He is settling in & Some China Highlights

Since I didn't have much time to send updates for Makenna to add here while we were in China, I am going to try to do a blog post about it now. Asher is napping restlessly today, so if he wakes up I might have to make it shorter than longer.

He is doing well also. He is a pretty good sleeper so that is helping me with this overwhelming feeling that I keep having. This wounded child needs so much from me, from us, I feel this huge responsibility. Then of course, there is my other children that still need mama too. He sleeps with Jay and me, so my sleep isn't as good as usual, not that it was always great before. I am getting used to having him there, he is quite the snuggler and squirmy sometimes too. He loves his bottle and my time snuggling him with it before bed. Then after eating he takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to fall asleep. I am just enjoying it. I sing him lullabies and hymns and pray over him. He likes to lay right on top of me for a few minutes, as if I am holding him in the Ergo carrier. Then he switches back to the mattress. Then a few minutes later he demands to come back on my chest. And we do this back and forth for about 30 minutes. It is quite sweet and cute to be a part of this.  I am not sure what he is doing, other then learning about his world and his new mama, if he can trust her. I keep gently telling him, "Night, Night Asher".. He knows what that means and cover him back up with blankets. But even so, it takes all that time to unwind. When he is finally done with his antsiness and ready for sleep he is out all of a sudden out, in a matter of a few seconds. Pretty funny how he does that.

He is very smart and picking up signs quickly. I need to learn some more. I know it will likely be a long time until he is talking well, even after surgeries. But, I think he will feel less frustrated that he can communicate and be understood than all the grunting he has been doing.

Okay, here are some China highlights:

Some of my photos are still on my other computer, but here are a few.

Asher didn't eat much while in China, but he did love those instant (Think Top Ramen only better) noodle I made in the hotel room.

This was us at Asher's "Finding Place", which also happened to be at the gate of the orphanage. He was found at 6 AM, 3 days old, wrapped in a traditional red blanket (which no they didn't keep for him) and a note attached to him with birthday. I was having a difficult time standing there, as I was trying to understand what his mother might have been feeling and how scared he must have felt.

This was us about to have dinner at the famous Lucy's on Shaiman ilsand in Guangzhou. I actually liked the restaurant. Lots of cheap food choices, we could eat outside, and the wait staff spoke English. The food wasn't too bad either.

I don't know the name of this restaurant, but I did not eat there. I took a few photos of just some of the things you could choose to eat, they let you pick and made if fresh for you. Some of the choices included, snake, silk worms, red crab, eel, a fish that looked like a sting ray and many large fish.

This was right after our Ceremony at the Consulate. He would be a US citizen as soon as we landed on the US soil. Happy Day!!!! And we were leaving the next day to Hong Kong.

This was at the Hong Kong airport. The cute little girl was Charlotte, another family we met through the internet and hooked up with in Beijing and Guangzhou. Charlotte and Asher were cute watching the airplanes.

This was Kendra and Charlotte and Asher and me, right before we said "Goodbye"..

Home Sweet Home

I am sorry I haven't posted since being home. And "Thank You" to Makenna who posted the few posts while we were in China. I couldn't access my blog so I just gave her bits and pieces of information and she put it together for me.


We got home later afternoon on the 30th and it took a good 4 days to get over jet lag. It was an exhausting flight home, which I did not sleep at all and he slept maybe 5 hours on the 2 flights combined, poor guy. I think finally Asher is adjusted to the time difference. Up until last night he was waking up at night and sometimes staying up for 4 hours at 2 AM! But Jay had off until yesterday, so I did sleep in with him and tried to nap each day. But now we are trying to find a new normal and I am trying to take just one step at a time and not think about all that I really have to accomplish in my day and add an adorable toddler on top of it all.


He is one happy and fun little guy. Everyone in our home wants to be and play with him, but I am trying to hold them back just a bit as he still needs to bond with Jay and me. I think with all our children and some of them being adult children, he is getting a little confused as to who his parents are, but we will get there.

We also went to the peditrican yesterday. They tried to take some blood to get over 20 tests done on him. They poked him 2 times and were only able to get about 3/4 of what they needed as his veins wouldn't give anymore. We go back tomorrow to try to get the rest. 3 of us held him and kept him from kicking and squirming. For a 23 pound boy he is sure strong!! He put my hip totally out from the way I held him during the blood draw. Of course, my back has been yelling at me on and off from our flight home anyway, this was just the last straw. Good news, I go to the chiropractor tonight, so hopefully I can walk without pain soon.

We need to get a clean stool sample to make sure there isn't any parasites in his body. This is going to be one challenging task as he wears diapers and it can't touch urine or the diaper. The details as to our attempt at doing it are a little too much information that most of you probably don't want to hear, but just trust me it is interesting. So if you think about how to pray for us, it would be that this test would work without much more difficulty.

