Happy New Year!

Graphics & Comments

Today was our day to go to the USCIS and have our fingerprints redone for the 3rd and final time. It feels so good to say that! It went off with out a hitch except they used the wand on me due to all of the metal in my ankle and arm. LOL! Just a fact of life now.

When we got home we had a package from our agency. Opened it up and it had all of the information about making our travel arrangements, a big brown folder to collect all of the documents in to take for the various appts. we will have and how much everything will cost. YIKES...It is alot of money to come up with.

We had our homestudy update for Jon Jon done by phone a couple of weeks ago. USCIS sends you a new updated I171 H form matching your request. There was one problem with our form... they were wiring the results to Ad dis Abba, Ethiopia!!! Can you believe it!
Got on the phone the next day with our agency and they submitted a request to correct the form. The correct form arrived with wiring the results to Guangzhou, China Dec. 24th.

May I say that it has been an exciting end of the year for us. We look forward to what 2010 has to bring into our lives. I got an update to our questions of Jon Jon's foster family. I will post about them tomorrow.

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year filled with new possibilities of positive changes in our lives!

Merry Christmas To All!!

Okay I got a cheap version of a photo/scrap booking program for my computer. I hate it!! I can not get it to work. I so want Photoshop program!!! I need to learn how to do digital scrap booking! Fast and soon!!!

Anyway, our house is smelling yummy with peanut butter bars, pumpkin bread and sugar cookies wafting through the stairwells! Planning the last minute Costco run for items tomorrow and B&N for calendars and stocking stuffers. While we are out I will go to Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice Soy Latte No Whip.. Yumm-O!!!

I have so enjoyed getting to know you my followers on this journey to adoption. I have made friends and met some really sweet mom's and mom's to be along the way. I have this kinship with you that will forever be our bond. It is so funny to take with family members and mention you by name " oh that is my friend in .... and we met on line". They are in amazement at the support that we provide for each other.

Thank you so much for being there for me!! May your Christmas be bright and lovely with your families. For those of us that are waiting for our children to come home I pray next Christmas will be filled with the joy and wonderment that only a child can give to this season!!!!

BELIEVE and HOPE

HP TouchSmart 600 PC Giveaway!!!

Okay there are over 5 different sites that are giving away 5 of these HP TouchSmart 600
PC's. It is an amazing opportunity to get a new PC. The offer ends on Dec. 24th.
The offer is from HP and BlogHer. The following sites are involved in the reviews of this wonderful new PC
Boo Mama from Sophie.
Kelly's Korner Reviews from Kelly.
A Year Of Slow Cooking from Stephanie.
MCK Mamma from Jen.
Nie Nie Dialogues from Nie Nie.

You can have several entries on each site.
This PC looks so cool as you can just use your finger on the screen to activate it and look at things etc!!
What amazing technology!!

The Weekend of Happiness And Lots of Surprises!

Wow where do I begin..... Lets start with this. I got this package in the mail from my dear friend Cora from Waiting 4 Little Miss Whats Her Name for the hat ornament swap that we did. In it was this great baseball cap and so fun Rudolph ornament that his nose blinks on and off! Super fun and cute to boot!! I can't wait to see Jon Jon in the adorable hat!


Yep in my eyes he will be my little All Star!!



The image of the ornament was blurry. It is super fun and colorful!

Thank You So Much Cora!! We love them.

On Friday I went to the Dr's. I had X-Rays taken and everything looks great in my ankle. I have 2 pins and one anchor. So, I got a walking boot and the okay to weight bear as tolerated, to slowly wean myself off of the knee walker and crutches. The other thing he said was I could start driving without the boot which means I will have to take it off and on in the car. Hum mm... not sure how that will work! I have 2 weeks to practice with Mom and Dad here and hubby home. I can go swimming too as the wounds are healed. So, I have had about 2 days and I am doing okay. Going up and down the stairs with one crutch, sometimes using the knee walker, sometimes just resting as it feels tired and painful. It will be a day by day healing process.


