Mailed Package For Sophie Today

We mailed our first package for Sophie today. Part of me wanted to "smash" the three of us in that box and send us to China!!

It is a weird feeling to be sending her material things when all I want is for us to be together and hold our little girl. Doing some thing like this should be so easy but it was so very hard today. I am surprised by days like today because I never would of thought that I would of gotten so emotional over putting this little package together. I have known about this for over a month now, I knew I wold be doing this but I still got emotional. But on the other hand I am so happy that she will be able to finally see us, her new family.

As you can see by this first photo we left a spot blank under her photo because our agency is going to translate her name and write it there.

We sent Sophie a cute, snugly pink blanket, tiny plush dog and a photo album. At the last minute I put in two hair pretties and three play bracelets because they said she likes to have her hair "done up" and likes to dress up.

Thanks Becca and Sue for all of your help today making this little album for Sophie!

Here is one of the inside pages. After the first page we put a couple of photos of Simone, then a couple of Me, then a couple of Daddy, then a couple of my Mom (the Grandma because we were told to include all family members that will be traveling to China with us.), then a couple of our family, then our dog, then her room, then I wrote on one page a short letter - on the opposite side our agency will translate it in Chinese. The last page is another photo of her and they are going to write the words We Love you in Chinese. We tried to keep one photo per page so it would be appropriate for her developmental level and not to clutter looking. We laminated it and it is 7 x 7.

It was so hard to figure out what to write and to make it short and developmentally appropriate. We have so much to say to her, I just went blank!!! I also wanted to get it out in the mail today so I did not have much time to think this over. I think I was trying too hard, trying to make it just so for our little girl.

Here is what I wrote:

Dear Ji Shi Wei,

We are so excited to become your Mommy, Daddy and Sister.

Simone can't wait to play with you. Your dog is also waiting for you.

We look at your pictures every day! you have such a beautiful smile, cute hair and adorable eyes. We feel so lucky and can't wait to hold you.

We will see you in a couple of months and bring you home so we can be a family forever.

We love you, Mommy, Daddy and Big Sister Simone

On Thursday, when we received our Pre Approval, our case worker told us we could now send a care package to Sophie. We are so excited to finally send her one!! Our agency said they would send one for us and they would label all photos as well as translate a short letter. They are very specific about what you can send, no camera. They said that we could send another package on our own and we will.

In the next one we for sure will be sending a camera. I was so lucky to have talked with Denise via email and she told me about Red Thread China . She said that I could send Sophie a package through them like she has. Has anyone else had good luck with them?? Any advice or stories would be appreciated.

I feel so blessed to have been in contact with other Moms who are/have adopted from China as I really value your support and information.

Thanks, Michele

Pre Approval from China Today for Sophie!

When I picked up Simone from school today her Teacher Barb told me that Simone had some thing in her cuby to show me. I think she said that her Teacher Jessica or Teacher Dee wanted her to show us this. When I saw it I was so happy because it was like she already knew about the good news that I was going to tell her.

The good news is that we received our Pre Approval from China today!!!!!!!!

Big day in our house.

I think she did a pretty good job of drawing Sophie.

Simone is doing so good with her writing. Here she writes Sophies name and Baby! I love the photo she made of Sophie. The long eye lashes and short hair!! I just had to take a photo since it was on the white board and we have to return it to preschool tomorrow.

Below is the email that our case worker sent us after we got off the phone. I am posting the email since she does such a good job of spelling out every thing.

Hi Rickey and Michele,

Congratulations on receiving your pre-approval today from the CCAA. This means that the CCAA has pre-approved your family to adopt Shi Wei. They will now match your dossier with your pre-approval application and review your information more closely. If everything looks good, they will then issue your Confirmation Letter in 2-4 months from now (possibly shorter because your family were logged in earlier but 2-4 months has been the average). Average wait time to receive your Travel Notice will be 3-5 months, and then travel around 3-4 weeks later.

I asked Yu Ping who works in the China Program about the pronounciation and meaning of Shi Wei's full name. She said that her last name Ji is pronounced the same as the character of the chicken, but they didn't use the character that means chicken. Instead, the character they used means record or millennium.

She said the character of Shi means world. The character of Wei doesn't really have a meaning but is a very typical character for a girl.

Regarding the pronounciation, Shi Wei is pronounced the way you say it from what I can tell. 'Ji" is a little bit harder and to get it all correct, I will put Yu Ping on the phone one day to pronounce it for you since she is Chinese. I hope this works.

Sincerely, Linda

What I appreciate about our agency is that they always prepare you for the longest wait times! Two families from our agency just received their Travel Approval on Friday for their waiting children. I asked her their time line. She told me that the one family has a LID like ours from 2006 & waited two months for their Travel Approval. The other family that has an LID of 2007 waited three months for their Travel Approval. But as always, things can go much longer or much faster.

