More Pictures 7/10/07

These pictures were at Green Lake park. The men at the table are playing a game similar to chess in the US. The retired people here seem to be more social than in the US - they keep very active and busy and hang out with one another. The big beach balls were taken at the lake - the children love them and it is good for balance! The last picture with all the people was a group of older parents trying to meet other parents to find mates for their children. They meet at the park, discuss their grown children and try to play match maker. Our facilitator tells us the grown children don't enjoy this much!

Green Lake Park

Today we walked around green lake park. It is a beautiful park with so much to see and do. There is a little amusement area for little kids and people dancing, singing and exercising. There is also a place where children gather to feed fish (Sophie thought the fish were amazing). There are little paddle boats, which we hope to be able to ride with Sophie later in the week (she is running a low grade fever with a bad cough so we have started her on antibiotics and are trying to lay low with her until she feels better). The older ladies were giving the thumbs up and coming up to us and wanting to see and touch her. One older lady felt her head and told me that she must have a bad cough even without ever seeing or hearing her cough - WIERD! We walked quite a bit until miss Sophie seemed to have to go potty and we decided to head back to our room (now she is napping now and has not had one potty "accident" yet. It is challenging because we do not communicate well yet and there is not a definitive way to know if she has to go potty that we have established yet. We meet our group of friends tonight for dinner at the Blue Bird. It has been a total blessing to have these people to talk with and eat with. We are all in the same boat and encourage one another continually which really helps. I can not say more positive things about our facilitator - he is the best we have seen - he is so helpful and kind and really funny!!! Americans Adopting Orphans families are very blessed to have him - he makes this process so doable and we really enjoy him!

Bathtime is so much fun!

Sophia LOVES her bath!!!!

Forever day!

Today was just a busy day! Today marks such an important milestone because Sophie is officially ours according to China law. We took an oath that we would not abuse or abandon her. When filling out paperwork for our adoption, we were told that the camera in the civil affairs office was broken and we were to go to a photo studio to get our family photo done. By this point, little Sophia was just so tired and the photographer freaked her out. Our family photo is one of a precious screaming baby girl. From that time on - she has been much more weary of men in general.

We finally got back and had bath time, which Sophia LOVED. She is just such a hoot - she is spunky and crazy all wrapped up with really sweet - she is just the perfect child that God hand chose for us and for our family. She is very social and giggles to herself when she plays. She likes it when we get crazy with her too!

She is such a teeny little one. Her hair is also quite thin. We were told that she lived in a foster home with two teenage sons in the country and wonder if she did not get enough food. Her ribs just stick out. The amazing thing is that she loves any food that we give her without rejection - so we anticipate it to be only a short time until she is to a healthy weight for her size.

She is also fighting something. I gave her Tylenol tonight and called UW who told me to give her the antibiotics, just because babies with cleft do have a harder time with ear infections and we will be flying very soon. She seemed ok with both meds. Her chest cough is pretty bad. Please pray for her.

This is just the awesome proof about how awesome God is. The lady from California that I have become very close to, who happens to be Cana's mommy - and we have had dinner with them and hung out with them often, adopted the sweet baby girl from Sophie's farming village and she was in the same baby room as Sophia in the orphanage! Sophia really loves this little girl and you can tell that she knows her well. It has just been so awesome and I know that because of our girls and God's hand, we will be friends for life.

We are so in love with this little one! Can't wait till tomorrow to see what we get to know more about this amazing little one!

Kids - Sophia is going to LOVE you guys so much! Daddy and I showed her the pictures of you guys and she always wants to look at the photo book and touch you and have us tell her who you are! Only 10 more days!!! We love you guys.

On a total side note, which we will write about later, Kunming is GORGEOUS!!! This place is great!!!

Gotcha day

Hello!!! We have been filled with the wonder and miracle of this wonderful sweet baby girl of ours. God is so good. We are so blessed. We can't believe how much in love we are with Sophia already - she is such a little spunky thing.

We got to the Civil Affairs office at 8:30. We sat down and we saw a nanny bring in two babies. One was apparently very upset. They were in another room so we were not sure which one was Sophie. Our facilitator told us Sophie was not the crying baby, but once they brought her to us, she was VERY upset. Daddy held her then mommy. She cried for about 10 minutes and then we got the bottle out which did the trick. She drank it well and then ate her filling of fruity Cheerios (thanks to the advice of the been there done that mommy, our friend Cathy). She then was playing and laughing and smiling. She has taken to us both equally so far.