We got some wonderful news from Ann also yesterday besides the care package. She was finally able to get updates on Jon Jon !! Not only that we also got some new pictures that were taken on Friday!!! I am so excited. My baby is still a baby and not as grown up as I thought from the last series of pictures in the fall. I have to admit though that he looks sad and concerned in these pictures. It makes me wonder if they have told him already he is going to be adopted.
So, by his measurements he is still in 12-18 mos size clothes. We are planning on taking 18-24 mos sizes for him. I was thinking maybe a size 2T but they might be too big on him. He is 31" tall and weights 24 lbs. Since April 2009 he has grown 2.5" and gained almost 6 lbs.

I bet you are all dying to see his new pictures.... Here he is!!!


He is such a little peanut and so cute!! The split pants crack me up.



I can't wait to kiss those adorable rosy cheeks!! I always love it that he has bright and colorful shoes on too. I wonder if he will want colored shoes..... as he gets older?

He is definitely my Sweet Cheeks Baby Cake!

Jon Jon's Care Package

I am so very excited! Today Ann from Red Thread China sent us the pictures of our care package. She was finally able to get a hold of someone at the Zhuzhou Orphanage to talk with for Jon Jon's size updates.I had so much fun picking out stuff and would love to send him more. Maybe I will send him a package in January.



Here it all is a minky soft blanket, PJ's, coat, hat gloves and scarf,toy firetruck,book, camera,candies, tea,cookies,His family picture book of us and a letter to his foster family and 10 questions.


Oh I can't wait to have him blast off into my arms in these Jammies!!


What a warm Camouflage jacket!



The soft cuddly minky blanket so all boy blue!


God danced the day
you were born.....
You are loved.
You are beautiful.
You are a gift of God.
~Meiji Stewart~


Jon Jon, Every night Mommy, Daddy and your Jie Jie pray for you. God has given us such a special gift and that is you my sweet boy. We pray you are safe, healthy, and warm. We pray that you are happy now and will be happy to have a forever family. You are so precious and you are so loved already. I so need to hold you and let you know everything will be okay. You are ours Jonathon meaning God has given and what a gift you are!

LOVE YOU FOREVER AND ALWAYS! MOMMY

From One Princess to Another.... Making Room For A Little Emperor!

I am closer to opening up my other blog site!I hope to have some pretties on there soon that you can bid on. I hope you will all find things that you just love and can't live without for your little princesses ! I have a button that I would love for you add it to your blog to help me advertise my auction site. I am really picky about the clothes that I am placing on this Auction site. Everything is in extremely good condition and gently used if not new with tags. I have all different sizes. Princess had alot of clothes and never wore anything more than 3-4 times. Some of the items where purchased with the thought of a mei mei for princess well we are getting a di di! My button is in my sidebar. Thanks a million!!

Here are a few items to entice you to come and look when I open the site!

Honoring Our Military At Christmas.

Many of you may not know this but for 10 years hubby and I lived on the East coast in MD. We use to go and visit all of the wonderful historical area's that had shaped our country. One of our favorite places was Arlington National Cemetery. I always found it so sorrowful but peaceful at the same time. I remember visiting at Christmas time and experiencing this beautiful site. IT is so breath taking. There is a wreath company Worcester Wreath Company that has been placing wreaths on Veterans graves for the last 19 years. We have so many freedoms here in the USA and we have so many Veterans to thank for our freedom. So many men and women have sacrificed their lives for our country... The founder of this company is doing this out of Thanks and Gratitude to the fallen that gave for this wonderful country the LAND OF THE FREE.........


A beautiful site to see and visit.




During this season will you remember to be thankful for the freedoms that we have here because of our hero's that chose to serve our country.

Adorableness Arrived!

I have to share some cuteness that came to my house from one of my Hat and Ornament swap partners.....



Jill from All for Lucy and Vivi too! sent me this adorable Monkey hat for Jon Jon. I just am so excited and think it is so precious!! It will match his new little monkey toe shoes!!! How amazing is that!!! She also sent me the most beautiful Red ornament with "Hope" in Chinese. What a lovely thought as yes now we have hope that we have a son to call our own. Each day it is becoming more real to me.



