Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had a great Christmas this year. Saiya wrote a letter to Santa a few weeks ago and on Friday, we received a letter back from Santa telling Saiya that he will see her on Saturday night and to be a good girl.

Friday night we had our gift exchange with my family. This year was a little harder because Saiya was the only kid home for the holiday. My neice and nephew were in New York with their Father. Because of that, Saiya got a little spoiled in the present department. Saturday morning we drove to Tampa to spend the Christmas weekend with Chris's family. Again, Saiya is the only grandchild, so she was showered with gifts Saturday night and again on Sunday when Santa came.

Saturday afternoon, we baked cookies for Santa and made brownies for after dinner. Saiya is so sweet! She wanted to leave enough cookies out for Santa and all of his Reindeer (because the reindeer will be hungry too). My daughter is so sweet. And smart too! We were out of presents for the rest of us by the time Sunday morning came along, so all the presents under the tree were for her. She kept asking why Santa only brought presents for her (apparently mommy and daddy were bad this year). We explained that Santa doesnt have time to bring all the grown-ups presents too, he only brings presents to kids. She was happy with that answer.

We had a great time in Tampa with family and hope everyone out there had a great Holiday!! We also wish you all the best for the new year and look forward to sharing next year's Christmas adventure with not one, but TWO wonderful little girls!!

DTC FINALLY!!

I know I have been really horrible about keeping up with the blog as of late, but things have gotten really crazy!  We finally finished our Christmas shopping.  Our tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Saiya had a great time decorating it.  She is so much more aware of the whole Santa Claus thing this year.  She is so very excited that Santa Claus is coming, although she was a little wary because we are not going to be home when he comes.  She was so concerned that he was going to forget where she was going to be.  After alot of reassurance, she is good with traveling over the holiday.  We purchased some toys for Toys For Tots and had her put them in the box at Walmart.  We tried to explain what those toys were for, but I think she might be a little confused since Santa is supposed to bring ALL of the kids toys.  She wanted to know why he didnt bring them toys too.  Poor girl, so logically minded.

Last week, we did come Christmas Shopping and I gave her some money to buy presents for her sister.  She got to carry the money around the store in her purse and picked out items she wanted to give to her sister, adding up the prices and making sure she had enough money.  Then we went to cash out and she put her spoils up on the converyor belt and paid the nice lady.  She was SO excited!!  Tonight I will help her wrap the presents she bought for Xylie so we can put them under the tree.

On the adoption of Xylie, we are FINALLY DTC!!  This means that our documents were sent to China (December 7, 2011).  We have 4-6 weeks before we hear when our Log In Date is.  It should be sometime soon, but we wont find out for 4-6 weeks.  Once we get our Log In Date, we should be getting our Letter of Acceptance which will allow us to file our I-800 with the US government.  We are going to be sending a second care package to China after Christmas with some toys and things we bought for Xylie.

We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and the very best for the New Year!!

USCIS Approval

We received our USCIS approval for Xylie's adoption on Monday afternoon!  We are super excited as we were getting worried.  Her approval came almost exactly two weeks later than Saiya's approval took to arrive.  Now we are getting together the funds to send to CAWLI so that our paperwork can be sent to China (I went to the bank yesterday but they were closed by the time I got off work-- I will be going today during my lunchbreak to the bank and the post office).  We have about 6 months ahead of us and we are all still very excited!  Especially little Saiya.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to Ft Meyers for Thanksgiving weekend with Saiya.  We were visiting family down there.  I'm so glad that Saiya is a great traveler!  We had a great dinner and Saiya had a great time playing with Chris's Cousin Hannah.  We took Saiya to the Shell Factory where she filled a jar full of sea shells and got to watch a hermit crab race.  We were home on Saturday with Sunday to relax a little bit before going back to work.  Thank you to family for letting us stay at your house and eat all your food!

Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating was a blast!  Saiya and 6 other kids in our group had a great time!  Got lots of candy and really enjoyed riding around the neighborhood in the back of my mom's pick-up truck.  It made it easier on us and the kids didnt have to walk as much between houses.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!  Funny that next year, we will be adding one more to the group!  So excited!

On another note, we received the orphanage address and I made tags for the items we want to go to Xylie.  We will be sending a care package out sometime this week.  She will finally get pictures of us and a few things like clothes and stuffed animals.  We really can't wait to go get her from China!

Harvest Festival and Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkins!!

