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! 

1st-ever Family Cookie Challenge

 

On Saturday we decided to let Madison and Hailey each cook a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. They stood side my side on their stools in the kitchen and prepared their cookies.  Travis and I helped them measure, pour, stir, and mix their creations.  On the last step (you know where you add the chips), they got to choose what kind of candy or chips they wanted to put in their cookies. While they were baking, we called some “judges” to come over and judge their cookies. 

The cookies were judged on looks, smell, candy and taste. 

We didn’t dare let the judges know who’s cookie was who’s…we would not stand for any favoritism.

Now for the intense sampling and voting

We even allowed the contestants to vote

After votes were tallied, Hailey’s m&m cookies were declared the winner…..oh, but wait!  We found Gunner’s missing ballet!

And what would you know….his votes tied it up!  So, the 1st ever cookie challenge was a tie!  Madison’s mini-milk-chocolate-chips-with-a-sprinkling-of-white-chocolate-chip cookies tied with Hailey’s cookies loaded with m&m’s and a few white chocolate chips!

Some Summertime shots

Sydney wearing Morgan’s fancy shoes and tank top as a dress.

Father’s Day weekend when we went to see Toy Story 3

Our last night with Amy before she left…sob…sob!

Hanging around with Mo

Doll Tea Party with Kate

A Rare Sunny Day

This summer we have had the strangest weather…pretty cool with lots of rain and gray skies.  On the rare chance of a nice sunny day…I have to take the kids out!  Today we tried out this pool park that is clear across town from us.  Some friends had recommended it and it was awesome!  Cheap, clean, and not very crowded.  After you look at this video, you may think it looks pretty crowded, but it is all relative…and this is NOT crowded for here!  We were really glad to find a fun new place to take the kids for a summertime treat.  Check out their rad moves on the big slide!

Bike Riding!

We are so excited that Madison is riding her bike.  Check out a video of her from today. 

The dear Li Family

Some of you may heard me talk about this dear family before.  The Li’s are some of our closest local friends here.  We first met the wife (Xiao Ying) in March of 2002 and we became fast friends.  Her and her husband (Xiao Li) had a little girl (Li Ying Yue) who was about 3 at the time.  They have been a very big part of our family since we have lived in Asia.  They are really strong believers, and are such an encouragement to us.  Back in March of 2008, they were blessed with another beautiful daughter, En Ci.  Before En Ci was born, they found out that she would have several severe heart defect and would likely not live long at all.  They weren’t sure if she would even survive for an hour.  Despite the advice of many doctors who were telling Xiao Ying to abort her, they chose the hard, loving road and gave En Ci life!   She was born on March 3, 2008 and stayed in the hospital for several weeks.    

The doctors here didn’t really give them much info and they hardly knew what her life would be like (or how long her life would be)…but they loved and cared for her so tenderly.  It wasn’t unusual for Xiao Li to go to the hospital at 5am to get in line to see the pediatric cardiologist who only sees patients one morning each month.

After her short, but impactful life, En Ci died last July 24th.  Since her death, her parents have continued to shine for Jesus.  They have trusted in the Lord like no one I’ve ever seen.  They know He is faithful and good, but miss their daughter as much as anyone who has lost a child does.  They are so generous.  While En Ci was sick they saw people they had never met (and will never meet) give them thousand of dollars to help their daughter.  About 5 days after En Ci died they came to us and wanted to return all the money that was given to them to help with her surgery (that she never had).  They had every dime that was given to them, and didn’t want to use any of it to pay for her other hospital bills…they only wanted the money to go towards what it was given for…a surgery.  I wanted to share their story with you so that you can pray for them over the next few days.  It was 1 year ago that En Ci went to be with Jesus.  Please pray that God will allow them to grieve for her, and continue to heal their hearts.  

This was their family’s last family picture before En Ci died. 

Referral!!!

We are so excited to share with you all that we received a referral for a little 18 month old beautiful Chinese girl!  Words can’t begin to tell you how excited we were to see pictures and read all about our new little daughter!  It was so fun to introduce Wu Xiu Li (which means beautiful, elegant, graceful) to her big sisters.  Her name really describes her so well…both Travis and I were amazed by how beautiful she was when we first saw her photo. Her eyes look so much like her big sisters’ eyes.  We wanted to wait until we got our pre-approval before we shared with others.  We will wait to share her photo until we get our Letter of Acceptance from the CCAA that we have been officially approved to adopt her. 

We have continued to be in awe of God’s timing and goodness towards us in this process!  We were logged into the CCAA on Monday, June 21st and we received our referral the very next day on Tuesday, June 22nd…now that is what I call quick!  We didn’t officially start our adoption until December 29th, 2009 and we hope Xiu Li (pronounces Show Lee) will be in our arms by the end of November 2010! 

Some fun facts about Xiu Li:

Birth date:  December 29, 2008

Birthplace:  Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China