The Beginning of this Journey...

The Lord began this journey towards our second adoption about 1 year ago. He put on our hearts to sponsor Kay - at Harmony Outreach and we did. When i first saw her, i fell in love with her and prayed for her to join our family. It wasn't until May 2008 that the Lord began to use her to open our hearts to adoption again. That was when we had John Bentley from Harmony Outreach (her foster program) staying with us and he told us that Kay was ready to be adopted internationally. We prayed about her and began the adoption process again. Unfortunately, it wasn't in God's plan for her to join our family but He did use her to open our hearts up to adoption again and we are excited to see where He takes us. We are Trusting in Him.

The Lord has brought Maylynn into our lives and hearts on Nov. 21st (that is when we received her referral). We are excited to see Him bring her home to us. Please pray for the rest of our journey. We can't wait to bring Maylynn home...

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Mom's gotcha week!

This past week has been fabulous! Lance has enjoyed being able to walk and do things without his "cling-on" and I've been enjoying my new daughter:) She has kissed me, hugged me, snuggled with me, ran to me with open arms, let me take care of her when she's hurt - it has been such a joy! She has also been bonding alot with the kids - which is fun & sweet to see:)


We are not ready to let our "bonding & attachment" guard down yet though - Lance and I will be the only one holding her for the next few months... it is so important for her to understand that we are her only mommy and daddy forever!!



Thursday, August 13, 2009

Maylynn's Gotcha Moment

So... here is Maylynn's gotcha moment - it is totally opposite of Hayleigh's :( The person holding the camera is our guide and at one pt. during the taping he had to run over to get a document.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Saturday, August 8, 2009

 

Home SWEET Home! - Aug. 6th (part 2) & Aug.8 update

So... the plan was that we'd meet our family at Brayden's last swim meet but Hayleigh and Taylor (and i think maybe gma V.) couldn't wait - so, they too met us at the airport. It was so sweet to see Hayleigh FINALLY meet her LONG AWAITED sister - although she had just woken up from a nap in the car and was a bit overhwelmed and a little shy. We headed over to the meet - we had thought that Maylynn was going to have a fit getting into the carseat but she pleasantly surprised us with just a little "delayed" complaining:) As soon as we got to the meet, we snuck up on Brayden - he was happy to see us but a little embarassed by all of my hugging and kissing in front of his friends;) We then sat down with gpa v. to wait for Brayden's events - it wasn't long before Hayleigh wanted to go swing - there were 2 little swings just waiting for them - She quickly took Maylynn's hand and they were off - it was such a precious sight. They played almost the entire time together - just getting to know each other - it was so heart warming to see:) Maylynn also instantly accepted Taylor too - she quickly jumped into his lap! soo cute! I could see in Taylor's face that he too was pleased:) After the meet we grabbed some Little Ceasar's pizza (ohh - that pizza has never tasted soo good -yum!) we also had to make a pit stop at McD's for a few little gems:) We came home to a beautifully clean house!! It was so wonderful and i know that gma & pa V. and the kids worked really hard! The kids were eager to see what we had bought for them in China - then they had fun getting to know thier new sister. They really enjoyed hearing her sing her little songs etc...

Maylynn has done a MUCH better job adjusting and accepting the fact that she is not going to be living in Lance's arms. She does prefer the boys in the family but she is slowly warming up to me. I have been in charge of ALL of the care giving for her (and Hayleigh) Actually, it has been very helpful having H. show Maylynn that there is nothing to cry about while taking a bath, getting dressed, brushing hair, teeth and going potty - Maylynn actually understands now that this is a part of life and is accepting it. Our first night was alittle rough - M. woke up around 1:30 and cried and cried (i think for Lance) but he wasn't going to be coming - soon H. woke up and i told her to go get in bed with daddy -she quickly took me up on that but M. was a little more ticked that she was stuck with only ME! She had alittle fit for about 1-2hrs. (my touches or voice only made it worse - so i just rolled over and pretended to sleep - it worked!) I stayed with her until morning - i didn't want her to wake up again and be frightened with no one there. Last night went much better - both of the girls skipped their naps for the day and was asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow! and they didn't wake until morning - woohoo! I am praying that is the case for tonight -so far so good = 2 girls asleep:) Also, the past 2 nights i've had both girls in my lap for books - M. loves books - she just sits so good and listens - it amazes me b/c how can she understand a word i'm saying? - i'm hoping she is soaking all of the language in.