On Saturday we went to the Harvest Festival sponsored by Saiya's school.  It was smaller than I had in mind, but there were bounce houses and games and all of the kids had fun.

Sunday we went GoodWill hopping and I bought a ton of stuff for both Saiya and Xylie.  When I was pulling out stuff for Xylie, Saiya had a (very) brief moment of only-child-jealousy.  We talked about it and when I included  her in helping me pick things out, she was much happier.  I'm sure she is going to be great with her sister!  She was so helpful and absolutely LOVED picking out clothes for Xylie.

Sunday night I went though Saiya's dresser and pulled out somethings that dont fit her any more.  There wasnt much since she hasnt really grown that much in the past year when it comes to clothes.  She has grown INTO her clothes, but not out of them.

Sunday night we also carved pumpkins for Halloween.  Since we waited until the last minute to get pumpkins, we were stuck with ones that were all warty.  The kids took one look at them and Said "EEW!!  I'm not carving that!!"  HAHAHA!  I think they came out great!!

Tonight we Trick-Or-Treat, even if it is raining and miserable!  :)

The Early Intervention Center

Yesterday was Saiya’s first day in her new aftercare program at the Early Intervention Center.  She was there for about three hours and WOW!  What a difference!

Before I dropped her off, she was complaining about going to a new school (again) and having to go all by herself.  I told her, it is the same as big-girl-school and she will be just fine.  All the teachers are very nice and she will make lots of friends.  She said she wanted to go back to Space Coast Montessori and that she missed her teachers.  I walked her to her classroom and showed her where her cubby was and talked to the teachers about her activities and developmental goals and then hugged and kissed her goodbye.

After work, I went to pick her up and the first thing she showed me was that she had gotten two “reward tags”.  When she gets 10 she can get a prize out of the treasure box.  She was so proud of them.  On the way to the car, she was telling me all about her day and that she made lots of friends and was a big help to the teachers.  She got to help the other kids with writing and did a good job listening and reading in the reading circle.

I don’t know what it was about her, but she seemed genuinely happy about this school.  I asked her if she still wanted to go back to Space Coast Montessori and she said “No!  I like my new school better!”

So after one day, there is a significant difference in how my daughter carries herself and her self esteem level.  I am amazed at how much this school makes a difference in my child.  Xylie will definitely be going here when she comes home.  I’m so glad we found this school and I really hope that Saiya will regain her self esteem and confidence here.

On a side note, the Space Coast Early Intervention Center is a non-profit child care/pre-school center that functions through the generosity of local companies and families.  If you would like to help donate to this school and do alot of shopping online, try this out!

New Information (YAY Updates!)

Thanks to our wonderful agency pushing the Orphanage in China, we received some new updated information about Tian Xing (aka. Xylie).  We were also fortunate enough to get some updated pictures!  She is so beautiful!  We are so happy and excited about this little girl!



Here is what the orphanage had to say about her:

田星身高 height 85cm，体重 weight 12kg，头围 head 47.5cm，胸围 chest


50.5cm，牙齿 teeth 20颗，足长 foot 13cm，智力发育正常，语言发育良好，能

说5个字的句子。mental development on target. good language skills and

can speak 5 words sentences.
 
 
She is currently one year younger than Saiya was when we picked her up from China and this girl is almost exactly the same size.  Given that, I am very sure that Xylie is going to outgrow Saiya very quickly.  Poor Saiya!  On the upside, at least we know what size clothing and shoes to bring to China with us.  There were many things we brought for Saiya that were way to big and we ended up not using it or using pins to hold it up.
 
We can't wait to go to China to pick her up!

New AfterCare Program and Fingerprints

Yesterday we had an interview/tour of the Space Coast Early Intervention Center. We are considering moving Saiya there for aftercare. She is picking up a lot of bad habits from school and very quickly losing her ability to show compassion and empathy towards less fortunate children. School is the one place where kids learn to be mean and nasty to each other. The other night she came home in serious trouble for calling her cousin a “loser”. At the same time, she is really struggling with her confidence and self esteem. She does her work just fine at home and can count, add, and knows all of her Chinese words, but at school, she has trouble. She brings home zeros on her tests. Its frustrating because we know she can do the work and that she knows her letters and numbers, but the teachers are telling us that she struggles with the workload. I really think she took a hit when she started kindergarten because she is no longer the “little helper” but now she is the kid who needs help, is the smallest and sometimes doesn’t understand the idiosyncrasies of the American culture. She is behind by about a year in social development and maturity level. We are hoping the change to a new aftercare program will help.

