Butterfly

Whenever we see a butterfly, we always think of our Emma Grace. I am not really sure how it started. I guess I read some adoption blogs and stories where people saw butterflies and they knew they had a child waiting for them. Well, when we started seeing butterflies more frequently, I said to my boys "this means that Emma Grace is coming soon!" Well, wouldn't you know we got our referral a few days later. It seems that we have always seen butterflies at important points through this adoption process. While swimming this summer, I actually had a butterfly land on my arm and just sit there. So, now we search out these butterflies and my older boys get SO EXCITED and start screaming "Emma Grace is coming, Emma Grace is coming!" Her room will have butterflies in it and when I see a shirt with a butterfly on it, I immediately think of her (and have to really hold myself back from buying it). Today, our family went to the fair and of course, our little butterfly followed us.

"The caterpillar thought its life was over.... until it became a butterfly."

A "sprinkle" for Emma Grace

Rick's sisters (Christa, Colleen and Julie) wanted to do a shower for Emma Grace. It was actually a "sprinkle" since this is our 4th kid and we have so much baby stuff already. Although it was called a sprinkle, we were certainly showered with many, many things for our girl. Let's just say she will be one well-dressed little girl! Here are some pictures from the big day.

This adorable blanket has her name on it. It is in her bed waiting for her!

A new backpack... this also has her name on it. It was full of "girl" themed books. (don't have too many girly things in this house!)

yippee for dresses!

Emma Grace, you are loved. This was all for you!

A butterfly cake for our girl

More days...

Make that 20 sick days! I certainly have enough to cover my leave now and I am so happy and thankful for the teachers in my school- they are the best!!!!!

Thankful hearts!

I get a little emotional when I think about all the people that have helped in one way or another with our adoption. There have been many!

We started out fundraising hair bows and tutus- working craft shows, selling online and the response was great! We made several thousand dollars to go towards our adoption. We were overwhelmed at the amount of people that supported our fundraising efforts.

Then, we applied for a grant from Lifesong for Orphans. Actually, we started out by applying for an interest free loan. We didn't feel comfortable asking people for donations to do the matching grant and we decided to take on the financial burden ourselves. BUT, Lifesong for Orphans approved us for the matching grant, so we thought about it and decided to give it a try. We were overwhelmed with the amount of people who donated on our behalf. Big and small donations were made, and we had $4,400 of donated money, and Lifesong matched $4,000 of that. So, we had $8,400 given to us for our adoption.

We had Dr. Staat review our daughter's medical file for us on a weekend when we thought we would not be able to find anyone. Not only did we find someone, we found one of the BEST International Adoption doctors in the area. And she was kind enough to not charge us the weekend fee. I emailed her at midnight on a Friday and I had a response from her first thing in the morning Saturday, what are the chances?

We have been in contact with various people at the Philip Hayden Foundation who have given us PRICELESS information about our daughter... we have been spoiled with so many pictures of our daughter and even the opportunity to give our opinion about her lip surgery. We asked them to hold off on her surgery... and they listened!

And today is yet another example of how this adoption has been a community effort. I decided to go back to work this year. There are many reasons why I decided to go back to work and I still feel like it was the best decision for our family for many different reasons. I was relieved that my principal was so supportive about my maternity leave (even though I have taken the last 3 years off!) I had every intention of taking my time unpaid and I went into this year fully expecting to do so. But last week I found out that if I take more than 5 consecutive days unpaid, I lose my year of teaching. So, I would lose this year of teaching AND I would be taking many days unpaid. I was so upset! So, I went to the teachers in my building and asked for help. I asked people if they could donate a sick day to me. I am not sure how many I will need (it depends on when we leave and the holidays) but it doesn't matter now! I know that I will have enough!!! The teachers I work with donated a total of 15 SICK DAYS so that I can go on my maternity leave and not be penalized my year of teaching! I am overwhelmed!!!!

Today was just more confirmation that GOD wants Emma Grace to come home. He has continued to provide for us and put people in our path at the right time. Emma Grace, you are loved.

