Adoptionbug

Sunday Snapshot {A Day at the Harbor}

2012-02-05T07:25:00.002-06:00

Last Sunday the weather was gorgeous, so after church and Liana's nap, I packed up my camera and headed out for door for my first outdoor photo session with my new lens. We went to the Harbor, a beautiful area in our town with shops and restaurants and picnic areas by the lake. There are some lovely fountains and many great spots for photos.

Liana did fantastic, and we actually had a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite pics from our afternoon. I love the way they turned out, and I'm absolutely loving this new lens. I am so ready to start my photography class from Lisa this week. I can't wait.

Check out more Sunday Snapshots over at NiHao Y'all

Favorite Photo Friday {Life in 50mm}

2012-02-04T07:07:00.006-06:00

I'm so excited. This week I will have my first photography class from Lisa over at The Long Road to China (thanks to a Christmas present from my sweet hubby). In order to get the most out of the class, I went ahead and bought the new camera lens I've been wanting -- a 50 mm / 1.4g. This is my first lens other than my kit lens that came with my camera, so I was very excited. I had done my research and knew this was the lens I really wanted. It's great for portraits, and enables you to have lots of gorgeous bokeh (that's a fancy-shmancy photography term for a blurry background).

So my lens arrived last week, and I was eager to try it out. The first couple days after it arrived, the weather kept us inside. But I used the opportunity to practice shooting with the lens and trying different settings. No props. No special outfits. Just pictures of everyday life and Liana just being Liana (which I think is pretty darn cute). I was able to get pics of Liana doing two of her favorite things.

The first day I snapped some pics of Liana playing with her daddy's iphone. These were taken right after she woke up from her nap (and had apparently taken off all her clothes except her pullup during her nap). I just love how these turned out with her serious face concentrating on the phone screen.

Then the next day I took pictures of her tearing up our living room jumping off the sofas and practicing her gymnastics. I love some of these silly shots. And for the first time ever, I don't hate the way my living room looks in photos. With all that bokeh, all the clutter magically disappears. And with the higher aperature settings (which is so confusing, since the numbers get smaller), the photos are so much brighter without slower shutter speeds. It just pulls all the light from the windows into the photos so wonderfully. I absolutely love this new lens.

Then last Sunday, the weather was gorgeous, so I got to practice some outdoor shots. I hope to share those for Sunday Snapshot.

Chinese Silks

2012-01-28T12:58:00.003-06:00

Last weekend Liana got to dress up in her Chinese silks for our Chinese New Year party on Saturday, then she wore them again to church on Sunday. After church I was determined to get a few good photos since (in my totally unbiased opinion) she looks absolutely stunning in this ensamble.

While I wish we could have ventured outside for the photos, with the cool temperatures and high winds, that wasn't an option. Luckily there was great light coming through the windows, and after figuring out a few new things on my camera, my indoor photos are starting to improve. So I was still able to capture some nice pics of my Chinese beauty.

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-24T13:55:00.001-06:00

Yes, I should have made this post yesterday on the first day of Chinese New Year, but in my usual slacker mode, I'm late. But since it's a 15-day celebration, technically, I'm not really late.

Saturday evening we hosted a little Chinese New Year party at our house. It was a small group of a few adoptive families and my brother's family (just cause it's not a party without them). We had lots of good food including some dragon cupcakes (that looked more like crabs or frogs than dragons, but oh well), some crafts for the kids and some silly games for everyone. After we finished the planned activities, the men-folk went upstairs to play on John's race simulator, and the women and kids played "Just Dance Kids." Not exactly traditional forms of celebrating the ancient holiday, but we had fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't get good pics of most of that. I've decided I am not a very good event photographer. At least not when I'm participating, much less hosting, the event. When anything fun is happening, my camera is put away. Then I pull it out when people are sitting around talking, making for some pretty boring photos! Also, I still need a lot of work on flash photography. My natural light photos are generally much better.

But with that being said, here are a handful of pictures I took of our little gathering.

And about that last photo ... We played a "sweeping" relay race game (because it's tradition to sweep out one's house before Chinese New Year to get rid of all the bad luck), and after the game, Liana and Dani thought it was so much fun that they kept sweeping the pieces of paper up and down the hall. It kept them entertained for quite a while!

And on Sunday afternoon, I took some beautiful photos of Liana in her Chinese silks. But other than the sneak peak you get in the Chinese New Year card at the top of this post, I'm going to save those pics for a post this weekend so I can use them for a "Favorite Photo Friday" or a "Sunday Snapshot." You'll have to check back to see those. :)

Holiday Baking

2011-12-26T18:16:00.002-06:00

This year I was determined to do some holiday baking with my daughter. So the second weekend in December, I set out on my baking mission.

NOTE: All photos are quick snapshots with my iphone. I am not skilled enough at either baking or photography to multi-task and do a great job of both.

Day 1: decorated sugar cookies and peanut butter chocolate pretzel bites

First we tackled sugar cookies. She loved rolling the dough and cutting the shapes.

But she mainly liked adding sprinkles. Lots and lots of sprinkles.

Tada! The finished cookies. Not too bad. The first batch was a little burned, but the rest tasted great. And Liana was very proud of her pretty cookies.

Next up was something I found on Pinterest. I'm a peanut butter and chocolate fanatic; so when I saw these Peanut Butter and Chocolate Pretzel Bites, I HAD to try them. I didn't get any photos of us actually making them, but here's the finished product.

They did not disappoint. Liana seemed to like them, and I personally LOVED them. Side note - I made a second batch that used semi-sweet chocolate rather than milk chocolate, and I liked those even better, but that's a personal preference. My husband prefers milk chocolate.

Day 1: mint chocolate chip cookies and peppermint brownies

So the next day we made some mint chocolate chip cookies I had made last year and really, really liked and some peppermint brownies. I found the brownies on Pinterest and thought they looked yummy, so I wanted to give them a try. However, the instructions called for making the brownies from scratch, and that sounded like too much work to me. Instead, I just used boxed brownie mix and added peppermint extract and melted the peppermint kisses on top. Mine didn't look quite as pretty as the ones I was copying, but they did turn out very, very yummy.

We had a church small group to go to that evening, so I loaded up a tray with some of the baked items from that day and the day before. We brought home an empty tray.

Day 3: John's Birthday Cake

John's birthday was the third weekend in December, and since I was already on this baking kick, I decided to bake him a cake for the first time in 12 years of marriage (in fact I didn't even own any round cake pans and had to go buy them). Thanks to Pinterest, I found a very simple birthday cake that looked super-cute. It's just a round cake with kit-kat bars around it and m&m's poured on top, tied with a pretty bow.

Since we were going to a Christmas party on his birthday (and I was going to take it with us), and he loves Christmasy stuff, I used Christmas M&M's and used red ribbon. It turned out great, and everyone was so impressed. It's actually the perfect cake for amateurs like me because the candy covers all the mistakes. No one could tell how wonky my cake was under all the candy.

Day 4: John & Liana's Gingerbread House

The weekend of John's birthday he wanted to make a gingerbread house with Liana. He had bought it a few weeks earlier when he went grocery shopping with her. It was just a box kit with all the stuff you need, so I guess his project wasn't actually baking but more of a craft, but still I'm including it in this post.

I think John and I both found baking and crafts with a two year old (at least OUR two year old) to be a real challenge, but we're both very glad we took the time out of our busy holiday season to start some special traditions with our daughter. These are some very special memories.

Pictures with Santa (Minus Santa) and Pierced Ears

2011-12-26T13:39:00.006-06:00

First off, I realize it's been a very long time since I'm added anything new to the blog. Sorry. As always, I have great intentions and just can't seem to find the time. But I don't want this holiday season to just pass on by without posting any photos or blog posts from our various Christmas festivities. I have a million things I SHOULD be doing today, but since I still feel like I'm in holiday vacation mode, I'm going to put those things off for now and spend a little time catching up on my blog.

So first up is our trip to Northpark mall. This mall is one of the upscale malls in Dallas that is beautifully decorated during the holiday season and their Santa is considered by most as the best in the area (ya know, with a real beard and everything). So the first weekend in December we planned an outing to Northpark for Liana to get pictures with Santa. Last year we didn't even attempt Santa pictures (she had just come home in November, and I knew from her reaction to a plastic Santa in China that she probably wouldn't do well), so this year would be her first time taking taking Santa pics. I started prepping her a week or two in advance asking her if she wanted to go see Santa and take pictures with him (after watching the Christmas Barney video with Santa in it and showing her pictures of our dog with Santa). The answer to "do you want to go see Santa and take pictures with him?" was always a definitive "NO." So I knew that our chances of actually getting her to sit in Santa's lap and take photos was slim to none, but I was determined to at least try. I was hoping that if I would stand with her or even sit in his lap also, she would agree, but no. When we got there, we took her to the opening where you could stand pretty close to Santa and watch him talk to the child sitting on his lap. She would not even look at him. She just clung to John and turned her head away from Santa. So we decided to not waste our time standing in line when she clearly was not wanting to participate AT ALL.

So instead, we just walked around the mall and took pictures of her by the various Christmas decorations in her adorable Santa dress. Unfortunately, she wasn't really in a photo-taking mood that day, so I didn't get a ton of great pictures, but I did get a few cute shots.

So then in an effort to do something memorable that evening worth the drive into Dallas, we decided to get her ears pierced. We had been talking about it for awhile, and she kept saying she wanted to get her ears pierced and get pretty earrings (oh course with no clue what that entails). So we found the Claires in the mall and picked out some pretty "diamond" earrings for her. Then about the time they got out a marker to mark her ears, she figured out that maybe this wasn't going to be fun.

She started screaming and jerking her head and flailing her arms every time the lady came anywhere near her with the marker. We almost gave up since we felt like we were torturing her, but we knew there was no way we could convince her to try it again. It literally took John and I both to hold her down and two employees to pierce her ears (doing both ears at the same time, thank goodness). I had initially planned to take pictures during event, but obviously, that didn't happen. So after calming her down and getting some cookies, a took a few pictures before we headed home.

Poor thing with her sweaty head and flushed cheeks. She looks like she had been through a battle, and trust me, she had. She is one strong little girl! She was not happy about the whole experience. But I can assure you, she LOVES her pretty earrings, and she's quick to show them off to people. For the first few days after getting them pierced she would just look at them in the mirror and say "oh, pretty!"

P.S. She now refuses to wear the Santa dress. It took quite a bit of convincing to get her to wear it to a Christmas party a few weeks later.

I Heart Faces {Black}

2011-11-08T10:18:00.000-06:00

I know I posted this photo on my blog quite recently, but I really do love it. And with that black dress and beautiful black hair, I thought it would be a nice entry in this week's I Heart Faces "black" challenge. See more entries in this challenge here.

One Less Orphan in the World

2011-11-06T15:59:00.005-06:00

Today is Orphan Sunday. Churches across the country are joining for a common purpose ... to "defend the cause of the fatherless" Isaiah 1:17. This has me thinking about our adoption story and thinking I should use this opportunity to share it with others.

We are not special people. We are not particularly noble or saintly. We are just people who wanted to grow our family. Like most, when we decided to do this, we assumed we would grow our family the "normal" way. But after five years of "trying," we finally decided to adopt rather than pursue any type of assisted reproduction. When we started down this path, we did not set out to rescue a child. Our motives were not selfless. We just wanted a child.

In fact, it makes me quite uncomfortable when people say things like "your daughter is so lucky" or "God bless you for what you did." Say what? I kindly reply "We're the lucky ones" or "He definitely has blessed us." I really don't want my daughter to ever feel rescued. In so many ways, she rescued us.

However, when I see videos like this one promoting Orphan Sunday

Or listen to the second verse of "Won't You Be My Love" by Mercy Me, I'm overcome with emotion thinking about my daughter, just a few days old alone for hours in a public park then living for nearly 18 months in an orphanage without a family of her own. My daughter is far too special to have grown up as orphan. She has far too much love to give. But what if ...? What if she had spent her entire childhood in an orphanage with hundreds of other kids and caregivers that come and go? What if she had aged out at 16? What would her fate have been as a teen girl with no support system or means to provide for herself? Oh my goodness. I can't even let my mind go there.

