Fingerprint Appointment Complete

Today we were able to walk in and get our fingerprints done.  Thanks so much to all of you who let me know about this.  I was bummed that our appointment wasn't until May 20th.  Now it is all taken care of.  Praying that our I800a is approved quickly.

Fingerprint Appointment

I just received notice today that our fingerprint appointment is scheduled for May 20th.  This is the next step in obtaining our I800a.  I would love to get it done sooner (ya know, to speed up the process).  Can any one fill me in on information about walk-ins?  I had never realized that you could do this until I saw it on Rum*r Queen.

Thanks guys!

Over the Moon!!

So we thought that the picture that we received yesterday was fabulous and then this morning I received this......

So happy that others are going to Makinley's orphanage to adopt their children.  Love that while they are there they think of me and get me these amazing gifts....glimpses of my baby girl.

I think that we have watched the video 100 times already.  I think that every time I try and will it to be a little longer.

Sleeping Angel

We have a sleeping angel sent straight from Heaven!

And she sucks her thumb!!

I was given this picture by a friend of mine who just travelled to the orphanage to meet her son.

I love our Z group!!

Here We Go...(Again!)

On Tuesday I resent both of my packages.  Funny how paranoid I was that I was missing or forgetting something!  I think I checked and rechecked the packages several times to make sure that everything was there and I had done everything right.

So now we just sit and wait.  The BIG part for me is done.  All I have to do now is get documents certified and authenticated.  After that I will send my dossier to my agency.  Hopefully this will be some time by the end of June.  I am really praying that our dossier gets to China by end of July. 

Now we just sit and wait...aaahhhhh....the fun part. (Tons of sarcasm in my voice).

My BIG Ooooooppppsssss!!

Saturday the mailman arrived with a package for me.  "Wow," I thought, "that was fast!"  I should have known better.  Anytime you get stuff back from the government fast it is probably NOT good news.  It wasn't.  The documents that I sent off to be certified were returned to me because they were missing my marriage certificate.  Uuuummmmm...no they weren't.  The certificate was the 4th page in the batch of documents.  Now this in no way holds us up, but it cost me a pretty penny to send them off and then I also paid for them to send them back!!  Now I am starting all over.  What a waste of money!!  That was entirely frustrating.

But wait, another package...this one from USCIS!!!  Wait, it is too thick to be a letter stating that they were processing my application.  UUuggghhhhhh.......everything was sent back!!!!!  I apparently, in my very organized speediness, forgot to SIGN the application...hubby too!!!!!!  Uuuuggghhhhh!!!!!!!!  Now this DOES hold us back.  This process is taking 60 days, and because of my mistake I cost us a week!!  THAT STINKS!!!!

So now that I have vented, I am going to start all over and send off my I800A application.  Please let it take less than 60 days!!!

My Precious Baby Girl

Today, my baby girl is two years and two months old.  She is waiting for us in an orphanage half a world away (literally).  My heart so longs to hold her.  I pray that this journey to her does not take too long.  But any time away from your child is just too long.

Today I received six pictures of my baby's birthday party.  We sent her a cake so that she could celebrate her belated second birthday.  She turned two right before we actually found her.  Four days before to be exact.  I am so looking forward to celebrating her third birthday at home with her next year.  At home...right where she belongs.

Yes, she does have dots of icing on her cute little face.
(Her nanny put them there.)

Yes, she is wearing a Santa hat the reads,
 "Merry Christmas" in English.

Yes, these pictures were just taken
 this week...in March.

I absolutely adore everything about these wonderful pictures of my beautiful, chunky-cheeked baby girl!



Homestudy Approved!

I was just notified that our agency has approved our Homestudy! 

After I get a copy in-hand this week, I will be mailing it off to USCIS with our I800A application.  It is taking them anywhere from 45-60 days to approve this.  Praying for 45 days or less!

At this point it is looking like we will be travelling around November of this year!

How It All Began

Back in January, my husband and I were having a conversation about our family's future and where we thought we were going.  We knew that God was leading us to add to our family again, but we were not exactly sure how He wanted to do that.  We had conflicting directions and for months we had gone back and forth on them trying to follow God's lead.  We were actually finally putting our finger on the direction that we felt we were suppose to move in when Donny told me that even though we were moving in this direction God was telling him we were suppose to adopt. 

