Love Knows No Limits

SOPHIE UPDATE

2012-01-25T07:53:00.000-08:00

We are getting a lot closer to bringing our sweet Sophie home. As Chris would put it I am starting to nest. I have put up the crib in the girls room, made lists of things to get and things to do, and have even hung clothes in the closet. I am having to force myself to not get the suitcases down and start packing. I think Chris would put his foot down at that.

Where We Are In Our Journey

Our Letter of Acceptance (LOA) came 2 weeks ago and we have now applied for the 2ND half of our immigration. Our agency is telling us we will be traveling in April. I am hoping we can travel the first part of April. When we received word from our agency we had our LOA I asked if we would be getting an update on Sophie. They told us that they would contact the orphanage and see about getting us one. She said the update would have her latest measurements, milestones and development in the update. One week later we received an email containing our update. Sophie is now 18 lbs. and is 27 in. tall. She can now walk on her own. Plus there was information about what she is eating, and her daily routine. In the update they also included recent pictures. They have let her hair grow, YEA!!!!

I find myself staring at this sweet face and thinking about the day when she will be in my arms. Plus I want to pinch those cheeks!!!!!

2011-11-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

I'm Baaaaack!!!!!!

Oh my, has it really been 2 years since my last blog post. Where has the time gone? To much has happened to try and blog about all of it.Quickly though, our family now has a teenager(Trent). I am in denial that I am old enough to have a Jr. Higher! the others all growing up to fast as well. Elsie has been home with us for just over 2 years and has changed so much. She has been such a wonderful addition to our family. I will try to post more often with updates on her and the rest of our growing family.

As you just read I mentioned "growing" family. As many of you already know we are in the middle of our second adoption. Our journey began in December 2010 when Chris and I discussed adopting again. We were both feeling that tug on our hearts. So as a leap of faith we took our first steps in the process in January of this year. After 6 months of compiling all of the documents needed they were sent to China in July. Over the next few months we were waiting for a match of a little girl aged 0-36 mo. with a special need that we were open to. On November 1st we received a call from our social worker saying she had a little girl for us. After reading her file and seeing her beautiful face we new she was our daughter. We sent off out Letter of Intent (letter asking permission to adopt) on November 2ND. 5 Days later we had Pre Approval to adopt her. Now we wait for our LOA =Letter of Acceptance, the official approval to be able to adopt. Our hope is to travel next April to bring our daughter home.

Here in our sweet "Sophie" She is almost 1 year old!

2009-12-28T12:47:00.000-08:00

Elsie Christmas day decided we should all be watching her instead of the movie. She pulled a small stool to the center of the room and started to entertain us. She is definatley not camera shy. This is what Elsie is like when she is in a comfortable environment.

(sorry it is so dark I was using my snapshot camera)

THE SAGA CONTINUES......

2009-11-22T09:05:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since our family’s last post and I wish we had a lot of good things to report. However, Trent is in Children’s Hospital Central California right now and is being treated for Typhoid Fever. As many of you know we arrived home from China on October 15. As I posted before, Trent had not been feeling well from the moment we arrived home. We have been going round and round with the pediatrician and Hospital ER and finally the pediatrician worked it out for the Hospital to admit Trent on November 18. I think Trent’s pediatrician had to arm wrestle to get him admitted. The hospital is only admitting patients that need surgery or have other serious illnesses. At the time they admitted him, we only knew he had salmonella. Trent‘s specimen was taken on October 26 and the private testing lab determined it was salmonella about a week later and sent it over the to the County Health Department. The County Health Department called me up and asked me a series of questions as to determine what has he eaten to become infected. They were more concerned about if he had eaten a tomato from the supermarket then about our trip abroad. I was pretty blunt and keep on saying, HE GOT IT IN CHINA, HE GOT IT IN CHINA. The County Health Department could not identify what strand of salmonella it was so they sent the specimen to the State lab. I question whether or not the County Health Department sat on the specimen longer then they should have. Typhoid Fever is a specific strand of salmonella, not your every day run of the mill food poisoning kind. Soon after being admitted to the hospital, we were notified that the State lab determined that it was Salmonella Typhi. Well that only took 23 days to determine after that specimen was collected.
In fact this is a summary of a conversation we had with two doctors in Trent’s hospital room within a few hours of him being admitted. The names have been changes to protect the identities of those involved.

Doctor 1: Well, I see from the chart that Trent tested positive for salmonella. I am doing his medical history work up so please tell me what is going wrong.
Tamra: Do you really want to know?
Doctor 1: Yes and what’s with the attitude?
Chris: Pardon my wife. We have almost lost faith in the medical system. You see doctor, this hospital sent us away from the ER not once, but twice, telling us that he has something viral and it has to run its coarse.
Tamra: OK here it is, All typed up. The daily account of Trent’s illness for the past MONTH!
Doctor 1: Well, Trent really does not look that sick to me. I think maybe he has just had a series of viruses so we will do a flu test. The hospital is kind of full at the moment, you know H1N1, you may have read about it. We don’t normally treat salmonella with any antibiotics, so we will get him patched up and out of here in a jiffy.
Enter Doctor 2
Doctor 2: We just got back the test results from the State testing lab and Trent has Typhoid Fever. Wow, in my 25 years as being a doctor, I have never seen a case of Typhoid Fever. Let me see those spots on your chest again. Those are kind of cool. Did I just say that out loud. I meant to say this case needs to be documented closely to provide the hospital will valuable information. You know there are only about 400 cases a year in the United Sates.
Doctor 1: Lets get on top of this right away. I will order a chest x-ray, ultrasound, bone scan, CT scan. No, that’s not enough, lets make that two ultrasounds and throw in a MRI.

