Our Forever Journey of Adoption

We Are Still In It!

2011-09-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

Hi! I don't have time to post as it has been and still is a crazy week! We are still here and doing the challenge though. I hope to post soon with pictures of Hubby's BD and Harvest Moon celebration. We have had a few MD appts. Now I am leaving for a working retreat this weekend. So, no time to catch up!

Miss you guys!!

Sept. 11....... May We Never Forget!

2011-09-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

Picture of all lost on Sept. 11th, 2001.

By Tom Kelly

Creative Commons

I love that they float lanterns to memorialize the victims on the Hudson river.
Sobering,,,,,,,

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

1st Day Of Preschool!

2011-09-10T11:12:00.001-07:00

Thursday was Emperor's first day at preschool. He was so excited to go he woke me up at 6. Thank goodness I was able to re direct him to the playroom. Princess was still sick so she had to come in the car. He loves to pose for the camera and say "cheese". I need to think of another word though so we don't get those cheesy faces too!! He picked out his clothes and got dressed. Ate a great breakfast and then was ready to go.

He so needs a trim!! It is so hard to know what to do with his hair.
I am trying to use gel to train his hair to the side but he hates it! What else can I do? Calling all Mom's of boys I need some input please.... Girls are easy . You just put a clip in it.

He had to show you his Elmo back pack. Don't tell him but I ordered a new one for him from Here.

Oh my he is growing up and looking so much older. It is amazing what a year will do. He still is a little squirt though as these are either 24 mos or 2T.

Immediately ran to play. He did hang up his back pack and jacket first though.

One of his new friends! He was too interested in counting the money to look at me. LOL so typical of him!!

Day 8 on the challenge.......

It was easy! With Princess still sick I just drove to/from Preschool.

Breakfast Waffles with peanut butter & a sprinkle of chocolate chips, banana's
Lunch Toasted Bagels with cream cheese and turkey slice on top, grapes
Dinner Steak with an Roasted Apple Marinade served over a bed of wild rice.
The rice and marinade have been hanging out in my pantry for years!!!
Roasted zucchini and crook neck squash, green salad and a bowl of blueberries.

Yesterday Day 9 ........

Yes, Princess was still home. I was fit to be tied...... I made sure that hubby went to Costco on the way home for the milk and eggs. Even though I needed to get out I just knew I could not. You see when I am upset or bored what do I do? I go shopping. It has always been a therapy for me. I was so afraid that I would break the commitment that I made to follow the challenge I sent him instead. I know myself. I can find anything to by at Costco that is not a necessity.

Breakfast French Toast and banana's
Lunch Ramen noodles with pea's, Hummus with baby carrots and string cheese
Dinner Split pea soup, grill cheese sandwiches and smoothies

So, after dinner I went on a long walk around the neighborhood. I still got to escape but in a healthy way.

Mommy No Nap..... I'm Not Sleepy!!!

2011-09-07T22:09:00.001-07:00

I bet you know where I am going with this title. Or maybe not....
Today as usual Emperor and I headed into my bedroom to snuggle and read books for quiet time /nap time. We read 4 books today and then tried to lay there quietly to fall asleep. Will this little monkey was just all over the place squirmy wormy, somersaults etc. I tried the shhh.... and fingers to my lips(Which now he does back to me) LOL!!! After 45 minutes I gave up and we got up. Emperor proceeded to go to the playroom and work on his computer and I was in my office working. Princess was in her room napping. Well, after about 1/2hr. I noticed how quiet the house was. I no longer heard the computer or his sweet little voice talking back to it. I thought I had better go find out what he is up to.

This is what I found!!!!!!!

I am taking this picture looking down my stairs near my office. I could not believe it! HE fell asleep on the stairs!!

Looking up the stairs! OMW I just could not believe it. I have to admit I was kinda freaking out that he could have rolled.

Little monkey. I gentle stepped around him and scooped him up. He stayed asleep for another hour on my bed.

When he woke up I gently reminded him that it wasn't safe to fall asleep on the stairs. I hope from now on this doesn't happen!!!

Day 5,6 and 7...... Equals 1 Week!

2011-09-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

Okay everything is running together on me..... We are still in the 30 Day of No Spending challenge sponsored by none other than Christie at Bushel and a Peck. I had to run to theYakima Fruit Marketto stock up on some yummy produce on Monday. I love going there and buying fresh stuff!! The peaches are so sweet and the blueberries are to die for. I am in heaven with all of this wonderful produce.

Monday night dinner was Polenta Pesto Lasagna. It was delicious and a great take on Lasagna. I found it on All Recipes.com. I needed to use the polenta up that was sitting in the refrigerator. I had the marinara sauce, pesto sauce, polenta, mozzarella cheese, pine nuts and the fresh basil ( in the garden). So, I didn't spend a cent. We did buy some bread sticks. We had a big green salad from the garden, and a bowl of fresh blueberries. Sorry I did not get a picture! We were so hungry we dove into it!!

Day 6 yesterday Princess was home from school with the yucky cold. We had preschool orientation so I had to call a babysitter to watch her. Jon Jon was so excited to meet his new friends and teachers. It is a small class of 5 children and 2 teachers.
HE walked right into the class with out hesitation. He talked to the teacher and sat down to play with the puzzles. He loved it!! I am so proud of him. On the way home we had to stop at the pharmacy to pick up other cold stuff that Princess will take. She is more picky. So another $20 for babysitter and $ 23.00 for cold and Tylenol meds. Argggg.....

Breakfast was toast with peanut butter and banana's, granola, mango's and oj.
Of course I had coffee!

Lunch was PBnJ, mini carrots and grape tomatoes with humus, and apple slices.

Dinner was a fantastic Tomato Pie!! I found the recipe on Melissa's blog. She has a blog called Midwest Magnolia. I happened upon her site when I went to enter her giveaway from her etsy shop. I fell in love with the adorable padded,zippered iPad cover. It is on my list for purchase come Oct! It is just the cutest girly girl cover. Now if it will just be there when I can buy it.

Ta Da......the Tomato Pie!

Go visit her site for the recipe. I had all of the ingredients prepared pie crusts, 4 Tomatoes, salt and pepper, scallions and basil, freshly grated cheese and mayonnaise(we use Vegenaise). We have 1/2 of a pie left for another evening. Besides the pie we had a big salad, and a bowl of cherries.

Day 7!! One week into the challenge!Yippee!! I know we can make it now. It has been so much fun creating and trying new recipes for my family. Princess is picky though. So I have to have some staples around for her. Today she was still home sick. So, I spent my day doing chores, cleaning, laundry, taking care of the plants inside and out, and gardening.

My hanging baskets. I have 5 of them across the back porch.

Breakfast was oatmeal, cinnamon apple toast, banana's
Lunch was Ramen noodles with pea's, nectarines and goldfish crackers
Dinner was using left over Santa Fe Quinoa salad. I added chicken and some cheese to it and a little more seasonings. Mixed it all up and rolled it into a Ezekiel tortilla's. Baked them for about 15 minutes and served them topped with sour cream, salsa, lime and cilantro. On the side we had avocado and tomato slices with garlic salt. Of course we finished it off with a fruit which was watermelon to night.

So, this challenge has been wonderful for us! We enjoy eating outside in the wonderful weather in the sun or on the back porch. Unfortunately we have had a few hiccups with having to buy meds and having a babysitter. I wish our family lived closer....

I will be posting soon! 1st Day of Preschool tomorrow! I can't wait and will take pictures of my little monkey. I have a funny post I will do right after this.

Happy Thoughts!!

Day 4.....

2011-09-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been really enjoying this challenge! If you want to see what I am talking about go visit Christie at Bushel And A Peck. She is sponsoring this great challenge of No Spending For 30 Days.

Yesterday was Day 4 for us. We are trying to clean out the pantry and only buy the essentials at the store.
Breakfast was French Toast, Stripples, Rasberries & Blackberries (freshly picked from our neighborhood bushes).
Lunch was just snacks for the kids Yogurt pops, & Apple slices
Dinner was Veggie Cheese Burgers, Baked Sweet Potato Fries, Southwest Quinoa Salad, and Grapes

I love to cook and we try to eat healthy. Hubby is Vegan, Princess is Vegetarian and Emperor and I will eat occasionally Salmon,Turkey or Chicken. So , we use alot of grains and beans in our meals. There are times where we use processed items from Morning Star to fill in the gap with protein. I preferr to eat Clean though and I am really trying to do this. I feel so much better.

We have had a beautiful weekend here in the Seattle area. Temp's are in the 80's and lots of gorgeous sunshine! It makes me so happy! Being raised in Southern California I love the SUNSHINE! Don't get me wrong I really enjoy all of the lush green of the the PNW. I could just do without all of the rainy, gray days that produce the wonderful beauty. this year has been really bad. Our summer so far has been a total of 2 weeks of sun.

So, Emperor has been sick. He woke up yesterday and was feeling better. He still had a stuff nose and little sniffles. His energy was back though! I thought we would never get him to bed last night. He was so full of it!

He helped me cook yesterday! He ran upstairs to our dress up chest and found this outfit.
It was Princesses when she was little.

My little Chef!

Sunday Snapshot...Princess Is A 6th Grader!

2011-09-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

As Mom of a child with Autism days can be awesome, okay or just terrible. Princesses 1st day of school was Weds. I have been preparing her that she was going back to school for the last 2 weeks. I have made sure that I get up around 6 and get her up around 7. I am making sure to give her meds around 7 also. Then she can listen to music and ponder her day for a few minutes. Then I make sure to set her up with everything to get dressed with. I give her help if she requests it. Then she will make her bed and come downstairs(I might have to call for her 2 times). I am trying to have her make her lunch and help with making her breakfast.

Today was an awesome day. There was some anxiety before leaving the house. I have to remain calm and not let her outbursts phase me. Not always easy to do when we have a timeline to leave the house by. Once out of the door today she started smiling and skipping to the car. She was so happy! It made me feel so blessed that God would fill her heart with joy for her first day of school!

Not ready for pictures yet,but trying to warm up that smile.

Enjoying a yummy breakfast of french toast, applesauce,banana and cereal.

Waiting to get in the car. Carrying all of her school supplies. Mom has her backpack.

Excited but, anxious at the same time. Love the big happy SMILE!

Gabby with her wonderful Para at school.

So the story doesn't complete end there. After dropping off Princess, little Emperor had a meltdown in the car on the way home. He started crying and raising his voice at me. Guess what he was so upset about....? "I want to go to school, I don't want to go home." I slowly calmed him down and talked about Preschool starting next week for him. He immediately came home and made a picture for his teacher. So sweet!

We have him signed up for Preschool 2 mornings a week in the 2-3 yr class. We have orientation this coming Tuesday. Thursday will be his first real class. He is so excited! He practices his ABC's,numbers,coloring and cutting paper. He is already writing letters and numbers too! When I enrolled him last spring I thought he might have a hard time away from me. That is why we placed him in the 2-3 age class. Now I am not sure that was the right choice. I did talk with the director and we can move him up into the 3-4 age class which is 4 mornings a week. I guess we will see what happens.

Day 3......

2011-09-03T17:19:00.001-07:00

Well, I am behind in posting for Day 1 and 2. I will catch you up here on Day 3.

Day 1 was basically uneventful. We followed our plan. No spending urges at all. We did have Swim lessons for the kids. Of course Princess asked if we could stop for DQ ice cream on the way home. She was not to happy about it at first when we said No. She did understand though. She happily ate a cookie at home instead.

Waiting in the pool for Swim lessons!

Day 2 was just an off day for little Emperor. Everything was a struggle and a meltdown. We went shopping at FM for groceries. Huge meltdown, sobbing, yelling, etc for almost the entire time we were in there which was about 30 mins. I finally broke down and promised him we would run to the toy section. I KNOW.....it is only Day 2 of the Challenge.

Well, let me tell you the whole story. We had bought some fruit cups there that were damaged last week. So, I had to return them and got cash back. IT was a whole $2.45 cents. This was the money that I used to buy him 2 mini match box trucks which were $1.09 each. With tax it was $2.40. So, I think that was okay....or at least in my head it was okay. I was not wanting a melt down at the cash register. Which we did not have. He was smiling and talking the registrar.