He also got a TB test which will get read tomorrow, but so far it looks okay. Then he is supposed to see the Cleft Doctor next Tuesday. We are still trying to get our insurance coverage updated for the referral to be approved, so more prayers for that would be appreciated as well. Even though we gave them all they needed, he still isn't showing up in their computer system. It should be easy to fix, but each day we wait we lose another day for the referral process. If I have to reschedule this appointment it will likely be middle of January or early February due to the holidays and a busy doctor's schedule.

We also have an appointment for an evaluation for the state covered therapies. This is not until January 10th, again because of the holidays. But they could approve him for speech, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and a Dietician up until age 3, which would be free for us. Then when he turns 3 we will use private therapy as needed, through our medical insurance. We have great medical insurance due to being in the military, but the co-pays do add up so anything is helpful at this point. Plus the therapy would all be In-Home Therapy, which to me as a great benefit at this point. We already go to Speech, OT and PT for a couple of our other children a couple times a week.

Asher is doing great! He is a sweet baby. I feel so blessed to have him in my life, in our family. I am still processing the truth that he is ours. When I was filling out paperwork at the pediatrician for him yesterday they wanted family medical history. I almost answered all the questions as if he was my flesh and blood. I already think of him that way. My prayer is continued that his heart would be healed from the abandonment and trauma that has been in his short life already, and that he would come to truly feel I am his Mama and Jay, his Daddy.

Look at that that smile.
"Asher" means joy, happy. I think his new name suits him well!

how is he doing?

Asher is doing amazingly well, and is starting to come out of his shell and show us his personality.  He seems to be very strong willed when he does not get something he wants, and he will try to grab everything in sight. But he is understanding "No, Asher" and shakes his head along with us and usually stops, well if we are right with him he does. He is also very sweet, he LOVES to snuggle at bed time. (Which I am totally fine with.)  He does not talk much yet, (probably due to his clef) besides "bye-bye" and a few other little words, mostly he just bables and laughs.   

Lenea absolutely LOVES being a big sister!  She keeps asking us, "Am I being a good sister?" =) 

Thank you all for your prayers, they are definitely being felt. Sorry I don't have many photos yet, it takes a LONG time to load them onto my little Netbook.

Asher and Lenea having a backpack race. =)

Us on adoption day!

He is here!!!

I cannot believe Asher is finally here in our arms!! He is such a sweetie, and is bonding to us already!

He was so brave when he first saw us and didn't even cry!

I do believe they saved the cutest baby in all of China just for us!

First smiles and laugh!
So precious!

There are now one-hundred, forty-five million orphans in the world, minis ONE!!!!
Stay tuned for a more detailed update soon!

So far to find you

Beijing #2

Yesterday, we took about a 15 minute walk from our hotel to The Temple of Heaven, which is an old alter from the 1400s Ming Dynasty emperors. In modern times, the Chinese have built a beautiful park surrounding it which is a common place for locals to hang out. When we first walked in there many different groups of people doing some activities. We saw people with hacki sacks, sword lessons, dancing, and doing various games. There were also many people who were writing with water and long sponge tipped brushes on the ground.(Angela had told us about them and said they were writing prayers.)

One of the neat things was seeing a very large group of people exercising, like line dancing. Others would walk up and join in, while others stayed for what seemed like hours. Chinese are very into exercise. On the walk there we saw one of the "parks" that just sits on the side of the road for anyone to jump on and do the equipment. They were things we didn't recognize but they did have an elliptical. I even got on one the leg swinging ones, it was quite fun and really stretched my legs and hips good.  These people are in shape! You don't see many overweight Chinese at all.

On the way to the Temple of Heaven we got to see life on a typical Sunday for Chinese in the area. It seemed to be market day where many people brought their vehicle (whether horse drawn cart or automobile or bicycle) to sell their goods out of.

We also saw many repair people that sit on the street helping others. yesterday we even saw a lady with an old style sewing machine fixing clothing right on the side walk. We saw many bicycle repair people, fixing old rickety bikes that no one in America would touch, but for these people it was the only they have transportation. 

Than at 2:30 p.m. Angela drove us to the airport for our flight to Wuhan. (Asher's Provence) We are in Wuhan right now!!  And this morning, in just a few short hours, WE GET TO MEET OUR SON!!!!!  We have waited for this day, for what seemed like forever, and now IT"S FINALLY HERE!!!  We hare going to go to the adoption center at about 10:00 a.m. China time!

People exercising in the square

Beijing!

Today, instead of paying an expensive tour guide we decided we could attempt to conquer some of Beijing on our own. =)
So we had heard about some Hutong Rickshaw tour that were pretty neat so we decided to ask the concierge (he speaks some English) to get us a taxi and have the driver drop us off to the location we wanted and we would pay the rickshaw drivers (who claim to speak English) to take us around the Hutong neighborhood and lake (it would cost us about $60 just for that tour. A Rickshaw is sort like of a carriage pulled by a bicycle.
So, the taxi who spoke no English at all (we were at his mercy) took us on a 45 min drive (we got to see Tiananmen square along the way) and dropped us off at what appeared to be a Hutong neighborhood (old traditional neighborhoods with brick/dirt type streets and usually no cars allowed) .
So he points down the street and tells us to go down there with his hand motions. We pay him the fee and start walking down the street. Our very sweet Korean guide whom we had yesterday (Angela) told us when we got out of taxi there should be Rickshaws waiting for customers and we should only take the ones in uniform who have been licensed to drive them and really knew what they were doing. She said sometimes there are others who say cheaper price but don't speak English and don't take you on very good tour and they are not licensed.