OK OK. So the conversation did not go exactly that way, but that is how I felt. The truth is the doctors and staff at Children’s Hospital have all been outstanding and professional. There is however, a certain curiosity the doctors have with the Typhoid Fever, particularly the characteristic rose spots on his chest. Between Nicole and now Trent, we have spent a lot of time here. Every time I think about the cost billed to the insurance companies I just get the chills.

Trent is being treated with heavy duty antibiotics through an IV and appears to be doing very well other then nausea. All of the results of the tests (chest x-ray, ultrasound, bone scan, CT scan) indicated that the infection had not spread to the bones or other organs. However, the bone scan indicated that he has a horseshoe kidney, which was later confirmed by the second ultrasound. And the CT scan has some kind of anomaly in his brain blood vessels that the Doctor said the radiologist had never seen before. These things are never good to hear while your in the hospital. The doctor wanted to take another look so they ordered a MRA (MRI for the blood vessels) of his brain. We are still waiting for the final report from the radiologist. If the results come back good then there is a chance they may send Trent home with a PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line in his arm before Thanksgiving. That is something we are very familiar with since Nicole had one when she came home from the hospital. Through all of this Trent has kept his spirits up. He had only appeared nervous at the thought of having radioactive dye injected into him for the bone scan and the talk of the PICC line being inserted. He remembers when Nicole tried to pull hers out, and is not to keen on the idea of something being inserted into him.

So as a result of Trent testing positive with Typhoid Fever, everyone in the family is now being tested for it. Evidently in very rare cases, you can be a healthy carrier of Typhoid Fever, hence the case Typhoid Mary.

Oh, and Elsie is doing really well apart from her sinus infection.

We want to express our gratefulness to all the warm wishes and prayers from everyone. I know I have said it before but I will say it again. "I love the the body of CHRIST"
We serve a MIGHTY GOD!!!!!

October 30, 2009

2009-10-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been over two weeks since we have returned from China and been reunited with our entire family. It was great to see many of you at the airport to welcome us home. We appreciate our house being stocked with food and the many meals that we have received. It is a blessing to have many family and friends supporting us.

However, its been a rough couple of weeks for our family, but not from what you would think. Within almost a one week period, Chris or I had taken:
Three children to the Dr. for illness on one day (Trent, Derek, Nicole)
Elsie for a well visit the next (although she was sick)
Trent back to the ER the same day
Trent back two days later for x-rays and blood work
Elsie back to the Dr. a day later for fever and congestion. (she now has the nickname Vader, because the way she sounds when she breaths)
Elsie back a few days ago for a flu shot.

In all, we have had two antibiotic prescriptions, one steroid and two inhalers and a host of other prescriptions. That’s a lot of MD office and prescription copays. Turns out that Trent had a viral and sinus infection. He had been running a fever for nine days with some other medical issues starting on the day we returned from China. During the time he was ill, we were notified that someone from our travel group had an infection of the colon. When we consulted the pediatrician and took into consideration our trip abroad, that prompted the ER and lab work.

Jet lag is behind us and we feel like things are finally getting back to normal, although I am not sure what normal is anymore. Elsie is adjusting well and everyone has fallen in love with her. The girls now share a bedroom and Elsie doesn’t seem to mind her crib. She sleeps through the night without any problem except for the first few days. That may be more attributed to her illness and jet lag. We had to set up a humidifier in her room and it now seems like it is a permanent figure. Nicole would often come into our bedroom at night and give us updates on how Elsie is doing. Nicole has turned into a little mommy. Often, we would peek into their room after they went to bed and see Nicole sleeping at the foot of the crib. It is neat as a parent to see each of our kids form their own bond with her. Even Derek, who is always in his own little world, competes for her attention. And there has been competition, mostly from the boys who fight to hold her or sit by her at the table. Elsie is bonding well with Chris now. She had not disliked him but more just tolerated him. Often in China, Elsie would refuse to be held by him, partly because I was right there. We knew that it is a hit and miss thing with orphans so it never bothered us while we were in China. When we arrived home, Chris noticed how Elsie would widely accept other men (i.e. grandpas) and play with them. Upon someone’s suggestion and my disapproval, Chris shaved off his goatee. He has had it for probably eight years or more and only shaved it off once in that time for scuba diving. The results were immediate. Prior to him shaving it off, he went up to her to hold her and she refused him like many times before. Within a half an hour, he returned with it gone and approached her again. She came and they were able to play on the floor together. She even crawled all over him, something she had never done up to that point. Who would of thought that a goatee would cause Elsie not to bond with him.

Elsie is quite the mimicker. She watches all of us and will copy things we do. She will wave good bye and blow kisses. Her vocabulary is minimal and she can only say a couple of English words. While we were in China, when people discovered that she was a orphan they would speak both Mandarin and Cantonese to her without much response. We are unsure if she was just shy at that point or perhaps she only knew a few words. Nevertheless, we see her improving everyday. She likes to do somersaults and enjoys the swing and slide in our backyard. Although, it took her awhile to figure out if she likes grass. She would stop right at the edge of the patio and cautiously put her foot down. When she fell down on it, she would roll around, not wanting to touch it with her hands. I don’t think she had much exposure to grass while at the in China. We do think we saw a little bit of her personality come out the other day. My sister-in-law stopped by last week with her daughter who is almost 1. We were all in the family room watching Elsie and my niece play near each other with some toys on the ground. Elsie then, got up, walked over to Bailey, and then laid on top of her. We all laughed and thought it was silly, but then picked up Elsie and moved her away. Elsie preceded to do it again and again. We repeatedly pulled her away. We then noticed that Elsie was defending her toys against Bailey. It reminded us of a conversation we had with Elsie’s nanny when we first got her. We asked the nanny if there was anything funny or special that we could tell Elsie latter on in life about her early childhood in the orphanage. The nanny told us that Elsie would eat her food, then after that steal the other children’s food. When we were told that, we just look at innocent looking Elsie and though OK, whatever, the nanny just had to tell us something and perhaps it just happened once. The other night at dinner, Elsie did it again. She ate her own dinner, then was trying to steal food from Derek’s plate.