The Early Intervention Center works with kids with and without special needs or delays and helps them get on track. We really think this is the best place for her. Right now, her aftercare program consists of doing her homework, coloring pre-printed pictures, and playing on the playground. There are structured activities at the Early Intervention Center that help the kids progress and develop better. Hopefully she will have her “in room evaluation” today and she can start there on Monday. It’s a little bit of extra work, since we have to pick her up from school and drop her there everyday, but we really hope it will help her confidence and self esteem. She really has been struggling the last two months in Kindergarten as far as social level and independence.


On another note, today we drove out to Orlando for finger printing for the USCIS. We received our home study addendum on Monday and I express mailed it to the USCIS office in Texas on Tuesday. We are moving right along with Xylie’s adoption and we are still so excited about bringing her home. I know that Saiya is really going to enjoy having a sister!

Pre-Approval from China

We received our pre-approval from China! This means that China has received our petition to adopt Tian Xing from China. We will be getting tags and the orphanage address very soon so that we can send her a care package.  We already have a ton of stuff for the first care package.  We will probably end up sending three care packages between now and when we leave for China sometime near April of next year.  We are so excited to be going back to China and can't wait to bring home our little girl!

Halloween Fun

Saiya is going to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.  I finished making the cloak for her (which she LOVES!) and I just had to get a few pictures!  Nyxa was a great addition too!  :)  hahahaha!  Get it??

Boo at the Zoo

On Friday, we took the kids to Boo at the Zoo.  It is a Halloween event for kids held at the Brevard County Zoo.  Every year, they have carnival acts (jugglers, dancers, ect.) and arts and crafts, candy trails and a haunted house.  This year was the first year we went.  Saiya and the other kids had a great time.  They got to dress up and run around the zoo at night collecting candy and having a great time.  There were games for the kids, prizes, and even a place to roast marshmallows.  Saiya has grown so much since last year!  We are so excited to see her begin to really enjoy one of my favorite holidays!

Referral!!

Wednesday of last week, we received a referral of a little girl with a liver duct cyst. Her paperwork was a little frustrating as it was translated into Spanish. So here we are with a chinese version and a spanish version, but no english version. Fortunately enough, my spanish reading abilities have stuck with me over the years. I managed to muddle through it and then used MS word and Google translate to help with the more complicated stuff. Once I had a fairly good translation of the spanish document, I sent a copy to my mother-in-law and one of our Radiation Oncologists here at MIMA (thank you both for all your help!).  According to the orphanage, this little girl is very healthy after her surgery but might have some developmental delay.  At the same time, they say she is very smart, so we are thinking that her motor skills are a little behind due to her cyst preventing her from getting the right amount of vitamins.  With some work and proper nurtition, we should be able to correct any delays.

After hearing what they had to say and hours of discussion and thought about this little girl, we decided to go ahead and accept her referral. She will be four on April 4, 2012. The only pictures we have of her are fairly old. We have nothing more recent except for one that is black and white and VERY fuzzy. Saiya is super excited as we now have a closer estimate of when we will travel to China, provided we have no major hiccups along the way. We should be traveling between May and June of next year.

So much to do between now and then! Guess we better get started!

Camping Trip!

This weekend we packed the car, and headed to Deland for a camping trip that I have been planning for about 5 months.  This was Saiya's first camping trip.  She had a blast!  Friday night we took the little ferry over to Hontoon Island, where the campsites are and we set up our tents and got everyone settled.  The kids were wired from all the excitement so it took them a long time to fall asleep.  Saiya and Syrafina shared one of my little kiddie tents (it was the perfect size for the two of them).  Saturday, we bought the kids bug keepers and they were all entertained for HOURS playing "catch and release" with various types of critters that would fit in the little plastic containers.  Saturday night we roasted marshmellows and played games and then it was off to bed early for the kids.  Sunday was a simple day of packing up our gear and heading home.  Poor Saiya was exhausted and crashed in bed at 6:30 last night.  But she did have fun, we even had a little excitement from the local wildlife!

This was the campsite across from us.  The bear found a few yummy things to eat over there!

Fingerprinting Appointments!

We received our finger printing appointments for the USCIS!  We will head to Orlando on October 20 to get fingerprinted and should receive our approval about 3-4 weeks after that, then its Dossier to China (DTC)!!.  We are very excited and hope to have a referral by Christmas (hoping and hoping!).