.

After walking 10 min (down what appeared to be an alley of only Chinese people and many shops) we were thinking we might be in the wrong place. We do finally see only one Rickshaw and he tried to stop us, but we could tell it was the type Angela warned us about, so we kept walking.

We finished the street of vendors (maybe 20 minutes) Then we found a potty (not a squatty this time, thankfully) After, we were not sure what to do. There was no lake and no other Rickshaws waiting for customers. We were told there would be lots!

Jay remembered he saw some police and a sign for station and thought maybe they could help. We walked another 5 min down that way. We enter the station and find one of the officers could speak broken English. I tried to explain with motions and words I thought she might understand, and she guessed that we wanted to rent bicycles at the rental place we passed coming in. Umm, I don't think so, have you seen the bicycles drive in Beijing, a City of 19 million people? Scary...!

So we said thank you, and left. Beginning to feel like we were in a fish bowl with all the stares we were receiving. But really, the people of Beijing mostly seem very respectful and we never felt threatened, in the least.

As we were about to turn back down the street we began, I noticed a sign for an ice cream shop that had a sign written in very good English writing (with Chalk, so had to be done recently). I thought, we should ask them if they spoke English. The worker didn't but pointed us to 2 gals that were sitting at a table chatting. One of them was Chinese and spoke pretty good English and the other was Australian who spoke great English and Chinese. They communicated back and forth for about 5 min and the worker young man went and got us the original Rickshaw we saw when we entered that neighborhood. We had to laugh, it was a nice older gentlemen who was going to only charge us 30 yuan (about $5) to drive us the location we needed to be (he new where it was) and it was a 15 minute bike ride. Poor man, I don't think he knew what he was getting himself into as had to drive all of 3 of us good size Americans against the wind to this street, where Yes, indeed was a tour guide Rickshaw place...
We gave him a big tip for his hard work." Thank you Sir. "

We walked across the main street (scary in itself, remember traffic and while they do oblige to pedestrians some, not totally) and then we walked and within a few minute another Rickshaw was offering us a tour. It was indeed the one we were looking for. He was a kind, again older man. He got his work out, driving us for 45 minutes around this lake and through some older streets and shopping centers, some as old as almost 500 years. he pointed out what he said was his house too. He did speak English, but oh so hard to understand it.. We often laughed if we didn't get it.

We got to see quite a few little things, including go into a traditional Hutong home, which still has a family living in it. That was cool to see.

When we were done he dropped us off a shopping street. Lenea liked the Rickshaw and she was a big trooper while I spent a couple hours bargaining and shopping.

Thankfully I brought some snacks and we ended up finding a McDonald and even saw  McDonald delivery boy! He drove a bike and had a Box like Backpack thing he wore on his back with the food in it. He was off before I could get a photo, too bad.
We thought we would try some french fries. Before doing so we needed the toilet. There was a line and only one filthy squatty potty in it, with sticky urine all over the floor. What a stinky humerus sight to hold Lenea over this potty. I was not  a happy camper, and Lenea did great!

After leaving there, we needed to flag down a taxi, we were pretty adventured out. It was much more trafffic in the city streets by now and we had a hard time fiding one. It took us about 30 minutes to find one vacant. we saw some get out and we ran.
whew we got in. After all was done he charged us about 3 dollars less for the drive,since he took a shorter way.

we came back to hotel and I paid for a Traditional massage. The girl came up to our room.  Much different than I am used to to in states, but it felt good, but she didn't speak English besides, "okay, and "money". So she did not ask me if I had any sore spots, she barely touched my still aching neck. It is better than before, but trying to keep up on it before we get Asher in 2 days!

Tomorrow we are going to attempt to walk to the Temple of Heaven, which we are told is a 10 min walk from hotel. Find a place to eat lunch and maybe do a little shopping and then Angela will take us to airport about 2:30!!

We will get to experience Chines flying and planes and travel to Asher's city!!! So excited!!!

We made it!!!

 After about 24 hours of traveling, we made it to Beijing China at about 4:30 a.m. Colorado time. (7:00 p.m. Beijing time)  We were so exhausted!!!  Lenea only slept about five hours on the plane, and Jay and I only slept about two.

After a much needed good nights rest, we heeded to the Great Wall of China with our to tour guide Angela and a few other family's.   The Great Wall was simply amazing!!