She is a VERY tiny thing - she wears about a 6 month size and looks thin - daddy says give her a couple weeks with the Hopp snack drawer and she will be her right size in no time!!

She does have a little cough and we plan to take her to see the doctor just to be sure she is ok. She seems happy and content though. She is on the bed playing with her new toys. She is SOOOO smart - stacking cups and reading books and LOVING her sunglasses and her new baby doll. LOVES THE BABY DOLL!

She is in fact potty trained - her motion is a dress tug and then I take her in and she goes. I still have a diaper on her - she does not seem to mind the diaper.

We were told once the nanny gave her to us to be VERY careful - that even though she seems quiet because she is upset - she is WILD and will get into EVERYTHING! I guess we may need to Sophie proof the house more!

We will write later - we are just so in love with this little one that God has blessed us with.

Gatcha Day

More pictures later but wanted to let you know that we finally got beautiful Sophia in our arms today. At first she was a little hesitant but now has taken to us very well. We are so happy.

Our favorite site!

This is my favorite picture that we have sent yet. Look at what we were greeted with when we checked in to our hotel and entered our room!! That little blue crib was my favorite site so far. I can just imagine my baby girl asleep dreaming in it all snuggly in her new blankets. Looking at this little crib brought tears to both of our eyes. Life is about to change in an amazing way!

Can't sleep

It is 3am the morning that we will be getting Sophia. I am soooo excited and have anticipated this day for so long. I wonder what she will be like, look like, and who she will prefer. We have been told by our facilitator that it is VERY likely that she will choose one of us to prefer and completely avoid the other, this is a normal and expected reaction by most babies in this situation. We have been told that the babies are typically one of three ways

* VERY upset (cries for 3 days or so)

* Happy and indifferent, but prefers one parent over the other

* sullen with a blankish look and distant (attachment is more of a challenge)

What will miss Sophia be? Maybe she will be the 4th way that has not been created yet, she certainly seems like a girl with a mind of her own (hmmm, who does that sound like).

I am going to try to get a little more sleep so I can be ready for this bundle of joy........ 6 hours!!!!

We will have Sophie in our arms in 10 hours!

It is 11pm and we are trying to get our supplies ready to meet our precious Sophia. Our facilitator tells us that tomorrow will be a very busy day - doing most of the paper work for the government and preparing documents for Sophie's passport. We will be here until Saturday and then venture off to Guangzhou to go to complete the rest of the adoption (the US side of things). We are so excited to finally meet this wonderful girl that the Lord has so richly blessed us with. We can not even begin to have words to express how thankful we are for this gift! China has been so wonderful! The weather is GREAT! The people are fantastic and continually taking our pictures and talking to us to practice english. It is our one and only opportunity to act like real life movie stars (yeah right). We were also able to meet up with Stacy and Paul, an awesome Christian couple from China adopting their 5th - yes 5th child. We had dinner with them tonight and talked. We feel blessed that God has brought them into our lives and that our paths have crossed. They get their little angel, Cana, tomorrow at almost the same time as Sophie. goodnight for now! Sophie, ready or not, here we come...... oh yes and by the way - Richard told us today that she is potty trained...21 months....potty trained.....not a lot of ability to communicate....another fun and exciting venture on this journey.

The Family Plan in China

We found out more on what the Family Plan Policy is in China. It may be different than what you think it is...

The basic policy for China is that each family is allowed 1 child.
There are 56 nationalities in China. The Han nationality makes up ~90% of the Chinese population.
If either the husband or the wife is of a minority nationality (there are 55 minority nationalities), then they are allowed 2 children.
In some cases, if both parents are of minority nationalities, then 3 children are allowed.
If you have an illegal child born to you and if you are an employee of the government, then you will lose your job.
If you have an illegal child born to you then you have to pay a fee of 150,000 yuan, or about $20,000.
If you don't report the child to the government, then you will not be able to get an ID card that allows the child to go to school. I believe these are the same cards that Beijing will use during the 2008 Olympic games to determine if you are a Beijing local. Anyone without a card will not be permitted to be in Beijing during the olympics.
If your firstborn child is a girl, then you are allowed to have a second child after the girl is 8 years old. I believe this is a fairly new law to promote the families to keep their girls.
There was an article in the local newspaper about how China will have many millions more men in the 2020's than women. I wish I had kept the paper.

pictures of our room in kunming

Ni Hao from Kunming China!