China By the Numbers

2009-10-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Today we got Elsie's Visa. Applied for it at the consulate at around 9:30 am. Took our oath at 2:00, and received the visa at about 2:05. Our coordinator told us we broke two records. First the longest stay for an adopted family and the shortest visa turn around time (5 1/2 hours). The rules changed on October 1st and it should have taken three days. The consulate officer told us that they were taking extra ordinary steps to get us through since we have been here so long.

Now here is our trip to China by the numbers:

16 - The date in September in which we left Fresno
28 - Number of days spent in China (3 1/2 Beijing, 24 1/2 Guangzhou)
14 - Number of unscheduled days in China (All spent on Shamian Island)
16 - Number of days we had Elsie in China
2 - Number of kids we took to China
3- Number of kids we brought back
3 - Number of Hotels we stayed in
13 - Hours of flight time from Beijing to Los Angles
3 - Hours of flight from Beijing to Guangzhou
25 - Number of minutes our airplane taxi'd on the runway at Beijing Airport after landing from LAX (The airport is huge and that’s with the plane going at a good rate of speed with no stops)
12,000,000 - Approximate number of people in Guangzhou
10,000 - Approximate number of bicycles we saw in China
100 - Approximate number of brides seen on Shamian Island posing for pictures.
6 - Number of brides seen at one given time.
8 - Number of trips to starbucks
6.75 - Number of Chinese Yuan in a US dollar
700 - Cost in Yuan of tea that Chris mistakenly ordered from the Fine Tea Menu on first day in China (Yes, its over $100 US, think of it as fine wine. Bad part is, I did not even like it)
50 - Approximate number of times our kids were either asked to be photographed or secretly photographed.
4,000 - Approximate number of people we saw smoking in China
50 - Approximate number of street sweepers we saw (Not a vehicle, but a person with a broom)
0 - Number of non military helicopters we saw flying (I know that it is random, it's just an observation)
5 - Approximate number of people we saw in wheelchairs (Also random, but I noticed these type of things. The place is not accessible at all for wheelchairs)
7 - Number of times we ate at Lucy's (famous for Chinese adoption families)
24 - Number of 6" subway sandwiches we ate
10 - Number of times we took the subway
2,001 - Number in feet of tallest structure in Guangzhou (3rd highest in world)
2,000 - Approximate number of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) security cameras we noticed
60 - number of television stations at our hotel on Shamian island
11 - number of stations operated by China Central Television (government run TV, also abbreviated CCTV, coincidence, I think not)
50 - Approximate number of TV stations broadcasting the National Day parade. (The news reports that day stated that the viewership set a new record. I wonder why that is when no one worked on that day and most stations were broadcasting it)
12 - Approximate number of TV stations that broadcast Chinese soap operas
11 - Approximate number of Chinese soap operas where the theme is centered around the military.
10 - Approximate number of times I saw commercials with Jackie Chan endorsing a product.
2 - Number of sports channels devoted to ping pong, badminton and other sports like synchronized diving
30 - Number of minutes for the best fireworks show we ever saw.
4 - Number of shop owners on Shamian island that we tried to visit daily
2 - Number of Sundays that at least one of us went to Church
1 - Number of times our family stepped out of building and almost got hit by a car driving on the sidewalk.
4,000 - Approximate number of car horn honks we heard.
5 - The apparent age in which they teach you marching in school
14 - The apparent age in which they have the boys run through rifle drills for PE class (when we saw them they were practicing the bayonet lunged while yelling something in Chinese)
7 - Number of western stores or restaurants we visited (Pizza Hut, Papa John's, 7-11, McDonalds, Ikea, Starbucks, Subway)
1,500 Approximate number of steps climbed at the Great Wall of China
15 - The date in which we fly into Fresno (9:55 AM)

Friday, October 9

2009-10-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

OK, we want to be home now! Kind of tired of living out of a hotel in a foreign country. Now that the Chinese holiday period is over, things will start happening. Just need to hold out tell 10/14. On a good note, we took a huge excursion today. More like a safari, and it was. We boarded the metro once again and went to Guangzhou Xiangjiang Safari Park. We now know the difference between a good metro station and a bad one. A bad one, as in the case of the other night, has metal detectors and security screening. Once inside the park, we took a tram and got to see various kinds of animals that you can't find at the Fresno Zoo. There is also a snack bar with food that you would not find in Fresno either. Speaking of food, we were at a local café here on the island the other night. It had a small selection of western food so Tamra decided to get the deep fried chicken. Sure enough the entire chicken came out head and all. So Tamra ate a starbuck's muffin that night for dinner. At the safari park we saw several shows including an elephant, monkey, bird and white tiger show. Elsie liked the bird show and would point to all the birds flying overhead.

