RAFFLE!!!

My wonderful friend Donna is holding a raffle for us! She will be raffling off this absolutely gorgeous Mei Tai that she's created!
This is a post she made to one of the wonderful groups we both belong to.

Introducing
~Tava Tai~
Well, actually I have some tweaking to do & I wasn't going to debut until later this summer. But......this will give you all a taste of what is to come & it will help out a friend of mine at the same time.
Sharon (MyLittlePretty) and her family are going back to China to bring back her second Asian beauty. They weren't planning on adopting again so soon, but she didn't know what was in store! Her story and faith is amazing. They have worked hard to raise the neccessary funds to return to China! Including starting her own WAHM business. They only have the last little bit to go. They need $2,835 more for the orphange fee. They are leaving July 18th!
I would love to help her reach this goal.
All proceeds from this raffle will go directly to the children left behind in this sweet girls first home. On to the details.
This is a Mei Tai designed for the big kiddo. The front is decorator weight "Flashback" reversing to turquoise Dupioni silk with khaki denim straps. It is a "baby" size at 20 x 16 inches, but I carry my 2 1/2 year old in this design all the time. It has about 74 inches top straps.

The hood reverses to green silk.

The waist & shoulder staps are padded. The straps are sandwiched between two layers of denim & extend all the way to the waist strap creating an internal x for extra support.
The sleeping hood attaches with a clips to a side strap loop. Attention to every detail.
But wait.........I saved the best for last!!
NO MORE PARKING LOTS STRAP DRAGGING!!
Sorry, I don't have an action picture, but this works great!! There is a single snap on the waist band & midway on the shoulder strap. Snap them up like shown above and tie the waist strap, put your kiddo on your back & pull to unsnap & tie the shoulder straps. The straps don't touch the ground!! At least they don't on me & I am 5'5" and there is some wiggle room.
So there it is..If you would like to take a chance on something new & super supportive and help a great momma at the same time..............than this is the raffle for you.
Sharon will be adding something from her store to sweeten the pot a bit.
Auction ends July 8th with winner to be announce July 9th. Tickets are $10 each. Please send FUNDED paypal only to 2China4Bailey@gmail.com for as many tickets as you desire. This is Sharon's account. Please put "Flashback MT" in the memo when you pay. Then send a email to me at slipskinz@yahoo.com with the number of tickets bought.
Donna

Very blessed wife to Charlie and mom to 3 homeschooled, home & water birthed, boys (13, 9, 5) & one born in my heart asian beauty!
~Maker of SlipSkinz ~

I will be adding a tote bag from My Little Pretty! I will embroider the design of your choice from one of the hundreds of designs I have available on to one of these great bags I offer! Your choice of color and embroidery design!

Thank you so much to everyone who has bought a raffle ticket! Your generosity amazes me! Please note that Donna is requesting "Funded PayPal" only. This is so that we will receive 100% of your donation instead of a percentage of it going to PayPal. If you would really like to buy a ticket but you don't have any funds in your PayPal account, you can use "ChipIn" on our site and Donna will still receive the info for your raffle tickets.

One very blessed mom,
Sharon

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.

Final Adoption Fundraiser! :)

Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your love and support through our adoption journey to Bailey. We are hoping to have some paperwork arriving soon that will indicate approximately when we will be traveling to bring her home. This journey has been twice as long as the one to Brinley but we are nearing the end and will soon begin another chapter in life as our family welcomes Bailey home. We can't wait! :)
Many of you have asked how you can help us. Well, we are coming down to the final days of having the necessary funds to complete the adoption and we could really use some help. We are not asking anyone to pay for our tickets or lodging or paperwork. Instead, we are raising the funds for the Orphanage Fee. Everyone who adopts a child from China must pay a $3,000 Orphanage Fee. This money goes to the orphanage and it helps to care for the children who will remain in the orphanage. Many of them will be adopted someday but unfortunately many of them will not. If we should happen to raise more than the $3,000 we will still be using this money for the orphanage. We will buy any supplies for the orphanage that we can while we are in China. We would love to buy a ton of things that are truly needed for the care of the children! :)
On the right side of this blog you will see a small red square with the words "The Guilin Orphanage" at the top. If you would like to make a donation, you can just click on the "ChipIn" button and you will be taken to a secure area for making your donation.
If you can't contribute or don't feel inclined to contribute we would ask that you please pray for all of the children who want and need families of their own. There are so many!

Thank you so very much for your friendship and for loving our children,
In Him,
Sharon

A Post For Dee

Cute pictures of two of your grandchildren. :)

Itty Bitty Brinley

Everyone thinks that Brinley is a big girl when they see her photos on our blog. However, this picture shows you the real story. LOL She doesn't even come up to the door handle on our sliding doors. LOL This photo was taken just a few days ago.

Passport For Brinley!

We just rec'd Brinley's US Passport! Hooray! We were worried about it getting here in time. We had it expedited and were told that it could still take a very long time....up to 10 weeks. We applied for it on April 30.

One more thing to check off of our list!

Bring Me Hope

http://www.bringmehope.org

A family member has said that Marty and I are "buying another kid from China". It has hurt me more than you will ever know that you spoke these words. I know that you have pain and heartache in your own life and we have both lived in a world that was far from perfect while we were younger.

I hope you will watch this video and understand that we are not "buying another kid from China". We are going to China to bring our daughter home. You have met Brinley and you know how much we love this child. She is as much ours as any of our other children and Bailey will be too.