It is all in Gods timing. This will probably be the last time I do this but here are some of the emails we received today. Since this will be Sophie's scrapbook I just want to save them for her. From now on if anyone wants to leave her a comment just leave it here on her blog so she can have it. Here are the wonderful comments we received from our friends this afternoon!!!! Since you don't know all of my friends nick names I have added them in parentheses. *See them below:

*HOLY SMOKES!!! I am so thrilled for you! This is fabulous. God has all the details worked out. Your family has shown so much faith in your wait.
How fun is summer going to be????
Michele, I know a lot of people offer, but if you need ANYTHING, please ask (Andrea M)

*Congratulations!! One more step closer to Sophie!! Hopefully everything else will come quickly and you can soon be on your way!
Nadine

*holy cow that is fabulous! The best news ever! I am so thrilled for you guys!!
Love from us 5 (The Kuhlmans)

*that is so great WOW can't wait to meet her (Rachel, Bryan, Holt and Kingsley)

*Great news for you! June would be great then you would have the summer with her before you had to go back to school. You are in my prayers. Love and miss you guys. (Cami and Chris)

*Just in time for a wonderful summer…and beyond!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy for your family…little Sophie couldn't’t be luckier to have the parents and sister that await her! I just got the chills writing this!!
Jan Mills

*I dont know if Windy wrote you back yet.. But I am so excited for the both of you!! We are praying that everything goes smoothly for you guys! Mike

One more thing! After lunch I started telling my PE classes. I was so excited to finally tell them. I will tell the rest of my classes tomorrow. There are a few classes that I will miss since their second PE day was on Wed. but I am sure the good news will fly!

So what now? I am working on a small photo album to send to Sophie tonight for her Care Package!! YIPPY, we finally get to do this. We are sending her a pink blanket, small photo album, letter and small stuffed animal or doll. I will take pictures of it when it is ready. Our agency can not send a disposable camera due to the rules so I will send her a second small package with one of those in it. It is a neat feeling to know that soon she will see our faces and learn that her Mommy, Daddy and Sister are coming to get her soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you God!

*Below are some more comments from family and friends....I just have to keep them for Sophie. So here they are.

*I dont know if Windy wrote you back yet.. But I am so excited for the both of you!! We are praying that everything goes smoothly for you guys! Mike

*Congratulation...... two months are nothing....... Sophie will be here soon!!!!!!! I send a big kiss for Simone.............. Bye! Lina

*Oh, my gosh! CONGRATULATIONS! I am so excited for your family! Keep me posted! How great if you could head out as soon as June to go get Sophie and bring her home! (Jessica C.)

*I am so excited for you and your family as you await the arrival of your little girl! (Lori)

Tears Today

So today after work I just went into my office and just sat there thinking of Sophie. It is so hard to think of her in China and us here at home just wanting to hold her.

So I just started to look at a few of my favorite blogs of people that are in China right now with their new daughters and I started to tear up. I just hope that we can bring Sophie Home SOON!!

As I stare at the computer one of my friends, Kris, comes in to see how things are going. What great timing as I needed to snap out of it. Thanks Kris for coming down to visit and check on me. It means the world to me.

Waiting for Sophie seems even harder now that we are so close but yet it seems so far away!

I just pray every day for her health and happiness while she waits for her Mommy, Daddy and Sister to come and bring her home!

Tea Party For Sophie

Simone, "Cheers for Sophie!"

Sara
Today Simone, Sara, My Mom and I had a little Tea Party for Sophie. We got out a few candles, special hand made "flower dishes" by Simone and I, little tea cups, cookies, warm milk and a little globe.... all for Sophie.

We have been lucky to spend a lot of time this week with Sara so we thought this would be fun to do while the Daddy's are out purchasing new road/pedal bicycles and Emma, Becca and Grandma Cyndi are out having a big girls day.

(While I am writing this blog my Mom, Sara and Simone are down stairs watching Singing and Dancing with Mei Mei! (A very cute Chinese Dance/Singing DVD. They are all singing as we speak, I just love listening to them.)

Here is a little sample of our conversations from our tea party: (Let me give you a little back ground information. Scott, Becca, Emma and Sara are considering going to China with us. It all depends on the timing of the trip and the price of air plane tickets, etc......)

Michele - "Girls what is your favorite thing to do?"

Simone - "Candles."

Sara - "China."

Michele - "What is your favorite song?"

Simone - "Lullaby"

Sara - "China"

Simone - "What is yours Mommy?"

Michele - "Mine is the Island Princess song, When We are Here Together."

Grandma Prater - "Praise the Lord."

Simone - "Mine is just what Grandma said."

Sara - "I LOVE THAT ONE!"

Simone - "Sing that one Grandma." So Grandma Prater sings a few lines from that song."

Sara - "You like coffee?" (She is talking to Grandma Prater)

Grandma Prater - "Yes, do you like it?"

Sara - "NO, It's GROUSE! It is only for Grandmas!"

Michele - "What is your favorite book?"

Simone - "My favorite is Jesus Loves Me." (Grandma Prater just gave it to her for Easter.)

Sara - "Is For My Momma."

Michele - "What is your favorite thing to eat?"

Simone - "Mac and Cheese."

Sara - "Mac and Cheese."

Michele - "What is your favorite animal."

