Look how big Jack is getting!

Oh, the wait.....OH, THE WAIT! At least now we have a real timeline to Jack. We haven't heard what our LID is yet from our agency, but I'm sure it was about a week ago. BAAS, our agency, says 5.5 months from LID until we are in China to meet Jack. I absolutely cannot wait!!

New pictures of Jack...and....DTC 12.30.11!!

Our entire dossier has been sent to our agency. We will be DTC December 30, 2011!! Then we WAIT....for our LID ~ log in date. Praying big time for a fast travel approval.

The Love of an Ayi

This photo brought tears to my eyes when I first saw it. I said to Eric, "They love the children". Each Ayi at Siping SWI is an angel from heaven. It must be very hard for them to let go of these beautiful children when they go on to meet their new families. I can only image how it feels to be so happy for the children, hopeful that they will be taken care of, and miss them so much. As you can see from the photo to the right the Ayi's love these babies. Their affection, love, acceptance, touch, attention, and care for the children shines through them~we've seen this light shine through Lily.

These two beautiful children are meeting their new families tomorrow. We hope and pray for a smooth transition for these families. We are so happy and excited for them as they embark on a wonderful new life.

Lily was 21 months old when she left Siping SWI. As parents we often wonder how much she remembers. Eric and I were sitting with Lily yesterday when we showed Lily this photo. I pointed to the Ayi's face and asked, "Lily, who is that?"...Lily matter a factly responded, "Ayi" with a big smile. Eric and I looked at each other so, so surprised. Neither of us had spoke the word "ayi" or even talked about ayi's prior to this. WOW.

Thank you to the ayi's~~thank you so much!

Oh Baby!

Peek-a-boo!...Isn't Lily precious??

Yellow Pagoda (by Katherine)

I love ALL of the photos that the teachers take...of course we love seeing Lily, but we also love seeing all of the other children and the pictures of life in China.

Homes (by Jon Wu)

Just when you think there's no more room (by Jon Wu)

Lillian Elise HanXue Smith and Katherine (taken by Amanda)

Working on filling photo album #2

The red photo album is mostly full of pictures of Lily. The second album is not just of Lily, but of the teachers and other children at Siping SWI.

Video of Lily Counting in Chinese!

This video was sent to us this morning from Katherine! Thank you so much Katherine! We've been watching it over and over and over again. I've never wished so hard before for time to pass more quickly! We can't wait to hold her in our arms!

Lily ~ April 14, 2007

I love crackers!

Yum!

Pictures of Lily - taken today.

Hello!

Happy to be held.

We are only waiting for our US consulate appointment in Guangzhou to be confirmed. We are hoping to have that confirmation on Monday--then we can buy our plane tickets and have definite dates of travel. Our agency has Fed-Ex'd our travel packet to us containing our visas, passports, and all of the documents needed to finalize the adoption. It is very likely that we'll leave for China May 1st. We plan to site see for the first couple of days of May that the Chinese government offices are closed for a memorial holiday. Then we'll fly to Jilin to meet Lily! We can't wait!

TA!!!!!!!!!!

This morning I met Debbie and her children for coffee in Woodstock at The Serene Bean. Both Eric and HOPE for Children were trying to get ahold of me to say our travel approval was here! I never heard my phone ring! Can you believe it?? The day we've been waiting for a year and I don't hear my cell! I was caught off guard...thought the earliest we'd receive the letter would be next week since it didn't come earlier this week. We are so HAPPY!!! Lily!!! Here we come!!!

This morning before coffee with Deb I tried to take 6 teens (including Mark & Angela) to Six Flags. It's Spring Break week here and they are itching to do something fun. A local radio station was having a promotion where they were letting everyone in for free between 5:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. We were on our way when the radio station announced at 6:30 a.m. that there were already 15,000 people there and they weren't letting anymore in the park. The 2 exits to get off the highway to the park were blocked and there were police around because of all of the traffic....so we turned around and headed home. They were very disappointed to say the least. Now I needed to get them back home and try to make my doctors appointment by 8:30 a.m. I had been fasting since last night to have blood work done (routine stuff). At this point...I'm grumpy myself...with a car full of obnoxious and disappointed teens.

Tonight I have to give a speech on Eisenhower's Farewell Address...I've been working on it for a couple of days. I think that I'm going to have to warn the class that I'm really on cloud 9 right now...hope the speech makes sense at this point...BECAUSE we found out a few hours ago that we're going to China in few weeks to meet our daughter!!! I can't think of anything else!

WARNING: PLEASE SIT DOWN BEFORE VIEWING...THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS OVERLOADED WITH CUTENESS!!

Some pictures as we wait for TA...

Our letter will be at the CCAA Monday morning (our Sunday night 8 p.m.) I hope they issue the TA immediately. Meanwhile here are a couple of pictures of Lily taken today, March 24, 2007. The CCAA sent us updated measurements--Lily weighs 24 pounds and is 30 inches tall...Lily is THE ponytail princess!

SWEET!!...Lily photos from March 16, 2007

She's so beautiful!! I love her cute, chubby wrists & fingers. We're almost there Lily Pie! Won't be long now!

Still waiting...day 115 since log in date

We are still waiting for our last confirmation letter from China so our travel approval can be issued. It's absolutely grueling waiting. Each day we hope to hear something...but as 12 Noon rolls around our hopes fade...if it hasn't come by then we're doubtful that will be the day. I have been sick with a stomach virus for the last two days with Gatorade close by. I feel like I've slept through a couple of days ('cause I have). Today I still can't eat, I'm feeling weak still, but I'm able to get up and function somewhat. What a surprise this morning to find that we have more pictures of Lily taken March 3, 2007!...we can't wait to meet all of our new friends in China very soon and hug & kiss our daughter. She's beautiful! I'm comforted that she looks happy, healthy, and has a new molar!

Heather

New pictures of Lily dated 12/30/06!

Merry Christmas!

Today Sarah and her team went to the orphanage to pass out Christmas gifts and tell the Christmas story to the children. It is amazing, incredible, and a true blessing to be able to see pictures of Lily taken the very same day. There were a few pictures of Shan Shan too.