Hello everyone! We made it! What a journey it has been so far. All of our flights were great. We did not sleep much at all, but we think that it may have actually helped us get used to the time difference here. It is pretty humid here. We arrived in Gunagzhou at 11pm China time (which was about 8am Washington time). We went right to bed after checking in and got up this morning, had a wonderful brunch, met our facilitator Richard, who is wonderful and we are now settling in at our hotel. We were greeted in our room with the soon to be crib for Sophie to sleep in. We are in utter awe at the miracle that is waiting just miles from us. We were told that we will get Sophia at 9am tomorrow morning. This is sure to be a sleepless night! In about an hour we are going to Walmart to get water, and some supplies for Sophia. Please pray for us and for Sophia, our facilitator did tell us that he thinks she is still in her foster home (which was a shock to us) so this means that tomorrow morning may be an emotional challenge for her. As Richard told us, "she will hate you and then she will love you". Richard did confirm that our baby is VERY busy and that we need to keep a close eye on her. Her foster family lives in the country and it is likely that she has been able to run around on her leisure. Below are some pictures of the airport, our hotel in Guangzhou and a few others. We miss you kids and we loved talking to you today!!! Give grandpa and grandma a big kiss from us and we will send pictures of Sophia as soon as we can!!!!

It's 1:41 and we are about to board!!!!

Well all, we made it!!!! We got through getting our ummm 50plus bound bags checked in (for no cost courtesy of the wonderful and gracious North West Airlines baggage checker who thought that us adopting was a "wonderful thing")! We are sitting here so excited to get on board. I is surreal that we are at this point and that we are only hours away from meeting our new baby girl!!! We plan to post as soon as we can! Hang tight and watch the Lord move!!!

To my youngest daughter and her mother from China

Hui Juan,

You will not be aware that your life is about to change. You are going to have a mommy and daddy that love you more than you know. We have dreamed about the day that you would be placed in our arms and now our dreams are becoming reality and our faithful prayers are being answered. We love you without knowing you and without reservation. We love the baby you are, and the girl you will become. We know how blessed we are to have the joy of watching you grow.

Somewhere in Yunnan is a woman who gave birth to you. She made sure that you were carefully placed in a soft blanket in front of the busy market place so that when the sun rose, people would find you and you would be taken care of. She loved you sweet one. You have the softness of her eyes. I know that your mother from China wanted you to have a full and rich life. I am so in debted to her. I pray she will feel the love I have for you in my heart and know that you will be loved beyond compare.

Hui Juan, I love you and I can not wait to kiss you. We are hours away from being right beside you for the rest of your life!!

Love, mommy

WE ARE COMING SOPHIA!

After all the waiting, we finally leave tomorrow. All our bags are packed and the kids are sound asleep (It's almost midnight). We have been praying for Sophia to be united with our family and we can't be more excited.

Sophia's room Done just in time

Sophia will be so happy to have her own room. We cannot wait to show it to her. Baby we love you. We are coming soon.

A brand new Washing Machine

Hi! I wanted to thank all of the people who generously donated money towards Sophia's orphanage. The kids loved making the cards for you all and they felt so much apart of helping out. We raised enough money to purchase a Washing Machine for the Kunming Orphanage. This will be put to great use because there are so many children and we all know what it is like to have too much laundry!! We were also able to purchase special bottles for babies who have cleft palate!!! May the Lord bless all who gave - your gift will help bless the little orphans in Kunming China!!!

8 days and counting!

Well, we are officially just 8 days away from boarding a plane set for China to meet the daughter that we have prayed for. This is the reason that in October 2003, God called us to go to China and bring home our daughter. She was meant to fit into this family and we are blessed that we are days away from holding her and kissing her sweet cheeks. Please pray for Sophia. It is very likely that she is being transferred from her foster family (with whom she has lived with for almost one year) and being taken back to the orphanage to prepare her to meet us - her parents. We know this must be a very difficult time for Sophia and certainly one that she has no understanding of why she is being taken from her home. We wonder if going back to the orphanage may help Sophia be better prepared for us. Surely the orphanage is not a place that feels like "home" anymore. Just pray for our little Sophie!