Cute little Match Box trucks. We love that they have moving parts!!

Well, that did not stop the tantrums. When we left the store he proceeded to try and throw the trucks on the ground. So, mean old MOM took them away. He proceeded to show his wonderful side all the way home( 7 mins). Got home and he continued as I unloaded the car and put things away. Tried to give him his trucks again and he threw them again. So, I took them again. After about 10 mins. he changed his tune and was sobbing because he did not have his trucks. We sat down on the sofa and had a talk about the correct way to handle our anger and frustrations. He finally got his cars back and was happy.

I had a follow-up appt. with my Orthopedic Surgeon for my Planter Fasciitis. Emperor again was not happy about riding in the car and had a tantrum for 10 mins. Finally fell asleep 15 mins. away from the Dr.'s office. I had to wake him up . He was not cranky thank goodness. Had a good Dr's. appt. Fasciitis is healing. I will continue with the home program set up by the Physical Therapist. On the way home I so wanted to stop at Starbucks for an grande Iced skinny Vanilla Latte. Literally every one that I pasted was calling my name. After all I was so deserving of this right?! It was so hard not to stop,but....I resisted! I made coffee at home instead.

Emperor continued to have meltdowns all day. By the end of the day he was more congested, runny nose and sneezing. So he was coming down with a cold. Poor thing....Sleeping was not good last night. We are all pretty exhausted.

Day 3 This morning we had to run to the pharmacy to pick up Tylenol and cough stuff for Emperor. Not in the plan but a necessity. HE is feeling a little bit better, but still a crank miester!!

Finally fell asleep with hubby for a nap after fighting it for 2 hours!

We had hopes for going to Mt Rainier today to hike and picnic. Alas we are home with sickie. It is a beautiful day so we ate outside for breakfast and lunch. Plans to eat out side for dinner too. Lunch was Peanut Asian rice bowls. Yumm....
Dinner is Southwest salad and tortilla roll ups.

Love this sweet face.... He tends to get flushed with a fever.

Cute little piggy wiggly toes!!

So did anyone plan in Mid-Autumn Moon Festival for Monday Sept. 12th? Just curious. We will be going to a little gathering with some friends. It will also be Hubby's BD.

Peach And Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad

2011-08-31T12:01:00.000-07:00

I found this yummy recipe in Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet Cookbook 2.
It is delicious and you want to eat it all!! This recipe is best during the summer months when the peaches and heirloom tomatoes are in season and at their peak. Have the fun for me was going out the garden and picking the fresh basil and tomatoes!

Ingredients
1 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar 2 large ripe peaches,pits
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice removed and sliced
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) 2 fresh mozzarella balls,ovolini-
1/8 tsp sea salt shaped(egg shaped),sliced
Pinch freshly ground black pepper Small handful fresh basil
2 large ripe heirloom tomatoes,sliced leaves, thinly sliced

Method

1. In small bowl, whisk together vinegar,lemon juice,EVOO,salt and pepper.
Set aside. To assemble salad, layer sliced tomatoes,peaches and mozzarella,
fanning out across a serving platter. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle with
basil leaves thinly sliced. I left my basil whole as I love the taste of it.

Enjoy!!

2 More Days Until We Start This.....

2011-08-30T11:53:00.000-07:00

There is this wonderful Blog that I follow called Bushel And A Peck. Christie is an amazing Momma of 2 beautiful children. She has created this family as we did by choosing to adopt. She did a challenge last yr. that I followed on and off of not spending for 30 days except for the essentials. So, she is doing it again and has challenged those that want to do it to bite the bullet and do it.

We have accepted the challenge and will be joining in on this journey. I still have a few things to do to prepare for the journey like buying hubby's BD present, BD cards, cake mix etc. Finishing off buying Princesses school supplies and Emperor's lunch bag. I think then I will be set.... I hope.

I have to admit 30 days without Starbucks is going to be hard for me.... Especially when the Pumpkin Spice Latte will be coming out around the corner.

Off to work I go to get my pantry in order and pick up anything we might need before the challenge starts. In many ways it will help me to be more prepared and to be creative with cooking. Which by the way is one of my favorite things to do! Maybe I will even start to make things more with all of the craft supplies I have lying around the house .....

Join in or follow along. We can always use the support to change old habits!

" Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."
Maria Robinson

What Cupcake Are You?

2011-08-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

You Are an Amaretto Chocolate Cherry Cupcake

You have a deep desire to leave your mark on the world. You want to change things for the better.

You are an object of fascination for many. You shine brightly and boldly.

You are youthful in spirit and appearance. You refuse to grow up!

To be honest, danger excites you a little. You believe that anything that is worth doing has some risk.

What Exotic Cupcake Are You?

Blogthings: Quizzes and Tests and Memes, Oh My!

Oh I love it! They know me to well...... and the cup cake sounds Divine!

Sunday Snapshots {He Sleeps...}

2011-08-28T22:05:00.000-07:00

In a big boy bed now!!!

First night in his bed!

So, our little Emperor turned 3 in May. Since we have been home (March 2010) he has been sleeping in a crib. Sometimes it was easy getting him to bed and other times it was difficult. He always wanted to fall asleep in our bed. For awhile this was fine with me.... it was a great way to bound with him. We would sing, tell stories and just snuggle together. He would fall asleep and we would transfer him into the crib. On occasion he would wake up,but not that often.

Then as the months went by he would not fall asleep very fast. I would end up spending hours with him. There came a point in our relationship that I needed to change this. So, I tried just doing the night time routine with him in the crib. Not so comfortable for me leaning over the crib. We tried doing the routine in our bed and then having him walk to his room and putting him in the crib.Some times this was fine and other times it was not. On those occasions he would just wail until I came back in to comfort him. This would take about 10 mins. and then he was out.

In the morning when he would wake up he would start moving around alittle then to standing up and shouting for us anywhere from 5:30-7:30 when we would get up. So, one day I had a talk with him about the crib. It went like this.....

Me JJ do you like your crib?
LE No Mommy.
Me Why JJ?
LE Cause it's for babies.
Me Oh....
LE I wann sleep in the big bed (we have a twin bed in his room). I'm a big boy now.
Me Okay honey we will try it tonight.

He has to have his blanket and his Panda Bear named Simon with him every night. Our agency gave him the bear when he got home. I had the blanket made for him from here Southern Sassy Pants

I just love these monkeys for my little Monkey!!

WELL....that was 3 weeks ago and he has been totally fine with it. He sleeps through the night, when he wakes up in the morning he crawls out of bed and plays with his toys. He is now able to turn on the computer and starts playing STARFALL( this is an awesome Educational site). He loves his new found freedom! We do too! On occasion though he will be in different clothes with a clean diaper on when I go to wake him up. Oh what fun!!!

Anyone have idea's how to help him want to use the potty consistently? He knows how to use. He just prefers not to unless I take him and offer him MM's. Help!! He starts preschool in 1.5 weeks and it would be wonderful if we had this under our belt!

Wordless Wednesday...

2011-08-24T10:09:00.000-07:00

I love this boy!!

The Red Boots

2011-08-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

Look what I found in one of our bins? Princesses cute little Lands End boots from when she was 3. I bought them for her before we moved up here to the Seattle area.
Little Emperor loves them and they are so stink'in cute on him.

It makes me happy to recycle items from one child to the next. I gave up on trying to sell all of her items and just donated everything. For one week everyday I was running to the Goodwill with a trunk full of things. I found for me it was so cleansing and freeing to see the items go and knowing they would be loved by people that really need them.

My goal is to get my car into our 2 car garage. Hubby's fits it is just my car needs to also. I dislike going out in the morning and scrapping off the ice and snow when we get it here. I am in a clean out and organize mode. It feels great!!

When the summer weather is gloomy this is what you do PURGE!!!

Okay I need to cut down the size of my pictures. They are getting cut off. I think I might have to have a revamping of my blog to fix this. I love the bigger pictures!

Sunday Snapshot First Haircut!

2011-08-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

My precious boy love was so in need of a trim.... With his SN though I am just not sure what to do for a hair cut. This was his first haircut last September. I actually have only taken him in 2 times. I tend to like the longer look.
It shows off his beautiful eyes and cute nose.

Love those precious little lips... just makes me want to smother him in kisses and hear that adorable little giggle he has!!

There were no tears and no fears on his part. He just climbed right in to the jet and became the greatest Blue Angels pilot!!

He had a blast flying that jet! On occasion he had to be reminded to sit still and keep his seat belt fastened..... LOL!!

It was an okay cut (I am not into the bowl cut). I had to fix it a bit as his hair grows differently on his right side. It needed to be feathered and shaped a little. So, we decided it was about the experience rather than the perfect cut the first time. Go ahead and join in at Ni Hao Y'all
.

A Loss.....

2011-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

My last post was the start of our 2 weeks of vacation.On a sad note I had to cut my part of the trip short. My sweet Molly Muggins caught pneumonia while being kenneled. I came back early to be with her and say my good byes. It is always not easy to say good bye to a beloved pet that is your daughter before you have your own children..... At least now she is at peace and is enjoying running and chasing in heaven with our funny boy Dakota and our wonderful cat Tigger. Since we have moved to Seattle area we have now lost all 3 Amigos!

Awe Miss Molly you were such a precious girl always so faithful and loyal. You were a Mama's girl and would stay up for me, wait by the door, bark from the backyard when my car would pull in to the drive way. You loved to run and jump, play with your squeaky toys and tennis ball, and tug a rope. You will truly be missed with all of your sweet and gentle ways. Those soulful eye's will be for etched in my mind. Miss you already.....

Mom

Princess is now 12!

2011-08-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

I know I have been gone for awhile. I would imagine that you all have forgotten about us and wondered what has happen to us. We are still here and trying to have summer here in the PNW. The later has been difficult as we have had a very rainy,gray summer most of the time..... Oh how I long for the sun! Enough of that.... we are still enjoying our selves as a family of 4!

We took an early summer vacation to Newport Beach to celebrate princesses 12th birthday, father's day and just enjoy being with family. Of course the weather in So. CA during the month of June is known as June gloom! Yes, that is what we experienced! It could not burst our sunny bubbles though as we had so much to celebrate and do!

We had a great trip and got to see most of our family! I will share more pictures tomorrow.

Jon Jon's 3rd Birthday, Mother's Day and Papa's Birthday

2011-06-01T20:08:00.000-07:00

Slideshow design personalized with Smilebox

I just don't have any time to post.... therefore we did a smilebox creation! This was the beginning of May. We had Jon Jon's 3rd birthday, Mother's Day and Papa's Birthday which we celebrated on the Hood Channel at the Alderbrook Lodge.

I do miss you all... Things have greatly improved with Princess!

Lately I Have Been Crying Alot....

2011-01-31T16:21:00.000-08:00

What soap is to the body,
laughter is to the soul!
Yiddish Proverb

I have a beautiful daughter who is lost to herself. I miss her giggles and silly laughter. She has Autism and is now 11 and a half. She has made great strides in the last several years of her life. She had always been a sweet girl with a smile on her face. In the last several years she has been growing up and changing into a little lady. With this has come an attitude to boot! I am at a loss as to how to help her. She is now an angry,defiant and mad child. I say white and she says black. I pop my head in her room to say Hi and she starts raging at me. We are adjusting some of her medications and seeing a Behavioral Therapist also. Now I am going to take her back to the OBGYN and see if her hormones are out of whack. I have to coax her into getting up in the morning and get ready for school.While I am trying to coax her she is yelling screaming, hitting, and kicking at me. We always end up in a battle. She is refusing to come down to eat for meals. She has always been sensitive to an empty stomach and would get cranky. With the ADHD med she is not as hungry though. She is on 4 different meds and I 'm not sure which one is doing what anymore. She is lost to me.....

My girl always use to smile for pictures.....

Now it is like almost impossible to get a decent shot of her. We had portraits done for Christmas cards this year.There was one shot out of 20 individual ones of her with a half decent smile. I can't find the CD right now or I would show you our Christmas cards.

This was the one decent shot from the snow around Christmas.

