It’s Official…we are on our way!

Just wanted to share that we received our Travel Approval yesterday.  Within a couple hours of that we had booked our flights and hotel room…and we are getting ready!  Travis and I will leave here at noon on Sunday and fly to Guangzhou.  Sunday night we plan to have a nice quiet dinner and good night’s sleep before we get Lily on Monday.  (I can’t believe I’m about to have my 4th daughter!!)  We will be in Guangzhou through Thursday, and then will head home that afternoon.  We would love your prayers for our time there and also for the M, H and S who will be at home while we are away.  Travis’ mom is here from the States and will be keeping them those several days. We are so thankful for her and all our dear friends here who will be helping her. 

So, let the countdown begin…3 1/2 days til Lily is in our arms forever!!

It’s on its way…our TA that is!!!!

I’m freakin’ out!!  We found out tonight that our Travel Approval was mailed to us this afternoon!  The awesome thing is that it was mailed to our house here in China.  (Usually the CCAA mails it to our agency in the states and then the agency has to mail it back across the pond to us…which equals about 7-10 days of wasted time in the mail)  But the sweet compassionate CCAA agreed to mail ours directly to us!! 

So….the bottom line is we hope to have precious Lily in our arms this time next week!!!!!  I finally think I know when my due date it…Monday, November 15th!

The timing of Lily’s arrive couldn’t be more perfect…Gar Gar (Travis’ mom) arrived here last night and will be here to stay with the big girls while we go get the little sis. 

Well, I gotta go get packing…or something!

A Sneak Peek

Well, while we are waiting on Lily I have been trying to get her new room decorated.  I’ve been really proud of all my inexpensive ways to convert our guest room into 2 little sisters’ bedroom.  I have lots of pictures of the entire room, but I’m not quite ready to unveil it. 

Today, I was so proud of my new addition.  What I’m going to show you will not be that impressive to those of you living in the West, but to those of you living in the East, I think you are really going to like it. 

This is one of those examples of something you see everyday in the U.S., but I’ve never seen here.  OK…enough already…Sydney and Lily’s monogram on their new wall:

I had been trying to figure out how to put their monogram on their wall for awhile.  I knew I wouldn’t be painting it.  I had considered ordering it on Etsy and having someone bring it in, but that just seemed like a pain and I didn’t want to spend the money.  Then I thought I would try one of our local print shops and see if they could do it.  (For those of you picturing Kinko’s, you should scratch that imagine, because our “local print shop” looks nothing like that.)  Anyway, this afternoon I walked over to the print shop and explained to them what I wanted.  I showed the lady where to download the font I wanted and 10 minutes later I was walking home with my wall art.  I immediately called my very artistic friend, Lori, and asked her if she could help me hang it. 

She came right over and 15 minutes later I had a cute monogram on the wall, and was on my way to pick up the big girls from school. 

This is one of the things that actually turned out to be easier and much cheaper than it would have been in the States.  I think I’ve found a new hobby and will be creating some new things with my new find. 

I promise I will post pictures of the entire new room soon.  As far as a Lily update goes, we are trying to wait patiently for our Travel Approval.  Once we have our TA we will be heading to pick Lily up!!!  We are really hoping that we will be able to pick her up in about 2 weeks!  Stay tuned for pictures of her new room…and hopefully, news that we have received our Travel Approval! 

9 months pregnant with no due date

That is what I feel like these days. I feel like I’m hugely pregnant but have no idea when we may meet our new little baby.

We have one more grueling step before we can go pick up Lily.  We are waiting for our last documents from the US government to be delivered to the CCAA in Beijing so they can issue our Travel Approval.  Once we have the TA was can go pick up Lily!!!!  A week or so ago there were some reports of other adoptive families getting their TA’s in 4 days!  This process usually takes 2-3 weeks, so I started freaking out about not having things done.   So, last week I started thinking we may get Lily on November 1st or the 8th…now I’m thinking it may be more like the 15th.  Either way, I’m dying!  

In the meantime, we have converted our guest room into Sydney and Lily’s new room.  It is super cute (I’ll post pictures soon) and our family had a great time working on it.  It is just sitting empty waiting on those cute little sisters to occupy it.  (It will actually be awhile before they move into it, since Lily will sleep in our room for awhile to help her attach to us.)

I’ve also been trying to decide what size clothes Lily will wear and then get out what i think will fit her.  Based on the measurements we have been given (which may or not be accurate), I think she may be wearing 18 months clothes.  After checking with others who have adopted children from China, I think that may be a pretty generous guess…I think she may actually be wearing 12 month clothes.  Who knows?!

These are just a sampling of the questions that fill my mind and heart every moment of the day.  Praying she comes quick…I don’t think I can wait much longer! 

My Blind Date

A few weeks ago we had the privileged of meeting 2 people who we have known and been working closely with for the past 10 months…the President and China Director of our adoption agency. They were in China meeting with their staff and holding some seminars in various cities about adoption for expats.  We have been so satisfied with our experience with them that we invited them to come to our city to do one of their seminars.