Today my BFF came over and brought me a pumpkin spice soy latte and this something blue bag for Jon Jon. Look what was inside.... I love this onesie it is so cute!! He also got his first little Tonka trucks. Yippee! They are the perfect size for packing to China and for his little hands.


Yes, He is a Prince Charming!!


I just love these little guys! Can't wait to see him playing with them.

While BFF was here we continued on the task of taking photo's of princesses pretties. I hope to have somethings up soon on my other new blog! We got a tree! It is soaking up the water. We hope to decorate it tomorrow night.

Thank you for all of your kind and encouraging comments!! I am still waiting for Ann from RTC to send me pictures of the care package for Jon Jon. Maybe tomorrow I will be able to share it with you.

Christmas Blues.....

I know usually I am happy and cheery. This week has been hard on me. I am so ready to dump this old cast. I am dreaming of taking a shower where I am not freezing with my leg outside of the shower door, or taking a hot steaming bath. The other things I can not do is go out to the garage and get something out of the extra refrigerator to make a meal or cookies. The shopping is only done on the Internet. I love the buss ell of the malls if it is early in the day. There is no Christmas up here except for a wreath on the front door that hubby was kind enough to purchase at Costco. So, I am sad...........


Maybe this has something to do with it! I so miss my Grande Pumpkin Spice Soy Latte!

I think I talked hubby into going to get the tree Saturday night. That should help to boast my spirits! We usually go to a cut your own lot in North Bend. This year we will be staying close to home and get a precut one.

I have been working on going thru the bins of Princesses clothes,fluffing them up and taking pictures to post on my auction site to help us raise money for the adoption fee's. It is a daunting task! One girlfriend came over yesterday and another one is coming over on Sunday to help me. When it is ready to go I will let you all know. I have alot of different sizes of cute and beautiful clothes. Princess was always dressed to the ninths! I hope to have somethings list soon. We need to make room for Jon Jon and purge the PINK!!
Hooray for BLUE!!!

We Signed It!!

Well, last evening we signed our LOA for Xia Yi Wei Jonathon in Zhuzhou,Hunan. Hubby is dropping it off at our agency today. I called them today to ask some more questions. It looks like we will probably be traveling by ourselves since we are SN's. I was thinking maybe they would send us with the latest batch of referrals but they didn't get any.


Jon Jon we are your new mommy and daddy to be!


CNY is from Feb. 14th and ends on Feb. 28th this year. So, we will probably try to go before or after to keep down the travel costs. I've heard it can be a rather noisy time to be there. Lots of fireworks and dragons and lanterns!!! Sounds like fun to me!!

This past weekend we had our big function for Northshore Special Families. It is our Santa event for our children with SN's. This is a group that a couple of parents and a teacher started back when our kids were just in Kindergarten. We saw a need for a social network for families in our area. It was a small group initially of just 4-5 families and now we have over 100 members. We have Special Santa, monthly mom's night out events, monthly potlucks where the kids come for a playdate and the parents chat and eat, we have playdates and sponsered gatherings for the children, and we also started a race Can Do Race to raise funds for our programs and to give back to the community.


My daughter and her girlfriend at Special Santa.



Aren't they cute!!


So I went to Ladybugs and Love site today to order my care package for Jon Jon and Angela is officially out of the office in China for the next month. I am so disappointed. I have heard such great things about their services. I could order the package but we would get it after Jan. 2010. So, I will probably try another site. I am bummed.... I want to send.him a package before Christmas.There are so many choices of what to send them with a basic package. It will be hard to choose!

Sweet Dreams ....

We have it LOA!!!!!!

Can someone just come and pick me up off of the floor.... I can't believe it! We got a call today from our agency letting us know that they have our LOA. It came in 22 days from our PA. I am in shock, crying and so many emotions are running around in my heart. I feel such relieve and an overwhelming sense of gratitude to my Heavenly Father for providing us with this precious little emperor that we will become his forever parents. I am so very thankful that his birth mother gave him life and that the birth family was able to make that heart wrenching decision at 6 mos old to give him the opportunity to have his needs met knowing they were unable to provide for his medical needs. I am Thankful for his foster family that has so lovingly provided for him and given him the opportunity to grow and love them. I am so very emotional right now......