I am not asking for a pity party! I am just sharing with you what the reality of my life is right now. The one bright spot is our precious Jon Jon! When I am crying he will come up to me and say "Why crying Mommy?" "Need a hug?" I will pick him up and he will kiss my face, wipe my tears away and just stay cuddly with me. There is nothing quite like this little man who is so sensitive and loving.

My special little guy. He was very proud of the necklace he made for his EI teacher.

When it rains on your parade,
look up rather than down.
Without the rain, there
would be no rainbow.
G.K. Chesterton

So, I am going to be posting about the things I am thankful for to remind me of what is good and happy in my life for the next several months.

1. Is for the sunshine today! It has been rather dark , gray and rainy here in the PNW.

I Am Back Sort Of......

2011-01-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

I decided to join in on Sunday Snapshots that Stephanie from Ni Hao Y'all hosts every Sunday. I have been wanting to do this forever and ever and have just not done it. Life has been busy and a little crazy around here at our house. I don't really want to get in to it right now but would just appreciate all of your prayers for us and Princess. We are really having a rough time.

Jon Jon on the other hand is just the most precious child! It is hard to believe we have been together just about 11 mos. He is a Mamma's boy and I love it that he is so attached to me! He is in the birth to 3 yr. EI program here for his Microtia. We are starting testing for transitioning to the Preschool level. They have in formed me that is is highly possible that he might not qualify. We are in line for an FM system to try out. He's comprehension and communication skills are like in the 98% for his age. He does have some articulation issues though and sometimes he is alittle behind in using full sentence structures for his age. Hey, I think that is pretty good when English is his 2nd language and he has only been her for about 10.5 months. It will be interesting to see what happens. Otherwise he is above target in most area's.

He is a bright, sensitive and empathetic little one. He can still be Hunan spicy though and definitely likes his way. No is his favorite word right now it usually has an explanation tagged on to it though of why it is NO. He is finally letting me go out without him. Although at times he will still cry for me when I am gone. We are hoping to have a CT scan after he turns 3 for his inner ear. It appears that he has an ear canal on his Microtia side. If this is the case we are looking into what is best for him. I am leaning towards a newer procedure which is called the Medpor. They tend to open up the ear earlier so the child can pick up on more language skills during the critical learning period of 0-5yrs of age. If the canal is not there they follow with that procedure. The only Dr's that do this are in Northern CA. Which will mean traveling and staying down there for a while. For my baby though anything is possible!

So today I am all about celebrating life with my precious boy! I was so not planning on a boy from China.... It is amazing how God works though. I saw his picture and I knew he was my son. Love at first sight. What a blessing he is and he loves learning about Jesus and praying too! He always prays for the the pumpkin patch (when we went in the fall) and climbing the mountain ( our sledding hill).

I hope to post more often as life is passing us by and I so want to stay connected to my bloggy friends. You are always in my thoughts and prayers.

6 Months Ago..... Gotcha Day!

2010-09-01T16:15:00.000-07:00

It is so amazing to me that 6 months ago was when we first were able to see you in person Jon Jon and hold you in our arms. We became a Forever Family and I will never forget that day. We were waiting with about 5 other families in Changsha, Hunan Civil Affairs Adoption Building. We were a little rushed as we had only gone to the Dalton Hotel and dropped off our bags.Then went right to the building. I was able to watch other families be joined together forever by that magical Red Thread. You Jon Jon were still about 15 minutes away from arriving. We got to see precious Sienna be united with Di from First A Pearl And Then Two Rubies. It was so heart wrenching as Sienna knew what was going on. It was such a comfort though to see a familiar face that I had connected with through blogging in the adoption community.

Finally you arrived. You appeared in one of the Awie's arms. You were so tiny Jon Jon and in the most adorable yellow snow suit. You were just looking around and taking everything in. They placed you down on the ground and I gave you a car to play with. You took it from me cautiously and started rolling it back and forth on the ground. You rolled it to me and I was so happy. The Awie's told us some things about you and gave us a bag of some of your items that we had sent you in your care package. A valuable picture book of you taken during your time with the foster family and at the orphanage was presented to us. What a treasure it is to have that!

Soon we knew that we could hold you and you were okay with it. You were still looking at us and the awies were saying Mamma and Babba and pointing to us. It was such a smooth transition it was remarkable. You didn't really smile that much as your were scared.

We held you and talked with you and gave you some snacks. It took maybe about 15 minutes before Richard said it was time to go. So off we went down to the van. You were fine until about half way to the hotel then you started to tug at the door of the van while you were in my lap. Eventually you started crying and pushing against me to get out of my lap. My heart was breaking for you..... I get tears every time I think about it.

We got back to the room and you were still so upset. Crying while I held you. We could only distract you for maybe a minute and then you would cry again. I decided to give you a bottle really soon after arriving and rock you in my arms. Within 10 minutes you were sound asleep. It was around 5:30pm then. We watched you sleep and tried to nap alittle also as we were really tired from our long trip. When you woke up from your nap you were ready to play and showed us your picture book we had sent you. You named us all without us telling you who we were. What a gift they had given us by helping you to be prepared for your new family.

I am in such awe at how God works in our lives and how he fulfills wishes and dreams. You were this adorable little boy with the cutest face and such a gentle personality. You were everything we could have possibly imaged.

It was such an amazing experience to receive such a gift. I am so grateful to your birth parents who had you with them for the first 4 months of your life. They made an incredibly heart wrenching decision to not raise you. Although I am sure they tried but did not have the resources to help you with your SN's. Then you were placed in front of the gates of Zhuzhou SWI, in Hunan with a note and some bottles. To give you up what an act of love. I can imagine they waited to see who would find you as you squirmed and cried for them. The director found you and you were taken to the police station so they could report you being abandoned. They took you back to the SWI and you stayed there for 2 days and then were placed in a foster home. With a lovely couple and an older foster sister. In that home you learned to love and trust again. They taught you so many things and you grew and flourished under their nurturing care. Your foster Mother's name was Xu Juging. Unfortunately we were unable to meet her as your foster father became ill. You ended up going back to the orphanage for 1 week before we came to get you.

Since arriving home in March, you have continued to amaze us. You have fit right in and adjusted so easily except for the waking up at night. That has been the difficult part as Mommy was definitely sleep deprived. We assume you are having bad dreams or thinking about your Foster family as you are tearful and just want to be held and comforted. What a joy it was to see you and Princess hugging each other and holding hands. You were scared of Molly the dog for the 1st week and loved Sasha the cat immediately.

Your language has just exploded! You carry on conversations with me. You like to ask me questions and echo every new word I say until you know the meaning of the word. You can understand when I ask you to go find something upstairs and you bring it back to me. You love to ask who what, where questions. You love to call your Nanny and Papa to talk on the phone to them an tell them what we are doing. You are learning your ABC's, numbers and have a fascination with learning. You love money and the cash registrar.
You love to sing and dance, try to do the splits, and a somersault. Outdoors is your favorite place to be on the swing, sliding or on the trampoline with your sister. You are a happy go lucky boy until you might not get your way. Then you become rather persistent and have a melt down.

You are experimental with different types of foods and love fruits,veggies,and of course noodles! You even like salsa and hummus, but ketchup is an all time favorite!

You are a cuddle bug and love to snuggle or as you put it "Lap Time" You say prayers and talk about Jesus and Sabbath school is your favorite. You now tell us "I wuv you" on your own and give us kisses freely. You can tell us when you are happy, sad,mad and give away giggles and smiles all the time.

With your sissy this summer!

You and your sister kinda have a bond that is strong, but also very fragile. With her autism it is not always easy to know how she is going to respond to you. Life has improved and we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. It is so nice when you guys are playing together, hugging each other and just being sweet. Our family life has calmed down and we are much more at peace. It was really rough going especially this summer with less structure for Princess. HOORAY for school starting again!

You love hats! Especially your monkey hat!

Daddy and you on your first bike ride in Tamarack,ID.

Sissy riding her scooter in Tamarack.ID.

You love your bath time and playing with all of your bath toys!

The firsts have been so incredible and I am looking forward to what God has in store for us as a family of 4. Boys are so much fun and special.

I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK LITTLE ONE!

Photo Tinks by WiddlyTinks.com

Lord,I Pray that You would fill Jon Jon up with a love for You that
surpasses his love for anything or anyone else. Help him to respect
and revere Your laws and understand that they are there for his benefit.
Hide Your word in his heart so that he will be drawn toward whatever is
pure and holy. Let Christ be formed in him and cause him to seek the
power of Your Holy Spirit to enable him to do what is right.
You have said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God"
(Matthew 5:8). May a desire for holiness that comes from a pure heart
be reflected in all that he does.

A Beauty!

2010-07-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

I took this picture on the 4th of July and had to share it.

This is the original that shows all of the beautiful veins.

This one I altered with Picnik. I do not remember the sets.

Now I am on my way to the garden to cut a rose for my birthday.... another year older with a very full heart of love and family.

Life At Our House!

2010-07-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

I am trying to play catch up with photo's and life in general..... Sorry it has been a little over 2 months since I have been on my blog.

Our house has been on a big roller coaster ride. Some days are really fantastic and others are really stressful. It has everything to do with the Emperor and Princess. You see the Emperor is adorable and charming as can be. He does know how to push sister's buttons though.

Princess tends to over react to everything he does. Ugh..... It has made life miserable for hubby and I. With her Autism she reacts out of Fight or Flight. She has gotten more aggressive towards us and emperor which has me constantly on high anxiety/ alert systems. Therefore I crash and have no energy to blog etc when the house is quiet and kids are in bed. It has been very tough to deal with. Many days I cry and wonder what are we going to do..... Last week we went to the Autism Clinic at Children's and saw a new Dr. He feels that Princess is depressed and is starting her on a new medication. It will also help her out with her anxiety. She started it on Friday and so far so good. I am noticing more happiness and joy in her face. There is less out burst when Emperor is loud or crying. Ti will take some time to see if it will work for her or not. We are also on the wait list for a Behavioral Therapist. I think they said it would be 13 weeks until we would be able to get.

Little one is such a cutie pie!! We are so in love with him. He is very smart and a quick learner. Although I have to say he likes to try to get away with things. How do you get a 2 yr. old to stop the first time when you say No No about something? He is saying about 100 words already in English, uses the potty when he wants to, can put his shoes and socks on (& take them off of course), loves to dance,sing and play the piano, he is a cuddle and snuggle bug, he runs to Daddy when he comes home from work, he loves all kinds of food especially fruit and veggies,he knows some shapes and numbers already and loves puzzles. He has no fear and loves to try new things.

I have left him a few times with Daddy when I go shopping or something and he has a fit. Although he is getting better and not sobbing for 45 minutes anymore. Now it is about 5 minutes. We have a social facilitator that works with Princess on occasion for a few hours at home. She has been the only person that Emperor would stay with here with out crying. That was last week . Hubby and I ran out to Target and Starbucks. IT WAS WONDERFUL..... Soon it will be easier.

Summer is finally here in the PNW!! We have had a couple of days in the high 80's and low 90's but mostly it is in the high 70's and low 80's. Nice and comfortable! Of course it is still on occasion gray and rainy and in the 60's. What else is new with this area.

We are going to be taking vacation soon and going to visit hubby's family in Paradise,CA for a week and then we are going to Tamarack,ID for a week. Tamarack is a ski resort that went belly up. There is not a restaurant or a store open. The lodge is open, golf course and zip lines are open. We are renting a chalet with 3bdrm/bath for a 50% off. We are very excited. We have a nice deck with a private hot tub and a fireplace with a gas grill. We will be going to the lake and renting a boat, hiking,biking and just relaxing( as much as you can with a toddler ;) ...). The pool is open at the lodge so we will be spending time there. My parent's will be in Boise for the same week and will come up and spend a few days with us.

Our little chalet we are renting.

Great room with fireplace.

Outdoor deck with fireplace and BBQ grill.

I will be spending alot of time here after hiking and biking in our private hot tub!

Summer Time!

2010-07-25T17:01:00.001-07:00

IMG_2513, originally uploaded by My fun place.

Fun in the sun when it is here!

Fourth Of July!

2010-07-25T16:32:00.001-07:00

Love the running around shots? It was impossible to get him to stay in one place let alone get one picture with them together! LOL....

