An Update!!!!

Every morning since our referral, I check my e-mail first thing upon wakening, hoping for an e-mail with updated information and new pictures of our precious little girl....

Well, this morning was that morning. I saw the e-mail but didn't open it. I ran into our bedroom and told Brent, "We got an update! We got an update!" I've never seen him jump out of bed so fast!

Not sure yet if there were pictures, I opened the e-mail.....and held my breath......

Then I saw it----SEVEN new pictures! Plus the answers to our questions! Only those who have or are currently adopting can understand how PRICELESS updated information on our children is.  It's the only connection we have to this little girl that's already stolen our hearts. We think of her day and night, wondering if she's okay, comfortable, hungry, wet or lonely.  We pray she's being loved on, stimulated, played with.  Our hearts wish we could go get her NOW but China says "wait".

This waiting period is very much like a pregnancy---we know we're getting a baby, we know about when she's coming, we know it's a girl, and we even know what she looks like.  But unlike a pregnancy, where the baby is with Momma at all times, safe and warm, our little one is in an orphanage. A decent orphanage, but an orphanage still.  Thousands of miles away.  Waiting for her Momma and Daddy to come get her!

I know I still need to answer alot of questions regarding our daughter, China, our timeline, etc. I keep writing and rewriting the post in my head, but for some reason, it hasn't gotten posted to my blog yet! Have patience---I think I'll get it done today or tomorrow. :)

Here's what we know about our sweet baby girl so far-----She'll be 11 months old on the 9th of August. She was born premature, weighing only 2lbs 12 oz at birth, and was abandoned outside a school when she was about a day old.  The police found her and took her to the Nanjing Social Welfare Institute, where she spent five months in special care and has "graduated" to the 0-1 year old room which she shares with about 40 babies.

She's now 14 pounds, 26 inches long, and has 5 teeth.  She is sitting up, rolling over, and crawling backwards.  She smiles and laughs "easily" and can hold her own bottle, although she has started eating rice now.  She loves noisy toys and her nanny. 

Not at all related to her develpment, but I asked the orphanage if they would let her hair grow (The orphanages shave the heads of babies, toddlers, and often even older children.. I imagine it makes it easier to take care of so many children.) They answered back that since the "family requested, we will let her hair grow."  This makes my happy, because I love hairbows and can't wait to do her hair!

Here's a couple of updated pictures. Can you see her little teeth?

She's dressed like a boy, but can't you just imagine her in a frilly dress, with little pink shoes and a huge hairbow in her hair? I can! 

I just want to kiss her little cheeks, pick her up and never let her go again.

We're coming little one. We're coming!

:

Referral---Here's our new daughter!!!

Name: Wei Chun Yi
Province: Jiangsu
Orphanage: Nanjing SWI
Age: 10 months



What you really wanted to see: PICTURES!!!

Isn't she just the most precious little baby?

 I want to tell the whole story of how we got the referral, and our decision process, but I'm tired.

And overwhelmed with love.

 And needing some sleep after several very sleepness nights. So for now, here she is. And very soon....the REST of the story......

Vacation 2010--Pigeon Forge, TN

We definitely love to travel as a family. This years' big trip-so far-was a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN. We drove down to Hillsboro, NC, first, to spend the weekend with Brent's sister, Rhonda. One of the highlights of the weekend for the children was a visit to the North Carolina Musuem of Life and Science. (We have a reciprocal yearly membership to all the children's museums/science centers nationwide.)

Eliana and Aunt Rhonda exploring the water pumps:

Four little ones, excited about being on "bacation":

Ethan is learning to walk! He took his first steps alone later on this week:

Daddy B and Momma B, a week before our 12th wedding anniversary:

Next stop on our vacation was church on Sunday. We were so blessed to visit our dear friends Ray and Robin McCormick in Asheboro, NC for their Sunday morning services. Ray pastors the church and what a blessing to hear him preach and see their ministry in person. Our friendship goes back to before both families had children, back when both were dealing with infertility and praying for children. Now they have FIVE and we are going to be bringing home number FIVE from China in a few months---TEN precious blessings from two families desiring to please the Lord. Our time with the McCormicks was short, and I failed to take any pictures, but it was a blessing to see them again!

NEXT STOP: Pigeon Forge, TN

After running through a drive-thru for lunch, we got on the road for TN. The drive went smoothly and we checked into our condo around 6:30 p.m. It was a beautiful two-bedroom with a complete kitchen/dining room! Plenty of space for our family, and all our stuff.....

Time and space won't allow me to post about all of the fun things we were able to experience this week, so I'll just give you the "highlights" in pictures!

Silly little Noah giving me an "orange" smile at lunch one day:

The go-cart track was three-tiered and scary!

An evening of fun at the Comedy Barn:

The best part of the trip, according to Eliana, was the morning we went horseback riding. She had her own pony, and I rode double with Nathaniel, while Brent kept the littlest ones. It was not an easy trail--picture lots of steep trails!! We had to hold on and close our eyes. Seriously!

Another highlight for the whole family was the two days we spent at Dollywood. Such a lovely, fun, family atmosphere at this amusement park! They had a special where you could purchase tickets after 3 pm one day, and then come back free the next whole day. So when we arrived the first day, here's what our youngest two were doing:

Fun at Dolllywood:

Our afternoon at The Miracle was so special. It's a musical on the life of Jesus. Not as good as Sight and Sound, but still a thought-provoking play, and tastefully done. We got a picture with one of the "archangels"...