NVC letter and Visas

Today we received the much anticipated NVC letter. Our papers will be presented to the Consulate on Thursday, August 19. So we should have our Article 5 on September 2.... and then it is the wait for travel approval.

On Saturday we received our travel visas. All of our responsibilities have been taken care of- everything is out of our control at this point.

It is crazy to think that in 2 months we could be on our way to China to bring home our daughter. I can't wait!

The rest of her pictures...and one of MinLi

More Pictures!

Sara sent us some more pictures of our Emma Grace! Rick and I are friends with her on Facebook now, so she takes pictures and uploads them to Facebook and we are able to see everything that way. How it made my heart happy to see one of her photo albums labeled "This is for Emma Grace's forever family" Woohoo! We are really blessed to have our Emma in such an amazing place. For those that don't know, Sara works at PHF and obviously has a HUGE heart for these children. She is always taking pictures and sending them to sponsor families or forever families. I really think she is our angel, connecting us to Emma when we are half a world away from each other!

Here is our precious little girl- she must be learning to sit now!!!! I am hoping to witness the first steps :) I asked our coordinator about travel and she seems to think that we will be more towards the end of October. There is a trade show in Guangzhou the last part of October (this is the final part of our trip), so we have to avoid GZ at that time. So, we will probably leave the last part of October and head to her province and then finish up in GZ the first week of November. Only time will tell!

Is it just me, or does she seem to be showing a little bit of attitude? I think she might be posing. And she is sitting!!!!

She is so sweet. I hope her hair stays short so I can use some headbands in her hair.

I think she is so beautiful! She must be learning to sit, because her nanny is holding on to her. I can't wait to get my hands on this girl!!!!

Emma's Birthday Pictures

Emma Grace turned one on July 26. We sent her a package but it did not make it to PHF in time :( Hopefully it has made it there by now and she is enjoying her new toys! We celebrated at our house by singing happy birthday and eating cake. We will certainly make up for this birthday on her second birthday. We are relieved that she is in a place that values her life and without a doubt celebrated the day she was born.

It is hard to not think about her birth parents on a day like her birthday. Although we are unaware of their circumstance, we know that sacrificing a child is never an easy decision. We will forever be thankful for them and for choosing LIFE for our Emma Grace.

So close, yet so far!

I talked to our coordinator today and she received the package I mailed to her over the weekend. This is called our DS230. She is going to mail this to the staff in Beijing on Thursday and it should be to them by Monday or Tuesday. Our papers can't be submitted until the NVC letter comes. Thankfully, when I get it, I can just scan and email it to our coordinator, who will then forward it on to the staff in Beijing. Isn't technology wonderful? It saves so much time! Assuming we get our NVC letter by NEXT Wed. (which we should...) then our papers will be presented to the Consulate on Thursday, August 19.

Exactly 2 weeks later, our Article 5 will be ready. Our signed Letter of Acceptance and our Article 5 will then be submitted to the CCAA. Within 3 weeks after that, we should have travel approval.... and we should be leaving on a plane 2 weeks after that. SOOOOO.... I know you all can do math, but we are guessing that we will be leaving about 7 weeks from August 19, which would put us in the first full week of October. I can't believe that it is so close... but I feel like it is still so far. I know these next few weeks are going to fly by.

I800 approval!

Today we got our I800 approval, which is the petition to classify an adoptee as an immediate relative. Now we are waiting on our NVC (National Visa Center) letter which will come in just a few days. Once we get that, we will have our papers ready to mail to China (should be next week). Then we sit and wait for travel approval.....

Liu Min Li

This adorable little boy has quite a connection to our Emma Grace. They are both from Fuzhou City in the Fujian Province. He is a few months older than her. They lived together in the orphanage and were both taken to the same hospital for heart surgery. They were both discharged to the Philip Hayden Foundation where they have lived together ever since. So, they have basically lived together their entire lives. I have been thinking about this little boy a lot and every time a new list of children comes out, I check for his file. I haven't been able to find him, so I finally asked PHF about him. They said his orphanage is just now processing his paper work, so hopefully he will be going on the list later this year or early next year. We are praying that MinLi finds his forever family, and that we are able to stay connected with him and his family. Our children have a special connection.