3 months...

We have had our little Madeline for 3 months:) It's hard to remeber a time without her! I wish I could say it was an easy and smooth transistion for all of us...

I didn't get around to blogging because these last 3 months have been soley focused on Madeline adapting to her new environment ( and Lee and I adapting to being parents).


So, I figured I would start with a little history over the last three months! :-)


We LOVED China. Well, we didn't when we were there. It was dirty, it smelled funny, and the people weren't as friendly as we are used to. But after our intial culture shock, we grew to love everything about China. We are so longing to go back ( and hopefully for a particular little girl who has been waiting for a family for over a year) :-)  But more on that later...:)


Here are some pictures of our journey to Beijing! It was a frantic last minute dash, we were by no means prepared which is odd for Lee and I given we are both fanatic planners:-)

 A dear high school friend of mine was at the airport too! She was on her way to take a trip to Idaho to visit some friends and came over to see us for just a moment. I can't tell you how much my heart was warmed. I love this girl!

Me as my mom came into the door. You can't see it, but I was in TEARS. I hadn't scrubbed the toilets, I hadn't put on my makeup, we still had to stop by Kinkos to make copys of some paperwork, the car seat wasn't in the car yet ( nor was the car detailed). She cheered me right up though! She took this picture with a camera she bought for us. She buys them as a gift for all her daughters when they are welcoming their first child! It meant so much to me that she did it for us too :-)

 My mom and I as Lee drives us to the airport. I could hardly contain my nerves! I wish I could say I was happy and so excited, but at this point, I just needed sleep and something for the anxiety I was going through.

 This is Lee...sleeping on the plane. I was so jealous. I was up the entire flight. Darn those nerves!

 Once we arrived at our hotel, Lee got a message from his friend who was also in Beijing visiting his parents:) The guys went out for a drink while I went to the room to try to get a few hours of sleep. The next morning ( well, actually that morning, since it was 1 Am by the time we got to our room) we had a full day of tours!

 

More pictures to come as I want to remember everything before anymore of this journey escapes me!:)

I can't believe it

I am sitting here at work, one week away from Take off, and I still can't wrap my mind around what is about to happen.:-)!

It feels like the next week is going to drag on and on, but I can say in 10 days I hold our daughter for the first time..Wow:)

We will be blogging while in China ( even though I have really neglected it lately...thanks FB:-). I think I remember how to post a link to my blog on my FB wall...? Oh well, I'm sure I"ll figure it out:-)

Picture from our Skype session earlier this year:-)

TA, CA and Tickets!

This has been a crazy blessed week:-)!!!

We received our TA on Tuesday...

Our CA confirmed Wednesday...

and our tickets bought TODAY!! :-)

Gotcha day is scheduled for the 12th!!! :-)

Now comes the task of trying to pack our stuff into small carry ons since donations ate alot of our suitcase room:-)!!!

Two weeks from today, we will be heading to the airport, ready to embark on the journey of a lifetime! :-)

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I have participated in the Blog world. I can't wait to get caught up on all my favorite blogs :-)

It's been a hectic 5-6 weeks. Madeline should be coming home next month ( our A5 should have picked up this last Friday). I had my toddler shower ( I'll post pics later:-) and we  have her bedroom and bathroom all done! We have clothes, toys and lots of love waiting for her.:)

But, even in this time of celebration, we have suffered a devastating loss. Amanda De Lange. A woman whom touched so many lives.

She is the Founder/Director of Starfish foster home (where our daughter resides). Earlier this year she was found to have cancer. She fought, and she fought hard, but in the end the Lord wanted her home. She passed away last weekend...Saturday morning in Tennessee( she came from China to receive her treatments).

 Only just a few short months ago there was a Starfish family reunion. Since Amanda was in the States for treatment, families whom had adopted children from this Foster home came from all over to celebrate. I mentioned in a Face book comment that I wish we could have joined, but our little Star fishy wasn't home yet. Amanda  told us we should still come, that she considered us apart of this family.

We didn't go.

We never got to thank her for saving our Daughters life ( In person, we had exchanged several emails since last September).

I never got to give her that hug and to say Thank you, face to face.

I never got to meet her, in person, the woman who saved our daughter.

And that hurts.

What hurts worse is we could have financially pulled it off. It would have been tight, but it could have been done. But, we talked it over and decided that there would probably be another reunion next year...we would go to that one. We were sure Amanda would be around still...and we were wrong.

Amanda, you will always have such a big place in our Hearts. I have saved each and every email exchanged between us for Madeline in her baby book. I will be sure to raise her to know the Lord, to serve others before herself, and to love...unconditionally.

Amanda's last words to her Starfish Babies:  "To the babies of Starfish, I want you to know that I have given it my best effort, my all. My life has been to care for and love you. Wherever you go in your lives IO wish you the very best. May you always be drawn to those in need and may you never forget that at a very critical time in your life there was someone there at the door to welcome you into the house. Be the change you want to see in the world." Amanda De Lange 1961-2012



LOA!

Between facebook and a great group of ladies on our DTC Winter group, I keep forgetting to update my blog! :-)

We received LOA last week Monday, and are currently awaiting our I800 approval!!! :-)

I'll have to post some new pictures of Madeline that we received. I just can't believe it, within just 8-10 weeks we will be on that plane!

Day 77 tomorrow on our LOA

AND...STILL...WAITING.

Patience? it's gone.

Waiting and Waiting

We are still waiting on our LOA from China. The Letter of Authorization is a big step, and once received we travel in 9-12 weeks. The wait is painful only because there is no pattern to it.

Some people wait 30 days (rare..but happens)


Some people wait 120 plus days (sadly, this isn't as rare as one would hope)


And we are on day 57...Yep. Only 57.

Tick ...Tock... Tick... Tock...