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:)

A wonderful Weekend!

This weekend we received THIS! :)

Our I800A approval! :) Almost DTC!!! We also received these!

The last one is of our daughter and her very best friend, Jane. They are always together and we are so fortunate to already be in touch with Jane's soon to be Mom and Dad:) All in all...it was a very GOOD WEEKEND:)

Care Package and new picture!

Our Madeline is at Starfish Foster home in Xian, China ( check them out here, she goes by Charlotte). It's such a wonderful place that provides all that she needs to enjoy a healthy and loving life until we can bring her home. That said, We still wanted to send her a little something for her Birthday and Christmas so we hired Lady Bugs in Love to put together a package for us. We sent her a picture of us to give to our daughter, a letter that she translated, candies for the nannies and money to buy a little doll. Here is what she put together for us:)

We love the pillow, and hopefully it will help our faces not seem so foreign to her on adoption day ( That is the hope of course:). The Foster home is providing a cake for her birthday.

To some, this may seem normal. But in the adoption world, the care and treatment our daughter is getting isn't :) She is so very blessed to be at Starfish:)

Amanda, the founder and director of Starfish, posted this picture on her Face book last night ( I'm sure she wouldn't mind me stealing it:). The date stamp is wrong, as it was just taken yesterday, but isn't it the most precious? That is our Madeline in the back holding the bottle and her best friend Jane trying to feed the new little baby. Our hearts MELTED seeing this:)

**Note for those whom may be concerned about her coloring...our cardiologist said it is completely normal and no harm is happening. It will go away once she is home and has her surgery*




But, we had to send her a little something for her Birthday and Christmas.