We have decided on a first name JONATHON We will call him Jon Jon for short. Growing up in the Kennedy era I have always loved that nick name.

Yes, I did a new blog look for Christmas as it was time to change with a boy on the way. It will change again after Christmas. I used a free background and than had Tenille make a header for it. I love it! There are so many wonderful designers out there for blogs it is always so hard to choose!

I know most of you have heard by now but I just wanted to say congrats to Kaycee and Mike on their referral for the adorable precious Jennifer! She is cuter than a button with all of that gorgeous hair and so young!! The blog is Stories of Life in the Middle of Adoption linked.

A Candy Cane Cast!!

Well yesterday I had my Dr.'s appt. I have to tell you that I am very afraid of having casts cut off. I made my husband promise he would hold my hand while it was done. Well guess what? He was still parking the 4 Runner when they took me back to the cast room.

I told the tech I was afraid.... but that I knew that they had a guard not to go down to far so it won't cut your skin. He proceeds to tell me that this was not true!!! I was horrified. Of course hubby never made it in there. I was shaking and had tears brimming over my eyelids. It was over in about 3 minutes and no I didn't get cut. Good bye hot pink cast and rest of my stitches. No infection and it is healing well. I am doing better with the pain control too! Yippee....

So now I have a candy cane cast!!! It is pretty fun. Princess loves it and thinks it is cool. I have 2.5 more weeks to go in the cast. Next it is the cam boot so I can begin to walk on my right ankle again. I can't wait!!!



I so need a pedicure!



I got our Christmas cards yesterday and have started addressing them. Just collected the Fall decorations together and will get them put away. Christmas is coming and I can't wait to start decorating.

So during this whole surgery and recovery I have had a wonderful support group of friends and church family helping us out by cooking us meals, driving princess to school, having princess over for play dates,and helping with the cleaning. We set up this neat calendar from here Care Calendar. I put in my needs and than you have your friends sign up to fill the needs.

I am so very blessed to have such a caring group of friends!!!! THANK YOU so much to all!


We miss you little emperor and mommy so wants to hold you in her arms and make everything okay. Godspeed!!

Cyber Shopping Deals today

Just wanted to let you know if you like Monkey Toes shoes or socks that they are having a 40% off sale today!




Monkey Toes link.


The code for the 40% off is LADYBUGTURKEY









These are the ones I bought for Little Emperor! I can't wait to see them on his adorable feet.....


Happy belated Thanksgiving! We had a very quiet family of 3 dinner. Soon to be 4! Waiting for that LOA and Ta to come.......

Tomorrow I have a MD appt. to remove the rest of my stitches from my ankle. I have a hot pink cast on right now! Little princess loves it. I am getting cabin fever..... 3 more weeks of a cast on. UGGG......

Don't Forget The Hat & Ornament Swap Sign Up

Kids Hats by jody renee on Polyvore.com

The Hat and Ornament swap sign up ends tomorrow evening. You can join in the fun! You chose the gender and how many you would like to swap with 1 or 2. You purchase a hat and ornament and send it to your swap partner or partners. I will be matching you with your partner or partners. I need you to email me you address so I can forward that information to your swap partner or partners. I am hoping everyone can get them in the mail by Dec. 10th. Lets have fun and get in the spirit. Don't forget to tell me how many partners 1/2 what gender boy/girl and age of the child.

Leave a comment and email me your information jodyscottage@netscape.net

I can't wait to see little emperor in his new hats!!

Introducing Our Little Emperor!!

On Friday our agency AAO received our PA from CCAA to adopt Xia Yi Wei! Our little emperor is in Zhuzhou,Hunan and is 18 mos old. He has a SN but is cognitively intact and on target with all of his developmental milestones. With his SN there was a possibility that his hearing on his right side might be affected. Per the medical review though it is intact!

To me he is the most adorable and beautiful little boy! I love him to pieces and can't wait to have him in my arms. Without further adieu

PRESENTING our son Yi Wei (American name to be determined still)!!





Referral pictures at 11 months old.







