Sunday, June 14, 2009

Happy Birthday Anna!

Just some photos from our celebration of Anna's 9th birthday yesterday! We had a fun day, with Belgian waffles for brunch at our house, followed by fun in the sun at the beach with friends, and then later in the day we went for dinner as a family to Baytowne Wharf. Gorgeous weather, fabulous friends, and great family time since Tom had the day off (Anna believes that Tom managed to get the day off for the whole hospital in honor of her birthday!)

Lilly is back to her normal self now, and is living up to her middle name of "Joy" lately! Thanks for praying! It is nice to know she feels good and it is nice to get some more sleep!
How old are you Lilly?
How old are you Anna?









Bring on the food!

















Baytowne Wharf for dinner




Yes, a Barnes and Nobles gift card!








Anna's friends did "the wave" as they sang Happy Birthday. Too cute!











Family shot at the beach.



Our beach girl!


Building "the great wall of Destin" with Daddy







Belgian waffles with friends....Mmmmm~

Anna and I were proud of our Nemo cake. She did all the seaweed.
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

Love these.Happy birthday sweet Anna..Michael and I find ourselves saying FA DOOSH to LM all the time..have a blast!

June 14, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Traci Brunner said...

WoW amy I am impressed.all you talents and you can even do cakes..LOL So nice to see Anna had a very nice birthday. I was showing Levhi the pictures and he is ready to head to FL...LOL

June 22, 2009 at 3:05 PM

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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