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Sunday, April 29, 2012

Sneaky little things!!!

We put the girls to bed and on a sunday night they are always well rested and not wanting to go to bed. We could hear them upstairs talking and laughing and then the quiet came after about 30 minutes. I went up just now to check on them and they have since moved to our bed and were laying with about 15 stuffed animals at the foot of our bed all cuddled up. Too cute!!!! Now I get to out them back in their beds and all their stuffed animals to bed as well. Fun!!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

I800 Approval~ Dance~ Easter

Yes, life has be greatly behind on many things. Besides the end of every school year being a chaotic mess with work, life has also been pretty darn crazy. You see, in the school system and special education in particular, the end of the school year is when they want to get as many kids tested as possible so that their placement for the next school year can be determined. So we test and test like crazy to get these kids placed and then, in 3 years when they need their triennial review, we have to not only test all the many kids we usually test but we also have all the reevaluations we have to do as well. All that to say that WORK IS CRAZY and I am going crazy as I do at the end of every year - so this too shall pass-- I just have to keep repeating this over and over.

We got our I800 approval on Friday-- yaaaa!!!! This just basically means that in the eyes of the US government that Emery will be our daughter and she is legally able to become a US citizen upon arriving in the US. The next step is the National Visa Center sends a cable to the US Consulate in Guangzhou and that takes about 8 days. Once we get a copy of the letter, we print it and our agency is able to drop our full packet at the consulate in Guangzhou and we wait 2 more weeks for them to create our Article 5. Once we get our Article 5, our paperwork is dropped at CCCWA and we wait for our final travel approval which takes about 2 more weeks. All in all, we are looking at leaving sometime in June. So one step closer!!!!!


Owen had his first Junior High School Dance. He is such fun kid and had a wonderful time!!!

 Awww!!! Owen loves his daddy!!!


 Cool Man!!!!


 He looked so cute!! He chose his cute outfit and was so excited to find Skinny Kakies!


I also came across some Easter pictures I forgot about. Been so busy I forgot to even post about it so here are some pics just for the heck of it-- this was Easter morning!


 Getting their Baskets!!

 The girls got cute little (cheap-- love that) dresses.


The boys have been wanting a watch for a while so we finally bought them a sturdy watch.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

EMERY UPDATE!!!!!

Update-- we got better resolution pictures tonight. I replaced the pics on the post with the new more clear pics. I love being able to see her face and features better!

So shocked and excited that we got an update on Emery!!!! As I mentioned in a previous post, China (CCCWA) changed the rules and we had to go through them to get an update which for most people was not good but for us, it was basically forcing  Kunming, where Emery is, to comply and give an update WITH pictures. They NEVER give pictures so the fact that Kunming complied ~ We are shocked!!!!

These adorable pictures were taken probably last week (her bday was 4-6 so she just turned 1). They are clearly taken with a cell phone and even the people who provided these to us said they would try to get a couple more pictures that are clearer. We will see if they come through with more pics- if not, we are happy just to see new awesome pics of our little girl!!!
OK, so I am stuck with how much she resembles Mia. They have the same nose, eyes and mouth. They are so similar and it is nice to know what Emery might grow up to look like. She has so little hair-- wow!!! I will figure out how to get a bow in there somehow- tape works!!!
She is such a cutie pie!! Love her sitting on the step. Man is she tan. She is going to be like Mia-- super tan!!

According to the update, she is close to walking but not there yet. I am guessing, in 2 months when we are there, she will probably be walking-- man will we be busy!!



OK, so these are pics of Emery at 1 year and Mia for her 1 year pics. Look how similar they look. Same features. Yes, Mia has lots more hair, but eventually I think they will look very similar.


 

We are just so excited that Emery is doing great and that her heart murmur is just fine. She looks developmentally on track and super healthy. I think she is going to be a petite thing but who knows. She is in foster care so I know she is being well loved and taken care of. We are thrilled and cant wait till we get to Kunming to get her-- probably late June!!!

Here is the update!


The Update Growth Report on Special Needs Adoptee

Children’s Welfare Institute in Kunming City

Name Long Jiayu Sex Female DOB Apr.6,2011

General condition:
Height 76CM (29 inches- 25%ile) 
Weight 9KG (19pounds- 25%ile)
  Head size 42CM Chest Size 44CM  Foot length  12CM Tooth 4 




Physical condition: She is healthy, seldom gets sick

Rehabilitation: She has not received any Rehabilitation for her special needs.

Living condition: The child has been living in the foster family since Sep.2011.

There are other children in the foster family.

Mental development: Compared to children of her age, the child's intellectual development is the same.

Motor skills development: The Child will sit in the walker and slide, can play in the water when baths, can squat and stand up with the hands holding the rails and takes steps with hands held, can pick up the toys with one hand while the other hand holding the support, likes climbing

Speech & language developments: She could laugh aloud, babbles

Adaptability: The child has good communication with the caretakers and likes to be hold

She enjoys hugs and attention from her nurturers, especially when she is upset or sad.