Ridding the toboggan down the Wall

The scenery here is beautiful

China Itineray

Here are our plans for China. We leave in just 5 days!!!






Wednesday, November 16th:
United Flight 8:09 AM to San Francisco-short layover and land in Beijing, China 4:45 PM on November 17th




Thursday, November 17th:
check into Holiday Inn Temple of Heaven hotel in Bejing


Friday, November 18th:
Tour with a couple of other families we met on internet, going to The Great Wall- plans to ride a chair lift up the mountain and ride a toboggan down! (Yippee!) Peking Duck lunch and shopping in the afternoon with our tour guide, Angela.


Saturday, November 19th: Try to tour a little on our own- Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace and Tiananmen Square. We plan to take the subway, as we here it is easy to navigate, although very crowded. We think Jay's height will benefit us in this department.


Sunday, November 20th: A little more shopping if possible on our own and in the evening take a flight to Wuhan, Asher's province.
Wuhan hotel is called White Rose.


Monday, November 21st: Gotcha Day for Asher! I can't wait for this day. plan to shop for some of his needs- formula, shoes, bottles, diapers, etc. whatever we don't have that he needs once we meet him.


Tuesday, November 22nd: Apply for adoption registration/Notary. Then free, probably will rest, I imagine.


Wednesday, November 23rd: Apply for Chinese Passport and tour the city of Wuhan.


Thursday, November 24th: Jay and Lenea fly back to Beijing and home- to arrive about 10 PM our time at home. I will do some shopping if possible and rest some more. Happy Thanksgiving.


Friday, November 25th: Pick up Asher's passport and in the later day fly to Guangzhou, to stay at Victory Hotel.


Saturday, November 26th: Medical Exam/photo shop around Shamian Island- lunch at a park with other adoptive families I met on the internet.


Sunday, November 27th: Free day, hoping for shopping- may check out the church on the island.


Monday, November 28th: 8:30 AM Consulate Appointment (this was the big day we had to wait for to plan our travel around once we got TA).


Tuesday, November 29th: Get Visa for Asher to come to US!! 
Meet friend at her hotel as I will be taking the train along with them and staying in Hong Kong at same hotel with them. We take the train that afternoon, (hopefully not evening), then taxi to  the Empire Hotel Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Wednesday, November 30th: Take taxi to airport and leave on United at 12:30 PM, headed back to San Francisco, 3 hour layover then head home!!!


Prayers are so appreciated. That Asher's heart will be opened to our love and we would not get sick while traveling. That we will be safe as well. And for our children who are staying home.
This will likely be my last post until we get home. Makenna might be able to put up some photos for me from home, not sure how those internet details will work out.

Part 1: We have an update.. and Part 2: Faith Like Children

Update:

So after 2 weeks of not hearing anything back from our agency, regarding the questions we asked about Asher, I asked if they could check again for us.
They got back to us 2 days later with the answers...The blue are my questions and red is their answers.

.

1． Please give Height and Weight and Foot Size.

Height: 84 cm; Weight: 10.5 kg; foot 14 cm 

 

This translates to 33", 23 lbs and size 7 toddler shoe. Which means he will wear about a size 24 months, mainly because of his height. He really will be a thin from the sounds of it. I have had babies that were 23 lbs at 6 months! So this should be interesting. Once again, I am bringing overalls and one piece warm suits for him in China.

 

2．What name does he like to be called or what does the foster family call him?

He likes other people called him "Quan Quan".  His foster family calls him "Quan Quan".

 

I have an idea on how we will say this, but I plan to ask the guide what their pronunciation is for their dialect.

 

3. What comforts him when he is upset?

When he is upset, you can just give him new toys, take him out for a walk, or go shopping, it will calm him down.

 

 This sounds simple enough.

 
4. Is he toilet trained?

The foster family trained him to sit on the portable potty, but he would just sit and no result.  He likes to squat down and potty.

 

I am thinking this means does the position,but goes in the diaper or maybe he likes the squatty potty? Anyway, we will be bringing diapers.

 
5. What does he dislike?

He does not like furry toys.

 

And we bought and sent him a panda bear? Oh well, maybe he will change his mind. 

 
6. What does he enjoy?

He likes new toys.

 
7. How often and long does he sleep?

He sleeps twice.  Nap from 1:00 pm to 3 pm.  Sleep at 9:30 pm to 7:00 am.

 

He will hopefully learn to go bed a lot earlier here, we put our kids down at 8 or earlier at that age. But I am sure all sleep will be a big adjustment. Since he will be sleeping with us, I know this will be different anyway.

 
8. Does anything particularly scare him?

He is afraid of thunder or fire cracker etc. loud noise things.

 

This sounds typical..however could be sensory issues, as well as the not liking furry toys.

 
9. Does he live with other children? What are their ages and gender?

He lives with one other child.  She is a 1 year old girl.

 
10. Which family member is he closest to?

 He is close to his foster father.

