Getting to know our little Shui Shui...

We had a sweet surprise in my email this morning! I had sent the foster family a letter through Red Thread China who sent Maylynn a package and got an update for us. Well, in my email this morning was the answer to our questions:) It looks like she'll fit right in! We can't wait!!

Dear Family :
Below are answers to your questions :

How would you describe her personality?
Outgoing and active ,she loves to play outside.

Does she like animals?
She likes animals but she is afraid to touch them .

Does she have any likes/dislikes/sensitivities?
she likes singing ,jumping ,her favorite toys are ball toys ,she loves to read picure
books ,she is a little crazy with cookies ,when she eat cookies ,she will
cough.

What makes her happy?
Play outside will make her veryhappy.

What makes her angry or upset?
when she wants something but adults does not want to give it to her ,she will be angry .

Is she frightened of anything?
She is frightened of being alone ,she likes to stay with adults .

What do you do that soothes her?
When she is not happy ,adults needs to tell what is right what is wrong ,why this is right or why that is wrong ,she is a good girl ,after she realize this is not right ,then she will be a happy girl again .

What are her favorite activities?
Play balls`games .

Does her name have any special meaning?
Her name means she will be a sweet and gentle girl like water.

What name(s) do you call her?
shui shui is her nickname .

Who chose her name and why?
workers picked her name .

Has she had any health problems or allergies?
We have not found any of her health problems or allergies yet.

What medical treatments has she received?
Shui shui only received child mecial examination ,she is quite
healthy ,She has not received any other medical treatments yet .

What kind of food is she eating now?
rice ,noodles ,steambums ,rice noodles ,ect.

What is her favorite food?
her favorite food is noodles .

What is her least favoritefood?
congee.

What kind of vegetables and fruits does she like?
She likes to eat all kinds of vegetables and she loves all kinds of
fruits too,such as watermelon and apple .

Article 5 - Yippee!!!

I just got an email from our agency saying that "your paperwork is already signed and back at the CCAA" as per our agency's chinese liasion!!! From what i understand, this is the Hague Article 5 step COMPLETED!!! This is amazing news - many other people are having to wait at least 8-10 days for this paperwork to be signed!!! I love our agency:)

So, now we are just waiting for our TA - UNBELIEVABLE!

NVC cabled our Papers to Guangzhou!!! WOOHOO!!!

Yeah! We are so excited that this new Hague requirement step is almost done!!

I called the NVC this morning (i got the feeling that i needed to call today -so i did!) I tried 3 different phone numbers -
1st: The Dept. of State Visa Center (i think?) 202-663-1225 - i spoke to someone at this number on Monday and they had said that the NVC had our paper but hadn't cabled them yet - i thought they would be the ones to call but by the time i listened to all of the automated options , they said they were closed! Crazy - it's not a holiday or outside of biz hrs. -
2nd: So, i decided to perserve and find someone else to call... I went to the Hague adoption visa requirement page and got a phone # - they said that they didn't have this info available but to call the NVC at 603-334-0700.
3rd times a charm!!! I spoke to a wonderful lady that told me that "our papers are at the "post"". So, i said, "you mean that you've cabled them to Guangzhou?" - she said "yes, they are in Guangzhou" - i immediately started to cry and had to appologize- i think the lady thought i was a fruitcake - or hopefully, just an anxious mommy wanting to bring home her baby girl:)

I still crying thinking about it- 1 step down and only a few more to go! My agency suggested that i start packing - i think i will just in case God does work a miracle for us and that we are able to leave in a few weeks! WOW! but, i don't want to get my hopes up too much... please pray for us:)
Also - i just checked out the Rumor Queen's chart for the statistics on the wait times... It looks like we could be waiting anywhere from 4-10 days for our Article 5 to be issued and then anywhere from 7-20 days for our TA (Travel Approval) to be issued.

