Counting Down the Days

How many days to follow?

We are waiting for our travel approval to be sent from China.
When that happens, we can request a consulate appointment.
From the confirmed date of our consulate appointment,
we will count back two weeks and that will be our departure date.

There is still so much to do that I get overwhelmed by thinking about it all.
I'm trying to break it up into manageable groups.

This week
we will mail our application for Entry Visas into China
and read the stack of important papers from our agency
and begin to put together the notebook of important documents that
will travel with us.

For fun
and a reward after paperwork,
I'm collecting identical items to put in backpacks for the girls.
Here is my plan:
We have two Dora the Explorer backpacks
(the backpacks I posted a picture of earlier are too big)
Cami's backpack will be initially packed with travel toys,
paper, pencils, crayons, small animals, etc.

Delilah's backpack will travel empty, in the suitcase.
On the day we meet Delilah,
I will pack both the backpacks with new items
Cami hasn't see before.
We will take these backpacks with us
and Cami's job will be to give one of them to her new sister!
They will be filled with identical toys.....
light up ball, sunglasses, candy, animal crackers, etc

Hope this is a good ice-breaker and that is helps
Cami to feel connected to Delilah,
and Delilah to all of us.

LOA on Day 146

It finally happened!
After 146 days
Our LOA came!!!!!!

This document from China,
which is more correctly called
"Letter of Seeking Confirmation"
asks for our signature
on a statement
declaring
that after all this time and effort
we do indeed
still want to adopt
Our Sweet Delilah.

The LOA has been
signed, sealed,
and delivered
back.

It should be winging it's way
back to China
today.

And now,
again we wait,
one last time,
for TA,
which means Travel Approval.

So I still can't say
when we will travel.
But what I can say,
is that in the eyes of China,
Delilah belongs to us,
officially and forever more.
And we remain
honored and thankful
for the trust
extended to us.

As I have written, the time we have been waiting for our Letter of Acceptance from China has grown long and we are weary of waiting. I have had many emotional responses to the seeming unfairness of our long wait and I've even stooped so low as to wonder if this delay will continue forever and that Delilah was just a dream that will never be realized in our family.

Ah, me of little faith! Let me tell you a story, weave a tale of impossibilities, that has convinced me that God laughs when we start to think WE are in charge.

Just after Christmas I went shopping at the winter sale at Old Navy. A friend of mine in Florida was planning to go on a mission trip to China. She has started a Shoe Mission for children in orphanages who often do not have properly fitting shoes, or even shoes at all.

I purchased some shoes and socks to send her, along with a few items of clothing. One item specifically stayed in my memory because it was so cute that I bought one to send to China an done to keep for Cami to wear.

This was a yellow and gray fleece lined long top with a hood. I bought a 2T and and 4T, meaning to keep the 4T for Cami. I "accidentally" sent the larger top off to my friend and so the one I had for Cami was really too small.

As my friend made her final preparations for her trip, I was interested that she would be visiting the China Care office in Beijing. China Care is the organization that provided funds for Delilah's surgery last year. They work in Inner Mongolia, but their main office is in Beijing. There is at least 700 miles between there offices and they care for hundreds of children, if not thousands.

My friend has been home less than two weeks now. As my agency has continued to unravel the puzzle of our long wait for our LOA, they requested an health update and the orphanage sent some photos for me.

When I opened the photos I was amazed that Delilah was wearing a shirt like Cami had in her closet. There aren't any Old Navy stores in China. Mostly I was just thrilled as always to see her shining happy face.

But something tugged at my memory. I kept going back in my mind to try and remember when and where I had sent the matching shirt I had bought.(During the winter I sent several care packages to organizations in China) When I remembered that I had mailed it to Beth, I emailed her and asked if she could possibly remember if this shirt had been donated to China Care. (She had visited several orphanages and organizations on her trip).

I sent her the picture and she wrote me back to tell me that she was certain that shirt had been left at China Care because the shiny new shoes Delilah was wearing were sent to her by a woman in Iowa and they were in the same bundle of donations.

So I bought a shirt in NC, sent it to a friend in FL, who flew to China and dropped it off at a charity,nearly 700 miles from where Delilah lives and the next week I receive a photo of my own daughter and she is wearing the shirt!!!!!

This is one of those things that I have to keep thinking about because it's almost more than my brain can accept. It's much to big to be a coincidence. I call these God Winks. What do you call it?

