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!