Tonight (Aug.8) we went to the neighborhood park and the girls had fun playing on the slides - well, we started a thing where when they went by they'd give me five, the next time it was 10 and the next time H. gave me 10 and a hug and M. quickly followed -it was so sweet - i just soaked it in - it was actually the very first time that SHE came to ME and gave me a hug and a little sweet pat on the back - she did it 3 times! I'll never forget this day:)

She is doing so much better but we are being very careful about who offers to hold her. We won't be putting her in the church nursery for a few months, or leaving her with a sitter - we really want her to understand that we are her main caregivers and the people that she needs to attach too. So, please don't be offended by us requesting people to not to offer to hold her - there will be a time but not yet:) The boys are loving her to death too and love to hold her and she'd prefer that they'd hold her instead of me but they have been so understanding to not hold their arms out to her when i am holding her. They have had plenty of opportunities to sit with her or carry her around though - H. too! although the "big sister" novelty is slowly wearing off and while they have a great time playing together there are times when M. just wants H. to leave her alone. And there are times when H. has a bit of jealousy - H. also has been extra sensitive so, i've been smothering her with hugs and kisses!! (Lance has too) Actually, the boys have been great in including H. in their playing with M - they are the best big brothers. I am just so amazed at them! Honestly, they really weren't too keen on the idea of adopting again but their hearts have QUICKLY changed! They love M. so much and Brayden even asked us yesterday if we could adopt again - our answer to that was "our table is full :)"

Maylynn has definately made a difference at our house and each day is getting better.

Also, i really want to thank EVERYONE for their prayers, words of encouragement and kind gestures through out our journey. Adoption is not as easy thing - as you have read there are good times and bad times - i hope that i've been "real"enough to convey that. Even though we recieved our daughter 2 weeks ago - i have been in a deep valley and am so grateful for the prayers and scripture that has been shown to me - i really feel that He has been reaching His hand down to me and slowly - day by day - drawing me closer to Him and pulling me out of that valley again. Thank you so much Jesus - you are my rock.

This Adoption journey is now over but the story continues as a family - "The Vickerman Family Happenings" blog will be taking over. I will be occasionally posting to this website if something only applies to Maylynn and her adoption or adjustment. Thanks for following!

Oh - i almost forgot! I can finally share her "confidential" details now that the adoption is final!
Chinese name: You Ru Shui ( i think it (Ru Shui) means peaceful water) You is her surname/last name
Born: April 17, 2007
Found on May 24, 2007 and placed in the Guilin SWI on May 26th, 2007
Placed in foster care on July 25, 2007
Repaired cleft palate surgery in April 2008

Friday, August 7, 2009

Home sweet Home! - Aug. 6th (part1)







Warning - a long rambling post... :)