Simone - "LION"

Sara - "Tigers, Baby Tigers."

Michele - "Let's look at the globe. This is where Sophie lives in China."

Sara - "Yeah."

Simone - "It takes a long plane ride."

Simone - "Sara wants to go to China."

What a fun morning we had during our little Tea Party for Sophie!!

Sara, Grandma Prater and Simone.

A Special Gift

On Wednesday March 26th, 2008 we came home to a special package on the front porch. When we opened it we saw that it was a beautiful, warm, snugly fleece blanket from our friends Roxi and Beth!! They also embroidered Sophie's name on it. I got very emotional and teary eyed looking at it when I found they also put her birthday on there!!!

It was such a thoughtful gift from two friends!! Thanks for thinking of our little Sophie. We can't wait to wrap her in it and we will be bringing this to China with us.

Love you guys!! ~US

Simone's idea for me to "take a picture" of her in Sophie's blanket. I said, "Well I can not see your face!" Simone replies, "that's OK, take the picture!"

Email from Case Worker

Hi Michelle,

Thank you for your e-mail. One family waited a little over one month from their pre-approval date to receiving the confirmation letter. The other family waited over 2 months. I will say that in your case, it is possible that it will be on the faster end because your dossier has already been reviewed and you have been logged in for a long time.

Have a great weekend, (case worker)

Update Information About Sophie Today!!

Today was a big day for us at our house because we received updated information about medical and developmental information about Sophie! We are so blessed that we received this today! We are hoping it is a good sign as we just want to go bring her home!!!!!!!!

Rick also recieved good news, he recieved a scholarship for his National Board Teaching Certification that he will be doing in the fall!!! We are so proud of him!!!!

Thankful for My Buds!

Top left: Jeni and I. Bottom left, Rachel and Becca. (Gotta love the TV on in the back ground.)

Kimi and I.

Can't sleep, thinking about Sophie, so I thought I would work on getting caught up on my blogging!

Jeni, Rachel, Becca and Kimi!!! You ROCK!

I just wanted to say thank you to you four, for helping us out last week. Rick and I have had a lot to think about and had to ask for some help. Our friends helped us with research about club feet and developmental delays, finding information on early intervention programs, finding phone numbers and addresses for us of local medical and hospitals, charted medical statistics for us, listened and spent a lot of time helping us gather critical information! Thank you so much. We feel so blessed to have such great friends in our lives.

We could of not done it with out you girls!! Thanks for helping us with Sophie.

Love you very much!!

XXXX
OOOO

When God Mad You

When God Made You
By ?? ( I have to figure this out??)

It’s always been a mystery to me

how two hearts can come together

and love can last forever

Now that I have found you I believe

that a miracle has come when god sends a perfect one.

Now gone are all of my questions about why
and I have never been so sure of any thing in my life.

I wonder what god was thinking
when he created you.

I wonder if he knew every thing I would need

because it made all of my dreams come true.

When God made you
he must have been thinking about me.

I promise that where ever you may go,

where ever life may lead you
with all my heart I will be there to.

And From this moment on I want you to know

that I will let nothing come between us

and I will love the ones you love.

Now are gone all of my questions about why,
and I have never been so sure of any thing in my life.

I wonder what god was thinking
when he created you.

I wonder if he knew every thing I would need

because it made all of my dreams come true.

When God made you
he must have been thinking about me.

He made the sun

he made the moon

to harmonize in perfect tune

one can move with out the other

they just have to be together.

And that is what I know is true

you'll will hold me and I will hold you

My world cannot be right with out you in my life.

I wonder what god was thinking
when he created you.

I wonder if he knew every thing I would need

because it made all of my dreams come true.

He must of heard every prayer I have been praying
Yes he knew every thing I would need.

When god made you,

yes he did, yes he did.

When dreams come true,

When god made you

he must have been thinking about me.

**When I looked at Denise's blog today (you can click on her name and her family blog will load) she had this new song on there called When God Made You. As soon as I heard the song I opened my word document and started copying it. Later when I was reading her blog I saw that she had already written down the words, it gave me chills. I need to find out the artists of this song??? I also want to give credit to Denise for putting this on her blog and sharing this with all of us blogger friends!! Her faith is so strong and she shares so much with others. There is nothing better than learning from others experiences or who have already gone through some thing that we are going to be going through. She is meeting her little girl for the first time on Sunday. I have only known about her blog for about a week an a half now but I am so glad I found her. Truly inspiring!!

I just stopped when I heard this song...... It brought tears to my eyes because it sums up a lot about what I have been thinking about lately. I have struggled these last few years as we have gone through our wait for our adoptions, I have questioned God from time to time but during that struggle it has brought me closer to what is really important, my faith.

Thank you every one for your emails and comments on our blog. They mean a lot to us. I am excited to use this blog as a scrapbook for Sophie and I love the way the comments will show up during that.

Sophie we pray that we can bring you home soon!!

Whats Left on The Time Line

This is what I learned from Elizabeth today about our time line. This process is much different than Simones.

We still have three of the final four steps yet to check off.

