We're going to China!

We received our Travel Approval on Wednesday and today received our confirmed Consulate appointment, so all that is left is to get on a plane!  We have a week to finish up the packing.  We are off next Friday and will be meeting He Fu Di on 12/12.  So excited!  We are flying to Hong Kong by way of Vancouver.  Then will take the train to Guangzhou, where we'll spend two weeks doing the finalization paperwork, medical exams, and consulate appointment.  We'll be home the day before Christmas.  Please pray with us for smooth traveling and that we do everything right to help Fu Di through this big transition in her life.  We are so excited!!

Halloween 2011 and an adoption update

Mr Conductor and Ms Knight trolled the neighborhood briefly on Monday.  There were just a couple of other families out and we didn't go far before we were ready to go home, but great fun was had by all while it lasted.

Our adoption paperwork has been winding its way through the US immigration approval process.  Our Article 5 will be picked up at the US Consulate in Guangzhou on November 15th, then everything goes back to CCWAA, where they will issue our approval to travel.  We are hoping to receive travel approval by the first week in December and plan to travel immediately after receiving approval.   So ready to be done waiting.

One step closer

We are one step closer to traveling to China and bringing Faith FuDi home.  We have finally received the next piece of paperwork in this long adoption journey, our Letter of Acceptance from China, which is the official approval of our application to adopt FuDi.  Next we file more paperwork with USCIS to assure legal immigration status, then another approval from China and then we finally travel to bring her home.  It's usually no more than 3 months for these last steps of the paperwork process, but  I think about the only thing we can say with assurance she'll be home with us before the end of January.  So much longer than we anticipated....last January I thought we'd be traveling in August.  Ha!  I am just thrilled that we are finally at the end of the grueling LOA wait.  We were so sure we'd be on the shorter than average and ended up way beyond an average wait. But now we're onto the next step - more paperwork.  At least from here it's much more predictable.  Or so they say. 

What a flower girl

Melinda was a flower girl for a dear friend last weekend.  She was a little nervous about her responsibilities, having never been a flower girl before (or even attended a wedding ceremony for that matter).  But she didn't let that get in her way.  She did great!  She walked exactly where she was supposed to, at exactly the right pace, and stood up with the other attendants throughout the ceremony.  Makes a momma proud.

Happy 9th Birthday

Half a world away Faith FuDi is now 9 years old.  On our side of the world we are thinking of her and celebrating for her. 

Happy Birthday big girl!

Care package

We're making slow progress on our adoption.  Our move slowed us down a bit, as we had to have a home study update done for our new residence.  We managed to get that done in just two weeks - which allowed us to receive our USCIS approval at our new address, saving us the hassle of filing an address change.  It worked out wonderfully, but meant we're a few weeks behind where I'd hoped we'd be.  That delay, and the extra five weeks the homestudy took with our California social worker have us very nearly using the entire six months we were given to get the dossier to China after our pre-approval.  But despite the various delays, our dossier (all the paperwork we've been gathering since early January) should finally be ready to go to China this week.  Praise the Lord!  So the rest of the process is a wait for approvals.  We'll wait for China to review the dossier and issue an LOA (Letter of Acceptance), which we sign and return.  Then we wait for China to issue a TA (Travel Approval), at which time we make airline reservations to travel to China for Gotcha Day.  Both of these steps can take up to 90 days...so we could be looking at yet another six months before we can go to China.  Sigh.  We've got lots going on as we settle in to our new community, so we are staying focused on that and trying not to get too anxious about the 'when'.

In the meantime, we've received permission to write a letter and send a little something for her birthday.  I am so excited!!

Faith turns 9 on July 2nd.  I saw this shirt and just had to buy it for her.  The little lamb is wearing a shirt that says 'You are loved' with a small embroidered cross beside that.  We'll add some candy for the other children at the orphanage before we seal up the box.  I am so excited to be sending this to her!

This week we also sent her a letter of introduction.  If she didn't yet know a family was working to adopt her, she will soon. Our agency's facilitator in China will translate it and deliver it to Faith, who might, we are told, write back to us!  We can only hope.  I am so excited to be able to send her the letter and gifts, to know that she finally will know that she has a family working to bring her home.  I wonder if she is excited or simply scared.  I am praying for her well-being during this transition - such a humungous change for her.

