Travel approval and new measurements!

Wow what a great day in our journey to Jailyn. WE received new measurements for our baby girl. She is very little under all those layers of clothing . She is 15 1/2 pounds and 26 1/2 inches long and has 3 teeth. We also received Travel approval now just waiting on confirmations on our gotcha date and consulate appt. So thrilled we can travel in the next 3-5 weeks. Trying to set appts so we travel June 2-June 15. Lots to do and it is starting to really happen! So thrilled!

Another busy week and just want my baby!

Since my last post we now have a Pediatrician which I really like and it is so ironic my daughter's Pediatrician is the wife to a professor at CCM at the Univ of Cincinnati who was instrumental to getting me a free ride to graduate school. Tell me that is not full circle and meant to be. I really liked my consultation and have our daughter all set up to see her a few weeks after we return from China. Jailyn will be thoroughly checked out by the International Adoption Center at Children's first then handed over to our local Pediatrician.

Then Friday was Doctor day for Mike and I. We have lots of drugs now to take to China should we get ill and have to start taking the Typhoid vaccine in the next couple of weeks as we will be in the country side of China which has outbreaks of Typhoid. Never knew there would be so much involved.

On a happy note my girlfriend Lynelle and her husband had their Gotcha day in China Sunday Night!!! Just saw darling pictures of their little girl and the staff at the orphanage did a little ceremony for them when they got Alyssa. I am thrilled for them and can't wait until they return May 5.

Just found out I need to send some more paperwork to our agency and going to start the ball rolling on our Visas. Hit the wall today and just am really over all the paperwork. I just wanted to scream today as I am sick of all the things we must do to get her home. However it is part of this process and I will persevere. You know if everyone had to do as much paperwork as we have to there would definitely be a smaller population in this world. I just want it over and want my baby.

Mike even hit the wall this weekend trying get a baby gate up for our steps. He bought 2 gates and neither worked. It was not a success however there are locks on a few cabinets so that is in the works. I know there will be a baby gate up before we leave somehow or the other.

We had a nice Easter with family and look forward to next year to have our first easter egg hunt with our daughter and see her in a darling Easter outfit.

Tomorrow is a Babys r us Day! Returning some duplicate gifts and getting the rest of the items for Jailyn for our trip. That will be a happy day some baby retail therapy. Woohoo! Bring it on!!!!

We are pressing on and every day is one day closer to Jailyn. I can not wait....Pray for patience and our baby girl in waiting!

Busy Happy days and lots going on.....

Since my last post I am just so thankful and grateful for all the abundance of blessings being poured into our lives. It is crazy busy and not a dull moment to spare. We have pushed through more documents and sent them off to our agency. We had our transition call on attachment and bonding with our agency which was very informative and helpful as we will transition with Jailyn into our forever family. In the midst of all the craziness I won $500 from the local parish and was pictured with a big check in their newsletter. I have been praying for abundance and it just keep showing up. God is providing all we need and I am so grateful. Mike spent the weekend in New York City on a man weekend. I was able to finally get some rest and spent alot of that $500 on Baby necessities, a me day of shopping and lunch with girlfriends and then a well deserved massage. Then Sunday was a great day. Katie, my mom and best friend Marcia did a huge baby shower. It was perfect. It was quite an emotional day filled with happiness and a long awaited baby shower that could finally happen. My eyes well up with tears thinking of that day and realizing that I have such a community of love and support from family and friends. Oh my stars has it been a journey. Lynelle shared in the day and we said we would support each other at our showers. We had made a pack not to do one until our daughters were here however we needed so much stuff to travel to China it became a necessity and the sooner the better. We were blessed with so many wonderful gifts. Thank you everyone who attended and sent gifts. Thank you cards are coming. Then Monday came and got those last docs notarized and then I was off to Lynelle's and Jeremy's baby shower and they were blessed with many wonderful gifts and an abundance of love and support from Lynelle's work. They are leaving Friday and I am so happy for them. They get their daughter from China on Monday!!!! Pray for their journey. Then Tuesday I had a big ole travel call with our agency on what to still do and all the details that lead up to travel. I see the light and know so much more has to be accomplished however get things off my list everyday. Not to mention having fun nesting with all the gifts and toys and gadgets we got from the baby shower. Thank goodness we purged alot so we had room to move in all the baby stuff. Mike said our Ranch house just is not big enough anymore. Guess building that new home in the next year or so is a good thing. Jailyn first then onto our new build. Two great things just happened. Our Letter of acceptance was had carried to Beijing to the Children's China Welfare Adoption Affairs Office so we are official with China that Jailyn is ours on paper. Woohoo!!!! It brings more happy tears to my eyes. Then today got confirmation the care package to Jailyn arrived at her orphanage and should be passed onto her and her foster mommy. Jailyn will see pictures of Mike and me, get a stuffed panda bear and blanket and chocolate and treats are for the foster mommy and family. We had a camera enclosed to take photos of Jailyn and her foster mommy. Hoping to receive that at her gotcha day. So we are moving forward. We can apply for our visa to travel in June. Still waiting on the Travel approval then we move on appts in China and then get to book travel. Lots going on.....I am going to attach some fun pictures pictures we took when the referral came in, the cake at the baby shower and the one of Jailyn I love so much with the twinkle in her eyes. Keep praying and getting closer every day! So happy!!!!