On my way to pick them up for dinner, it hit me that i felt like i was going on a blind date.  Travis was coming directly from work so it was just me going to pick them up.  The thing much different about this “blind date” was that they already knew everything about us…and i do mean everything!

We had a fantastic time with Jim and Josh Savley at dinner and then at the adoption seminar.  It was great to have so many other expat families attend and be very interested in growing their families by adoption. 

The following night our whole family went with them to dinner again.  The girls had fun meeting them and knowing that they are the people who introduced us to Lily. 

Mid-Autumn Festival

This post is a little behind, since the Chinese celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival in late September.  I can’t really tell you what the Mid-Autumn Festival is all about but usually family and friend get together for a big meal and then afterwards go check out the moon (which is always full on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival).  Unfortunately in the city we live in we usually can’t see the moon for the “clouds”. 

Another major part of the holiday is to give and eat mooncakes.  Most people don’t even really like them, but just have fun being apart of the tradition of giving and eating  them. 

This year we went with some new friend to a restaurant near the center of the city that is actually on a bridge.  We only managed to get a few pictures before our battery went dead.  

A lovingly prepared gift

Today in a city in Southern China our little Lily will be getting her first gift. We put together a care package to send to her at her orphanage where she waits for us.

Here is what she will see when she gets the gift

A soft pink teddy bear, a picture book we made with pictures of her and us in it, 2 disposable camera, our official letter saying she is ours, and a handwritten letter from us.

When Lily is shown the book, this will be first time she has seen our faces or probably even heard that she will be adopted. Our hope is seeing our pictures will help prepare her for us. We hope that her adjustment to us will be as smooth as possible, but it will be traumatic for her…to be placed in the arms of someone you don’t know is horrifying enough, but also people who look nothing like you. We pray that her caretakers will read it or at least show it to her.

Our hope for the disposable camera is that her caretakers will use them to snap as many pictures as possible of her. Of course, we want these pictures, but we also want them for Lily. All kids love to look at pictures of themselves from when they were younger, and adopted children are no different…she will want to know her story and see where she used to live and who she used to play with.

Below are all the things Lily will not see when she opens her gift:

Sydney loving the stew out of the little bear for Lily. It was her way of sending hugs to Lily

Madison & Hailey looking through the picture book before we mailed it.

Hailey also sending hugs to her lil sis.

Sweet Madison showing off “her page”. Her page says in Chinese, “I’m your oldest sister. My name is Madison. I’m 7 1/2 years old. I love you so much and can’t wait for you to come home.

Our dear friend, Xiao Gan, got in on the action, too. She helped me write the letter to the orphanage thanking them for taking such good care of Lily and all the other orphans in their care. We told them that we couldn’t imagine how difficult their job is and we pray that God will bless them richly for all of the love they have show His little ones.

It was really fun to put Lily’s package together. Hopefully she will receive it today or tomorrow. We look forward to years and years of getting to lavish wonderful gifts on her.

Introducing…Lily Grace Todd

 

On Tuesday, June 22, 2010, Travis and I saw the beautiful face of Wu Xiu Li (吴秀莉）for the very first time.  We were sitting on our sofa together as we opened the email that had information and a picture of her.  Here is what we saw

 

I couldn’t believe how much her eyes resembled Madison, Hailey and Sydney’s.

Then we opened these 2 pictures of her taken on the playground at her orphanage in Guangdong Province.  These photos were taken when she was 13 months old and she was walking while holding on to things. 

Since that night in June we have been praying for her and praying that she continued to grow and have good health.  Even though we got those pictures in June, they were taken in January. 

So, now Lily is 20 months old (born December 29, 2008) and we hadn’t seen any new pictures or had an update on her until last week, when we got these pictures

She is now walking and talking and has continued to grow.  She weighs 22 lbs and is 78 cm tall. 

 

We treasure every photo we have of her.  These 5 photos are the only photos we may ever have of her first 20 months of life. 

We all are so excited to bring her home.  We can’t wait to hold her in our arms.  Her big sisters talk about her all the time.  We are praying that the final steps to bring her home will go quickly and we can go get her in November. 

She is ours!

We were so excited to get this document in the mail last week! It is the document from the Chinese government that officially gives us permission to adopt Wu Xiu Li. They had given us pre-approval but this is the letter that says they have reviewed all the pages of things we had sent to them, and they are allowing us to adopt her.

Every official document in China has a red star stamp on it. We have been waiting on this approval for 2 months, so we were so glad to get it. It also means we are one more step closer to bringing Lily home. Please pray that the next several steps will go quickly and we can have her home in November! Picture of her to come real soon!

10 years ago…what a day!

The past 10 years have flown by so fast!  10 years ago (way back in 2000) I married the most awesome guy I know.  You may know him for his striking good-looks and very fun personality, but he is also the most tender, loving husband, daddy and friend that I could ever have imagined.

 

Here are some pictures from that fun day 10 years ago in Wetumpka, Alabama. It was one of the very best days in my life.  I remember Travis and I talking on that day about how overwhelmed we were by the love that all our family and friends showed us on that day…and I still feel that way today when I think about our wedding day.

Here are some pictures to take you back to that beautiful September day.

Happy Anniversary Travis!