Update- Who We Are :)

We are due for an update!   Now is the perfect time too because we are going to be featured on a fellow advocate's blog for her 24 days of giving event: http://afamilyofsix.blogspot.com/2012/12/24-days-of-giving-families.html   For those of you who don't know us personally, we are the Henningfeld family from southeastern Wisconsin.

My husband Rick is an amazing husband and father and a very hard worker.  He is a high school Agriscience teacher and an FFA advisor.  He also works 2 side jobs writing curriculum and training State FFA officer teams to help us pay adoption expenses.   Even with 3 jobs, we needed an income waiver from China and were blessed to be granted one for our past two adoptions.  I am Brooke and I am a stay-at-home mom (former kindergarten teacher) and an advocate for children waiting in China with special needs.  We have 6 beautiful children at home, 5 boys and 1 girl.  Evan is our oldest bio son and he is 5, Elijah and Jonah are twin 4 year olds and were adopted at 17 months of age from Ethiopia (they were very premature and had developmental delays), Landyn is a bio son who is 3, Lena was just adopted this past summer at 2.5 from China and she is profoundly deaf- she is about to have her 3rd birthday, and Jayce is our youngest bio son and he is about to have his 2nd birthday.  Yes, that makes 6 kids 5 years old and younger! :)   Until next week, I can say that I have a 1, 2, 3, twin 4, and a 5 yr old. :)   We are going back to China for a 5 year old boy with beta thalassemia who we fell in love with a long time ago and who happened to still be waiting for a family when we got home from China.  I know our daughter needs a sister, but this mom is a sucker for boys and there are SO many boys in China with special needs waiting for a family. 

The amazing story starts on our old blog here: http://apiecewaitinginchina.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-tug-at-heartstrings.html
and culminates on the first post of this blog here:  http://www.astariswhatyouare.blogspot.com/2012/10/that-email-said-i-got-his-file-today-on.html

This is the part of the adoption process that I dread the most- the paper-chasing! I have been busy gathering all the documents we need for our home study and for us to re-use the dossier.   We just about have everything on our end ready to go. We have our meeting with our social worker in a week and a half to update our home study and then once approved, we hope to expedite the adoption process on the immigration and China end, if possible, due to our son's medical needs and a current blood shortage in China.   We hope to be able to get him before his 6th birthday, July 1st...which also happens to be our 7 year wedding anniversary. :)


If you are a local friend, we'd love for you to get one of our M&M containers- see previous post.

Thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers!  We are truly blessed!