We have finished putting together a care package for the Social Welfare Institute that Saiya is from.  We included toys, games, clothes and plenty of pictures and drawings from Saiya.  We included a letter (translate by my father) describing why we are sending the package and how well Saiya is doing.  I hope that they are excited to receive the package and maybe they will send us a letter in return.  Saiya is very excited as she helped pick out all of the pictures and toys to send to China.  It is good for her to remember where she is from and I know that she thinks about China often.

Paperwork Complete!

We have approved a final copy of our homestudy report and it has been submitted to our agency, who has reviewed it.  We are ready for the next step in the adoption process!  We will be filing with the USCIS this week!  Hopefully in about 2-4 weeks we will get fingerprinting appointments and soon after that our USCIS approval.  We are still waiting for a referral, but I am hoping that process will go by quickly.

In the mean time, we are putting together a care package for Saiya's Social Welfare Institute.  She has been home a whole year and we wanted to send them pictures to show them how much she has grown.  We have a care package filled with toys, clothes, pictures and some drawings Saiya made for the orphanage.  I know they will appreciate knowing how she is doing.

One Year

One Year, 12,700 miles, Three People, One Family

A new name, two strangers, a very long plane trip to her forever home.

Today is the one year anniversary of our adoption of Saiya!  So much has happened in the past year, it is amazing!  She has grown so much and learned so much in the past year.  She went to pre-k where she met friends, learned numbers and letters (as well as the english language), started school, learned to swim, and so much more!  She put her feet in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time and went to SeaWorld (as well as three or four different aquariums-- which she loves).  She has been up and down the eastern seaboard of the USA and traveled to Indiana over Christmas.  We played in the snow, sat on Santa's lap, and celebrated her fifth birthday.

There has been so much for her to discover and I know that there will be a universe more for her to explore.  We have learned as much from her, as she has from us.  The beginning was a little rough, but we managed to make it work and after so much uncertainty and nervousness, we are finally a family and we wouldn't want it any other way!

We love you, Saiya!  May you continue to grow and show us how amazing you are!  We really are lucky parents to have such a wonderful child to share our lives with.

August 30, 2010

August 30, 2011

10 Days

We had her file for ten days, which is way longer than the 72 hours that most families have to review files...  We are lucky.

However, after looking through the paperwork and having the files reviewed by a physician and a nurse (thank you both very much!!), we have come to the conclusion that the little girl we were referred is not right for our family.  She has some very disconcerting medical issues that we are not sure we are capable of handling at this time.  We have notified our agency and removed some special needs from our list.  I feel bad for this little girl and hope that she finds a great family in the very near future.

It was a somber weekend, but we are feeling confident in our decision.  Hopefully, we wont be waiting too long before we get another referral.  Its a shame that we can't adopt all of the children who need good, loving homes.

The First Casualty

Remember when I posted about the battle between the dogs and the little girl over the stuffed animals?

If not, click here!

I think the tide changed when we brought Nyxa home. Nyxa had been good for so long, but last night I was tucking Saiya into bed and noticed that she hasnt had her panda bear on her bed since before we left for New York. I asked her where it was and found it on her dresser. He was missing part of his foot and the stuffing of his leg was missing. Poor panda bear! Saiya said, "he's broken, we need a new one." To which I replied, "No, thats not how it works, you left it out where the puppy could get it, now you have to deal with it. You can either throw him away or mama can fix him for you, but we are not buying you a new one just because this one is a little holey".

What she doesnt know is that getting another one would be very difficult. That particular panda bear was purchased from the video store. It is one of those that you buy and you can name a star on the star registry. She lost it back in October and cried for a week! I found that one at Goodwill about three weeks later. It was an amazing find since they no longer sell them at the store.

So, I put her to bed, told her I would fix him, and proceeded to pull out some fabric and thread. I patched him up like a war hero! He looks cute. I washed him last night in the washing machine to get the doggie slobber off if it and gave him to her this morning. She looked at the patches and said "what's this??". I said "thats his battle wounds!" Saiya: "Oh, Ok!"

Back to the front we go!

How the CCAA system works

I thought I would post a little bit about how the matching process works from China just to give you an idea how hard it can be to find suitable children for families and why the wait is so long.