1. Letter of Intent and Pre-Approval Paper work officially translated and logged in at CCAA web site and March 25th. (We sent ours into the agency on March 20th.)

2. Pre-Approval. We will receive a pre approval letter from the CCAA around 1 month/give or take. (1 month from March 25th) On the US side we will receive the referral packet at this time. We can send Sophie a care package at this time through our agency and then another one on our own.

3. Letter Seeking Confirmation of Adoption (also known as Letter of Acceptance, China is changing this step to Letter Seeking Confirmation of Adoption.) Basically this is a confirmation letter. This will come in 2-3 months after the Pre-Approval step.

4. Travel Approval. This is approval from China to travel and comes 5-6 weeks after Letter Seeking Confirmation of Adoption.

Elizabeth told us that this is the projected time line. We also need to be ready to travel in 2 weeks or a month for an example. Since we have been logged in for almost 2 years now and are out of the review room we are hoping we will be on the shorter end, traveling by April 25th!!!!!

She told us that there is a new person working in the CCAA office that processes the paper work. They started around Feb. of 2008, about two months ago. She gave us two example time lines from families at our agency. The first family sent in their Letter of Intent on December 18th and got their Pre Approval a week later. Their Letter of Confirmation & TA came a week after that and then they were on their way to China that week. The second family from our agency had their Letter of Intent logged in on November 5th, received their Pre approval letter on November 21st, 3 weeks later. Then on December 31st received their Letter of Confirmation. Their travel approval came one month later and then they left 3 weeks after that. So they were two months later….

Elizabeth also informed us that sadly she will not longer be our case worker. She told us that she would not be able to handle our case if things move quickly as her responsibilities at the agency have grown. We understand but are very sad because she has been our case worker since we started Simone's adoption in 2004!! We are happy to be working with Linda now but will miss her!

We pray that we can have Sophie in our Arms by April 27th, 2008…..The first day we held Simone and became a family was on April 27th, 2005!

Hello Michele,

Your Pre-Approval paperwork has been submitted to the CCAA website. Congratulations!

I'll ask Bixin about the pronunciation of Shi Wei. It seems like Wei Wei is her nickname. That would be a good question to ask them while you are there so that they can tell you what they usually call her.

You can get adoption or tourist visas for everyone - just submit the visa applications together.

I'll give you a call tomorrow to talk about some of the next steps!

***I wanted to save all of the emails that we get so we can remember how things went so I will be posting them in italics. This is the email that we received from our case worker today. (Elizabeth) GREAT NEWS!! My question is did we just do two steps together at the same time??? I thought the Letter of Intent and Pre-Approval were two different things. Well see when we talk tomorrow. SO I can update one of the columns on the right and start working on Sophies care package. We are going to send a little photo album, blanket, baby doll and candies for the AYI's!!!

"Hello Michele,

I think that we will be able to submit the letter and pre-approval form today. Bixin is working on the translations. Could you e-mail me your Parenting Resource Plan (Section C) so that we can get started on your home study update and have our social workers sign off on your match with Shi Wei? Thanks."

***This is the the first email that we recieved from our case worker.

Introducing My Little Sister Sophie

Introducing My Little Sister Sophie!!

We Feel Like Dancing

We feel like Dancing!!

Needs for Sophies Orphanage in Chengdu (from Winter)

Chengdu, Sichuan – Chengdu, Sichuan – is experiencing the coldest winter in memory. They need a large room heater, diapers, shoes, socks and winter jackets. UPDATE: Chengdu repeats their request for a large heater and disposable diapers. They also request 80 warm quilts. FINAL NEEDS: 26,000 yuan.

This above is a request for what is needed at Sophie's Orphanage. This was put out this winter due to the storms they were having. I have requested an updated list and will post it when I have it. Rick and are are wanting to bring cash with us so we can purchase what is needed from Walmart, rent a van and then deliver it to the orphanage while we are over there since space is limited in our suite case.

Please go to Half the Sky Foundation to make a donation if you are interested. Click on the top right button that says, "Donate Now."

Emails from Friends and Family

Here are a few of the comments that people emailed us after we sent out an email “introducing Sophie”. Please feel free to leave your comment on this post as sad to say I did not save all of them because I started deleating them a couple of days ago before I had this idea….It is just that my email box is so full I have not gotten to deleate them all yet…..We now want to keep them for Sophie. I am saddened that I do not have them all, so once again if you want to leave a message again here, please do so. I have deleated such things as phone numbers, etc. Thanks, Michele

Hi Michele!!
Are you still on cloud 9? I wrote last week to offer my heartiest congratulations---I hope you got it! I check your blog probably daily for updates and details, and I am still so thrilled every time I peek at her sweet little face. You are going to have so much fun!!! I guess this means our meeting in Yellowstone this summer is off? Just kidding! We will gladly postpone it so we can get together later and meet Miss Sophie in person. I am still waiting for all the details!! Nadine

Hi Michele Are you still on cloud 9? I wrote last week to offer my heartiest congratulations---I hope you got it. I check your blog probably daily for updates and details, and I am still so thrilled every time I peek at her sweet little face. You are going to have so much fun. I guess this means our meeting in Yellowstone this summer is off. Just kidding. We will gladly postpone it so we can get together later and meet Miss Sophie in person. I am still waiting for all the details Nadine