That was the longest day since maybe about 4 yrs ago (when we brought Hayleigh home):) We are so glad and thankful for all of the prayers! We were a little wearrie when we woke up and saw that it was raining and then soon found out that it was because of a Typhoon - great! I mentioned our worries to our guide and he said "no problem! unless it thunders and lightening" and about 10 sec. later - yep! Thunder and Lightening - great! Our drive to the airport was rather quiet - mostly concentrating on the roads and weather and praying that we would still be able to leave. We were also seranaded by Maylynn's singing - she loves to sing (although she's not singing words -chinese or english- just making her own sounds up to the tune) it is very cute and she loves it when i sing with her:) We made it to the airport with perfect timing and we were quite the sight to see - after we made it through our first of oh maybe 15 security checks for the day, Lance's arms had given out and he wanted M. to walk - well she didn't want to so i carried her screaming through the airport in China - we got several looks (and this wasn't the first time that it had happened for the day - smile:)) we made it to the gate - i set her down and guess what - she stopped crying... our first flight was only about 3 hrs. and not too bad - we were bummed that they had ran out of the more "american" type of dinner and we didn't get much to eat - but Maylynn didn't eat all of her monstrous meal so i had a few nibbles of her leftovers - it was a good thing too. Maylynn sat in Lance's lap for pretty much the whole time - we were able to get her to sit for a few moments here and there doing coloring, stickers and eating. We also had enough time for our connecting flight out of S. Korea to Seattle - no amazing race today - horray! but we were quite the sight again - Maylynn didn't want to walk but needed too and she did but we got several looks again. She is very strongwilled... Our flight to Seattle was about 9 1/2 hrs. - we sat very near the back of the plane and it was very turbulent and just plain wiggly! I started to get sick - i have never gotten airsick before but i felt like it was coming - they soon served dinner and oh my goodess was that unbearable!! I had to get up and sit in the bathroom for about 5 min. but didn't get sick - when i had returned, Lance and Maylynn were done with their meal and was ready to walk around a bit - so i quickly jumped into his seat (near the window) and remembered that i had some air sickness bands in my backpack from 4 yrs. ago! Whoo hoo! I slipped those puppies on and sprawled over 2 of the 3 seats - put my mask on - propped up my pillows and tried to go to sleep - i think that i did and i felt much better when i woke up. But then L. was super frustrated with M.'s clingyness - he ended up walking to the back of the plane again - i soon followed and told him to go to the bathroom and i'd take her - she complained and cried but was so tired, she quickly gave up and was asleep in my arms for the FIRST time - woohoo! I loved it and didn't want to move for the rest of the flight but we had about 6 hrs. left and my arms were already burning after about 20 min.:( soon after i carefully moved my way back into the seat without changing her position at all - she woke up:( and crawled back into her daddy's arms but we were able to keep her laying in the seat - thank goodness!!! About 2 hrs. before we landed they served breakfast - i was so excited and hungry by then but by the time they got to me - they had JUST ran out of the omelette - i was sooo tired and rather hungry that i just started to cry - i couldn't turn the tears off... the stewardess felt bad and gave me some other things to nibble on which turned out to be good enough:) I felt so weird crying about not having food but it had happened 2 times in the same day!! Anyway, we soon made it to Seattle - we were hoping to make an earlier flight to Pasco but we didn't make it:( We had to go through immigration -which we weren't really sure what line to be in - the lady at the consulate told us that since our child was a foreigner that we had to go through the foreigner line but there was just the American and visitor line -so we got int eh visitor line - we were standing there watching the American line zipping through and our line was inching along:( soon a gaurd guy saw us and asked us if we were americans but if we were just returning with our daughter -we said "yes" and he pulled us out of line and zipped us to the next open station - we were so happy that i almost started to cry again! Then when the passport immigration agent stamped all of our things etc. he told us to go to another stations to process Maylynn's paperwork - then he said "Welcome home" tears started welling up in my eyes - it was such a sweet sound to hear - i loved it and the agents were so friendly (in China you feel like you shouldn't smile or look at the agents) anyway, we made it down to the next station about 20 min. later they stamped Maylynn's passport and she was now a US citizen!! woohoo! We then had to go get our luggage and go through customs - we felt like cattle herding through the gates to the officer - we gave her our information and she too said the words! "Welcome home!" I love those words!:) We then had to drop our luggage off to be put back intot he luggage area to be put on our plane and then we went through a few more security checks and by then it was 2:00. We had a bit to eat and freshened up a little bit (mostly Maylynn - she was a wreck!) She fell asleep again while we waited for our last flight - we were a bit nervous b/c there wer TONS of people at our gate - we found out that some other flight were delayed b/c of mech. problems. About 10 min. before our flight was to board- they made an announcement that they had to delay this other flight some more but were possibly going to switch out the plane with a different one - Lance and i quickly started to pray that it wasn't going to be our plane! and it wasn't thank goodness! We boarded, left Seattle and before we knew it we were landing in Pasco!! We were so glad to be home! We came home to family and some special friends - what a wonderful sight to see - loving and familiar faces!!! We were Home!!!






stay tuned - more to come tomorrow...

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Pr-yers please

we just found out that there is a tropical storm "Goni" that is moving toward China in the next 48 hours.  We will have to fly over it hopefully  - so please pr-y for safe travels!
 
And keep pr-ying for the Scruggs family: http://jayscruggs.livejournal.com/  they are still waiting for a decision on whether or not they will have to leave thier new daughter.

Guangzhou - Aug. 5

Sassyness and tantrum 2's!!!  That was the theme of the day... so, i'm sure you can imagine how ready we are to go home:)  She still prefers Lance over me - but now i think it's more of a "power kick" thing - whatever... her "spoiled world" with dad is about over and her life will be changing yet again when we finally become 1 family again - i cannot wait to see my kiddos:)
 
Today we had a late breakfast (enough to get us by without having lunch) - afterwards, we took the traditional red couch pictures - she did a good job sitting somewhat still and smiling;) I was then anxious to get packing and organized while Lance and Maylynn played in the playroom. We decided to have Maylynn take an early nap - b/c we all know what happens when she doesn't get her sleep!  She's worse!! YIKES!!! we woke her at 2:30 so we could meet the shuttle to go to the US consulate for our FINAL step!  We couldn't take any cameras, cell phones or electronics - don't ask me why??? It's not that big of a deal... we all just submitted our final paperwork and then as a HUGE group took an oath that all of the information that we gave was the truth - they then gave us the "brown envelope"  It has a special seal on it and cannot be open until we go through immigration in Seattle.  As soon as her feet touch the ground she will be a US citizen:)
 
