Project Chosen

We have been selected to share our story on a friends blog.  Our story will be shared on Feb 16, 2010.  There is a new story each day of the month.  I encourage you to go and check it out.  It's very uplifting and encouraging.


http://threadsoffaithfulness.blogspot.com/

Blessings,
Debbie

We're going to China

Please follow us on our travel website as we leave to bring Ethan home.  We are leaving on Thursday Jan 14 and arriving home Jan 28th.  We will meet Ethan and become his mommy & daddy on Monday Jan 18th. 
The travel site is www.ethanwilliam.com  Please email us and sign our guestbook. 

I don't think I'll be able to use this blog for our family blog anymore since we are adding a Prince.  So I need some suggestions for a new blog name!  Please send them my way.  :-)

Until next time.......

Summer Updates

Well, we are in the 4th week of Summer Vacation. The first 3 weeks were so busy. It's been nice not having anything to do this week. Unfortunately it has been raining all week. So we have cabin fever now. I'm so thankful for all the rain, because we need it badly. But we're ready to see a little sunshine now. :-)

Youth Camp was Great! Tiff had a blast. It showed, because she could not find the time to call home. I'm glad she had fun. She got closer to God, which is awesome. She got closer to some of the kids too. Friendships were formed, or they grew closer. She has a lot of memories from camp. I'm glad she went. Even though we missed her a lot. Here are some of the photos that she took during camp.


The week after camp was VBS. I taught the 4/5 yr olds with my good friend Billie. We had a good week. We had a good group of kids. Abby & Jadyn were with us, and at first I was concerned how they would act. They were very good, considering their mom was the teacher. The theme this year was Boomerang Express: It All Comes Back To Jesus. It was a lot of fun. And the songs are stuck in my head. Abby just loved the songs and really got into singing them during worship rally. Here are some photos from our week.


Last Saturday, my high school friend got married. I am so happy for her. It was a mini high school reunion at her wedding. I have not seen my friends in many years. It was good to catch up. Only Tiffani & I went. Bill stayed home with Abby & Jadyn. I'm so glad he did, because they would not have done well at the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and so was my friend. Here is a photo of the HS gang. :-)


It is now coming up on the 4th of July. We are taking a weekend getaway. We're going to Disney for the weekend. We were fortunate to find a hotel on property at the FL resident discount rate. This will be the last time we'll go using these annual passes.

As far as an adoption update, our dossier is in China. It was sent last Friday. Now we sit back and wait for a referral call. We don't know when we'll get the call. Could be this month, could be 6 months from now. We just do not know. We're okay with waiting. We know that God will bring us the perfect son for our family.

I hope you are enjoying your summer. We are having a lot of fun.

Until next time......

Adoption blog

I've decided to start a new blog for the adoption. All updates will be made on the new blog. http://anotherblessingontheway.blogspot.com/ Be sure to check it out. Hopefully I'll be able to update it frequently.

Until next time.......

Adoption Update

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Adoption Update

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Small Update

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A Possible Road Block

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News from China

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I can't believe it's March

Sorry it's been a while since my last update. Life has been so busy I have not had time to sit and write. Plus, I'm on Facebook now and am addicted. That takes up too much time for me. :-) So I was sitting here and thought I should log on and update this blog.

Abby & Jadyn are growing like weeds. They are changing from little toddlers to little girls. The expressions and attitudes we are seeing are sometimes funny, and scary. Abby is copying a lot of Tiffani's actions, which are not always the best to copy. Meaning, Abby is acting like a teenager. And I don't like it. It's sad enough that we have a teenage daughter, I'm not ready for 2. :-)

Tiffani is growing up way too fast. She'll be 14 next month. Starting High School in a few months. She can't wait. She is tired of middle school. She is active at church and I love that. She has been keeping busy with a lot.

