Merry Christmas

I have finally had a moment to sit and re-vamp the blog. We are so busy getting ready for Joel's first Christmas. He is having a blast. We made cookies last night in Christmas shapes then we put up the tree. We decorated it this morning and Joel thought that was the best thing. We spent a long time yesterday taking pictures for the Christmas Card. He was a real sport (most of the time) Joe got tired quicker than Joel. Hope all enjoys the slide show of the card making process. I will be trying to catch up with photos on the blog as much as possible.

Be sure to stop and remember the true meaning of Christmas and enjoy your family in all the days leading up.


Love,
Denise

As promised I am sending pics. We of course did not bring a lap top like everyone else so we will not be up-loading photos to the blog. I will be emailing though. A very sweet couple in our group snapped a few gotcha day shots and e-mailed them to us. We are completely exhausted and a little freaked out by all that is involved with a 2 year old that has no idea who we are or what we are doing! But, really okay for the most part. We are totally in Love with this kid. He just stares at us with total confusion. Gotcha day was amazing, as expected Joel completely took to Joe first. Within a couple of hours he realized I wasn't going anywhere :-). He basically let us know that he is potty trained. We were so dazed and he had a diaper on him that it never even crossed our minds. When he saw the potty that we brought he pointed to it and we looked at each other and went.... OH! one less thing to worry about. He is very stubborn but is also as sweet as he is stubborn. I can't wait for every one to meet him. The trip in it's self is a whole nother story and when we get back I will tell the unbelievably wonderful and not so wonderful things we have experienced. Joe keeps looking at me and asking "How did we get to China?" (I think he means at what point in our little lives did we make a turn that landed us here) hehe..... really strange when you sit and think of it. We have a huge list of gifts and souvenirs to buy and have only marked one off. Hopefully the next 10 days will lend time for that. We are doing some big touring on Thursday. The Shaolin Temple I know for one. Look it up. Lost of wonderful history(Kung-Fu). Saturday we fly back to Guangzhou. We will be very happy. Everyone there speaks English. I can't even get food here without my interpreter. We went to a local shopping center today very much like Walmart. It was huge three stories with crazy buggies that are made to go up escalators. Crazy experience! We have some of it on video. I best go for know. The boys are sleeping and I am very tired.

Say lots of prayers!

L~ Denise

We Made It!!!!!!

Okay, so 28 hrs later we land in Guangzhou! Yeah. The flights were good just really long. We didn't get much sleep on them. We got to sleep at about 2am here and got up at 6am to have breakfast. We hit the streets first thing. It is a crowded but beautiful city. Hope to be able to up-load photos at some point. At breakfast this morning it really hit me that in less than 48 hrs will will have our son. I just started crying. Joe is ready to explore everything here but the humidity is 2x as bad as ours (if you can believe that). Well everyone is sound asleep I am sure as I am typing. It is about 1am there. The hotel is amazing. The bathroom is phenomenal. Hard to believe that you can't even brush your teeth with the water. Not opening your mouth in the shower takes some getting used to. We are going to go for now we only have 15min on the computer. Will try to update every couple of days.

L~ Joe and Denise

So! I do apologize for the lack of blogging! I will give the run down of events really fast then I will post our Itinerary. We received our L.O.A. (letter of acceptance) then our travel approval, then we were given the most amazing shower by the most amazing people. And guess what? Only Amazing People were invited! How about that :-) Then only a few days later we received our Consulate Appointment. Which then put us into a scramble! Now here we are 36hrs away from boarding a plane to China. Some may be wondering what is with all the stuff (L.O.A, Travel Approval, Consulate Appointment etc....) Some times I get used to only talking to people who have been through this process. I find that everything has an abbreviation! Also that no one else knows what you are talking about. Don't worry, it is just the process getting us one step closer to our son and none of it matters now!!! Please say your prayers that I mentally make it through this trip seeing how I am afraid of flying! The reward is worth it. I will try to post pics during our trip. We want to take time to say Thank-you to everyone for their prayers and well wishes. Be sure to check out the links to our hotels.

We Love Y'all!




8-14 7:05am Leave Tallahassee for Guangzhou, China

8-15 11:00pm Arrive in Guangzhou (Their time 11:am 8-15 here)

8-16 Free day in Guangzhou (we will most likely sleep)

8-17 Leave Guangzhou for Zhengzhou, China capital of Henan Province (2hr plane ride)

8-18 Get up early go GET OUR SON!!!!!!!!!!!!! sign some pesky paperwork....hehe

8-19 Free day in Zhengzhou get to know our son

8-20 Wait for Joel's passport to be processed, Free time

8-21 On this day we may take a 2hr train ride to his home city of Luoyang

8-22 Receive his final documents

8-23 leave Zhengzhou head back to Guangzhou

8-24 Free day in Guangzhou

8-25 Joel will get his physical

8-26 Our U.S. Consulate Appointment

8-27 We have our Oath Taking Ceremony at U.S. Consulate

8-28 Free day in Guangzhou

8-29 8:20 am leave for home!

