Another picture of Savannah

We just received this picture for another adoptive mom. It was in an FCC article and there was a paragraph next to her name and we were truly hoping it would be information talking about her personality, maybe speech impairment but I have to say it shocked me what they choose to write. I know it might of been to shock and to get others to help with surgery expenses to fix her cleft lip and palate. I was in tears. I made the decision as her mom to shelter her from what was written because I KNOW that Shriners will repair the cleft palate to allow her mouth to completely close and to allow the world to see the wonderful smile she has. Most of all for the world to see the beautiful eyes that God has given her but because of our limitations we look below that. I love you Savannah and I know know now even more than yesterday that this journey you have been on and we have been on took the road it did to bring us together. I truly feel that once again as the world sees is not how God sees and one thing for sure is God sees Savannah as a radiant light of love!!!

Receipt from Immigration/care package

We received our receipt from Immigration stating that they have us in their system and we should hear from them on a date to be finger printed. We are thinking the date for that will be in February. We are very excited to know another step down and another step closer to bring Savannah home.

We sent another care package today. Very simple care package from the advice of many adoptive moms. It included an outfit, coloring pages, coloring book, stickers. We sent a note with a self address envelope in hopes to hear from her. We told her that she can color us a picture or send us a note with any questions she might have. Our next package will include a beautiful book that her brother Corey gave to us for Christmas to send over to her. We can record ourselves reading it and then Miley can translate it for us so Savannah can understand what I read. The book is called "Guess How Much I Love You" This way she can hear our voice and become familiar with it. We will also be sending over with the book letters that we all wrote to her and have translated. We are so excited and we hope we get to hear from her soon!!

Christmas care package

Our Christmas package that we sent to Savannah was confirmed that it did make it to China. We are not sure if it made it to the orphanage but we are truly hopeful. Through adoption, that is what you hold on to....HOPE. That is so exciting to know. It actually made it to China on the 23rd so there is a slight chance she received it by Christmas. Now we are preparing a smaller package but a more personal one that includes some of her favorite things. We hope she enjoys it too! We hope to travel in May and wow....that is only 5 months away and so very exciting!!!

Letter of Confirmation!!!

Our agency Heartsent received from CCAA in China, Letter of Confirmation which is a letter that we sign saying we want to adopt Savannah and also states that China is giving us permission!!!!!!! We are so excited to know that we are getting so close to bringing her home and NOW we can emotionally, physically, and spiritually know that she is our daughter!!!!! We have to get our finger prints done and receive complete approval from immigration before we make another step with China but as Karen said to me on the phone she is your daughter now because China is giving complete permission to adopt her. We are completely over filled with joy and what a way to celebrate the birth of Christ but to completely celebrate the joining of another child into our family. God is so good!!!

Christmas presents on their way to you sweetie

Today Mike and I went and found a couple last things to put into Savannah's package. She asked for a bigger doll which was one of the gifts and I went through the girls department and found her a cute outfit that was in red (her favorite color) that said "Dream" on it. I thought perfect because I am dreaming of meeting her and we are hoping she is doing the same. I have to admit that I can feel her in my soul at time just as I did with Sierra. I can feel her sadness, hope and joys. I look at her and Sierra's room and think I cannot wait until it is filled with all their stuff surrounding them as they play, fight, and laugh and all those things sister do together. I wonder of how she is going to feel to have three big brothers. How she will react to each of them and their unique personalities and gifts. Christmas is a wonderful time of year and my soul cannot wait to share that in person with all my children on Christmas Eve 2011.

Scentsy Fundraiser to bring Savannah home!!

We have awesome people in our lives!!! Christy has offered to hold a fundraiser with selling Scentsy and at this point we are needing funds to help bring Savannah home. Our last two wonderful fundraisers helped with the immigration fees. I am so thankful for all the support we have gotten. It is wonderful.

So if you are needing some nice smells or you need last minute Christmas gifts or birthday gifts or wedding gifts, or shopping early for Mother or Father's day please look and know anything your purchase will not only light up and smell positively up someones day but it will also help us bring Savannah home!!!

Just visit Christy's website at: http://christyhines.scentsy.us/

The party name is Scentsy for Savannah.

And thank you so much for your support to help bring Savannah home!!

DCFS Clearance!!!!!!

We received DCFS clearance to adopt Savannah. We are very excited to be able to go the next step which is sending it off to immigration to get our clearance to be able to bring Savannah home from China. We are continue to be able to use our old Dossier to adopt Savannah. We just needed an updated Homestudy with updated Immigration Clearance which is what we are in process doing.