Abby & Jadyn have been going to many birthday parties lately. It should make me happy that they have so many friends. :-)

The weather is quickly changing here. It's getting hot. I don't like it when it's really hot out. I guess I shouldn't live in FL then. LOL The girls jumped in the pool last night. It said it was 80, but to me it was still too cold. They had fun. We bought solar heat a few weeks ago. So we're hoping very soon the water will be perfect for all of us to swim. The girls tried to get the dogs in the pool. They were curious, but would not get in. So Tiff picked them up. They were not happy about that at all.

Zack & Zoe turned 1 a few weeks ago. I have noticed a little change in them. They are not as hyper as they were. But they are still chewing. I put duct tape around the laundry door and they are trying to chew that off. Zack ate one of Abby's new church shoes the other day. That frustrated me. If they can stop chewing, then we'll be okay.

I've been talking with our friend Sarah a lot lately. She found out that the orphanage needs at least 5 more months to get Billy's paperwork finished. I had hoped it would be sooner. 5 more months will make it about a year since they started it. So we're wondering if that is how long it takes to get a file complete. After they are finished, then they send it to the CCAA and then we wait for them to approve his file. It could still be a while before we know if we can adopt him.

Our homestudy is complete and waiting for final approval. Then we move on to the next step of fingerprints. Our dossier will be complete soon. The 3rd time was much easier than the first 2. :-) I guess we're pro's now. LOL

Here are 3 photos. Zack & Zoe were showing off one night. The other is of Jadyn.

Until next time......

Solo & Ensemble & Manatees

Last Friday, Tiffani was in a quartet in the Solo & Ensemble competition at her school. It's for all of Hillsborough County middle & High school kids. Thankfully the competition was at a HS down the street from us. We arrived at 5:30 so the kids could practice. Then at 6 PM was their scheduled time. They did great in front of the judge. The judge gave them some pointers and then gave them their score. They received an Excellent Rating. We are so proud of them.


Today, I was a chaperone for both of the girls VPK classes. This was a difficult task. We drove to the TECO power plant to see the manatees. Thankfully their teachers helped me, so I did not have to split myself into two. :-) The girls had a great time. Even though we've been here many times, it was fun going with friends. After seeing the manatees, and learning a little about them, they had a picnic lunch. Then we were allowed to go home. The day was beautiful. The sky pretty blue. And there were many manatees in the water, showing off for the kids.


I hope you enjoyed the photos in today's journal.

No new news on the adoption. The Homestudy is complete and waiting for approval from our agency. We're also waiting to hear from Billy's orphanage to see how they are doing on his paperwork. Please keep praying.

Until next time......

Adoption Update; Kindergarten Round-Up

It seems life does not slow down here lately. We've been so busy with birthday parties, play dates, school activities, church activities and adoption paperwork.

We had our first homestudy meeting on Thursday 2/5, second meeting on Tuesday 2/10 and our final meeting on Friday 2/13. Yesterday, our SW emailed us the rough copy. There were a few minor changes that needed to be changed and then it's complete. We are happy to be moving along with the process. Now, if we could hear something from China it would make us happy. We have not heard from Sarah since December. She was with her family for Chinese New Year and internet is not as easy to get to. I'm hoping she is back at school and as soon as she can, she can find some info on Billy's paperwork. Once we hear something, I'll post about it.

Tonight, Bill & I take Abby & Jadyn to their elementary school to register them for Kindergarten. They are so excited. They have been waiting for this day. They look at the school and say "that is our big school". They are excited that there is a cafeteria and that they will eat lunch there instead of their classroom. They are excited because they have a playground. I can't wait to hear what they have to say once they see the classrooms etc. I'm going to try to take a photo of them in front of the school sign, so then I can see how much they have grown when I try to take the same photo on the first day of school.

The photo here is from this morning. The girls realized that they were all wearing the same color blue. They thought that was neat. It was not planned at all.



Until next time....

Finally, progress

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Identity for Children

Identity For Children - Promo Video from Les Lanphere on Vimeo.