 

 

Faith Like Children

 

On that same day my kids all day had been telling me they knew that God was going to send TA that day. They stated and were adamant that they were praising Him for sending TA, as they checked the email through out the whole day. I don't think 15 minutes went by that one of us did not check the screen. I am a realist at heart and while I knew that God would be sending it soon, I just haven't been that forthright in my prayers like my children were. I would say the same things, but then an hour later take it back into my hands.  Really, children have such big faith. It amazes me and inspires me to see and learn from them.

Anyway, 2 o'clock came and went which was 15 minutes later than when we heard about our LOA. I went to put Lenea down for her nap and about 20 minutes into our routine I have 4 children coming to the door, barging into the room, and quietly whispering, with much excitement "IT'S HERE! WE GOT TA". My heart dropped... Really?? I could not believe it. God really did bring it on the day my children ALL declared we WOULD be eating Chinese food for dinner. (We promised to buy Chinese food for a treat when it came, since we don't get it too much due to cost.)

As soon as I was finished with Lenea, I rushed to the computer to see that- Yes, INDEED we had it. No other news but that they would be in touch with us soon. Wow...what a wonderful feeling. The last step we have been waiting for, the hardest step really, is done. 

The next morning the agency sent an email telling us we had a Consulate Appointment for November 28th. Do you know what that meant? It meant that we got to travel on November 16th, which was the date I was figuring in my head and praying for the last 3 weeks! God is so amazing.

I proceeded to spend the next several hours that day searching for the best flight deals. It is a puzzle since while Jay, Lenea and I are all traveling the first portion of the trip, the end looks different. We will be flying from different airports and on different dates. But we found one from Todd Gallineck, a recommended travel agent in the adoption community. So now tickets are purchased. Now I am looking at hotels for the outskirts part of the trip and a guide to help us tour a little bit of Beijing. And we need to purchase some In-China flight tickets from Beijing to Wuhan (Asher's province).

I will update soon with our itinerary. 

The TA waiting...and waiting...and waiting..

Our Article 5 was supposed to be picked up last Thursday, October 13th. Now, we sit and wait (not so patiently) for our very last step before we get to buy some plane tickets to China. 

This process, once we decided on China and picked our agency, was a little over 9 months ago. We were matched within a week of signing our contract with our agency. It feels like I am way over-due with a pregnancy (not unusual for me!).

We have daily prayed for our little boy Asher, and his care-givers. We have watched (in a few photos) him grow from a baby into a little boy face. I imagine he is still "baby" in many ways, but it is hard to know that we missed all that part of his life.

 I was telling my children today that I believe these last 3 steps (I800, Art 5 and now TA) have been the hardest for me. I think it is because we are so close, but still don't have a definite date as to when we get to meet him and bring him home.

I felt a tinge of envy when I saw on a China forum I read, that several people with the same LOA date and even a few with an LOA 4 days later than us, are already 2 weeks ahead of us and making plans to leave in a week! I pouted a few days thinking, "That could be us!"

For reasons, unknown to us, God has allowed our adoption to be a different time frame. I am okay with it today. But I have to admit I am checking my emails 10x more than normal, hoping for a subject line of "TA!!!". I know it will eventually come. I know God has already walked this path for our family and brought us to this little boy. I was thinking, "He may be holding back a little making sure we really are ready to do this." The longer we wait, the more our hearts do attach to little Asher.

I promise to post as soon as we hear and as soon as we have travel plans. IF we get TA next Monday, which seems to be a big TA day, we could be flying out 2 weeks after that, or maybe later. Only God knows. I rest today knowing, our lives are in His hands. Because I also know I would surely mess it up!
 

New photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woke up today with these adorable photos in our email. Remember the care package we sent with the bear and photo book? See him with them? I am so excited, my heart melts when I see him looking at our pictures.

We love you Asher, we are coming very soon.
We also asked some new questions which we have been told the orphanage is still working on. Hope to share some new information about him soon.

(We still don't know our travel date, hoping to hear in the next few weeks).

Approved for I800

Heard from our officer this AM that yes, we were approved and should get our notification in the mail soon!! Even though this was only 3 weeks, it felt like forever. Probably because we are just getting so close.

The next step is getting a pdf in email from the National Visa Center (NVC) that they received the approval from immigration and have put our information into the system for the US Consulate. This is so our son can get his Visa to come into the United States.


This will take about a week. Then I need to get that letter to our agency, who then gets it to the US Consulate in China. Waiting for Article 5 (that is what this is called for Asher's Visa) takes almost exactly 2 weeks.


 Following Article 5, the information from US Consulate in China goes directly to CCWAA in China. This is the Chinese organization that handles adoptions. These are "the" important officials for our adoption. Once they receive Article 5 for Asher's Visa they begin issuing our Travel Approval (TA). Again, this step varies in time (the average being 3 weeks). They will issue our TA back to our agency which gives us approval to go to China and get Asher, it is good for 90 days. But of course, we will want to go as soon as possible to get him! 