Meal schedule and food preference: Breakfast(noodle, porridge, milk and rice flour) at 8:00,lunch (nutritious porridge +egg) at 12:00, snack including milk and bread at 14:30,supper(nutritious porridge +egg) at 18:00,milk before sleeping at 21:30

Defecation and urination: Use diapers

Sleep schedule: She gets up at 7:00 every morning and goes to bed at 21:30 in the evening. Midday nap is 12:30—14:30.

She sleeps well.

She sleeps with the foster mother

Education: Nil

Social development: The child is too young to play with other children

Daily life, personality, hobbies, etc.: Gets up at 7:00,breakfast at 8:00, playing games at 9:30—11:00,lunch at 12:00,nap 12:30—14:30,snack at 14:30午点,playing games 15:00—17:00,supper at 18:00,go to bed at 21:30。

she is happy and has ready smile(she would cry when the familiar persons leave); like to be hold; likes listening to music

Favorite toys and activities: She likes playing with others. Now she likes climbing; she likes the colorful toys that could be hold easily.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Mia Referral Pictures~~ Finally!

I finally was able to get Mia in the yard with her referral picture and take some pictures. We have had some crazy rainy weather so we finally had a nice sunny day we could take some pictures. Mia loved every second of it as she loves her baby pictures. Finley even wanted part of the action but they had just drank something that was super red so their lips and teeth were red so it made picture kinda funny- but they are still cute!!!













Friday, April 6, 2012

Happy Birthday Emery ~ LOA!!!~ Happy Referral Day Mia

Lots going on here!! Lots of great things!!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY EMERY!!!!!



I would like to say Happy Birthday to our newest little one Emery!! Today 4-6, she turns 1 year old! I cant believe our little girl is 1 already. She was barely 7 months when we got her referral but now she is 1. I want to bring her home so desperately and her having a birthday without us being there is really hard but, we will be coming SOON!!!! China centralized the the way you have to ask for an update on your child and you cant just have your agency call and check, rather you have to go through CCCWA's translation department-- BLAS- and you have to wire them $80 (with a $35 wire fee-- uggg) and they will obtain you an update and 3 pictures. If you remember, Emery's orphanage, Kunming in Yunnan, does not do pictures with the updates. In fact, it is rare to even get an update (the kids are in foster care far away from the orphanage) so by going through CCCWA, we actually will get pictures- which we would not have gotten if the request was not from CCCWA. So as lame as this new rule is, it actually will help us a lot and we might actually get pictures. So, yesterday we requested an update with pictures and they confirmed they received the wire so we just now wait. I cant wait to see how much Emery has changed. The only pictures we have of her is from when she was 3 months old so I am assuming she has changed dramatically over the last 9 months!! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMERY!!!! We will be there soon!!!!


That leads us to the next good news!!!!

LOA

WE GOT OUR LOA!!!!! We got it on Kevin's birthday- this past Wednesday! Letter of Acceptance (LOA) is the most unpredictable part of the Special Needs Adoption wait. All you China adopters know what I am talking about. The wait for LOA can take 50 day 90 days or even 130 days. The wait is all over the place and there is ABSOLUTELY no rhyme or reason why the wait varies so much. I was PRAYING we would have a short LOA but that did not happen. We received our LOA on day 91 of the wait. 3 LONG months of waiting for China to give us the final approval that Emery can be our daughter. The wait was torture but now that it is here, the rest of the process is very predictable. The thing is, I have summers off-- the whole thing-- from about Mid June till the end of August- so I wanted to be in China right when school was out so that I would get the most out of bonding time-- of course Kevin is home most of the time but I wanted my time with Emery too. As weeks were going by on our LOA wait I was seeing travel being pushed further and further into summer and it was freaking me out. BUT, now that we have LOA, if we follow the average time frames for the rest of the wait, we should probably be in China at the end of June-- so it is not as early in June as I would like, but I should still have plenty of Emery bonding time~ YAAAA!!! So what is next? We sent out yesterday our I800 to US Immigration which is the process where our government approves Emery as an immigrant and our daughter. That usually takes about 2 weeks. USCIS then sends your file to The National Visa Center (NVC) to get Emery's Visa prepared. This usually takes another 8+ days. Then once the visa is prepared the file gets transferred to the US consulate in Guangzhou and they prepare our Article 5 and that takes exactly 2 weeks and then the file is moved back to CCCWA and they issue our Travel Approval (TA). Once we get out TA we can travel anytime after that. All those steps take approx 60 to 70 days to complete so we are looking at TA beginning to mid June and travel right after that!!

Finally, I don't want to let today pass without saying happy referral day to our beautiful Mia Jun Fei!!!! We received her referral on April 6, 2007

sorry for the poor quality picture- I cant find the good quality ones on this computer


She was a chubby little baby in her referral pictures and we were in love!!! I'm going to do a quick photo shoot with her later today with her referral picture so I will add that to this post later in the day so check back, but for now I will post the first picture we ever saw of our little girl. It's been 5 years and we could not love our smart, loving, kind little type A leader more!!! We love you Mia Jun Fei and I will post her picture later today!!!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Side walk chalk

The girls love doing side walk chalk. They can spend TONS of time creating awesome designs. We're having beautiful weather so they spent tons of time making their designs and playing outside.