He insisted in wearing 2 jackets. It was rather chilly like in the low 60's and drizzling at times.

Princess opted out for the red white and blue theme this year. It gets harder as they grow up to have them comply with mother's wishes!

One shot I was able to get with them all together!

Yes, I decorate for the 4th also!

IMG_2445, originally uploaded by My fun place.

My favorite shot although it is not real clear!

A quiet 4th for us this year. We had a picnic outside in the backyard. Then we did our own fireworks in front of the house. Princess does not like the loud Booms but tolerated it. Emperor on the other hand was just right there e in the midst of everything saying ooh and aah.

Where we live everyone does their own fireworks. It can go on until 1 am in the morning. We can also see fireworks from various area's of outlining Seattle.

Truly a 4th to remember for Emperor the first of many!

Father's Day!

2010-07-25T15:42:00.001-07:00

Mom and Dad Father's Day.

They came up to visit from down south. They were here for 5 days. We celebrated Princesses 11th Birthday. Then they treated us to a family get away at a near by Hilton for a night. It was fun and Princess loved the pool. We did not let Emperor in the pool as we were not sure at the time about his ear. Now we know it is fine for him to be in the pool. YEAH! He loves the water too!!

My handsome Daddy!

Emperor did not last that long a breakfast.... So, we were headed back up to the room for a nap.
I love the golfer look outfit my Mom got him. This boy loves hats...

IMG_2411, originally uploaded by My fun place.

My sweet girl and hubby on Father's Day!

Honey, you are the greatest and the love of my life...... I love your strength, compassion for living things, your funny sense of humor, your gentleness.... You are my rock and the the calm in all of our sea's.

God blessed me with such a gift !

We Are Home and Adjusting!

2010-05-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Love at first sight.....

My happy go lucky little one!

Nap time treasure the moments....

He has the cutest little laugh and giggle!

My favorite they are asleep and so peacefully happy!

So sorry for the long lapse in posting! Life has been incredibely full and crazy lately. Jon Jon is adjusting well although we still struggle with waking up in the middle of the night. I have been rather tired as is expected.

On the newsfront:

Jon Jon turned 2 on May 2nd

I need another surgery on my Right foot.

Hubby decided not to apply for a postition in NWS at Salt Lake city UT.

Princess is waiting to turn 11 in June.

We are bonding as a family of 4 although at times it has been rough. Not on Jon Jon's part but more on Princesses end...... Trying to reassure her that she is loved and cherished everyday.

Jon Jon has had his appts. with the Adoption Specialist and he is ahead of his developmental milestones in motor and speech. He has malnutrition and is expected to gain weight and height in the next 6 mos. He still is in 18 mos. size clothes.

Our appt. with the Cranio facial team is in July.

Jon Jon has said I wuv you and it was to Gabby first.

Medical Exam Day

2010-03-08T13:06:00.000-08:00

Today was our appt. for Jon Jon's Medical Exam. We went to breakfast first and met a few families all there feeding their children. There were about 7 families and only 2 girls out of 7. I thought that was very interesting. The breakfast buffet is okay and nothing like the Dolton Hotel. They do have an few Western and Chinese items plus the normal eggs, fruit, breads and cereals. We met Richard in the lobby and then it was short walk to the Medical Examiner's office. Jon Jon actually sat in the stroller without a fight! Yippee. When we tried it last night he just cried and would not sit down in it.

Saw our friends in the Medical exam office. Unfortunately I did not get to talk with Diana much as Sienna was having to get 7 shots!! Oh my heart just broke for them. That is just so cruel to do and not very safe either. Jon Jon was up to date on his Immunizations and he is 22.5 lbs. and they said he is 41" tall. No way he is that tall. He is maybe 30 " tall. Everything that I brought for him to wear is a 24 mos or a 2 T and he is swimming in them!! I am rolling up the pants, sleeves and the waists.

They did a simple ENT exam and his hearing is intact as is his eye sight on both sides. Praise the Lord!!

He was cooperative for the whole exam and did not seem to mind it!

Next stop was the jewelry market downtown where we bought some pearls. It was so interesting to see the string them and tie them off individually. We then found a deliciousVegetarian Chinese Restaurant that had wonderful yummy food. You could not tell it was not real meat. It was so delicious!! Lots of pan handlers and people begging for money.

Next stop the temple. So stunning and elaborate the carvings and gilded gold Buddha's. Simply gorgeous. Lots of offerings of fruits and flowers as the Buddha's are vegetarian. The incense was sweet and not too overwhelming.

We came back to the Victory and moved into our suite. It is much larger and we can move around now. I would not recommend staying here. It is old with dirty carpets, found black mold in the bathrooms and the towels are old and graying. I would pay the extra money and stay at the White Swan. It is a beautiful hotel and it is well maintained.

Our boy is opening up more and more everyday. If I go to the bathroom and shut the door he stands out side and yells for me Mama! He is now giving us high 5's and beginning to blow kisses to us and catch ours. He loves to be held. We are having him fall asleep in our bed and then after he is asleep we move him to the crib. He is now waking up in the morning without crying.

He loves to play and be busy!! Cora can you see he loves your hat you gave him!! He knew that to be cool you wear it backwards or to the side! I was so amazed....

Hugs to all!!

The days run together!!

2010-03-08T13:04:00.000-08:00

Friday we took the Bullet train from Changsha, Hunan to Guangzhou, Guangdong it is a 2.5 hour ride. The train travels at up to 250 mph. What an incredible treat it was to see the country side with oxen, families working in the rice pads, occasional cow, and very poor shacks. We went thorough some cities on the way that were heavily populated. When we got to GZ we had an hour ride in the Victory Hotel bus which is a Mercedes Benz van. It was interesting to see more expensive cars like BMW's and some Porsche's. The city is bustling with activity and people do not have the right of way cars do!! That is so scary to me. If a person is crossing the street and can not make it all the way across they stop where they are and the cars go around them.

Got to the Victory Hotel and the new wing where we were going to stay is having alot of construction going on around it. So we were put in a standard room in the old wing. Well, there was literally no room to move around with the luggage. on top of it the brought us a baby stroller, a baby bath and a crib. We were crawling over each other. I was miserable. We called downstairs and we are moving to a Chinese Suite tomorrow afternoon. The old section is just that old!! It is still extremely noisy with all of the government construction going on on the sidewalks. Richard our guide said this is the 3rd time they have torn up the side walks in the last few months. It is crazy here....

So, we ate some fried rice and curry chicken for dinner. It was yummy. Tomorrow we go to have Jon Jon's medical exam at 10 am. Then we will go shopping for pearls, out to lunch at a Vegetarian restaurant and to a temple.

Should be fun. I am beginning to get very homesick for my girl. It is so hard to be here and she is at home. We found out that she is sick and that is even more difficult. Pray that she gets over her cold soon.

We definitley have a Spicey boy from Hunan!! It sure is fun though. Whereever we go he attracks attention. He says hi and bye to everyone and gives them big smiles!!

Thursday In Changsha

2010-03-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

This is the boy that I have been dreaming about...... He has simply stolen my heart and I am so in love with him!! He has begun to trust us and rely on us for things. He reaches out for us to pick him up and hold him! He is beginning to show us smiles and laughs at things. He loves to be active and play rough and tumble with Daddy.

He knows how to wink at me!! He is beginning to give us high 5's, He will say huh... when you call him. We continue to use Wei and Jon Jon until he has accepted his new name. The title of my blog just simply says it all about my boy!! He knows how to brush his teeth, He helps you put on his clothes and tries to zip and snap them. He can put on his shoes and Velcro them. I am in awe of what he can do!!! He can use a fork and spoon to feed himself. Combs and brushes his hair.

The things we still need to work on are the spitting on the floor, throwing trash on the floor, blowing our nose out without Kleenex, ,throwing trash in the toilet.

God is so amazing in finding our son that is so perfect for our family. He knew when to present him to us and when Jon Jon was ready to be ours! A Match Made In Heaven!!!

We spent the day at The Mummy museum and then an Industrial Arts school where they do the beautiful embroidery. Changsha is known for their embroidery. We were able to see the factory room where the girls were all working on different pieces. Simply beautiful. I bought a few little items to take home and share. While we were at the museum We let Jon Jon walk alittle bit on his own with one of us next too him. He walks with his hands behind his back like the grampa's. It is so adorable!! We were unable to use flash in there. I promise I will get a picture of it though!

Tomorrow we will go back to the CCAA here in Changsha to pick up Jon Jon's Chinese passport. Then we are off to the train station. I will not post tomorrow.

Hugs to all!!

A cold and Rainy day!

2010-03-07T08:56:00.001-08:00

Today was a really cold and windy day here in Changsha. We decided to for go the museums and just hang out at the hotel.

We had a leisurely breakfast and then went to the playroom. Okay this boy can figure out anything!! He is already trying to ride a bike with training wheels! I will see if we can upload the video. He loves to climb up the slide and is hesitant to slide down but will with encouragement. He loves to push the stroller around without a dolly. He is copying us making towers with blocks. He continues to want his socks off all the time!!

Everywhere we go he draws attention with his social personality, waving hi or bye to everyone. People can get him to smile, but he will not readily give them to us. Hugs and Kisses no way... this I know will come with time. He definitely knows we are his Mama and Baba and he has a Jie Jie as he is saying it all the time and will point to the picture book we gave him. He also says a form of our last name. He is active and loves to be busy!

Nap time and bed time continue to be a struggle taking a half n hour to get him down. His eating is great. Tantrums continue if he does not get his way for things. There is no way he will use any bottle but the one he came with. This is a struggle. Keep praying that with time this will change before we have that long flight home.

Today we heard some loud bangs and looked out of our 30 floor window and below us fireworks were going off. Asked our guide about this and he said they will use fireworks to announce a new store or a sale going on for a store. Kinda fun to see! The windows have alot of condensation on them all the time and we have to wipe them down to see out side.

Wish we were in a group. That is the hardest part about this. We have met some of the families at breakfast but they are all doing things as a group. Saw Diana again and we hope to get together soon!

We decided to take the Bullet train on Friday from Changsha to Guangzhou. It will be a fun experience and give us the opportunity to see some of the countryside. Changsha is a very busy and noisy city with cars honking all hours of the day. You still see the carts pulled by farmers and then in contrast you see the luxury cars like Lexus, Volvo's, and Audi's.

Tomorrow we will be going to the Museum that has a mummy from 3,000. yrs ago. The found her tomb back in 1978. She came from a wealthy family and was buried with alot.

Continue to pray for Jon Jon to trust us and begin to show us some smiles.

He Is Officially Ours!

2010-03-04T14:23:00.000-08:00

Where do I start? Jon Jon was good at the CCAA here in Changsha yesterday. Like one of you said he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He took the little truck from me and got down on the floor and started playing with it. It was very sweet. He would roll it over to me and I would roll it back to him. I tried to give him some time to play before I overwhelmed him and picked him up. I think it helped. When I did get to hold him he was fine with it. This is also a child that loves people and will want to be help by everyone at the ZZ orphanage.

I was disappointed that his foster mom did not come. They told me that her husband was sick and therefore she could not come. I also found out as others have told me is that he was placed back at the ZZ orphanage 5 days before Gotcha Day. So, he has already had one transition to go through before he came to us. : (

The ride in the van was fine until he realized that he was being taken away. That is when he started fussing,talking and trying to get out of my lap. He is extremely strong and as he stared crying and sobbing he would throw himself backwards! There were a couple of times i thought I would drop him! SCARY!!!

We got back to the hotel room and this went on for around 45 minutes. Finally we got him to take a bottle and I rocker him to sleep. He napped for about 2.5 hours which meant it was 7:30 pm. I decided that I needed to wake him up so he would sleep through the night. He woke up okay and then he munched on some Cheerios's, congee and banana puff's. He loves Cheerios's and doesn't like the puff's. Congee he is not a huge fan of. It is so interesting to see how each child is different. You can never be fully prepared for your individual child before you come over here. I brought Soy based Similac and he is on a milk based formula. I am trying to mix it in as he progress him.