Updated pictures at 16 months old. Love the motorcycle!

He is in a foster family and the Nana takes him to town everyday so he is exposed to alot and loves people. He is attached which is a good thing. It will be hard for him when we initially have him, but he can attach which to us is so very important!!


Please don't forget to join in the Hat and Ornament Swap! Can you please post about this on your blog. We NEED more participants!!! Thank you so much!!

Over the moon in love!

Hat and Ornament Swap!! Join in the fun...

Hello,

I decided that it would be nice to do a hat and ornament swap. I chose hats as you can be gender specific. Since we are going to have little emperor we can no longer do bow swaps. Gabby has so many bows and is deciding that it is okay not to wear them all the time. There are caps, winter hats, bonnets,skull caps, dress up hats etc. Have fun with this! Since it is close to Christmas I thought we could get an ornament for the Christmas tree for the child's collection. It could be a theme, from where you live, handmade etc.


So, if you would like to join in the fun let me know. Email me your name and address,which gender it is for boy or girl, if you want to swap with 2 people or 1 person.
I will give everyone until Nov. 19th to sign up. That is one week from today. Then I will match you accordingly and send your information to your swap partner (s) and vice versa.

I have been looking on Gap Kids ,Target,Children's Place, Gymboree and some other different etsy sites. There are some adorable hats out there! Let your friends know we are doing this so we can have a great swap! I tried to do a polyvore set for this but couldn't get my pictures in the set. So, will try again later.

Email me at jodyscottage@netscape.net Info needed is 1 or 2 person swap, boy or girl,size, and address.

I am recovering!!

Hi everyone,

So, I had my surgery last Friday for my right ankle. It took about 2 hours. Smooth and no nausea. They gave me a block at my knee for pain before the surgery started. That part was rough as they were digging around alittle behind my knee trying to find the exact nerve to block. It was painful. We got home around 11:15 and I crawled up the stairs.
I have crutches which are not the easiest things to move around on. I am being really good about not putting any weight on my right foot. I am set up in my bedroom and going between the bed and a glider with ottoman. Occasionally I am napping. Saturday night was really rough as the block began to wear off. The nerve pain is not fun to experience. Lots of sharp needle poke pain and hot burning pain. I still have numbness of my toes and mid foot which is to be expected due to the surgery. I go back in 1.5 weeks for post op and a cast.
The one thing I can not stand is not washing my hair. Hubby is going to go look for that dry shampoo for me today to use. Meanwhile I am using lots of hair things!

Oh, the cute thing is my cat and dog are like major love bugs and not wanting to leave my side!! Such sweetie pies!

No news on our PA or LOA. : (

HAT SWAP!!!

I am going to be setting up a Hat swap for our adorable ones! I was talking with Cora and since we have boys on the way we thought this would be fun to do. You can request a boy or girl hat for the swap. It will be the perfect time of year to do with winter on its way. I hope to get it set up by the end of the week.

Hugs,

30 Months Since LID , 9 Days Since LOI

It has been 30 months since our LID to China on 4/30/2007.



We are now 9 days officially LOI for little emperor! It is so hard not being able to share photo's but until we know for sure we have PA or LOA I can not post them.
Sorry!!! Hopefully soon......

Photo's courtesy of Flicker Creative Common's

Yesterday USCIS and Lunch with Cora!!

Well, Hope everyone has had a good week. I had to make an impromptu trip yesterday to Yakima,WA. It is a 2.5 hour drive from where we live. The weather was rather iffy with rain,fog, snow and construction on I 90. The purpose of my trip was to go to USCIS and see where our renewal of our I 171-H is that we filed last Sept. 2008. We had our fingerprints done at the Seattle office in Oct. 2008 and then got our homestudy sent in the end of Feb. 2009. At that time you had up to a year to file your homestudy after submitting your paperwork for the I600. I never heard from them and I just kept on waiting for the formal paper to come in the mail.