We are also preparing a gift package for Savannah. We are sending it directly to her orphanage. Something new for us to do. We are hoping it travels ok and is delivered in time for Christmas. I am very excited about her getting the book we purchase All About Me. It is a young girls type of scrape book that we had translated so she can understand what we wrote and what to write in it. It includes pictures of her family, her home, and also her friends and family from the orphanage. We truly hope that she likes it. We also sent a few other items which include candy canes for her to share with all her friends and family at the orphanage.

I have to say being at this point of the adoption and being Christmas season brings great joy, peace, and excitement for our family at this time............the part of being separated from her brings us sadness but to know we with God's Grace that we are preparing to bring her home in 2011 gives us a true meaning of Christmas.....Love.

Savannah I am holding you in my heart and soul this Christmas but I will be holding you in my arms next..........

Thinking of you our sweet Savannah....

Home-study update

We heard from our home study agency that our home study is at DCFS and they needed one more paper from out adoption agency before they could clear us to adopt Savannah. I pray that this comes soon. Our adoption agency believes it will be in the next week or two.

In the mean time we are packing gift box for Savannah for Christmas. We will be sending them hopefully by next week. Even her Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Dawn are excited and are involved with filling her gift box. I have to say.........my wish for Christmas is that she is in my arms by June!

Wii Bowling Tournament to bring Savannah home from China

Our wonderful friends Dawn and Jim Dotson put together a fundraiser to help us with the funds to bring Savannah home. It was a Wii bowling tournament. It was wonderful. Everyone had a wonderful time and it was a great turn out!! Sierra got second place and Dominik was our champion!! Such a wonderful winner that he donated his prize back to us. We are so fully blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives! Thank you thank you thank you for all those who donated, helped with set up, during the tournament, who played, who helped with clean up and all those who were praying!! We pray that your blessings that you have given us are also given back to you a hundred fold.

We found out today from our home study social worker that our home study has been sent to Springfield to be cleared by DCFS prior to it being sent up to Immigration. After it gets sent to Immigration they will send us a date and time to get our finger prints done. So many steps but we are getting closer and thank you so much for our wonderful Adoption agency for working with CCAA in China to get permission for us to use our old dossier. Because of this permission it will move up our travel time a little bit. There will be a time when we have to wait with Immigration to get permission from them to allow us to bring an adopted child into the United States. I am not sure how long that step takes. It varies from state to state. I am thinking around 8 weeks after our finger prints are done. After that we will probably be moving very quickly along at least this is what our agency has told us. Because this is new to them, us using our old dossier, we are learning with them as we go through the journey. One thing I do know and that is God is with us and ther is nothing to fear with him at our side and at Savannah's side.

We have some wonderful news from Shriner's Children's Hospital about Savannah. While I was up there for Sierra's Cleft Clinic I talked to all the Doctors and professionals on Sierra's case and they told me that they can help Savannah. There is a way to bring back her upper gum line while doing the repair on the palate. This will give her a new smile.........we love her smile but we also know from Sierra...that children with clefts want a smile similar to their friends. I was in tears in happiness for Savannah. I know she will be so excited to know this and I cannot wait until we are able to tell her. Shriners are totally the best place for children. They are skilled and know how to treat children with physical difficulties. I am so blessed that both my girls will be touched by the angels they have on their staff!!

Smiling Savannah

We were given a wonderful gift last night that we knew we should share. We connected with a forever family that adopted a friend of Savannah's. An is in the middle in the bottom picture. We were so excited to see the beautiful smile of Savannah!!! We are also excited to know this family lives not too far from us. Well couple states over but at least driving distance in hopes to keep the girls connect! We are so blessed and feel that family is truly a angel delivering a wonderful package last night!

Updated information on Savannah!

We are so excited to find out more information about Savannah. She is very excited about being adopted. She resides at Wuhan orphanage. She shares a room with 10 other children. She is able to bring her doll that she sleeps with to Gotcha Day. She wants an remote control car and large doll for Christmas. She needs some winter clothing. Looking forward to shopping with Sierra for that. Her favorite colors are red and yellow. They told us that she is very smart and outgoing. She is a little helper with the younger children. She is reading which is loudly done (just like her mom..lol) and she is doing some writing. I guess she is learning some basic English so she can communicate her needs and they have taught her how to say I love you in English. I am excited about saying it to her in Chinese. I have to admit.......I am ready to go bring her home! I know Sierra is too!

Homestudy..

Our home study agency has finished our home study done. Believe it or not it was 15 pages!! It will be sent to our adoption agency to have them review it before our home study agency sends it to DCFS here in Illinois. They told us after that it will take around two weeks to be approved.....something we are very hopeful for...then it will be sent back to us to be put with our I800 application to be sent off to Immigration. I am not sure how long that step takes at immigration. It can vary for many reasons and one is the time of year. We are very excited about being another step closer to being in China to bring Savannah home.