Congratulations! I got chills when I read your email. She is gorgeous. Give me a call at home. I want details! Kendra

That is awesome. So now are you just waiting to hearwhen you are going to China to get her??? Rachel (S)

Michele, I love your new blog. Is it new? I am not too sure...it has a ton of info. We are soooo thrilled for you.
See you Friday! Paula

That was adorable! How absolutely exciting! Your Sophie is becoming a reality isn't she? That comment Simone made about waiting for God..wow! I would have cried too. I have some pics I am going to send you of the big snow storm here, my house and some honeymoon pics for you to see. It will come in a strange email address. I can't remember exactly. I'm going to go for a walk since its so beautiful right now. I'll write more later. Happy days for you! Yipee! Karen

I am so excited for you guys! What a special time! Brooke

Congratulations!!! Sophie is beautiful! We are sohappy for you! (Rasmussens)

Wow, this is such exciting news!!!! What is her name? When do you get to see her? Chengdu is an amazing city, you will love it. Mary

So great! I am so happy for your family…mostly Sophie! J She’s very lucky to have you! ~Jessica C.
Wow Michele-
That brought tears to my eyes. What an amazing journey you guys are on. Your patience and grace is amazing. Simone is so adorable and bright. She seems so much more mature and bright compared to other children her age. I cannot wait for Sophie. She is an absolute doll! Thank you so much for sharing the good news. I am so excited for you guys! Love Katie

Hi Michele!
I am sooooo excited for TEAM HOUSTON! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!
Okay... I'm having major technical issues right now. I have waited 1/2 hour for the video and I am only 8 seconds in. D-A-R-N this stupid machine. Anyway, I can't wait to hear all about Sophie. She is adorable, and I love her smile and twinkle in her eyes. Likewise, what a big grin her big Sissy has! I am so glad this dreadful wait is coming to an end for all of you. Here's to FAST travel and all that good stuff! Blessings, Carrie

HI MICHELE & RICK!! CONGRATULATIONS YOU GUYS!! WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT YOU A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO WONDERING WHAT WAS GOING ON WITH SOPHIE! WE'RE SO HAPPY FOR YOU. WHAT TIME LINE ARE YOU LOOKING AT TO GO? WILL SIMONE GO WITH YOU ALSO? PLEASE KEEP US POSTED AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO MEET HER! CONGRATULATONS! JOHN, LISA, ALEXA AND SOPHI PS; What a cool blog! I forgot that you update it and that I could check there. I love the pictures of Simone with the red ribbon. You need to enter that into a contest somewhere Michele! We miss seeing you guys!!

That is great Michele! So happy for your family, can't imagine how excited you must be....
So now how long until you get her????? (Amy)

Congrats!! Can't wait to meet her. We are all going to have to go to another movie soon. (Deleated info. About her birthday, I thought she might not want everyone to know about it :O) ) Tia

I'M SOooooooooooooooooooo HAPPY FOR YOU! Sophie is beautiful and looks so sweet. I can't imagine how excited you must be. All we've been talking about is this time last year when we got our referral and so I know how happy you are right now. Congratulations. Is Simone going to travel with you? I just checked out your blog. Please let me know when you get your travel date so I can watch the blog even closer. Good luck with all the next steps. Oh JOY, Kim
she is adorable!!! congratulations!! when do you go to China to grab her?!?!!!!!!! love you – (Brynn)

WAHOO!!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am for you! Sophie is absolutely beautiful!!!!!! OK---now I want details....is she with WACAP? How did you find her? When is her b-day? Do you have your PA now? Will Travel Approval come quicker since you are already DTC? What about your friends that you were planning to travel with? Are you going to take Simone with you? Can I tell you a little secret? I check the waiting child lists quite often, and I have thought to myself, "with the lon-n-n-n-ng wait, I wonder if Michele and Rick would consider a waiting child?" It really is about the only way to go for China right now. Some friends of ours just got home with their little girl in January. Her b-day was October so she is 2.5 now and so cute. oh my! I am so happy!! Doing the snoopy dance!!
Nadine

Hey there! Good news. I was looking into the birth certificate thing more, and Scott can get it tomorrow in person. So, by about 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, we should all have our passports in process! good luck tomorrow! (Becca)

She is so beautiful!! We are so happy for all of you. Congratulations!!!Patrick, Liz, Zack & Danny

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is amazing news and I'm certain if all goes well with the call tommorow she will be the perfect addition to your family. I do so believe these things are meant to be and if that is the case you will know tommorow. Let me know??? Thanks for thinking to include me. You must be on pins and needles. Prayers coming your way. Hugs, Kim

Iwish that I could see simone…tell her that I lover her…and I can’t wait to possibly see her when her 2nd cousin I think is born…maybe…if she comes down….and all my friends think that she is just the cutest thing. Hehe! Well I love you guys and I wil talk to you guys later (Ashley)

Michele, Rick, and Simone, We are so excited for your family and your new daughter Sophie. We can’t wait until she is home with you. We will pray for lots of guardian angels to watch over her as you wait to travel and bring her home. Congratulations! Sue and Matthew

Yeah Michele!!!! Our prayers have worked this past week! J I’m so happy for your family and can’t wait to meet her this summer. J Congratulations….it’s a GIRL! (Kris)

Unfortunately I just came up with this idea on 4/10/08 and I have deleted most of my emails that had comments from people about the email we sent out “introducing Sophie”. You will not find a lot of our families comments here because they are the ones I do not have any more…….But on the good side I did still have these in the inbox….So Sorry if you do not see your email here. You can always leave a comment on her blog. Love Us!