BTW - i've posted the phone #'s here so anyone else at this step can be a crazy, anxious mommy adopting from china wanting info NOW person! :)

H1N1 - Swine Flu stuff

Swine Flu Kit

In addition to all of the "new" paperwork hassle, we get to deal with the swine flu stuff too... Please pray for this family that has been quarantined on their way to adopt their child from China and pray that our travels will be uneventful:)

Also, here is an email i just got regarding flying to and from China and what we'll have to look forward too... I am pretty sure we will be wearing masks:)

I flew from Los Angeles to Guangzhou on May 31. All of us had
our temperature checked right before we boarded the flight. I noticed at least
20-30 passengers wore masks. I wore mine through the entire flight back to
China. My dear husband bought me ten of them in China, I only used one mask
after I landed at Los Angeles airport from China and I was one of the very few
wore mask at LAX. Obviously people were more concerned for arriving in China.Ten
minutes before the plane landed at Guangzhou BaiYun International Airport, we
were told to remain seated after landing and people from Health and Immunization
Department would come straight to our plane to check individual's temperature.
Soon after landing, four of them wearing Hazmat suits and seriously checked our
temperature. There were four passengers' temperature over 98.6 degree Fahrenheit
and they were taken off the air plane immediately for further observation. We
were told that people who seated three lines in front and at back of these
people need to have their temperature checked again and leave detailed contact
info such as phone number, address and itinerary in order to make contact in
case any of these four people were identified H1N1.

I was lucky that the line I was sitting was the cut off, so we
did not have the temperature check again. I thought we might be able to excuse
ourselves to leave. But the crew announced that all passengers should remain
seated until the procedure was completed. It took about 1 ½ hours. I had two
carry-on luggage pieces and ended up as the last one went through customs and
immigration. Before I went to pick my checked luggage, I asked if any of the
four were identified as positive for H1N1l. I was told it was too early to tell
and they would be kept at airport for further observation. But at least I did
see one of them released before I left airport.

The whole temperature checking process was in good order. If
nobody in the plane has a temperature higher than normal, the process should not
take more than ½ hour. It is recommended to have your travel contact phone
numbers with you if you are delayed.

There are a few basic general recommendations as bringing
hand sanitizer wipes, and practicing good hygiene. I highly recommend families
take Tylenol or other temperature-reduce medication in case anyone has a
naturally higher than normal temperature. Do not drink any alcohol in the
airplane and have cold drinks on hand to help reduce any unexpected high
temperature I hope this helps any of you who have questions about travelling to
China right now.

Lea in Guangzhouhttp://www.lotustours.net/Lotus Travel:
Uniting Families and Connecting Cultures

Care Package

This is the care package that Maylynn should be recieving in the next few days from Red Thread China.

As you can see, we are giving her foster family a camera to take pictures of her and her foster family and a letter with many questions - we are hoping to get these things back when we get her. It will give us SO much valuable information about her likes and dislikes etc...

We gave her a pretty prink dress and a little musical stuffed animal to enjoy -as well as, some candies for the family. The red bag on the top left has a tag with it - and this is being given to her with the hopes that the foster family with send with her a few precious things that they feel that Maylynn will treasure for her life. I am really praying that some things will come home with her.:)

Paperwork update - ??? not too sure... On Monday, we were issued our provisional approval letter - this gets sent to me, our agency and the Dept of State Visa Center (to learn about the Hague process we are going thru - click HERE) The D. of State then cables our information to the Consulate in China - we are waiting to hear about this step! Please keep praying for quick paperwork processing!!!

BTW- thanks for the prayers for the update on Maylynn - we are so very grateful for them!

BTW - we compared the measurements with Hayleigh and Maylynn is 2.5 years younger than Hayleigh but is only 5 pounds lighter and will be at Hayleigh's nose! They will look like little twins!!! :):) Too funny!

Praise the Lord! New Pictures!!