When we got the report from the caregiver on Monday she reported that he was just taking a bottle and also some gruel which is like rice cereal mixed into the formula. Well from other reports I had he was eating alot more solid foods. Interesting conflict of information. All I can tell you is go with your gut and see where your child is at. He loves food and will try anything once if he likes it yippee if not he spits it out. Make sure you bring lots of bibs. especially the kind that is vinyl and with the pocket in front. Those have been our lifesavers. The care giver also reported that he got up between 10-12 and had a bottle. So far he has slept through the night.

Getting him to bed is a chore and struggle. It took us around 30 minutes to get him down. We held him, we placed him in the bed between us,tried to give him a bottle and nothing really worked. Finally patting him on his bottom for 30 + minutes while he was on his tummy put him out. Then we transferred him back to the crib.

Today, he woke up pretty easy. We gave him his first bath and when would not sit down and immediately pee ed in the water!! so we had a standing up bath! Breakfast we had him sit in my lap and I fed him. He ate alot, loves melon banana's,breads polenta, fried rice etc. The buffet here is incredible with both a Chinese and Western style food.

We went back to the CCAA in Changsha today and had our ceremony where the ask you questions about why you want to adopt, would you ever abandon him and do we still want him after 24 hours. We had a picture taken with the director of Zhou Zhou Orphanage.

Then it was off to Wal Mart. That was an experience ! It is a huge building with about 3 floolrs. The food are is like a market in Europe with all of the different meats, breads, fish and exotic foods. I also looked for some clothes for Jon Jon . He is still in an 18-24 month size which is big. Alas though nothing in his size. So, meanwhile we just roll everything up and roll over the waist bands.

Then we came back to the room and just played,napped and got to see how incredibly smart this little one is!! You show him how to do something once and he has it or he problem solves it on his own before you can show him. Thank you Lord!!

I will post more tomorrow. We have a very busy schedule and it is hard to find time to post with a little one. : )

Gotcha Day!!

2010-03-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Changsha Monday afternoon at 1:15 pm. We meet Richard at the airport and we went directly to the Dalton Hotel which is a beautiful 5 start hotel . We dropped off our luggage got out the foster mom's gift and our travel documents and were off to the Civil Affairs office,

When we got upstairs to the room to meet Jon Jon there were several families already there waiting ton meet their precious children. I immediately recognized Diana from First a Pearl and Then 2 Rubies. We hugged and cried as we waited for our children. The 4 families all got their children first.and Jon Jon was in route from ZhouZhou Orphanage. It gave me chance to see how the children reacted and what they were going through. It was hard to see as the children were having a hard time. Some of them crying or sobbing uncontrollably. My heart was breaking and tears were rolling down my face as I was taking pictures of them all.

Then I saw him coming down the hallway.... It was avery overwhelming and emotional time. Unfortunately all the other families were busy with their children that we did not have help taking pictures. So you seen me with Jon Jon and not Hubby.. He is all bundled up and adorable. He is tinier that what we thought. I was so glad to see him. He did not cry or sob until we got half way to the hotel room.Then we let us have it!! It took about 45 minutes for him to calm down. He finally let me rock him and feed him a bottle and he fell asleep.

Tired but overjoyed and full of Love!!!

Okay How Do You Plan......

2010-02-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

How does one plan for weather in China?Hubby looked up the weather in Changsha. 86 one day and the next 53. I guess we will just take things we can layer.

Yesterday was fabulous for Princess and I . We had the best time and she was thoroughly spoiled! We have never been to Build A Bear before. I had inquired for parties but we never did it. So we go in and I was expecting her to pick a fuzzy cute little animal something girly girl.

This is what she picked out!

Don't you love it.!! She still had to have some cute clothes for her. Her name is Sarah.

My BFF and her mother gave me this adorable outfit! I just love it and can't wait to see Jon Jon in it!!

Thank you so much both of you !! He will just be so handsome in this. the sleeves on the shirt have flames on them!

Today Is Princess Day!

2010-02-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

We are going to have a special Mommy and daughter day today!
I called the school and let them know that Gabby needed a special day with Mommy before we leave and are gone for 2 weeks in China.

So we got up late and are eating breakfast. We have plans to go to this wonderful toy store called Snap Doodles here in the Kenmoore area, then off to pick up Daddy for lunch out, hopefully get her hair cut as it is way too long, and then to Build A Bear Workshop to make a special stuffed animal. I want her to have something to sleep with to remind her how much we love her while we are gone and that she is very special!

I also made her 16 red bags. One to be opened each night before she goes to bed. Each one has something different in it and a few pieces of candy. I hit the dollar section at Michael's and Target and got some cute items. I still want to write some notes for them and put some random pictures of us in some of them.

We will be using Skype to be in touch with her via our web cam. That way she can talk with us and see baby brother Jon Jon. They can then begin to bond and talk together!

I am so very excited I can hardly contain myself!

I have a bunch of photo's to post, but will do it later. I need to go spend time with my girl!

Photo from Always 13 Creative Commons

3 more days until we leave for China!! I can hardly wait! I finally came to the realization that we can't take everything.... Just take what fits and we definitely will need.

5 more days until we see this precious little emperor who will be our SON!!!
Godspeed Jon Jon! Mommy and Daddy can not wait to see you and kiss your sweet cheeks!

Anyone Know The Following People?

2010-02-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hello, I am trying to track down the following people who have won auctions on my other blog.

Jenne from Oregon
Kelly Lockwood
Natalie has a picture of her and husband from their wedding.

I urgently want to get everything taken care of before I leave for China. If I do not hear anything back from these ladies by tomorrow I will be contacting the people that had the bid before them on the items.

Thank you so much for helping me out!!

9 More Days Until We Fly to China!

2010-02-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

As I write this I am just so excited and nervous at the same time. I so want to hold my baby give him hugs and kisses and just spend time looking into his eyes. I am scared to death, but know reality is that we could be in for a really rough time. He is still young but he is aware and talking in simple words. I pray that his Foster Mother is showing him our pictures and preparing him for March 1st.

Jon Jon's room is slowly coming together. We decided on a surf theme and found some Pottery Barn Kids Blue Island set on eBay that was gently used. I found the adorable valences that went with it. The crib was given to us by friends and we are so grateful! The top railing had been so enjoyed by their son I am having a quilted teeth guard made for it to cover up how badly it is scared. I will post pictures of it when I receive it. I am hoping to buy some more things to decorate the walls etc. but that will have to wait until we get back from China. EBay has wonderful artist who will make things to match different kids lines themes.

The top rail is not on the crib right now. Who knows how long he will be in the crib until we convert it to a toddler bed. I like the idea of it converting to a day bed and then a full size bed.

Valances,for my little surfer boy!!

His rocking chair! It was passed down from Brent's 2 nephew's to Princess and now to Jon Jon. I love pieces like this. I plan on painting it blue when we get home.

We never got a new car seat. We debated and debated. Princesses car seat was a Britax. It never wore out and was not recalled so, we put it to the test. The test was to see if the plastic had become brittle. Hubby took the car seat and a hammer and whacked the heck out of the car seat. The car seat is still pliable and in great condition! YIPPEE! That was a $250. car seat that we could use again. So, I got a new seat cover for it.

What do you think? Isn't it cute? I love it.

I decided to use a back pack while in China for his diaper bag. I tried to get something that Princess might like to use once we return home. She immediately claimed it as hers. I had to take and hide it in the closet so she would not use it.

Today I packed it with all of these items for when we meet him at the Civil Affairs office. It was so fun to open up the pack of diapers and see Winnie the Pooh and Tigger on the diapers and know there will be a little bum in them soon!

Well I need to go and finish getting the calendar set for Auntie when she comes to take care of Princess. I am having so much fun getting everything set up for Jon Jon. It is sometimes hard to stay on track. Oh, our Power of Attorney's came yesterday and we have Jon Jon's travel meds. Finishing off our last Typhoid tablet tomorrow. Yeah!

MIA!!! Needs a Sponsor still......

2010-02-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone. Last December I decided to sponsor a child from Pearl River Outreach. I follow along and get updates on my precious girl Gwynne every quarter. I am so excited to see how well she is doing and how much she is blossoming. It is such a neat feeling to give to a child who will benefit from having the love of a foster family while she waits for her forever family to adopt her. Updates on Gwynne She is currently potty training, saying 1 and 2 words, she is walking well and climbing the stairs. She is adorable and so sweet!

There is a new precious one named Mia that needs just one more sponsor. She is so adorable and tiny! She is healthy and happy but would so benefit from being in a foster family. By becoming a sponsor you would be giving her the chance to be raised by a foster family. Mia is a newborn! She was born January 7th 2010!! She is residing in Hengshan,Hunan. She is perfect and a healthy little girl! If you would like to sponsor her please go to
Pearl River Outreach

>

So is you find a spot in your heart to help Mia out please do so! She so deserves the chance to have a life with a foster family to stimulate her and help her grow!

11 more days until we travel!! 13 more days until Jon Jon is in our arms!! I can't wait to be a mommy to a little one again! Princess is very excited and has been helping me rearrange his room!

Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T14:53:00.000-08:00

May you have a wonderful day! May it be filled with love and family.
We will be leaving 2 weeks from yesterday to go to China! Our lives are full and happy as we bustle about finishing everything we need to accomplish.

Gong xi fa cai!

New Items Tomorrow on Auction Blog!

2010-02-06T23:16:00.000-08:00

Just a few of the items I hope to list tomorrow. Actually I have alot of items to list if I can get it all done. Please stop by and see if there is anything you just can't live without for your girl!

Three weeks from today until we travel to CHINA! Oh my word!!!
My BFF is coming over tomorrow to help me work on things. She is such an organizer and will help me to weed out stuff from the play room.

Hubby poor guy is off in Sun Valley, ID. He went on a ski retreat for a long weekend with a bunch of guys. I am so jealous!! He so deserves it though after taking care of me, and everything for 2.5 months.

I am beginning to have a hard time sleeping as so much is running around in my head. Is this typical for those of you that have been there done that?

A New Look For My Blog!

2010-02-01T22:00:00.000-08:00

I am so excited about the new look my blog has! I think it is super cute and so fitting for Jon Jon! Thank you so much Diana for such a fantastic job! I love it.

I thought a new tittle was also in the making since we have found our Sweet Cheeks Baby Cake. Our house will now be filled with Giggles and Wiggles along with alot of other fun things!

OMW I can not believe we will be leaving in almost 25 days. YIPPEE.

The room is coming along, the packing is coming along, the appts. and tying up loose ends is coming along. It is a very exciting and crazy time at our house. We meet with the travel planner last week to discuss the trip, finalize on a few things, give them the money to wire to China, and go over the folders of paperwork we need to take with us. It is amazing how much there is. We also received the official TA with his picture on it!!

My Auction blog is getting more business. I hope to post some new items now that I have sold some items hopefully tomorrow.

Yes we got new Pictures that were taken last Thursday and we got them on Thursday of Jon Jon!!! That sent chills up and down my spine that I was actually able to see the pictures on the same day they were taken.

Fantastic news!!! We get to meet the Foster Mother!!!!! Can you believe it? I am so very happy about this. I know it will be extremely emotional and hard on both of them and us too. In the long run though we will have pictures of us all together. This is so valuable to Jon Jon in the long run. We will have something to show him and say look remember.... she gave you to us with her blessing. She did not abandon you, she loved you so much that she was able to give you to us.

On Another note Diana at http://customblogdesigns.blogspot.com/ is having a Birthday Bash Give Away. This week it is for a Brag book pages. The winner gets to choose the scrap design pages that she would like to use sends her the photos she would like to have on the pages and then Diana will send you back the completed pages and all you have to do is print them off.

Voila a completed Brag Book!! What a great give away. Go over to her site and enter. There are like 5 ways to enter. Good luck!!

IT IS OPEN!!!

2010-01-24T12:41:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry for that I forgot to change the permission setting on our Auction Blog. It is now OPEN. Go take a peak and don't forget to grab the button and become a follower so you can be updated. Thank you so much!!

Auction Blog To Raise Funds To Open Today

2010-01-24T00:12:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Just wanted to let you know that my Auction blog should be ready to go be tomorrow. Just so you know I am listing things as I can and will do these lots of clothes and then list more as I go along. So PLEASE PLEASE always check back on that blog as the items will change as I auction things off. Even better yet become a follower!!!

