With loving care, a package for our daughter

Care package to introduce us to XX

We are very fortunate that a family is traveling to adopt one of XX’s friends from the same orphanage. They leave on Saturday to meet her Monday and generously offered to deliver a care package for XX. We’ve included a labeled photo album, a letter to her, a letter to the nannies, a disposable camera (in hopes she will take some photos of her friends and surroundings) and some candy to share with the other children.

As I mentioned before, this is a small orphanage with less than 25 children, toddler to teens, they are apparently a close knit group. A couple have already been adopted and several have families in various phases of the process. Here they are from last November, when our coordinator made a visit to the orphanage. XX is in the middle row, fourth from the left. The girl being adopted next week is also in the middle row, third from the right.

Panzhihua SWI

There is a gal in the UK who does translations for adoptive families https://www.facebook.com/GivingWords. She donates her proceeds to Little Flower a nonprofit that provides special care to abandoned orphans in China. She translated the letter to XX and to her caregivers and also translated labels for the photos in the album we sent.

We are looking forward to approval from China in the next few weeks and can’t wait to share more information about XX. We use the initials XX because those are the actual initials of her Chinese name, which we will keep as a middle name, just like we did with Finnley.

Summer of fun and now back to school!

It was the summer of fun, and as far as Finnley was concerned it was the summer of Finn. She loved every minute of summertime family activities!

Steve and I did everything we could to work our schedules to allow the maximum time possible for us to spend time with the kiddos. We had a fun beach weekend on the Texas coast, went swimming, had fun times with friends, had a weekly Friday Movie Night and we looked for free/low cost activities to explore the city. The boys did some sports camps, Apple Camp and VBS. We worked on a few lessons to keep them fresh!

They loved Rockport, it was the first time for all of them!

Finnley who came home deathly afraid of water more than 6″ deep learned to stand in the shallow end, put her head under water, go under water, jump in and finally, she started learning to paddle without flotation.

We had good times with friends…

new friends…

and old friends…

Summer went by so fast and then it was time to head back to school. Look at the difference a year has made for all of them!

One less – Leo has a family!

We are so thrilled to hear that a family has decided to adopt handsome little Leo, one of Finnley’s friends left behind! You may remember him from here. The family adopting Leo sent a lovely note to let us know…

“Your video was instrumental in this happening and we thank Jesus everyday that he lead me to your blog! We feel as though he’s been waiting for us all along and we thank you so much for taking the time to post. Hopefully everything goes well and we get approved and can move things along quickly to bring him home.”

That family is also blogging their adoption story and you’re welcome to see it unfold: http://curjo.wordpress.com

Just like we found Finnley through the advocacy efforts of another family who had met her on their adoption trip, Leo will now have a family, too. What a blessing!

 

 

Six amazing weeks!

It’s been exactly six weeks since we arrived home from China and things have been good! Finn is amazing. Her ability to roll with things, giggle and be joyous impresses us to no end. To have been transplanted into a completely different culture, with different looking people, language, food and habits—EVERYTHING—and be so bubbly and comfortable with us is a blessing. Here she is lounging in our home office with Milo.

Don’t get me wrong, there have been tears, tantrums and pouting. Bedtime is a challenge for her and that’s pretty common for children who have lived in an institutional setting used to bunking with several kids and an ayi. We hope that over time, she will realize that day or night, she is part of our family and we will love and keep her safe. In the meantime, if you see Steve and I out and about with toothpicks prying our eyelids open, you’ll know why!

The “new sibling smell” has worn off (as Steve put it) and the kiddos act like they’ve been brothers and sisters forever. They can argue and nitpick one moment and giggle and share the next. They really love each other and have learned to hug and say “I’m sorry” when conflicts happen.

She’s also handled the many appointments and errands patiently and cheerfully. We’ve had doctors visits, immunizations, lab work, x-rays as well as social security and school registration. She begins school as a 2nd grader next week right behind Liam in 3rd and Aidan in 4th. We don’t know what she will think of school. She spent the last several years living in a self-contained environment in the SWI that had sleeping quarters, small classrooms, a playroom, kitchen / bath and staff offices all on one floor. The elementary school is huge with two floors, dozens of classroom, two gyms and two playgrounds. We’re trying to get help and accommodations in place to help her transition smoothly and learn more English.

We’ve learned she is extremely farsighted and have had her fitted for glasses. The eye doctor says they will make a huge difference for her and she’ll be able to see things she’s probably never even noticed before (thank you JCPenney’s $25 kids glasses!)

Speaking of learning, she is picking up so much! We’ve been working with her using flash cards, videos and simply spending time slowly introducing new concepts to her. She can count to 15, is learning colors and shapes, manners, body parts and is starting on ABCs.

Slowly, we’ve made introductions with family members and friends and she’s handled it so well. She loves her family and has gotten along well with our friends’ kids. She loves it when people visit and she gets to dress up!

We’re so blessed to have her, each other and our family and friends!

Friends left behind – meet June.

Last summer we first heard about Finnley on a the blog of a family who had adopted their daughter from the Changsha #1 SWI in the spring of 2012. They took photos and videos of some of the harder to place children in hopes of advocating for them so they, too, would have families come to adopt them.

