Saturday, December 23, 2006
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.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Younger pictures of Lily...
I still can't believe that we have been blessed with the opportunity to be in contact with so many people connected with Siping SWI--allowing us to have upwards of 50 pictures or more of Lily before we have even had the chance to meet... it's a long red thread...but connects none the less...
Friday, December 01, 2006
Isn't she beautiful??
Her eyes speak to me......we can't wait to see the look on her face when we show her the beach and the ocean, disney world, chocolate cake, Benjamin, Christmas and birthday presents, swimming pools, her own playground in her back yard with a sand box, her pink and white bedroom with toys and stuffed animals, play-dates with friends, travel to see more family......we want to show her the world...our unconditional love and support.....Please pray for a quick travel approval with us.
Heather
Heather
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Family...the holidays...it's 70 degrees!
The weather has been beautiful here...it's actually--open up the windows--warm. Each day is a bright blue sky without a cloud in sight. Here are a few pictures from our Thanksgiving holiday. We took our first family picture with Lily--we held a picture of her so she could be included.
Today we received an email from Sarah, an American teaching in a university in China. Sarah and another American took Lily and 2 other babies to have surgery. Sarah's parents paid for Lily's surgery and we are very grateful for their kindness. She also told us that she was able to get her students involved in raising the funds to pay for the other 2 children's costs for surgery. We now have video of Lily--Sarah posted the video on November 20th (last Monday) and stated in her post that she visited the babies at the orphanage that weekend! I just keep having the same thought in my mind..."it just keeps getting more amazing".
Friday, November 24, 2006
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Chinese night
We have family in town for the Thanksgiving holiday. Krista (Eric's sister) and Emma (our niece) are here, and Dave (our brother 'n law) will be here tomorrow night. We were all craving Chinese the other night--it hit the spot. Doug and Bev (Eric's parents) moved to Atlanta this last August from New York. They are enjoying the break from the northeast snow, but not nearly as much as we enjoy having family around. (always have to include a picture of Benjamin)
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Sweet dreams sweet Lily...
When I look at Lily’s serious face I see her heritage. I see the many men and women that preceded her. I see the beauty in their souls...I imagine their sacrifice....I feel the self-discipline. This is Lillian Han Xue Smith...we will be granted the privilege to be her parents very soon...I can only dream that we will live up to her expectations. .....sleep tight sweet princess...we love you...mommy loves you....we're on our way to bring you home.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
New, updated pictures of Lily!!
We just received these new, updated pictures of Lily today! She's adorable...COME ON TA!
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
IT'S OFFICIAL...WE'RE DTC!!!!!!!!!
Today's the day! We're PAPER PREGNANT! Our letter of intent to adopt Lily & our dossier are on the way to China via Fed-Ex. We have the tracking number too! I'll be checking the tracking more times than you'll ever get me to admit. In 3-4 months we'll be traveling to Siping, Jilin Province, China to bring home our precious Lily! We are going to start putting together a care package to send--a baby blanket, stuffed animal, a toy or 2, etc... We are so excited!!
When we drive by our subdivisions pool I see the slide & think that the next time we go to the pool we'll be taking Lily! I look at the swing set in the backyard & see in my mind Lily in a baby swing. And, when I swing on the porch swing I think of holding her on my lap singing Lily a song.
OH MY GOSH....I've gots lots to do...! :)
Monday, October 16, 2006
Finally...the oldest teen is EMPLOYED!
Today will go down in our family history as the day that Mark, our 16 1/2 year old son, got his first job! WOOOOOHHHOOOOOOO!!! We've been working on this for quite some time! As you can imagine--teens about this age are very expensive...they are constantly wanting money to do all kinds of things with their friends. And, it's not like you can buy them something from the toy isle for 10 or 20 bucks and make them all excited. No....Hollister & Abercrombie can actually send you to the poor house if you let it.
Ok, well...if you know Mark then you know he could care less about clothes. Angela on the other hand....well, that's another story. Mark loves electronics--computers to be specific. And, that's right--they're not cheap. Mark's eyes light up at the mention of various computer components that only he can intelligently discuss in our household. Sometimes in family dinner conversation Mark will start talking about "coding"--among other things--and we will look at him as if he has three heads. Then I'll say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude...TMI. We're completely lost...how about layman's terms??? It's not that we're not interested...just more I.T. challenged." Could you imagine if I started explaining the pathophysiology behind Irritable Bowel Syndrome to him? I think I'd get the same look.
Congratulations to Mark! One more step toward self-sufficient adulthood and independence. It's paycheck time....oh yea-wait until he sees how much goes to taxes. Should we explain that one now or let it be a surprise? :)
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Our Red Thread story...
