We met Madeline!

                                        I've been waiting to write this blog post for awhile...

But I just haven't been able to bring my head out of the clouds!!

We had the WONDERFUL & AMAZING opportunity to meet our daughter Via Skype!

To summarize,a friend of a friend saw me on Facebook and recognized Madeline as one of the little girls at Starfish that she had met when she had volunteered there. She was there several months before we were matched with Madeline! Such a small world :)

We were able to connect with her and learn so much about our little girl:) Her daughter was planning on going back to Starfish in Feb. of this year to volunteer again. She promised to love on our girl for us:).

February had come and we received a few pictures. Every time I opened my email and saw RM's name I shrieked with joy. I knew what was going to be in that email...A new Picture!! Then one afternoon,along with a picture, she asked if we would like to Skype with her! She even mentioned that Madeline might be awake and we could see her! My heart was racing and I was almost in TEARS when I called Lee! I was excited to get to talk to RM over skype, as I wanted to thank her "in person" for the pictures, but the thought that I might see my daughter?!?!? I can't even begin to describe the emotions! :-)

It was 11 Pm  our time, but we were wide awake ( Thank you my dear Keurig...).

The sound wasn't working and when I tried to capture a picture on Skype, it would disconnect :(. But RM told us that she called us Momma and Babba quite a few times :)!!  We were on the call for about 20 minutes and got to watch her run and play:-)

I only have a few pictures of our first meeting:) I grabbed my phone and took a picture of the computer screen a few times, but it is forever engraved in my heart:)

I saved my favorite photo for last. It was the first time she actually saw us. She looked at us and gave us a HUGE SMILE as if she recognized us:) It still brings tears to my eyes!

We are so so so lucky to have been given the blessing to be her Mom and Dad:)

Now, Please LOA, Hurry up!

LID

Yay yay yay!:)

Now...we impatiently wait for LOA:-)

Chinese New Year!

Okay, I am  Super a bit late posting this. But the truth is since we are waiting on LID and LOA I have nothing fun to post about :-)

Lee and I decided to go to the Seattle Chinese New Year celebration! We wanted to get a taste of Madeline's culture ( well, as good as you can in Seattle, Washington).

 BOY.OH.BOY it was CROWDED. As in, people are pushing and shoving. If you have a personal bubble I would recommend watching from the side lines:)

***Please forgive the quality of pictures...I don't own a camera anymore, only the one on my phone:-) ***

We really loved the decorations everywhere. I didn't capture them all, but lots of lanterns and dragons!

The Dragon Parade!

The childrens Costume contest ( My personal favorite part...SO CUTE!)

And I didn't get pictures of this much, but they had alot of sword fights, kung fu etc...This little boy was DARLING!! He literally had the crowd wrapped around his little finger!

And, My first experience with Dim Sum! I was so confused. They came with a cart, and I was waiting for a menu. Then they started lifting lids off things and asking me what I wanted.  I just kept nodding yes to everything they said until our table was too full. It was our first experience as our usual exposure to Chinese food is Panda Express :-) This one that is cut in half that I'm showing was SO SO GOOD. It was a bit greasy, but it was fried, doughy, had a sweet but meaty taste? Not sure what it was, but I've been craving it since!

And, I noticed something. Lettuce. Yep, that's right. Lettuce. Hanging in front of doors?!?!?!? Lee and I probably looked so goofy standing there scratching our heads:)

It was a great experience. We can't wait to take Madeline next year!

Q&A

I'm trying not to look at the calendar and calculate just how far we may be from LOA. Especially since it FEELS like we were DTC months ago...but then I see...it was only last Friday. Patience has never been my best quality:) So, in the mean time, we have been getting alot of questions that I thought instead of bombarding my facebook, I would answer them here:)!!

Q: When do you travel?

A:Oh I so wish we knew when:). Right now, we are waiting for LOA and it's a very unpredictable process. We receive LOA 30 days to 120 days. And from there, well I just don't know yet:)

Q: Are you both going to China

 A: At this point, No :( We had a major unexpected event happen last month that pretty much ate my ticket costs. I'm doing well on the items I'm making so who knows, maybe I'll sell enough that I will get to go. Either way, she's coming home:) ( I'm even trying to see if I can get into a Saturday market...still trying to figure it all out:-)

Q: What is Madelines Heart Condition? Is she expected to have a normal lifespan?

A: Define normal. There's no guarantee to ANYONE's lifespan. We are all here as long as God wants us to be. She could live 1 year, she could live 100...As to her heart condition, it is severe, but her day to day life will not be too far off any other childs.

Q: Are you keeping her Chinese name?

A: Sort of. We are making it her middle name:)

There are a few bigger questions that have been asked, like Why China... why are you adopting etc... but those are much longer answers. I've written and re-written the answers a million times. But the simple truth is, Madeline is in China. So, to China we go. We felt drawn, and called, to adopt from China.

As to why we are adopting, we decided years ago that instead of spending the money on treatments to have a biological child, why not take that money and adopt a child that was waiting for a Mom and Dad? And how OH.SO.VERY happy we are we made that decision! Many people have said Madeline is so lucky...the truth is, Lee and I are so lucky to be getting her! God chose us to be her forever parents and it's such an honor the He is trusting us with such a special gift. Lee and I are the lucky ones:)

Here are some pictures from Lee's friend and co-worker Hsun Ming. Hsun Ming went to China last month to visit his parents, and then went to Xian to visit a friend. He took some medical supplies from us to Starfish and got to meet our daughter. She had a high fever and wasn't in the best of spirits, but all I wanted to do was hop on a plane and cuddle that sweet baby until she felt better!

And the moment we have been waiting for!

We got the email this morning! We are DTC today! So excited!

Almost!

There seems to be an endless road of obstacles. Once we conquer one, another presents itself. It should have been pretty easy. We met the requirments, no arrest's, stable ( or was at the time of our homestudy...but that's another hic-cup) employment...it's just this darn authentication paperwork. We have had our I797 now for over a month! But, today we got the call from Caring Hands that the paperwork is done and she is sending it to us today via Fed ex! I'm hoping this means we will should be dossier to China next Friday. So much relief that this process is almost done. I didn't think authenticating would present this many challenges:) Next will come the LOA wait. Here's praying this goes fast! :)

Frustrated

We received all our documents back from the Chinese Embassy right after Christmas. They didn't Authenticate them because we didn't send in photocopies. Okay, we can deal with that. We made the copies and sent it off again. This time, desperatly hoping for them to come soon enough that we could be dossier to China by Chinese New Year. But just a few days ago, that little big envelope came back, with all our documents, again declined. But this time they put a note saying we are to seperate everything and send it in individually? Huh? The biggest rule of paperwork is not to remove the staple! I emailed a copy of it to our agency, and still awaiting their reply. So our dreams of being DTC before Chinese New Year was just that, a dream. We both know the Lord has everything in His timing, and we have learned many times again that His will/timing is always perfect. But it still hurt just a bit opening that envelope and seeing the documents returned again. In the mean time I am starting on Madelines 100 good wishes quilt. And, we are almost done with her room ( I'll post pics soon!) That should keep my mind occupied since I can't sew to save my life:)