Daydreams- (as we are still waiting on USCIS approval)

Things I look forward to when meeting our new son (In China):


1. The first time we meet- even if he is scared and untrusting (which will actually give us information that he is progressing normally with bonding to his last caregivers).

2. The first time I get to hold him and look into his eyes with big smiles. I want that first impression to be just like it was with my newborn babies.

3. His first smiles for us. None of the photos we have him is he smiling. We are partly thinking it is the culture, but maybe he isn't used to getting pictures taken, maybe he is a sad. I have heard from many other adoptive families that their children did not smile in photos either, but that it quickly changed once they became more comfortable with them.

4. Hearing his sweet little voice. He is already talking, although because of his cleft issues we aren't sure how much can really be understood by this toddler.

5. Seeing him in his cute little boy clothes. Every photo we have so far, he is dressed in pink.

6. Feeding him a bottle and snuggling him. We so pray he will allow us to do this.

7. Seeing him interact and play with Lenea. She can't wait to meet him and be a big sister to him.

8. Trying to speak Chinese to him and getting a laugh out if his confused expression. Our attempt to learn some phrases is going very slow!

9. Learning about his culture and seeing where he came from, with him by my side.


10. Seeing his daddy love on him and learn all of the above with me. Jay is probably more excited about this little boy than even I am.

Next Steps

After surprisingly receiving our LOA, we got off our paperwork to USCIS for our official approval to adopt Asher.

It is said the average for this approval is about 2-3 weeks.

We hope to hear something maybe by the end of next week or early the following week. We will be working with the same officer who approved our I800A. She was very friendly and worked efficiently, so I don't anticipate any problems with this step.

We also sent off our Visa applications. It will be Jay, Lenea and myself traveling. I was shocked at the cost of that! But, it is done and we should have those in our hands in another week.

No other big news right now. I am starting to buy clothes and things for Asher. He has a new car seat, several very cute bibs, a few new outfits and next I plan to get his crib. (Need to wait a bit more for finances for that though.) It is hard to buy too many clothes since I am really guessing at what his size would be. I am buying a few 18 months and mostly 2T and a few 3T. I do have a few that my older boys wore that I pulled out too. Right now I am sticking with overalls that can be length adjusted and still work if he is extra skinny too. It will be winter when we get him so I think this will be perfect for my dilemma. I am not sure about shoes though. I am trusting he will have a pair on when we pick him up. But in the photos he was wearing girl sandals and I don't want him to have wear girl shoes when we get him. I just may bring a few different sizes and buy one there if they don't work.


Soon, in another week or two I am going to start on my packing list and putting that together.

So excited that we should be traveling to China in another 10 weeks or so! I know it will go so fast and before we know we will be meeting our little boy.

APPROVAL!!

We got LOA (Letter of Approval) from China today. We were shocked and blessed by our Lord.

It was only 38 days from our Log In Date, which is much less than the average.

So I get to post photos of our little guy now. (Please ignore the pink, which is typical for boys, likely because they have more girl clothing donated.)

Introducing Asher Thomas Quan

What is the next best thing to LOA?

An UPDATE!

We asked over 2 weeks ago for an update and still hadn't heard. I was beginning to think maybe we would be one of those families that would just have to wait until we got to China.

But, we got an update, with most of my questions answered, although I still don't know his weight and height. And we got two new photos. I still can't post them until we get our approval, which hopefully is only a few weeks away. He is still precious, but looking more like a toddler and NOT a baby.. Sniff, sniff, he is growing fast like all little ones do. Your prayers for our patience, especially mine would be appreciated. We still have a good 4 months to wait to meet him.

Here are the questions and answers.

1.  What does he like to eat? 

 

He likes to eat rice in fish soup, rice in egg soup.

 

2. Is he still on the bottle?

He is still drinking milk with a bottle.  He can drink water in a bowel. 

 

( I was really hoping this was still the case, remember "bonding". Not sure what "bowel" means, but maybe "cup".)

 

3.Is he walking?

Yes, he can walk freely.

 

4. Can he talk?

He can say 1-2 words phrases.  Like when he sees the water is boiling, he would say "Kai le, Kai le"  (meaning it is boiling, it is boiling)

 

5. Is he still in a foster family and how long will he remain there?

He lives in the foster home and he will stay in the foster home until Gotcha Day. 

 

(Again, another answer to prayer. While our first days with him will be hard, it will still be best for him developmentally and for our attachment with him.)

 

6. Is his palate repaired? 

His lip has already been repaired.

 

7. Where does he sleep?

He sleeps in the small bed next to the foster mother's bed by his own.

 

(So glad for this, but again hard those first few nights.)

 

8. How is his health?

He is healthy.  No illness.

 

9. What is his personality like?

His personality is very calm, sincerity, and bonded with the foster family.  After he had his cleft lip repair surgery.  His first response was to look for his family.  When he saw the foster father, he showed peaceful and relieved expression.  He likes outdoor activities and new toys.