We have an amazing story to share…
When we found out that we were approved to adopt Lily I called a very dear friend of mine, Debbie, to share the great news. Debbie and her husband Dan have also adopted a beautiful little girl, LiLi, from China. They also have a son together, Ian—he’s so cute, smart, and has a great personality. They have 2 blogs—one for while they were traveling in China to pick up LiLi called Doodlebug & a Cup of Tea, and one to chronicle their life together as a family called Hiking Through Life with Ian & LiLi. Both are so fun to follow and read—Debbie is a great photographer & writer…and, a good friend too. Anyway…
So…I call Debbie to share the news and she tells me to look online for the Yahoo Group for our daughter’s orphanage—that it will be a great source of information for us, etc… I say, “Ok”, and when we hang up I found the one and only group that includes our orphanage; Changchun and Jilin Province Families Yahoo Group. I post my introduction explaining all the details about Lily—her name is Han Xue, she’s 15 months old, from Siping SWI, she has a Cleft Lip, we will be able to travel to get her in 3-5 months, etc… I also posted a link for our blog where I had already posted Lily’s referral pictures. Within a few hours I receive an email from another new member, Christine. Although she hadn’t adopted from Siping SWI—she adopted her daughter (her name is Lily also!!!) from Fuzhou a few years ago—she was on an orphan ministry with a group of people to visit Siping SWI just this last July 2006. She told me that she had hundreds of pictures and would love to send them to me so I could see what the orphanage looked like, etc… I received the pictures and I got about 6-7 pictures into it and I STOPPED-----FROZEN……I called Eric over to the laptop…we were staring at this little girl in the picture sitting on a matt with an American woman playing one on one with her. I said, “That’s Lily!!!!” I immediately emailed Christine attaching this picture and Lily’s referral pictures, and I told her I thought that the picture she sent was of Lily—she wrote back to me that she was thinking the same thing!
At this point we were emailing each other back ‘n forth for the next couple of hours. Christine knew a wealth of information about the Lily, the orphanage, etc… we feel very blessed to be able to connect with Christine and be comforted to know that our daughter is in an orphanage where the children are well taken care of. This is information that most families don’t have the privilege to know during the months that they are waiting to travel to get their child. We think it is the hardest time because you now have a referral picture—you look into the eyes of your child in these pictures and hope & pray that someone will pick her up and comfort her—take care of her until you can get your arms around her…Some people have no idea what the living conditions are like in the orphanage that houses their child. We are very blessed indeed to have this information.
By the way...I told Christine I was going for my BSN—Nursing. She asked me what kind of nursing interested me…I said, “I love Cardiology”….she then said, “I’m a Cardiac RN. Then she told me that her daughter that they adopted from Fuzhou was also named Lily. Christine told us that she has 2 teenage children—and, Eric & I do also. I then asked her if she was my twin!!!
Well…..it gets even better.
Like every other first Friday of the month I head up to Acworth to “First Friday’s” at The Chapman’s home—this is a gathering of people in the process of adopting, already have adopted, or even just thinking of adopting from China. Dan & Susan open their home to everyone--they have touched our lives and opened up a whole new world of adoption families for us. I almost didn’t go because I was exhausted from working at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta for my Adult Health/Med-Surg class on Thursday & Friday. I had a Political Science exam Saturday morning at 8 a.m. that I needed to study for, and Eric is in Philadelphia because one of his old college buddies from Villanova is getting married this weekend—Eric is in the wedding. But, I just felt like I really wanted to go anyway--we always have a great time. I took with me most of the pictures of Lily that Christine had sent to us to show off. When we were in the foyer of the Chapman’s home, Sue came over to say hello and see our pictures. She was leafing through the photo album and STOPPED…
…as Sue points to this woman above in the picture holding Lily she says to me, “She’s right over there…that’s Cassandra, yes…that’s her” Then she points to this very person standing across the room talking to a few other guests of the party. It was Cassandra, and she was there at the party----yes, she held our daughter…I was holding a picture that I received from Christine of Cassandra holding our daughter!!! And, Cassandra was standing there in front of me right then and there. Sue shows Cassandra the picture and Cassandra says, "That's Snow!" (Lily's Chinese name, Xue, means "snow") She told me that Christine had told her that she had talked to the people that were adopting Snow. I started to cry…it was amazing…I really felt like I was shaking. It was just incredible---magical! I gave Cassandra the biggest hug!! Cassandra and her husband, Dale, and Christine participated in an orphan ministry for America World Adoptions and were on a mission trip with a group of other people to Siping orphanage this last July. Christine isn’t even in Georgia—she’s across the country in California. Cassandra & Dale are adopting from America World Adoptions—and Christine’s husband works for American World.
It’s amazing...we believe we've witnessed The Lord’s work.
To Lily: We love you so much already and you don’t even know it…sleep tight sweet baby girl…we’ll be there to bring you home as soon as we can.