To back it up a bit, we have always felt that we would adopt again.  We knew when we were adopting Ashlyn that this would not be the last time we would walk this road.  We actually were praying for our "other" little girl while we were in the process of adopting Ashlyn.  There were many times that I would feel so burdened for this child that I would just cry.  I told my husband on several occasions that I felt like we were leaving our daughter in China.  (In actuality, we were.  Makinley was born the year that we adopted Ashlyn).  I also wrote in my journal that I would never forget her.  I would go back for her.  I would fight for her.

So after our conversation, I was having a casual conversation with a dear friend of mine and was asking her about the process to adopt in China.  I run an adoption and orphan care ministry and I like to stay informed so that I can answer people's questions when they come to me.  Somewhere in the midst of our casual conversation I was scrolling through the Waiting Child list.  All of the sudden I saw the most beautiful face and I stopped on her information.  Her information read:  VSD, brain injury at birth, and high muscle tension in the right side.  Ok...any other moment in my life I would have said, "OH...ummm...this is not going to work for our family dynamics at this time."  And then I would have just moved on....but I didn't.  It did not scare me off.  That in itself is a miracle.  I could hear God whispering to me, "It's not what it seems."  Over and over for the next two weeks I would hear this.  It was always washing over me.  Knowing that sometimes these sweet kiddos are tagged wrong I asked for a little more information.  Then I talked to my husband.

That evening I presented all of the tiny bit of information that I had.  We both agreed that this could be God leading us to adopt her, but we were definitely not sure.  We would ask to review her file and see what happens.  Now in being truly honest, we were both thinking that something in this file was going to tell us "no" that she was not our daughter.  But we both knew that if we did not adopt this little girl, God was still trying to tell us something.

We received the file on a Monday and I poured over every little detail about this sweet baby girl.  There was a lot of it too.  Out of all of those medical reports, pictures and even a video (I know, a video, unreal isn't it?), I could find absolutely NOTHING wrong with this child.  Except for her description...HIE...lack of oxygen to the brain at birth.  Ok, I'm not gonna lie, we were scared to death!  We looked up all the information on HIE, and folks, it's not pretty.  Ninety percent of children in the world born with HIE have severe handicaps and severe mental retardation.  The brain just can not go without oxygen.  If this child's issues were minor like they seemed, she would be in the ten percentile in the world for not having severe issues from the HIE.  MIRACLE!!! 

We needed more information (since her file was from 6 months ago).  With it being smack dab in the middle of Chinese New Year, we were going to have to wait.  WAIT....not my favorite word.  We did a lot of praying.  We did a lot of crying.  Well, I did a lot of crying.  Then more praying and more crying.  How was this going to affect our happy little home?  How was this going to affect our children?  We still have two little ones at home...3 and 4 years old.  God, really?!?  But there was that whisper, "It's not what it seems."  I could not ignore it.  So after MUCH talking, we decided that if she could walk, we could do this.  We felt very good about that.  We kept saying over those two weeks (which by the way felt more like two months) that at this point God was going to have to show us why we should NOT adopt her.

We went to church on Sunday, right before Chinese New Year was going to end.  We were hoping that we would be hearing more information on her that week.  That day God met us at church.  He spoke so loud and clear I felt like He was about to shake me.  When I left church that day I had my answer.  We went home and I told my amazing, obedient to the Lord husband what God had spoken to me and he just smiled.  He said, there is our word that we were waiting for.  Want to know what He said to me?  Well in our class the message was on fear.  Hmmmmm....I have never been so fearful in all my life.  But more fearful of making the wrong decision and letting God down.  Fear is not from God.  God has shown me time and time again in my life that His ways are always better than mine and that He is not going to harm me or my family.  Yes, it may be extremely hard to walk the road He calls us to, but it is always worth it.  And it is always the best way.  He wants to give us blessings.  I knew in my heart that if this was where He wanted us to go, He was going to bless us with it.  I have faith in my God.  He loves me greatly.  He told me that morning that I needed no other information on this child.  I was to trust Him and follow where He wanted our family to go.

