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.

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.

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!

 

Introducing our daughter!

We are pleased to announce Finnley Grace Gaines! We will also keep her Chinese name as her second middle name but for privacy purposes, we are unable to share.

The new photos of her took our breath away! We are so happy to see her growing and thriving. She said she really wants a mama and baba and cannot wait for us to get there. We are so thankful to the McG family for visiting her and telling her about us. We are thankful to the SWI and caregivers for taking good care of her and we are thankful for the Half The Sky Foundation for their nurturing child development programs that she has benefited from.

Puzzle Fundraiser

We’ve been brainstorming to think of a way to raise funds AND honor our donors* and we think this puzzle fundraiser is just the thing.

Here’s how it works:
For $8, a person/family sponsors one piece of the 300 piece puzzle shown. We will write the name of the person/family on the back of each piece(s) purchased. After the puzzle is completed, we will frame the puzzle between two pieces of glass and hang it in our Finnley’s room. This will be a wonderful keepsake for her to see all of the people who were part of bringing her home. Just imagine her seeing ALL of those who wanted to help her come home!

You can purchase a puzzle piece(s) or donate to our adoption by:

• Click on the Donate button on the right sidebar and pay securely through PayPal
• Write a check or donate cash and hand deliver to myself or Steve (Checks can be made payable to us)
• Mail a check to us (email me at terri@thinkcausality.com for our address)
• For a tax deduction, donate at https://adopttogether.org/thegaines

Please help us spread the word about this fundraiser by sharing it on Facebook, email, Twitter, or your blog! With 300 pieces the puzzle has the potential to raise $2,400 towards our adoption expenses.

*If you have already donated to our adoption fund we will most definitely reserve pieces in your name. Please email me or comment below with the names for your piece(s).

How do you say “Duh!” in Chinese?

We were informed by our agency that our dossier was logged in with the China Center for Children’s Welfare and Adoption (CCCWA) in Beijing on 2/25/2013. This means our paperwork is now in line for processing. The first step is translation where someone will translate our documents into Chinese. After that, our dossier is considered “in process”. Since we’ve already been matched with a child we just wait for them to review our paperwork and issue our Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) also sometimes called the LOA (Letter of Approval). This letter will tell us we are approved to adopt and will ask us to respond and confirm that we do still wish to adopt our girl. I wonder if “Duh” translates into Chinese?

The average time from LID to LSC is 50 – 60 days, some as quickly as 11 days and some beyond 90. We certainly hope we’re on the shorter side of average! Along average timelines we would expect to travel in July so please pray for a little expedience so we can get her here earlier in the summer and before her 8th birthday.