Just a little slide show...

Party of Hope - Updated Pictures - Take a look!

Our Party of Hope on July 22nd was just something I needed to do. Our family and friends have let us cry and held our hands not just for these last 4 years but for the last 10. This has been a true journey of Hope.


After dinner and the rain subsided we all headed to my little patio where I tearfully tried to say some nice things about everyone and thank them for all their amazing support. Then we passed out our 50 balloons - one for each month since we started our process and a couple extra... just because they were in the bag!

And then.... we let them go...

Such a joyful day with people we truly love!

Our friend Julianne made this adorable Chinese take out box cake with a baby inside! The logo is the symbol for Hope... We just loved it! It just made me laugh!

Big Sister Kate - Holding her copy of Hope's picture!!

The American Girl stuff was a big hit! Kate got to play with the big kids!!

All in all - it was a dream - all of it - this journey - our family and friends - we are blessed - God is Good.

Hope is coming home to a huge loving family!

Tiger Girl!!

Yesterday morning after a couple hours of sleep I was sitting here (in my ladybug nightgown) wondering when we would get the rest of her information, when I heard something at my front door. I hurried up and checked and noticed the Fed-Ex truck but no one was on the porch. When I opened the door, our package was sitting right there! I was sad to not get the obligitory picture with the Fed-Ex guy but really... I wasn't even dressed!! So I took a picture of Chris holding the package anyway!!

This cute picture of Hope was in there and we learned that Yan Meng (or Ming -
not quite sure at this point) means "Bright" as in bright light and "Bud" as in emerging flower. Isn't that sweet?!

We learned about her background and found that she has been in foster care since she was brought to the SWI. We are thankful!!! It's really all we prayed for! That she be well cared for and surrounded by love.

We also got as her medicals at 5 months which look good, as far as we can tell, she is a very healthy, well taken care of little girl. She has 8 teeth! 4 more than Kate! At 5 months she was 14.5lbs and 24.5inches. The clip below shows what she would be rated by American standards and I'm thinking this is fine.. At least she's on the charts right?

Then...This morning I was surprised to open my e-mail to find new measurements from my agency. I'm not sure how current but for a 10 month old little girl...she seems quite well... chubby! If they are recent, at 10 months she is 23lbs, 27in!! So according to the chart... Ummm... what has she been eating the last 5 months?? Either she is incredibly chubby... or something is off! At one year... Kate was 3 inches taller and half a pound heavier... and Kate is big... Is it wrong to question her weight information???

Anyway... I'm exhausted from Referral Day and our Referral Party... more on that with pictures of our 50 red balloon champagne toast, when my headache eases and I find some energy...

Also - I am humbled by all the well wishes... and want to reply to as many as I can - Thank you all!

Pinch Me I'm Dreaming!

Yesterday really happened... it wasn't a dream. It was a day I had dreamed about for years and the moment... the actual moment was over before I knew it! The moment I saw her little face, I was in love. I know everyone says that... and I can tell you it is true.

I have so many questions right now, so many thoughts, so many concerns.

Red Thread Moments:

• I couldn't believe that Lin was part of her name!

• She was born on the exact date 3 years after we began discussing adoption as the way to grow our family.
  

Thoughts that popped into my head yesterday:

• She is so adorable, she has Kate's cheeks and hairline!! No hairbows for this one either!

• Kate's a Jie Jie (big sister)!!

• I couldn't believe that she ended up being younger than Kate but old enough to be in the same 'school year'!

• We have virtual twins just 4 months apart almost to the day!!

• When I sent the e-mail to our family and friends I spelled ecstatic "extatic' and never caught they typo... such an important message and I was too ecstatic to notice!!

• I couldn't believe my agency called so early and e-mailed me the picture while we were on the phone. I had barely even finished getting ready for the day when the phone rang!

• I will never show anyone except Hope the video of 'The Call' I do not cry pretty and I had black streaks all the way down my neck! It wasn't pretty!

Questions:

• I wonder how old she was when that picture was taken... I'm guessing 6-8 months.

• I can't wait to get the rest of her information today. Our agency e-mails it before they send it Fed-Ex!! (How cool is that?)

• I'm dying to know the translation of her name!

• I'm wondering who the other family is in our travel group and will I ever know who they are??

• I am curious if we will travel quickly since there are only 2 families in our group! I would love to have her for her birthday and be in and out of China before flu season really hits and so Chris will only miss the first week of school... I think there is a prayer in there somewhere!
  