So that Monday we told our agency that we had to decided to adopt Makinley with no other information than what we had.  That same morning more information on our baby girl had arrived from China.  She was WALKING!!  She was TALKING!!!  WOW!!!!!  That is all I can say, WOW WOW WOW!!!  God just wanted us to follow in obedience before He showed us that she is indeed a MIRACLE child. 

We received all of her hospital papers from her birth.  All of the papers from the NICU hospital she stayed at for a month were included also.  We know her China mom was 40 weeks pregnant when they had to give her an emergency C-section to get the baby out because the baby was in distress.  Who gets this information????  There were many more details that God allowed us to know about our daughter.  I am in awe.  With what we see in her information she now falls into the 2 - 3 percentile for HIE of children that have very little affects from the lack of oxygen to the brain.

What I am hoping is that our story will give someone hope.  I pray that someone reading this will take a leap of faith and adopt a child that seems to be to hard for them.  In the end, we chose this route because God told us that this little girl needed a family.  And that our family needed this little girl.  I pray that this helps someone to trust God and follow in obedience.

Where is Makinley?

Makinley is in Zhongshan, Guangdong.

The province right to the left of hers
 is where Ashlyn was born.

Guangdong is where the American Consulate is located, so on this trip we will be spending two weeks in Guangzhou, Guangdong.

One week for province paperwork, and one week for American Consulate paperwork.

Please Pray

Today in Yunan, China a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit. 

This province is in the southwestern part of China on the border of Myanmar.

So far 22 people have died and many other are wounded.  Hundreds of buildings have collapsed.

Please pray for these people.

Paper Work...How Quickly We Forget!

So I just spent a bit of time...can't remember how long....putting together my paper work for my I800A.  Everything is done and waiting for my Home Study to be finished and approved. 

Driving full steam ahead to get to my baby girl.  I refuse to be delayed by anything on my part.  On the other end, well, I can not control how fast everyone else goes.  Praying for a super fast adoption journey!

Pre-Approval!!!!!!

It is with unbelievable honor that I
 introduce my 6th child

Makinley Faith Chun Ying Sloan!!!!

(Her chinese name is Wan Chun Ying)

Born on January 23, 2009

She is in the

Children's Welfare Institute of Zhongshan City

Guangdong, China

Isn't she just gorgeous!!

Care Package Number One

We are currently awaiting our Pre-Approval from China for Makinley.  We are anticipating that it will be arriving any day now.  In the mean time, I have gathered some items to send to her in her care package.  For Ashlyn's first care package I sent her a toy, an outfit, a photo album, a blanket and some candy for her foster family...along with some cameras, of course.  With Makinley being in an orphanage I did not know exactly what she would be able to keep for just herself, so I limited it to a teddy bear and photo album of her new family.  I am also sending candy for the kids and candy for the nannies.  As always, cameras are in there too.

As far as our paperwork goes, I am almost done with our home study.  We have a couple of items left and then it will be sent to our agency once it is all written up.  I am very happy to have this part almost done.  It is the most tedious part of the whole process.

Having now started an adoption two different ways, I must say that this way seems so much more unnatural (if there is such a thing as natural).  I guess when you do this part first without a referral, you have time for the anticipation to build.  By the time you receive your referral you have been waiting for a while.  This time around we were not waiting to be matched.  We were not even thinking about adopting right now.  God told us that this was His plan for our family and in obedience we stepped forward.  So having her pictures and just now starting the process seems very off.  It also seems like everything is going way to slow.  In actuality it is about the same pace as last time and is moving fairly well.  It just seems so SLOW!!!!!

I know, I need patience.  I don't feel impatient, but I guess I just want it to move along...as we all do.

Letter of Intent

I just finished sending off all of the information for our Letter of Intent to adopt Makinley from China.  It's funny how you forget how much PAPERWORK you have to do.  I am just exhausted.  I think I'm going to bed now.

But before I go, I will give you a teeny bit of information on Makinley.  She is two years old and she is living in an orphanage in Guangdong, China.  That's it!  No more info tonight! 

You know I love you!

Guess What?! I'm Back!!

Today we officially began our second adoption.

We were not looking to adopt at this time, but it looks like love found us.