Chengdu China

Sophie lives in the City called Chengdu which is located int he Sichuan Province (located just below the word China and is bording east of Tibet. Click on map to make it bigger.

The First Time We Saw Your Face

The First Time we saw your face......Wednesday March 12th, 2008!!
Our little Sophie

Stay Tuned for BIG NEWS!!

On Sunday morning as we all just relax in bed Simone says to me, "Mommy I wish my sister would come home!" I almost started

crying!! I said, "I know.....we just have to be patient."

She said, "and wait for God."

After she said that I had to just cherish the moment

and ask Rick if he heard what she had just said????

We are not the only ones waiting for our daughter, we have a big sister who is so excited for her little sister to arrive.

I thought this photo was fitting for this post.....Simone with her pouty lips. This photo was taken on November 12th, 2007.

AHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Frustration as we find out today that the CCAA, China , matched only 5 days worth of families. You can click on this link below to view their web site.

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 19, 2005

Per the China Adopt Talk she thinks that there were not even very many families LID during that time. You can link to her web site from this paragraph.

What does this mean for us??? Well I think it has taken them three or four months to get to December 19th and they still have a few more days in December to get through. Say they take two more months to clear December 2005......That would leave January 2006, February 2006, March 2006, April 2006 and then MAY 2006 before they get to us. If you take five months until us times 5 months it takes to get through one month of LID's that would mean that we would not get our referral for Sophie for another 25 months!!!!! That would be January of 2010, that can be true???!!!???? I hope they start moving a little bit faster. I JUST KNOW IN my heart that there are still babies in China that need a home. I just wish SOMEBODY would BE HONEST and tell me what the HECK IS GOING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know China has the write to do what ever they want. JUST COMMUNICATE to us why the slow, slow, slow down.

Deep breath, deep breath and LOTS OF PRAYERS FOR US and SOPHIE!

This photo of Simone was taken by our good friend Kimi, AKA the Bride during the first month of October, 2007.

Happy Birthday to Sweet Collin Michael

We have waited for you a long time.

Words can not express how happy

we are for him and his parents!

Congrats to Collin, his Mommy and his Daddy!!

We can not wait to hold

you and kiss you.

Love US!

FAITH it is an amazing thing!

Last Friday night, November 16th, 2007 I went to a local Church to listen to an amazing testimony by a Mother and her Daughter, now a senior at a local high school (who happened to be adopted from China.) They both talked about their experiences, their family and their love for God. The women's husband was their video taping their talk and

their other daughter was not their.

Anyways their story moved me. I could not help but cry at certain points during their speech.

I was especially moved when Kali (the high school senior) talked about her life and being adopted. She also shared her faith. It was so nice to listen to an adoptee who has had a positive experience with her adoption. These two women were truly inspirational.

Their missionary friends have written a book about them as they were the first to take care of Kali after she was found in China. Here is a link to their book. Their story is true but some names have been changed to protect people.

I purchased it that night for Simone and

Kali signed it for her and wrote her a little message. It went like this:

Prov. 3:5-6

"I hope through this book,

you will learn more about God's

great love and faithfulness." Kali Jane

The link below is so you can read about it at amazon.com

Baby in a Box

LeRoy Ramsey (Author), Jane Ramsey (Author)

So here is what the CCAA web site said today, "The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before December 8, 2005."

What does this mean for us? Well the are getting one step closer to finishing 2005!!!!!!!! They did 8 days worth of referrals which is good but I also have heard that their are fewer families with a LID of December 2005. It does not matter to me though. I just can't wait until they turn that web site to January of 2006!

One day a week we receive a "Home Link Letter" from Simones preschool that is all about her and what their focus was for the week. For the first time the area that said "sharing news" was marked and the teacher wrote in there that Simone shared about her Sister and she wrote a smiley face next to it.............I can't wait to talk to her teachers tomorrow to find out what she said? I will post more about this later.

Sophie we are praying for you every day and with God's Timing you will have a forever family with a Mommy, Daddy, Sister, A Dog Named Lew, Family and lots of Friends! We can't wait to hold you and give you lots of hugs and kisses!

Today we went down to the Portland INS/Immigration office to renew our I600 Petition. It is so amazing how high tech every thing is with the fingerprinting. Right after I got mine finished they viewed them and redid one of my series. Simone slept through the whole thing. Some people could understand English slightly some none at all.

