More Snow

OK, when is going to quit snowing for Pete's sake. We woke up to another blanket of the white stuff. I am so sick of snow and cold...I am glad we are going to Florida soon. Hannah of course is not bothered at all by more snow...we spent the morning out playing in it (I mean I shovelled while she played). I've found pulling your kid in the sled is quite a good workout for your legs. Ron actually took the day off to make jelly. He spent 3 hours this past summer picking choke cherries from our trees and just now got around to making the jelly. It was a Rovang boys day in the kitchen as his brother and dad joined him in the jelly producing.
We are all very excited as it is opening day of baseball...we love baseball and our team is of course the Minnesota Twins...go Twins.
Blessings,
Bliss

Circus Fun

We had so much fun at the circus today. Hannah & Ron rode on an elephant (a 1st for both). The acrobats were outstanding...it freaked me out a bit. I am not a fan of heights and these freaks flipped themselves up on the shoulders of five or six people high. Hannah loved it all...I have never seen her so quiet...and she sat still for almost 2 hours. If only we could get something like this for church. Please enjoy the slide show of our day.

Blessings,
Bliss

Circus Photos

Funny Photo

You have to click on the photo to enlarge it...so Uncle Rich is so funny.

Family is alway Fun

Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Jim

Hi all. We are enjoying a weekend with Ron's sister and her husband from the Twin Cities. Hannah had fun playing yesterday with her Aunt. They played in her kitchen, played store, read some books and various other fun stuff you do with your Aunt. We then had dinner at Ron's brother's house and fun with the whole gang. This morning Bonnie and I worked out at the Y Tonight the dinner is at our house so more fun to be had. Hannah is very excited about tomorrow as she is going to her 1st circus. I don't remember liking the circus all that much except for the fact that we got out of school early. I think I will like it a lot more with Hannah. It is sooooo WINDY in the Hub City (nick name for Aberdeen) today I can't stand it. I know we have lost a good number of shingles from our roof. I know they call Chicago the windy city but I don't think the judges have ever visited our fair city in the plains of SD (I mean it is so flat in this city the only hill is the overpass). Hope you all have a super weekend.

Blessings,

Bliss

More Adoption Frustration

We received this information from our agency (you might need to reference the FAQ sidebar of my blog). We are in the process of updating our USCIS approval...(I-171H...we received an appointment for fingerprinting for April 3rd but had to request another date) once the paperwork is filed the I-171h is good for 18 months. With the trend of the wait time continuing to slow down (and I don't think the Olympics will help anything) we might have to renew for a 3rd time (another $900 application fee). Please pray that this is not the case...Ron says if we have to renew for a 3rd time we will drop out of the program. Please pray for God's will in this situation...we have a lot invested into the China program. We do have the option of going special needs that would speed up the process...just please keep our situation in your prayers.



Message from Agency

China Program
USCIS Changes: Hague ImplementationThe Hague Convention for Intercountry Adoption will be ratified on April 1st , 2008. As of this date, USCIS will be implementing new forms in place for adoption cases in Hague Convention countries. As China & El Salvador are Hague Convention countries, starting April 1st, 2008 paperchasing families with new applications to USCIS will be submitting the I-800a in place of the I-600a.

Any family who submits an I-800a is considered a Hague case. In addition to the I-800a, Hague cases are required to complete 10 hours of adoption education. America World will provide 2 hours of education at the referral and travel stages of a family’s adoption process. The additional 8 hours will need to be completed by the family through the online training, The International Adoption Journey. Families can access The International Adoption Journey at . The cost of this training is $175 per couple or $95 per single.

FYI

Hi Friends,

If you want to comment about my blog and don't know how you can you can either create a google email address or just click on my profile and email me.
I'm so excited for all the AWAA families that have just landed back on US soil with their new little American Citizens. I have so enjoyed following their blogs while they were in China...especially because they had the same guides as our travel group...Rosa & Maggie.(Rosa...life saver as she was to us...with the whole 43 hour flight delay...she stayed behind in Beijing to wait for us as the rest of the group left for the Hunan Province to get our children). Our travel story is a long one...I've been told it is the worst in our agency's history. I will share the whole nasty experience later.
Blessings,
Bliss

Fun Night

We had a fun night with a visit from our friend Matt. He was in town for a trial (he is an FBI agent). Anyway we went to dinner and got caught up with what was going on with mutual friends. We then went back to our house where Hannah recruited Matt to read her a few books. Hannah and I had been to the library that afternoon for story time so I had checked a few new books. Matt read "Bubba and Beau Go Night-Night". If you have not read this book to your kids...I highly recommend it as it will crack you up. Ron and I were laughing out of control as Matt read it to Hannah. I'm not kidding I was laughing so hard I snorted a few times (I never snort). We finally got Hannah to bed and watched "The Kingdom" (we have seen this movie a couple of times but Matt had not seen it). It is about FBI agents...so it was interesting to watch with an FBI agent.

