We Sold The Boat and Missed the HS Reunion!

Phil and I were preparing to go to Phil's 35th High School Reunion on Friday when we received a call about a half hour before we were to leave that someone wanted to come and look at the boat. We decided it was more important to take a chance on more money coming into Mia and Anna adoption account. We decided that we would arrive late for the reunion. We went right out and pulled the boat up in the driveway in order to show that it starts. Phil hooked up the water to the motor and went to turn the key only to find out that the batteries were dead. I went to get the extension cord and started to charge up the batteries when he noticed that the gas wasn't getting pumped into the engine. An o-ring had been replaced a week ago and we never tested it to see if it was going to work. Well guess what, as the guy was driving from 30 miles away we decided to call him to let him know that we couldn't get it started. He and his wife decided to come look at it anyway. Once they got here we talked for a while and the guys went back and forth on a price. Once the deal was made they tried hooking it up to their truck only to find out that the wire connections were both "female" and we had to cut off our connection to our truck and give him that one to splice into the boat end of the wire connection. From the time we received the call to the time when the boat was leaving our driveway took about two hours. We started picking up and putting things away when we noticed a part that was needed in order to hook up the water to the motor. Phil grabbed it and went racing down the road to catch them (in his truck). He caught them about 4 miles up the road at the stop sign. We ended up missing the reunion (Phil always wanted to go to a class reunion, but for some reason they never had any reunions officially set up before this one). We are happy the boat sold and we can continue to push forward. Phil's comment about the whole situation was, "God put those people in front of us for a reason. I'm glad we had said yes." I know he was really disappointed in missing his reunion. I also know that a lot of people enjoy seeing him and spending time with him. Maybe they will decide to have one every 5 years instead of every 35 years!  We knew there would be sacrifices and know that the smiling faces in the photos of Mia and Anna will all be worth it!

Our Auction was a success!

Last month we went through our house and anything that wasn't being used on a regular basis or needed for future use was put into an auction. Yes, even the tanning bed went. We sold guns, filing cabinets, desks, letter folder, baseball cards, kerosene heater, peanut dispenser, paper drill, light table, fishing stuff, dog kennel, just to name a few. We had almost 4 pages of items we sold at an auction yesterday. We really did quite well in spite of the temperature being over 100 degrees. It wasn't a surprise when our kerosene heater went for just $10.00. I am not sure what we were thinking! I am not sure what the tanning bed sold for yet, but based on what the heater sold for, I would guess about the same. We had a few people hanging around the filing cabinets the entire day and they were the last of our things to be auctioned off. We couldn't give these things away before the auction! The 4-drawer vertical filing cabinets went for over $100.00 a piece (we had four for sale). You can buy them new for this much. It's always amazing at what you think something is worth and what it actually sells for. Here are a few pictures of what we sold at our auction.

Doing The Chicken dance

We are now finally Dossier to China (DTC). This means that all of our paperwork was sent to China today. This has been such a long process. We thank God for getting us this far! We are that much closer to bring home our two innocent angels.
Please go to the link below and see Anna doing the chicken dance when she was with Asia. She is the tallest one who is on the right hand side. This is a must-see! 
http://asiahope.blogspot.com/2010/08/chicken-dance-mark-henry-jimmy-annaoh.html#links

Heritage Days in Princeville

A very special family came out at Heritage Days in Princeville, IL today to help raise funds to help bring home our two special girls, Mia and Anna. They sat out all day to sell cold drinks in the hot sun. These are our very special friends, Ruthi, Claude, Morgan, Penny, Vicky, Judy, Gracie, Addie, and Kate Coats. Pictured above is Vicky and Penny (love the glasses) and Gracie (on the bench). We can't even begin to come close in thanking them for their contribution in bringing home our two girls. They have been supportive, informative, and especially helpful with our adoptive journey! We love you all very much!

Waiting for Mia's Update

Mia's Referral Photo

We had contacted Ann from Red Thread a few weeks ago and sent a package to be forwarded to Mia, who is at the Children's Welfare Institute of Chuzhou City. Mia was suppose to receive her package from us last week, but we haven't heard anything from Ann as of yet. Our agency has tried several times to get an update as well as Ann from Red Thread and without any luck. Our agency is trying one more thing through a service, but said they hadn't had any luck with them in the past. Here we have so much of Anna to share but very little updated information on Mia. We can only pray for her update at this point.