As Rick and I sat in the waiting room I soon noticed that we are the only US Citizens. I see people from many different countries with hope, freedom and promise filled in their eyes. As they attentively study their United States study manual I stare at our little Simone. I was remembering the day we sat at the US Consulate in China along with other families adopting from China. The day that she was sworn in as a US Citizen at only 12 months old. Today reminded me of that day because I found myself thinking of the same things that I thought two and a half years ago, I thought about what it is to be an American: Freedom, Fresh safe drinking water, Opportunity, Education, Freedom of Speech, Religion, Choice, FAMILY.....The list goes on and on.

How blessed are we to be waiting for our little Sophie. I just know she is going to be such a sweet little girl.

Today I am feeling like I can do any amount of paperwork, gather any legal documents, apostle or notarize any document just so I can hold my little Sophie in my arms. I will do any thing. Three weeks ago I had enough when I was so overwhelmed trying to set this appointment up....AGAIN! Trying to rush so we could get this I600 paper work in time before it expired! I was feeling overwhelmed.......Today I am feeling lucky, lucky to be one step closer to our daughter Sophie. I also wonder will this be the last time in this office or will the wait continue to lengthen and will we have to come back a third time?

Today I thought to my self, it took us 4 years and 9 months to be blessed with beloved Simone, 23 months so far for Sophie, just remember things happen for a reason. At times I wonder why so LONG?!? Why us?? Still struggling to let go and remember God is in control. Some days it is easy, some days hard. I find comfort with people who have gone through this, especially my bud Windy.

As soon as I see Sophie's little face, see her referral photo, the day I hold her in my arms I will be blessed and know it was all worth it!

We can't wait SOPHIE and your Big Sister Simone said that you can sleep on the bottom bed and she will sleep on the top (Simone is referring to her little dolly canopy bed. )

Today I write this as I think of and pray for our little Sophie.

We received our re finger printing appointment in the mail today. They rescheduled us for Portland on October 3rd. It is during the work day but we are so happy not to drive to Seattle!

I am praying that this is a good sign?!?

We all think and talk about Sophie daily. Simone names every thing Sophie now. Here babies names are Sophie, her little pull doggy is named Sophie and she even calls her self Sophie.

Simone tells us that when baby Sophie comes she will sleep on the bottom of her dolls baby bed and she will sleep on the top of the canopy while Daddy sleeps on the floor in their room. (As of now we are going to have the girls share a room.) Simone is so sweet and can't wait to be a big sister.

The Dossiers that were LID during the month of July 2005 just came out of the review room today so I am hoping that is a good sign that every thing is moving along.........Maybe after the start of 2008 they will start moving adoptions a little faster??

Simone is starting to ask us a few questions about her adoption like, "How Come the birth Mom can't take care of the baby?" She also talks a lot about the Nannies aka Ayi's that took care of her. I feel this is good that she already feels comfortable to ask questions, that is the goal and it is good practice for me to talk about these things.....She is just so darn smart!

Preschool is still going good. Tears on day 3, 4 and today on day 5 but she says that she has a great time so that is refreshing.....

Praying and Hope

Praying and Hope15 Months Since our LID (Logged in Date) and 22 months sincewe have started Our Journey to Sophie......Here is the latest:On August 15th we received a phone call from our agency saying that the Immigration office will let us renew our I600A Application for Adoption with out paying the $875.00 refiling fee BUT we needed to get our paper work in by our expiration due date of August 27th. Sounds easy but it is not. (We tried to update this in June but they said we could not because the State of Washington Interpreted the new law statement of one free renewal only applied to people that were doing their I600-A form for the first time. Many adoption agency's requested a clarification on this many weeks ago and we just received notice of this on August 15th. It took them that long to clarify it.Why are we frustrated because we wanted to do it during our summer vacation when we had the days off.....)To make a long story short we first we have to fill out a DSHS clearance form and receive it back before we can file our I600 a form and receive an updated home study. Luckily we have a very understanding Social Worker who decided to interview us so she can update our original home study. She got our updated home study ready so that when we received our DSHS clearance back on August 22nd they could mail out our package on August 23rd so it can get to the INS office before our paperwork expires.Our package did arrive in time. We have also received word back from them that they want us to come in and re fingerprint during the first week of school and drive all the way to Seattle to do it.....This makes no sense since they let us do our fingerprints with the Portland office last time?? So we are hoping that they move our appointment to Portland and to a Saturday so it does not interfere with work. Well see......All of this has gotten me all shaken up again about how long this adoption is taking! We just pray and hope that we can bring Sophie home soon! I know that China has the right to do what they want with their adoption program but I just do NOT understand what is going on....is it a political thing, is it a way to save face and reduce the amount of children that are being adopted internationally by having a quota of how many children are adopted out in one year, does the up and coming Olympics have some thing to do with it???? I just do not know, I just wish they would be honest and say so!I pray every day that the babies in China that live in foster care orin the orphanage can go home to a forever family either domestically or internationally!I can not help but do the math..................If China keeps up with their current pace then we will not receive a referral until 2009 or even 2010.............Please remember that we want this second baby just as much as we wanted our first babyand by telling us that we have one baby should make this wait easier well it does not.We pray for another daughter and a sibling for Simone.We are trying to let go and let God....to have Faith..........Not question why but it is hard and we are human.....our minds wonder time from time......Yes we thank God EVERY DAY for our little angel and we are very blessed, we pray for our family to grow, so we wait.............(Yes, I feel better now that I wrote this. Written from the heart from a Mommywho's heart is aching for her other daughter named Sophie to come home. It has been seven straight years of trying to have babies, I am just ready to move on. Yes it is worth the wait and heartache I am just hoping that by writing this other families will know that they are not alone. I know that there are a lot of us that are waiting this long.)