I'm having a little trouble with Hannah and her sleeping...or lack there of. She goes to bed between 8 or 9PM. She used to sleep until 8AM and then take a nap in the afternoon. She now gets up at 6AM and won't nap in the afternoon. When she doesn't get enough sleep she tends to get a little (OK a lot hiper). A few people commented about her behavior at story time (she was all over the place...she usually sits quietly by my side). They asked my what I fed her for lunch and she was fun to watch. Not fun for me as I was constantly telling her to sit down and pay attention to the story. Anyway I am at a loss to how to fix this situation...will take any kind of advice.

Have a great day.

Bliss

HAPPY EASTER

Hope you enjoyed the slide show of our Easter day. We had fun at church (1st time in our church's new addition) at the contemporary service. Hannah did better than I thought she would...she is not one for sitting still for more than 5 seconds. We had Easter eats at Ron's brother's (Uncle Rich) around 3PM. Hannah had three rounds of finding her eggs...she was too good at it. We had a good day and hope Daddy has a quiet night of call and can get a good night of sleep.
Blessings,
Bliss

HAPPY EASTER

The Fall of Frosty

I'm sorry to report that Frosty(Hannah's 1st snowman) had a very short life. He didn't even make it until the end of the day and this is what he looked like this morning...poor Frosty.

We had a good Saturday. Ron is on call this Easter and was busy through mid-afternoon. We were able to have a quick lunch with him (at Subway...every Saturday we eat at Subway for lunch). Hannah & Daddy had pancakes for supper...what is with that??? Pancakes are for breakfast in my book. Anyway we are going to spend the evening dying (you guessed it...) Easter Eggs. I'm a little disappointed in the weather we have for Easter. Hannah's pretty little dress is sleeveless so we had to buy a sweater and new shoes (instead of sandals) and she will probably have to sport some tights...as it will be cold in the AM. Hope you all have a Happy Easter and take time to really appreciate what the day is all about. Off to work on the secular side of Easter (kids need to have fun).

Blessings,

Bliss

Snow

Did I mention it snowed...well it snowed about 8 inches. There are a few great things about a spring snow. 1. It is beautiful snow (pure white). 2. It is a given that you will be have a great time with your 3 year old making a snow man (which she will notice melting within a few hours...asking daddy what happended to the snowman). 3. The snow will be gone in no time at all and the tulips will show up. 4. The farmers are happy about the early moisture.

1st Day of Spring???

So it is supposed to be the 1st day of Spring. Not in our neck of the woods. It is snowing like crazy. This winter has been so long and cold in good old SD. I swear it has been below zero more than above this Winter. We have have had few days that we could go out and play in the snow...Hannah loves the snow and would play outside for hours or all day if you let her. She did get to have some fun in the snow with her Aunt Bonnie & Uncle Jim (in early January) in the Twins Cities. Check out the photos on the previous post.
Blessings,
Bliss

Long Winter

Adoption Update

Today we received a letter from the US immigration office in the Twin Cities that they received our request to renew our fingerprints. The wait has become so long that we are having to renew paperwork. The fingerprints are part of getting a new I171 document. If you just take a quick look at the FAQ you will understand what the I171 is all about. They will be sending us an appointment time within the next 6 weeks. This will involve a 6 hour drive to St. Paul, MN for us to get fingerprinted. Since the wait has increased so much the USCIS is giving adopting families one free renewal. This is great because it is a pretty expensive part of the process. Just pray that we will not have to do it again...we will have to pay the fee.
Blessings,
Bliss

Fun Photos of Hannah

Welcome to our blog

Hello All. I thought it was time to get this blog thing started so by the time we go to China I will know what I am doing. We are Ron & Bliss Rovang from Aberdeen, South Dakota. We have one daughter (Hannah) who we adopted from China (Hunan Province) in Sept. of 05 she was 10 months old. She is an absolute JOY. We are currently paper pregnant for her little sister (Zoey). Our dossier was logged in (LID) the China program 12/06/06. As far as we know our dossier has not been reviewed yet. This is where they look over your dossier and begin the process of matching you with a child (they did an excellent job with Hannah...although I give all the credit to our great Creator). The wait time for China has increased dramatically...we only waited 8 months to get Hannah. This the news I received from our adoption agency (AWAA America World Adoption Assoc.) this past week.

Wait Time
The current wait time from LID to referral is 27-28 months with the trend of increasing by roughly a half to a full month every month.

This wait is driving me crazy, but I will continue to trust in God. His timing is perfect and I will pray for patience.

I will continue to update our blog and you are invited to join the journey.

Blessings,

Bliss