The CCAA database is massive, yet, Lillian, our agency director, was showing us that most of the children who are listed as "minor special needs" actually have major issues or birth defects. That makes it harder for her to match children with families (most of whom are willing to accept matches for minor special needs-- like us). When there are so many listed as "minor" but are actually "major" it is hard to sort through them all and find the ones who would make good matches for her families (for example, she showed us the file of a child china had listed as minor special needs, this child had Rickets, all of her fingers on both hands were bent at weird angles and she had severe developmental delays, mental retardation and couldnt walk or crawl-- she was 6 years old, it was very sad). She really does look out for each of her families and is hesitant to give referrals to families if the child has multiple issues or severe mental delays, knowing how hard these can be to deal with and that most of her families are looking for more "normal" children. At the same time, the CCAA shared list is shared by all the agencies authorized to match children. While we were there, we were looking at three files and when we switched screens, two of them were locked by other agencies. The "easy" (few special needs/minor special needs) children get swept up very quickly, which is another reason her job is so difficult. Its very much a game of chance or constant vigilance on the system to monitor new additions to the database and grab them as quickly as possible. I can imagine how hard it is for the smaller adoption agencies with fewer resources to match "good" children with their families. The CCAA used to issue individual lists to agencies, but they have stopped doing that. Now everyone matches from the shared list and it's a battle to find children for families when all of the agencies are competing for the "good" ones.  Even sadder is the number of children left on that list with severe special needs and no matching families.

Social Worker and Referral

Yesterday we had our last visit with Amber, our social worker for our second adoption.  We talked about the special needs training that we did as well as the older child training we completed.  It was a short meeting, but filled with lots of feedback and information.  We looked over the home study report one final time and approved it.  As soon as she gets it approved by her manager and notarized, we can send it to CAWLI and apply to the USCIS.

We settled on a name for our new daughter:  Xylie Austin

Chris really liked Austin for a middle name and Yumae didn’t really fit well, so we went with his second choice (but my first) which was Xylie.

We are currently in the process of reviewing a file for a little girl who is the same age as Saiya.  Nothing solid as of yet, we are waiting for more information on her, but wish us luck!

Wedding Crazies and Stuff

Last week we flew to New York for my sister’s wedding (pictures to come soon). Saiya did great on the plane, as usual. We spent a few days in Boston with Chris’s cousin and took a day trip to the New England Aquarium. We met up with Jeanne and Annie (Wei Ying) and her family at the Aquarium. All the kids had a blast! I am so amazed at Annie’s progress! She has come so far developmentally since the last time we saw her. She and Saiya had a great time. Poor Saiya fell asleep on the way back to the Aquarium from our favorite little Chinese place in Chinatown.

We also stopped by our agency, CAWLI, for Lillian to meet Saiya. I can imagine that she places dozens of children out of state that she never has the pleasure of meeting. So we stopped by and spoke with her about our second adoption and what we are looking for. She showed us how the Chinese system works and we sorted through some potential referrals.

I was a little shocked that none of her other families are looking at the same age group as we are. According to Lillian, they are all looking for babies. It’s such a shame since adopting an older child can be an amazing experience. The Chinese child referral system is vast and complicated. I do not envy Lillian’s position. She tries very hard to match families with suitable children. The whole time we were there, she kept thanking us for understanding how difficult her job can be. I’m shocked that people DON’T understand how hard her job can be.

After Boston, we headed to Albany for my sister’s wedding. We rented a house in Warrensburg which we shared with my sister, mom, brother, our friend Melissa and her son, and my sister’s two kids. It was very comfortable! Much better than getting four or five hotel rooms. The wedding was beautiful and Saiya did a great job as a flower girl!

We took the train home. All the kids were great, but I don’t think we will be doing that again anytime soon! Three adults and four children on a train for 24+ hours is way too much!

While we were on the train, Chris received news that his grandfather passed away. So he is leaving today to head to Indiana for the funeral. So we went from a wedding to a funeral in the period of a week. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon, this month has been hectic, stressful, and sad. I’m ready for September!

First Day of School

Sorry this post is so late, but last week was crazy!

Saiya’s first day of school was last Monday (August 15).  We were up early, I packed her lunch, and dressed her in her uniform and off to school we went.  Dropping her off was a little crazy.  There were a lot of parents there all trying to tell the teacher something different about their child.  We were there on Friday for the “meet the teacher” day, so I managed to tell the teacher most of what I had to tell her.  I did want to remind her that we were going out of town, so I needed any extra work/homework for her to complete while we were gone.  I also had to let her know that Saiya was not supposed to go to after care that day.  She seemed a little overwhelmed, so I quickly told her what I had to say, kissed Saiya goodbye and wished her luck and left hoping and praying that the teacher remembered what I said.