I know without a doubt, that had we not adopted her, she would have been adopted by another family. In fact, I now know the family that was ready to commit to her had we not locked her file minutes earlier (it's actually pretty crazy the way God allowed our paths to cross). So in my mind, we certainly did not rescue her. But the family that almost adopted Liana, ended up adopting another little girl (who is also quite precious, and they love her very much). Yes, there's a good chance this sweet little girl would have also been adopted by another family, but somewhere down the line, if we had not adopted our daughter, there would be one less child with a family. Because God chose to use adoption to fulfill our dreams of parenthood, there is one less orphan in the world. Wow! That blows me away when I think about it.

There were so many times during our five years of infertility and during the two years of our adoption process that I was angry at God. Why? Why is it so easy for everyone else to have kids and so hard for us. Would He ever let me experience what it was like to be a mother? It just didn't seem fair.

But now, I honestly thank God for our infertility. Seriously. I know that sounds crazy, but I don't know that we would have chosen adoption as the path to build our family if the old-fashioned way had worked out for us. Would we have ever really considered adoption? I know if we had been fertile, God would have blessed us with amazing, beautiful biological children. However, we would have missed out on the privilege of being part of God's plan for the orphan.

So in all my ramblings, I have a few words of "wisdom" (ha ha) I'd like to share.

First, if you are considering growing your family (whether thinking about your first child or your tenth), at least CONSIDER if adoption is the path for you. Consider the possibility that you could fulfill your dreams while also redeeming the life of an orphan. It may not be the path for you, at least not at this time, but at least consider the possibility. And I just want to add that if you don't think you could love an adopted child as much as a biological child, I cannot tell you how wrong you are. I am 100% certain that I would not love my daughter any more if she had grown in womb or if I had spent days in labor. I know most people don't believe it, but I promise you that you will love an adopted child as much as a biological child, and that child will be completely "your own."

Second, if you want to help orphans, but really do not have a strong desire in your heart to grow your family through adoption, then don't. Really, God doesn't NEED you to rescue children. There are other ways to answer the call to "defend the fatherless." There are many, many families that want to adopt, but need help. Support them with your prayers, emotional support and finances. I hear from so many people that say "I'd love to adopt, but just can't afford it." Well, many families really could afford it if they were willing to not drive a brand new car or make a few other sacrifices, but that's a whole 'nother soap box. There are many families that wish to adopt, but the cost really is a barrier. So if you want to help orphans and help build families, support organizations like Show Hope that give financial assistance grants to deserving families, or directly support a family you know who is trying to adopt. Every little bit helps. So purchase tshirts from their fundraisers, go their pancake breakfasts, donate your unused air miles for those adopting internationally, or just hand them a check for whatever amount you can help with. It makes a huge difference. And while the ideal (if reunification with birth family is not possibly) is for children to be adopted into families, the reality is that many, many orphaned children will never be adopted. What about the millions of children left behind? Consider supporting organizations that are improving the lives of orphans -- Show Hope and Love Without Boundaries just to name a couple. Support orphan care ministries through financial support or by volunteering. If you want to make a very direct impact in the life of a child in foster care in your own community, become a CASA volunteer. There are so many ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus to the fatherless.

And finally, if you have decided to adopt, and the process is taking longer than you hoped or you're facing obstacles at every turn, I just want to tell you "don't give up." Adoption is not for the weak. It is not easy. It is emotional and frustrating. But in the end, it truly is worth it. There was a point, nearly a year and a half into our adoption process where it seemed we were still at the start line, and I was really on the verge of giving up. I just felt that I couldn't take the emotional roller coaster any more. I was at my breaking point. And that's when we found our daughter. God's timing really is perfect, even though it is impossible to see that when you're waiting for so long. I know it's easier said than done, but simply don't lose faith. Don't give up.

When I look at my child and think "SHE is far too special to have grown up without a family to love" and thank God for bringing us together, I have to think about the other 143 million children growing up without families. The reality is that every single one is special and deserves a family. How can you be part of God's plan for orphans? How you help ensure there one less orphan in the world?

P.S. Sorry this post turned out a little preachy. I try to avoid that usually, but when I started writing down everything on my heart, it just came out a little preachy. I apologize.

See more Sunday Snapshots here

One Year Together: Touched by an Angel

2011-11-04T16:05:00.011-05:00

After months staring at her photo and wondering what she was like,

on November 1, 2010, our lives were transformed when we finally got to meet Liana Da Ying.

On that day, we met this incredibly frightened and confused, yet brave little girl. There were some tears at first, but by that evening were already getting to see that beautiful smile of hers that can literally light up a room.

And we were already getting glimpses of her silly and incredibly funny personality.

And in the first few days together, we started to see just how determined and independent she is .

But most importantly, from the very fist moment we scooped her into our arms, we knew we were over-the-moon in love.

We knew that she was 100% our daughter.

And nothing could ever change that. EVER.

We've watched her grow and change over the past year -- getting more beautiful each day.

But in so many ways, she is the same amazing little girl we met in Shanghai China one year ago.

We have been blessed beyond measure and thank God each day for angel we have the priviledge of parenting.

HAPPY GOTCHA DAY our precious Little Nunu! You're everything we hoped for and SO MUCH more!

Favorite Photo Friday {Big Brother}

2011-10-28T12:28:00.001-05:00

Clearly, most of the photos I share are of just Liana, but a couple weeks ago I was able to get some great photos of Liana AND her big brother. Hayden is now 16. Yes, SIXTEEN! He was only four when John and I got married. But now he is taller than John, playing varsity football and driving. Wow, time goes by fast, I tell ya.

But anyways, Hayden is an amazing big brother. Unfortunately, we don’t see him as much anymore, so Liana hasn’t been able to spend a great deal of time with him. He’s sixteen (yes, I know I already said that), so spending all weekend at dad’s house instead of going out with his girlfriend or hanging out with friends, doesn’t sound like much fun. To be honest, I totally understand. Besides, right now he has football games on Friday nights and football films (or whatever they call it) on Saturday mornings. So his visits have become much shorter and less often than they once were.

But a few weeks ago he drove himself out to our house (first time since getting his license in March) and spent the night with us Saturday night. Liana was SO excited to see him. After he got there, we decided to go to park as a family. On the way there, John stopped at the railroad tracks just down the street from the park so I could take some pictures. I love the fact that my sweet hubby just knew that would make me happy. I didn’t even have to ask.

And I was very happy to get some wonderfully sweet shots of brother and sister. Granted, had I planned to take “real” photos (not just snapshots of us playing at the park), I would have probably picked a more photo-worthy outfit for Liana and asked Hayden to wear a shirt that doesn’t say “eat your enemy,” but I don’t care. They still look amazing, and I just may have to get some prints made from some of these.

And I'll also post a few of the snapshots I took at the park. It was fun watching Hayden play with his little sister and help her with anything she wanted to do. So sweet!

Since we don't get to have many days like this, I'm glad I captured it in photos (and finally took the time to post them to my blog).

My Blog's New Look

2011-10-27T07:00:00.002-05:00

I've been wanting to update my blog for a while to a format that lets me have bigger photos (since that's mainly what my blog is for), but I don't have time to design a template myself or even mess with customizing a pre-designed template. So I switched to one of the default templates in Blogger. I know it is VERY simple, but I love that I can have jumbo photos. Also, it's a "dynamic view" template meaning you (person reading my blog) can change how it looks. Next to the word "classic" at the top-left, you can move your cursor to the right and select other views. I love the "flipcard" view where you can see all my posts in a cool grid. However, when I view it like this, I realize how infrequently I make posts. I knew I was a bad blogger, but really. Am I that bad? Yikes. Oh well, the different views are still very cool. Maybe when I find some time (like that's ever gonna happen), I'll spruce up this blog with a better layout, but for now, I'm just excited about having big pictures. I hope to be adding more pics real soon.!

And just so you can enjoy one of those "big ole" photos. This is one I took the first day I got my camera, and I edited it last week. Oh my, I just love this shot!

Sunday Snapshot {Tea Party Picnic}

2011-09-25T12:34:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, Liana and I decided to have a tea party picnic. Yes, it was really another excuse for me to practice using my new camera in the sunshine. And as we were setting out all the stuff on the lawn, the mail man pulled up, and the wings for her halloween costume arrived. I was so excited and couldn't resist letting her try them on. They were the perfect addition to our tea party!

It was a very heavenly tea party!

Now, I can't wait to see the tutu dress my awesome niece is making to complete her custume. Oh boy, it's gonna be cute!

I Heart Faces {A Touch of Sun}

2011-09-20T10:39:00.001-05:00

So there’s this awesome photography website, iheartfaces.com, that has weekly photo challenges. I visit from time to time and marvel at the amazing photos. Now that I have a kinda nice camera, I’ve decided that I want to learn more about photography and attempt to become a good photographer. I could use a hobby other than watching TV ya know. I figured what better way to learn my new camera than to try some challenges and attempt things I may not think to try on my own. Their photo challenge this week is “A Touch of Sun.” I already wanted to attempt some sun flare photos, so why not give it a shot?

So here’s my attempt to capture a touch of sun. It’s certainly not an award-winning photo. The composition isn’t perfect, and my technique can be improved, but I’m pleased with my attempt. I pretty much got the effect I was going for, and more importantly, I captured a very sweet moment.

Liana doesn’t have any sisters. Maybe she will someday. I have no idea. But she does have some pretty special cousins. She loves them all very much, but she shares a very special bond with her cousin Caydance. They are two years apart in age and spend A LOT of time together. They fight like crazy, but they also love each other very, very much. I’m so happy that Liana has this special relationship with her cousin. I think this picture captures just a glimpse of the love they have for one another.

Sunday Snapshot: {First Haircut}

2011-09-18T07:57:00.002-05:00

First off, I know I am a terrible blogger. I haven't posted anything in months. I just can't seem to find the time. But I really WANT to be a good blogger momma, and my sweet husband just game me a new camera (my first attempt at anything other than point and shoot photography), so I'm determined to capture more moments in photos and share them here.

Yesterday we took Liana to get her first haircut since coming home from China 10 months ago. We assume this is her first haircut other than getting her head shaved a couple times in the orphanage, so I was a little nervous it could trigger some serious anxiety. But she really did fantastic.

She waited (somewhat) patiently for her turn.

Then she got up in ther super-cool jeep-chair and held Daddy's hand.

Got her hair sprayed with water. Sprayed Daddy's hair with water.

Watched intently as the lady cut the first snip.

Said cheese for Momma.

Turned her haid exactly as the lady instructed.

And held back her fear of hairdryers (which had caused some tears when we practiced at home earlier).

Let Daddy comfort her, rather than crying for Momma.

Picked out a pretty barett.

And just a few minutes (and snips) after sitting down ... ta-da.

First haircut done.

Sunday Snapshot: {Surgery}

2011-05-30T12:48:00.001-05:00

I know it's already Monday, but I want to do a Sunday Snapshot post with pictures from Liana's surgery, and I don't want to wait until next week, so here we go with a Sunday Snapshot. On Monday.

Liana had surgery on Friday to release some severe banding around her ankle and some minor banding on a few fingers caused by Amniotic Banding Syndrome. For a long-winded explanation of the surgery and why she needed it, you can read this post.

Even though we had to get up VERY early to get to the hospital at 5:00 AM, our little NuNu was still ready to smile for the camera.

And Mommy pulled her hair back, and put a very pretty flower in her hair [insert shameless plug for KK's Creations -- hair pretties by my awesome 11 yr. old niece.]. Even if you're about to have surgery, you can still look super-cute!

The nurse gave Liana a special bracelet.

And Daddy helped her put on a very pretty gown.

And she blew some kisses to Mommy.

We took a stroll through the halls.

Then they gave her some silly juice that made her act pretty funny.

And then they wheeled her away for surgery, and Mommy and Daddy just about lost it. My heart still aches when I think about it.

Then we waited.

And ate.

And waited some more.

