Another random picture arrived this morning

** Update-- I forgot to mention that we had a size update as well for Finley. We asked for very accurate measurements with no clothes and no shoes so we can attempt to get shoes and clothes that fit. So here they are:

Height- 37 inches (30th%ile)

Weight- 31 pounds (50th %ile)

Foot- 5.7 inches (about a size 8 which is the same as Mia-- exactly)

Very happy to have exact measurements and this time she actually shrunk from the last measurements which I am sure she was measured and weighed with clothes. The dress she is wearing in the picture below that we sent her is a size 2T just to give perspective. I think she is going to be smaller than we have been thinking-- but the same as Mia so that will make sharing clothes easy :)

I have been communicating with a wonderful lady, Maggie, who will be our guide while in Shenyang (Finley's province). She has been instrumental in helping me get info on Finley as well as setting me up with the nanny who has been so wonderful!! Anyway, she responded to some questions I had this morning and asked if I had this picture of Finley-- which I did not!! It is from the time they took pictures of her when she got the last care package, but I never got this picture.

I also looked at her adorable feet and was surprised to see that she has her toenails painted!!! That is so darn cute and speaks to the amazing care Finley is receiving at her orphanage!! Look at those adorable little toes-- I'm so in love!!

To update you on where we are in the process, we are moving along very quickly!! Our paperwork will be picked up from the US Consulate in Guangzhou in a mere 12 hours and will be overnighted to China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) for the final travel approval. Waiting for the travel approval is the absolute last thing we have to wait for in this adoption. All CCAA does is check with the orphanage to make sure Finley is still healthy and available and as soon as the orphanage confirms her availability, CCAA issues our travel approval (TA). As soon as we get our TA, we are able to travel. Currently TA's are taking anywhere from 11 days to 4 weeks but the average is about 2 to 3 weeks which will give us a TA right around Christmas or the week after. We are looking at airline tickets leaving January 6!! That date may be pushed back a week depending on when we get our TA but we are looking at travel about 1 month from now!!!! HOLY COW!!!! I am soooooo excited!!!!!! We have been getting things together for travel and trying to get the key cold weather gear we need since the average temperature in Shenyang during the month of January is about 1 degree Fahrenheit!! WOW!!! So, since we are southern California wimps, I have been getting warm clothes to attempt to stay warm.

Anyway, that is where we are. We still have quite a bit of fundraising to do in order to be able to purchase the plane tickets which are looking to be around $5000 for Kev and I and Finley on the way home. They are about twice as much as we were expecting-- so please pray for the fundraising effort-- we are far from being where we need to be.

Big Hugs!!!

Ethan is growing up!!!

So far my experience with junior high boys is that they are slow to mature but there comes a time where it just seems to click. My main school as a psychologist is a junior high and I see it all the time where the boys just finally take things seriously. Some boys hit that stride in 7th grade, others in 8th and some never hit it till high school. Ethan has been a kid that has been slow to have things click. He is a great kid but just the responsibility issue has been our struggle. A number of weeks ago Ethan told us he wanted to be baptized. We were thrilled!! In our church kids are able to get baptized when they are ready. There is no magic age just when they are mature enough and want to make a public display of their faith. When Ethan spoke up and wanted to do this, we were just about as happy as can be. It really showed a level of maturity that we have been hoping for. Ethan has grown in his walk with the Lord. Being at a Christian school has been phenomenal for him and he just seems really focused on maintaining his walk with God. Here is his baptism this past Sunday at our church. Hard to hear ever thing but you can see most of it!

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We are so proud of Ethan and his commitment to the Lord. He is really maturing!!!

OK, so now the next level of maturity has come but we missed it -- uggg!!! Ethan has always done well in school but has realized he does not need to try at all and he can get all A's and B's. He has always been on honor roll at his old school but at Upland Christian Academy they only do honor roll for GPA's above 3.5. We looked at his grades a few weeks ago online and it did not look like he made the 3.5 so we did not attend the awards ceremony this morning. Well, come to find out from my dear friend Lia that Ethan had in fact made honor roll and we were not there to celebrate for him---- ugggggg-- totally bad mom and dad!!! I feel horrible but am just as happy as can be for him. Tonight we will celebrate. Here is the picture Lia took for me!