To Christine, Cassandra and Dale…our new found friends…our angels. Thank you so much…thank you for being so caring, and for being there in China to comfort our daughter and all of the other children in Siping SWI.
To Susan & Dan, and Debbie & Dan...thank you for being a link in our Red Thread.
This is our Red Thread story...
“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The Thread may stretch
or tangle, but never break.” Ancient Chinese belief.
When we found out that we were approved to adopt Lily I called a very dear friend of mine, Debbie, to share the great news. Debbie and her husband Dan have also adopted a beautiful little girl, LiLi, from China. They also have a son together, Ian—he’s so cute, smart, and has a great personality. They have 2 blogs—one for while they were traveling in China to pick up LiLi called Doodlebug & a Cup of Tea, and one to chronicle their life together as a family called Hiking Through Life with Ian & LiLi. Both are so fun to follow and read—Debbie is a great photographer & writer…and, a good friend too. Anyway…
So…I call Debbie to share the news and she tells me to look online for the Yahoo Group for our daughter’s orphanage—that it will be a great source of information for us, etc… I say, “Ok”, and when we hang up I found the one and only group that includes our orphanage; Changchun and Jilin Province Families Yahoo Group. I post my introduction explaining all the details about Lily—her name is Han Xue, she’s 15 months old, from Siping SWI, she has a Cleft Lip, we will be able to travel to get her in 3-5 months, etc… I also posted a link for our blog where I had already posted Lily’s referral pictures. Within a few hours I receive an email from another new member, Christine. Although she hadn’t adopted from Siping SWI—she adopted her daughter (her name is Lily also!!!) from Fuzhou a few years ago—she was on an orphan ministry with a group of people to visit Siping SWI just this last July 2006. She told me that she had hundreds of pictures and would love to send them to me so I could see what the orphanage looked like, etc… I received the pictures and I got about 6-7 pictures into it and I STOPPED-----FROZEN……I called Eric over to the laptop…we were staring at this little girl in the picture sitting on a matt with an American woman playing one on one with her. I said, “That’s Lily!!!!” I immediately emailed Christine attaching this picture and Lily’s referral pictures, and I told her I thought that the picture she sent was of Lily—she wrote back to me that she was thinking the same thing!
At this point we were emailing each other back ‘n forth for the next couple of hours. Christine knew a wealth of information about the Lily, the orphanage, etc… we feel very blessed to be able to connect with Christine and be comforted to know that our daughter is in an orphanage where the children are well taken care of. This is information that most families don’t have the privilege to know during the months that they are waiting to travel to get their child. We think it is the hardest time because you now have a referral picture—you look into the eyes of your child in these pictures and hope & pray that someone will pick her up and comfort her—take care of her until you can get your arms around her…Some people have no idea what the living conditions are like in the orphanage that houses their child. We are very blessed indeed to have this information.
By the way...I told Christine I was going for my BSN—Nursing. She asked me what kind of nursing interested me…I said, “I love Cardiology”….she then said, “I’m a Cardiac RN. Then she told me that her daughter that they adopted from Fuzhou was also named Lily. Christine told us that she has 2 teenage children—and, Eric & I do also. I then asked her if she was my twin!!!
Well…..it gets even better.
Like every other first Friday of the month I head up to Acworth to “First Friday’s” at The Chapman’s home—this is a gathering of people in the process of adopting, already have adopted, or even just thinking of adopting from China. Dan & Susan open their home to everyone--they have touched our lives and opened up a whole new world of adoption families for us. I almost didn’t go because I was exhausted from working at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta for my Adult Health/Med-Surg class on Thursday & Friday. I had a Political Science exam Saturday morning at 8 a.m. that I needed to study for, and Eric is in Philadelphia because one of his old college buddies from Villanova is getting married this weekend—Eric is in the wedding. But, I just felt like I really wanted to go anyway--we always have a great time. I took with me most of the pictures of Lily that Christine had sent to us to show off. When we were in the foyer of the Chapman’s home, Sue came over to say hello and see our pictures. She was leafing through the photo album and STOPPED…
…as Sue points to this woman above in the picture holding Lily she says to me, “She’s right over there…that’s Cassandra, yes…that’s her” Then she points to this very person standing across the room talking to a few other guests of the party. It was Cassandra, and she was there at the party----yes, she held our daughter…I was holding a picture that I received from Christine of Cassandra holding our daughter!!! And, Cassandra was standing there in front of me right then and there. Sue shows Cassandra the picture and Cassandra says, "That's Snow!" (Lily's Chinese name, Xue, means "snow") She told me that Christine had told her that she had talked to the people that were adopting Snow. I started to cry…it was amazing…I really felt like I was shaking. It was just incredible---magical! I gave Cassandra the biggest hug!! Cassandra and her husband, Dale, and Christine participated in an orphan ministry for America World Adoptions and were on a mission trip with a group of other people to Siping orphanage this last July. Christine isn’t even in Georgia—she’s across the country in California. Cassandra & Dale are adopting from America World Adoptions—and Christine’s husband works for American World.