And waited what felt like forever, but according to our watches was really only about 3 hours.

Then she woke up.

MAD.

Mad that there was a cast on one arm. Mad that there was a cast on one leg. Mad that there was an IV in one foot. Mad that a bunch of strangers were all around her bed. Mad that they wanted to take her blood pressure. Maybe mad that she was in pain.

But we finally calmed her down with some cuddles.

And juice.

And she went back to sleep.

And woke up much happier.

Especially when she saw that Aunt Sandy and cousin KK had come to visit her.

But she was still very tired.

So she went back to sleep.

And Grammy, Sandy and KK went to get us some food.

She woke up she ready for more cuddles.

Then she was ready to eat.

And eat.

And since she met all the requirements to go home (she went to the bathroom, was able to eat and her pain seemed under control), we were ready to go home.

Thank you everyone for all the prayers and support. It was a long, stressful day, but we made it through.

We've now been home 3 days, and she's doing fantastic. She's hobbling all over the house and figuring out how to do all kinds of things one-handed. We're truly amazed watching her. She's such a fighter, and we are so proud of her!

She'll have the casts on for 3-4 weeks, and while it's not exactly fun, it's really not too bad. We will manage just fine.

And when it's all done, we will have some really great before and after photos to share with everyone! Can't wait!

Sunday Snapshot {A Super-Dee-Duper Birthday}

2011-05-22T07:32:00.000-05:00

Last year on Liana's 1st birthday, we had just submitted her Letter of Intent and were waiting to receive our pre-approval before sharing our exciting news with friends and family. So John and I celebrated her birthday like this.

But this past weekend, almost exactly a year after being matched with her and just over six months home, we were able to celebrate her 2nd birthday TOGETHER.

Initially I planned to do a panda-themed party, which could have been oh so cute, but then decided that if Liana was given the choice (and had any idea what I was asking her), she would ask for a Barney party. She LOVES Barney, or as she calls him, "Bah."

So Barney was the theme, and even though it wasn't really my choice, I ran with it.

Luckily, I have an amazing 11-year old niece that was eager to help plan a Barney party, down to every last little detail, and she did a stupendous job!

Plus, I have the best sister-in-law ever who made this amazing cake!! It far exceeded my expectations.

And I found these adorable goody bags on Etsy. They were so cute!

Liana loved the purple and green Mardi Gras necklaces.

The birthday girl looked absolutely beautiful.

We setup a craft table. My niece made all the cute placemats, printed out coloring pages and came up with a great craft for the little ones ...

Barney feet.

Liana had fun with her Barney feet, and so did the other kids.

Then it was time to go outside for some games. First was a bubble relay race, but there was too much chaos, so we didn't get any photos of that. Next up was a dinosaur egg hunt.

The Barney feet made great baskets for the eggs.

Then it was cake time!

I think the ice cream gave her a brain freeze.

My niece made Liana this beautiful flower. By the way, she's selling them, and they're quite affordable :) Let me know if you want one.

Then it was time for presents. Liana loved her kitchen! Unfortunately, she wouldn't stop playing long enough to open the other gifts, so Mommy had to open them all for her.

And her buddy, Levi, was eager to help her figure out all the fun stuff in the kitchen. Could they be any cuter?

It was a fantastic birthday party. Liana was very happy (although a bit overwhelmed) by her big day. Happy birthday Liana! We love you so much and can't wait to celebrate all your birthdays TOGETHER!

Sunday Snapshot: {Easter Weekend}

2011-05-01T09:08:00.001-05:00

WARNING: There are a TON of photos in this post!

Easter weekend was wonderful and VERY busy! On Saturday, Liana and I had our much-anticipated professional photo shoot. Kirsten at Starling Portraits did an amazing job. I just got the proofs last night, and I love them all so much, I want to share them ... ALL of them. Enjoy ...

Then on Sunday, I asked John to get out the good camera to take some more photos of our Nunu experiencing her first Easter, and he also got some amazing shots. First, we snapped a few photos of Liana outside before church.

And a few pictures with big brother Hayden. Awwwww ... so sweet!

We went to church and enjoyed a fantastic service celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. Then after Liana's nap, some of my family came over for an Easter egg hunt and cookout.

Liana loved hunting for eggs.

She took it quite seriously.

And she loved all the candy!

What a glorious day it was!

Sunday Snapshot: Adoption Rocks

2011-04-10T08:45:00.000-05:00

These photos are actually from February, but they're so cute that I must use them for a Sunday Snapshot.

We are trying desperately to re-do the Adoption Bug website, so we had a photoshoot to get some new product photos. We weren't really planning on taking any pictures of Liana that day, but since this was the first time since she'd been home that John pulled out the fancy camera, I dressed her in a super-cute Adoption Rocks onesie. Ya know, just in case.

And sure enough ... as soon as she had chance, she jumped in front of the camera for Daddy to snap some pictures of her too.

She smiled big for the camera.

And even with her wild hair, she looked pretty cute. No, really cute.

Then when we were done, we went over to the playground, and she went straight to her favorite thing. The slide. And no wimpy, baby slide. She wanted the BIG slide.

And she flew down the big slide all by herself. Over and over again.

But then I decided that if we were taking pictures, I needed to fix her hair.

So I whipped out a ponytail holder and my handy-dandy pink ribbon.

And she was ready to pose for a few more pictures.

And even though the rest of the photos from our photo shoot turned out terrible...

... the day was not wasted.

We got a few picutures we could use on the homepage. And oh. my. goodness!

That smile almost makes my heart stop. Yes. Adoption most certainly rocks!

Visit to Scottish Rite

2011-04-02T13:50:00.001-05:00

Our appointment at Scottish Rite went very well. First off, that hospital is amazing! All the doctors, nurses and volunteers are so fantastic. Every place we went, they were giving Liana more toys – to keep! That place is worth every single dime … oh yeah, they’re totally FREE!! Even better!

First off, here’s a re-cap of her condition. Basically, when she was in utero, there were these amniotic bands wrapped around some of her limbs. This caused some of her to be born without some of her fingers and with a “deformed” left foot and ankle. The file that we initially reviewed before committing to adopt her said that her left tibia bone was shorter, thinner and bent. We also had some photos of her foot that showed severe banding around her ankle. Based on this, the doctors that reviewed her file said that it was very difficult to give a diagnosis without seeing the X-Rays, but there was a possibility that if the tibia was damaged badly enough and the joints and tendons were not intact enough that we may have to amputate her foot, or she could require multiple reconstructive surgeries. And if the difference in length between her two legs was significant, she may need to undergo limb lengthening surgeries. Basically, we were very unsure what the condition of her leg and ankle would be and were prepared for some very difficult treatments. But after we got to China and saw that Liana was already walking, we felt confident that worst case scenario (amputation) was probably not going to be necessary, and we were pretty hopeful that multiple reconstructive surgeries wouldn’t be necessary. However, we could see the difference in length in her legs, so we were still worried that she would need to go through limb lengthening treatments, which are NOT pleasant, and we were dreading that possibility.

So Thurs. we finally had her appointment at Scottish Rite and got to see X-Rays of her leg and find out some real answers. Her left tibia (the main support bone in your lower leg) is shorter and bent, like her file said, but not enough to require any surgeries at this time. The curve in the bone is not a real problem. It is still plenty strong. And the difference in length is difficult to measure at this point. If as an adult the difference is less than 1 inch, no treatment is needed. The body compensates just fine. If it’s more than that, it can cause problems and should be treated. At this time, it’s less than an inch, so we just have to monitor as she grows whether or not that bone continues to grow at the same pace as her other leg or if it grows slower. Then down the road, if it looks like the difference in length is becoming more pronounced, we may need to look at limb lengthening. But that’s just a maybe and it’s further down the road, so that’s a relief for now.

So what we did find on her X-Rays is that her fibula bone (the smaller support bone in your lower leg) did not fully develop. Where the tight banding is around her ankle, the bone stops and does not connect to any ankle bones. This isn’t a problem now, but as she grows it would be good to have the bone corrected to give the support that it normally provides. This involves a fairly tricky bone graft. The surgeon said that we basically get one shot at fixing it, so timing is crucial to ensure the best possibility of a successful outcome. And right now the banding on her ankle is so tight (to the bone) that there’s not enough muscle in that area, and circulation is limited. So now is not the right time to fix her fibula bone, and surgically releasing the banding on her ankle is top priority. This is considered a fairly simple procedure. They will release the bands and flatten out the tissue that’s currently bunched up above the banding. While she’ll have a nasty scar on her ankle, it will look much better than the misshaped ankle she has now. To make it easier to understand, I’ve considered posting a photo of her ankle, but I really want to wait and show a before and after picture at the same time. So if you’re having hard time picturing what her ankle currently looks like, you’ll just have to wait. Her appointment for this surgery to release the banding is set for the end of May (the Friday before Memorial Day).

The doctors also looked at her hands, and while there is little they can do in terms of her missing fingers, she also has a little bit of banding on a couple of fingers on her left hand. While it's really not causing a problem now, it could affect circulation later, and since she’ll already be under anesthesia for her ankle surgery, they’re going to also get rid of the minor banding on her fingers at the same time.

This means that both her left leg AND left hand and arm will be in casts for 3-4 weeks after surgery. Then she’ll still have another 3-4 weeks of healing after that. During that whole time, her casts and incisions cannot get wet at all. While this isn’t our ideal way to start off a Texas summer, the diagnosis and treatment plan could have been so much worse! This is a huge praise!!! We feel very good about everything we learned during our appointments at Scottish Rite. We know she'll be great through everything, and her recovery will go very smoothly.

Sunday Snapshot: iphone pics

2011-03-27T16:46:00.003-05:00

Here are 20 iphone pics of our life since coming home from China with our little Nunu four and a half months ago. Until I looked at all these photos together, I hadn’t realized how much she has grown and changed since returning home Nov. 12, 2011. What an amazing adventure it has been!

Now that I’m hoping to end my blogging hiatus, but my time is still very limited, I’m going to try to participate in Sunday Snapshot on my very favorite blog, Ni Hao Y’all. I may not have time to write long posts, but at least I can share a few pics each week … I hope.

Nov. 16, 2010

Nov. 18, 2010

Nov. 27, 2010

Dec. 01, 2010

Dec. 09, 2010

Dec. 23, 2010

Dec. 25, 2010

Dec. 26, 2010

Jan. 1, 2011

Jan. 04, 2011

Jan. 13, 2011

Jan. 14, 2011

Jan. 28, 2011

Feb. 05, 2011

Feb. 11, 2011

March 06, 2011

March 12, 2011

March 19, 2011

March 26, 2011

Has It Really Been Four and a Half Months?

2011-03-27T15:28:00.002-05:00

I’m sorry that I haven’t updated my blog since coming home from China four and a half months ago. I know ~~many~~ a few people wanted to continue following our journey, and I really did have great intentions of keeping this blog current with updates as we all adjusted to our new lives. However, that just didn’t happen. So where do I start?

First off, our precious daughter, Liana (whom we more often call by her nickname “Nunu”), is doing FANTASTIC!!! She has adjusted to all the changes in her life remarkably well, and she blossoms more each day. She fits into our family perfectly and has blessed our lives beyond measure!

We feel that the attachment process has gone very well. The first few days in China she attached very quickly to John and definitely preferred Daddy over Mommy. But after John left, she seemed to be attaching well to me also, and I thought all was good. However, after coming home, she quickly switched back to ONLY wanting Daddy. I’ll be honest; it wasn’t easy for me. I knew that this is normal, and our situation was nowhere near as extreme as other stories I’d heard, but still, it was not easy. I had a few meltdowns, sobbing on the bathroom floor, sure that she would never really love me. I know … totally over-dramatic, but that’s how it felt at the time. But I made sure that I did every attachment-building activity I could do with her. I gave her all her bottle feedings, rocked her to sleep at night and for all her naps (which was no easy task), slept with her, bathed with her and played with her as much as I could. Within a couple weeks, things were much better, and by a month or two home, she seemed just as crazy about Mommy as she was about Daddy. She continues to grow closer to both of us, and we certainly fall more in love with her each day.