Surgery Update

We sent a message asking if Joel had his surgery and how he was donig. We received a message back from CCAI that was a little confusing. The orphanages response was "This boy is being done the surgery for cleft lip and has not come back to the orphanage" We were really concerned! We were originally told that he was having surgery in June. We were worried that something had went wrong. I e-mailed CCAI, and they said
"Hi Denise,
They always keep children in the hospital for a very long time in China – it’s just a standard procedure. Here, he would have surgery and most likely be home in the afternoon! Also, we do not know when he went in for surgery"

That made things a little better. However, we are still very concerned and praying for our little guy every day.

We will be with him very soon!

I am trying to imagine how our lives are about to change. I have prepared for the worst and prayed for less than the best(hehe). A lot of people who adopt use the term "paper pregnancy". We were paper pregnant for 2 years and 2 mos. Its easy to put somethings out of your mind in 2yrs. I would try to dream up an image of a perfect little girl, then would push it out of my mind. Of course at the time I thought that it was a survival technique keeping me from going crazy while I waited. I have thought about this a lot in the past month since I saw his face. There is definitely a reason I had trouble dreaming up a little girls face. I was the mother of a little boy and I knew it even though I didn't know it! It was like a mother giving birth and the doctor showing her the face of her baby for the first time. He is the most beautiful child I have ever laid eyes on (Trace of course running a close second) Well, I actually have strayed way away from the original subject of this post (go figure). What I meant to say is life is going to change like nothing we have ever known. I mean, we are 35 and quite used to doing what we want when we want. We welcome the change though. What we also welcome is love and advice from anyone! We are not about to think that we know what we are doing. I do want to take the time to thank my family. Sandra for everything under the sun! I want to let my sister know that I love her for all the future advice I'm going to use her for. We received our Letter Of Acceptance today(L.O.A.)! Quite a big deal. With that we were told that we will travel in 4 to 8 wks. So I may post 1 or 2 more times before we go and probably none while we are there, but we did buy a video camera and will have lots to share when we get back.

Well I hope you enjoy the picture!

L~Denise

The Most Memorable Day Of Our Lives!!!!

06/09/2008 the first time we saw our son!!!!!! I received a message around noon on the 9Th from Deanice Hess the waiting child program director for our adoption agency. I was busy and thought she only wanted to ask something about our I171H, so I put off calling her back. Finally around 2:30 I called her back. She wanted me to know that there was a 2yr old Cleft Pallet sweetie pie and if we would be interested in looking at his file and making a decision. Well, I told her we accept without looking at the file. Apparently that's not the way it works. (hehe) I called Joe immediately to tell him to get to my work because she was sending his file with his picture. In my mind he was already our son I just wanted to see his picture. Did not care anything about the file at the moment. We sat on pins and needles waiting for the e-mail. It must have taken for ever.... When we finally saw his beautiful face, we were in love!! We have decided to name him Joseph Lamar and call him Joel. We expect to have him home no later than the end of October. He was scheduled to have surgery this month. We have asked for word on if he has had it and how he is doing. They don't really think that we will hear anything soon. There is not much communication with the orphanage. We are allowed to send a care package to the orphanage. Our adoption agency tells us it could be the first the orphanage has heard that he is being adopted. So! We are extremely happy and if we hear anything I will post as soon as possible. If you have any questions; just ask.

L~ Denise

WOW!!!

I know it has been forever since I posted! We have been so busy with our new camper and all the fun that it brings. I also started baking cookies for a little xtra money. We had so much happen today that I ran home to put together 2 batches of cookies real quick so that I could have time to post. It has been over six months since we filed for our updated I171H. I wasn't worried that it was taking so long until Kat from our adoption agency called about a month ago to make sure we had secured it. She had been informed of our waiting child checklist and wanted to make sure that we were ready because waiting child goes pretty quick. She sent several e-mails to USCIS and was told that they had our file but that they were back-logged. Last week she called to ask if we had gotten it because there were people that re-filed at later dates than us getting theirs. That got us a little worried. She however wanted to give it another week because that would be exactly six months and she felt we could really complain at that point. So I kind-of put it out of my mind until I had a voice mail from her this morning wanting to know if we heard anything yet because she was sure we would be matched in the next batch. I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe that we have waited for 2 years with hardly any contact at all and now all of a sudden we might be matched. Now I am concerned about our I171H quite a bit more. Kat, constructed an e-mail that she wanted me to send like I was writing it. She said if we don't hear anything by next Tuesday she was going to call a congressman. That is the last but most effective resort. However at about 3:00 this afternoon I received an e-mail back stating that everything was fine and it was in the mail!!! Kat was in complete shock that I received a same day response from them and she was quite excited. I talked to her at 6:00 and she said that the reason she was so worried is that the next batch is scheduled to come out in 2 weeks but that she suspects it will be here next week and that we are almost certain to be matched in that batch. Can you believe that maybe as soon as next week we will have a photo of our child!!!!! We are in shock.... I am pretty sure that Sandra is too :)
Well Kat let me know that our phone call was her last item of the day and the best!!!
She did say that the waiting program has a little long time in between match an travel than the traditional program. OH, and another bit of information, Joe and I changed our minds and said that we would take a boy or a girl..... which means that instead of Hannah Joe we would have Joseph Lamar! boys are still rare though. Anyways I have rambled enough and I have a kitchen to clean so Goodnight!!!
Please don't forget that your coments are apprecieated!!!
Love,
Denise

