Wednesday, April 29, 2009

A Lovely Wednesday

What a fun day today. ANna had field day at school, so after getting Anna to school, Lilly and I took Tad for a quick run, then biked up to the school to cheer for Anna and her classmates. Lilly had the most fun playing on the playground, getting brave enough to slide down the big slide nearly by herself (instead of sitting on my lap, she had me slide behind her holding her hand. A little bit of a challenge for me, but I managed!) Anna did great at field day, and it was fun to see her running around and having fun. I took Lilly home for lunch and a nice nap, and Nana and Pap Pap got here just in time to watch up and catch the last bit of field day with Anna.


It seemed as if Lilly has made a few steps forward today, acting more content all day, not demanding my presence all the time or my attention as much, and just acting like a more normal happy kid. Praise God! She has been really funny today, and she enjoyed our evening outing with nana and Pap Pap and the dog to Hershey's ice cream for dessert.


For the second night in a row, she has fallen asleep in her crib without me lying on the couch near enough to reach out and hold her hand. Last night she only woke up one time--about 3am--to go potty and have a quick drink of water, then she slept till 7am. Hopefully we are moving toward a full nights' sleep. I hope her bladder can soon make it through the night, as I think this is the main reason she awakens. Once she is no longer in a crib and she is comfortable, perhaps she can even go potty on her own. For now, if it's just one awakening, I can handle it!


I have more photos to post soon (Lilly with Pap Pap, and our outing for ice cream). Hopefully tomorrow.


Here is one of Lilly at Anna's field day...




Posted by at

1 comment:

Unknown said...

glad everyone is doing well..lovely pic, tell anna hi for me

May 2, 2009 at 7:28 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

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