I did have another letter translated to the orphanage so that we can prepare Savannah's gift package. We decided instead of looking at her toys wrapped under the tree and the months after that we are going to send gifts over to her. Especially things she might need with a few items of things that she would like to have. We are truly hopeful that her orphanage staff will allow us information to help her Christmas gift package can be more personal to her.

Updating everyone where we are at in the process...

I wanted to update everyone and especially our little girl when she gets to read about our journey to bring her home. We are so thrilled to find out that CCAA once again gave us the permission to use our old dossier. We needed to get a letter from our old agency saying it was ok to have our dossier switched over to our new agency. Sound easy..........but not really. It is adoption. Anyone who has had the wonderful experience of adoption knows that nothing is easy in a paper pregnancy. Well, we found out that we need the letter to be sent to the Secretary of State to be certified and then sent to the Chinese Embassy to have it authenticated. That sounds easy but during the process because it was notarized by someone from MD we had to sent it to the state of Delaware to be state certified. Then have it mailed back to us to send it back out to the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. Sounds easy but no...........because I was trying to juggle a many things I ended up sending it to the wrong Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. I found this out while it was in route............I called the Postmaster but there was nothing they could do. It was rejected at that Embassy and was sent back to us. I then finally got it sent back out yesterday and it arrived safely today at the correct Chinese Embassy. So we are hoping to have all this paper work in China by the 21st of October. We are still hopeful. Adoption does fill with extreme faith, hope and love and so much worth it to bring our Savannah home!!!!

A fundraiser we are starting..........

We have begun another fundraiser....this time it is Adoption awareness t-shirts. We are keeping the price down in hope to sell more and get the word out about adoption not only domestic adoption but international adoption. We are selling them for $12.00 each and the sizes are small-xxlarge. If you are interested please contact us at littlehelper28@yahoo.com. We have started a blog for out t-shirt sales and for other items that we will be having for sale or for free will donation. Please check them out at www.faithadoptshirts.blogspot.com

Questions answered!!

Through our wonderful care package company, we have gotten some new information about Savannah. We sent a variety of questions that we were concerned about and also some that we given to us by the wonderful on line training that we participated in to better prepared us to bring Savannah home.
We were told that Savannah is an easy going person. She understands the Chinese Characters easily and likes to sing. She enjoys attending school and is very independent. She has a difficult time in Math...just like her sister Sierra! She enjoys watching Cartoons and to talk about them with her friends. Oh I wonder who again that reminds me of. She loves to play with cars and puzzles. She has a favorite doll that she sleeps with every night....I do hope she gets to bring that with her. They shared with us two girls who are her best friends. One is already adopted...Wu Guo An and one who is about to be adopted...Wu Wei Mi. We hope to be able to connect with these families so she can keep these relationships continuing after she comes home. She loves pork chops, carrots and steamed buns. She will love our cooking then we hope! I just am jumping inside with excitement that soon she will be coming home.......but not soon enough!! Our first meal.......Pork Chops and carrots!!!!

Savannah with her classmates and teachers

Savannah waving at the camera...............if she only knew that we are waving back with our heart!! We are coming sweetie to bring you home!!

Another Video of Savannah...........she is wearing the same clothes as the first.......we cannot wait to be giving her hugs!!!

A video of Savannah having fun in the orphanage...........she is the one in a pink tank top and a skirt..she walks by the camera at the end.

Make it and Bake it for Savannah...

We have began a new fundraiser that has been successful through Mike's work and through our friends work that we call Make it and Bake it for Savannah. We are baking a variety of items that we package up and Mike is bringing to work to sell to those who are interested. We have begun our "bake sale" with the popular "Puppy Chow" Mix and the Chocolate Covered Popcorn. It has been a great hit and we are adding items daily! If you have ideas we would be very open to other ideas to put on our menu. Thank you ahead of time!

Savannah smiles!

We had to crop this picture because in it shows Savannah's beautiful smile as she cuts her cake!! She is so beautiful!

Celebrating her birthday in China...wish we could of been there! We have next year and every year after!

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Happy 9th Birthday our sweet Huan!!!

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Updated News!!

We got a phone call from out agency who told us that they feel we might be traveling sometime closer to March instead of May-June time as we thought. I think one reason is because we are using our old dossier. We are excited about that....but to be honest.......I still feel it will be around June. Don't know why but that is what I feel...........so........we are excited but at the same time just going with the flow so we are not pulling out hairs when there...if there is a bump in the road. it is adoption...........there will be a bump. I just know each step...each day....each minute is another minute...day....step closer to bringing Savannah home!!