After long consideration, Joe and I have decided to put ourselves up for a "Waiting Child". What this means is we may bring home a baby with a minor medical problem or disability. It could be anything from a cleft pallet to a minor heart condition. We have decided that we only want a girl since we have made "Hannah" a part of all of our lives. We still remain on the traditional program and do not have to accept anything we are not comfortable with. It was very difficult filling out the medical checklist for waiting child. We both felt like we were rejecting children by saying no to certain disabilities but there are some things that we are not equipped to handle. If you have any questions about the program just let me know. I just can't put all of the specifics into one post.

We went to Ga this weekend. It was a really nice weekend. We had a small cookout at the campground saturday night. We got to meet mama's friend Ricky. He has a great sense of humor! We really liked him. We also got to see Trish before her big adventure "OUT WEST"! We hope she has a really good time but not so good that she wants to move there. Well I best go do some work!


L~D

New Camper

Here are the pics of the new camper as promised (lizzy) hehe..... you can make them full size by double clicking...

Sorry we haven't posted in a while. We have been so busy. Good story though..... We took the pop-up out for the weekend, almost got divorced over setting it up. Came home listed it on Craigs list. Sold it in 24hrs. Drove to Panama City the next weekend and bought a camper. I will post pics later. We just couldn't see throwing 6 great years of marriage away on that pop-up. hehe... Nothing new on the adoption "same ole" same ole".

Love
~D

Happy Trails!!!!

We bought a new pop-up camper and are so anxious to go camping. We went looking to buy a p0p-up and found no one sold them in Tallahassee. We lucked up that our neighbors sold us thiers. We have spent the whole day cleaning it inside and out. It has a sink, refridgerator, and stove. It has a queen and a king size bed. It is a mansion to us..hehe Our first adventure will be at the end of this month. I think we are going to go to falling waters state park in chipley. I will post pictures. It is apparently really amazing there. There is a really great water fall and the
best is it's only an hour away....

We recently re-filed our I600A and received an invitation back to Immigration in Jacksonville for Monday the 28th. I have included a picture of the notification.
Not much going on. Joe is checking the hot water heater because all of a sudden the water doesn't feel that hot to me. I know he thinks its that I just can't ever seem to get warm, but he is humoring me :-) Mamma Kitty is constantly planning covert operations to maneuver around the house without Bengi seeing her and Bella is just loving the company. Well that is just about all here. Will post again after we get back from jax.....

L~D

Bengi

We would like to introduce our newest family member. His name is Bengi. I just call him "little man". Bengi came from a not so good home and so far seems to fit right in. Bella has set the ground rules and all are happy... He weighs 8lbs. We are not completely sure what breeds make up his cuteness, but one for sure is daschund. The vet says he is around 6mos old. So we look forward to a long happy life with Bengi.

I just realized that I have not posted in 2 months. Wow, I can't believe that. I have been so busy with the holidays that I have had no time. My job has really taken a turn with the purchase of the Saturn store. So that means no doing anything at work except work!!! We are waiting for immigration to invite us to renew our fingerprints. They sent a letter letting us know that they received our re newel application but they are back logged (as usual). I want to introduce you to a website (http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp) this is a website that we have looked at allot over the past almost 2yrs. This website is the actual site for the agency in China that handles adoptions. The agency is "Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs" or CCAA. Which is not to be confused with our adoption agency CCAI. If you look to the right on the site and past all of the Chinese writing it has a couple of very important blocks under Document Processing. The first tells us which dates have been reviewed. Then next tells you which dates have been placed with children. Just in case you didn't know our date is 11/08/2006. That is our log in date. If you look at the dates you will notice that the last date in review was 10/31/2006, which can only mean that we are in review as we speak.


Now normally this is no big deal. However in May of 2007 China decided to tighten the rules a little. However they have swore that they would only apply to documents that was received in their office after May 1, 2007. They changes that would effect us are the rules on the Body Mass Index and the medication rules. As we all know I have a Body Mass Issue..hehe and Joe takes medication for Bipolar. We are slightly nervous because we have heard rumours that they have questioned some prospective parents about these same issues even though it was not supposed to effect them. The good news is we have not heard of anyone being turned down at this point. So yes that is good news.


So just keep watching those dates in the first block and pray!!!!! When they surpass 11/08/2006 then we will celebrate and be back to our long wait!!!


Hope everyone had a great New Years!!! Lots of Love from Joe.

L~D