To Learn More about Beth's Shoe Mission in China, visit Destiny's House by clicking on the name.

Photos from a Friend

I received new pictures of Delilah from an unnamed source this week.
I am so excited to meet this little girl and
I can't wait to kiss those soft cheeks.
We are going to have so much fun!

Hi/Lo Thursday

This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and get your link on their site.

This is my first time participating in Hi-Lo Thursday. The idea is to get people sharing the best and the worst of their weeks as we celebrate and comfort one another.

My low for this Thursday is that we are still waiting on our Letter of Acceptance to arrive. For 135 days our adoption of Delilah has been at a stand still that we can do nothing about. I don't know what happen with our paperwork. But such a long wait is the exception, not the rule right now. So we continue to wait. And we hope we will be able to travel at the end of May if there isn't to much longer of a delay.

The High news to report for this Thursday is that Mark and Kegan celebrated their birthdays this week. We are all healthy and happy, and our hearts are prepared to bring home a new sister and daughter.

February Family Donation

For the month of February, we were able to send a donation of $40 to Annabelle's Wish . I feel an affinity to this organization because it was started by a family following the adoption of their daughter. I think about the children left behind in China everyday. So many of them will not have a chance for a family of their own. I am constantly looking for ways to help eliminate the suffering of children who are hungry or cold, or who need medical care.

Annabelle's Wish has several different programs and a variety of opportunities for offering care to the children in China. You can sponsor a child in foster care. For just $25 a month, a child will be given housing, clothing, education and medical care.

Other specific ways you can help are to sponsor a baby for cleft lip repair surgery. There are educational sponsorships for orphan children who can have a chance at a future if they learn a skill or trade before leaving the orphanage.

The newest program at Annabelle's Wish is providing clean drinking water for the orphanage. For only $10, a child can have clean water to drink for an entire year!

Let this be my challenge to you! If you are reading this post and feel your heart is heavy when you think of the children waiting in China, please go right now and donate $10 for clean drinking water! I can't think of anything more amazing that can be done for $10!

www.annabelleswish.info
www.annabelleswish.blogspot.com

Annabelle's Wish, Inc
PO Box 210003
Nashville TN 37221

Of course this is a 501c3 organization and your donation is tax deductible.

I hope you will visit the website, take a look around, and find a way you think you can help.

And please, if you donate $10 for clean water, or anything else....leave me a COMMENT and let me know!!!! I'd love to hear from you.

Passing the Time

Along with many other waiting families, we were hoping to receive word of the arrival of our Letter of Seeking Confirmation (LOSC aka LOA) before the Chinese Spring Festival or New Year of the Ox celebrations began because
the Chinese Adoption government office (CCAA) closes for a week or two during this time.

We watched. We waited. But no news came. Now I suddenly find that soon the CCAA will be back at work and we can begin again waiting for that magical letter to arrive, and it should be soon for us. You can view our counter in the right hand column to see how many days we've been waiting since our dossier was logged.

Meanwhile, I have found a unique way to pass the time and to actually enter into a time warp so as to bypass the disappointment of not receiving our LOA before CNY. I've been quite under the weather with fever and infection. Not feeling up to much at all. After trying several medications, I finally ended up in the hospital and they had some tricks up their sleeves, which finally have me on the way to recovery.

Poof! A couple weeks have passed. What is this waiting people complain about! LOL! The same thing happened to me during our wait for Cami. It must be my "labor". A friend who was adopting at the same time commented that I never seemed to be bothered by the wait. I confessed that being sick has a way of putting me into survival mode and time moves differently.

I'm sure someone out there understands what I'm talking about. Today I'm happy to be healthy and looking forward, into the days of Delilah dancing into our home. Good health is such a gift and I will spend my life helping it be the birthright of as many children as possible. I hate to think of anyone suffering ongoing pain and sickness if there is something that can be done to help them. I know there are limits to how many children I can help by finding funding for surgery or nutritional formula, but I will do as much as I can, and for someone, I hope, it will make a difference.

On What I'm Doing Here......

Joseph Campbell wrote, in "The Power of Myth", the following:

I even have a superstition that has grown on me
as the result of invisible hands
coming all the time..

Namely, that if you follow your bliss
you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while,
waiting for you.

And the life that you ought to be living,
is the one you ARE living.

When you can see that,
you begin to meet people
who are in the field of your bliss,
and they open the doors to you.

I say, Follow Your Bliss
and don't be afraid,
and doors will open
where you didn't know they were going to be!
----- joseph campbell

The Backpacks Came!