We are getting packed and it is CRAZY - we already know that we will be paying for extra weight for our suitcases - there is just NO WAY around it!! I am trying to filter through Sophia's clothes and keep reminding myself that this is NOT a fashion show - and to pack light - but her suitcase alone likely weighs 25 lbs over the 44 pound limit - I have to get it on a scale!!!

We are so excited to go to China. We know how blessed we are. We are feeling anxious and sad to leave our children. It is so hard to think of being away from them for two weeks. They will be having the TIME OF THEIR LIVES with their grandparents which makes it a bit easier to get on the plane!!!! 8 days till we leave and only 11 days till Sophie day!!!

Our Itinerary

* July 6 - leave Seattle!
* July 7 - Arrive in Guangzhou (stay overnight)
* July 8 - Take plant to Kunming

* July 9 - SOPHIE DAY
* July 10-14th - Adoption paperwork done in Kunming
* July 14 - Fly to Guangzhou
* July 15 - shopping and sightseeing day
* July 16th - Sophia’s medical and photo for visa
* July 17th - Consulate Appointment
* July 18th - Get miss Sophie's visa
* July 19th - Departure Guangzhou on 19th - we will NEVER forget you China and the gift you brought us in our baby girl!

CA!!!!

We got the call today that we finally have a consulate appointment scheduled for July 17th!!! YAHOO!! We will leave Seattle on July 6 (just two weeks away) and our Sophie's gotcha day will be July 9th! We will be coming home on the 18th - more information in a few hours once we have our flights paid for and booked! We are so excited!!!!

Travel Approval - it's here (well almost)

We just got an amazing email from our agency telling us that our TA (travel approval) is in the mail right now and will be here on Monday!!! We are so excited!! This is one of the last pieces that we need before we can get our little girl!!!! It seems unreal that in days, not months, we will be holding our new daughter, and giving her the love we have kept in our hearts for almost a year to her!!!! We await the CA (consulate appointment) which is when we can book our flights and really plan our trip. We are praying for a consulate appointment for the 2nd week in July - which would mean we would be able to travel and get our daughter the first week in July! Somedays we feel like we have waited soooo long, others days it feels surreal that life has called us to this purpose! God is just amazing! Please pray for us and our children as we prepare for this major life blessing and altering event!!!! Sophia Hui Juan, mommy and daddy are coming soon!!!!

AN UPDATE FROM OUR AGENCY

Today we heard back from our agency, and althought they did not offer any updated information on development, they did say that the orphanage worker was quoted as saying;

"She (Sophia) is very strong and almost never gets sick. She's very naughty and active, keeps adults busy all the time."

OMIGOODNESS - WHAT ARE WE IN FOR????

Looks like little Sophia will fit right in with us!!!

The kids are amazing

We have been talking a lot with the kids about China, life in an orphanage and what Sophia has gone through. We know that Sophia is in foster care now, and has been for some time. She has also been called "robust" by her caregivers and they told our friends that she has never really been sick (not even a cold). The other interesting tid bit is that Sophia is VERY STRONG WILLED. As they put it, "what Sophia wants, Sophia gets"! It sounds like she will really fit in to this family!

The kids have tried to come up with an idea to give money to Sophia's orphange for children who have medical issues such as cleft palate, who can really benefit from bottles that help them drink better. Many of these orphanages simply do not have the funding to buy extra supplies that can be really expensive. The kids decided to make card sets and sent an email off to friends and family. They are asking for donations for Sophie's orphanage and will send homeade card sets to all who donate! What a GREAT idea! We are excited to see what comes in and this is a fun way to keep the kids hearts with us as we journey to China.

We sent in for our Visas and they should be here very soon. We hope to get some word about travel approval by the fisrt week of June! Pray for us! We would hop on a plane tonight if we could. It is hard for us to know Sophia is just sitting there waiting for us - but it calms us to know that she is coming home so soon!

Her room is almost ready. We have just a few things to hang up - but we have a twin bed set up beside her crib. We figured that during those late nights, a bed may be a good idea to snuggle with mama, so baba can get some sleep!

Let the countdown begin!!!!

