I'm Being Spoiled!

I am really feeling spoiled & blessed.  Another Huainan mom emailed me yesterday.  She met Maggie last summer when she was adopting her daughter.  My first reaction was "Seriously?  Last week I meet a mom who met Hope, now I'm meeting a mom who met Maggie???  Can this be true?  Can this be real?  These kind of things do not happen".

Well yes, it is true.  She had pictures.  At first I did not recognize Maggie.  She had her hair down, and was in the cutest dress.  All pictures we've seen she's had a ponytail and a heavy jacket on.  She looks so happy.  We can not wait to meet her & Hope.  Every glimpse that we see of them makes us love them even more.

Here is what this mom said about Maggie.  "she was an enchanting child,

teaching me a few Chinese words & getting me to tell her English ones. She was so bright & totally stole our hearts"

I can't wait to meet her!

Here are the pictures we received.  Isn't she beautiful???

More New Photos

I have joined the yahoo group for the girls orphanage and I've "met" several moms on here who have or who are adopting Huainan Sisters of Hope & Maggie.  I love it.  I'm so excited to follow their journey because we'll get an idea on what to expect when it's our time to go.

I also am excited because I've seen more pictures of the girls.  A couple of mom's have shared photos of theirs with Hope or Maggie in them.  These are priceless to me.  Any glimpse into our children(s) lives is something every adoptive mama desires.  So every photo that I receive from a new friend is just priceless to me.

Here are 2 that I LOVE of Maggie.  I love her precious smile.  Like someone said to me "She smiles with her eyes".  I have to agree.

These photos were taken approx. a year ago.  Maggie's friend just found out who her forever family is.  Her friend came home last summer. And when her mom showed her Hope & Maggie's photos, she said she knew them and that they are very nice girls.   :-)

Two more photos we've been given (or found on FB) this week.  The first one is Maggie with 2 more friends who have been matched with their forever families.  And the 2nd one is of Hope attending a friends birthday party.

We can not wait until we can meet the girls.  We are so excited to see that they are happy.  We're just praying that our LOA will be quick. We're on day 13 of our wait.  It could come anywhere between 35-80 days.

Guessing Game

So, we are playing the guessing game.  When will the next steps happen.  This is what we came up with based on numbers/dates our agency told us.  We have a best case and worst case.  Praying for best case. ha ha ha.

                                      Best Case                                                           Worst Case

	Date	Days	Calc.     Date		Days
LID to LSC	Feb 10, 2012	35	Mar 16, 2012		84	May 4, 2012
LSC to 800	Mar 16, 2012	21	Apr 6, 2012	May 4, 2012	35	Jun 8, 2012
800 to NVC	Apr 6, 2012	14	Apr 20, 2012	Jun 8, 2012	21	Jun 29, 2012
NVC to A5	Apr 20, 2012	14	May 4, 2012	Jun 29, 2012	21	Jul 20, 2012
A5 to TA	May 4, 2012	21	May 25, 2012	Jul 20, 2012	21	Aug 10, 2012
TA to Travel	May 25, 2012	14	Jun 8, 2012	Aug 10, 2012	14	Aug 24, 2012
		119			196

Of course, it can also happen somewhere in between.  :-) 

It will be fun to see how close we come to these dates.  

  

Maggie!

What a beautiful picture to wake up to this morning.  I love seeing Maggie. We don't get to see many pictures of her. I personally do not think she likes to have her picture taken. LOL

Anyway, Love Without Boundaries posted this picture of Maggie and 2 friends, Brianna & Michelle.  They were announcing that all 3 have found their forever families.  We are so excited. We have been praying for Brianna and Michelle.

This has been a great few days of updates on the girls.  So exciting!

Such Beautiful Girls

LOG IN DATE!

We received an email from our adoption agency today.

Hello Debbie and Bill,

Your Log-In Date (LID) has arrived; it is 02-10-2012!  Please see the attached Ladybug Letter; it is your documentation of your LID Date. Please feel free to include it in your child’s Baby Book or Memory Book. 

Woo Hoo!  So excited that we have a LID. But was really hoping it would have been earlier.  I don't understand how their system works. Our friends, who's dossier went to China in the same package, got a LID of 1/31.  Why did it take 11 days to log us in?  

One day I know I will see why the LID is later.  Because I know God has a plan and His timing is perfect.  

So now we wait for the next phase.  Our LOA (or LSC).  This means Letter of Acceptance or Letter Seeking Confirmation.  This is the official referral of the girls to us.  This is China saying YES.  The average wait is anywhere from 66 days to 80.  With some getting it sooner and some getting it much later. Please pray that we will get it quick.  The longer we wait, the longer before we can travel.  