I ordered matching backpacks from
Hanna Andersson
for Cami and Delilah to have in China.
They turned out to be even nicer than I imagined.
The fabric is soft and slick.
It appears to be waterproof and easy to wipe clean.
Lots of room inside too.
Cami is taking her job as big sister seriously here.
She arranged the backpacks on the floor for the photograph.
I also found these cute dotted velour hoodies
at Hanna Andersson.
You can see from the sizes that I'm still counting on
Delilah being just a wee bit smaller than Cami.

Donation January ~ Altrusa

This month's collection of coins and change yielded $40. It was a good month. I think with the holiday shopping being done, there was more change laying around my house. My husband has gotten a good habit going of bringing his change from work straight to the collection box.

I decided to send the money to Dr. Peggy Gurrad and Altrusa Foundation. This group works with orphanages in Jiangxi and that is the province Cami is from.

Here is a snippet from their website. I'm really interested in learning more about the Hugging Grannies. We asked that our donation be used for formula, or whatever need was the most pressing.

You can read more at www.altrusa.ws

"Currently, efforts are being focused on 24 orphanages in the Jiangxi province. Altrusa contributors are sponsoring 180 school tuitions for orphans, 279 children in foster care. We've brought our staff of Hugging Grannies up to a total of 53, to provide additional nurturing care for infants and pre-school activities for the children who remain in the orphanages.

Another major focus of our organization is to bring life-saving surgeries, physical rehabilitation equipment, badly needed medical aid, vitamins, warm clothes, bedding, equipment, toys and learning materials to the children in these orphanages."

Joy and Sweetness

Red Thread China Care Package

The day after Christmas, I began to plan a care package for Delilah. I contacted my friend Ann, at Red Thread China (www.redthreadchina.com)and asked if she could put together a pajama package for Delilah. (My family will laugh because I practically live in pajamas! What else would I send? LOL)

Ann works quickly and is great about communicating every step of the way. She called the orphanage and asked for updated size information. As it turns out, Delilah might not be the "little" sister! She is almost as big as Cami, and Cami a healthy girl!

As a result of the phone call, Ann received new pictures of Delilah to share with me. I was so excited. I really wasn't expecting such a surprise.

The package I ordered from Ann at Red Thread China was very reasonably priced. It included, as you can see below, an adorable pair of pajamas, a warm blanket, a little doll, candy for the foster family, a disposable camera, a photo album with pictures of us labeled in Chinese, and a translated letter. All this, along with the shopping, packing and shipping.

Ann is an angel! I hope to meet her when we are in China this time.

Soon We'll Be Found...Out

Christmas Eve
My Parents House
Luckily, Cami had so much Christmas on her mind,
she had not thought to mention
her sister.
Waiting still in China.

The holiday passed without our secret
being told,
but we were not alone.
It is in the unexplainable that sometimes
we find the most important truth.
The spirit of our missing Delilah
was with us on this day.

As I reached into the bag that would be my last present to open,
I found a beautiful and fragile ornament
wrapped in tissue.
I opened it and admired it only for a second,
before my mother exclaimed,
"What are you doing with that"?
"Why do you have that ornament"?

Quickly my brother caught on and pointed out
that I was holding a "New Baby" ornament.
He joked, "Well, do you have something you aren't telling us"?
"Is there a baby in your future"?


I was confused,
for a few reasons.
Because I actually collect this particular type of ornament,
as does my mother apparently.
And because
yes,
there is a new child in our future.

But the ornament was not for me.
It was from my mother's tree
and it had "accidentally" fallen off the tree
and into my gift bag.
And now I was across the room holding it in my hand.
She did not intend for it to be part of my gift.
Coincidence?
Miracle?
God Winking?

A beautiful moment for us to remember
the coming of Delilah.
Seriously....
what are the chances?

Happy Holidays

What Can You Do?

There are many great organizations helping children in China! I have spent hours viewing websites and crying through videos on YouTube. I always want to help in some way, usually in some way much bigger than I have the finances for.

So I developed a plan. My idea actually came from Moving Mountains and I want to be sure they get the credit they deserve. At this website, they had a form to print that I wrapped around an empty breadcrumbs container. Of course any container will do. Sometimes decorating it, or letting your children decorate it can be inspiring.

