park, Bao'An District, Shenzhen City. She had a congenial cleft palate and lip which was repaired (we were told only cleft lip so we'll have to have that checked out when she is home). Included was a copy of the page of the newspaper she was on. She was number 1,536 for 2006-just for this newspaper, this area. So very sad to hear a number like that. She is much more than a number now, she's our little China Doll and we cannot WAIT to bring her home where she belongs!

TIS THE SEASON...........

Thanksgiving At The Rodrigues'

Help Bring Kennedi Home

Bring Home Kennedi Yard Sale Today!

Thank you so much to everyone who helped out with our yard/candle/bake sale today either by donating, helping, or buying! Because of everyone's help, we made just over $400! The weather was perfect and we had a good time! :)

Bring Home Kennedi Stampin Up Stamps For Sale!

As I was preparing for this weekend's Bring Home Kennedi Yard Sale, my bosses wife (who is a Stampin' Up Demonstrator) said she'd dontate some stamp sets to sell. I figured she'd send a bag full or something. Oh no, she sent 3 HUGE boxes FULL of stamp sets! You can view them all by clicking on the link to the left "Help Bring Home Kennedi" or by going to www.bringhomekennedi.blogspot.com . This will take you to another blog where they are posted in catagories of brand new sets, medium gently used sets, and large gently used sets. I am selling them all for 50-75% off the original price! All proceeds will go into our trip to China fund. If you have any questions on a set (some of the pictures are not the greatest), want to know the wordings, or want to buy any, you can email me or just click on comments under the pictures and post me a comment. Thanks to Jenny Kubo for the gracious donation! Please also pray that we have a beautiful weekend for the yard sale! :)

Katelyn in our local Nutcracker played Clara's sister and had the Chinese solo (the one she was most excited about!)

Happy Half Birthday Kennedi!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to our sweet Kennedi! Today she is 5 1/2 and since Katelyn and Bradley LOVE to say it's their "Half Birthday" each year, I had to post 1/2 Birthday wishes! By her 6th birthday she'll be home and we can have a real Birthday Party!! :)

The Money Needed Keeps Growing!

Well, received an email from our coordinator at AWAA today and the costs for us to travel have again increased. Now instead of needing $5000 we need about $7000! This is mostly due to the kids coming with us but I don't want them to miss this for the world! Plus, it will be so much easier on Kennedi to have them there. Please keep praying that somehow we raise this money. We are having a yard/candle sale next weekend and many people are donating things to sell to help. Although this wont bring in a huge amount, every little bit helps. Thanks to all of you who are helping out! Lauren also confirmed what I suspected that we probably will not travel until February or even March because we were just Logged In to China's system in April. Hopefully definately she'll be home for Easter and before our fingerprints expire in April which will cost us MORE money!! Please, please, please, keep the prayers coming! :)

Kennedi's New Clothes

Some Families Moving Quicker Than Expected!

Well, found out on Friday that some families that received referrals the same time as we did ALREADY received their RA! This step is supposed to take 2-5 months and they received theirs only after 1 month!! They will probably travel next month! CRAZY! These families were Logged In to China's system last year (we were just Logged In in April of 07) so I'm not expecting ours to come sooner but you never know! This news made us run out shopping today because we had NOTHING bought for Kennedi! Now we have pleanty of outfits to start out with and a carseat so I feel much better. At least now if we get our RA we'll be ready! Still unsure what sizes to get. Bought mainly 4T, some 5T, and lots of leggings (at least those can be rolled up if too long). We will spend 3 days in Beijing where it will be snowing and cold then we'll move to the coast which is where Kennedi is and much more like Florida, sunny and warm, so we have to bring a mixture of clothing. Received our travel packet information on Friday which has more paper work to fill out and return regarding our plans for travel (where we want to fly out from, who's going with us, how many rooms we need, etc.), our Visa applications (another $500 to spend!), and a somewhat packing list. Exciting to get this information and see that it is actually closer than sometimes we notice. I guess that's all for now, please still pray that we travel soon, that Kennedi is kept safe, and that we come up with the rest of our $5000 needed for travel. I'll keep you all posted.

Kids at Church Trunk Or Treat and Picture of Tina (Queen Of Hearts) at work