What a wonderful morning surprise! We were so excited to wake up to find some new pictures of Maylynn in our email! Ann at Red Thread China was so faithful in getting us this information - we are SO, SO grateful!!! Our hearts are so full of joy right now:) She is so beautiful and we are even MORE anxious to bring her home. It give me so much peace though because she looks so happy and well cared for. We finally have some updated measurements too - now i know what i can start packing!

height :88.5cm = 34.8 inches
weight :14kg = 30.9 pounds
head :47cm = 18.5 inches
chest :51cm = 20.1 inches
feet:20cm = 7.9 inches

Her foster mother is also in one of the pictures - a treasure that we are so grateful for too! And, it give us hope that she may still be living with her -sometimes, once they find out that a family is coming, the orphanage will take them out of foster care and put them back into the orphanage until the family comes.

What to do??? Maybe SHOPPING!

I need to keep my mind focused on something productive - so... how about shopping!! that's always fun - right?? Well, it's more fun if i know what to get :) Last week we had our Travel Meeting with our agency and they reminded us of the gifts that we need to bring. China is really BIG on giving gifts - from what i understand, it really doesn't matter what it is but just that you gave a gift and it's wrapped in a red bag with tissue paper. So, i've been doing a little bit of research on gifts but i need help.

I needed 6-8 small "random" gifts for women and 2-3 small "random" gifts for men - these are for the caregivers at the orphanage and consuluate workers - after researching, i decided to purchase about 6 fingernail polishes & lipsticks and deoderant for the women's gifts and then men's deoderant for the men's gifts. From what i understand, the women LOVE "american" cosmetics and all chinese love deoderant as a gift because they don't sell it there. ??huh?? i thought this was a little bizarre and i thought twice about buying deoderant and giving it to someone as a gift but -oh well - i guess it's what they like... if someone out there knows anything different - please let me know:)

I also need a gift for the Orphanage Director and her foster family - if anyone has any ideas on what would be a good gift for them - PLEASE, let me know:)

Then i need to get a gift for our guide in Nanning and our Agency's guides - so, if there are any awesome ideas for them - please let me know:) I've heard that our agency's guides like trendy things - but i'm not a trendy person, so i have no clue - HELP!!!

We will also need to give the orphanage a gift - last time we went to Walmart and bought some supplies that they need. I'm not sure if we'll do that, or try to collect some "valuable" things here to bring... I think Lance's cousin might be donating some "american" medicine to take - it think they will really appreciate that:) If anyone has anything hanging around, like formula or blankets - let me know if you'd like me to take them off your hands;)

I 800 approval confirmed!

Praise -Praise - Praise:)

Our agency emailed the NBC and was able to confirm that our approval was sent to the NVC (National Visa Center) this morning. Now we wait for it to be scanned and sent electronically (apparently this is called "being cabled" - it sounds like email to me??? oh well) to the China Consulate in Guangzhou. This is where it meets up with our Chinese LOA and DS230 to become the "Article 5" (another LOA) - then we get to wait for our TA (Traval Approval)

Still praying for quick paperwork processing and an update...

BTW - Thanks to everyone for the encouragement - it really means alot:) They are ALL so awesome but this one hit me tonight - I'd like to it...

Habbakuk 2:1-3-(Message Bible)
What’s God going to say to my
questions? I’m braced for the worst.
I’ll climb to the lookout
tower and scan the horizon. I’ll wait to see what
God says, how
he’ll answer my complaint.
And then God answered: “Write this.
Write what
you see.
Write it out in big block letters
So that it can be seen on the
run.
This vision-message is a witness
Pointing to what’s coming.
It
aches for the coming-it can hardly wait!
And it doesn’t lie.
If it seems
slow in coming, wait.
It’s on its way. It will come right on
time.

This is so true - I know this is true - it was true with Hayleigh and i've known it to be true with Maylynn - but i just want to bring her home where we can start loving on her - my heart is aching for her...

Baby Steps... I800 approval !

I wish that I was ecstatically jumping off the walls right now with the terrific news that our I800 is getting approved today, but for some reason I'm not. I guess it was when I asked the officer what next and when - that kind of burst my little bubble that was forming - she said: the approval now goes to the Dept. of State - National Visa Center and they will electronically scan our paperwork and send it to the China Consulate and these papers will then meet up with our other papers to become an "Article 5" - she said the Dept of State is a separate entity from them and she really wasn't sure of the timing but said "not long - maybe 3 weeks" - i about broke down into tears - i was hoping she'd say 3 days! I'm dead serious! - i was not expecting her to say 3 weeks.

