The most wonderful time

It has been a long time and so much has happened in a month. We had the most amazing trip to China to adopt Amelia and there is so much I want to share but it is going to have to wait until the jet lag has passed and the girls are sleeping on a "Normal" schedule again. They were wide awake this morning at 4am and after an hour of trying to get them to go back to sleep I gave in and brought them downstairs so daddy could sleep. One of us needs to be well rested,right. I feel pretty good right now but I know it is that first day home adrenaline that is fooling me into thinking I am fine. It will hit tomorrow I am sure...let me close this short post with a beautiful picture form our trip...more later

Just moments after they handed Amelia to us

Our last weekend

Saturday October 16th 2010 our last weekend as a family of 3 here in the states. Next Saturday we will be touring Beijing, China with Sophia and the rest of our travel group. We are so looking forward to bringing Sophia back to China to experience the sights a smells of her birth country. We have been reading books and talking about the trip and what we will see while we are there. Sophia is SUPER excited about going to the Great Wall,so are we :). Some exciting things are happening before we leave for the airport in 4 days. Our house that has been on the market for 2 years is going to be shown today. Wish us luck it would be a real blessing if we could sell the house and with our luck it will sell now with 4 days to go before this trip of a lifetime ..

Our flights are booked

This picture is one of my very favorite moments from our trip to China for Sophia's adoption. This was the moment we first saw Jiangxi,China the birth place of our first daughter. It was the most beautiful moment and one I will never forget. I took this picture on the approach to the Nanchang airport. The sun was setting and the sky was a beautiful shade of pink (something not accurately captured in this photo). The mountains were covered with misty clouds and the rivers and rice paddies below looked like a patchwork quilt. I remember feeling my heart flutter when I realized that we were about to land in province of our daughters birth. I was very emotional at that moment. Full of excitement and anticipation of what the next day would bring us.

fast forward 2 years and four months to today, 16 days from the day we leave for China to bring our second daughter home. I feel very emotional excited with anticipation about what is a head of us. I think about how we are about to change the life of two little girls. I think about how are lives are going to change. I wonder just how things will unfold for us in every way a parent expanding their family does. I pray that Amelia is strong and able to make the transition from a loving foster family to her loving forever family. I want peace and happiness for her. We love her beyond measure already and she has been part of our hearts for 4 months. In 20 days we will hold her for the first time. In 20 days we will have her in our arms forever. In 20 days the lives of four people will change in a big way. in 20short days the world changes in a good way.

...as I sit here tonight thinking about what is to come and reminiscing about our trip to Sophia I can't help but think of the families we traveled. Most of us started that rip as strangers but now have a bond that will be there forever. I wish each of them could be with us as we make this journey back to China for our second daughter, Amelia.....


We leave for China on October 20th
our family day will be October 25th
we return home to the USA on Nov. 4th

WE GOT!

Moon Cakes for Mei Mei

September 22,2010

is the Mid Autumn Moon Festival

I wanted to send Sophia and Amelia's foster families a box of traditional Moon cakes in celebration of the Festival. Moon cakes are a traditional Chinese pastries that is typically eaten during the time of the festival. We were lucky enough to have a contact in China that went and bought the boxes of Moon Cakes for us and delivered them to Amelia's foster family. She sent back these wonderful pictures of our girl and I guess you can see she like Moon Cakes :). Sophia's Foster family should be receiving their box of Moon Cakes any day now. I wish we could have pictures of them enjoying the gift, but I am sure that will not happen. The Mid Autumn Moon Festival is similar to our Thanksgiving and is a time of giving thanks for the bounty you have. We are so very thankful for all the blessings in our lives. Our two beautiful girls are at the top of that list and we can not be grateful for them with out counting the blessing of each other their foster families...

Our Sweet girl :)

I never get tired of seeing this face. I opened my e-mail on Sat. afternoon and I got the True Children's house news letter for July and Aug. I began reading and look what I saw :) that is our girl with her foster care family. We are so in love with this little child already..

Sophia's US Passport

Came in today..Wooosh I was really sweating it. We are down to the wire here and will be applying for our Visas to travel to China in just a few short weeks.

I know it is silly but I got all choked up when I saw her US passport for the first time. There is just something about seeing her little face in the passport book. That coupled with the words PLACE OF BIRTH; China, got me all emotional.

It is hard to believe Riz and i were in our 40's before we got our first passport and Sophia is a mere 3 years old and has had both a Chinese Passport and now her very first US passport. I hope for her that she has a lifetime of world travels that bring her joy and happiness..

Back to happiness

Where we are now....

5/2/09 - decided to adopt a second daughter from China

5/3/09-4/4/10 - lots of paperwork

4/5/10 -DTC for Amelia Grace

4/19/10 - LID

5/22/10 - Amelia Grace's referral

5/23/10 - LOI

5/27/10 - PA

7/12/10 - LOA

8/3/10 - Provisional Approval

8/12/10 - NVC conformation letter

STILL WAITING for

Article 5 - we got it - 8/30/2010

TA - 9/15/2010

Travel date - 10/20/2010

Family Day - 10/25/2010

CA - 11/3/2010

Flight Home - 11/4/2010

We can't wait to become a family of 4....