When we took Finnley back to visit the SWI during our trip, we asked if we, too, could take photos and video to share when we returned home in hopes of helping them get placed with families.

The first child we met happens to be our daughter’s best friend. They’ve been together since they were babies and are like sisters. She is currently with the agency “Lifeline” and is named “June”. She is 6 years old and very much wants a family to come bring her home.

I cannot share her Chinese name or date of birth online but I am happy to share more details offline.

8 Simple Rules for Meeting our Daughter

We can’t wait for everyone to meet Finnley! Just like when we first came home with the boys we plan to have small, individual meetings and, hopefully in several weeks, have a group gathering.

While we believe Finnley received very good care at her SWI and that she had some favorite nannies, she doesn’t truly know what it means to have one mommy and one daddy. There are some guidelines that adoptive families follow during the first few weeks to months to help foster a true parent child bond.

1. Keeping her world small – this means that at first we will be spending more time at home interacting as a family and then start introducing our extended family and friends in small and quiet settings.

2. All good things come from mommy and daddy – this means that we provide all food and drinks to Finnley during this adjustment period. All that means for visitors (or hosts if we’re in your home) is that if she asks for something just point her to Mom and Dad so we can take care of her needs.

3. Affection – picking up, carrying, lap sitting and long snuggles on the couch are for mommy and daddy but you are more than welcome to hug her, shake her hand and give kisses on the cheek.

4. Overstimulation – so many things are new for Finnley and sometimes it’s hard to tell when things are getting to be too much for her–too much noise, too many people, too much activity. She can go from happy and giggly to upset or even “shut down” very quickly. Please don’t take it personally if we have to take a break from an activity or need to suddenly leave a gathering.

And, see, they’re so simple, there are only 4!

Again we are so grateful for the love and support of our family and friends. You all made this possible and we know you are anxious to meet her. We appreciate you all so much!

Puzzle fundraiser success!!

The puzzle is complete! All 300 pieces have been sponsored and we’re ready to frame it. When we started the puzzle we really had no idea if it would be successful. We have been so amazed at the generosity of family, friends and people we have never met who believe in what we are doing and want to support our efforts to get Finnley home.

Not only did we fulfill the goal of the puzzle, donations came in above and beyond as you can see from our thermometer on the right. We are so very grateful!

We are also so very close! We’ll be posting our travel adventures here soon.

We finally got travel approval!

We got word from our agency today that our TA (travel approval) has been received. This means they can make our consulate appointment and we can book travel. After the long wait I feel ill prepared with what feels like a mental “to do” list of a zillion items left to be done!

We are so grateful for the love and support of our friends. Our puzzle is almost complete and in addition to the puzzle, we’ve received so much support in other ways that is making a huge difference for us. We want to be sure and thank:

• Patti and Jolie for going through Jolie’s closet and providing us some great clothes for Finnley in what seems like a range of 4 different sizes — perfect seeing we really don’t know for sure what size she wears!
• April and her kiddos for going through their toys and providing an Xterra full of goodies.
• Nancy for this Mulan print she has had since college and the Mulan doll to go with, arrive right when we were setting up her room.
• Melanie and her friend Rayleen who have provided us great clothes for Finnley AND some needed items for the boys so we have less to worry about.

It’s amazing how things have just come together and all at the right time!

She got the care package! We got new photos!

We woke up this morning to an email with pictures of Finnley getting her care package and having her party!

Dear Terri:
Attached are pictures of Finnley’s party!!
Finnley is very happy to receive your package, especially your family album and your cake, she thinks that she likes you guys, like her new brothers, she looks forward to meeting you!!
Have a wonderful day, love, Ann

She even has the photo album open to the “Braaaiiiiins!” photo and the one where we were doing the peace sign back at her, LOL!

There is something so awesome about seeing her looking at pictures of us. After all this time of us seeing and learning about her, she gets to have a glimpse of us, too.

Coming to America!

We heard from USCIS that our i800 is approved to adopt Finnley. The LOA/LSC was China’s approval and the i800 is the U.S. approval. Each time I post, there are fewer and fewer steps. USCIS will 2 day mail our approval to the National Visa Center who will email us a pdf confirming it has been forwarded to the Consulate in Guangzhou, I email that pdf to our agency who emails it to their contact in China who hand delivers it to the consulate with Finnley’s visa application. The consulate will issue an Article 5 and the agency rep will pick this up and deliver it to CCCWA with our signed LOA and we wait for TA (travel approval). Once we get that precious TA we can book flights and go! We’re still not sure if it will be June or July – there is still hope for late June!

As of the end of April we had 80 out of 300 puzzle pieces sponsored – AMAZING!!! We’ve been able to build the entire frame of the puzzle and start working inwards.

80 down and 220 to go!! We are so grateful!

We are truly blessed and amazed at the support we’ve received from family, friends and even people we don’t know who have shared our story and contributed in some way – donations, purchases through our Amazon link, collecting clothes, toys and books and more to help us. Thank you to everyone!