So my boy is finally maturing and really tuning into what he needs to do. I am so very proud of him. Now if I can divert him from the girls-- yikes--!!! He's at that age-- ugg!!

Thanksgiving

Tradition in our family is to travel to the Central Valley of California each Thanksgiving to visit my dads side of the family. We have been doing this for years and it is a tradition we love and look forward to each year. We have a ton of cousins and it's the one time a year we get to see each other. We only live 3 hours away from each other but with our busy lives it is just hard to get up there more often.

The central valley is beautiful and our family owns quite a bit of land up there. Each Thanksgiving we go to the land and pick pomegranates, shoot guns and take the hike to the Owen monument. The monument has been weathered heavily but still stands. We add new family member names each year (this year we had 2 births and of course we had to add Finley) but it was so weathered that none of the names were visible. So, we decided we would have a professional sign made and erected next year.

This is a picture of my parents with all the Owen grandchildren at the monument

My sweet girl! She loves running all over the place up there!!

I thought this was a cool picture with the rays of sun. My handsome hubby!!

My mom with the 3 girls-- 4 next year!!!

All the Owen grand kids on the monument

Taking a walk on the land. I love it there-- open, beautiful-- awwww!!!

I800 Approval!!!!!

I forgot to post this as it has been a crazy busy week but on Tuesday 11-16 we got our I800 approval-- yaaaaaa!!!! What that basically means is that Finley has been approved to become a US Citizen upon arrival in the USA!! So, now our file is 2nd day aired to The National Visa Center (NVC) where they do something-- no one really knows but it takes about a week to 10 days for them to do this and then they send a cable to the US Consulate in Guangzhou that your file is coming. Our agency reps in China then hand delivers the file and some other papers to the Consulate and then we wait exactly 2 weeks. Once the 2 weeks pass, they pick up our Article 5 from the consulate and then they deliver the finalized papers to China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) where we then wait for our Travel Approval. Travel Approvals (TA) are taking about 2 weeks right now-- sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. Once our TA comes we could literally be on a plane within a week to pick up Finley. We wont know when we travel until right before we leave but the way it is looking, we will probably be traveling right at the new year. For sure January and probably early January!!! We are sooo close to our beautiful little girl!! I cant wait!! Finley-- we are coming very soon!!!!

Spina Bifida

Many within the adoption community are scared of the words "SPINA BIFIDA". I know I was scared to death of the disability thinking children with spina bifida were in wheel chairs and were cognitively impaired. This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. When we completed our special needs check list that indicated the disabilities we were willing to take and those we were unwilling to take, spina bifida was defiantly a disability we were NOT willing to take. It scared me and I didn't really give it a second thought. Then, Finley found us. We didn't go looking for her-- instead through divine arrangement of circumstances, she was placed in our laps and it was so obviously God's leading that we knew she was our daughter-- EVEN WITH THE DIAGNOSIS OF SPINA BIFIDA!!! Finley is about the best case scenario of a child with spina bifida but there are things that could come up in the future that may require action on our part and even possibly surgery. We knew Finley was our daughter and even if she was affected more with her special need, we would have dealt with is-- she was our daughter God had given us!!!

Anyway, this is a video explaining spina bifida and what life is like living with this special need. The first mom on the video is a mom who gave me lots of info when we first found Finley and she made me realize spina bifda was not scary and could easily be managed. She is a wonderful mom and this video is a great resource for those who want more info on SB. There are many many children and babies on the China special needs list with spina bifida and many of them sit there for long periods of time because people are scared of the disability. These are highly desirable children-- beautiful-- many are very young-- bright as can be-- but they sit on the list and are not adopted because people have the same view of spina bifida that I once had. I try to advocate for these kids and let people know this is not a scary need and that people should open their hearts to these children. SB can be an extremely minimal need!!

Thanks for watching the video.

More Video and Pictures of Finley

I posted that we sent another care package to Finley. This time we actually sent it from us rather than going through an agency in China. I am so glad we did because not only did Finley get the package but Ms. Wang took pictures and video of her in the cute outfit we sent. I am thrilled and I am so happy to have more video and pictures of our little girl.