Our favorite dinner was definitely our night at the Dixie Stampede! No matter how many times we go to their dinner show, we always LOVE it!

We have a family tradition of allowing the children to get a special "memory" from our trip. Eliana chose a silver ring with her name engraved on it, and the boys chose a cork gun from Dollywood. They also got free hats from the horseback riding day. One morning I found them playing like this:

I love their mismatched jammies and precious smiles!

All in all, a wonderful week, lots of family snuggles and fun memories for each of us. Thank you, Lord, for our family!

Litte Girls Room

I love to decorate, especially shabby chic, feminine decor. Painted furniture, soft pastel colors, lace and flowers are my favorite. In preparation for our new little girl, I've been having fun re-doing Ellie's room.

The "old" room had a queen canopy bed, but the room is rather small and the bed took up most of the space. With two little girls needing playspace/sleeping space, well, there just wasn't enough room! I sold the bed and Ellie's old dresser on Craig's list and then my parents gave us a set of white bunkbeds with a matching dresser. The dresser had been an "as-is" purchase years ago and came without the top doors.

We put the bunks and dresser into Ellie's room, and added matching pink tea-cup duvet covers. I rearranged the dollhouse bookshelf (a Target purchase several years ago) and the dresser several times, trying to get the most functional space out of the room.

The room still needed something to give it a more "girly" touch....I love to see how little I can spend when re-doing a room, so I didn't want to spend much money. I tried a couple different curtains, remaking or using what I already had. I ended up taking Ellie's old curtain (Shabby Chic, again from Target several years ago), cutting off the bottom, and inside mounting it. I added some ribbon and loved the end result!

                       Then I took the leftover curtain fabric and made a set of curtains for the dresser!

I found a picture of a painted house in a Pottery Barn Kids magazine, and while painting is not one of my strengths, I decided to try anyway. (I figured I could always paint over it if it was a flop!)
Here's the first step (you can see one of my curtain attempts in this picture, too)

Next came the pink scalloped "roof". I traced a kids bowl to get the round shape.

I had only bought two sample size paint cans, one pink and one white. So after I painted two shutters, I mixed a little pink and white together for the stripes on the shutters.

I took an old shelf that I wasn't currently using

spray painted it white

and hung it under the shutters.

The "window" is a cheap picture frame spray painted white. Ellie drew a picture of a little girl for me to put in it. And the doll is the first thing Ellie bought when we started our adoption! It's for her new sister.

My other children were busy making messes while Momma painted. Here's Noah:

And the completed room, all ready for TWO sweet little girls.

Adoption Update

We received a phone call from our adoption agency last week that the final clearance we had been waiting on had come in and they were sending out our finalized, approved Home Study immediately!  Yippee! One major step accomplished in this journey.

Next comes our USCIS (Citizen and Immigration Services) approval. So we filled out another long form, included a copy of our Home Study, birth certificates and marriage liscense, and a lovely check for $830.00, and paid extra to Overnight it via FedEx on Saturday.

Average approval time is around 40 days right now. Of course, we're hoping for LESS than average, but we'll see! This is the last piece of paper we need to assemble our dossier (the paperwork that actually goes to China for approval).

Keepin' it Real..

We have four children, with one "on the way" via adoption. Four honestly doesn't seem like that many to me, although five does start to sound big. Now, when it's laundry day--twice a week in our home--I feel like there must be at least 8 children living here, dirtying clothes, dumping them in the laundry hamper, and then hiding. Seriously. But, I digress...

Anyway, you know you're starting to have "too many" children when you start getting the comments. Heard any lately?
"Are they all yours?" (Actually, I'm running a daycare. How many daycare centers take their children grocery shopping??)
OR
"Wow. You really have your hands full."
OR one that I've been getting alot lately, especially if we mention our adoption:
"Better you than me."

We believe children are a blessing because GOD said so, and because we know. Four live in our house! They truly are a blessing and we hope to have as many as God allows. I'm praying this blog can be an encouragement to other Momma's who are drowining under the laundry pile, too parenting lots of little ones.

But I don't want to just share the positives, the blessings, the good days. Because while there are plenty of those, there are also many difficult days. The kind most people don't blog about, but that all of us experience at one time or another. Sometimes I'm afraid to be transparent enough to share about those times that stretch me as a mother for fear someone will have the attitude--"Well, then stop having kids!"
Here's the simple truth, though. Hold on, cause it might be revolutionary to you.....

We all experience rough days, trials, and sin (whether in our life or someone else's life). I remember at my six week checkup after the birth of my fourth baby, the midwife asked me how it was going. You know, how am I doing with all these kids. I told her the truth---well, I have good and not-so-good days, but I bet you experience the same at your job! Her face lit up with a smile as she responded, "You are so right. Every job has its joys and challenges." It's what you make of it that counts. Momma's with four children, or eight children, or NO children. Doctors and nurses and Pastors and their wives. We ALL have good days and those days where everything goes wrong not-so-good days.

Where am I going with all this? I am challenged, in beginning this blog, to Keep it Real. To share what God is teaching me and hope it can be a blessing to you in some way.
To not be afraid of what someone might think but to share what God lays on my heart.

To be real.

My Very First Blog Post

After several years of enjoying other people's blogs, and several months of Daddy "B" encouraging me to start my own blog, here I am, writing my very first post. The funny thing is, I have a million posts swirling around in my head, but none of them are a "perfect" first post. (No pressure here!)

So, I'll just end this unimportant, boring first post so I can get on to my probably still very boring second post!