If you would love to help me out advertising by taking my button I would be eternally grateful!

Take Off in 36 days and counting....

2010-01-22T19:57:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness.... We leave in 36 days for CHINA!!! I can't believe it. A million things are running thru my head as we prepare to leave. We will have Jon Jon in our arms in 38 days from now. I am just so over whelmed with love for the wonderful foster family that has been taking care of him. I am hoping and praying that they are preparing him for his new family. I hope that they have him look at our pictures in his book and tell him who we are. I hope he grieves and does have a hard time with us initially. I want that because then I know he will attach to us. Pray for us and for Jon Jon. Pray for his foster family.

Consulate Appointment Is Official!

2010-01-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

I am like floating on clouds right now!! We have our official Consulate Appt date which is Monday March 8th!! I just can't believe this is all happening after all these years of waiting and thinking maybe we weren't suppose to adopt again..... Maybe God was not leading us down this path. In my heart of hearts I could not let go of the little voice telling me to have faith and believe in me. God does everything in his time and there is a reason why. We may not know why until we are gone from this earth and meet him in Heaven. I just praise him for giving us our son that we may now be a family of 4 after March 1st. Such an amazing gift and so worth the wait.

Thank you dear friends for all of the sweet comments!! You all mean so much to me and have made waiting so much more fun! I continue to pray for you that are waiting that your time will be soon!

Much Love,

Our Gotcha Day Will Be.....

2010-01-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

Just got off the phone with our agency. We will be flying into Hong Kong Feb. 28th at 10:50 pm spend the night there in a hotel. The next day March 1st we will be taking the only flight from HK to Changsha around noon and getting in around 1:30. We will literally have no time to go to the hotel! Our Gotcha Day is March 1st!! I can't believe it ..... We are so excited and nervous at the same time. Basically I think we will be up all night in HK preparing for it. It means we might have to do some rearranging of things in our carry on bags to have items at hand we might need when we meet our SON!! That feels so right to say...

How do I explain what I am feeling right now? ELATED, EXCITED and so ready for this new adventure to start!

I need to keep calm. The thought of a cupcake right now just doesn't sound so good on my nervous tummy!!

This is the Zhuzhou SWI . Jon Jon was found at the front gate..... My heart just breaks for his family. It must have been such a tough decision for them. They had him until he was 6 months old. I pray for them nightly that they will know that he is going to a good family that will and already does love him so much!

Look at those expressive eyes and little furrowing eyebrows. I am so in love with this adorable boy!! Got to go make our seat reservations on Korean Air!

So Sorry For The Cliff Hanger!!! (long post)

2010-01-17T22:32:00.000-08:00

Okay my life is just a little bit crazy right now! After I wrote the previous post I went to the Orthopedic Surgeon for my follow up appt. I am doing very well and he is pleased with my progress. I will start PT in 2 weeks and will be walking around more with out the cam boot on and just an ankle brace on. I actually am starting to alternate my steps on the stairs which is fantastic!!

While I was gone FED EX dropped off a package for us! Guess what was in side?

Our Passports of course with our Visa's inside!!

I love that Red seal on everything!! It makes it so official looking.

So, I really thought getting TA was a big thing like you got another formal letter or something. Not so, I just got an email from our agency saying they had it on Thursday night 1/14/10. So it is official and we can begin to plan our trip for China!

The next step is we are waiting on our Consulate appt. Which will take place in Guangzhou.
Once we get that hopefully the first of this week we will confirm our flights and hotel reservations etc.

Initially we wanted to travel during CNY arriving in Changsha Feb. 21 and having Gotcha day Feb.22 stay there through the week and fly to Guangzhou over the weekend and CA on March 1 and return home March 5th. Well that would have been fine but I then realized that I forgot to think about dear Princess and what was best for her. See she has Mid-Winter break Feb. 14-22. We would have been leaving right during her vacation time. For some kids that would have been fine but for her it is not. It could completely throw her off and make it a miserable time for Auntie taking care of her. Yes we finally have some one to watch her. Auntie KK will becoming from NY to stay with Princess and keep her on her routine and also have fun with her!! We bought a web cam actually 2 so we can Skype with them while we are in China. Hubby is testing it out now as I type this. So, ms. E we can skype you too! It is a free service which will be great to have after we get home to use with our parents in CA.

So tentatively our schedule is to leave on Sat. Feb. 27 and arrive in Hong Kong Feb 28. Stay over night and then take a flight to Changsha on Monday March 1. Not sure if Gotcha day will be later that afternoon or the next day. Stay there for the week and possibly weekend depending on when GD is. They need 4 days to get the Passport ready for Jon Jon before we can leave for Guangzhou. We will then go to Guangzhou and have his medical exam one day then the CA appt. stay for a few days until his Visa is ready and then leave to come home.

We have reservations on Korean Air but have until Tuesday at noon to change them if needed. There is one other option that we might consider which would allow us to fly into LAX,CA and see our family coming home. We could actually stay a night or 2 with them in Newport Beach and then return to Seattle area. It all depends on our Translator making appts. for us etc.

I will keep you in formed though and map out our schedule when we know for sure.

Another neat thing happened. I meet a new family at our church that adopted from China beginning of Dec.! They have a precious 13 mos. old daughter named Sophie! I am so excited to have another family at our church to connect with. Sophie is just adorable and is a very happy girl. She continues to get stronger everyday and has such a cute little giggle. The family was a March 2006 family.

Today I made hubby go to the garage and pull out the Peg Pergo Stroller, the Britax car seat(we will have to replace it as it is over 6 yrs. old) the Baby Jogger, and the Off Terrain stroller. I am so very excited to be able to use these again. I made sure when I got them for Princess that they were not girly as you never know what is going to happen!! Well, I think that was a good choice!! They are all gender neutral. He will look just smashing in them!!

I love that the stroller is front or rear facing for him! Isn't Katie cute? This is Princesses life size doll that Auntie got her when she was 4 yrs. old. At the time Katie was taller than Princess. LOL!!

We also got our new I 171H form with our new fingerprint Expiration dates of 03/30/2011.
Happy Weekend!! Hubby and Princess are off tomorrow. We are going to work on Jon Jon 's room maybe sleep in.... yeah right!

TA!!!

2010-01-15T08:39:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to let you know we have TA!!! Off to my Orthopedic DR. Post more later. I am so excited!!

What Have We Been Up To?

2010-01-10T20:45:00.000-08:00

Well lets see, we are waiting for that illusive TA. We are now on day 37. We have been filling out paper work for our agency about what we would like for Travel arrangements. We sent our VISA applications to a courier in San Francisco,CA. We hope to have them back next week. We are looking at flights and how to use our mileage to book our flights. I have an awesome Mom and Dad that have donated 189,350 miles to our accounts that I will combine with my miles. We are hoping to have enough to fly business class both ways. I will keep you posted. Talking over everything with our agency it looks like we will be leaving around Feb. 22nd? possibly. CNY starts Feb. 14th and we new I could not travel before then with my ankle.

We are talking about staying at The Victory Hotel in Guangzhou vs. The White Swan. We hope to stay in the old annex which has been remodeled and has large rooms compared to the WS.
It is alot cheaper and will save us some.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next I want to share with you this adorable little girl named Gwynne she is 1 1/2 that we are sponsoring for a year through Pearl River Outreach linked. I so fell in love with her! Don't you just love her curls and her gorgeous smile? She is now a Bamboo Baby and is being taken care of in Changsha, Hunan. I am so hoping and praying that when we are in Changsha that we can go and see her and take her a gift. Trying to arrange it all now. I so pray that she will find her forever family and she is just precious and so full of life!

If you would like to help out a child please go to the site as they have a few that need sponsors.

Now I have got to go and work on Jon Jon's room some more! So much fun!! I have not given up on getting my auction site up. I am overwhelmed with arranging rooms and getting things ready. I promise it will open this week with a few items!!

Blessings to everyone. Thank you for all of your sweet and caring comments!! I love to read them and you are all dear friends!

Jon Jon we are so anxious to have you here with us! We can't wait to come to your homeland to see your beautiful country and bring you home to your new home!

All About Jon Jon!!

2010-01-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

Where do I start about this precious boy that has stolen our hearts? Yesterday he turned 20 mos old! Happy Birthday little one! You are just the cutest thing there is! I love your big eyes that are so expressive and have so many things that they are waiting to share with us.
I love your sweet little smile hiding your 6 teeth. Can't wait to hear your laugh and giggle. To have a first kiss from you and a wave hello.... I dream about these everyday.
Your adorable pudgy hands and of course those sweet baby cheeks that I so want to kiss!
You were meant to be ours from the day I saw your adorable face staring back at me from my computer.

Yes you have special needs, but in the scope of life don't we all? Some are just well hidden or just seen as a quirky trait. In my eyes I love your face and your little peanut for an ear. You can hear out of your ear which is fantastic. We will have you see some doctors to fix your ear and your jaw. I know it will hurt but Mommy and Daddy will be with you as well as our GOD who will protect you. Will life always be a bed of roses for you? No.... But we will be here for you to help you understand and to look past the people that may treat you unfairly. Because in our eyes you are perfect and so loved!!

We have gotten 2 updates just in the last few day on our son. Oh how lucky are we to have this information!!

The first update was from Ann with Red Threads China who sent Jon Jon his package. We asked 10 questions that his Foster family answered.

xia yi wei sleeps with his caretaker .
xia yi wei likes all kinds of new toys ,such as toy cars .
He does not have any foster brother or sisters .
Meal time :7:00 am ,12:00,18:30
Sleep time :13:00 and 20:30
His right ear still can hear sound.
When he is sad ,play with him,talk with him or hold him or pat his back touch his head ,then he will be fine .His personality is quite sweet and gentle .
He is not picky with his food ,but he does like to eat sweet food and good smell food.
He likes to play outside ,or go to his neighbour`s houses to play ,he does not need to play in the orphanage !

I noticed that he likes to eat sweet food. To funny that he has a sucker in his hand for the photo!!

The next update we got this morning from a family that had been to Zhuzhou for a return trip with their daughter that they had adopted from the orphanage.

"We did not get to see Jon Jon. Because
of road construction, it now takes his family 7 hours to get to the ZZ SWI
instead of 1.
If the roads hadn't been a problem, we probably would have seen him because
there was a Christmas
program when we were at the orphanage, and many of the ZZ foster kids were
there.

We did ask about him, and the word they used to describe him is "active."
Apparently, he says hi to
everyone and wants to be picked up by everyone. This was not meant as a
negative--he just seems to be one
of those kids that everyone knows because he is so outgoing. No one had anything
to say about his SN--just lots of
smiles and giggles when I asked about him."

I am so very excited and happy !!! To get all of this information is so amazing to me.
That he is a happy and well loved little boy is so amazing. That he is active ,says hi and wants to be friendly is a good thing. We will obviously keep a close rein on him at first so he knows who Mommy and Daddy are before we start introducing him to friends etc.

Each day I keep on falling more in love with you sweet Jon Jon! May God keep you safe and healthy until we come to bring you home.

Come on TA!!!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T16:23:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-12-23T19:16:00.000-08:00

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!!!

2009-12-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-12-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-13T21:41:00.000-08:00

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.....

2009-12-11T11:35:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-12-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!

2009-12-04T12:44:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-12-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-18T15:36:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-11-17T10:37:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-11-13T15:13:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-11-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-10-30T13:26:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

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.

I Am Reading This....

2009-10-21T22:02:00.000-07:00

I have started to read for the upcoming adoption. Found this fantastic book Toddler Adoption The Weaver's Craft by Mary Hopkins-Best. It is so easy to read and very well thought out. I feel like I will be more prepared for the little emperor when we go to get him. I am praying that we will be fortunate enough to meet the foster family and get to have pictures taken with them. I feel very strongly about this as it would help to bridge the bond between us and them in the emperors eyes. It will help him to let go of them and realize that they approve of us as his parents. Therefore helping with the attachment.

As I was sitting today for 2 hours waiting in the therapy lobby I noticed this poster and thought it was really neat. I took it to heart that these are such important things for us to do for our children. Enjoy!