She’s also doing fantastic physically and developmentally. We have been amazed at how well she walks and RUNS despite having a misshaped ankle, only a pinkie toe and a shorter tibia bone on her left leg and foot. And even though she’s missing five of her fingers, she can really do anything with her hands that any child her age can do. We honestly forget that her hands are any different since it’s such a non-issue for her. We have our first appointment with Scottish Rite this week, and we’ll find out then what we need to do for her leg. I will TRY to make a blog post after the appointment to let you know. She’s not extremely verbal yet, but her vocabulary is getting larger each day. And she understands (although not allows obeys) everything we tell her. We think she’s incredibly bright and think she’s doing fantastic in all aspects of her development.

The only thing that has really been a challenge has simply been adjusting to life with a very active toddler and figuring out how to balance all of our responsibilities. Unfortunately, since we’re self-employed, we couldn’t either one take a real maternity or family leave. Just taking the time for travel to China was a challenge, and as soon as we got home we had a lot of work to get caught up on, while at the same time we needed to spend time attaching with Liana and making sure she felt completely safe. We followed our social worker’s advice and did not let anyone help us meet her basic needs for the first couple months (putting her to sleep, feeding her, bathing her, changing her diaper, etc). But between the two of us, we juggled life and work and made it through. Each day we tackled the most important things – meeting Liana’s needs, working (so we can continue to meet have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies), spending some fun quality time together (although we haven’t had as much of this as we’d like), and then comes everything else. That is why I haven’t blogged since coming home. In fact, there are many things that have simply gone undone since coming home from China – writing thank you cards, cleaning house (other than the absolute necessities), unpacking our suitcases from China, and I’m sure the list goes on. But we did the things that really mattered. And after being home for two months, we started accepting help from our wonderful family. Both of our moms have been huge helps to us with childcare the past couple months, and my brother and sister-in-law have also been amazing. Liana is blessed to have so many people in her life that love her immensely! And now, while we’re still struggling to get everything done, I don’t feel like we’re completely drowning. Each day feels just a little easier than the day before, and every day we spend with our Little Nunu, she becomes even more of a joy. We cannot imagine our lives without her.

A separate post with photos is coming very soon.

Home Sweet Home

2010-11-15T15:04:00.002-06:00

Sorry I haven’t posted sooner. The trip home was pretty miserable. I believe it was close to 30 hours in airports and on airplanes before we got home. But Liana did great! She slept quite a bit on all the flights (praise the Lord!), and was in a great mood when we landed (much better than Mama & Grammy who got NO sleep). Even though we didn’t get home until after 10:00 PM, we were welcomed by a large group of friends and family. It was truly fantastic and meant so much to us!

Liana was happy to see her Baba again, and she was in a very social mood, ready to give high fives and kisses to nearly everyone. We were all pretty amazed! I expected her to be a little overwhelmed and become clingy, but she just soaked up the attention and turned on the charm. It will be so neat for her to look back at the photos and video in a few years and see how many people were excited to see her come home. Thank you again to everyone who came. It really meant the world to us!

I posted photos from the happy reunion on facebook but haven’t been able to narrow down my selects for the blog. Plus I’m waiting to get more photos from other family, so when I get those, I’ll pick a few to post here.

We’re doing well since coming home, except for the jetlag, especially for Liana. Poor thing has her days and nights all confused, and we’re having a difficult time getting her on a normal sleep schedule. She has also started to get extra clingy to Baba again since coming home, which becomes difficult on all of us. Hayden was at the airport when we came home, and he stayed with us over the weekend, and he was amazing with her. He has even sent some texts to check how she’s doing and say he misses his little sister. You have no idea how happy that makes us!

Thank you so much to all those who have been praying for us and sending us encouraging messages and those who have supported us on this long journey. We truly appreciate all the love and support. We feel that all the prayers were answered in a really big way. We feel blessed beyond measure!!

BTW, I think our red couch photos were a total bust. After walking to the White Swan and changing everyone’s clothes to our new traditional Chinese attire, we realized I left the memory card from my camera in the laptop, and we had no desire to go back and get it. So we just used the still photo setting on my mom’s video camera (which turn out kinda blue). Then Liana was not in a good mood for photos. She refused to wear her pretty flower in her hair, and she did not want to sit still and look at the camera. I haven’t even looked at the photos yet, but I doubt we got any decent ones. Oh well. We tried. If there are any good ones, I will be sure to post them.

More of the Same (and flight info.)

2010-11-10T23:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was pretty much more of the same on Shamian Island. As another mom said to me this morning, if feels like Groundhog day when you’re here. You just wake up and do the same stuff over again each day. We did not take our red couch photos yesterday. So we’re heading over to the White Swan this afternoon to finally do that. I’ll try to post a few before we leave, but I don’t know if I’ll get a chance. It may have to wait until we get home. When we get back from photos and a few final errands this afternoon, we need to start packing. We wake up early in the morning and begin our VERY long trip home. We leave GZ at 9:00 AM, have a 2.5 hour flight to Shanghai, 6 hour layover in Shanghai, then a 13.5 hour flight to Chicago, 2.5 hour layover, then a 2 or 2.5 hour flight to Chicago. Please pray for us!!! I have no idea how we’re going to keep Liana entertained, well-fed and diaper changed for 24 hours of airports and airplanes. We’re happy to be coming home but really dreading the trip!

For those coming to the airport to meet Liana, first of all, please don’t feel obligated to come. We know the flight comes in pretty late, so we completely understand if you can’t come. But if you can make it, we would absolutely love to see lots of smiling familiar faces when we arrive. We didn't really "invite" anyone personally, so if you're a friend and you're reading this, you're invited. Our flight info. is below. I think everyone will need to wait in the baggage claim area, but I’m not 100% sure. We will go through customs and immigration in Chicago (where Liana will become a U.S. Citizen, yay!), so we won’t need to do that in Dallas. But we will probably be the last ones off the plane since we’ll need the help of flight attendants.

AA Flight# 2353 from Chicago
Arrives 10:05 PM
Terminal A
Probably baggage claim A16 or A17

We can’t wait to see you in Texas!

Here are a few pics from yesterday ...

A Leisurely Day on the Island

2010-11-09T22:57:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was just a leisurely day on Shamian Island. After Liana’s nap, we walked around the island, took pictures, enjoyed a frapuccino (sp?) at Starbucks and shopped. Then we came back to the hotel for just a little bit before going to dinner. We tried another thai restaurant that was quite good. We’ve enjoyed a nice morning with some playtime in the playroom, which was a welcomed break from playing in our small hotel room, and now she’s down for her nap. This afternoon, we’re just going to walk around the island some more and probably do some more shopping. There are still a few more people we want to buy gifts for (I’m trying to get most of my Christmas shopping done while I’m here). We also plan to take some red couch photos with Liana dressed in her pretty new Chinese dress. So without any further delay, here are some pics from yesterday.

P.S. Yesterday we discovered that our relatively fearless daughter is afraid of plants. Every time we stood or sat too close to plants, she freaked out and buried her head in my chest (note she is not very happy about the photo where we're sitting in front of all the pretty flowers). She was also not overly enthusiastic about the saxaphone-playing Santa Claus.

Yes, She's Very Special

2010-11-08T22:26:00.000-06:00

I don’t have any new pics to post today except this one super-cute one John sent me. It was on the video camera from the day we went to the zoo in Shanghai, and I didn’t have the right cords to download it from the camera.

Yesterday wasn’t a very exciting day. We stayed in our room all morning while our guide, Connie, went to our consulate appointment. We had to stay near the phone, just in case there were any problems, but everything went smoothly. Then we met Connie at 1:30 and walked over to the White Swan and met the other family from our agency, along with a bunch of other families from different agencies and got on a bus to go to the U.S. Consulate in downtown Guangzhou. After the bus ride, we had to wait in the waiting room at the consulate for a couple hours while they finished handling all the cases for Chinese nationals. We then took an oath stating that all the information we provided the U.S. government was true, and signed a form to finalize Liana’s immigration. Now we just wait until Wed. afternoon to receive Liana’s U.S. immigration visa, and we can go home. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a flight on Thurs. (at least not one we could use frequent flyer miles for), so we’re not leaving until early Friday morning. We’re done with all official business, so we just have free time for the next couple of days. We’ll probably try to get some nice outdoor pictures this afternoon, and maybe do our red couch photos (a China adoption tradition) tomorrow or Thursday. We may also try going to the zoo and/or safari park tomorrow or Thursday. We’ll just see what we feel like doing. I am definitely ready to come home. I love China, and we’ve had a great trip, but I miss John, and I’m ready to get into a routine at home.

I haven’t talked much about Liana’s “special need,” but I know some people want to know how she’s doing in regard to her needs. I’ll just say that Liana may think she’s special, but she has no idea that she has special needs. I think if someone told her she’s disabled, she would think they’re crazy. Her special need is amniotic banding syndrome, which just means that thin bands formed in the amniotic fluid during pregnancy, and some of her limbs got tangled in these bands and couldn’t form properly. In her case, she’s missing 5 of her fingers. One of them is completely missing, and the others are stubs of different lengths. But she does have her thumbs and index fingers on both hands. So far, I haven’t seen anything that she can’t do with her hands. She’s very strong and has great coordination in her fingers, so she can pick up anything she wants and grip tightly. I knew she’d do well, but I’m still impressed at how well she’s doing. I feel certain that she will do anything she wants with her hands. If she decides she wanted to be a concert pianist, I think she would figure out how to do it. She’s physically strong, but she’s also strong-willed and determined.

She also has some banding around her left foot and ankle. To be honest, this is the need we were much more concerned about. According to her referral, her left tibia is shorter, thinner and bent. The specialists we talked to when reviewing her file said there wasn’t enough information to make a proper assessment of what she would need. They told us that she would probably need reconstructive surgeries, possibly quite a few. And if her nerves and ankle joint was severely damaged, she may even need to have her foot amputated and get a prosthetic foot. This was the worst case scenario we needed to feel comfortable with to accept her referral. We knew that she could go to Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, which is one of the best pediatric orthopedic hospitals in the U.S.—and it’s completely free. So we took leap of faith and decided that we could handle whatever was needed to correct her leg well enough so she could eventually walk and run.

But we did not expect that she would be able to walk until she had some type of reconstructive surgery or treatment. Well folks, she can walk! She’s still a bit wobbly, and only walks when she decides she wants to walk (which is usually when we are by ourselves), but she can definitely walk. We don’t want to be naïve and assume this means she will not need any reconstructive surgeries in the future. From looking at her foot, we do feel she’ll need some surgeries. When the doctor examining her for her medical exam looked at her foot, she was very surprised that she could walk. Her ankle and foot are very misshaped, so it’s quite remarkable that she can walk on it. But the fact that she’s walking is quite encouraging, and we feel quite certain that amputation will not be necessary. Praise the Lord! This is a huge answer to prayer.

Okay, I expect her to wake up from her nap soon, so I better wrap this up. Hopefully, tomorrow I’ll have some more pictures.

Maximum Cuteness

2010-11-07T21:57:00.000-06:00

There’s really not much new to report from Guangzhou. We’ve still doing remarkably well. Liana is sleeping well, eating well (other than things that are too hot or too cold, she eats EVERYTHING, and will keep eating as long as we keep feeding her), she’s very happy and silly, she loves to cuddle, and she’s attaching to mama very well. I know many people were praying that God would prepare her heart for the transition, and all our prayers were answered. Things are going so much better than I could have imagined. Especially as we’re seeing and talking to other adoptive families here on Shamian Island, we realize how fortunate we are. Liana is adjusting and attaching so much better than most.

We haven’t really done much since we’ve been here except walk around the island and do some shopping. Honestly, there’s not much else to do that we know of (BTDT families, feel free to let me know if there’s something we should do or see while we’re here). It’s really very lovely and peaceful here, especially compared to the craziness of Shanghai. On Shamian Island, it’s very touristy, and it especially caters to adoptive families, so most people speak English, which makes thinks a little easier. It’s also much warmer here than in Shanghai. I’m so glad we’re not here in the summer. I really thought people exaggerated the heat and humidity here, and assumed that being from Texas it wouldn’t be bad at all, but it is incredibly humid and sticky. It would be pretty miserable in July or August.