Anna's Seeing Her Family (Us) For The First Time

This is a video that we received from Madison Adoption Associates. Aleda Madison and the orphanage director are with Anna and explaining to her that she has a family in America. This is a photo album that was sent by us to Madison to take to China on their visit last week. They had a chance to give her our photo album and video tape her responses. We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to share with Anna her reaction to learning that she has a family (us).
I remember what it was like carrying my children for 9 months and the emotions that came with knowing you have a child. Once that child is placed in your arms, you know that child is yours forever. I can't even begin to understand what the mother's of these precious children are going through, not knowing where their daughters are or if they are being taken care of. My heart breaks for the mothers in China.

Hoo-ray we have PA (for two)!

We have been holding out! We have received PA (pre approval) for two girls from China. The picture on the left is Chu Benqin who is also known as Mia and the one on the right is Bao Long Chang who is also known as Anna.  

Mia

We only have referral photos of Chu Benqin but once we receive updated photos we will post them. She was born April 12, 2001. We expect for her to receive our package the week of June 11. We sent a camera, hair clips and rubber bands, a photo album with a few pictures of us and our home, a panda bear, candy for her to share, and a letter. Let me ask you, what do you say to your daughter whom you have never met? How do you express how you feel without sounding like a nut case? How do you start? What will she think when she reads it?  

Items sent to Mia

Anna 

Anna is 8.5 years old. Her birthday is November 26, 2003. We didn't want to post anything on this precious little girl until we were certain that she was ours. And now she is! It isn't common for agencies to approve adopting two children at the same time. China is currently the only country who does allow it unless it is a sibling group. These two girls do not know each other. They come from different orphanages. Our agency sent us two referrals in May. We couldn't choose one over the other. When I asked Phil what his first reaction was he said, "Let's get them both." This was also my first reaction! Our agency just got back from visiting the orphanage that Anna is in. They sent us current photos of their visit with her. When we were viewing the photos we didn't notice that Anna was looking at the photo album we sent with our agency. We were seeing her smiling from ear to ear when she saw us for the first time. They were explaining to her that this was her "Mama" and "Baba" from America. This was really very emotional for us to realize that this precious child was receiving the news that she now has a family. This is something that I never had to worry about when I was a child. After all, don't all children have families?

Anna viewing our photo album

Please see the photo above of Anna sitting with Aleda, from our adoption agency, and the orphanage director. They are telling her about us, her family, and showing her pictures of us and our home. She has to wait about six months before we will be able to bring her home. How must she be feeling?

Anna's reaction to finding out she has a family

It is good to see Anna smiling from ear to ear after viewing our photo album. 


I had mentioned that agencies don't usually recommend adopting two at one time. We feel very fortunate to have this opportunity and look forward to "gotcha day" twice. Why did we want two? We live out in the country where there isn't going to be another child to play with or talk to. These two girls will learn English together and will be able to help each other along the way. We look forward to the challenge and the rewards of watching them grow. A few weeks ago I had asked a young girl who was adopted from China, light heartedly, what is the best thing about coming to America. She told me that the best thing was having loving parents who care about you. Having parents and not being an orphan any more. Parents who will give you everything you need. I still can't tell anyone this without crying. It just brings home how much these children want a family and to feel safe and loved.


Phil and I had hit a snag while waiting for approval from USCIS (United States Citizens and Immigration Services). We sent in our I-800a and we received an RFE which meant we needed to have our homestudy amended because of mistakes left out by our HS agency. It took them seven months to get to the point where we could send off for our I-800a. How frustration to have to amend it now. While we are waiting for the amendment to be made, we felt like our Adoption Agency was not working with our interest at heart. We decided to hire another agency. This was the best time to do this since the HS was being amended, we would just have them amend the Adoption Agency name at this time. This was the best decision we made to date. We hired Madison Adoption Associates (MAA). They have been so good to us. They went to bat for us immediately to make sure that the homestudy had all the corrections made before it was sent back to USCIS. They worked over the weekend, after hours, and kept us up to date. What a breath of fresh air. We have Aleda, Diana, Margaret, and Kerry from MAA to thank for all their hard work. It didn't stop there. The minute the shared list came out, Diana went through the list of children to match us with the most beautiful girls we have ever seen! We put in a Letter of Intent for each of them and then waited for China to pre-approve us for adoption. It was two weeks before we received approval.

Mia at age 5

Anna at age 6

Is it us or do they look like sisters to you?

We have earlier photos of both girls thanks to yahoo groups from the girls orphanages. Once we posted PA for both girls, we received emails from other parents who had brought home their children a few years earlier. Thanks to Benqin best friend, Zoe Grace's mom, we have received pictures of her when she was 5 years old. What a treasure these photos will be for both of them. Most of the children won't have photos of themselves as infants or as toddlers. I just hope we can find some for both girls.