 

10. We requested that if his palate had not been repaired that we would prefer them to wait if the opportunity arose. That way he would have it done with us, to keep the continuity of his care and help us bond with him.

 

His lip has been repaired.  His palate has not been done.  It can be done after he is home to the adoptive family.

Quilts For Sale

My sweet, teen daughters spent hours making beautiful, "Crazy" quilts for us to raise money for Asher's adoption.
  


 Both of the quilts are baby-sized, and would work nicely in a crib. Blocks are machine sewn with hand-stitched embroidery throughout the quilt. Then they were machine quilted and bound. Both of the girls were done the same time as our County Fair. Therefore, they entered them into the Open Class, which happens to be very competitive for quilting.


Eliza picked a red, white, and blue theme, with complimenting colors. It has a solid blue back. Her quilt won 2nd place.
Here it is:

Eliza's quilt is on sale for $80 plus postage of $15 (in USA only). THIS Quilt HAS SOLD! 
This quilt is 54" by 36".
All money will go toward adoption expenses.


 Makenna made more of a pastel colored quilt, with pinks, blues, lavender and greens. She added some pretty lace and even more embroidery than the other quilt. The back of her quilt is a pretty cream that has it's own special raised pattern.  Her quilt won 1st place and Youth Champion.

Makenna's quilt is a little bit larger than the first and has more embellishments and embroidery, so she is selling hers for $100 plus $15 postage (in USA only). THIS QUILT HAS SOLD!

Again all money will go toward adoption expenses. 

If you would like more photos send me a message with your email address and I can send them to you.

I will get measurements up in another day, it is getting late.

To Friends and Family and LOA still waiting

I wanted to share a few of the ways we will be parenting Asher with our Loved Friends and Family,


Because of the need for attachment, that Asher likely had little experience with and we need it with him as his Mommy and Daddy we will be purposely regressing him back to babyhood, even though he will be almost 2 years old. We will encourage him to take a bottle, let us rock him, and meet all his needs immediately as if he were a new baby in our arms from day one.


This will encourage Asher to become dependent on Mommy and Daddy, therefore help him to realize he is safe, loved and can therefore bond and form an attachment, that will be healthy.

Children, who come from these type of circumstances are going to have some attachment issues. All these issues take time, patience, love and meeting their needs hundreds, and hundreds of times, until that trust is finally established.


Asher's bed will be in our room, right next to our bed. If he wants to co-sleep we welcome that. We loved having all our babies sleep with us when they were little. It helped us get a little extra sleep, especially Mommy, and it helped us feel connected. This is one of the highly recommended tools used for attachment.


It may appear to others that we are spoiling him when we meet his needs immediately. But it is the foundation for us to gain his trust. If he had times at birth, in the orphanage, or even in foster care that he was hungry (had food, but maybe not enough) and knew that he was missing that bond with his biological mama, he will have mistrust of any care taker. We aren't planning to spoil him with material things or giving into his whims and wants, but his needs- comfort, food, love etc.


We won't be using many babysitters,church nurseries, etc at least for the first 6 months, maybe longer, whatever he needs. Again, this is to promote attachment and bonding, not to selfishly keep him to ourselves. :)  Can you imagine having to leave your foster family and all that you have ever known all of a sudden?? He may fear that we will leave him too. 


We won't be allowing many people at all, to hold him when we first get home.  That will be very hard for us, because we know most of you will want to love on him too and show your support. The good news is that if we can help him not be confused with whom his parents are, and teach him that he comes to Mommy and Daddy for comfort, love and even food, then again we gain that bond and attachment. Then also, because he will have a healthy relationship and bond with us, he will in the future be able to have attached relationships with others.


Another big thing for us will be that he will likely have a major surgery on his palate within a couple of months of coming home. This will be stressful, exhausting, challenging, painful and also very good for attachment. If you will please remember to pray for him, the doctors and our whole family at that time.


When Asher comes homes please be careful about talking or asking questions about his "adoption" in front of him. We are opened to discuss anything we have learned or gone through with this process and in the future privately with you, but for Asher he needs to hear and be seen as our son, not treated or introduced as our "adopted son".  He will be a part of our family just like our biological children.  We will not be keeping the fact that he is adopted from him. Obviously he will look a lot different, so we couldn't try that anyway. He will always know he is special and is adopted, these 2 issues we plan to keep personal and talk about when he is ready.  Imagine trying to talk to a 2 year old about being abandoned.  We don't mind talking about it, just not in front of him.


We have done over 40 hours of training and read numerous books on attachment and bonding. We are implementing what we learned from that. Please be patient with us as we get to know one another, and learn to be his Mommy and Daddy.We may handle a situation differently than you would but, dealing with an almost 2 year old ADOPTED child with a language barrier is not something most of us get to do.The first few weeks or couple months we will not be doing many outside things, please also support us in that. Feel free to call and encourage us though, as we will be likely very tired, and having some rough days too. Our biological children will need understanding too, this will be a huge adjustment for them as well. Thankfully, they are resilient and are anxiously anticipating having a cute, Chinese toddler around.


