Updated Photos

Finally!  Updated photos and a smile!

The funniest thing is Guy said she is not getting a cellphone until she is much older and he didn't think I should have bought her the toy cellphone!  Hey Dad, can I borrow the car?

Map of China

Yinchuan, also know as Phoenix City, is the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.  It is located in northern China and along the Yellow River.  The region is mostly dry with cold winters, coldest in January, and short hot summers.  We will also be traveling to Beijing, in the Northeast and Guangzhou in Southern China.

Care Package to Sarah and Foster Family

We purchased a care package to be sent to Sarah Elizabeth using Red Thread care packages, a service based in China that will put together a package and send it to your waiting child.  This morning we received an email with pictures showing what is being sent.  We purchased a package that includes a letter translated into Chinese from us to the orphanage director , caregivers and Sarah's foster family.  It also includes a doll, a blanket, a pair of pj's, a camera with a note to use up all of the film and give it to us when we get there and candy for the caregivers/foster family.  We also included a soft album with 6 photos of ourselves (that should give Sarah something to laugh at), the cats and Sarah's bedroom.  Sarah should be receiving the package in a few days. Maybe she will recognize us as the funny people in the book when we finally meet her.

We wish Sarah could have received it this morning.  Christmas morning was hard with a child half the way around the world but receiving the email this morning put a smile on both of our faces.  Merry Christmas Sarah!  And thank you to all the people that have been and are taking care of our daughter!

Christmas picture

I dressed up Sarah's picture in a holiday outfit using Paint Shop Pro.  We don't even have her home yet and I'm putting her in silly outfits!

Christmas Eve Eve miracle

At 2:12 PM today we received a call from Elena at Living Hope Adoption Agency. 
Elena - Hello, Is this Linda?
Me - Yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss?
Elena - This is Elena at Living Hope  (we have caller id, I already knew)
Me - Yesssssssssssssssssssssssss?
Elena - I'm calling with an early Christmas present.   Your Travel Authorization is here so we will shot for traveling on Jan 13th if that is okay with you.
Me - tears running down face and covered in goose bumps and jumping up and down.  Yes, Yes, Yes!  Thank you, Merry Christmas and I have no idea what else I said! 

But we're going to China!  WooooooooooooHoooooooooooooooooo!

The agency requested a Consulate Appointment but we won't know until Monday when that will be but in all likelyhood we should be holding Sarah by January 18th!  Next week we should have a better idea of our whole itinerary.

Shots

We went to get our vaccines to travel today.  OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! and OUCH!  Three shots each for both of us...and one big shot to the pocketbook....over $1200 dollars.  They hurt and the bill really hurt and of course insurance doesn't pay for it.  Plus all the small needles have been allocated for H1N1 vaccine so they were big needles.  I got mine first and thank goodness because when I saw Guy get his I saw just how long the needles were and how deep the needle goes into the muscle.  That explains why he looked nervous when I was getting mine.  Guy even flinched with the last shot which really did hurt.  We were both really sore all day.  And one out of 25 people get a fever and I got a fever.  Well, still better than getting typhoid, Hep A, tetanus, whooping couph or diptheria.   

LOA

Our signed Letter of Acceptance should be in China now.  Travel Authorization should be coming sometime after Monday and once we have our TA and we request a Consulate Appointment, we will know our intinerary and what day we will meet Sarah.

A Learning Experience

Some of what we have learned:

Diapers come in sizes like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 not weigh categories??????
There are too many different brands of diaper rash ointments.
You lose sleep when your child is half way around the world waiting for you.
You will worry before you have your child and for the rest of your life.
Children must get into way too many things because there are soooooooooooo many safety devices.
Parents need their sleep so they have the energy to worry some more.
You can get morning sickness and nausea when you are adopting.
There are so many things you will do for your child that you would not normally do. (like fly half way around the world to a place where you do not know the language)
Parenthood changes everything.
Preparing for a child is exciting but exhausting.
Parenthood changes everything.
There is a lot we don't know.

More Pictures

We just can't stop looking at her and can't wait to hold her!

Website access

I am setting up this websight for family and friends to follow along on our trip to China to bring Sarah home.  The site access is limited to invited guests so please forgive me if I have not added you yet.  It is a work in process and I am a tad overwhelmed with all we need to get done.  I know I haven't added everyone who needs to be but I need emails of everyone so please send me any that I miss and accept my apologe in advance.

Fun, Fun, Fun

The room is painted except for the doors.  Guy stayed up until late putting the furniture together last night and Sarah's room is starting to come together.  Our cats are wondering what is going on and if that crib is their new cage.  Now to finish painting and decorating with things we bought so long ago we forgot what we had.

Introducing Sarah Elizabeth

Our Journey Begins

December 27, 2005 - Signed and sent contract to our Adoption Agency to begin adoption process
January 6, 2006 - Received Adooption workbook and start paperchasing to build dossier.

September 22, 2006 - Our dossier was officially logged in China
November 30, 2007 - We are through reveiw room in China




After waiting nearly four years, on the evening of November 12, 2009 we saw our beautiful daughter's picture for the very first time. This little girl our agency nicknamed Rose was waiting to be adopted and we were waiting for her. We called our agency the next day and asked what we needed to do to make this precious little girl ours. We spent that weekend feverishly filling out forms and writing our letter of intent to bring our daughter home. At 12 o'clock midnight on Sunday, November 15, 2009 we emailed the agency with all of our paperwork attached and asked them to lock our daughter's file. We didn't want to wait until Monday morning to call the agency. We just couldn't risk not being her parents!



November 17, 2009 our Letter of Intent(LOI) was sent to China.

November 26, 2009 - Thanksgiving Day - we received Pre-approval (PA) We aren't notified until Monday due to the holiday.

December 2, 2009 - We have Letter of Acceptance (LOA)! We are officially approved!

December 3, 2009 - Drove to Living Hope Adoption Agency to sign LOA.



Now we wait for Travel Approval (TA) and Consulate Appointment (CA) and should be seeing our daughter in person sometime next month!!!!!!!