TRAVEL DATES!

Thank you, Lord for this blessing!!! We are so humbled that we were chosen to be the parents of our precious children and that our beautiful Bailey Shay will soon be joining us!

We rec'd our travel dates this morning!
We arrive in Beijing on July 20. As far as we know, we will receive Bailey on July 23. Our consulate appt. is July 31 and we will be HOME on August 2. More details later. :)

BAILEY IS COMING HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Working On The Princess Suite

Marty has been working all weekend on Brinley and Bailey's bathroom. It must be 'just right' for our girls. Since jie jie moved out I haven't had the heart to work on it very much but now with our TA here we know that we have to get things going. The bathroom was a mauve pink and now it is a bright and sunny yellow. Their daddy is building a new vanity for them and they will have a new sink. The really cool thing about their vanity is that it will have a bottom drawer that pulls out and is actually something for them to stand on when they use the sink. When you lift the part that they can stand on, there is storage space under it. I can't wait to see our two little princesses standing there brushing their teeth together! :)The bathroom will be decorated in Raggedy Ann. I have always loved Raggedy Ann and I have a large collection of dolls and other items. Kristen has never had much interest in Raggedy Ann but Brinley does so we are going with the Raggedy theme.

The bedroom is going to have some ladybugs in it but no specific theme. I bought Brinley a comforter at my friend Michelle Lee's yard sale and Brinley absolutely LOVES it. I was lucky enough to find another one just like it on eBay for Bailey so we will be using those. Brinley is so excited about the new bedroom that she will share with Bailey!

Their daddy is building new beds for them too! I can't wait to show them off! We are so lucky to have such a talented daddy around here! We just tell him what we want built and he can do it and it always turns out even better than I hope it will! He is THE BEST DADDY in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD and WE LOVE HIM VERY MUCH!!! :)

He even lets us put pretty bows in his hair!!!

WE LOVE YOU, DADDY!!!

TA!!!!

It has taken 12 months and 1 week for me to be able to type the words,

WE HAVE TA!!!!!

I still can't believe that it's true!!!

Our agency is requesting a CA for 7/30, 7/31 or 8/01 for us!

We should be leaving around 7/16!

God is so good! We thank you, Lord, for this blessing in our lives!

Bailey Shay Is Coming Home!

Brinley Loves Books

I took these photos of Brinley recently while she was "reading" one of her favorite books. :) She is such a sweetheart!

One Year Ago....

On June 13, 2006 I looked into the eyes of my daughter and KNEW in my heart that she was my child.


Create Your Own

This is the post I made on June 16, 2006.

"On April 18 I was emailing back and forth with my friend who has a child from Guilin and she mentioned that there was a little girl from Guilin on the Cradle of Hope Agency's list of special needs children. I asked my friend how I could see this little one's picture. She told me how I could view it. This little girl was just the sweetest thing. Her name was Yang Xin Ru.


We weren't looking for another child. I just wanted to see this Guilin sweetie. Maybe my cousin could adopt her!
Fast-forward to June 6. My adoption clock has suddenly gone into overload. God is constantly in my thoughts about adoption. I know we are suppose to go again but I know Marty isn't ready. I start gathering info on children. None of them are ours but a couple of them do tug at my heart so I put their photos on the refrigerator so we'll all remember to pray that they will find their families. One of the agencies I contacted was Cradle of Hope, inquiring if I could view their list of waiting children. I'd forgotten that Xin Ru was on their list. I received a very quick response that the children remaining on their list had been returned to the CCAA and that they would be receiving a new list soon. I asked to be contacted when the new list came out. Another family was adopting Xin Ru so her file wasn't returned. She was coming home. They had posted their good news on WCC on May 12.
I didn't read the Yahoo groups for several days because I was busy with the kids since school had just ended for the year and we were going camping. I missed the post on May 26 from the family planning to adopt Xin Ru. They were no longer adopting her due to cirumstances beyond their control. (They have since found their beautiful daughter Olivia on another agency's list and are in China RIGHT NOW with her and she is beautiful and perfect and so blessed to have Angela as her mother.) Xin Ru was available again and her file had not gone back with the other children's files to the CCAA.
On June 13 I read a post that said in part, "We're looking for a home for X.Y., a happy Chinese girl born in April 2004 with a cleft lip and palate. X.Y. had surgery to repair her lip. She is reported to be a healthy child who loves to walk and ride wooden horses. She enjoys being held and trying to sing along with her caretakers." I emailed Kelly at Cradle of Hope and asked if I could view X. Y.'s file. I had no idea it was sweet little Xin Ru. When I opened the file my heart almost stopped when I saw her sweet face again.