Saiya had a great time at school.  When my mother picked her up, she asked about her first day and Saiya replied with, “I want to tell my mommy first!”.  Hahahaha!!  Poor Nana!  She had a great day!  I’m so glad she likes her teachers and I know she is going to do well in this program!

Trip Down South and Monday Morning Maddness

We headed to Ft. Lauderdale for the weekend to spend some time with friends and give Saiya the opportunity to play with Connor before his little brother gets here in two weeks.  We also delivered our old grill and a rocking chair to our friends.  Saiya had a blast running around with Connor and we really enjoyed the time we got to spend with our friends.

Today was Saiya’s first day at her new daycare/aftercare place.  On the way there she looked a little nervous so I asked her.

Me:  “You excited baby doll?”

Saiya:  “yup!”

Me:  “Nervous?”

Saiya:  “little bit”

Me:  “Scared?”

Saiya:  “No, I’m not scared of ANYTHING!”

Me:  “there’s my brave girl!”

She took the change really well.  When we walked in, there was another little girl, obviously older than Saiya, who was kicking and screaming for her father not to leave her there.  Saiya took it all in stride and stared blankly at the girl, kind of like “what’s your problem, its only daycare…”.  I am still amazed at how resilient my daughter can be.  She is at this daycare all week, then she starts school and will be going there only in the afternoons for aftercare.  I have no doubt that she will do just fine.

Last Post Placement Visit for Saiya

On Friday we had the last post placement visit with Lori for Saiya’s adoption.  It was bitter sweet as we really like Lori and enjoyed seeing her, but at the same time, we are so glad it is over and we are completely DONE with Saiya’s adoption processes.  The visit went really well, Lori was so impressed with how adjusted Saiya is and how outgoing she is.  We talked about her school and how smart she is and how we are incorporating her culture into our everyday lives.  We told her about dance class and violin lessons and how she interacts with her cousins.  We also told her about our decision to adopt another little girl from China.  She was thrilled!

On Friday, we also applied for Saiya’s passport and took her to meet her teacher and drop off all of her school supplies.  She starts school on Monday.  Her teachers absolutely LOVE her!  Her being Chinese really helps and they kept telling me how pretty she was and speaking to her in Chinese.  I know she is going to excel in this program!  She also saw the doctor and had a few shots, which she was not too thrilled about.  She did great and proceeded to milk it all afternoon!  She has grown 5 inches and gained 6 pounds since we came home from China almost a year ago.  She is still much smaller than all the kids in her class, but she is doing great!

Social Worker Visit take 2

We had our (hopefully) final visit with our social worker Amber on Thursday evening.  We drove to Ormond Beach to meet with her at her office.  It was much better than paying her to travel to see us.  The visit went well, we met at 7pm and didn’t leave until about 9pm.  She asked more follow-up questions about our families, what life was like growing up as kids, etc.  We turned in our background checks and some other paperwork.  She gave us some adoption homework to read through, most of it was great, some of it, not so much, but I read through it anyhow.  Overall, the visit went great!  We will be with Amber for at least 5 more years (because China now requires post placement visits up to 5 years after we come home).  It’s a long time, but we like her, so it makes things much easier.  I'm just glad that the Home Study process is over with.  As soon as she gets us a final copy, we can apply to the USCIS.  I am hoping to do that by the beginning of September.

Now all we have to do is some research to find some special needs adoption training to bring our hours up to the new minimum for China, which is 12 hours.  We already had 10 from the Heart of the Matters, but now we need to find two more hours of Hague Accredited training, which shouldn’t be too hard.  WIsh us luck!

The End of Summer

I’m not sure where the summer went, but today I submitted the withdrawal paperwork for Saiya’s school. She starts school on August 15 and we will be moving her from Pineapple Cove Academy to Space Coast Montessori for daycare and after care since that school is attached to her new “Big Girl School”. She is very excited about school! We have her registered for the Chinese language immersion program. This is a program that starts in kindergarten and goes to 5th grade. The teachers teach half the day in a different language (you have your choice of Chinese or Spanish). The fourth graders are already reading Chinese books! I was very impressed with the program and I’m very happy that Saiya will be challenged and I’m sure that she will pick up her Chinese in no time! Of course, now that means I have to get going on working with the Rosetta Stone so that I can help her with her school work.