Monday (10/5)

2009-10-05T13:24:00.001-07:00

Elsie has made tremendous progress and is breaking out of her shell. We can get her to laugh and giggle quite a bit and even see glimpses of her character. She now says mama and dada and points to us. Kind of neat. Elsie spent almost the entire afternoon in a baby bjorn strapped to Tamra. After seeing more brides taking their wedding photos then we cared to, we decided to venture out to Baiyun Mountain (white cloud) and Yantai Gardens. We had to get on the metro (subway) again. The station is about a 1/2 mile from the hotel. After making one transfer to another subway line we got off and hailed a taxi. We have been told that some taxi drivers are from the rural areas and the best thing you can do is bring a map along and point to where you want to go. It worked for getting there. Getting back was a different story. Anyways, the garden was amazing, lots of vegetation all around. Afterwards, we took a gondola to the top of the mountain. I realized why the locals called it white cloud mountain. All you can see when your at the summit is the city enveloped in a white haze of smog. So we had to take a taxi back to the subway station. I found a taxi and pointed to the subway station on the map. We got in and I thought everything was going smoothly until the cab driver stopped and motioned that we arrived at our destination. I was kind of concerned and asked him where the metro station was. He ran his hand back and forth as to indicate that is was near, maybe right under us. We got out of the cab and realized we were not in Kansas anymore, wasn’t even sure it was China. I've heard of enclaves in the states like Little Italy and such. Well, we were in Little Africa or more precisely Little Nigeria. Every other person was African. OK, did not expect that. I asked a police officer (for there were many) if he could direct us to the metro station but he brushed me off. On a side note, Tamra has been really surprised how quickly I ask for directions since we have been in China Went down the road a little further and asked a shop owner how to get to the metro station. Within a few seconds, a crowd had converged on us as if we were some kind of freak show. I have been known to block out all sorts of things around me that concern Tamra. Well, as I am trying to communicate with this guy I feel this tap on my shoulder. Tamra is white as a ghost and tells me we need to keep moving because we are attracting a crowd. I look up and say, "Yea.... yea, your right, lets keep walking." So after about a brisk 10 minute walk we finally see the metro escalator. That was a good feeling.

Just Pictures

2009-10-04T16:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of life around the hotel...

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

2009-10-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sunday (10/4)
This morning I went to the Christ Church of Shamian Island. Obviously, the church is not one of these home churches you hear so much about and actually is located right next door to a a police substation. They had a Mandarin/English service at 11:00 AM. Trent was not feeling well so Tamra, the boys and Elsie stayed at the hotel. I was quite amazed, and perhaps so were the other attendees, for I was the only non-Chinese. It was the first time for me that a Chinese person wanted to get my picture (It happens to the boys frequently). So there I stood at the entrance to the church with some guy I never met posing for a picture. Soon after I sat down, the women I met early in the week sat down by me. I really enjoyed the service, although you could say that half was all Chinese to me. The service started with a chorus in English, then the music leaders would switched to a different song in mandarin. One thing caught my attention very quickly, the English song was not necessary a upbeat praise chorus song like you would in hear in the states. It was more a cry from the heart of someone in despair, kind of like a psalm of David. I have since tried to google some of the song lyrics, but have been unable to find them. The song included phrases like, "how do you go to a land that has no hope" and "people that are in a place with so much pain". I think that everyone there knew exactly what that song means. For in being there, they must have been rejected by their own family, forsaking the traditions of Buddhism. The message by the pastor was on the difference of justification and sanctification and it was handled quite well.
The pastor would speak in mandarin then an interpreter would translate into English. Only the prayers would not be translated. They had responsive reading from the Bible and when the congregation spoke in Mandarin every syllable was in unison, like the soldiers marching in step in the parade days before. When they spoke in English I cringed, for it was sloppy and jumbled. It was kind of neat, because I think believers may come to the combined service just to better understand the English language. Many people do not have the access to higher education, so the combination of Mandarin and English may help them. The sermon included several references to the old and new testament, and it was very encourage to see the young and the old flip through the Bibles. Some had Chinese Bibles, some English, some had a version with both. About half way through the service I notice a closed circuit TV security camera on the wall pointed directly at the front of the church. I could only ponder, was it there to prevent theft during the week or is big brother watching? By the way, since I have been in China, I have never seen so many CCTV security cameras and police in my life. There are even people wearing red armbands that I guess are employed by the police to be a kind of neighborhood watch (Reminds me of Obama's civilian army proposal). Some of you have asked if we feel safe here. Well, with the cameras and police at every coroner the answer is I feel safer here then in many parts of Fresno. Later in the day, our family went out to visit our friend to
give her our laundry (I think most people here have a side business of doing foreigners' laundry). On the way back we decided to stop at Starbucks. At the table next to us, there was a group of younger people having a bible study (not all that much different then what you would see in the states).

Lately, our days have consisted of staying in the hotel and taking short walks around the island. It is not necessary what we would like to do, but just what has happened. Sometimes our boys are not feeling well, other times Elsie is in need of a nap. She gets very fussy around 11:30. There is a play room in the hotel, where we do find Elsie is able to come out of her shell a bit. I did venture out on the subway again with the boys yesterday. We were trying to go to a specific area of the town where they sell jade. We got off the subway and hit a wall of people. With the national holiday, everyone is out and about doing shopping. We were told by our guide that we should expect this until the 9th. We may try later to go to a museum or hopefully an animal safari park. The fireworks show the other night was phenomenal. From the country that invented fireworks, they really know how to put on a show. Since the island was packed with people we decided to stay in our hotel. We all went to the 8th floor and watched them from a stairwell, not a bad view at all. I must admit that I usually get bored at fireworks shows. Sometimes they all look the same to me, just different colors. Not this show. It went on for 30 minutes with different themed fireworks every few minutes. After the show was over, we came back to the room and watched the show at Tiananmen Square. From what I head, they used 10 times as much fireworks at that show as they did at the Olympics. When they camera would pan the crowd all you could see is teenagers and college age kids waving the Chinese flag. The government is very aware of what is displayed on the TV. They would lead you to believe that everyone is happy and if your
not, your strange.