Concerns:

• I'm a little concerned that we seem to be the only people with this orphanage and I can find very little information on it. I joined the Yahoo group but am still pending membership. Even then there seems to be little traffic on it. The only piece of news I did come across is that the Linxiang SWI is a small country orphanage that has 40 babies and most of them are special needs. This SWI was hit hard by the winter storm and part of the roof collapsed so almost all of the babies were sent to foster care. So all this is a big unknown. It doesn't seem to be a Half the Sky orphanage but HTS did report this little bit of information and was trying to find donations to help them out.

• I'm having company tonight and my house is a mess... I need to tear myself away from this computer and get going!! I have balloons to fill!

• And finally a little prayer for Kate... she is teething in a big way... teething really stinks! She is very (unusually) crabby and is running a tiny little temperature. Not a good time for mommy to be so distracted!
  

It's A Girl...

Here she is... Lin Yan Meng

She is 10 months old - Born on September 5th, 2008
She is from the Hunan Province in the Linxiang SWI

We will hear more tomorrow!

This is the day...

that God has made for us to meet our Hope. Now just hours away...

Jim is working from home, my mom is on her way over. We are just going to hang out here until we get our call. This is very surreal right now.

Tomorrow Will Be The Day...

The CCAA has posted that the cutoff is in fact March 22nd!!

I have some inside info that packages are in transit and will be delivered tomorrow. Hopefully our agency will get theirs too! Pretty confident that tomorrow will be the day we see the face of the child we have prayed and cried for, for almost 4 years.

Too excited/tired for words really...

I was up until 6am playing with my new blogstuff and Kate was up at 9:00. Finally finished it! I think I put about 14 hours into it... Yeah.. I'm slow.. but I learned a lot! I still need to figure out why my links are blue.. but I'll leave that for another day...

What do you think?

UNDER CONSTUCTION FOR THE BIG DAY...

You might find some strange things today... getting ready for tomorrow!

Now confirmation in the US!!

Spanish RQ - We are matched with our daughter...

I included the English translation and the original... if anyone can translate better let me know...

Basically what I'm getting is that referrals are ready to be mailed (IMHO I'm thinking they were mailed this morning, end of day Friday in Beijing).

That no one knows the cut off but assuming the 22nd is in based on past history and knowing that both days are big days...

My day is here... Hope is on her way...

OVERDUE!!!!!!

OKAY - I'M READY!

ANYTIME NOW!

An average pregnacy is 280 days.

I have been waiting 1211 days since LID... I'm about to burst!!

And... yes I chopped her head off...on purpose! Because I'm a little ornery!

Just a tiny rumor?? Please?? It's all I ask...

That's it! I'm going shopping! And out for ice-cream!

Update!!!! RQ posted that an agency reported that matching has begun...

In the next hours or days someone sitting in a desk in China will be looking at our dossier and looking at babies and choosing a daughter for us!

I know that God's hand will be upon that match, but let's pray about it anyway!!!

China Rose

Girls Week-Day Three: So here we are day three of our girls week. Amiee and her boys (6 & 10) came over to go over last minute details of her gorgeous crib bedding, (look for pictures early next week) then we headed to JoAnn's for ribbon and eyelet trim.

As if we hadn't tortured the boys enough with a trip to the fabric store we decided to have lunch at the mall, which led to a stop in at H&M so Amiee could pick up these cute Hello Kitty Jeans I bought for Kate. I had to maintain some serious self control.... I wanted to buy TWO of everything!!! I am getting so excited I just can't wait until I know how big Hope will be so I can get them a few matching outfits!!

Once my lunch dates and I parted ways (Amiee had to take her boys to Game Stop to make up for all the girly stuff!), Kate had fallen asleep in her stroller so I took advantage of the moment and wandered around the mall. What's a girl to do?

I made it through Gymboree, Sears, Penney's, Crazy 8 AND The Children's Place only picking up a cute pair of jean shorts that were clearanced out that would go with Kate's 4th of July top.

Then I went to Hallmark... I saw this little ornament in the window and was caught by the name, China Rose. I thought she was cute but I have to be honest I did wish she had darker hair and almond eyes, but her sweet little face made me stop in and check the box for more detail. I about fell on the floor when I read the box and saw that it was 22nd in the series!! I guess this little China Rose 22nd in line... was meant to be mine...

Restless

The boys are gone to summer camp, Jim took the camera so I can't post Kate's cute 4th pics. I'm home for a week with just me and Kate, with our referral coming within weeks I am restless! Sitting at this computer wasting just a little too much time!!

Luckily I have a very important sewing project to keep me busy! I'm working on a crib set for my friend Amiee and hoping to finish it before we are referred!!! Which... could be ANY day now!!!

Off to be a responsible human being and do something other.... than stalk Rumor Queen and Babies R Us!!

Spanish RQ

Here is the link to the Spanish RQ:

You can copy and paste it... I didn't have time to do the html for the link!

http://www.todoadopcion.blogspot.com/