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.

Chinatown (Chicago)

After our fingerprint appointment in Chicago we decided to take this opportunity to visit Chinatown in Chicago. We were pleasantly surprised to experience the sights, sounds, smells, people and culture of China right here in the U.S. We visited many shops including a Christian book store. We purchased a bible with both Chinese and English and a beautiful calendar that had scripture readings for each month that was also in both Chinese and English. What a surprise to see a Christian school for children and a Catholic Church with foo dogs on each side of the entrance. We had lunch at the restaurant next door that featured Cantonese cuisine. We also picked up a moon cake die and rice bowls with matching spoons. We can't wait to go back!

Nine Dragon Wall

There are three existing ancient Nine Dragon Walls in China. They are located in Datong, Shanxi Province and Beijing. The Nine Dragon Walls all originated from Screen Walls in ancient Chinese architecture. Ancient Chinese believed 9 to be the most prestigious number and dragon the soul of all things of creation. The Chinese people consider Dragon the soul of all things of creation. The nine bustling dragons vividly portray the self-striving character of the Chinese all over the world.

Pui Tak Center

This is the Pui Tak Center with several little shops. It was started by the Chinese Christian Union Church. It currently is a Chinese school with 800 students. The architecture of this building has many features found in China. It is truly a spectacular sight to see.

We went in January and the temperature was an unbelievable 60 degrees F. 

This visit helped us to realize that this adoption is a reality. That our dream of bringing home a child is coming true!

Christmas 2011

It was so good to have almost everyone home for the holidays. We enjoy all of our children and grandchildren. This year we welcomed three granddaughters, one was born to Jamie and Ed in February, 2011. They named her Jordyn Marie. One was born in October to Kyle and Michelle. They named her Aria Rose. Cory and Sara had a daughter in December. They named her Paislee Rene. The picture below and  on the left is Jordyn who just turned one. The picture on the right is Kyle and Aria!