60th Anniversary Chinese National Day

2009-09-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

Thursday (10/1/2009)
We arrived at our new hotel yesterday afternoon. It is the Victory Hotel on Shamian Island. Typically, this island is filled with tourists, especially Americans that are adopting. However, because of the holiday this week, pretty much all of the foreigners have gone home. We have strolled the streets and visited several shops and food markets. They eat everything here. You can find snakes, Lizards skin, turtles, scorpions all right around the corner from KFC. We met one lady whom upon seeing Elsie asked if we were Christians. Upon replying, she pulled out her Chinese Bible and told us about a local church on the island. We may try it out this Sunday. Weddings in China are big this week, because the married couple can take advantage of the holiday for their honeymoon. Today is National Day here in China. I guess 60 years ago today, Mao Zedong proclaimed to the world in Tiemann square the founding of the People's Republic of China. A HUGE parade was held at the square. Complete with the army, tanks, warplanes and ICBM nuclear weapons. Oh, they also had little kids singing. As we walked through the market, we could see all the TV's playing the parade. We came back to the Hotel and watched a little bit on TV. Um, I think that was pretty much the only choice, since all the TV channels were playing it. We hope to see a big fireworks display tonight. We may have a good view out of our hotel window. The woman in the photo with Tamra and Elsie, is our guide Elsie.

More Pictures

2009-09-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

The first picture is David, one of our coordinators.

This picture is a group shot, a couple of days before we got Elsie.

Elsie

2009-09-29T19:07:00.001-07:00

September 30, 2009

We just got back to our room from breakfast. Elsie did very well last night. Tamra put her down at about 8:30 pm and she slept soundly until 6:00 am. Just like her orphanage schedule stated. Elsie wants only to be held by Tamra at this time. She is very shy and timid and has not said one thing to us. Elsie will just looks at us with those big eyes of hers (they are huge, in a beautiful way) and try to figure out what is going on. She will cry if Tamra walks away as she did when Elsie's nanny dropped her off at the adoption center. The nanny would hide around the corner out of Elsie's sight. When Elsie caught of glimpse of her nanny, she would let out this soft cry. It is kind of sad, but also good to know that she possibly had formed a emotional bond with someone at the orphanage. Elsie ate really well at breakfast. She had some fruit and some congee, which is rice porridge. Think of it as 5 minute rice boiled for an hour with a lot of salt. Got to go now. All of our adoption group is headed out to the airport and we need to say some goodbyes and exchange some emails. Today we will be changing our hotel. We are going to stay in the Victory Hotel on Shamain Island. It is about half the price of where we are at now.

Elsie Shanjing Gardner

2009-09-29T06:07:00.001-07:00

Well, we got her. Her name is Elsie Shanjing Gardner. We named her after our adoption coordinator, whom we very much love and has helped us out tremendously.

On another note, we may be here until the 14th. We need to get a passport from the Chinese government but they will be on National holiday (Oct 1-8). Weekend (Oct 10-11). The American Consulate needs to give us a visa after the passport but they will be closed on Columbus Day (Oct 12). Our coordinator said no one has every stayed this long in China. Well, this was just a quick update cause we got some bonding to do.

2009-09-28T04:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday (9/27),
Today at breakfast, while planning to go to the park for the day with our adoption group, we were informed by our adoption coordinator that we needed to go back to the adoption center here in Guangzhou. The coordinator indicated that progress was being made and Tamra and I needed to do some paperwork for a new girl. This is the same place where our family first met Megan and obviously it is a little difficult to go back. When we arrived, we were presented with a file of a girl from an orphanage in Shenzhen, a city very close to Hong Kong. Her name is Long Shan Jing. From what we know, she had hemangioma on three different parts of her body. We think from a quick translation of her medical file by our coordinator that all three were surgically removed. Long Shan Jing was abandoned when she was about 4 months old and placed her in an orphanage. Doctors approximated her birthday to be 1-04-2008. Oddly, that is the same birthday as Megan. Tamra and I came back to hotel and rewrote a Letter of Intent, a document that is addressed to the Chinese adoption agency and states we would like to adopt a specific child. The document was then translated by our adoption agency in Beijing and then faxed over to the Chinese Adoption agency. Amazingly, this all transpired over about an hour. The first Letter of Intent that we wrote for Megan took several hours for us to write, over the course of a few days. We had specifically purchase a laptop for this trip, since we never had owned one. In the last few minutes before we left our home, I copied all of our adoption files from our home computer to our laptop, just in case. Well it worked out, because we were able to use our original Letter of Intent, modify it a little, and resubmit it. The time line for all of this seems to be stepped up one day. Since this is Sunday, people in the government do not tend to work. Our coordinator stated, that our adoption agency was able to find one person working today to get the ball rolling. The next approval that we are waiting for is our Travel Approval, which is kind of odd, since we are already in China. Once we get approval, It may be possible to met Long Shan Jing tomorrow afternoon. After that, we would need to get her a passport from China and have a medical exam preformed. Following that, we would make an appointment with the US Consulate and receive a visa. The Chinese National Day is looming right around the corner (October 1). This is a holiday period when everything shuts down for a few days. We are not quite sure we will make it out before the holiday arrives. It is not a major problem, it just will add some additional cost with lodging and airline fees. We are very much excited, but also remain a little heartbroken. We will take one day at a time. Please keep Megan, us and Long Shan Jing in your prayers.