Xin Ru!!!

That name had been playing over and over in my mind. "Xin Ru" I remembered that Stephen Curtis Chapman mentioned that his second adopted daughter's name was Xin Bie Ru in a video. I thought that was why I'd had it in my brain.....but I hadn't watched those videos since we had brought Brinley home. That was 6 months ago! Why in the world would I remember that was their child's name? "Xin Ru"
Here was my answer staring back at me on the computer screen. Our daughter's name.

"Xin Ru"

I quickly emailed Kelly and told her that Xin Ru and Brinley were from the same orphanage. Brinley had in fact come over and patted the computer screen and said, "Xin Ru!" and laughed. She said, "Mama, Xin Ru mei mei." Which in Brinley's vocabulary means Xin Ru is a baby. I guess that is how she remembers her. Xin Ru is eight and a half months younger than Brinley. I told Kelly that I was going to talk with my husband about her but he was out of town at the time. She told me that would be fine. How in the world could I tell Marty that I'd found our daughter? I prayed and God reassured me that he too would be talking to Marty. My faith was strong but I didn't get my hopes up. Maybe I was just imagining all of this. I prayed. God reassured me. I wept......and prayed more. "But God....did you remember to talk to Marty about this???" My only answer was "Fear not."
Marty returned home the night of June 14. I didn't mention it to him. The next morning he asked me why I hadn't slept much. He asked if Brinley kept me awake. I said, "Yes, Brinley......and God." I'm sure he knew what was coming but he stayed calm. During breakfast he asked me what I'd meant. When I told him he still stayed calm but told me that he had doubts about whether or not we could handle another child...... I was crushed.
However, before he left for work, everything had turned around and we were definitely going to talk some more about it. Marty said I seemed to be more in tune with what we were suppose to do as far as adoptions. God must have been speaking to him. I emailed Kelly and told her that we needed a couple of days to look at our finances and would it be possible to let her know our definite answer Monday. I gave her some of our basic family info. She promptly emailed back, "I haven't had any other requests for information on Xinru so Monday should be fine as far as a deadline is concerned. " I had to answer a few more questions for her to let her know that we could truly possibly qualify to be Xin Ru's parents.
So, now I sit here waiting. Today is Friday. When Marty and I talk about Xin Ru it is in a positive light. She is our girl. The money is going to be tight and it will be a long road back to China but Yang Xin Ru is our daughter and it's time to bring her home."

We didn't know it would be a full year before we would be bringing our sweet girl home. God has blessed us with many people having the chance to meet her and send photos of her to us. Marty didn't even realize that it has been a year until I mentioned it to him. The time has flown by and it has crawled at a snail's pace too. The time has almost come to travel to the other side of the world to bring our little girl home. :) I can't wait!

P.S. I just realized that on June 13, 2006 I found Bailey and on June 13, 2005 we rec'd our packet of information on Brinley from Children's House. God is so good. :)

Something I Wanted To Share...

For some reason I feel led to share the story of something that happened to us several months ago. I started a fundraiser to bring our little girl home. Then we were going to name her Rylie. I sent out emails to everyone who had contacted us about adoption in the past and asked them to subscribe to their favorite magazines through our fundraising site.
After that email went out we received an email from someone named Julianna W. She had emailed me before about a little boy on the Children's House list. His name was Keaton. She emailed me after receiving our subscription fundraiser and stated,

"Sharon;
I would like to donate a check for $8,000! I would also like to order subscriptions to send to people, but don't see how to do this and variety of magazines seems very limited?