We have our final home study visit with Lori next friday. This is our last post placement visit for Saiya's adoption. We are so happy to have Saiya home and she is adjusting so well! I can't believe how far she has come in just a very short year. I know Lori is going to be impressed. It is a little sad since we really like Lori and we enjoy seeing her. I'm glad that Saiya is acclimating so well and we can only hope that our second child will adjust just as well. More on the post placement visit next friday.

Adoption Home Study - The Day After

The home study went really well!  Amber is really nice and we are glad to be on our way through the beginning of the process.  We handed in all of the paperwork on our agency's list except for the local background checks which we have to complete this friday.  Amber gave us a few things from her agency that we have to fill out, but at least the paper collecting part is done!  Now we have three more meetings with Amber and then the approval of the home study report and once that is completed, we can file with the USCIS.  This time around, the process seems much easier!

Amber absolutely LOVED Saiya.  She turned on the charm and showed Amber her room and all her toys and pointed out her sister's bed and all the things that are her sister's.  It was cute.  Once she got more comfortable, she was all smiles.

We should be meeting with Lori (Saiya's social worker) sometime in the next couple of weeks before we leave for New York.  Our one year post placement visit is due in China by the end of August, so we are hoping to have that completed soon.  I know Lori is going to be impressed with Saiya.  I know Amber was!  Even she remarked at how well adjusted Saiya was.

One down, two to go!

Here we go again!!

Our first home study visit is scheduled for this coming Monday.  Our social worker, Amber, is traveling all the way from Ormond Beach.  We really appreciate her taking the time to come and see us and for her agency (Embraced by Grace) doing the home study for us.  The new Chinese regulations have certainly made things more difficult and slightly more expensive for us this time around.

I started on the major cleaning yesterday, and because I am gone for the weekend with my sister and her other bridesmaid celebrating her bachelorette party, we will have to complete ALL of the cleaning of the house this week and then hope and pray that is stays clean for the entirety of the weekend...

Back to cleaning I go!!  Wish us luck!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Sunday night we took Saiya to our town’s Fourth of July celebration.  They had a live band and tons of food and fun for all.  Saiya was having a blast dancing to the music and chowing down on ice cream and mini corn dogs.  I even managed to buy one of those glowy butterfly wands for $2 for her (they usually cost $5).  The lady said it was broken, but we got it to work, so good deal!  Once the sun went down and the fireworks started, Saiya was a grumpy monkey.  She doesn’t really like loud noises, and I figured she would hate the fireworks, but it was her first July 4^th, so we had to try.  She started to cry while the fireworks were going off and kept complaining that she wanted to go home.  Poor kid.  I covered her ears with my hands and let her sit on my lap, then she promptly fell asleep.  She was a sack of potatoes the rest of the night.  Even after it took us 45 minutes to even get out of the parking lot!  She had a really long, tiring weekend.

Prepping the Nest

Last week Chris and I looked around online and at a few used-furniture stores for new beds for Saiya and her new sister.  My sister was having a garage sale this weekend and I really wanted to put Saiya’s old mattresses and stuff in it, so we were a little pressed to find new beds before then.  I randomly went to goodwill on Tuesday and found two ADORABLE beds with rails included!  The wooden one was $25 and the metal one was $15.  I sent pictures of them to Chris and stood around like an idiot for about ten minutes waiting for him to respond on whether or not he liked them.  Finally, after what seemed like forever, he said sure.

We already had box springs from my mom’s old King bed, so all we needed were mattresses, which I decided to purchase new for the girls.  Well, I was so excited, we went to Walmart to buy bedding (we had no twin sized sheets or anything).  When I finally got everything home, we found out that the box springs for a king bed are a good 4 inches longer than a standard twin….  Who knew?  I was so mad!  So on Wednesday and Thursday, I found fairly good box springs on Craigslist for $20 each.  So, after a few days of frustration, Saiya’s room is finally back together and looking more adorable than ever!!

Yay!! New beds!!  Saiya LOVES her new bed, although she already fell off once.  She is still getting used to having less space.  She is definately excited, she tells everyone who comes over that the other bed in her room is for her sister!