I know God's timing is perfect. I know we will travel at the perfect time.  It's just hard not knowing when that will be.  :-)

So for now, we rejoice that we have a LID.  We rejoice because that means our dossier is good, in the right hands, and getting ready to start the next phase.  

Hope

I can not believe how small this world has become, all because of the internet.

This weekend I have come in contact with 3 mom's.  2 who are waiting to bring their Huainan girls home, and 1 who adopted her daughter 12 years ago from the girls orphanage.  I'm excited to see the girls coming home. And praying that these families are able to meet Hope & Maggie.

I was able to talk with the other mom last night. She flew to China 2 years ago and spent the day with Hope.  She said Hope is a sweet girl. She is giving. She made sure the kids had the candy before she had any. She told me Hope is small for her age.  She thinks her palate has been repaired. But she's not 100% sure. She said she's a good eater (she took her out to dinner and Hope loved it).

I can not wait to meet Hope & Maggie.  It feels like it's taking forever.  But I know it's going to be here fast.

Along with "meeting" these mom's, I have come across new pictures.  Maggie is not in any of them. I'm starting to think Maggie does not like the camera.  :-)  These pictures are priceless to me. This information about Hope is priceless to me.

Still waiting to hear from our agency about our log-in-date.  Hopefully we'll hear next week.

Please keep praying. Pray that the papers will get processed quickly so we can bring them home.

Hope enjoying cake at a birthday party

Hope (on right), Dec 2009, 10 years old

The Wait Begins....

Things have been moving FAST!  But now, we wait. We wait for our log in date.  Unfortunately we did not get logged into China by 1/31 like our sweet friends did.  I emailed our agency asking how this could be?  I mean, we were DTC together. It was in the same package together. How come they have a LID and we do not?

Their explanation?  They aren't sure.  They told me that they sent a lot of dossiers with ours on 1/27. And they are waiting for the LID information from most of them.  They told me they have no reason to believe anything is wrong.  So we wait.....

They receive the Log In Date updates 2x's a month.  So, hopefully 2 weeks from now we'll know what our LID is.  We are praying it's 2/1.

Why do we want it 2/1?  Well, we want to be a few weeks into the next phase of the process.  The LOA (Letter of Acceptance).  This is taking around 70-75 days from your LID (Log In Date).

Waiting is hard.  The unknown is hard. Not knowing when we will travel is hard.  BUT, we know we will be traveling. We know that our daughters are in China waiting for us.  We will be bringing them home, soon.  So, I need to just stop worrying and stop whining and just enjoy this time with our kids.  Life is keeping us busy and I do enjoy the silliness of our kids.

Once we hear from our agency I will post it here. Please keep praying that everything will go smoothly. OH, they did say that since we have been matched with the girls, that the translation phase will go fast.  :-)

Thanks!

MORE Pictures!

Oh my goodness!!!!  I was really hoping (and expecting) a few more pictures of the girls and their Chinese New Year party.  But I was not expecting 34 pictures!  7 emails came through just as I shut the computer down last night.  I went to plug my phone in to charge for the night and saw a text from Gifts to China With Love.  She said "I just received a TON of photos of your beautiful girls. I'm emailing them now".  So of course I (we) RAN to my computer and waited as they each came through.

We have amazing photos. Photos where the girls look so happy. Where they look like they are starting to bond as sisters.  These photos made me VERY happy.

Enjoy!  These are just a few photos.  But some of the best ones.  :-)

Look at that cake!

Maggie does not look thrilled to get the hat. :-)

I love how they are making the girls feel special

Look at the size of that cake!

They even added candles!

Their friends

What are they thinking?

I LOVE this picture.  

My favorite!  

I hope they enjoyed it.  :-)

PICTURES!

I was not expecting this for another few days.  I was told that the office people were not back from CNY.  So when I received the email with photos I got very excited!

Along with the photos, we got a request from the orphanage director.  He asked if we would be willing to buy a bigger cake and have a BIG BIG party for the girls and all of their friends.  So, we did. We ordered a bigger cake & more treats for all of the kids to share.  We are hoping this will give us more photos too. :-)

 I know you don't want to read my ramblings, so I will upload the photos.  Enjoy!

Holding their treats. Look at how much taller Maggie is. Wow!

Their new Hello Kitty pillows.  Huge!

Opening their gifts. This is the first look we've received of how long Hope's hair is.