Identity for Children works to provide children with a legal identity.

Every child deserves the right to a name, a nationality, a family, to health care, to education, to property ownership, and the protection against child labor, sexual exploitation, and child trafficking.

Happy Gotcha Day Sweet Abigail

Four years ago today, we met a precious little girl named Wu Yu. She became Abigail Grace Yu. That Monday morning was full of emotions. Excited, nervous, anxious, scared etc. We met our precious Abigail in a hotel room, filled with 4 other crying babies & their foster mom's. Abby came to us with no tears. She was perfect.

I'm so amazed with how much this precious little girl has changed in 4 years. I can still see that little baby in some of her expressions. She has blossomed into a very pretty, precious little girl.

We love you Abigail. Happy Gotcha Day!
Love,
Mom

November is National Adoption Month

Did you know that November is National Adoption Month? The video above is from the 2nd week of Bring Me Hope camp that Bill attended. Please remember to pray for all the children in the world who long for a loving family. If you feel adoption is something you are being called to do, please contact me. I will help you with any questions you have.

One thing I can say, is adoption is AWESOME!

God bless,
Debbie

Billy

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Four Years Ago Today....

We found out who our daughter was. Her name was Wu Yu. And she just celebrated her 1st birthday. She was born in Nanchong, Sichuan China. She was living in foster care for the past 10 months.

It's our referral anniversary for Abby. That day was such a special day. We waited all day for the call. And because there was a storm brewing somewhere by us, schools were closed so Tiff was home to share in the experience. It was such a special moment. Bill took photos as I took down her information. As soon as I hung up, I cried. It was so overwhelming. We had been waiting for 7 years to have another baby. And Abby was our baby. She was and is perfect for us. We love her so much.

I can not believe it's been 4 years since we found out who she was and where she was living. I remember that once we found out, we wanted to get on the next flight to get her. But we had to wait 2 months. That was a long 2 months. But we did finally get to hold her in our arms. And she has stayed there ever since.

I'm so grateful and thankful that her birth mom chose life. I'm so grateful and thankful that she cared enough to make sure Abby was safe. I'm so grateful and thankful for my precious Abigail. Her birth mom will always be in our thoughts and prayers. The sacrifice that she made is unimaginable to me.

And I can't forget about Abby's foster mom. She clearly loved Abby very much. She took care of her for almost a year. She bonded with our precious Abigail. She took such good care of her. Abby was the biggest baby in the group. And I could tell that was because her foster mom loved her and gave her everything that she could. I'm so grateful to her foster mom.

One thing that we make sure that we do with both Abby & Jadyn is we talk about their birth mom's and foster mom's. Without these women, I don't know where my girls would be right now. They made sure my girls were safe. They took care of their needs. Their birth mom's gave them life, their foster mom's helped them live until we could come. They will always know that there are 2 women in this world who cared about them and who had something to do with them joining our family.

The girls know that we are their family. They know that they are adopted. They know that they were chosen by God to be our daughters. They are very proud of who they are. We are very proud to call them our daughters.

Below are the 3 referral photos that we received from China. When we first saw Abby's photo, we knew instantly that she was our daughter. She was and is so beautiful.

The first photo is the first photo we saw of Abby. We were instantly in love. The 2nd and 3rd photos came to us via Fed Ex the next day.





And now, 4 years later, we have a 5 year old who's goal right now is to be a teenager like her big sis Tiff. She has a boyfriend. His name is Corbin Bleu (from High School Musical movies). She does not realize he's a little old for her. She loves her family, she LOVES High School Musical, she loves watching movies with us, she loves to swim like a big kid now, she loves Disney, she loves Webkins, she loves to love.







Abigail Grace Yu, we love you so much. You have brought so much laughter to our family. You are growing into such a beautiful, wonderful little girl. We are proud of you and pray that God will always protect you and that you will always remember that we love you very much.
Love, mommy

What a week!

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An answer to a question

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