We did spend some time playing in the room yesterday trying to capture some of Liana’s silly faces on camera, and got quite a few cute pics. Enjoy the adorable faces of Liana.

Just heard from our guide that our consulate appointment went smoothly this morning, so I guess the U.S. government will let us bring her home. Yay! This afternoon we go for our oath ceremony.

Our Amazing Little Girl

2010-11-06T01:32:00.000-05:00

All I can say about this little girl is that she is absolutely amazing! I’m completely shocked how incredible she is doing. Yesterday was a VERY long day. We had to check out of the hotel by 1:00 PM, and our flight wasn’t until 8:45 PM, so after getting packed up in the morning and checking out, we took a taxi to the Shanghai Barbie Store—the world’s largest (maybe only) Barbie mecca. This place was really something. This 6-story store not only had a bazillion Barbies and Barbie “stuff” that you would find in toy stores in the U.S., it had a couture clothing line for girls and women, a spa, hair salon, cosmetics department and café. Of course, Liana’s way too young to be at all impressed, but it was still cool. Grammy bought her the 2009 & 2010 special Shanghai Barbies, and she got her own Barbie “passport.” Like most places in China, they had the heater cranked up so high we were melting (while all the Chinese had on coats and jackets). Liana was so hot, we had to take her jacket off and risk being scolded by Chinese women for not properly covering her. It was fun but tiring.

We then went back by our hotel, stopped for a long break for frozen yogurt—one of the first foods Liana doesn’t like so much (too cold)—then went on to the airport. It was pretty miserable trying to get checked in with all of our luggage and carrying the baby (and all the Barbies my mother bought). Then our flight was about an hour late leaving. It was already a much later flight than we wanted, but with the delay we ended up not getting to our hotel in Guangzhou until after 1:30 AM. But Liana was absolutely wonderful through all of it. She slept the entire flight and didn’t even fuss one time during the long, exhausting day. It was amazing!

We then had to get up at 6:30 this morning to get ready and eat breakfast before meeting our guide at 8:45 to go to Liana’s medical exam. In addition to a general exam, she had to get 5 immunizations all at one time. Yuck! Of course, she cried and became very clingy to mama, but again she did great.

We came back to the hotel, skyped with John, and Liana went down for a nap. Mom and I planned to nap also, but neither one of us could go to sleep. So I’m catching up on the blog and watching this beautiful angel sleep. I cannot believe how blessed we are. She is sweet and cuddly, she is incredibly smart, she is an absolute ham (the photos don’t capture her funny faces and personality), and she is just so precious. God could not have made her any more perfect for our family!

We don’t have anything planned for the rest of day except relaxing and making sure Liana doesn’t have any reactions to her shots. Tomorrow’s also a free day, other than meeting our guide to just go over all of our paperwork for our consulate appointment on Monday. So we’ll probably do some sightseeing on the island. So far, it seems to be a much slower pace than Shanghai, which is nice. It’s also nice to be around so many other adoptive families. We were getting tired of feeling like a freak show in Shanghai and having everyone stare at us and ask us questions about the baby (usually in Chinese). It was getting old. But people here still like to touch her, especially on the face, which is also annoying. But it’s just their way of expressing that they think she’s cute, so we just try to be nice. But I think it bothers Liana also. She just looks at me like “Mama, get this crazy woman away from me!” so I smile and wave and try to walk away. I’m not complaining though. It’s just a cultural difference. The Chinese don’t have the same feelings we do about personal space.

Okay, I’m starting to ramble now, so it’s time to go. If I haven’t lost you by now, here’s what you really want anyways—photos from the last couple of days.

General cuteness (sleeping at the hotel)

Thurs. trip to her finding spot (the entrance to a very nice park by a hospital)

Friday Barbie Store

We're Doing Well

2010-11-04T19:29:00.001-05:00

I haven't had time to download any new pictures from the cameras and upload them (it takes a while with slow internet), but I wanted to give a quick update. Yesterday we got the guys packed up in the morning and shortly after nap time it was time for the guys to head to the airport. Liana was very unhappy for Baba to leave, but we left immediately on a walk then got in a taxi to go to her finding spot. She stopped crying pretty quickly and did fantastic the rest of the day. There were a few tears when we came back to the apartment, but she was great at dinner (she's always happy when she's eating!). We then played in the bath for a long time, and I massaged her with lots of bedtime bath lotion, gave her a bottle, and she went right to sleep. It was truly a miracle. I expected her to cry all night long. She's doing good this morning. Right now, she's playing happily in her crib while we pack. This is the first time since we got her on Monday that she's been content to play by herself without being held or someone sitting with her. I think we're turning a big corner. Praise the Lord!

Now we're packing up our things. We have to check out at 1:00. Then we're going to the world's largest Barbie store to get some special special Shanghai Barbies. We may do some other sightseeing before going to the airport this afternoon/evening to fly to Guangzhou. We have a very late flight and won't get to the hotel until almost midnight, and tomorrow Liana has her medical exam. So I'm really hoping she'll sleep well on the plane, or we could have a rough day tomorrow. So keep praying! I'll post another update as soon as I can, and hopefully next time I'll have some more pics to share.

BaBa's Girl

2010-11-03T06:42:00.000-05:00

I don’t have much time to blog, but I’ll try to give a quick update on the past couple days. We got Liana Monday morning, and Gotcha Day went remarkably smooth. She even went to sleep and slept pretty well the first night. Tuesday morning we had to go to a couple government offices and sign papers to finalize the adoption. We promised to never abandon her or abuse her and received our adoption certificate making Liana legally our daughter. Yay!

Then we came back to the hotel to eat and give Liana her nap. She began crying quite a bit, and we were never able to get her down for a nap. So we eventually got up, played, ate and started all over again trying to get her to sleep for the night. That didn’t go well either. When it’s time to go to sleep, that’s when the sadness and fear hits her. It was a very long night with lots of tears, but eventually she went to sleep.

This morning we went to the Shanghai Zoo, and that went well. Liana liked all the animals, especially the Pandas. Everyone stared at us, and several ladies came up to us and pulled down her leggings to cover the couple inches of skin showing on her legs. In China, it’s much more important that children are warm than safe!

By early afternoon, we were all getting tired so it was time to come back for Liana to take a nap. She went down a little bit easier today, and I think she’s still sleeping with John in the other room.

She is definitely BaBa (Daddy)’s girl. I knew that it’s common during the early stages of attachment for a child to choose one parent as their favorite, and it’s often the man—probably because they feel like the woman is replacing a nanny they were close to or because the dad makes them feel safer. Whatever the reason, it’s not uncommon and I tried to prepare myself for this. And really it’s not nearly as bad as many stories I’ve read. She will let me give her a bottle and feed her; she will give me kisses and smiles; she will play games with me; she will let me bathe her; and sometimes she will even let me hold her. She even let me carry her in the baby carrier for a good part of the time at the zoo. However, John is always her first choice, and when she is grieving or frightened, she will only let John comfort her. This is obviously difficult for me. I’m especially concerned since John and my dad leave tomorrow (Thurs.) evening to go home, and Friday my mom and I head to Guangzhou for the second half of our trip. I know that she is not going to be a happy camper when John leaves. I haven’t been sleeping well anyways (as you can probably tell by the bags under my eyes in all the photos), but I know tomorrow night will be especially difficult. Please pray for me. And more importantly, pray for Liana. This transition is stressful and frightening for her, and John leaving may be even more upsetting for her. Just pray for her to adjust well to the changing situation and that she can attach quickly to MaMa.

Here are a few pics from yesterday and today.

Gotcha Day!!

2010-11-01T09:14:00.001-05:00

I'm tired and ready to go to bed, but I know you want to see some photos. All I will say is that the day went remarkably well, much better than we could have even imagined. Very few tears and lots of smiles and kisses. She is absolutely perfect! Enjoy the pictures. I'll try to post more soon.

Ni Hao from Shanghai

2010-10-30T21:08:00.025-05:00

Here’s a overview of the last few days. If you don't want to read, just scroll to the bottom for pics from yesterday …

John, Mom, Dad and I left home at 2:30 AM Thursday morning (with only 2.5 hours of sleep) to head to DFW for our 5:45 AM flight to Chicago. Had a couple hour layover in Chicago before boarding our 14 hour flight to Shanghai. We lucked out with some awesome seats. The plane wasn’t very full, and we were able to move to the first row in coach with no one in front of us and lots of leg room, power outlets and an extra seat in the middle. But even so, we still didn’t get much sleep on the flight, especially for John and Dad. We arrived about 1:30 PM in Shanghai (12:30 AM Dallas time). Our guide met us at the airport with a driver, and we headed to hotel with a detour to the bank. We were dead tired but knew we needed to stay up a while longer to get our bodies on China time, so we got settled in, cleaned up and went to dinner. Somehow we made it to dinner (following a couple we met from Finland) walking many blocks, nearly getting run over by motorbikes that drive on the sidewalks and crossing several very large streets. The driving here is CRAZY, and they do not yield to pedestrians. They make the NYC taxi drivers seem calm and passive. After dinner, we came home and crashed.

We all woke up at 4:00 AM, walked to McDonalds for breakfast then headed out for a day of sightseeing. We’re not traveling with a group and only have our guide for adoption stuff, so we were on our own, but we did great. We took the subway to main tourist areas and walked down Nanjing street towards People’s Square. The word of the day was definitely “Bu yao” (don’t want)! We probably said it to at least 100 different vendors trying to sell us “genuine” high quality watches, bags and sunglasses. But somehow one very persistent lady that wouldn’t take “Bu yao” for an answer was able to convince us to follow her for good deals. She then leads us down a back alley to secret store. She took us in to show us a big room full of knock-offs designer products and locked the door behind us. John actually needed some sunglasses, so he bargained with them for a $9 pair of Oakleys. We also needed another backpack, so we got one of those too. The lady would just say over and over “No worries. This is China!” Okay, as long as we’re in China, why not! It was a fun little adventure in our day.

We had a relaxing break for Starbucks at the park then headed to an electronics mega-store for some bargains on gadgets. Then we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap, got up and went to an early dinner. We found a wonderful Chinese restaurant close to our hotel. It was delicious and very reasonably priced. I think we’ll be going pack quite a bit. Then we got in a cab and headed to Shanghai Circus World for an acrobatics show. It was absolutely AMAZING!!! Then we went back to the hotel and went straight to bed.

We were up again at 4:00 AM this morning. We’ve had a relaxing morning in the hotel. By the way, the hotel is okay. It’s definitely not super posh and luxurious, but it’s very spacious, which is very uncommon in China. It’s really a 3 bedroom service apartment with a full kitchen. So even though it’s not fancy, it’s nice. We’ve even enjoyed the beds that are hard as a rock. However, it’s not as geared to Western tourists. The staff doesn’t speak great English, and there’s no indoor pool or breakfast buffet. But we got a great deal, there’s lots of space, many conveniences close-by and a metro station around the corner, so overall we’re pleased with our choice.

I need to get ready so we can do some more sightseeing today. I’m not sure what we’re going to do. We’re probably going to take things a little slower today and get rested up a bit for the big day tomorrow. They just brought up the crib as I was typing! We need to get all Liana’s stuff unpacked and setup for her. Tomorrow morning our guide will be here with a driver at 9:00 AM, and we’re supposed to be to the adoption office at 9:30. We’ll have to do some paperwork, then they’ll bring Liana in to us. We’ll spend some time talking to her caretakers and taking care of official stuff. Then we head back to the hotel with our baby in our arms. 24 hours from now we’ll have our girl!!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers today. Pray especially for Liana. Tomorrow will probably be very difficult for her. She won’t understand what’s happening as her world is turned upside down. It will be scary and frightening for her to be taken away from the only place and people she’s ever known, so she needs lots of prayers. Pray for us also. Pray for our physical and emotional strength. Pray that we’ll know how to make her feel safe and loved and that we’ll be able to help her as she grieves and not be frustrated if things are difficult. Pray for an endless supply of patience and gentleness on our part.