Prayers Needed

2009-09-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

It is with much sadness that I make this post. Our family received Megan on Monday afternoon (9/21) with much joy and anticipation of the life we would have together. Within hours of bringing Megan to the hotel, Tamra noticed that Megan would not respond to our voices or any noise for that matter. I was unwilling to believe it and shrugged it off to have something to do with a cold that Megan had. We put Megan to bed for the night and amazingly she slept the entire night. The problem was that in the morning she did not awake when we called to her. Clapping over her head did not even wake her up. She awoke only when we picked her up. We arranged with our adoption coordinator to take Megan immediately to a doctor. The doctor could not give us a specific diagnosis, only a general observation due to the official procedures required by the Chinese adoption agency. Only an official children's hospital can make a diagnosis for an orphan. His observation was that Megan was either near or completely deaf with some other medical issues. He stated that it was possible, given that Megan was an orphan from the southern rural area of China, that her birth mother had a disease such as rubella during the first trimester of the pregnancy. Tamra took Megan to the children's hospital over the next two days with the aide of our adoption coordinator. They evaluated Megan's developmental delay and hearing. The results were not real encouraging. Basically, her developmental skills ranged anywhere between 1 month (fine motor) to 9 months (gross motor) with her mental development at around a 3 to 5 month old. Megan is about 20 months old. The hospital's assessment is consistent with what Tamra and I had observed in the few days we had with her. Institutionalized orphans are inherently developmental delayed, but this with her deafness and poor eyesight probably would not cause the delay we see in Megan. The results of the hearing test indicated that both ears were functioning correctly. Megan's congenital deafness was then a result of either cochlear nerve damage or her brain itself, not being able to translate sound. In most cases, it is not treatable. As you all know Megan had severe esotropia. When I took into account the combination of congenital esotropia, nerve deafness and developmental delay, I could not help but think back to what the first doctor had said about congenital rubella syndrome. That was not his official diagnosis, but the children's hospital was not going to provide any more test to pinpoint the problem. It was at this point that our adoption coordinator presented us with some options. He stated that based on the observations and tests that the children's hospital did perform, we had more then a compelling case to petition the Chinese adoption agency for another child due to the inadequate medical record that had previously been given to us. Our coordinator stated that from time to time this happens. We were presented with this article by a family member while we were going through the decision. http://www.theadoptionguide.com/options/articles/lost-daughters

Many of you know that Tamra and I have searched out to find a special needs orphan to bring into our family. Tamra and I have even had discussions to the possibility of more then one. We have always contended however, we will take one day at a time with that decision. I personally felt that if we continued with the adoption of Megan that it would preclude us from ever adopting again. I further thought that there may be a chance that Megan may be adopted by another family, one that will know how to better care for her needs. Needless to say, this is a very difficult situation for our family, especially Tamra and the boys who are with us (Trent and Jared). How does one come to a decision such as presented to our family? Not without a great amount of angst. Today (9/24), I drafted a letter to the Chinese adoption agency to petition them for another special needs girl. We delivered the letter and returned Megan at the same time. As of now, we do not know if our request for another child will be granted. We will find out more in the next few days and keep everyone posted. Please keep Megan in your thoughts and prayers.

Chris

Day 5 Monday, September 21, 2009

2009-09-21T08:28:00.000-07:00

Well, after a long day of anticipation, we set out for the Adoption Registry Center of Guangdong Province at 2:30 pm. There was only one other family in our group, the rest went to different provinces. We arrived and the other family received their baby almost right away. Other families from other adoption groups also arrived and received their children. The wait was killing us but it is a special sight to see other people that you don't even know have there gotcha day. Why is it so hard to wait for a few minutes when you have been waiting for almost two years? Our guide told us that the reason for Megan's delay was that she was being transported form her orphanage in the southern part of China and the trip was several hours. We caught a glimpse of Megan arriving, strapped in a baby carrier attached to the front of one of her two nannies. They quickly took her to a back room but reemerged a few moments later walking with some assistance. Then came the tears. I was not sure if I was going to cry or not, but Chris had no doubts that I would. I'll let the pictures describe the rest.

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Day 3 Saturday, September 19, 2009

2009-09-19T19:32:00.000-07:00

Our tour this morning was Tiemann Square and the Forbidden City. Each were phenomenal. The square is at the center of Beijing, and will be the focal place for the holiday on October 1. The guide said the the square is the largest in the world and can accommodate up to a million people. Would not want to be there when that occurred. Everywhere in Beijing, you can't help but notice the presence of police and the military, but at the square it is especially true. The Forbidden City is also large, but crowded. A kind of strange thing has been happening since we got here that we never anticipated. Everywhere we go we get looks by the Chinese people. We knew that would probably happen, and it is no big deal. But what we did not expect is the fascination that the Chinese people have with Trent and Jared. We have had several people come up to us and ask with hand gestures if they could take pictures with the boys. It is like they have never seen a white kid. My suspension is that most of these people that we run into are from the rural areas of China also visiting Beijing, just like us. After looking around quite a bit we have not noticed many foreign kids at all. A lot of foreigners, but no foreign kids. After the Forbidden City tour, it was off to another traditional Chinese restaurant for among other thing, Peking Duck. After a short pause at the Crow's Nest we made the journey to the Great Wall of China. The bus ride took about 45 minutes. On the way there Chris noted something odd. He remarked that he had not seen the sun since Tuesday afternoon. Many of you may remember from the Olympics last year that Beijing has so much smog. No sky, just a grey haze. It makes Fresno and LA look nice. Even at the Great Wall of China the view was very limited. But besides that, the wall was amazing. We managed to make it up a respectable amount up the wall. It is a very sobering thought to thing about how much labor went into the wall. Here we are, panting after just a short distance and the people(or slaves) who built it not only had to walk up and down it, but carry bricks too. Tomorrow (9/20) is our travel day. Each family in our group is going to the capital of the province in which there child is located. We will be traveling to Guangzhou, near Hong Kong. Monday (9/21) will be the day we meet Megan. Yea!

