(This was taken minutes after Natalie was placed in our arms for the first time)

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We Are So Blessed

We have the opportunity to pray and wait and plan and hope and dream and work for our child. Circumstances don't allow us to take our child for granted - ever. We do all these things for so long and at such great emotional cost, that when our child is finally in our arms, we truly cherish every minute. Every second...

We are blessed to be in our child's life. We are blessed that God planned for us to be a family, and that we were given the opportunities that brought us together. We get to see all the best parts of mankind in our wonderful children. All the goodness and potential and innocence and ambition and confidence and love. And what a beautiful sight that is...

We are blessed to have run this race. It is long and, very often, it is practically impossible to complete. But we run anyway, and believe in ourselves and our child enough to do the impossible. We run, knowing that at the end of this great race, a child is waiting for a chance at a wonderful life. And we get to be the ones to give her that life.

We are blessed that when our child laughs, we are the ones to hear it. And when our child cries, we are the ones she looks for. When our child feels pain or joy or accomplishment or excitement, she shares it with us.

We are so blessed to have had the chance to see life from a different angle. To see that things don't always go as you planned them out in the 5th grade- but that better things are in store. To be part of the few who feel constantly misunderstood. To be one who always has to be on guard against the rude and ignorant comment. To feel the frustration of not having the perfect comeback to that comment until three hours later. Our kids can use those experiences and lessons we have learned. We are deeper, stronger, more compassionate people because of this journey. And the world our children live in is better because we have grown in these ways.

Our child is blessed. She is patted and hugged and nestled and rocked and kissed and squeezed and taught and tickled and corrected and praised. She is told of her value in God's eyes. She is certain of her value in our eyes. And she never wonders if she will be cared for tomorrow or the next day...she sleeps comfortably each night,safe in our care.

We should tell our children we are proud. We have saved and scrimped, prayed and begged, planned and schemed, worked and worried, and hoped endlessly for them. We have dedicated years of our lives to finding them and bringing them home to their forever family. And we have given our whole hearts to them even before we ever saw that precious face.

Now that is love. And parents who adopt know all about that...

Author unknown

Where does the time fly

It's hard to believe that May is almost over. The months seems to have flown by. We celebrated Natalie's 2nd birthday this past Thursday and tomorrow is mine. I will not elaborate on which one.






We are finalizing our plans to go to Florida. There is a re-union of all the families that travelled with us to Chongqing, China get our daughters. This is the first re-union and everyone will be there! We can hardly wait. We are driving down, with a few stops on the way. We are going to spend a couple of days at Disney World. One of the other families is meeting us there and we have planned a lot of fun activities! Then we are all going to Clearwater, where the 'out-of-towners' will be staying at a beach house. They were able to squeeze us in. It will be fun because we will all be staying together in the same house. The beach house is divided up into seperate sleeping areas and bathrooms, for privacy, but has common eating/living areas. I know that the babies will have a great time getting to know each other again. I can't wait to see how all the other girls have grown.


Here are the Girls of Qianjiang Social Welfare Institute, Chongqing Province, China. From left to right are Jillian, Jade, Logan, Keira, Natalie, Anna and Micah. They were all born in May, 2005 in the same city, Qianjiang. They were playmates at the same orphanage, Qianjiang SWI and were adopted on the same day, March 28, 2006. The families all used the same adoption, GWCA and became acquainted, thanks to the internet. We chatted on-line for many months before meeting in China. Though this will be our first re-union, I hope that they will continue for many years.

I've been tagged!

Since this is my 1st time being "tagged", I'm not exactly sure what to do...so bear with me. I am supposed to revel 7 things about myself. OK, here goes......

1. Like Rony, I also married a much younger man. I won't go into specifics. Let's just say that I robbed the cradle.

2. I went to Northern Michigan University in Marquette for a couple of years. I LOVED it up there and would move back in a heartbeat.

3. I have always had a calling to adopt because I was adopted as a baby. I never felt bad about being adopted, instead I always thought that being adopted made me 'special'. I hope my daughters feel the same way. One of my favorite stories is something my dad told me once. He said that when he first saw me at the orphanage, I grabbed his finger and wouldn't let go. He said that was the moment that he knew I was meant to be his daughter.

4. I have a few hobbies. Quilting (not the best, not the worst), reading (though who has time anymore?), and shopping (which I have passed on to Natalie and hopefully Nora).

5. I have to admit that I like Yanni. Shameful, I know but it's true. And I like all that New Age/Meditation stuff. David Lanz is another favorite and Jim Brickman. I am a sucker for anything piano.

6. One of my addictions is starch. If I had to pick only one food group to eat from, it would be breads and pastas. Give me a warm loaf of homemade bread and some creamy butter and I am in heaven. Too bad it's not low calorie!

7. If you had told me 10 years ago that I would have been to China and am planning on going to Vietnam, I would have told you that you were crazy! I am terrified to fly! How I got half way across the world, I'll never know. Chalk it up to the power of prayer. And a mother's determination to get her child and bring it home!

Dossier is off to FTIA

I just got back from mailing our finished dossier to our agency. Wooo! What a relief to get it done, signed, sealed and now being delivered. I got some really nice photos of our house. Jon even asked "Is that what our rooms realy look like? I couldn't tell from all the clutter." Comedian!

As I was packaging up our dossier, at the post office, I realized that I had forgotten to bring my finished workbook. Rats, well, I can send it with Jon's. I just wanted to get as much in as possible. Oh well.

Never Listen to a Paper Pregnant Woman!

Ok, here we go again. I talked to my agency rep and she said that we could send in our finished dossier now and the check and Jon's workbook in early June. That way they can review the dossier ahead of time, giving us time to correct anything that might need it.

Even though we won't be on the 'waiting list' til June, we will have eliminated a step by already being reviewed. So our dossier can immediately be sent to Vietnam for translation.

Needless to say, I have been busy making the necessary copies, taking photos of the relatively clean house, and organizing the tons of papers, forms and what-not into some kind of order. Seems like everything needs to be in triplicate! AND then there is the copy for our records.