It’s amazing...we believe we've witnessed The Lord’s work.
To Lily: We love you so much already and you don’t even know it…sleep tight sweet baby girl…we’ll be there to bring you home as soon as we can.
To Christine, Cassandra and Dale…our new found friends…our angels. Thank you so much…thank you for being so caring, and for being there in China to comfort our daughter and all of the other children in Siping SWI.
To Susan & Dan, and Debbie & Dan...thank you for being a link in our Red Thread.
This is our Red Thread story...
“An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The Thread may stretch
or tangle, but never break.” Ancient Chinese belief.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Introducing.....Lily!!!!
We found out this morning from HOPE for Children that we are approved to adopt Lily!!! We've been tossing around middle names, but haven't decided on one as of yet. Lily's Chinese name is Han Xue. Xue is her first name, and it means snow. She is in the Siping City Social Welfare Institute in Jilin Province, China! We are just on cloud 9!!!!! Eric and I have been going nuts waiting for the word...it was well worth the wait. We are so thankful! Lily has a Cleft Lip that we think may not be repaired as of yet...we're requesting more current information and hope to find out soon. Regardless, we have a plan of care ready to go through our pediatrician and the craniofacial team of specialists at Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta. Her birthday is July 16, 2005--she is currently 15 months old. We should be traveling to China to get Lily in the next 3 or 4 months! Geeeesshhhh...we've got LOTS to do! I've bought maybe 3 onesies and a hat so far!!!
Monday, September 25, 2006
Friday, September 15, 2006
We've got the I797-H!!!!!!!!
It was in the mail Thursday, September 14th! This is the infamous USCIS approval form we've been waiting for. Now our paperchase is complete and will be off to China very soon--it is the last document left to be authenticated. This will take a week or so and then we're DTC (dossier to China)!!!!
We are on cloud nine...but, I'm going to switch back to study mode--I have an 8 a.m. exam in the morning--yes, on Saturday morning. Eric has taken Angela to the high school football game and Mark is there with his girlfriend, Liz. I have the house to myself and it's quiet. There's so much to be thankful for...a quiet house to study for a couple of hours before a test is gold...thank you Eric-I love you.
Heather
We are on cloud nine...but, I'm going to switch back to study mode--I have an 8 a.m. exam in the morning--yes, on Saturday morning. Eric has taken Angela to the high school football game and Mark is there with his girlfriend, Liz. I have the house to myself and it's quiet. There's so much to be thankful for...a quiet house to study for a couple of hours before a test is gold...thank you Eric-I love you.
Heather
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
September 2006 Update
I can't believe it's September and Fall is on the way! I'll be stalking the mail truck this morning like I usually do on my days off--looking for the infamous I-797H from the USCIS. This is our approval letter from immigration to adopt from China. This is week 6 since our fingerprinting & the last form of the "paperchase" that we need to complete our dossier. Then all paperwork is authenticated, translated, and off to the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs). We will be given a log-in date--which is a very important date because it's when we begin the "big wait". This wait is currently approximately 12-14 months. We've got lots to do...painting, furniture buying, swing-set fixing, and living our normal lives in the meantime! We haven't said much about this yet, but we've applied for approval of 2 children...that's right...2. Our adoption agency & social worker have both recommended (upon our request) that we be approved for twins or siblings or a single female baby as young as possible to 2 years old. How exciting to see what is in store for us! It is rare to be referred twins or siblings...chances are slim so we don't expect it to happen. We'll be happy happy happy no matter what!
Eric & I have been flooded with support by all of the people that we meet with once a month at the "First Friday's" meetings. Through this group we have met many families in all stages of the Chinese adoption process and have made some wonderful friends.
Friends of ours, HP & Lori are finally tying the knot this October--Eric will make the trip to Philadelphia to wish them a happy life together...I have exams--one the morning of the wedding! I wish I could go, but I'm sure Eric will have fun--especially with his old college buddies from Villanova and Chris-a very good, old friend of Eric's from Main Steel.
It's going to be an exciting rest of 2006 and 2007 folks! Hang on...enjoy the ride with us!
Heather
Eric & I have been flooded with support by all of the people that we meet with once a month at the "First Friday's" meetings. Through this group we have met many families in all stages of the Chinese adoption process and have made some wonderful friends.
Friends of ours, HP & Lori are finally tying the knot this October--Eric will make the trip to Philadelphia to wish them a happy life together...I have exams--one the morning of the wedding! I wish I could go, but I'm sure Eric will have fun--especially with his old college buddies from Villanova and Chris-a very good, old friend of Eric's from Main Steel.
It's going to be an exciting rest of 2006 and 2007 folks! Hang on...enjoy the ride with us!
Heather
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