Referrals are here!!! YIPPY!!!!!!!! China updated their web site. Read below:

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 21, 2005.

The CCAA updated their web site today and it says the following, "The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with their office before June 30th, 2006."

Happy Birthday to me! (The above photo was taken from a web site off of the internet. I think you can find out where by right clicking on it and looking at its path.)

Great book by Rose Lewis.

Simone received this book for her Birthday from the Watson's. We all like it and I highly recommend it.

I found these photos on the internet. I thought it would be easier for some of you to understand if you had photos to look at. This photo is a photo of the Dossiers in the review room.

Possibly Dossiers going to the matching room. (That would be us as of Thursday :O)

The workers hard at work.

We are out of REVIEW!!!!!! Big Day TODAY for us!!! (China has updated their web site. What this means is: Since we have an LID of Mayb 30th, 2006 this means that our file has been moved to the waiting pile in the matching room. So now what?? We just wait. The next big step is our referral of our little SOPHIE! This is a big step although this next waiting period could take many months......Needless to say we will celebrate today!!)

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before May 31, 2006.
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.

That Little Box on the CCAA Web Site change the other day:

The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before April 30, 2006. (WACAP, our agency told us that they are through May 18th, 2006 so I am not sure why their web site does not reflect that information? I guess I will have to call on Monday. We are getting closer to review or even we have been reviewed by now??)
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before November 7, 2005.

(Since so many people have been asking I thought that I would just post an email that we recieved from Elizabeth Rose, our adoption cordinator, since she does such a good job explaining what is going on with our Next Adoption. These are her words below.)

"Dear families,

This month the CCAA matched dossiers logged in from November 2–7, 2005. The families waited 19 months from their dossier log-in date to referral. In looking at the CCAA’s recent rate of matching, we believe that wait times will continue to lengthen for adoptions from China. Based on recent rates of matching, we believe new families and families who submitted dossiers in 2007 may wait three years for a referral. We estimate that families who submitted dossiers in 2006 will wait 24-36 months for a referral. Because international adoption will always be unpredictable, the actual wait time may be longer or shorter than this. As wait times are increasing each month, the wait will be longer the later your dossier was logged in. Please keep in mind that although adoption agencies publish different wait times, all families adopting children from China, regardless of agency, will experience the same wait.

We know this is very difficult news because many of you have waited so long already. We also understand that all of you, regardless of when you started your adoption journey, dream of having your child in your arms sooner than these projections. However, we also know from years of experience that it is very important for us to give you as accurate projections as possible to help you prepare for your future child.

Each month the CCAA matches the children whose referrals are available with families. They begin matching based on log-in dates, and work through log-in dates until they do not have any more child referrals. The number of available children varies month to month, and the number of families whose dossiers are logged in each day also varies, so unfortunately it is not possible for us to predict how far the CCAA will match each month, or how long it will take for them to reach your log-in date. In our discussions with the CCAA, they have cited fewer children available for international adoption, a very high volume of dossiers in China, and an increase in domestic adoption as reasons for the slowdown.

Lengthening wait times do not affect families adopting waiting children; that process remains expedited. WACAP will continue to receive information about waiting children in China two to three times a year, and we will continue to make these children’s profiles available to our families waiting to adopt from China first.

In most of the countries where WACAP works, the majority of children who need families are boys. Because of this, several WACAP programs require families to be open to adopting a child of either gender. If your family is open to adopting a boy, you may meet the requirements for a different country. If you are interested in considering other WACAP options, please visit our Web site at www.wacap.org for information, and speak with your adoption coordinator. WACAP staff is here to help you bring a child into your family whether the child is from China or another country where we work. If you are open to considering other countries or types of children, we are very happy to help you identify other options.

Again, we understand that news of a lengthening adoption process is disheartening. If the wait is insurmountable for your family, we hope you’ll keep in mind the needs of the countless numbers of orphaned children around the world and consider other options at WACAP. Please contact us with your questions and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Sincerely,

The China team

A note to Chinese-expedited families: The wait times for families who are expedited because of documented Chinese heritage will also continue to increase, although the wait will be slightly shorter. WACAP’s most recent Chinese-expedited family to receive a referral waited 13 months, as opposed to the 19 months that other families experienced. "

No Such thing as a free extension for us! I thought it would be too good to be true!!!!!!!! Only people filing a new form can have one free extension. So not for us.

Check with your adoption agency or call the government.