Our internet is very slow, but I will try to post photos of Liana Day as soon as I can. Hopefully, I can at least get a few pics up tomorrow night (Mon AM in the U.S.). Check back then!

Below are pictures from yesterday.

Itinerary

2010-10-27T12:03:00.001-05:00

DATE	DAY	EVENT
10/28	Thu	Departure, 5:45 AM
10/29	Fri	Arrive in Shanghai, 2:05 PM
10/30	Sat	Free on your own
10/31	Sun	Free on your own
11/1	Mon	LIANA DAY!!!!!
11/2	Tue	Notary, official adoption day
11/3	Wed	Free on our own
11/4	Thu	Free on our own John & Dave leave Shanghai for U.S.
11/5	Fri	Free on our own Liana receives passport around 4:00 PM Tammi & Becky fly to Guangzhou
11/6	Sat	Liana’s medical exam for U.S. Visa
11/7	Sun	Get results from medical exam / free on our own
11/8	Mon	Consulate Appointment Visa Interview.
11/9	Tue	Oath / free on our
11/10	Wed	Get Liana’s visa in the afternoon
11/11	Thu	Free on your own
11/12	Fri	Fly from Guangzhou to Shanghai, Chicago, and finally Dallas Arrive home at 10:05 PM (AA flight 2353 from Chicago) Welcome home party at DFW

We know it's kinda late when we arrive, but for those that want to welcome Liana home, feel free to join the celebration at the airport! We'd love to see you there, but completely understand if you can't come!!

Travel Approval!!!!

2010-09-30T07:26:00.000-05:00

I thought there was little chance of receiving our Travel Approval (TA) this week before CCAA shuts down for a week for Chinese National Day. But miraculously, Monday we received an email from our agency that it had come. YES!!!! Praise the Lord!!

The wait is almost over. Although we would like to hop on the next flight to China, we checked on flights to figure out which dates we could travel with 4 people on frequent flyer miles and determined that leaving Oct. 28 and returning Nov. 12 was our best bet. So we requested our consulate appointment date accordingly, and Tues. morning we received confirmation that we were able to get the consulate date we wanted, so we are ready to book our flights!!! 28 days from now we'll be flying to China to bring our daughter home. I can hardly believe it!!

UPDATE!!

2010-08-30T20:36:00.000-05:00

On Friday we asked our agency to request another update, and we sent a short list of questions. This morning, we get this wonderful update on our daughter ...

Hi Tammi -

Good news! We got an update on Zheng Da Ying :)

HI : 75cm (25.5 in)
Wt: 11kg (24.25 lb)
Head: 45cm (17.7 in)
Chest: 48 cm (18.9 in)
foot: 10.5cm (4.1 in)

She can climb and walk with her hand held - the orphanage staff thinks she will walk independently soon.

She loves to play when someone is holding her, and likes toys such as bells and balls.

She loves to eat chocolate candy and also seaweed.

Okay, so besides getting to see a beautiful new photo, we found out that she has gained nearly 9 pounds and grown 2 inches since our last update 3 months ago. WOW!! That's great news.

We found out that she's climbing and almost walking. That's a HUGE praise!! We don't know how her leg is developing, and we were very uncertain if she would be able to walk before having any surgeries. We don't want to be overly optimistic and think her leg is totally fine, but
this is still very good news! Praise the Lord!

We know she likes to be held, and her favorite toys are balls and bells. I think we can handle that!!

And finally, her favorite foods are chocolate and seaweed. Chocolate ... well duh! Who doesn't like chocolate! But seaweed? Say what?? Where exactly do I buy seaweed? Hmmmm.... Maybe she'll find a new favorite food when she comes to Texas.

What a happy day!! So now I know everyone is asking "When do you bring her home?" That's the million dollar question I wish I knew the answer to. We did get fingerprinted on Aug. 19., our I800 was approved the next day. So now we're waiting on our Article 5 (more stuff from immigration) that we should have in about 2 weeks, then TRAVEL APPROVAL should follow about 2-3 weeks later. So we're hoping for TA by the end of Sept.

However, travel in Oct. and Nov. may be tricky because of Chinese holidays, trade fairs and the Asia Games. So I'm thinking we'll travel in late Oct., but who knows? It could be sooner, or it could be later. I'm starting to get very anxious, but I'm trying hard to be patient. We listened to a great sermon last Sunday on waiting that I really needed to hear. Thank you Pastor Craig!

Please keep praying for us, and especially for Liana. Please pray that God prepares all of us for the big changes ahead. We truly appreciate all the love and encouragement that our friends and family have showered on us. Thank you!

Good News & Bad News

2010-08-04T17:11:00.004-05:00

I'll start with the good news. I did some detective work and used my amazing Googling skills (yes, one can really have Googling skills), and found Liana's finding ad on the website for the Shanghai Legal Daily, and it had this beautiful photo.

Yes, that's our girl. Can you believe it? The listing was dated September 9, 2009. So the photo was taken some time after she was found on May 22 (5 days old) and Sept. 9 (3.5 mo). The photo was very tiny, and I've blown it up here, but I still think it's beautiful. And for anyone questioning whether or not her head was shaved in previous photos, I think we now have our answer. I can't believe all that hair! That's okay, it will grow back, and I'll have it pigtails before you know it.

So now onto the bad news ...

As some of you know, we've been anxiously waiting for our next approval (I800 provisional approval from US immigration) for several weeks now and expected to have way before now. Last Friday, we received letters from immigration, but not only were they not the approvals we were waiting on, they were fingerprinting appointments for Aug. 19. After talking to our case worker, we found out that because our fingerprints and I800A expire in Sept., we cannot get our I800 approval until we update our fingerprints and get a new I800A. We went to immigration on Tues. to beg and plead that they go ahead and do our fingerprinting, but we were unsuccessful. We must wait until the 19th. I know this is completely Greek to most of you reading, but the bottom line is, we have a delay. We can't file our next application (for Liana's immigrant visa), until we have this, and we won't have it for 3 more weeks. Ughh.

Now it looks like we'll be lucky to travel by the end of Sept. This is making us a bit anxious since Oct. is full of Chinese holidays and trade fairs that make travel more difficult, plus the Asia Games are happening in Guangzhou (where we spend the 2nd week of our trip) in November. We have no idea how much more difficult it could be to book travel and how much more expensive it could be in Oct. or Nov. But we're trying very hard to trust in God's timing and not be anxious about the details. It will all work out.

We really do have so much to be thankful for. We have an amazing little girl waiting for us. It just might take us a little longer to get to her than we'd like. Continue to pray for us and Liana! Hopefully, I'll have some more good news to share very soon.

The Nursery

2010-07-29T21:35:00.000-05:00

Tada. Here it is ...

I just love it!! We have a couple minor things to add (like a mirror I need to get from my brother) and one very important thing that will make this room perfect ... our beautiful girl!!

Baby Shower (#2)

2010-07-22T19:36:00.000-05:00

Last weekend was our second (and I think, final) baby shower. This one was a more traditional "girly" shower given by super-hostess, Helen, and good friends Holli and Katura. It was a fun get-together for me and my girlfriends, their daughters, and my moms. It was a very lovely affair.

The AMAZING cake by Katura. WOW!!!! Be sure to look at the bedding photos later, and you'll be even more impressed. (And yes, you can hire her to make you a cake for your next event).

Lots of yummy food.

Time for gifts ... baskets of goodies from my mother-in-law, Gail.

Tigger and lots of other great struff from Tammy, Hayden & Taylor.

Tons of cute clothes from Heather.

Toys and books from Mary & Abbe.

Handmade bedding from my mom. Trust me, it's even more gorgeous in the crib!

Me with the hostesses Katura, Holli and Helen

Katura cutting the cake while Holli supervises.

It was an absolute lovely time with great gifts, delicious food and fantastic fellowship. Thank you!!

Baby Shower (#1)

2010-07-13T21:43:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we had our first baby shower. It was more of a party than a shower. We even let the men and boys join us for the event. It was organized by my AMAZING sister-in-law, Sandy. She rallied the help of my mother, mother-in-law and good friend Tricia, along with lots of creative ideas and help from my fabulous nieces, Kaylee and Tara. So it was definitely a team effort, and all together, they pulled off the most spectacular shower ever.

The cake that Sandy made. Cuuuuuuuuuute! Oh, and props to my brother, Robert, for making the ladybug. Great job, bro.

Tara helped make some very yummy punch, but she didn't want her picture taken. Why hide all that cuteness?

Fortune cookies with very special messages inside. This one said "Liana Da Ying Ambrose You are Loved," but there were 17 different ones. How fun is that?

Guest list table. All the decorations were made by my niece, Kaylee. She is so artistic! She even made the adorable pillow.

Then we played games. First passing a pacifier with chopsticks in our mouths, then carrying jelly beans with chopsticks. Lots of fun!

Time to open gifts.

The crochet baby blanket my mom made. Gorgeous!

Little diva clothes from Kelly. Super-cute!

The kids helped open the big box (car seat from Robert & Sandy).

Jessie had fun with the ribbons.

Me with the hostesses.

Not photographed is the beautiful crib set from my mother and father-in-law, but I'm waiting to take pictures of the nursery when I'm done decorating (or at least closer to being done). And there were MANY other wonderful gifts. It was a wonderful time with friends and family, and I was completely blown away by everyone's generosity. It was absolutely amazing! Thank you!!!

Lots of Pink!!!

2010-07-02T14:59:00.003-05:00

Since my last post, we have completed our homestudy update, which is a huge accomplishment! In order to do this, John and I both had to go to the doctor for new physicals, go back to the doctors to pick up our letters saying we're in good health; get caught up in Quickbooks to send financials to our accountant so he could write current income letters for us; go to the county courthouse to get letters stating that we have no criminal records; pull together a few other documents and meet with our social worker. We did all this and filled out all our paperwork for USCIS (immigration) and got everything in the mail last Saturday. It only took us about 2.5 weeks, which I think is pretty good.

Whew!! Glad to be done with that so now we can focus on more ~~important~~ exciting things ... the nursery. This is the nursery as of this morning.

I know ... BORING! I've always planned for this room to be a nursery, so I've never bothered to do much with it. But that's about to change.

In the midst of all the paperwork, I found some time to pick out some fabric for my awesome mom to make custom bedding for me. It's kinda wild, but I think it will turn out really cute.

Then I picked out a really cute crib set from Wal-Mart, and thanks to a very generous gift card from my wonderful mother-in-law, I was able to purchase it yesterday. Hopefully it will arrive by the end of this week.

I picked out a light pink paint for the walls (kinda like the background color behind the fabric swatches), and my sweet husband ~~grudgingly~~ happily agreed to stay home this holiday weekend, rather than going to the lake, so we could paint the nursery! So today, we went to Home Depot and bought the paint, and now it's time to get busy. Hopefully, I'll have some "after" photos to show you very soon.

Care Package

2010-06-19T08:11:00.001-05:00

Finally, Liana's care package is going in the mail TODAY!

A pillow John and I made for her (with some sewing help from my mom) with a photo of us and and handwitten notes printed on t-shirts. In Chinese it says "Mommy & Daddy love you very much"

A photo album with pictures of our family and a bear we made at

Build a Bear. It has a recorded message from me and John, so hopefully our voices will be a little familiar to her.

An outfit from mommy.

LOVE this shirt from Hayden!!! It's a McKinney North Bulldogs t-shirt for Liana wear to her big brother's football games this fall. So exciting! Hayden also got her a very cute matching hair bow, but we're going to hold on to that.

And the blanket is my old baby blanket. Mom's working on Liana's baby blanket.

A small doll from my mom, a disposable camera for her caretakers to take photos, fruit snacks for the other kids and nuts and trail mix for the nannies.