Day 2 Friday, September 18, 2009

2009-09-19T15:35:00.000-07:00

Our 2nd day in China was full of activities once again. We met Cindy, our guide, in the hotel lobby at 8:30 am and headed over to the Temple of Heaven with the rest of the people in our adoption group. Another family showed up today with a son about the same age as Derek (7), so our boys enjoyed having him around. The temple is a sprawling complex of both grounds and buildings rich in traditional Chinese architecture. In preparation for the 60th anniversary of China's National Day on October 1 (this is a big deal), there were all sorts of Chinese groups either singing national songs or dancing everywhere along the grounds. In one group, there was what looked like a marching band and hundreds of people singing. Another group had dancers dressed in traditional clothing. The Chinese really enjoy their leisure time, especially the older folk. They know how to slow down and enjoy life (or it could be they have nothing better to do?). From what we know, which is limited, most people retire at 55 and then have lots of time just to hang out. From the temple, we had lunch at a place that was kind of like a Chinese rain forest café with live entertainment. The traditional food was delicious. It was quite the spread with fish, pork, chicken, duck, rice, and soup. After lunch, we went on a Hutong tour (Hutong means little street) in the old part Beijing, complete with a rickshaw ride. We were told by a local tour guide that one little Hutong house with a central courtyard was worth 3 million U.S. dollars. It was kind of hard to believe because the house did not even have a toilet. In the Hutong communities they have central public restrooms (kinda weird). Typically, you only find the older generations in the Hutong communities because the younger crowd likes to have individual restrooms and they also enjoy the urban feel of the high rise apartment buildings. And speaking of buildings, there are many. Beijing has a population of about 16 million. There are people walking everywhere on the streets. I have never seen so many bikes and custom mopeds in my life. Even the deliverymen for KFC and Mc'Donalds ride bikes. Chris likes the fact that the traffic signals have lights for cars, pedestrians and even bikes. The one child policy shows up everywhere. You can see early in the morning all the people taking their children to school on their bikes and scooter. The children often sit side saddle on the bike's luggage rack. It is amazing to see the children texting on their cell phones, on the back of the bikes without a care in the world, meanwhile just inches away from a big bus. Throughout the entire day, I found myself (as did many other moms in our group) staring at these young Chinese children and babies. We have to keep pinching ourselves that in just 3 days we will all meet our children. In the evening our group went to the Beijing acrobat show. Amazing! Did not know the human body can bend that way. I kind of feel old when I tell my kids that the acrobats can stretch like gumby and they ask, "whose gumby?" You know, the green guy.... ah forget it. When we returned to the hotel room, we discovered that Chris had a letter waiting for him. It read "Required by China Disease Control Center, Could you come to the front desk and have your temperature taken twice a day." On the plane ride over we all had to feel out a form stating our current medical condition and if we had any flu like symptoms recently. On the form they ask also where you will be staying. Even when we disembarked the plane we were thermal scanned to make sure we did not have a fever. So now Chris has to go down every morning and evening to get his temperature taken. He never had a temperature, the government just likes to do random checks. China is taking this H1N1 thing seriously. We ended the day at an old familiar restaurant, Pizza Hut. Although, this had to be the best Pizza Hut we have ever seen. They did not have the old go-to pepperoni pizza, however. Most pizzas had some sort of seafood on it.

Day 1

2009-09-17T08:10:00.000-07:00

We are here safe and sound. After our 12 hour flight we landed at 4:10 am got to the hotel at 6 am. We were all so tired. None of us slept to well on the plane. Trent and Jared took in every moment since this was their first plane ride. The hotel is nice and they were able to put us in our room at such an early hour. After getting settled into our room we ventured out. What a difference, things are so different here. McDonald's was a welcomed sight for us for breakfast. It was just a few blocks from our hotel. From there we made our way to 7-11 to buy some bottled water. At 9 am we took a tour of the Summer Palace with a few others from our travel group. It was quite breath taking. All the detail and the size of it was amazing. After the tour we came back and the boys went swimming and then we all took a quick nap. Some of us in the group decided for dinner we would try a local restaurant. One of the couples ordered fried fish once the order was placed they brought a bucket with the live fish to our table. We assume it was to make sure they were pleased with the selection. The food we got was delicious can't wait to try more. Since I am starting to see double from being so tired I am going to say good night. Tomorrow is another busy day of sight seeing. Enjoy some of the pictures. Oh yeah, Trent had an especially great day as it was his birthday. I don't think he can ever top it.

2009-09-09T07:59:00.000-07:00

UPDATE WITH PHOTOS

We leave in 6 days! After 1 year and 9 months we are down to just 6 days. It feels surreal. I have been busy trying to get everything done. Checking everything off of my to do or pack lists. I can't tell you how many times I have gone over these lists. As I have been trying to pack there have been some unknowns. Is Megan potty train? On a bottle? Does she sleep in a crib? Is she walking? How big is she? These answers would be helpful to know what I should pack. a friend gave me a link to a website a while ago. I figured it would be to much so dismissed it. Since I was stressing Chris told me to just go ahead and do it if it would help me out. I went to the site and the cost was not what I was expecting. It was very inexpensive so we did it. They place a call to the orphanage to get her height, weight, head circum., foot length, and #of teeth. On top of that info we can ask 10 additional questions. On the website they mention that about 85-90% of the phone calls come back with photos. I was not holding my breath since the phone call was placed this past Sunday night. This morning when I checked email there was Megan's info plus PICTURES. Megan is crawling mostly, but can walk while holding onto someone. She is 2 and 1/2 feet tall, weighs 22 lbs. and has 16 teeth. She is not potty trained (we kind of expected that) and she eats formula with cereal mixed in. I can not wait to be able to hold our little girl in less than 2 weeks (September 21)See you soon sweet daughter!!!

Momma's Coming

2009-08-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

China Here we come!!!!!

We had an email this morning from our agency which stated that they received our travel approvals. YEAH!!!!! They will be contacting the American Consulate in China to make our appointments. If able to secure the appointment dates they want we will be leaving Sept. 16Th. Here is what our itinerary looks like while in China.

Thurs, Sept 17, arrive in Beijing

Fri, Sept 18, day of sightseeing and meet up with our travel group

Sat, Sept 19, sightseeing
Sun, Sept 20, fly to capital city of your child’s province
Mon, Sept 21, meet your child (she will be with us from that point on)
Tues, Sept 22, do registration and apply for the passport
Wed & Thurs, Sept 23 - Sep 24, sightseeing and free days
Fri, Sept 25: get the passport and all papers back.