So, we are praying for paperwork miracles - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pray for paperwork miracles - we want to bring Maylynn home soon!!

Also, this weekend we decided to send Maylynn another care package. We sent her one in April- we had hoped that we'd be there now but obviously are not. We just really want her to know that we are still coming for her. This time i used Ann at Red Thread China - i am hoping that she will get it this week and it has turned out to be about the same price of me sending one from here. I believe that she lives in China and sends packages, translated letters etc. to the waiting children:) We are waiting to hear back from her on how the delivery went and we asked her if she can find out some updated information too. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE pray that someone can get some updated info about our little girl:)

A little more hope for Friday...

My agency called this morning to let me know that she was in contact with our new NBC officer all day yesterday trying to make sure they have all that is needed. There was 1 piece of information that was missing (the original referral in chinese). My agency overnighted it to them so they would have it today. She hopes to find out if it was approved today and then how long it will take for this paper (the US LOA) to get to China to meet up with other paperwork there to become the Article 5 document that is needed before we get our TA.

TB test update- well, it looks like we are going to be going on TOTAL faith that she doesn't test positive for TB. Here's the response from our adoption agencies China liasion:

About the TST test, I talked to the clinic doctor today again. He said most of the children with vaccination before will show positive. They have discussed with CDC very carefully about this problem. He said the main point is x-ray not PPD result. I can ask the orphanage to do it earlier. But the baby will do again in GZ no matter what the result she has because Consulate only accepts the result from clinic GZ not anywhere else. I discussed with Rebecca and we have considered to let families fly to GZ 2 days earlier from local cities. So they can have enough time to do TST and x-ray if necessary. And to be honest, if the x-ray shows problem, the child has to stay in China until the problem is clear. The doctor said this chance would be very rare.

Looking on the brighter side of things - i told Lance this morning that if she did test positive and needed treatment, then i'd just fly out all of the kids to live with me in China for 6 months and that i could homeschool them there or they could attend school there - they have American Schools:). I'm totally up for living in China but he wasn't too thrilled - hehe:)

A little bit of hope...

First thing this morning i called the NBC actually got to speak with our new officer that will be reviewing our paperwork. I'm glad that i called b/c it seems that they had to look for our file to see who was assigned to it - our previous officer quit. Anyway, she said that she received it late last night and will be reviewing it - not sure when or how long it will take... That's all for now - i'll update more when i know more:)

Broken...

yep - that's how i feel today... Broken. I woke up this morning and couldn't stop crying. (As many of you know adopting is really emotionally demanding.) I've tried to be really strong and hold it together with this process but i just can't anymore. It's hard! I pray for strength everyday but as the time is supposed to be drawing nearer - i feel that it is going away farther...

Some of you know that we are the first family with our agency to be a "Hague Convention" family - yes- the "guinea pigs". Our agency is trying really hard to be proactive and process our papers quickly but it really sucks when I've been following other blogs that recieved their LOA the same day we did and they've been approved. I called the NBC on MOnday and they had no record of our paperwork yet and we haven't recieved a reciept yet and i just tried calling today and wouldn't you know it - they are closed already... This sucks...

Our boys are both going to be gone at the end of July for different camps - we were hoping this would be a good thing - when we made the decision to send them, we had NO IDEA when we'd be in China and couldn't wait any longer to make plans for them much longer. But now with each passing day of no NBC LOA or TA, it seems that we won't be gone while they are. This sucks too b/c we may be traveling a week or 2 later - which then means that we don't see our boys for a total of 3-4 weeks! Did i say this sucks?