I also took a picture of our favorite "western" restaurant "Lucy's"- we ate there tonight - it was very pleasant - especially b/c Maylynn had a tantrum:) smile:)
 
Anyway, i'm exhausted, emotionally tired, worn out, easily cry and just plain ready to go home!  Please pr-y for our flights (no turbulance) and that we make all of our connections without running through the airports...  We are hoping to be home in Pasco around 5pm but if we can get on an earlier flight WE WILL!! However, we have to go through immigration with the other 500 people that i'm sure are wanting to come to the US tomorrow:)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Guangzhou - Aug. 4

Today was our consulate appt. day - we didn't have to do anything for it, just our guide - he had to turn in some paperwork etc.  We now will go to the consulate tomorrow afternoon to do some swearing in stuff in order to get her visa - then we are coming home!!! woohoo!!! we are soo anxious to get home - we are so tired of being here... ready for some normalcy - our little Maymay is definately a little spoiled here -but that will be a rude awakening to her when we get home!  She can definately throw some good 2 yr. old tantrums! and we've seen some more "sassiness" out of her today (more so when we are with our guide???)- we are trying to nip that in the bud as quick as possible:) 
 
Can't wait to get some good huggins from my kiddos at home!!  I miss them terribly:)
 
We didn't do too much today - just trying to pass the time away... after bkfst - we went swimming - it was a good thing we went when we did b/c it was kind of rainy and dreary later today... she's really liking the kiddie pool:) then we took a nap, played in the playroom and met our guide DAvid for dinner.  Instead of going on the traditional river boat dinner cruise (which we did last time and did not enjoy it) he took us down the street for a very good chinese dinner - it was delicious!!  It was nice and cool after dinner so we took a nice walk - Maylynn really enjoyed watching some people playing badminton in the park - it is very popular here... Now we are back at the hotel for our night time routine.
 
Ps. Sheryl - we were able to find Mtn. Dew in the bottle - i hope that's okay - we don't have access to anyother stores to find a can... see you soon!

Monday, August 3, 2009

I love you...

OH!!! i forgot to share the best news!!!  for the past few days, i have been able to tell her 'I love you - wo ai ni" and she hasn't buried her head into Lance and cried!! Tonight after i said it, she actually let me kiss her on the nose and she smiled!  So sweet:) What a change in the past 7 days!

Guangzhou - Aug. 3

Just the usual -wasting time away so we can go home day...
 
Although, there are a few things to report:)  Last night, it was the cutest thing!  Lance had read Maylynn books etc. tucked her in and layed with her for a few minutes.  Soon after, he "snuck" off the bed and crawled next to me - she kinda peeked over but never whined about it - soon after that, she started singing -she sang for about 20 minutes - it was soooo sooo cute:)  Usually at about 8:30 she is ready for bed and simply falls asleep - we ar thinking that she had some extra energy b/c she ate a Magnum bar (remember those my PHF friends:)) anyway - we didn't taste her's until she was done and found out it was coffee flavored -hmmm...
 
So, she went to bed late and woke up early (had an accident:() and proved to be very tired this morning - so were we.  Breakfast was successful again but then we went shopping agian at the mall to the pearl factory etc.- she was a bit out of hand and a few time was quite a little you know what! She  hit me and screamed very madly at me - i wasn't going to let her get away with it and firmly told her no etc... We bought a few things including an extra suitcase:) Some of the deals aren't too great here though - some things i think that i can get at walmart for the same price:) except for pearls and the chinese essentials;)  After lunch we all took a 2 hr. nap - it was wonderful and my sweet girl has been back!  We went swimming again, dinner at Lucy's again and Magnum bars on the way back to the hotel (Maymay had vanilla icecream though:)) Now we are watching her video that she LOVES!!! and sang last night:)
 
Oh - i almost forgot - her TB test was negative but we just found out about a family here with the postivite TB test nightmare!  You can visit there website at:http://jayscruggs.livejournal.com/  and please pr-y for them - we cannot imagine what they are going through!
 