Thank You!
Julianna"

Needless to say, I was in shock.

"Julianna, is this a joke? 'I would like to donate a check for $8,000!'

If you click on the subscriptions you would like then when you check out it will allow you to send them to individual addresses.

Please let me know if this is a joke. I am just speechless.........and in tears.

Sharon"

"No, I am very extremely serious with my offer of a check $8,000!

I could call you on the telephone to confirm if you would like?

When is Rylie coming home?"

I emailed our phone number and address to her.

Ten days later out of the blue we rec'd this message.

"Sharon;

I apologize for the delay. I have been involved in a friends Custody hearing. I am Fed Exing my check to you,in the amount of $8,000!

I am clueless to where you received my contact information from, but alot of the Forums that I have been on have active participants in Fundraising also! Have you tried publicly asking?

How are magazine subscriptions going?

Julianna"

We never heard anything else from this person. We can only assume that it was a very cruel joke. It hurts to know that there are people out there who will do this to others. I hope that by posting this it will save someone else from getting their hopes up if she emails you.

Peaches95827 is the email name she uses. Please don't let her get your hopes up too.

Sunny Plain Family Festival

It was almost 100 degrees at the Sunny Plains Festival but Miss Brinley sure looked cool! LOL

Brice and Brinley made THANK YOU cards that will be sent to the soldiers in Iraq.

They also played and Brinley had a ladybug painted on her face. It was incredibly hot and the ladybug had melted away by the time we got home!

Not a lot of people at this festival so daddy and Brinley read a book.

Almost OOOOooops!

We signed our LOA and I made a copy of it and Marty went to UPS to send it to our agency overnight.
Uhm............................................I gave him the COPYto send. (Leslea, don't faint!)

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!!!

Called the UPS Store and asked them to PLEASE hold the envelope until I could get there with the REAL document. The nice lady said she would. Pulled the three kids out of the pool and made them get dressed in a hurry. Got in the car and headed out to town. Marty was on a conference call on his way back home so I couldn't get through to him. He called me when I was about half way there and LAUGHED at me when I told him what had happened. He met me on the road and got the REAL document and is now at the UPS Store putting the REAL document in the envelope instead of the COPY.Whew!100% Blonde Day.

LOA Signed and Returned!

Our LOA arrived by FedEx today! We have signed it and Marty has gone to send it back overnight to our agency! We are getting closer and closer to Bailey! Thank you, Lord!!! :) We are so very blessed!

LOA!!!

Praise God! Today while I was in Target I received the call on my cell phone from our agency letting us know that our LOA for Bailey has arrived!!!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!

We are getting closer and closer!!!!

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago June 5 was a Sunday. I can recall a few moments of that day like it just happened. I was sitting in church listening to the music and the preacher. Out of nowhere I saw the face of a little girl in China. She was listed with Children's House International as Brynli and I immediately thought, "I could love this child." Marty and I had decided not to persue adoption until October and it was June but I knew in my heart that this was the child meant for us.
I won't rewrite the story of how we decided to adopt Han Wei Ya. It's all here in our blog. It was the first entry I made on our blog.

But I would like to say THANK YOU to Stefani at Children's House for placing this sweet child with us. What would our lives be like without Brinley? I can't imagine not having Wonder Pets, bubble gum and Brinley's laughter in our daily lives. God has blessed us with this child and we are so humbled and thankful that we were chosen to be her parents.

She is funny and silly and loving and compassionate and outgoing and shy and hardheaded and spunky and .................everything that is wonderful. :)

Bailey in the news!

Today I received the Spring Report from Half The Sky. This organization helps care for many, many children in China. Our girls were so fortunate to have lived in a HTS SWI. I was looking through the latest edition and I immediately spotted my friend Shelli's beautiful daughter who is waiting for her and I emailed her about it. After that I started looking again and noticed some babies from Guilin.......and there was Bailey's ayi..........and Bailey......I think. I've enlarged it as much as I can and I'm pretty sure it's her. Her ayi is on the far right and Bailey is right in front of her. I've emailed my friends who have met Bailey to see what they think.