Then we find out today about the new CDC requirement for all 2 yr olds to get a TB test. They don't have this test until after the adoption is final in China and at the medical exam to get her visa to got to the US. So, she is legally ours -so, if she tests postive for the first test (i think it's a skin test - i need to confirm this though) then she would get a chest xray - if this is positive, then they do a sputum (sp?) test (very invasive procedure where they stick a tube up her nose into her lungs) - if this is positive, then they treat it in CHINA for 6 MONTHS!! This means that I may have to stay there while she is treated - b/c she is legally ours but the US won't give her a visa to come home for treatment!! Can you beleive that! and here's the KICKER!! This new policy is only for Orphans!! Sounds a little discriminating to me!! THIS SUCKS TOO!!! my agency is trying to be proactive with this too and trying to get a preliminary tb test done to see if it will be an issue but we are not sure if the orphanage will do it or not...

So - this is how i feel today Sucky and broken - how's that for a wonderful inspiring post! I thought twice about sharing all of this but it is what it is... So, before i started this post, i checked up on a few blogs that i follow and one is of The Feser Family. They have gone through many things this past year and I'd like to share (copy & paste) what she said today that I am really holding on to today!

When things seem like disaster to us; God is powerfully working in ways not possible if stuff had turned out that way we wanted it too.

What equals "good" and "bad" in God's math is totally different that the math of good and bad of this world. This world calls "bad" the sick, weak, and needy. In God's math our weakness and poverty of spirit are "good" (for us). Our pain, frustrations and great neediness is what causes us to call out to God. When we approach him with our brokenness and emptiness is when He swoops down and feeds us His riches. He fills us up with Himself and heals us. Then He shows us how to share His love with others. We share because God Stuff is too exciting and fantastic not to share.

Father in Heaven, thank you that Your ways are perfect and Your riches exceed our wildest dreams. Thank you when You reveal more of Your love to us in our pain and need. Help us when things seem bad here in our temporary home...to seek You and Your comfort. Use us Lord even our hardest times in this world to refine us and mold us into the children to You that You created us to be. Amen

I am broken today and waiting for God to feed me my riches...

Krispie Kremes - YUM!

What a day! We feel truly blessed! Blessed to see how God's is working to help us bring Maylynn home. These past 2 weeks have been amazing and I still get teary eyed just thinking about it.

It was Lance's idea to try to sell Krispie Kremes - I knew it was going to be alot of work (and had my doubts) We had to sell 300 dozen doughnuts to make a good profit for our airplane tickets. We couldn't have done it with out our Jr.High Youth group! We were so thankful to our church's Jr. High Leaders for helping us get some volunteers. We had about 20 kids from our Youth group & a few family & friends help - isn't that amazing!! They all did such an awesome job and it was SO fun getting to know them better! I've heard that they had fun too:) Lance was planning on going to Spokane alone to pick up the doughnuts - i jokingly asked the boys if they'd want to drive up with Lance and Brayden immediately said YES! (Taylor is more like his mom and unfortunately prefers sleep:)) So, at 3:30am they headed up to Spokane - picked up the doughnuts at 5:30am and headed back to the Tri-Cities. They arrived just in time (luckily there were not cops out - Lance did a little speeding to make it in time) to meet the other "teams" and to give them their doughnuts. By 8:30 we were ready to let the selling begin! It was a bit slow... By 9:30 -we had sold maybe 10 boxes - i really had my doubts:( And then i remembered - i didn't pray about it. So I did! And i was reminded about Peter and him having doubts in Matthew 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?" Why did i doubt? - Well, unfortunately that is the "flesh" in me and i'm so sorry that i did. You'd think that i'd learn by now not to doubt but it is SO easy to go there! God is SO faithful! The next thing i new it was 12:00 and we were down to 7 boxes left (at our location)!! AMAZING!! Then i heard that another location had sold out by 11:30! And our 3rd location just had about 20 left! by the end of the day we had sold 275 dozen doughnuts!!! I honestly did not think that we would be able to do that and was hoping just to break even BUT we didn't do it God did it!!!

God has answered prayers and has provided! We now have the amount that we've been praying about in order to bring Maylynn home! Praise God!

And a special thankyou to all of those "angels" that helped us by eating the doughnuts or selling the doughnuts or simply praying for us!

Here are some pictures courtesy of the Pickard's (can you believe that i forgot my camera!)