1st Care Package to Savannah

We sent Savannah her first care package. It will be there in time for her 9th birthday. What is not included in the pictures is the cake that was ordered and should be there in time for her birthday. She loves to dress up so we wanted to send her a very pretty dress for a very pretty girl. We are hoping to receive pictures of her at her party but our care package company is not sure if the orphanage will send one. So we just remain hopeful but mostly we remain hopeful that she has a beautiful birthday and that she enjoys the gifts. Next year our daughter will be home so we can celebrate it with her!!

Very touching news!!

We found out last night that some very good friends of Mike and I were doing their own fundraiser to help bring Savannah home. Mike and I are beginning a couple of fundraisers but not a big one in a day. We had been struggling with wondering where the money was going to come and praying to God for the answers. Well, last night our friends opened up to us and told us about what they had been doing. It brought tears in my eyes. It feels so good to know how much others already love Savannah and love us to help us with this journey. We are very blessed to have them in our lives!! I pray that they are touched as much as they touch others!!

A special email received today!!!

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Wonderful News!!!!

Mike and I are dancing with Savannah....at least right now in our hearts. Our adoption agency called last night to tell us that CCAA gave us permission to use our dossier that is already in China. We are completely shocked and thankful. Our agency did say we might need to update somethings and things might change and with adoption that can happen but for right now we are told that our dossier that is at CCAA is ok. We wanted to share the wonderful news!! Praise the Lord!!!!

Story of a family who have experience horrific loss but held on to faith and hope to bring home.......their Faith and Hope.

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2nd Home study visit

We had our second home study visit today. We handed in our first stack of paper work, talk a little more about our parenting techniques and went over some of the states requirements and adoptive parents rights. We really enjoy working with Lindsey. We schedule our next two visits which will be with Lisa individually and then Mike individually. Lisa wonders how much Mike will talk?? :)

1st set of Finger prints.....

We went to get our first set of finger prints done. We were so lucky to be able to do it in the same building as our homestudy agency is in. It felt so good to be doing another step to bring Savannah home. What I think is funny is the picture where Mike is holding Sierra's sun glasses in his left pocket. I remember when we went to bring Sierra home how he said he would not carry the pink book bag. :) Now he does that as well as carry pink poke-a-dot sun glasses in his pants pocket. He would do anything for his little girls!! They say a girl has her daddy wrapped around her finger and a picture does say a thousand words.

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Sierra made a wish today..............

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First Home Study Visit

Mike and I met down at Family Core....which is the new name for Counseling and Family Services to begin our home study with Lindsey. She is so sweet and really easy to talk to. For those who don't understand the process of international adoption, the home study is the part where you spend many hours with a social worker where you share everything in your life which includes up bringing, relationships with each other, children, family, and others. How we look at adoption and why we want to adopt. How our family is reacting to the adoption and what type of support we have. It looks at our religion beliefs, how involved we are in our church. It goes over our education, work place, health concerns or issues. What we feel about the culture we are adopting from. How involved we are in that culture and how we keep that culture in our child's life. It is pretty intense and very lengthy but to bring our daughter home it is so worth it. We already have a date to have our finger prints done for the state and we have a date for our next home study visit which is Friday August 13. Now we can feel this paper pregnancy beginning.

Sierra began with our first fund raiser to bring home her sister.

With Daddy's help Sierra began our adoption with the first fund raiser to help bring her sister home. We baked cookies and brownies last night and then made up some lemonade this morning. Today while watching the Air Show Sierra and Daddy went around the park where we were sitting and sold her lemonade, cookies, and brownies!! We are on our way to bring Savannah home. Sierra made $9.00!! She is so excited to be helping. Tomorrow Mike will be taking the extra brownies and cookies to work in hopes to sell them there to help increase our adoption fund. The next fund raiser Sierra wants to do is a lemonade stand in our front yard. We are hoping to do that in two weeks. Those that live local.........we hope you are able to stop by!!!

HOW YOU EVER GONNA KNOW

Pre-approval!!

We sent our Letter of Intent to adopt a precious little girl from China on Friday July 16 and received Pre-approval today............July 21!! That was so fast! Let us tell you about our Hope to be daughter Wu Sheng Huan. She resides at Wuhan Social Welfare orphanage since she was 1 1/2. She is currently 8 years old with her birthday on September 19, 2001. She has beautiful black hair with big brown eyes that melt into your soul. She was born with bilateral cleft lip and palate. Please pray for Huan and for our family. We have experienced two paper miscarriages which bring about many fears and anxiety. Please pray that Huan is being prepared for adoption and if this is God's will the adoption will happen in his time. I know Mike and I want this to happen and we feel God is directing us but because of our past with adoptions we are very fearful. Not fearful to love another child and bring another child in our home but that this process will come to an end just like in our past and it will leave another hole.........I know not a good way to start a wonderful process but want to share our fears but our Faith is holding onto the Hope of God's Grace through this next year as we prepare in hope to add another wonderful daughter home from China!!