LOA and Lots to Do

2010-06-14T06:32:00.004-05:00

I realized that with my excitement of getting an update and new photos of Liana on Thurs. that I posted info. about that, but I still hadn't shared our other very exciting news this week. On Tues., we received our Letter of Approval (LOA). This is our official approval from China after they reviewed our full dossier and what we need in order to apply with U.S. Immigration to adopt Liana. So that's really good news!! It also came much faster than we expected. I wasn't expecting it for at least another month. So apparently all the praying that my sweet 93 year-old Nanny has been doing worked. Praise the Lord! However, this means that we could now be traveling in August. AUGUST!! That's like a month and a half away. Oh my goodness, I need to get busy.

I know we started the adoption process over a year and half ago, but I didn't let myself do any "nesting." I was too afraid that something would go wrong, and the adoption would never happen, and I'd have this lovely nursery with no baby to fill it. Well now I may have the most beautiful baby in the world, with no nursery! So I'm now in overdrive cramming 9 months worth of planning and preparing into less than two. And at the same time, we're getting our homestudy updated, taking care of large stacks of paperwork (applications with U.S. immigration, travel visas from me and John, Liana's immigrant visa to the U.S., etc.), figuring out where the rest of the finances are going to come from, and eventually taking care of travel arrangements. I'm freaking out to say the least, but in no way am I complaining. This is truly amazing, and I am so happy and excited.

I'm just waking up at 4:30 each morning, drinking lots of coffee and making lists. I've already checked some items off the to-do-lists. I registered at Target and Amazon.com this weekend. Of course, I really have no idea what I'm doing, so I'm probably registering for all the wrong things. So feel free to give me advise on things that I "must have."

We also plan to send Liana's care package this week. We just have one more very special item that we haven't been able to get yet, and we plan to do it Wed. evening after we meet our social worker. So check back at the end of this week for pictures of our care package. Fun! So with that being said, I need to go get busy! Lots to do this morning ...

New Pictures and an Update!

2010-06-10T12:03:00.000-05:00

Measurements:

69cm tall (27.17 inches)

7kg weight (15.43 pounds)

They said she can sit still.

She coos, says 'mama', 'Nainai' and will imitate other adult words.

She can grab things - such as chocolate, tightly (THAT'S MY GIRL!)

She can hold two items at the same time, sometimes she will drop one.

Introducing Our Daughter...

2010-05-22T05:53:00.002-05:00

Liana Da Ying Ambrose
Born 05/17/09
Shanghai, China

We first saw her beautiful face on Mother’s Day, and she melted our hearts. A few days later we inquired with our agency to find out more about her. After reviewing her file carefully and consulting with an international adoption physician and another specialist—and after MUCH prayer—we knew she was the child we were waiting for. So we submitted our letter of intent (LOI) to China last Saturday and began waiting (not-so-patiently) for our pre-approval. Our pre-approval came yesterday, so now we can share our good news with friends and family!
She is 12 months old. On Monday, two days after submitting our LOI, she had her first birthday. It was a day of mixed emotions. We were so happy but also so sad that she’s so far away, and we wondered if anyone in the orphanage remembered her birthday. We’re thankful that this will be the only birthday she has to spend without her family. We celebrated that evening by going shopping for items for her first care package, and John surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake for her.

Liana is the name we chose shortly after deciding to adopt. It’s from the Hebrew name Eliana, which means “God has answered,” and Da Ying is her Chinese name given to her by the orphanage. It means “promise.” We love that, and think Liana Da Ying Ambrose is a perfect name for her. God has certainly answered our prayers, just as He promised!

She’s living in an orphanage in Shanghai, and from all the research we have done, it’s one of the best orphanages in China, so we’re very thankful for that. Judging from the chubby cheeks and big smiles in her pictures, we feel that she’s being taken care of very well. We don’t know for sure, but we hope and pray that she is.

We are so excited to be her parents, and think she is perfect. While overall she is very healthy, she does have some medical needs that we prayerfully considered. She has some limb differences caused by amniotic banding syndrome. This just means that in the uterus, some of her limbs were entangled in string-like bands that formed in the amniotic fluids, causing those limbs to not develop properly. In her case, some of her fingers were affected and her left foot and ankle. I will post more information about the specifics of her condition later and explain some of the potential challenges, but you’ll have to come back for those details. That’s for another day.

Today we just want to share our joy and excitement with you. Since we’ve already submitted our dossier to China, things should go relatively quickly for us. We think it should take about 4-6 months, so we anticipate traveling to China some time this fall to bring her home.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us, encouraged us and prayed for us over the past year and half. We are so thankful for each one of you!

P.S. We think the photos of her were taken at about 8 months, but we’re not certain. We’re already anxious for an update with new pictures!

2009-12-24T16:38:00.000-06:00

Christmas Letter 2009

Another hectic Christmas season has quickly come and gone. It's already Christmas day, and since I now have a little time to myself, I'll take this chance to finish one last thing from my to-do list ... write a Christmas letter. So here's what we've been up to in 2009 ...

Obviously, the biggest event going on in our lives this year has been our adoption. I really wish there was some new news to share, but there's not. We're just waiting to be matched with our daughter. We're hoping that happens in 2010, but it may not. We are trying to be patient and trust in the Lord's timing. Some days that is unbearably difficult. So please continue to pray for us as we go through the emotional rollercoaster. But more importantly pray for our child. Pray that she will be well cared for and find favor in the eyes of a caregiver. It nearly breaks my heart when I think about what her Christmas was probably like this year (because yes, I do believe she has already been born), and I pray that this will be her last Christmas without us. But I know God has an amazing plan for our family, and He has already selected the perfect child for us. So even in the midst of sadness, we praise Him.

One of the things that I love about adoption is that—just like Christ’s death on the cross—adoption is a redemption story. The circumstances that lead to adoption are not perfect. Usually they are painful, difficult circumstance. But adoption transforms something painful into something amazingly beautiful. So while our child’s current circumstances may be far, far from perfect right now, and we experience our own grief and sadness as we wait for her, we know that God has a miracle in store for us, and the joy we have ahead of us is beyond measure. How amazing is that?

So other than the adoption, what have we been up to? Well, Hayden turned 14 this year and started high school. It's hard to believe how fast he has grown up. He was only 4 when we got married, and now he's as tall as John and still growing. He’s still playing football and doing very well in school. He is turning into a fantastic young man. Now that he’s a teenager, it’s no surprise that he doesn’t come over as much as we would like since he has a lot of friends and activities that keep him busy. But we enjoy the weekends he does spend with us, and we try to make time to play some Rock Band or a board game when he’s here.

Work is going well for us. John went back to work driving a school bus part-time, mainly for the insurance after he was diagnosed with diabetes in the spring. So between the school bus and our new business venture, Adoption Bug, John has been extremely busy lately. Our little “side business” has taken off faster than we ever could have imagined—which is great since some of other graphic design and marketing work has considerably slowed down in this economy. I used to do freelance work nearly full-time, and this year it went down to only 3 days a week. But there’s no way we could have accomplished what we have with Adoption Bug this year if I was still working full-time, so it has really turned out to be a blessing. So while our work situations have been full of changes and uncertainty this year, we certainly cannot complain.

John and I also celebrated our 10th anniversary in November. Again, it’s amazing how quickly time goes by, and it’s almost unbelievable that we’ve been married a full decade. I am so thankful for every day that we are able to spend together. I’m so blessed to be married to my best friend and confidant. I truly cannot imagine my life without him.

That’s about it. That’s what we’ve been up to this year and some of the things on my heart right now. We hope you had a very Merry Christmas, and we wish you a new year full of countless blessings!

Love,
John, Tammi, Hayden & Rocky

2009-09-08T19:26:00.000-05:00

Log-In Date

We found out a few days ago that our dossier was logged in at CCAA on Aug. 21, just 9 days after it was sent to China--probably the only thing that will go fast during this process. We still have no idea how long it will be from here. It could still be a very long time ... or not. We'll just have to wait and see.

In other news, we finally got our Adoption Bug website launched, so we're now selling and printing all my adoption-themed tees ourselves. Woo-hoo! We're getting the word out through Facebook and various online ads. We're hoping that my new little business will take off enough that I'll eventually be able to stay home full-time and spend most of my day being mommy. So please help spread the word and send the link to any adoption friends you have. We're also getting ready to launch a fundraiser program for adoptive families. To spread the word, you can become a fan of Adoption Bug on Facebook, post a link to http://www.adoptionbug.com/ on your Facebook page or Twitter, or go here and grab a button to put on your blog. Thank you so much to everyone getting the word about about Adoption Bug!

2009-08-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

Dossier to China

On Wed. we found out that after months of "paper chasing," our dossier is finally on it's way to China, making our DTC (dossier to China) date 8/12/09. Now we wait to find out our L.I.D. (log-in date), which is the date our file is actually entered into CCAA's system. Then we really wait to eventually get matched with out daughter. There's still a very long wait ahead of us, but this is at least a step moving us in the right direction in our adoption journey.

2009-08-01T06:49:00.000-05:00

And the Gifts Go To ...

Thank you SOOOOO much to everyone who so generously gave to our adoption fundraiser!!! In addition to the online contributions, we received some checks in the mail for a grand total of $1270. This is a huge blessing to us that will enable us to send our dossier to China in just a couple weeks. Woo hoo!! Words cannot express how thankful we are to each of you. So now without further ado, I will announce the recipients of our gifts. We decided to add a few extra tees just because we felt like it.

Mini Laptop Computer: Tracy Wanat

Faith, Hope & Love Tees:
Debra Kimbrough
Pam Murray
Joe & Tammie Herron
Kelly Kirkpatrick Stockburger
Mike Spruill
Lance & Jeni Ward

Custom-Printed Mouse Pads:
Doc & Rae Nunes
Joe & Tammie Herron
Pat & Helen Fortier

4GB USB Stick:
Dave & Becky Kimbrough

For anyone who loves the Faith, Hope & Love Tees but didn't receieve one, we happen to be producing these for some friends that are having their own adoption fundraiser. They are amazing folks in the process of adopting a precious 7 yr. old little girl from China. So buy some shirts at http://www.amazinggracechina.blogspot.com/ to help the Steele family in their adoption journey. The shirts are pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

Thanks again everyone!!

2009-07-07T19:40:00.000-05:00

Prize Give-Away (Not a Raffle):

It was just brought to our attention that it is against the law for individuals to hold raffles in the state of Texas. I guess I should have done my homework first. I've just been to so many other adoption blogs (some of other Texas families) that hold raffles as part of their fundraising efforts, that I never even questioned whether or not it was legal. But now we know. Therefore, we are no longer having a raffle.

However, we will continue to accept donations through our blog (click on the chipin button to the right) until the end of the month from anyone that wishes to contribute to our adoption fund out the kindness of their hearts. Then on August 1, we will select eight people that we wish to give these lovely prizes to. We do not guarantee that making a donation, or the specific dollar amount of your donation, will affect your chances of being selected to receive one of these gifts.

2009-06-30T20:17:00.000-05:00

Fundraiser: Win a Mini-Laptop Computer and Other Great Prizes

We’re so excited about our first adoption fundraiser -- a raffle. The grand prize is a new (factory refurbished) Asus 10” Mini-Laptop (Netbook) computer. This small, super-portable laptop only weighs 3.2 lbs. Detailed specs are listed below.

But wait, there's more!! See that awesome shirt I'm wearing. We're raffling 3 of these shirts also. Each winner can select their size: adult, women's fitted, youth, toddler or infant onesies. Click the image below to see the details of this design that includes Chinese characters of "Faith, Hope Love" and 1 Corinthians 13:13 printed at the bottom. Don't worry, if you don't win one in the raffle, after Aug. 1, you can purchase them for $20 each ($15 for child/youth sizes).

And ... we're raffling 3 custom-printed mouse pads. You can send us a high-resolution photo or logo, and we'll print you a super-cool mouse pad.

And finally (at least for now), we have one brand new 4GB USB stick. You can always use an extra one of these.

Each item will be raffled separately (starting with the grand prize mini-laptop) for a total of 8 separate winners..