Tomorrow we have a lazy day - our guide goes to our consulate appt. tomorrow and will meet up with us later to take us to dinner.  We were supposed to go onthe river cruise but we did that last time and do not want to do it again:)  So glad that we have an option to not do it!
 
sorry no pics today:(

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Guangzhou - Aug. 2

Today was fairly uneventful... We met our guide at 9:30 and he took us to the ChenTemple.  We had gone there 4 yrs. ago but this time David (our guide) explained more to us - last time we were just let loose to figure it out on our own.  It was interesting... Afterwards, we went to the toy market to do some shopping for our precious gems back home:)  This was a "wholesale" market and no bartering there - We were fairly successful:) Tomorrow after we get Maylynn's tb test read (which looks good to us) we will go to the Pearl/Jade Market.
 
This afternoon we had a fairly successful time taking her swimming - there is a baby pool that we hung out in - i wanted to take some pics but they wouldn't allow it around the pool area...
 
She is such a good player - it is so much fun playing with her during our little "play therapy" sessions:)  She loves to copy my marks when coloring and whenever we are done playing with anything - she is SO good about cleaning up and putting her things away!  Oh and she loves the stacking cups - i've never seen any child play with them as long as she does - they've been a hit too:)
 
Maylynn is doing better - we are starting to think that her little crying/whining fits are out of habit now.  I've been able to do pretty much everything for her/with her -she'll cry a little bit but it's kind of a dramatic cry and she easily stops when we are done getting her dressed or help her go potty etc...  we try not to make a big deal out of it - we'll console her and tell her it's okay etc... but then we move on.  Like i said in an early post - we pick and choose our battles...
 
We've begun the countdown until we go home :)

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Guangzhou - Aug. 1

Yesterday was actually a really bad day - i had my break down moment last night and just let it all out -it felt good, my heart was so broken... Maylynn definately went backwards yesterday but today was an exceptionally NEW day!  We saw so much more of her personality today and it is precious!  We thought for sure she'd be whinny and crying miserable all day b/c of her shots but that was not the case.  She kind of sat by herself for breakfast, smiles, playing with me, blowing me kisses, playing peek a boo, playing ball, dancing, singing - granted there were a few times when she'd try to resist me... we are now keen on when she is just being dramatic or a power struggle:)  So, we pick and choose the battles;)
 
I gave her bath this morning and was able to do pony tails today - so darn cute!! We had a wonderful breakfast here - i think that the 4 lbs. that i lost last week i will be gaining this week - although, we are still sweating about 2 lbs a day - no need to work out to break a sweat here! It was wonderful to see so many Americans at breakfast - some familiar faces from Nanning too... We met Rebecca (guide) at 9:30 for Maylynn's medical exam.  Before the exam we had her passport/visa picture taken - i was able to get a cute smiling picture - then we headed to the medical exam.  The examiners were very good with her and understanding (better than when we were there 4 yrs ago) The last stop was the shots and TB test - we thought she was going to have 6 shots but only ended up with 4.  We had quickly said a pr-yer before this step and we were so pleased to hear that she only needed 4 shots -still that is 4 too many that we wanted to do here but unfortunately it is mandatory and we cannot opt out of it - it had to be done to complete the adoption and get her visa.  The CDC and NVC require this for Hague families;( Hopefully, they will change this for others int he future.  She didn't cry with the TB test but there were tears flowing for the shots - we had to wait there for about 20 minutes before we could leave.  So far she has not had any reaction to anything - we did give her tylenol this afternoon and evening just in case:)  We have to go back Mon. morning to look at the TB test spot.
 
Lance and Maylynn found the playroom and had a great time playing while Rebecca and i finished organizing paperwork.  After lunch Maylynn and Daddy napped while i took the laundry down to get done and did more shopping:) After naps, we treated ourselves to Starbucks! - very expensive though and probably won't do it again... Then we headed back to the playroom - it was fun watching Maymay play with the other kids - she was so good with them.  It's funny to see people's reactions when we tell them her age - she looks more like 3 to us and this is what everyone else thinks too... In the playroom, there is a picture of her playing with another 2 yr. old girl and Maymay is about 1 head taller than her:)  But Maymay's speech is more like a 2 yr. old  - so who knows??? When Maylynn told us she was done playing we headed back to the room and played some more - coloring, stickers, ball, and with her new musical toy - i got some very cute video of her dancing:)  We had a nice dinner at an italian restaurant at the other end of the island and now we are back at the hotel for our night time routine.  Like i said, today was a great day:) We are looking forward to more fun times tomorrow - we think we are doing some touring with our guide.
 
Thanks so much for all of the pr-yers and comments - they are so encouraging:)
 
ps. don't forget to check out the pictures on the shutterfly website:)