CHILDREN NEED...

APPRECIATION, FOR ALL THEY BRING INTO OUR LIVES.

BALANCE, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN TOO LITTLE AND TOO MUCH.

COMMITMENT, IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS WE DO EACH DAY THAT MATTER.

DREAMS, TO TOUCH THE FUTURE.

EMPATHY, REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO BE A CHILD.

FAMILY AND FRIENDS, EVERYONE NEEDS SOMEONE TO LOVE.

GUIDANCE, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.

HEALTHY HABITS, TO NURTURE BODY, MIND AND SPIRIT.

INSPIRATION, TO EXPLORE BEAUTY, WONDER AND MYSTERY.

JOY, SPRINKLE LAUGHTER AND HAPPINESS DAILY.

KINDNESS, TO LEARN TO CARE FOR OTHERS AS THEY ARE CARED FOR.

LIMITS, SET BOUNDARIES AND CONSEQUENCES TOGETHER.

MENTORS, TO GIVE WINGS TO THEIR ASPIRATIONS.

NATURE, TO DELIGHT IN RAINBOWS, BUTTERFLIES AND SHOOTING STARS.

OPPORTUNITIES, TO DISCOVER WHAT TRULY MAKES THEIR HEARTS SING.

PLAY, THE "WORK" OF CHILDHOOD.

QUIET TIME, TO RECHARGE THEIR BATTERIES.

RESPONSIBILITIES, TO BUILD SELF-ESTEEM AND SELF-CONFIDENCE.

SECURITY, FEELING SAFE IS ESSENTIAL.

TRADITIONS, KEEP THE FAMILY TREE ALIVE AND SPROUT NEW BRANCHES.

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, FOR WHO THEY ARE NOT WHAT THEY DO.

VALUES, LIVE YOURS, AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO FIND THEIRS.

WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT, "YOU CAN DO IT, I BELIEVE IN YOU."

XOXOXOXOX'S, HUG AND KISS THEM EACH AND EVERY DAY.

YOU, YOUR PRESENCE MORE THAN YOUR PRESENTS.

ZZZZZZZZZZ'S, A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP.

Written by Meiji Stewart

Precious ones hope you have found your forever families to fulfill your needs!

On another note I have been trying to come up with how to decorate little emperor's room. I have a few idea's but would love some input please!!!

Today was Apple Day!

2009-10-18T19:06:00.001-07:00

What a busy but fun day we had! Our apple tree was just starting to drop some of it's apples so we thought we had better pick them! I think we picked about 50 apples and we still have half of the tree covered in apples. I have no idea what kind of apples they are but they are sweet and good for baking. We have a bunny that likes to frequent our yard and munch on the garden. He loves the fallen apples and the cabbage. I have tried to take a picture of him, but he is fast.

First thing I made was a batch of applesauce and its all ready to store for the season.

The last thing I made was an Apple Pie! Of course we will have it A La Mode !
Boy did the house smell fragrant and good! I think tomorrow I will make an apple cake if I can find my bundt pan.

Enjoy the fall season!

Searching my soul and rejoicing

2009-10-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Let your father and your mother be glad,
and let her who bore you rejoice.
Proverbs 23: 22,24-25

And she made a vow; "O Lord of heaven, if you will look
down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me
a son, then I will give him back to you and he'll
be yours for his entire lifetime......
1 Samuel 1:11

Oh little pumpkin, I praise God for you and your birth. I feel the sorrow and the pain that your mother and father must have felt placing you in a public place where you would be found. They so loved you that they knew they could not take care of you and wanted so much to give you a life they could not provide for you. I pray that we will honor their wish and be a family where you just blossom into the most loving and caring Christian boy.....

I am there with you little one ...look up to the stars over head they are shining brightly for you my sweet precious boy.

Moon beam kisses!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

Photo's Courtesy of Creative Commons

I though these were just too cute to not post! Happy Wednesday! Just think next year Baby Sweet Cheeks will get to celebrate fall and all of the fun traditions around our house.
I can't wait!!!!!

IT'S TRUE.......

2009-10-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

We have found our child! We have alot to do filing paperwork for LOI, waiting for PA and LOA and then TA to Zhuzhou,Hunan China. HE yes it is an adorable boy that is just 17 months old and is in a foster family and is developing typically in all aspects. He does have a SN but I want to keep that private. There is so much to do! I have to find boy stuff and set up a blog site for auctioning off all of the girly stuff. We are just so very excited and joyful! I am very happy it is a boy and the moment I saw him I knew in my heart he was mine! You know all along I have thought it would be a girl, but God has a remarkable way of giving you what you need. HE so impressed upon me this was my child. The child that I had prayed for and dreamt about.

First things first though is I have my right ankle surgery on Nov. 6th. I am thinking about renting one of these so I can get around the house and do laundry, cook etc. What do you think?

I love the color! It sure would make life easier than with crutches for 6 weeks.

So for now I am looking at changing my blog to something a little more color appropriate. I have some idea's. I have started another blog for HIM but so far it is private.

The one thing I have not shared is USCIS has lost our I171 H renewal. We are in the pits of sending emails everyday to them asking where it is. Thank goodness for FED EX varification. DHS is telling us that they never got our extension request last year. Which I can prove otherwise. Thank goodness!! It was such a crazy year with family tragedies that our home study got put off. Apparently they did not like that.

We may have to file a I800 now or get a lawyer. I am trying to figure out which will be the fastest and least amount of money to spend. LOL....

Hope you have a beautiful fall!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-07T20:33:00.001-07:00

HAPPY MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL!!

2009-10-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Yo-Mei Mountain Moon
by Li Bai
The autumn moon is half round above the Yo-mei Mountain;
The pale light falls in and flows with the water of the Ping-chiang River.
Tonight I leave Ching-chi of limpid stream for the three Canyons.
And glide down past Yu-chow, thinking of you whom I can not see.

Happy Moon Festival little dumpling! May you have a wonderful time.... Can't wait to celebrate with you soon!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE........

2009-10-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

Thank you so much for all of you wonderful gals that entered for my 100th Post Give Away!
It was such fun reading all of the posts. The adoption community is just so amazing to me. We all just have this common bond even though we are separated by distance. I pray that we all will see our children's faces soon.

Okay enough blabbering..... There were 52 entries for the give away! YEAH... The name that Princess picked out of my Longaberger basket was.... SAMMONS!!! This is a precious couple on their way to go get their adorable daughter Lexi in Nov! Please all go and see their darling little girl at Waiting For Lexi and congratulate them!

Happy Fall Y'all!!

29 Months and counting for DTC and LID!

2009-09-30T20:19:00.000-07:00

IT has been that long since we have been LID and DTC to China. 29 MONTHS Yikes!!! Adoption Forecast is saying it could be until July 2nd 2017 until we receive a referral. There are 402 days of referrals to go through before they get to our date. They are currently referring 3.1 days per month. Well at that rate we are glad we are now in the SN's line with our agency. Princess would be 15 years old when we would get a referral. I keep on praying that there will be a miracle for my friends that are waiting (and for us too!).

My thought though is that God has a plan for each and everyone of us in this process. If you just have faith and patience he will bring you your child.

GOD SPEED SWEET CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!!

Oh, and don't forget to enter my give away on my 100th post (the last post). The adorable knot dress is so cute and my fellow Cherry Blossom friend Cora who is in the April DTC 2007 group will make it for you out of your choice of fabric. Princess will help me draw the name!

100th Post Give Away!!!!

2009-09-27T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Today is my 100th post! Boy it sure did take me long enough to get to this post. Sorry .... Life kinda got in the way.The prize if you don't remember is an adorable Knot Apron Dress hand made for your little girl by Cora at Little Miss's Blankets and Stuff. She is out of some of the fabric she offered previously.

Don't you just love it? It is just so girly girl and twirly. What fun and great colors too! It is sweet with the little apron. I can see it with a t shirt under it and some black Mary Jane's or a turtle neck and those Ugg boots or just the dress and barefoot in the summer sun. I just can't wait to see it on one of your girls. She has 4 different fabric choices for this dress and can make it in sizes 6 mos.to 4t and 5 to 8. So,so precious. Go and dream.....

Here are the new fabric choices...

..

1.For the 100th post give away I will have it open until Thursday Oct. 1st 5 pm PST so for 5 days and then I will have Princess pull a random drawing out of the list of names. I will post it as soon as I can. I hope you win!!!

You will have several ways to enter.
1. 1 entry for leaving me a comment on the 100th post.

2. 2 entries for doing a post about it on your blog and linking your post to my blog.

3. 1 entry for being a follower of my blog.

So, you have 4 tries at winning the adorable knot apron dress designed by Cora in the fabric and size of your choice.

Post #99

2009-09-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!
Yes I have been gone for a very long time! What a busy and crazy 4 months it has been. When I have time I will catch you all up on what we were doing. I did find out I have to have surgery on my right ankle as I have a completely torn tendon. OUCH!! Which means by the way that I will not be able to drive for 2-2.5 months. I just laugh otherwise I will cry. I have absolutely no idea how we will make it through that time with out me driving. We only have 3 days a week of therapies for Princess outside of school pick up and drop off.
All of our family is in CA so we will be trusting that the Lord will provide us with what we need!

So, I goofed! We are only on Post #99. Apparently, I had one post that was never published. It was just a draft. So, I had to contact my friend about the give away and see if she would still be able to make the Knot dress. She can but, the fabric choices have changed. As soon as we have those ready to go we will have you sign up for the give away. I will be posting it this weekend if dear C and I can get the information together.

We made it to Lake Tahoe this summer and had a wonderful time. Here are a few pictures. I got the nasty flu bug and spent 3 days in the cabin. Therefore not many fun pictures were taken.

Hanging out at Sugar Pine State Park!

My water girl!

Princess is ready to go to the beach!

Our adorable cabin we stayed in at Lake Tahoe!

Well I have missed you all and look forward to catching up!

25 Month LID Anniversary! Post # 99 OMG!!!

2009-05-31T19:25:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 25th month Anniversary of our Dossier being sent to China and logged in. Yahoo! The very strange thing is that we also got a call from our agency to review some WC files. We are so very confused and not sure what to do. Is it possible I might have to change my blog colors? Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we go thru this difficult process. We have 3 to look at. We might choose one or we might not.This is incredibly hard. I have been in tears on and off all day.

On another note, I am one post away from my 100th post giveaway! This is what you have a chance to win. A beautiful handmade knot dress for you precious daughter from Cora @Little Miss blankets and stuff. I have her button on the right side of the blog. Just click to go see her adorable creations! To see all the different ways you can enter please visit post #97. I will explain it again on my 100th post. Princess will randomly draw the name. I will have this running for 3 days once my 100th post is posted.
It should be fun!!

We are having some just incredible weather lately. It has been so gorgeous. My peonies are getting ready to pop! We picked up a play set today for free from some friends that are moving. Princess is over the moon with excitement and can't wait until we finish construction. We have to replace a few rotted out boards, clean it down and then it should be ready to go! Is this an omen..... Get play set WC referrals will come!!

;o OMG!!

Post # 98!!

2009-05-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Happy belated Memorial Day!! Thank you to all of the service men and women who fought for our country and what it stands for. God Bless You!!

Okay so I've been a little busy around here! Sorry if you think I have been slacking but it is not true... Princess has started a new therapy for Auditory Processing Disorder. We are going everyday. I pick her up from school around 3:15, drive her to Bellevue, have therapy from 4-6 pm, drive her home. If it is a good night with traffic we are home in 30 mins. If not it can be 1 hour. By the time we get home we are both starving and zapped of energy. When it is your child you will go to great lengths to help them in anyway you can. Fortunately my parents are helping out with the bill for this one. Insurance will not pay for it. What I have noticed so far is that she is more focused and on task most of the time, less looping and getting stuck on things, increase in expressive communication and increase in her comprehension. YAHOO!! What a blessing...

Other things I am doing is Spa Night for 30 ladies, singing in Praise in church, planning our trip to CA, planning Princesses 10th BD, finishing paperwork etc.
We leave for home on June 11th and I can't wait!!!

This will be my motto for now!