LOA CAME TODAY

What an awesome day!!! I kept seeing all of these LOA (letter of acceptance) come in from a waiting child group and did not get a call or email until 3pm from Cindy - she left two messages and then when I called back, Dave (the other American's Adopting Orphans owners) told me that our LOA was in. This is the piece that tells us beyond any shadow of doubt that little Sophia Hui Juan is OURS!!!! We feel so blessed and are excited to make the journey to bring her home! We go into American's Adopting Orphans to sign on the LOA and then it will be off to China!!!!! We then wait for two more items. We need travel approval and once we get that we need to make a consulate appointment. Our hope is to travel at the middle to end of June - Sophia baby.....here we come!!!!!!!!! We are blowing kisses from little Kent, Washington to little Kunming, China!!!! Love mama and baba

What is a cleft lip and cleft palate

Education on Cleft lip and cleft palate
As you are aware, our beautiful daughter, Sophie, was born with a birth defect of a cleft lip and cleft palate. Her cleft lip was repaired in China when she was seven months old. As far as we know, she will has not had her palate repaired. I thought I would post some interesting facts on clefts to help educate our family and friends who are not very familiar with this condition.If you rub your finger above your top lip, you will feel two ridges. Those are in fact the cleft scars of a non cleft-affected person. Those tissues naturally join by the fourth week of pregnancy.The palate is then formed out of the structure that begins as the tongue and palate. Between the fourth and eight week of pregnancy, the tongue drops down and the palate segments then move from the sides and fuse in the center. Run your tongue across your hard palate from side to side and you will feel the seam where the two sides fused.A cleft, therefore, is not something that is formed, so much as it is something that does not form. Everyone began life with a cleft. For 699 out of 700 of us, the cleft fuses before birth. For that one in 700, it fails to fuse.One child in 33 is born with some sort of birth defect. One in 700 is born with a cleft-related birth defect. It occurs most often among Asians, Latinos and Native Americans.The causes could be a gene passed down from the birth father or birth mother or from the lack of folic acid in the birth mother's diet, or from the pollution in the air.A parent with a cleft has a minimum of 5% chance of passing the cleft along.
Some famous people who were born with a cleft:
Reverend Jesse Jackson
Tom Brokaw
Mary Crosby
Stacy Keech
Cheech Marin (from Cheech and Chong)
I've listed two non profit organizations where you can learn more about clefting. With donations, these types of organization can provide the necessary surgeries all across the world:
www.smiletrain.org
www.lovewithoutboundaries.com

Some information about where Sophie is.....

Orphanage
Sophia's orphanage is said to be very clean and well managed. There are currently about 140 children taken care of in the orphanage and about 450 in foster care (around 600 children total). It’s hard for us to know for sure if she is in the orphanage or in foster care since they aren’t always forthcoming with this information, but most children do spend some time in foster care before adoption.

There are four foster care villages about an hour from the orphanage where families take care of the children in their own little community.

Yunnan Province and City of Kunming
Yunnan means "south of the clouds". The province is in the southwest corner of China bordered by Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.

Kunming is the capital city of Yunnan with approximately 3 million people. The city is situated on a 6,500 foot plateau. Due to its mild climate and beautiful scenery and history, Kunming is a well known tourist spot for all of China and is known as "Spring City".

There are over two dozen minority groups in the Yunnan province which makes for a variety of interesting cultures and customs. Because they are a minority, they are allowed more than one child . Each of these groups continue to carry on their traditions and wear distinct clothing and headwear.

Our Journey to Sophia

Our Journey to Sophia

Our Journey to Sophia

LOI is off!

Our letter of intent was sent to China today stating that we would seek excellent medical resources for Sophie and that we would take care of her in all of her needs and love her unconditionally. After China gets this letter, they will pull our dossier and review it. We are now waiting for word that they have accepted us and that we will get our TA (travel approval). Our agency is preparing us for a 3-4 month wait! We keep praying this will shorten greatly! We already miss our sweet Sophie!!!

OVER THE MOON!

We have been part of a pilot group for the waiting children in our agency. Our agency chose five families to travel together to China to pick up their daughters. We knew they had been reviewing all families and trying to pick the ones to go, and we got the call today at 3:43pm whle driving in our car that we were selected for a baby. We have her picture and will try to post as soon as we can figure out how. She is 15 months old and was born with a cleft lip and palate. The lip has been repaired and she will need surgery soon to repair the palate and she is SOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL! We are OVER THE MOON. We can not wait to bring little Sophie home!!!!! It is likely that we will travel in a few months. Hold tight little one, mommy and daddy are gonna get you as soon as we can! We love you!