Leaving California

After 12 and half wonderful years in California, we are headed to Oregon to start a new chapter in our life together.  As we have prepared to depart, we find ourselves trying to cram in just one more California adventure, week after week. First it was a Friday afternoon spent riding the cable car, eating chocolate at Ghirardelli Square, and buying souvenirs along the waterfront.

Then it was off to Muir Woods for a Saturday morning walk among the redwoods.

And then some after supper bike riding in the warm California sun. (Hard to believe our boy has graduated to a two-wheeler.  Didn't he just learn to pedal his trike?)

California has been good to us.  But we are excited to find out what awaits us next.

Time for an update

It was time for a new look on the blog.  A big thank you to Blogs with Purpose for the help in redesigning the header and giving us a fresh new look, complete with pictures of each one of my blessings (and their significant others).   Our latest blessing, who waits for us in China, is over in the sidebar.  Just as soon as we travel we will move her on up into the header.  Still hoping that happens in August!

And just in case you are wondering what's up with the process.  Our homestudy should be on its way to our placement agency and then the USCIS next week.  Fingerprints, here we come!

Our family is growing again!

Yup, it's time to do something about the blog name, 'cause we are becoming a family of 9. We have embarked on a new adoption journey, to a waiting child in China.  She is 8 years old and waiting for us in Guangdong Province.  We have been paperchasing since early January and hope to have our dossier to China soon soon soon.  Then we wait.  For approvals (both USCIS and China) and then finally we travel to bring her home.  Most likely that will happen in late summer or early Fall.

We feel blessed to have been chosen again to be the family for another precious child of God.  We can't wait to introduce her to you, our family and friends! 

Adoption

Adoption has been on our hearts a lot lately.   ALL of our six children mean the world to us.  It is the joy that we find in 'being family' that calls us to open our hearts and lives to children through adoption.  Amy Eldridge, Executive Director of Love Without Boundaries, has written a particularly moving article about older child adoption here  http://www.lwbcommunity.org/on-my-own.

 I hope you'll take the time to hop on over the the Love Without Boundaries blog and read about it.  (And then watch for some exciting news here in the next few days.... you'll see a hint over there on the sidebar...)

New blog

It's been a long time since I've updated this blog. We're all doing well. Another year older, maybe a little wiser.

Recently I've turned my blogging attention to another topic that is near and dear to my heart - "living more with less." We took a big leap of faith 18 months ago which led us to many lifestyle changes. Come on over and read all about it at Simply Life.

And since this blog has been all about the two latest additions to our family, here are a couple of photos from Halloween 2010. Too cute!!

Between two Gotcha Days

A little more than a year ago Melinda joined our family. A little less that three years ago, we were in Taiwan picking up Alex. On either side of those travel anniversaries, they each have birthdays. Alex turned four a week before we celebrated Melinda's '1 year home' adoption day, and Melinda will turn two just two weeks after Alex's '3 years home' adoption day. So from mid-September to mid-November it is one celebration after the next with these two. I can't think of a better way to spend the Autumn!

One Year Ago


Today (believe it or not, that's a smile)


Three years ago

Today

Writing, finally

One of the things Alex has shown absolutely no interest in - ever - is picking up pen (pencil, marker, crayon, chalk or any other writing implement) and putting it to paper (or any other surface). In fact, from early on he was down right emphatic about not participating in anything remotely related to writing. Finally that is changing! He's taken an interest lately in the big chalkboard easel in the playroom, drawing great sweeping circles around and around. He's always loved circles and it's been fun to see him enjoy creating his own (finally!). Tonight we had an even bigger breakthrough. His very first person:



and his very first attempt to write his name (I've highlighted each letter to help you read it - A in yellow, L in blue, E in green and X in magenta):


I am one proud mama!

wow, where does the time go?

I can't believe it's been so long since my last post. I guess we've been busy! Alex had another eye exam under anesthesia in early February. His condition remains stable - no better and no worse. They determined that he is nearsighted on top of everything else, so he now has glasses, which should help a little 'at places like the zoo', according to the doctor. They are just a hindrance when he's indoors and doing work at the table, so we don't see him wearing them very often. But he sure is cute when he does!

As a gift from my company the four of us spent a week at Club Med Ixtapa Pacific in late February. It was heavenly to be 'in summer' after the long cold December and wet February we've had at home.