I feel sorry for you that your compassion for other people seems to have dwindled away as your savings account grew. I pray that God will put adoption and Chinese children in particular in your heart and that you will someday know what it feels like to cry for these children who have nothing and no one. Nothing.....Brinley had NOTHING but a name and the clothes she wore when we received her. Now she has everything.......and none of it can be bought at WalMart. She has a family and she has hope for tomorrow. She sings "Jesus Loves Me" with all of her heart and she breathes in the smell of the stars at night. She is perfectly loved and perfectly made......and so is Bailey.

Our daughters......born in China. I will be praying for you.

Look Familiar?

The photo on the right is the last photo we received of Brinley before we traveled to bring her home in December, 2005.

The photos we received last night of Bailey are probably the last we will receive of her before we travel.

I am ready so ready to bring Bailey home!

New Photos!

We just received three new photos of Bailey! We are so excited! We have been so blessed to have so many photos of our little sweetie while we wait! I'm sad to see that her hair has been cut again but it will grow. She is so beautiful!!!

Thank you so much, Pat, for checking on our little sweetheart! We are so happy that you have Sophie and that all is going well! :)

New Bailey Photos Coming Soon

Our friends who visited the orphanage Saturday have posted that they saw Bailey and they have photos of her. There wasn't any other information. They have been really busy and can't upload photos so I am checking my email and their site every 5 minutes hoping to see the photos.

I'll post them just as soon as I hear from Pat again. Their daughter is from the same orphanage as our girls and she is a cutie pie! Her name is Sophie and she is about the same age as Bailey. She is a Yang girl, too! :)

Please help us help them...

If you have been wondering what you can do to help the children of China, please watch this short video. It could change the life of a child. Someone cared enough to help Brinley and Bailey before we ever knew they existed. It is my prayer that you will be lead to help the other children who wait and who need us.

Grab Your Kleenex

Okay....I have given you fair warning. You will need Kleenex when you view this blog I am going to tell you about. It is the blog of the Carr family. Johnny Carr is a minister and the weekend that God touched my heart about Brinley was the same weekend that Johnny featured Brinley in his sermon on adoption. He told the congregation all about her and showed her photos to them. Many people were praying for her and for the other children he featured. His wife Beth sent a copy of the sermon to us on DVD and we will alway treasure it.

This is their blog:
http://www.carrfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/

The videos at the begining are of their adopted children James and XiaoLi. Both of them are deaf. Beth teaches deaf children. Don't forget your Kleenex!

This is an amazing family. They inspire me.

We have a new friend!

We have a beautiful new friend and her name is Lilly! Her mommy and daddy received her yesterday in Hunan. She is 18 months old and we can't wait to meet her! She will be living right down the road from us!

Congratulations to Lilly and her forever family!

A poem I love...

Mother Bridge of Love

Once there were two women who never knew each other.

One you do not remember, the other you call Mother.

Two different lives shaped to make you one.

One became your guiding star; the other became your sun.

The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it.

The first gave you a need for love. The second was there to give it.

One gave you a nationality. The other gave you a name.

One gave you a talent. The other gave you aim.

One gave you emotions. The other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile. The other dried your tears.

One sought for you a home that she could not provide.

The other prayed for a child and her hope was not denied.

And now you ask me, through your tears,

The age-old question unanswered through the years.

Heredity or environment, which are you a product of?

Neither, my darling. Neither. Just two different kinds of Love.

-Anonymous

Bailey....Come Home Soon

I sit and I look at these little photos of Bailey and I cry. I cry tears for every second we miss of her life and I cry for all that she is losing and all that she will gain in a few weeks. She has no idea that she has a mommy on the other side of the world who loves her but she does have her NahNah who loves her and takes care of her every day. Lord, please prepare her little heart for the changes that are coming.

Thank you to all of my friends who have asked about Bailey for us at the orphanage during visits......LeeAnn, Erin, Tami, Karen.... and Pat who is there in China now and received her beautiful Sophie Belle last night while we slept. Pat will be traveling to the orphanage very soon on the same train we took while we were there to visit. Pat will be asking about our beautiful Bailey while she is there and is going to ask if she can take some new phots of her for us. We are praying that she will be able to. The last family that asked to see her was denied so we are praying for a different response this time.

Guilin Foster Care

Brinley and Bailey are both from the Guilin SWI in the Guangxi Province. I heard that Grace & Hope for Children was looking for an assistant for their Foster Care Coordinator.
Since we have two daughters from this SWI it is very, very special to me and holds a very dear place in my heart. I prayed about it and decided to apply for the position. The information was posted in the Guilin SWI group on Yahoo and several people applied for the position. It was decided that two assistants will be needed and that these two people will take over as Foster Care Co-Coordinators at a later time. I feel so blessed to be able to say that I was one of the applicants chosen for the position. It is strictly volunteer but I am just so happy to be giving back to the Guilin SWI. Brinley's care was nothing short of phenomenal and from all we can tell and what we have heard Bailey's care is the same.

Thank you, Lord for giving me this opportunity to help. I am so blessed.

May 1.....CCAA Changes.....and hugs

To all of my friends who didn't make the May 1 deadline for LID, I am sending big hugs and love to all of you. I've cried for all of you today. Please know that just because right now you can't adopt from China again, it doesn't mean that you will never adopt from China again. The rules change...they always have. Have hope, have faith and remember that there are so many children out there who lay down every night in their cribs, on hard floors, grass mats or whatever they may have with no one to kiss their cheeks and tell them that they are loved and that they are special. Our Chinese children are precious to all of us but ALL children are precious. God has new adventures waiting for each and every one of you. I am here for you. Thank you for being my friends. I love each and every one of you.

"Forty pairs of little eyes
Stared into this heart of mine
A memory burned inside my soul
One that never has let go
I looked into the face of need
The least of these stared back at me…
I've seen Jesus in the eyes of all His daughters and sons
Every single one"

"Every Single One"
~Geoff Moore