The Decision

After months of deliberation and conversation and weighing the pros and cons, Chris and I have finally come to a decision.  We have decided to go back to China to adopt another little girl.  We considered another country, but there are so many reasons to go back to China.  We filed the paperwork with CAWLI (the same agency we used to adopt Saiya) last week and we have been working on gathering all of the paperwork and arrangning a social worker.  We would have liked to use the same home study agency as we did for Saiya's adoption, but China has changed its foreign adoption regulations and now requires that the home study be completed by a Hague Accredited agency, which Florida Home Studies and Adoption is not.  So we found another agency that is (Embraced by Grace) which was willing to complete our home study for us.  I must admit, the second time around, the process is so much easier, and considerably less stressful.  I'm not sure if that is because we already have a wonderful daughter who we can enjoy while we wait or because we already know the process and therefore there should be few surprises.  Maybe a little of both.  We already have the vast majority of the paperwork completed and ready for the social worker.

We are so excited to be opening our home to another little girl.  We have talked with Saiya about bringing home a sister and she is all for it!  I think one conversation went something like this:

Me:  Saiya, what do you think about Mama and Baba getting a sister for you?
Saiya:  A sister?  From China?  YES please!
Me:  are you sure?  it means you will have to share all of your stuff, all your panda bears and your room, and you will have to share time with mama and baba too.  So when mama rocks you, she will have to rock her too.
Saiya:  I do share, i share with syrafina, but she not sharing with me.
Me:  baby, this will be different, Syrafina doesnt live here, your sister will live here, are you sure you can share with her?
Saiya:  Um... yup!  I try hard mama.  I promise, I share with my sister!

Now we are in the process of looking for new furniture (Saiya has a queen bed in her room which we are trading out for two twin beds) and deciding on a name.  So far we have:

Adlae
Kiori
Nyomi
Xylie
Yumae

At first, we picked out Nyomi,  but I am really liking Xylie so much better.  Chris is indifferent to Xylie, hence the predicament...  Ideas are always welcome.  :)

Happy Father’s Day!

This weekend was our first Father’s Day!  Saiya and I went shopping for presents for Baba and bought him some t-shirts and movies.  She made a picture frame at school for him.  She was so excited to give him all his presents that she was pulling them out of the bag for him as he was reading the cards.  It was cute!

On Saturday, we went to Seaworld.  Saiya has never been to Seaworld and even though it was unbearably hot, we all had a great time.  We played some of those carnival games and I won Saiya a HUGE stuffed dolphin, which she LOVES!  Of course, then we had to carry it around the whole park with us the rest of the day.  We watched the Shamu show, which Saiya loved, and then went to see the polar bears and whales and dolphins.  We had a lovely lunch at the Shark restaurant there.  She got to feed the seals and sealions in the pacific coast exhibit and she loved watching the dolphins in the underwater viewing areas.  It was a little disappointing that she was too short to even ride on any of the rides in the kiddie area.  By the time we were ready to leave, she was exhausted.  But she didn’t complain once while we were in the park.  She only started to complain about the heat and her poor tired feet as we were walking back to the car.

Sunday, we had a fairly relaxing day, Saiya went to see Mr. Pauper’s Penguins with nana while we watched the Green Lantern with Chris’s dad.  Later that afternoon, we had a lovely dinner at Carrabas with Uma and Umpa.

Overall, we had a fantastic weekend!  Saiya did great at Seaworld!!  Happy Father’s day to all the dads out there!

Dance Recital

Sorry, I’m a little behind with this post, but I was waiting on pictures!  On May 22, Saiya had her first dance recital.  She had a blast and did so well!  I was very proud of her.  The day was very busy as we had to be there early and didn’t leave until late, but she did have fun.  Uma, Umpa, Nana the rest of our family all went to see Saiya dance.  The recital lasted about 2 ½ hours.  After the recital, we went to dinner with the family at Olive Garden.

Saiya’s class did a tap dance to a medley of Elvis songs.  It was soooooo CUTE!

Summer Fun in the Sun!

A good friend of mine gave us a kiddie pool for our puppies.  The puppy hated it, but Saiya loves it!  She spent hours splashing around in there.  We literally had to drag her out so we could go grocery shopping.  :)  She is getting so comfortable around water.  I am willing to bet she will be swimming by the end of the summer.  Last weekend, she was paddling around my friend's pool with her star-fish tube around her.  She spent hours swimming back and forth across the pool, she didnt care that she couldnt touch bottom and was happy as a clam splashing around.

Yay Summer!