Wow! Jumping through hoops to get Jailyn HOME!

Oh Happy days and overwhelming times!!!! We love our little girl so much and just can not stop looking at her darling little face and sparkling eyes. So much has happened in the past 12 days. WE waited for our official documents and translation of the referral which was received one week later. We have secured a Pediatrician and Dr. Staat the International Pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital said she is one of the healthiest kids she has seen come out of China and approved and reviewed her medical. WE are blessed she was abandoned at birth and believed to be born July 11 and immediately put in foster care with one caregiver July 12. That is great news as she has been cared for better than the kids in an orphanage. We are so pleased with the information from the foster mom. She enjoys watching TV and is slightly impatient and an extravert. It appears she is alot like her mommy and daddy and has those round cheeks too. I just want to kiss them. It will break my heart when the foster mommy has to give her to us. Our happy day will be a sad bitter sweet day. Jailyn will have to go through the grief of losing the only caregiver she has known. We will have to build trust, show her love she so deserves, meet all her needs so she will attach and bond with us. We will be the only ones to care and hold her for many months. We have lots of guidance through our social workers and International Adoption program at Children's Hospital to help us. We are so blessed and could not be happier with the care and help of Dr. Staat. We were refingerprinted for the last time woohoo! Got some of our documents sent back to the agency and still plenty more to plow through and notarize. The best document was the Letter of Confirmation ( The Official document from China). We signed late Friday and I cried and felt a bit of relief that it was heading back to our agency then to Beijing to be hand carried to the Children's China Adoption Welfare Affairs office.

Jailyn aka Feng Xiang Ting ( Her Chinese given name) resides in Fostercare outside the FengCheng Social Welfare Institure in the Jiangxi Province. We understand that they will bring Jailyn to the Nanchang Capital of Jiangxi Province for our Gotcha Day either Sunday or Monday when we travel. We believe we will travel in early June and hoping the first weekend will be our Gotcha weekend. WE must travel to Jiangxi for a week and then to Guangzhou to exit the country via the US Consulate. WE have lots to prepare to do before we travel and are awaiting Confirmation of our LOC and then plan to receive our travel approval 3-4 weeks later then we can book travel to China once our appointments are booked. Hopefully only 6-7 weeks and we will travel. Jailyn just turned 9 months yesterday and are so excited she will be home for her first Birthday July 11. Pray for patience and not to get to overwhelmed with everything we need to do and gather to travel. It is really happening and I am so happy and getting closer to having my baby girl in my arms. I just want this paperwork/bureaucracy journey to end and to stop jumping through hoops. I want the happy journey home to begin......with our daughter making our family complete. Thanks for all the well wishes and love and support. It means so much to us to have family and friends cheering us on as our dream comes true.

Jailyn we love you sooooooooooooo much and are so happy!!!!!!

Jailyn has arrived!!!!! We got her picture!

Oh my stars! It's a Happy Day! WE received her picture. She was born on July 11, 2010, which is my Birthday!!!! She is in the Jiangxi Province in the Seng Cheng
Social Welfare Institute. She is sooooooooo cute! We are in love already!

Referral is coming!!!!!!!

Woke up today to the word that the European Agencies have made phone calls that the cut off for referrals is June 15, 2006. That means we are in for June 13 and I am shaking as I write that it could happen today......I have made a call to the agency and left a message to when they arrive first thing this morning to call after 11:30am. They are west coast time. They will have to receive the DHL from China before we have a picture. Mike is traveling home and should arrive early this afternoon and I am going to plan b for my Pre-Career Conference responsibilities today and not going until this evening. If a DHL arrives today in Oregon our agency should be able to send a picture this afternoon and if not hopefully Monday. Praying and sooooooooooo happy! Jailyn is coming!!!!!!!