Raffle tickets are $10 for one or $15 for two. Each additional ticket is $5. Purchase as many tickets as you want. Just click on the Chipin button (top-right of this page), and enter the dollar amount of the tickets you’re purchasing. We will email you your raffle ticket numbers.

All proceeds will go towards our CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) Application Fee and agency fees that have to be paid before we send our dossier to China. We’ve pulled together most of the funds on our own, but we’re hoping to raise the remaining amount with this fundraiser to send all our paperwork at the beginning of August.

Raffle ends July 30, and we will announce the winner on August 1, 2009.

With the money we raise, we’ll be one step closer to building our family through adoption and being able to provide a loving, forever family for a child who desperately needs a family. Email me at tammi@xcomcreative.com with questions about the raffle or our adoption journey. We truly appreciate everyone’s support.

Grand Prize Details:

Asus Eee PC 1000 - Black Netbook, Intel Atom processor N270 (533MHz), 1GB DDR2, 160GB, Built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector, 10"WSVGA widescreen display, Windows XP Home, Factory Refurbished - EPC1000H

Retail Price: $399

Features

Intel Atom processor N270
Features a 533MHz frontside bus, 512KB cache and 1.6GHz processor speed.
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
For multitasking power, expandable to 2GB.
Note: Optical drive not included
Compatible with optional external recordable DVD and CD drives (not included).
10" WSVGA widescreen display
With 1024 x 600 resolution showcases movies, games and other images in rich clarity.
160GB hard drive
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
With shared video memory for lush images. Intel High Definition audio support with 2 built-in stereo speakers.
2-in-1 memory card slot
Supports Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard formats for easy digital photo transfer.
3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
For fast digital video, audio and data transfer.
Built-in high-speed wireless connectivity (802.11b/g/n) lets you wirelessly connect to the Internet.
Built-in 10/100 Mbps Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector provides an easy Internet connection.
Microsoft Windows XP Home operating system
Product Height 1.5"
Product Width 10.4"
Product Weight 3.2 lbs.
Product Depth 7.5"
Direct-Disc Labeling No
Digital Media Reader or Slots Yes, digital media card reader
Graphics Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Video Memory Shared
MPEG Yes
Built-in Webcam Yes
Audio Intel High Definition Speakers Built-in stereo
USB 2.0 Ports 3
Battery Type 6-cell lithium-ion
Pointing Device Touchpad
Package Includes: Asus Eee PC Netbook, 4-cell lithium-ion battery, AC power cable and Owner's manual

2009-04-05T19:19:00.000-05:00

Homestudy Complete

So after writing autobiographies, answering long questionnaires, conducting four interviews with our social work, submitting three reference letters (thanks Lance, Keith & Helen), providing verification of health insurance, obtaining life insurance, getting physical exams, receiving a letter from our prospective guardians (thanks Robert & Sandy), receiving criminal background checks in any state we've lived in since age 18 and letters of good conduct from our local police department, providing copies of tax returns, financial statements detailing our assets and liabilities, letters from our accountant, copies of bank statements, birth certificates, marriage certificate, drivers licenses, social security cards, work history, residence history, floor plan of our house, photos of our house and family, and even copies of Rocky's vaccination records from our vet—we have completed our homestudy! We received a copy to review from our social worker this week, and it gives a very positive assessment of our marriage and ability to parent an adopted child with no reservations. Hooray!

We have sent it to our agency to review and modify if needed before our social worker submits her final signed report, but that should happen this week. As soon as we have that, we’ll be able to submit our I-800A ("Application for Determination of Suitability to Adopt a Child from a Convention Country") to USCIS (U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services). We’ll wait 2-3 weeks for authorization to get fingerprinted at a federal immigration office. Then we’ll wait another 4-6 weeks for approval to adopt.

In the meantime, we’ll be finalizing all our other dossier paperwork. Luckily, most of our dossier documents overlap with our homestudy documents (except that we need certified, notarized originals, rather than copies), but luckily our agency handles all the notarizing and authenticating for us (double hooray!). Then as soon as we receive our USCIS approval, we can send our dossier to China. Then the waiting really begins.

Keep us in your prayers as we continue this long, difficult journey. We know that God has an amazing plan in store for us, but we have to be patient in the process.

2009-02-22T19:02:00.000-06:00

Finally had our first homestudy visit

OK, I know I haven't posted in a while, but I didn't really have much to report. We've just been collecting documents and filling out paperwork for our homestudy. Today we finally had our first visit with the social worker. Of course, the closer it got, the more anxious and nervous I became. Every adoptive family tells you that it's no big deal and not to worry, but of course I was really nervous and anxious. But it was totally fine. The social worker did 90% of the talking—telling us about the possible issues we’ll face raising an adopted child, particularly a child coming out of an institution. We talked a lot about attachment disorders and worse case scenarios that we should be prepared for. Hayden was there, so it was informative for him—she told him a lot about the conditions of most Chinese orphanages. Since I’ve read books and followed many blogs of other adoptive parents, most of this wasn’t new info. for me, nor was it to John, but I think it was a little shocking for Hayden. It was good though.

And now I’m so relieved it’s done. Actually, we need to meet with her three more times, one time each for John and I individually and one more time together (but that’s really more of a formality). Now we know not to stress. She told us that we really don’t have anything to worry about. We still have some more paperwork to pull together for both the homestudy and our dossier, but we’ve done most of it. So we just need to keep things moving over the next couple months so we can hurry up and get our dossier to China a get a log-in date (LID). Then we’ll have plenty of waiting to do after that. Keep praying for us (and our precious little daughter)!

By the way, if anyone in the Dallas area is looking for a homestudy agency, our social worker is great. I highly recommend her. Contact me for her info.

2009-01-22T08:15:00.000-06:00

Agency Application Take Two

After our minor set-back having to find a new agency, we decided on an awesome China-only agency, China Adoption with Love, Inc., and we already sent in our new application. Yeah! They seem really great (and won't be closing their China program any time soon) so we're happy. We've also selected our home study agency, and we're beginning to fill out those applications and paperwork to get moving on our home study. So much fun!

2009-01-16T08:09:00.000-06:00

Hit Our First Bump in the Road

I knew there would definitely be bumps; I just didn't expect to hit them so soon! But really, it's a minor bump. I can't give out too much info. on a public website, but basically, we have to find another agency. It's not a huge deal. It just turns out that even though I was diligent in my research, things changed (which happen A LOT in international adoption), and the agency we were going to use will not be a fit. Luckily, we're not out any money, just some time. And the things that took so long on or agency application package—our dreaded autobiographies—will still probably be needed for or home study, so all is not lost. I'm just very ready to get off the start line and get moving down the very long road to China! Continue to pray for us—for direction in our decisions but also for patience. We're definitely going to need more patience throughout this process! Thanks to everyone for your kind words and encouragement. It means so much to us!

2009-01-06T07:41:00.000-06:00

The Paper Pregnancy has Begun!!

We have finally mailed our agency application ... yeah!! OK, that doesn't sound like such a big deal, but first we had to select an agency. That was huge. I am a research queen. I can't book a hotel room without spending hours researching and comparing our options. So to make such a monumental decision as to what agency to select sent me into a whirlwind. There were a variety of factors we were looking at, and in the end we decided to use a smaller agency in Oregon, Heritage Adoption Services. So far, we feel very good about this decision.

Then we had to start working on our application package. In addition to an application form, our package also included the following

> Current family photo (which meant taking a family photo)
> Signed adoption services agreement (very long legal document to read and sign)
> Parent questionnaire -- fairly in-depth questionairre about motivation for adopting, etc.
> Autobiographies of each of us (those were dreaded to say the least)

My goal was to get all of this done over Christmas vacation and have it mailed in by New Years. We didn't quite make that goal, but pretty close. It was put in the mail yesterday, January 5. Not too bad.

So what's next? We begin the fun process of a home study. This involves a social worker coming to our house and meeting with us several times to determine if we're ready to adopt. This will probably involve more questionnaires and providing a lot of background information so they can write a report and give their recommendation whether or not we should be able to adopt. This will probably take a couple months. We'll keep you posted. Please continue to pray for us as we go through this phase of the process!

2008-12-14T16:50:00.000-06:00

Christmas Letter 2008

Obviously our big news of the year is that we’re beginning the long processing of adopting from China. We’re super-excited, and can’t wait to bring our baby girl home. We just have no idea when that will be. We’d love to think it will happen in 2009, but chances are that it will take at least a couple years. We just have to wait and trust in God’s timing. While there’s not a whole lot to report yet, we plan to update this blog as the adoption progresses. So bookmark this page and check back often to find out how things are going.

As far as other things going on this year, Hayden turned 13 in March. It’s so hard to believe how quickly he’s growing up. I (Tammi) cannot even remember when he outgrew me. He’s not as tall as John yet, but at the rate he’s been growing lately, it may not be that much longer. He played football again this year. Although his team didn’t do so great, he did an excellent job playing Center. Hayden truly is an awesome kid!

We still live in Rockwall, Texas, and John and I still have our own business (graphic design and marketing communications) which we love. John also does a lot of IT/computer work. I also started a little side project designing adoption-themed t-shirts (adoptionbug.com), which has been a lot of fun.

We all love playing Rock Band on the Xbox. Hayden is amazing on guitar. John is excellent on the drums. And I sing. Luckily, we can turn the volume up so loud, that no one has to listen to me singing, which works out well for everyone! We’re like the Partridge Family playing Bon Jovi songs (even though Hayden has no idea who the Partridge Family is)!

This summer, we took a vacation to New York. We spent most of the time out on the island, so we were able to visit with most of John’s family, which was great! Grandma made a huge dinner for the whole family with clams and lobsters. John was in heaven! Below, John is anxiously waiting for clams.

We stayed at a beautiful place on Shelter Island, which was amazing. We did lots of fun stuff like kayaking, playing tennis and going to the beach (on a very cold, windy day) where Hayden was pooped on by a bird. Good times!

We also spent a day in the city, and had a great time.

The best part was visiting Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Times Square. If you’re ever in NYC, you absolutely must go there. The singing wait staff is amazing! It’s just as good as any Broadway show (and much cheaper). Below is Hayden being sung to by our waitress.

That’s about it for us. If I start giving updates on all our siblings and family, that could take a while (considering John has 6 brothers), so I think I’ll stop here and say that everyone else is doing good.

We wish everyone a truly blessed Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Love,
John, Tammi, Hayden & Rocky

2008-12-10T17:10:00.000-06:00

Answers to dumb questions asked when a family is adopting...

We don't have much progress to report yet (still deciding on agency, but are very close to making final decison). But we have shared our news with most of our friends and family now. So far, everyone has been really great and had a lot of encouraging things to say. However, I saw these answers to stupid questions people ask on a friend's blog, and thought I'd copy and paste them on to mine. Just in case any of you are really wanting to ask them, now you'll know. BTW, these are real questions that are commonly asked. Unreal...

SA = Smart Answer
EA = Educational Answer

Q- How much did she cost?
SA- All my heart.
EA- Buying children is both illegal and unethical. If you're interested in knowing more about gov't fees and donations for someone you know that's adopting, I'd be happy pass on my agency's website to you.

Q-What is she?
SA- She looks human to me.
EA- Do you mean what is her ethnicity? She is Chinese.

Q-Won't you have to teach her to speak English?
SA- What baby do you know that didn't have to learn to speak English?
EA- Babies learn to speak the language that is spoken around them.

Q-Why China when there are children in the USA that need homes?
SA- Is that where you're adopting from? Oh, you're not adopting? I just thought you might be since you're so interested in making sure the children in the good ole USA are taken care of.
EA- China was the right choice for us at this time for many reasons.

Q-Are you going to tell her she's adopted?
SA- Seriously? Have you even looked at us?
EA- It will be pretty obvious. Besides, I want to share her adoption story with her.

Q- Are you her real Mom/Dad?
ONLY ONE ANSWER- YES!!!

Note added by Tammi: Instead of saying "real" parents or "real" children when specifying biological children or parents, you should use the terms "birth parents," "birthmother, "biological parents," or "biological children." Adoptive parents ARE real parents, and adopted children ARE real children!