I came across the most precious baby girl on the shared list, again, don't know why I was looking.  Since Ashlyn's adoption I have never once looked at any list (mainly for this reason - I know myself VERY well).  She was a Special Focus child with multiple special needs.  She had a particular special need that normally would have made me say "nope, we can't do that need at this time.  Not with little ones at home."  God obviously had other plans because He kept whispering to me that it is not as bad as it sounds.

I will share our beautiful story soon, but because we have just started the process, we can not share any information on her.  So for now, I will keep you in suspense.  Trust me, it is quite an amazing story.  As soon as I can I will share.

So here we go...I am so excited!!!

So Long for Now

This will be my last post to this blog.

It was always my intention to set this blog up for people to follow our journey. But beyond that, I wanted a resource for people who were looking into adoption or going through the process themselves. It helped me greatly during our adoption process to be able to look at other blogs to see how the process would take shape. I hope that this blog will help encourage and give direction to others the way that the blogs I follow have helped me. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. I had lots and I want to be able to answer any questions/concerns that I can.

If we ever travel this road again, I will use this blog for that adoption as well. In the meantime, please fell free to join us at www.tummytickles.blogspot.com to continue to follow our amazing story that God is creating for us. We are so excited about what He has done for us, and what He has in store for us in the future! See you at Tummy Tickles and Goofy Giggles!!!

We're Home!!

Sorry this is a couple days late in coming, but I got sick after we got home and this is the first day things feel somewhat "normal".

After 4 plane rides and 25 hours of travelling we arrived home to a group of wonderful people that wanted to welcome Ashlyn home. It was a great moment because I finally got to see my kids after 17 days of travelling. Ashlyn reacted so well to them. She recognized them from their pictures in the photo album that she had of us. It was the best reaction, far better than we ever could have hoped for.

So now that we have been home just shy of a week, I can say that things are going well. We have some things to work out, but,in time, everything will be just fine. Last night she slept through the night for the first time since we returned home. The 12 hour time difference has really messed up her sleeping habits. In China she would sleep from 8:00 at night until 8:00 in the morning and take a 2-3 hour nap. Here she was waking up at night because it was nap time to her. I think we have finally gotten past that problem.

She is not too fond of the dogs. At first she was terrified of them and screamed everytime she saw them. Yesterday she tolerated them in the house walking around as long as they did not get too close. We are making progress every day.

She will not walk around the house without having a death grip on someone's leg or hand. We are hoping that she gets more comfortable in the house and feels like she can walk around on her own. She has a lot of fears that we are helping her through. She exhibited this even in China. This poor child has been through so much. I pray that God will give her a peace about her new family and home.

Last Day in China!!!!!

We woke up a bit late this morning and after talking with the kids we went down to breakfast. I have spent this morning packing to come home!! We have a little more shopping that we want to get done today, but that is all that is going on with us today.

I did give Ashlyn some Benadryl because of our colds/allergies and it did not do much as far as making her tired....I guess it isn't going to help me much on the plane, but it does make her stuffy nose better.

Other than that, we will be getting up early tomorrow morning to catch the plane to Hong Kong, then San Francisco, then Charlotte, then H..O..M..E!!!!!!!!

So, good-bye from CHINA!! We'll see you when we get home!

Here is our flight info in case you are wanting to be at the airport.....US Airways flight 1471 to arrive in Tampa at 9:43 pm on Saturday, Nov. 7th.

Oath Taking Ceremony

Not much to post today. We woke up late and went for a walk after breakfast. Then we went to our Oath Taking Ceremony at the Consulate. It was about a thirty minute drive there. Once we were there we waited with about 20 other families to do some paperwork and then take our oath as a group. It was really a neat moment. We then headed back and went to dinner with the two other families left with us (the other two families went home today). We went to the German restaurant on the island and to our surprise it was really good. I would have to say that it was one of the best German restaurants that I have ever been to. Dad, you would have LOVED it!!

Anyways, no pictures today...we didn't take any. You can't take cameras into the Consulate.

One more day and we go HOME!!!! I hope tomorrow isn't too long. There is a sightseeing to a Garden, but I don't think we are going to go. We are just about done at this point. Seventeen days is a very long time.