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I love how Finley is running in this video. That is huge for a child with Spina Bifida. She moves very well and many SB kids have trouble with lower extremities so we are thrilled to see her running!!


Finley is wearing the dress we sent her and every single clip we sent as well. They put all 5 in her hair at once-- too cute!!!

Look at all those clips-- she looks so cute!

She is beautiful!! I love the look on her face!

Gotta love the shoes!



Bouncing around



Finley with the new care package. Looking at the lady bug book. She was just unwrapping the gift-- too cool!!

One thing we did notice from Finley wearing the outfit we sent is that she is pretty good size. The dress was a 2T and fit her well but I think she is going to be pretty big and maybe even tall. Not sure but it just looks that way to me.

We are thrilled to get this awesome treat!! We are so in love with our little girl and just want to get to China NOW to get her!!!!

Thank you so much Ms. Wang!!

Happy 4th Birthday Mia!!!

Mia celebrated her 4th birthday with a small tea put on by a friend from Church who does this on the side. She did an amazing job with the tea and had the 10 girls in the palm of her hand the whole time. I was amazed-- she was so organized and made the food and cupcakes and brought everything. I literally just had some food for the parents. It was a great party and Mia had a blast!!!

Monique putting "pixie dust" on the girls eyes

The food table

The tea table

Pixie dust on Mia's eyes. You could have heard a pin drop

Then she individually dressed each girl-- it was amazingly cute

Mia all dressed up

Watching the others get dressed in their princess dresses

Beautiful Ava

Too cute

The whole group all dressed up ready for their tea party

Monique made me pose with the girls

Then they had a princess fashion show where they had boas, wands and all the princess stuff

So pretty!!

Ava after her walk down the stairs

And Mia modeling her princess outfit

So cute

Georgie and Mia-- our beautiful Chinese princesses

Starting the tea party

Beautiful Ava

Beautiful Georgie

The girls had a lesson on tea etiquette

Drinking their tea in the eloquent way they were taught

Pretty Birthday girl!!!!

Mom and dad with the beautiful birthday princess

Singing happy birthday! The cupcakes were amazing!!

Yummy!!!

Opening the wonderful gifts!

People were so generous and Mia loved her gifts

Love the dolls!!!



It was a wonderful party and Mia had a great 4th birthday party!!!!

Piano Lessons and Another Care Package

Mia is taking piano lessons through our Fine Arts Academy through our Church Pomona First Baptist. It is an amazing program that runs 8 week sessions (1.5 hours each session-- first half music theory and second half lesson) 3 times a year in a group setting but the best part is this program is offered for FREE!!!!! It has a huge community draw and we have well into 150 students attending. It is a phenomenal program that our whole family is enjoying. Kevin and Ethan are taking guitar, Owen is taking Bass Guitar and Mia and I are doing piano. Last week I snapped some pictures of Mia practicing. She is by far the youngest student in the program and our director was totally fine with her participating as long as I was with her the whole time. We play outside for the music theory part but she just loves the hands on lesson. She is really good and totally has her fingering down and is able to play easy little songs.

She is really good!!! The focus and concentration is amazing for a little one.

Practicing Mary Had a Little Lamb

I'm so thankful we have such a wonderful program through our church!!!


As many of you have read, we received our LOA for Finley last week. We got our I800 sent off and it officially arrived at the lock box in Texas last Thursday. We also got our visa applications given to our amazing China coordinator Sabrina as well as some other papers. We decided to send another care package to Finley and Sabrina took care of the shipping and translation.

Here is what we sent:

I know it is cheesy, but this is a little bag I found in Mia's room made of plastic so I taped pictures of our family and Finley to the bag with just clear tape. Totally done cheap but cute and I think she will like having her own little bag (even if it is covered in taped on pictures).

I also sent a dress and leggings, a bunch of hair clips, a soft book she can carry around and do activities in and another adoption book. This will probably be the last care package we can send before we get her so I wanted to give her some things she will really like. I hope she does.

So we are about 2 to 2.5 months from getting our girl. I just want to leave now!!!!!! We love her so much it hurts!!!


Have a great week!