Into the container goes all my loose change! The coins I find in pockets before pants go into the washing machine, and the coins that I miss and I find in the dryer. Also, the loose change from my husband's pocket at the end of the day. I also try to put some paper money in too when I get change for a larger bill.

Then...... about every two weeks I take the container to my grocery store because it has one of the CoinStar coin counter machines. Immediately after I find out how much money I have saved, I go to Customer Service and ask for a money order. Then I put it in the mail to my "Charity of the Month". (any leftover money goes back in the container)

What I think I'll do on my blog is to let my readers know a little about the different groups I'm sending gifts to and I would love to hear if any of you think this is a good idea and decide to do it yourself.

I have a growing stack of groups I can't wait to collect money for! My container is filling up quickly. I think I'll be ready to make another donation right after Christmas.

My first donation went to Moving Mountains . I'm not able to completely sponsor a student for a school year yet, but maybe my donation will help a girl buy books or paper she needs.

Here is a snippet from their website:

"What if you could promote gender equality in China? What if you could help alleviate poverty for generations to come? What if you could take a female honor student off her farm or out of a factory and put her back in school? Not just any school, but the best high school in her county. What if that girl became your pen pal - a role model for your children, writing about the importance of education and sharing stories about daily life in China?

Moving Mountains provides scholarships to exceptionally bright young women in rural China. These girls understand the importance of education. Despite challenging circumstances, they have proven themselves with top scores on the rigorous entrance exams and they have been accepted into the best high school in their county. They’ve done the work and they have what it takes to succeed, but there is one last hurdle:

Their average family income is $266 a year.

The cost of high school tuition is $300 a year*.

To these girls, the cost of tuition is a monumental obstacle.

Together, we can move mountains!

109 scholarships provided and counting!

Moving Mountains' mission is to reduce poverty and promote gender equality through education by creating an opportunity for sponsors to make a direct impact on the future of a deserving student.

www.movingmountainschina.org

So that's what I am able to do in 2009 to make a small difference in the world.

What Can You Do?

This Child

Oh, how I look forward
to unraveling the mystery of Delilah!
Will she have an quick laugh?
Does she like baby games?
Is she active or thoughtful?
She grows in my heart,
a flower not yet unfurled.
I hold her protectively already,
and I can't wait to show her our world.

Our Past and Future China

Our red thread to China began
before we could have
started to imagine
the places and people
who surround us today.

A week ago
I discovered a
hand stitched
bread cloth
my Appalachian
great-grandmother had sewn,
with a traditional Chinese woman
appliqued in bold colors.

My cultural studies in college
included a class presentation
on the Lives
of Modern Chinese Women.

Now my daughter,
a university senior
is applying for a position
through her school
to teach English
in a coastal China town.

Our red thread is not tangled,
but woven into a tapestry
of lives,
a humming hive of moments,
each one
set in motion
long before we came to know them.

How lucky I feel to be here!
How honored I am to travel
this story!

Items Collected for China Care

Last weekend my family held our annual
Christmas Party.
We have to have it early in the season
because we all have other branches
of the family tree
to swing on!

This group is fun because
not only are there mamas
and mama's mamas,
there are my cousins,
the ones I grew up playing with,
and all their children
who now play with all my children,
and we pretend to figure out how we are all
related
but we know in the end
it really doesn't matter.
We are family because we are,
and because we continue to make the choice to be.
We have opened our doors and our hearts
to more inlaws and outlaws
than I can even count.
So mostly I just count myself blessed
to be one of us.

We buy gifts for the children,
but the adults have stopped giving each other presents.
Instead we put our heads and hearts together
and give something
somewhere that it is needed.

This year I requested that we support
China Care
This wonderful organization provides
medical care,
foster care,
and more
to special needs orphaned children
in China.

Delilah has fortunately
been part of the China Care program
since she was a young infant.
They provided for her specialized surgery
and foster care.

My family and I
decided to collect items for the
China Care Medical Program.
They have a specific list
on the website of things they need
as they provide ongoing medical care
in several areas of China.

We collected:
9 packs of Preemie Pampers
8 baby bottles
7 packs of replacement bottle nipples
6 Infant Tylenol
5 Children's Motrin
4 tubes of Neosporin
3 tubes of Balmex Diaper Rash Cream
2 bottles of Poly Vi Sol Infant Vitamins
and
One Digital Thermometer with Celsius Setting


(better than a partridge in a pear tree anyday!)

How Do You Measure Success?

"To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one's self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded."
Words of Ralph Waldo Emerson