This is post #98. Only 2 more until we start the give away!! Hang in there Kim. It is going to happen soon! :)

This is post 97!! Just 3 more posts....

2009-05-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would say hi and let you see some of the beauty that is around our area right now! I just love cherry blossoms and spring time! Unfortunately my allergies do not like this time of year. So, I am coughing,sneezing,and have a congested head and a runny nose.

For the 100th post give away I will have you sign up for 2 days and then I will have Gabby pull a random drawing out of the list of names. You will have several ways to enter. 1 entry for leaving me a comment on the 100th post. 2 entries for doing a post about it on your blog and linking your post to my blog. 1 entry for being a follower of my blog. So, you have 4 tries at winning the adorable knot dress designed by Cora in the fabric and size of your choice.

The 100th Post Give Away Prize! Currently at 96...

2009-04-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

I have met a wonderful friend thorough our process of trying to adopt in China. Her name is Cora. We are using the same adoption agency. Cora and Jim are adopting from China and are trying to do a concurrent adoption from Burundi. We are actually in the same DTC yahoo group ~~ April DTC 2007 Cherry Blossoms~~. Cora is very talented on the sewing machine. She started making some very soft flannel blankets and now is making some adorable dresses to help with the adoption cost. She has her own blog site for her creations Little Miss's Blankets and Stuff. Go checkout her cute creations . The Prize I will be giving away is one of her adorable Knot Dresses.

Front

Back

Don't you just love it? It is just so girly girl and twirly. What fun and great colors too! It is sweet with the little apron. I can see it with a t shirt under it and some pink Mary Janes or a turtle neck and those Ugg boots or just the dress and barefoot in the summer sun. I just can't wait to see it on one of your girls. She has 3 different fabric choices for this dress and can make it in sizes 6 mos.to 4t and 5 to 8. So,so precious. Go and dream.....

Fabric Choices

On another note our 2 year LID Anniversary is tomorrow! I think we will go out and celebrate. Maybe we will have dumplings!

April 30, 2007

2009-04-28T08:58:00.000-07:00

RQ has posted that CCAA has changed their box to read April 30,2007 is now out of the Review Room. This means that those DTC that they have questions on will be sent to their adoption agencies which could take up to 2 weeks. So, yes I am excited but, will sit on pins and needles for the next 2 weeks. We need to official hear from AAO that our dossier is not being questioned.

So while we wait we will continue to dream about precious little ones like these.

Sweet Cheeks Baby Cake
Mommy and Daddy pray for you every night that you are safe, happy and healthy. Just know that we love you very much! We can't wait to meet you and see your beautiful face. We know that it will be love at first sight and we were meant to be a forever family. We are coming little one. The stars above you are looking over you each night for us. Wish and Dream little one and it will come true.....

I will be having a give away for my 100th post in a few days. I have a Cherry Blossom friend who loves to sew and create things. She is going to make an adorable Knot dress for my give away prize. Stay tuned!!!

Happy Day!!

2009-04-22T21:46:00.001-07:00

Happy Earth Day!! Hope you did something to celebrate this wonderful place that we live on.

Happy Birthday dear sister! I miss you and can't wait to see you soon.
Happy Birthday Cora!! Hope it was special.
Happy Anniversary Kim and hubby!

:)

It Has Been 23 Months Today!

2009-03-30T19:08:00.000-07:00

23 months of waiting for our girl - by jodyrenee on Polyvore.com

23 precious shoes for 23 months! It may grow to 36 months or more. Oh well, life goes on and we are busy, happy and loving life.

Well, I am in the Dog HOUSE.....

2009-03-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

The Darby dog house by La Petite Maison.

The inside of the Darby dog house.
Photo's from Table Five Designs.

Well if your going to be in the Dog house. I would like it to be this one please. So this weekend I put us in the Dog house with our agency. I kinda voiced my opinion that I did not feel like we were being given updates on the various programs at our agency enough. I was not the only one to voice this on our yahoo group. It is not a very effective group as the owners of the agency are the moderators. So, basically I pissed them off and they came back with this long dissertation about how many updates they have sent us in the last couple of months. Talk about having egg on your face..... Of course other people had to chime in too, which made me feel twice as bad.

The good thing is that they sent out another update this evening about the WC program. They just received their application from CCAA to join the electronic WC system. They will be sending it back tomorrow. This is a great thing yes, but we are still family #22 or 23 on that list. I am not holding my breath as we have been in this position since Jan. 2008. Maybe I can see a faint glimmer at the end of the tunnel. Of course I emailed them and said Thank you for the update. Pardon for my emotional out burst and I will try to be better! Gravel......

Still feeling like I have EGG ON MY FACE.....

Do I Have Egg On My Face?

Photo from Flickr CC's.

What can I say......

2009-03-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

This says it all. We still have a few years to go. We have officially been LID for 22 months now.

Homestudy Completed!

2009-02-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well, You can say it took us along time to get our home study renewed! Thank goodness we had turned in our renewal for the I 171H before it expired way back when. We did our fingerprints again in Oct. Then my primary MD left her practice and I had to find a new MD. Uggh.... I hate Doctor appts. anyway and now I had to face finding a new Doctor and having her do my physical for the adoption papers.

So, I asked around and finally found a good Doctor that was really close by that I liked. I had to wait 2 months to get in for a physical. So while I was waiting I decided to do something about my weight. I went on a program and lost 38lbs Yahoo! I was very pleased and I still plan to loose some more weight but not in such an extreme way. I am eating small meals about 6 a day, avoiding carbs and eating alot of greens. I have continued to drop another 7lbs. Slow and sure now. My physical was fine.

We called our SW and she came to see us on Weds. evening. Completed our update visit and she will be sending it off to USCIS as soon as they get it typed up.
I am relieved and glad that it is behind us. I am not sure that we will do it again though. We are getting to that point where we feel we will be to old for another child even if it is a 2-3 year old. It is sad, but it could be a reality that we need to face.

Our agency has still not been put on the electronic CCAA list for WC. So, even though we are family #23 essentially it is non existent. So, we continue to wait and pray that something will change. Do I dream about her yes. I don't know if I can have complete faith in them though. Who knows maybe she will come to us via foster adoption. I just know that if it is meant to be it will happen because it is in God's plan not ours.

Meanwhile life here goes on. We continue to be really busy with #1 daughter and all of her various activities. I am co-chair for the Read-A-Thon at daughter's school this year. It is not a small task with 831 students to plan for. It has taken alot of work to coordinate it, prizes,volunteer's etc. for 2 weeks.

This is what I dream of....2 sisters sharing giggles and laughs and quiet moments together. Friends for life.............

Photo of Susan Rios painting from Pierside Gallery.

Princesses Bow

2009-02-08T21:47:00.001-08:00

For those of you who are wondering where Cora bought the adorable monogrammed bow for little miss it was at Tip Top Lollipop on etsy. I am going to order some more as they are just adorable!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Grace is the unfailing commitment to love all persons, regardless of their beliefs. Only grace makes it possible for those who believe differently to respect and relate to one another. Grace allows us to disagree, to challenge the damaged beliefs of others even as we are challenged and to do this without violating the autonomy and dignity of others. Grace empowers us to embrace deeply divergent convictions even as we embrace one another. We love one another as God loves us-graciously.

~~ Philip Gulley and James Mulholland, writers~

For now I am going to leave you with pictures of one of my most favorite spots in the world! Mt Baldy~ Sun Valley, Idaho.

May grace go with you this week as you encounter others. Try to make someone smile....

Photo's from Flikr creative commons

What Adorable Things Came Today!

2009-02-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

Today was a fantastic day! I attended a Friendship Tea at NSB church. One of my GF's hosted a table for 10. There were 42 tables and no seats left. The function was completely sold out. What an amazing experience filled with friends and a gift of the seasons of tea. I have posted pictures on my other blog Our Cozy Cottage .

When I picked up the mail there was this sweet pink shipping envelope in our box and it was from my dear friend Cora Waiting For Little Miss What's Her Name blog. I absolutely just love everything she sent me! Thank you so much Cora. Princess loves her bow! The clips are just so sweet. I love cupcakes!!! The recipe looks fantastic and hubby is anxious for me to try it out. He adores anything chocolate... me too!

Okay can you tell she has gotten way to tall and I can no longer see the top of her head where her bows are unless I have her look down?!! She is like 4'9" and only 9 1/2years old. EEK.... Oh well she will just be tall like us!

So, I finally had to have her sit on the floor to get a good picture of her cute polka dot bow with a G on it!! She thinks its pretty special to have her initial on it.

These are all of the sweet clips! A pink with pink/green polka dots, a cupcake, cherries, another cupcake and a ribbon with cupcakes on it! I'm sure mei mei will just love them.

The recipe for "Best Chip Cookie Recipe Ever!"

Thank you so much Kim at Journey to Isabella for hosting this great clip/bow/recipe swap. It was oodles of fun!

It Is Official!

2009-02-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

As of Monday February 2nd, 2009 we are now in THE REVIEW ROOM!!! Yippee.
It has taken us 21 months and 3 days to make it into this room at the CCAA.
This is where the Chinese officials will spend time going through our dossier to make sure that everything is in order with our request for our precious daughter. If there is anything that they are uncertain of they will contact our agency and ask questions of clarification.
Lets pray that there are no questions and that we will make it through with flying colors.

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Ten Things I am Thankful for.....

~friends who believe in you

~love notes

~art museums

~the first juicy bite of an apple

~ guitar solos

~wise words

~the familiar scents of home

~smooth landings

~the warming glow of a porch light

~homemade jams

Photos from Flickr creative commons

Owen And Emma Bows Give Away

2009-02-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

These are just too cute! It is another give away atFrugal Mommy Of 2 Girls for Valentines. I just love these little clips! They are so sweet...
Go over and visit FMO2G to enter. This was posted on Feb. 1st at her site and the contest will end on Feb. 8th.

Monkey Toes Giveaway!

2009-02-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

Just wanted you to know that Frugal Mommy Of 2 Girls is having an awesome giveaway for these adorable Pink Luv Bug MJ's from Monkey Toes! I just love these and all of the other adorable shoes that they make. The post date for this give away was Jan. 30th. on her blog. She has giveaways everyday. So, I frequent her site. This one ends Feb. 7th.

It has been 21 months since LID!!

2009-01-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

Another month has pasted and we are just 2 days closer to our LID. We still have 423 days until April 30,2007 LID. It is hard to stay positive about this whole experience. We continue on our paper work for Foster Adoption. Which ever comes first! Life is full and busy! I have dreams about another child that will fill our hearts. I can't wait to hold that child and fill its heart with love, joy and laughter....

10 Things I have to be grateful for...

my daughter and her love for life

my dear husband and his love to create

my dear friend who is my confidant and rock when I question everything

Starbucks coffee

fresh berries

a smile from a stranger

morning dew on a spiders web

steel cut oatmeal

blogs!

the words "I love you" never get old!

GRATITUDE is the key to happiness.~~ C.S. Lewis

Look Up!

2009-01-28T21:35:00.000-08:00

When it rains on
your parade,
look up rather than down.
Without the rain, there
would be no rainbow.
~~ G.K. Chesterton~~

During this long wait remember to enjoy the rainbows. They are Gods way of smiling down on us and encouraging us.

Welcome Sweet Samuel!

2009-01-27T20:17:00.001-08:00

I wanted to introduce you to my BF's precious little boy Samuel. He arrived in their lives 1 week ago! It is totally a God thing how he came to them. He was meant to be their son. Sweet Samuel you are a gift from God sent to the most wonderful and deserving family. May your life be filled with dreams,hopes,laughter and love!!

My precious friend and her bundle of joy!

I just love this smile!

I got to visit today and was his first visitor outside of family! He is just such a good baby. It felt absolutely heavenly to hold him. I did not want to let go!

I will check to see if she will allow visitors on her blog.

A Fun Package In The Mail!

2009-01-26T22:16:00.001-08:00

What fun it is to receive packages in the mail! Kim at Journey to Isabella sent me this wonderful package of adorable clips and a clip caddy.
I just love them! They are all so cute and fun. Great choices and the fabric is so me! Thank you so much Kim!

Such a great color combination!