Needless to say it never came. Meanwhile we found or little emperor in Zhuzhou, Hunan China. It occurred to me we still didn't have our renewal. PANIC!!! So, we (Edd at AAO and myself) took it upon ourselves to email them everyday. Finally got a response that they did not have our request for renewal. Thank goodness for FEDEX tracking system. We were able to prove it got there, who signed for it, what time etc. So, emailed her about this and attached documentation. Waited and waited... Nothing. Last week finally she responded and said she had given it to her supervisor. Nothing the beginning of this week. So, talked with AAO and we decided that I needed to make a trip to USCIS in Yakima because that is where all of our paperwork is.

A friend that I have met through AAO, April DTC 2007 group lives out near Yakima.It is Cora from Waiting For Little Miss Whats Her Name. We have been following each other's blogs for awhile and email each other to catch up on where we are in adoption and how we are feeling. I sent her an email and asked if she wanted to meet and have lunch. We decided on a place Weds. night.

So, I drove to Yakima and got to USCIS 10 minutes before my scheduled appt. time. Thank goodness cause this girl had to go before she could sit down and talk to anyone!!! So, I go up to window # 4 tell the lady why I am there and she calls to the person I have been emailing to for the last 1.5 months. That person relayed to this lady that our renewal was on her desk and she was going to process it today. They talked back and forth a little more and discussed whether we owed any money (I don't think so cause we renewed before ours expired). No money owed. She asked me if I wanted to do fingerprints while I was there I said no as hubby did not come with me and we would do it in Seattle. She said she would send a renewal for scheduling our fingerprints with our updated I600A form. Okay, and that was it! It was 11:50 when I got out to the car and my appt. time was for 11:50. It took only 5 minutes to get something out of them. They did not need any paperwork or anything.
I was so prepared!! I had stayed up until 12:45am collecting everything I need to take with me!


Proof I was there! Last time we went we forgot to take pictures. At least now I have one.

What a relieve!! I laughed so hard on the phone with my agency. It just took a little nudge that yes we want this and are serious about adopting an orphan to get them to move on our paperwork.


Autumns color on street in front of USCIS.


Then I got to have lunch with Cora!! We had fun finding each other at first. I ended up in Selah and she was in Yakima in front of a closed down restaurant. We laughed so hard over this! Thank goodness for cell phones.... We finally got to meet. It was so amazing cause we just felt like we knew each other and had this instant connection! We had so much fun just chatting, sharing news about our little boys and our hopes that we can bring them home soon.I think we could have kept on talking forever but I had to get on the road and she had to get back to work. She is just such a sweet and dear person! I am so glad we met and hope we can see each other more often. We are going to try to get the boys together for playdates. I know we should meet some weekend and have a camp out! I bet the boys would love that! I know Princess would. Friends for ever!! We made sure we took pictures so we could show you all!


Myself and Cora pregnant for 30 months and counting!! Tee hee...


I stopped at Thorps Fruit stand and Antiques on the way home. It is always such a fun place to look around. I picked up some goodies for my friend Erin who had Princess over for a playdate with her son. Hope you enjoyed them Erin. I was so cold in there I had to get a Pumpkin Pie Latte! It was a good treat for on the way home.

Adoption Emergency Funds Needed By A Family

This was on our Loving Chinese Children and Waiting SN Children China yahoo groups this morning. If you can help this family out bless you!! I went to their blogspot and donated on Chip in.

I do not know this family personally but I wanted to let you all know
about them. They are an adoptive family in need. Due to circumstances
beyond their control they find themselves leaving on Friday to adopt
their son, without even enough money to pay their hotel. I know money
is tight for all of us. Most of us are in the midst of our own
adoptions as well. But if we could all give $5 or $10 they would have
what they need in no time at all. I believe with all my heart that if
we give to those in need, even if it is only a little, we will also be
blessed in our time of need.

Bringing Home Cooper Go here to Chip in!
To give away money is an easy matter and in any man’s power. But to decide to whom to give it, and how large, and when, and for what purpose and how, is neither in any man’s power nor an easy matter…
- Aristotle



Cooper waiting for his family. He has a pacemaker!


WE HAVE CONFIRMED LOI!!!! Yippee! It was sent electronically Thursday Oct. 22nd, 2009 AAO just let me know.