On another topic. Approval?? Nope, nothing, nada, zilch...This waiting is hard.
Right now we are completing the last of our training and going to get that to our agency to approve. Then we will fill out the forms for the next step to be waiting for approval to come.
Unfortunately, it seems LOAs have been slowing done still. There hasn't been much word on them with a China adopt forum I read. Please pray that the Lord would intervene and that we would be one the of the fast ones..




 

Our First Little Package

We have been encouraged by other adoptive families and our agency to send Asher a care package.

While we wait and wait for our LOA (it really has only been 20 days since LID), this will help us to feel as if we are a part of his life. I know he probably won't understand much, but his caretakers will. In fact, sometimes I have heard that when they get a care package for a child that is often the first time they "hear" about that particular child being adopted soon. I feel a little sad that they might find out this way. But I have no idea of knowing if they know or not yet, and at least they will see that we desire to be involved.

We could send it ourselves or have someone like Ann at Red Thread do it for us, directly in China.  We opted for this package to come from Ann. She is Chinese and has worked with these orphanages for 5 years now. She has often been able to get photos and updates on the child, often ahead of the US adoption agencies. (We asked for an update from our agency a week ago, but no word yet. I hope that comes soon too.)


She also doesn't charge very much more for doing this than I would pay for to do it myself. She will give me a quick update on when it was delivered and what she could find out about the child for us. She requests this information on our behalf.

For the package we put in a disposable camera (hoping the family will take some photos of him for us and pass it along back on Gotcha Day.) We also put in some tea and cookies as a gift for the foster family.

We added this cute little child's photo album and sent 6 pictures of our family to be put into it.

We put in a child's book.

 
And we sent this sweet little panda bear for him.

Ann also is translating a short little note to the orphanage, that I wrote. I felt some pressure, as I only had a maximum of 400 letters and this is our first personal "communication" to the care takers. I couldn't say much, but I did let them we know feel very honored to be adopted him soon. I told them we already love him in our hearts. I thanked them for the loving and good care they are giving him. I also requested some photos if it was possible. I hope they pass it along to the foster family, but they may not.
  

I hope to have some new news about him so very soon. It has been 5 long months since we had any information, and that was even 3 months old. I am imagining that he looks and acts a lot different from his 9 month old medical report. He is not really a baby anymore, but I am sure has his own personality, with likes, dislikes and little ways that are unique to him. 


I will post our news as soon as we have it.

LID and misc things

We found out that we were Logged In to China's CCWAA; which is their official adoption agency.
Our LID (Log In Date) was July 11th. We are so excited to be on this part of our adoption journey! It will still take weeks, likely months until we hear from China if we are approved to adopt "Asher". Please pray that things will move along.


I know this little boy has no clue his world will be rocked so very soon. In reality, 5 or 6 months really isn't that long away. I am praying every day that his heart will be soft to us, especially Jay and I. 


I plan to be sending a care package to him as soon as we get our LOA (approval). I am still holding off on buying the so many things we need for this little boy. I do have a few boy toddler clothes, but I got rid of most of them. But right now, I don't even know his size. I am guessing he will be about a size 2. I suppose I am just waiting for that official approval from China. I did buy 2 pairs of pants for him that were on clearance cheap the other day though. I need a crib, mattress, car seat, bibs, and clothes. I also want to find some authentic Chinese toys for him, but I may buy those in China anyway.

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are surviving this paper chasing and waiting, because of your prayers. We also got an update on our grant donations. We are humbled by our friends whom have donated so far. What a joy to see God move in the body of Christ. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to all of you who have given to us. 

Bring Our Children Home...by Cindy Foote

Making Some Things for Asher

While we are on summer break I am trying to do some projects.
Two of them were a tag blanket for Asher (we call it a "Snuggle") and a weighted blanket for him too.
Weighted blankets are known for helping a child with sensory issues feel calm and sleep better. It will almost be a guarantee that Asher will have sensory issues.They sell for up to $200 or more! I knew we couldn't afford that and so I found a few easy on-line tutorials and made one myself. 


Here is a tutorial that I started with.


Pattern


I did add a little bit more to the pattern. I sewed a double edge around the sides, in order to insure that beads won't be all over my carpet. I also folded the top as neatly as I could and sewed that down.


Here is some pictures of Snuggle and the blanket:

                          Lenea is modeling Asher's little blanket with tags, otherwise known as "Snuggle".

                                             Here I am sewing up the Weighted Blanket.

 The finished blanket- it has 4 1/2 lbs of polly pellets in it and feels cozy. It took about 2 hours total to make.

 Lenea is trying it out for you. I was going to let her nap with it, to see if she wanted one, but she is too particular about her own traditions and she refused to take it with her to nap. Oh well, I am glad I made Asher's first.

                                         Funny, she likes to snuggle and play with it though!