We have been busy preparing for our little addition. Sorting clothes, moving furniture and registering at Target. I had almost forgotten how fun it was to be expecting :)

Our agency is saying we may be traveling as early as September 15th. We are currently waiting on the Article 5 from the US Consulate in Gunagzhou China. Once we have this all we will need is the Travel Approval (TA) from the CCAA (Chinese agency that over sees adoptions). They are expecting the Article 5 on Aug. 30 2010. We will be applying for our Visa's soon and then before you know it we will be on our way to China once again. We can hardly believe how blessed we are.

the pictures below are of Amelia Grace opening the care package we sent to her. The 2 ladies in the photos are part of the True Children's home staff. The younger of the 2 is the Foster Care coordinator from the True Children's Home. The older of the 2 ladies is Amelia Grace's foster mother. It warms our hearts to see how well she is bring cared for and how happy she appears to be.

Happy does not begin to capture our feelings...

A WONDERFULY BUSY time

July 17

This month has been both busy and exciting...
We started out July waiting for our LOA and that came in on July 13th really about a month sooner then we thought it would. That started the mountain of paperwork that is the I-800 LOL.. After some computer glitches (I got a virus, ran out of Ink, lost a driver don't you just love computer stuff?) I finally got all of that done and it is in the hands of USCIS now. Now we wait for several approvals from them and finally Travel Approval (TA) from China. Our agency is expecting us to be able to travel some time Mid September.

Next weekend we are having dinner with a family from Orlando that we will be traveling with. Their daughter is also from Guangzhou so we will be together the whole trip. They live in Orlando and we have gotten to know them while we have been waiting for our referrals. They are bringing there 14 year old daughter to China with them, what a great experience for a child that age. We are taking Sophia with us too so I know all of the girls will have fun entertaining each other while we are there..

Work has been SUPER busy for me.. My counter part resigned and the company I work for decided not to replace her so I am now doing the work of two people for the price of one, nice right? In addition to that they implemented a new software system that has been a challenge for all of us. The silver lining is it is making time pace quickly...

We have been doing fundraising to get us to our goal for China. It is going well and we have had some good Ebay(seller name meimeiandtete) sales as well as some very kind and generous donations from friends. Thank you all who have bought Coffee from our Just Love Coffee site and for those of you who have made direct donations via our Pay Pal button on the blog. Every penny is getting us closer to where we need to be for the trip. We are still about $1000 away but we are getting there..The kindness and generosity we have experienced has been overwhelming to us and means so much. Our family and Amelia are very blessed to have such great friends in our corner..

This next month I am spending "NESTING" trying to get the house ready for 2 children under 4 years old. :) I can hardly believe I am a mother of two beautiful girls. I feel so lucky, so blessed.. I am getting the girls room ready and trying to sort through all of the tubs of clothes that I have been saving. The nice thing about having 2 girls is that I can relive all of those cute things we had for Sophia again with Amelia. We are also rearranging our living space to make more room in the play room and to make the house more functional for a family of four.

I need to start making a packing list and a last minute to do list as well.. First on that list we need a second car seat..

Sophia has been so sweet about her "Baby Sister" . whenever she is playing she always includes her in the game. Or when she is getting dressed she picks something out and says Mama Mei Mei can wear this one. We have been talking to her quite a bit about becoming a big sister and about the trip we are all taking to bring her "Baby Sister" home from China. Out of the blue the other night while Riz was putting her to bed she said to him " Daddy, I want to go to China to see uncle Zhou and bring Mei Mei Home" .. melts my heart really... She has been on summer vacation from school and has been missing her friends there. She asks me every day when she can go back to school. In the mean time she has been taking a combined Dance class it is Gymnastics,Tap and ballet. She likes the whole class but her favorite is the Gymnastics for sure. She has no fear and is amazing on the Beam and the uneven bars and looks adorable in her tutu. We have also been getting in some good beach time. She loves the beach playing in the sand and the water. She is a water girls for sure, again no fear...

OK, now we got some updated Photos of Amelia from the True Children's home so I thought I would share those with you. Oh one more thing.. I sent Amelia a care package full of goodies from us and her grandparents. Hopefully he will be able to enjoy some things from us before we can get to China..

Doesn’t she have the best smile.. The last 2 picture show Amelia with her Foster Mother and Father. The other women in the photo is from the True Children’s home. She is the Foster Care coordinator and was visiting Amelia (Mei Mei as they call her) In her Foster Families home..

Just Love

We wanted to take this opportunity to share with all our readers a few things we are doing as fundraisers for Amelia's adoption expenses. A friend of mine stumbled across this great opportunity and passed it on to me (Thank you Tamera). It is an easy way for families who are working toward an adoption to raise money for the expenses. The family who owns this company is a fellow adoptive family of two beautiful girls from Ethiopia. You must read their story and I promise you it is inspiring.. Below is a link to a website that will allow you to purchase a great bag of coffee and in return $5 for each bag will be sent to Amelia's adoption fund.

Just Love Coffee

I have also (at the request of a great friend) added a Pay Pal "donate" button just under the tickers at the top of the blog . Please feel free to use that if you wish to donate to Amelia's Adoption fund..

Don't forget I sell on eBay too.. seller name meimeiandtete . I don't have much listed right now but I will be adding more soon.

We thank you for your generosity in advance...

More fund raisers to come... if you have any ideas you would like to pass on please feel free to comment or send me an email..

2 years ago

we became a family of 3..for Riz and I it was the happiest day of our lives. For Sophia it was a day of the unknown and of one more change, of fear..

2 years later she is a happy little girl who is well adjusted and looking forward to being a big sister.

Dreams really do come true……