Melinda was a pro at lounging. She's now 16 months old and has really come into her own in the last few weeks. Suddenly we're seeing lots of smiles and hearing lots of laughter, after five months of very serious study and observation on her part. She takes learning very seriously. And her work pays off. She's feeding herself with a spoon and fork, and not far from using a knife. She drinks from a cup without spilling (most of the time) and is down to just a bottle or two a day - one of which remains in the middle of the night. She's even used the potty a couple of times in the past week. My little overachiever. We invested in a Learning Station and both Alex and Melinda love being at the counter helping prepare meals. Stirring and pouring are favorite contributions.

Happy Chinese New Year

Wishing you health and prosperity in the year of the Ox!

Our day in court

Yesterday was our California re-adoption day. Yippee! Regardless of which type of immigrant visa you arrive with (IR4, which means you are a US citizen upon arrival in the US or IR3, which requires a formal court process in the US for citizenship), the state of California requires the formal court process to recognize the foreign adoption. Between Christmas and New Years Melinda and I spent a nightmare-ish 2 hours at the courthouse to file our paperwork and receive our hearing date. I naively thought we were simply going to drop off some forms and did not prepare for a wait. And we went right before lunchtime! 90 minutes of crying later, we finally got to the front of the line to hand our packet of forms to the clerk. 30 minutes after that we were finally out of there. The silver lining is that we received a hearing date for just a few weeks later. And yesterday was our day! Some time in the next 12 months we'll receive a Delayed Registration of Birth (new birth certificate) listing us in the Mother and Father sections and listing her as Melinda Hui-Min. In the meantime, we have our official court order as proof that she is legally ours. The hearing took mere minutes, leaving us alot of our afternoon left. So we sped off, with order in hand, to the Social Security office to apply for her SSN, where we learned there's some 'discrepancy' with her immigration paperwork and they will need to investigate before issuing a SSN. Hmmmm.

Here's an adorable photo taken during our swearing in....I didn't notice at the time that Melinda has also raised her hand for the swearing in. Too cute!


And here we are after the festivities. We had the same judge who performed Alex's readoption hearing.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Santa, one year ago

I've been enjoying seeing all the 'last year at St. Lucy's' photos on everyone's blogs, so here is ours! Melinda was five weeks old when this photo was taken. (If we get it together enough to see a Santa this year I'll update this post with a 'and now' photo!)

Back to work, can you tell?

My family leave came to an all-too-soon end just before Thanksgiving, causing the last month to streak past me before I had a chance to catch my breath. Thanksgiving came and went, without any acknowledgment on this blog. But we did celebrate and gave thanks for all our dear children, near and far. Melinda greeted her new country's holiday with gusto - loving every little bit of the Thanksgiving dinner that was put before her. (She ate turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie.) Alex, on the other hand, ate cranberry sauce, calling it 'strawberries'. We tried offering him ketchup for his turkey, but he merely licked off the ketchup and left the turkey. This picky eater stuff is a first for me. That boy is always expanding my parenting skills! Now we're gearing up for Christmas and New Year's. We'll have a house full - and I'm looking forward to the mayhem!

Melinda is now 13 months old. In a week she will have been with us for a full 3 months. It's hard to believe it's been such a short time. She's settled in so completely it feels like she's been with us since day one. She is a doll baby! She's sprouted three new teeth in the last couple of weeks (going from 7 to 10) and expanded her vocabulary. She's now saying hi, Mama, Dada, go (which really comes out ga and is usually spoken with the pacifier firmly in place between her teeth and her arm outstretched in the direction she wants to be carried) and hot (which she uses appropriately when standing too close to the oven as I try to remove hot pans while simultaneously keeping her from getting any closer than she already is). Here's a photo taken at exactly 13 months, on Dec. 5th.

How we spent our weekend

This past weekend was our final Parents Weekend with daughter #3. I can't believe she is graduating from college in May! So we trucked ourselves to southern California to spend some time on campus with her. With two little ones in tow, we decided not to make the drive all in one day and left late in the day, stopping at a hotel for the night a bit more than half way there. We had a nice visit on campus, but while we were there the wildfires in LA closed the route home, so we had to decide - stay until the road is open or find an alternate route. We chose to take the coast road home, which nearly doubled the length of the return trip and necessitated yet another night in a hotel on the way home. It also meant that we spent alot of hours in the car, every day of our time away. Suffice it to say Melinda is not the traveler that Alex is. She did not like being in the car seat in the dark, nor when the sun was streaming in her window. It made for an unhappy camper a good part of each drive. When she wasn't unhappy she was napping, thank goodness. We'll wait until she's a bit older to take her on another car trip I suspect.