Showing posts with label lilly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lilly. Show all posts

Friday, February 6, 2009

Finally, some new photos...

Here are some much-belated photos from our recent birthdays and other happenings in our home. No word yet on our TA, but I am happily following blogs of those families that are in CHina right now getting their new children. Feel free to check some of them out if I can figure out how to post them on here!



Here is Anna with some of her Barracuda teammates celebrating after last week's swim meet.



And here is Anna helping me paint Lilly's room...hope to have "after" photos of the finished room soon!








Here we are celebrating my 40th b-day at Osaka Japanese steak house--yum!!







And the rest of these are of Jared and his friends celebrating his 12th birthday. We initially tried to take a group of them paintballing, but when we got there the painball field had to turn us away as all of their guns were checked out. Yikes! What's a mom to do when she has 8-10 boys ready and eager to play paintball? We went home the the same eager boys played "Capture the Flag" in the woods behind our house for HOURS! They had a blast. We proceeded with the pizza, cake, presents, and an impromptu nerf gun war around the cul-de-sac, and rescheduled the actual paint ball outing for a few days later. They had a blast! Tom sported some pretty nasty bruises from all the fun! Jared has such a nice group of friends--he is truly blessed.

































And, last, but certainly not least, is the photo of Lilly we received most recently. This photo was probably taken even earlier than the referral photos I posted back in October, but it is new to us and it is a joy to catch another glimpse of her sweet face. And she has hair!!







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Why Adoption? Why China?

I'm sure that many of you, when you learned that Tom and I were pursuing adoption of a little girl from China, wondered "why?!" We may have taken some of you by surprise, and we thought it might be nice to share some of our thinking about this journey we are undertaking.

Adoption is something that, even from the earliest years of our marriage, we talked about as "maybe someday." The idea of adoption is appealing to us for many reasons. As Christians, we are adopted by God as his children through faith in Jesus. Adoption allows us to provide a child with the needed love, warmth, and financial resources we have been blessed with as a family. Finally, adoption allows us to add to our family at a time when our biological children are old enough to be more self-sufficient, and we are in a position financially to be able to welcome a child into our family in this way. What we hope to gain is an additional family member to love and learn from, and an opportunity to share the joy and love of our family.

We recognize that an adoption will bring unique parenting challenges to our family--especially since we are considering a child with special needs--and it is likely to put unique stresses on our family in a variety of ways. We are grateful for Tom's medical knowledge and for the great medical coverage we get through Tom's Air Force career, and we look forward to providing a forever family for a child whose medical needs might make it more difficult for another family to take on.

Finally, why China? My love for China, the Chinese language, and the Chinese people made China the natural choice. It was never really even a consideration whether to go with a domestic adoption or international; China was simply the natural choice that we immediately pursued, especially since there are so many children in China that need a forever family.

Chinese Word of the Day

The Time in China

When Love Takes You In

Our Adoption Timeline

  • Travel Dates--11-26 March
  • Swearing In Ceremony at Consulate--25 March (Lilly's 3rd Birthday!)
  • Consulate Appointment (CA)--24 March
  • Travel Approval (TA)--19 February 2009
  • Received Letter of Approval (LOA)--22 January 2009
  • Received Pre-Approval (PA)--25 November
  • Submitted Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt An Xiao Xue, soon to be named Lillian Joy Xiao Xue, 1 November (logged in at CCAA 21 November)
  • Referral Call from CCAI asking us to consider An Xiao Xue's profile--31 October
  • Dossier Log-in-Date (LID) 3 July 2008
  • Dossier to China (DTC)--June 27 2008
  • Dossier Submitted to CCAI--June 2008
  • Fingerprinted at USCIS Jacksonville--April 2008
  • Application Approval ("We're Pregnant!") January 2008
  • Submitted Adoption Application and 3 References--December 2007
  • Requested Application from Chinese Children Adoption International (CCAI) --November 2007
  • Decided to Investigate Agencies--October 2007