Madeline's little heart

We finally had our appointment with a cardiologist about our little Madeline's heart.

And hearing about it broke mine.

Although from researching and a few brief passings with cardiologists about her condition we had some inkling of what we may hear...

We weren't quite expecting to hear what we heard.

She's gone through so much in her short life.

But we know God can heal all :)

She will have the best Doctors "Money can buy ( or in our blessed case, Insurance) :-)

And all our love :-)!

And that combination...There's no beating that:)


Madeline, we are so blessed to be your Mommy and Baba(Daddy). We can't wait to bring you home and help your little heart begin to heal physically...and emotionally.

Introducing...

Our Daughter :-) Madeline Qian VanGrunsven

We are smitten:-) Her birthday is December 25th 2009, our little Christmas blessing from God!

I can't wait to tell you all about her, but for now here are the pictures of our little Madeline:) As you can see, she is in a WONDERFUL place run by a even more WONDERFUL woman...I'll share more on the next blog post because it would take to long to write it all up, and I'm just too excited to share:) We shared this on Facebook too, but we know not everyone has Facebook:)

Giddy, Happy, Blessed

Stay tuned... :-)

Homestudys, Fortune Cookies and Garage Sales

Our Homestudy WAS APPROVED by our agency! Woot woot! That means we get to fill out the I800A (thx Mary!) Form (Application for Determination of Suitability to adopt a child from a Convention Country form). This is a form we send to the American Government. It's currently a 2-3 month wait for approval.One more step closer! :-) Forgive the image quality. I took a picture of my computer screen and had to lighten it enough for you to read...making it a bit distorted:)

Also,I firmly believe that God can use crunchy pieces of goodness to deliver encouragment! Panda Express is a weakness of mine, but that was okay because the closest one to my house was 40 minutes round trip(making it difficult to indulge) Well,one was opened in my hometown right next to my other addiction(Starbucks!!!). Literally right next store. I was one happy girl. So, needless to say, my husband begrudgingly has been dragged there for dinner on more than one occasion. Each time I cracked that yummy fortune cookie I would ask God for maybe some special little fortunre for us about this adoption. Sure enough, he has delivered on more than one occassion! :-) Okay, I know these were pre-made...but out of the million of fortune cookies in their storage room, we got this one! This one really made us jump for joy...believe what you want, but I think it was divine :-)

And lastly! We had some things to get rid of. While normally we would just give them away or take them to the Goodwill, we decided to sell them at a Garage sale to help offset some of the expenses.

We had it at my In-Laws. I can't thank them enough! They went ABOVE and beyond anything I expected:) My Father in Law power washed his Driveway, trimmed the "Evil Cherry Tree" and made sure we have plenty of Tables. My inlaws also went and purchased a really nice White Canopy tent for my friends and I to sit under to escape the Heat ( It was pretty hot those days) My Mom in law priced, organized, and really made it all come together beautifully! Thanks Mom and Dad VanG!

I also wanted to thank my Mommy, she donated so many wonderful things. My sister Katie for all the toys, My Aunt in Law Gina for the Puzzles, My Mother in Law for all her misc. Items and Aunt in Law Aunt Judi for allowing us to sell some of her things for her to make our sale bigger:) And for my In-Laws neighbor Stacey who is just a Angel :-)

And, last but not Least, Amalia and Janeen. They sat out there with me in the Heat, and Amalia worked a crowd like no other. These two were pretty great considering I'm a sucker and can't stand my ground when it came to price bartering. These two really ROCKED! Here's me and Amalia on Saturday, Janeen was on Sunday. By Sunday I was too worn out and feeling oh so not pretty and avoided pix like the plague:-)

We still aren't matched yet, but it's coming! :)

Still...waiting.

Seems to be the nature of Chinese adoptions:) But I know it will be worth it:) In the mean time, we are keeping busy enjoy the summer with friends, and finishing up some last little details in decorating our home. I find myself wandering into what will be Madelines room and daydreaming about actually SEEING her in there:)
I've already got her room all planned out, we just need to know who and how old she will be:) We originally were going to have her in the larger bonus room, but decided instead that the room at the front of the house is much cuter...even though half the size, and alot girly'er. Well, and ALOT less work for the Dad to be to prep. No installing closets or closing off "windows".

For those of you who have asked where we are at in the process...:)
Our Homestudy is back in the hands of our social worker for edits and additions. Once that's done, and our agency approves it, We fill out a I800A form...and wait another 2 plus months for approval on that. I'll post a timeline on my next blog entry :) But...almost there:)!

In the mean time, we are enjoying Quality time with our Canine Kids :) Who were SCARED TO DEATH that they were about to get a bath in that river on our hike. Aren't dog's supposed to love water?

One more step :-)

Our homestudy! We just completed it and it's at our agency for review! YAY:)! We still have documents to mail for certification and then again for authentication...and a few more forms to fill out, but this is one step closer to bringing home our little one:)

We gathered our pictures for our dossier that goes to China. They want to see what we look like, our lifestyle...(etc) to better match us with a child. I put a few of them below that my Dad took for us yesturday. These will go in the batch we are sending of other misc. pictures ( I.E us with friends, us doing activites, and various other "snapshots" of our lives:)


Here is us in front of our house!

And here is a picture of us in front of one of our Fireplaces

and one for fun because we were DIE HARD HOT...and heat makes us goofy. Safe to say, this picture isn't going to China:)

Again..Too China:

and..Not to China ( I'm telling you...for Washingtonians...IT WAS HOT :)

This was the only usable one as it's been 10 years and 70 pounds ago since I've rollerbladed. All the others I have a look on my face of PURE FEAR, and I think a few tears too :) I"m determined to get comfortable on Rollerblades again:)

And the one of our faces Close up :) There are a few more we are sending, but these are the ones of mostly just us( Don't want to post other peoples pix without their permission:)

What's in a Name?

Call off the adoption! We have reached a point of contention... Lee won't give, I won't give. It's all over! We can't agree on the most serious issue of all!


Her Name.

Well....

The SPELLING of her name :)

I know...really serious issue right? Well, if you had access to our Work Email inbox's today, you would think so, we just can't agree:)!

A special little girl named Cara Madeline told Lee and I years ago that we should name our daughter Madeline ( we were telling her how once Sarah turns 30 we were adopting a little girl). We had already had it on our list of narrowed down names and when Cara made the suggestion, we just had to do it:) It was so cute:)

Well, here comes the hard part... How do we spell it?!?!? :-) Lee likes the traditional Madeline, I was thinking Madelyn. Neither of us are backing down...and I have a feeling until we board that plane to China...one of us is going to hope the other gives in:)