Sat. Sept 26: medical exam
Sun. Sep 27, free day
Mon, Sep 28, ACS appt (first choice)
Tues, Sept 29, take oath at the ACS & receive children’s visas late in day depending on date of ACS appt.

Wed, Sept 30, you can leave Guangzhou on this day and return to the US

We are so excited that this is coming so fast. We will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible while there. We would love for you to keep us in your prayers while we are on our trip. Having the support of family and friends is very important to us.

As stated in the prior post we had our pre-approval. July 21st is when we got our SCL ( seeking confirmation letter) This was just 40 days after pre-approval. We were told it would take between 3 to 5 months. Since that time we have been working on getting things ready for when we do travel. Our passports have been mailed to the Chinese Consulate in San Fransisco for our visas. I have been shopping for all the things we will need for our trip. And trying to get in as much school with the kids before we leave.

As many of you know we had made the decision to not incur any new debt as we finish this adoption. Just as we made this decision Chris was given 3 furlow days a month equaling a 15% cut in pay. Putting our faith in God we plowed forward. It has been amazing to sit back and watch God provide. Through major cuts in the way we spend our money each month, Yard sales and the sale of Chris's truck and through very generous gifts we have made it to our goal.

The yard sales were a huge success. We had so many people donate items that is was so overwhelming the love and support that we felt. The first was on Aug 1st where we made $2400, the second sale was 2 weeks later. We made another $1000 at that one. Just yesterday we became a 1 car family as we sold Chris's truck. We count it as a blessing that we had something of value to sell. We plan on saving for a while after we are back to replace it. Nothing fancy just something to get him to and from work. One of the many things we have been reminded of is that the things of this earth are only temporary. And are we willing to sacrifice or give up the things we do have.

This last Saturday I was in complete shock as I pulled up to my mom's. On the lawn were family and friends ready to greet me at my "surprise shower". I was completely surprised and that's hard to do. I was moved to tears many times throughout the day, just overwhelmed by all the support and love from everyone. Plus the total provision by God and His answers to our many prayers. We are so excited to be closing this chapter of our journey as we will be starting a new one with Megan home as part of our family.

I cannot thank everyone who has helped us all along the way enough. Words sometimes just do not do justice to the way we feel about each and everyone of you. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

This a photo of what the first yard sale looked like. It covered my parents front yard.

2009-06-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

We Have Pre-Approval For

Megan Yun Zhi

We received an email this morning letting us know we have our pre-approval. It took 3 and half weeks to get it. In adoption it is a hurry up to wait. Now we are waiting for our SCL (seeking conformation letter) this we were told would take about 3 months. Then about another month to get travel approval , and another 4 weeks to actually leave. SO, we "supposedly" will be traveling sometime in October . We would love your prayers that it would move along quicker than that.

A little about Megan

Nan Yun Zhi was on our agencies dedicated list know only as CHI-8. This list was put on their website the middle of April. For the next 2 weeks I would look over the list everyday. Sometimes multiple times a day. I kept coming pack to her photo. There was something about this little girl that I just could not get her out of my mind. On April 28Th I email our agency and asked to view her file. (only 1 family could view a file at a time) For the next week I made countless phone calls to doctors to try to get any information on her eye condition. As you can see from her photo she has what is call Esotropia. With no luck from the doctors I was getting a little discouraged. I just wanted to talk to someone in this field to glean whatever information they could give. The director of the Chin@ team in our agency called me the following Monday to see if we could let her know by Friday if we wanted to move forward or not. Another family was interested in viewing her file as well. After hanging up the phone I said a prayer asking God to open a door if we were to move forward. Not only did he open it, it was flung wide open. I decided to make one more phone call to a local ophthalmologist. They were willing to meet with me and just happened to have a opening that some week. I took it!!! When I got to the appointment I felt as if they rolled out the red carpet for me. Everyone in the office knew about this women coming for a consult for a possible adoptive child. The Md. wanted us to go ahead and start a file on her. (I thought that was jumping the gun a little) So we did. In hind sight I can see that was ALL God's doing. The doctor after looking at her medical information and her photos calmly looked at me and matter of factly said " she needs surgery " then proceeded to tell about it. With those words I knew without a doubt CHI-8 was our daughter. I called our agency that night to tell them she is our daughter. By that Monday 5-18-09, our LOI (letter of intent) was on its way to Chin@.
Nan Yun Zhi (Megan) is 16 mo. old. Born on January 4th 2008. (She was born at the same time we started filling out all of our paperwork at the Begining of our adoption Journey) she is 19 lbs. and is about 34 in. tall. and has 12 teeth. She is described as being quiet, sweet and smiles a lot. I am counting the days until I finally get to hold her. I am so amazed at the love I already have for her and we have never met. I love you my darling daughter and can't wait to hold you and love on you.

2009-06-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

We have no change in our status to report. We are patiently waiting for our Pre-Approval. Once we get it I will post more information about our little girl. Such as Name, where she is and a little about her conditions. I know many of you can't wait to hear what her new name will be. It is the first question people ask when we talk about her. Our pre-approval should come any day now.

Our Kids are so excited about having a new sister. Trent, whenever we are talking to someone likes to interrupt and answer the questions for us. He has been listening to us for so long that he knows just what to say. Jared and Derek like to talk about her to everyone they meet. Be it at the dentist, grocery store, or wherever. Nicole is anxious to bring her home too. Finally another girl to play with. We received a toddler bed for her sister to sleep in about a week ago. Can you guess where Nicole has been sleeping for the past few days?

A new start

2009-05-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

Welcome!! Many of you have been following our family via another blog site. This is where you will be able to continue our journey. As we will be closing the other site. Come back soon.