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