Our first beach trip

Well we had our first beach trip this weekend. We stayed in our 5th wheel on the sand.

Caydence wasn't fond of walking in the sand and falling, but she did love her new tinkerbell camping chair and the marshmallow's we gave her. She sleeps all night so she was fully rested by the time she woke up at 6:45 am every morning. We went to the little shops, went riding on the rhino, walked on the beach, sat by the campfire and just enjoyed each others company. It was a great trip. We were all exhausted by the time we came home though.

My little princess is turning 1http://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=7505023717205188852

Well on Monday my little princess is turning 1. I cannot believe how time flies.
Our theme is bumble bees. Me and dad are going to make bumble bee cake pops, pasta salad, 7-layer dip and candy sushi. We are going to have a pool party. We going to decorate our pergola's(2)with black and yellow streamers and balloons, grandma is making potato salad, and we are going to order port-of subs. also going to rent a water slide for brother and the older kids. Should be fun. Caydence weighed about 18 lbs 3 weeks ago, she eats like crazy,she has 4 teeth now, 2 on top and 2 on bottom and is BOSSY. We love her so much. She's growing up so fast. She keeps us occupied i can say that for sure, I barely have time to play my Frontierville on facebook, I have to do it during naps and at night. LOL

Updates

Well we haven't had much time to get on and blog, as Caydence keeps us very busy. Today Her, Brother and Dad brought mom Starbucks (my favorite) and roses. I feel so blessed to have my 2 kids. I never though in a million years that I would have more than 1 child. I would love to start again only this time requesting twins. After much discussing me and my husband have decided against it.. The main reason is because to have to wait 5+ years for our referral, then waiting 3-5 months for travel is just to long. My daughter is taking 5-6 steps at a time, she is trying to say baby but it still sounds like baba (brother). She loves to play outside. We have been landscaping our backyard so she is having a blast in all the dirt. The weather has been great so we have been spending a lot of time outside. Next month she will be 1. I feel like she is growing up so fast.

She is best friends

with our pug Kaos (AKA Little bitty baby) She loves to sit on him and just pester him when he's asleep. He loves her though, he will just go up to her and kiss her.

Our China experience

Well I haven't had much time to post lately, as we have only been home for a week, and let me tell ya, this little lady keeps us busy, and oh can she be bossy. She is perfect for our family. The 1st few days we spent in Beijing, and from the morning to night we were touring and eating, so we were exhausted. Our families were worried because of the Tsunami in Japan (we didn't even know about it). Finally we flew to Guangzhou on Sunday the March 13th, and Monday we got Caydence. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world to FINALLY have our baby in our arms. Our son absolutely adored her from the get go. The whole time we were in China, he had to either push the stroller, or hold the baby in the carrier. It was great watching my 2 children play together. Caydence never cried, when she was handed to us, and it felt like we have had this baby since birth, She just fit in perfect. China was amazing, we walked the Shamian island, shopped, and met lots of wonderful shop keepers, and families. The trip was great, but 17 days was long. My daughter crawls, walks along the couch or table, wants to be held almost all the time, had 1 tooth when we got her, and got another after we came home. She says mom, dad, and baba (for brother) she is a good eater, and is friendly. Overall she is very happy, and we couldn't be happier.

Today we leave

Today is the day we board our plane and leave. We stayed at my aunts house.last night and she dropped us off at the airport. We are so excited to start this chapter in our lives. It feels like a dream. We have been talking about this adoption for 4 and half years and now our dream is coming true. It really feels like we are going to wake up, or the bottom is fall out any minute from under us. Will follow up later....

5 more days

Today we received our passports, with the Chinese Visas, and the remaining paperwork we needed (permission to travel).  Monday we should be receiving our finalized copy of our flight schedule.  We are leaving in Wednesday the 9th for Beijing, we will be there till Sunday the 13th the we fly to Guangzhou, Monday the 14th we will be getting our little princess and then paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork, We will be coming home on the 26 which is my birthday.  What a great present, and Monday is our 13th anniversary, I have to say this is the best anniversary/birthday gift in the world.  Got family staying at my house with the dogs, luggage is packed and ready to go, son is on home studies till the end of April.  Everything is in order. Hopefully I can Facebook my pictures while I am there.

Traveling Confirmed

Today our agency called to confirm that we can leave on the 9th.  They said we will just have to stay 2 extra days, which is fine with us.  Otherwise we will have to wait a week before leaving.  We will be home on the 26th of March, We are so excited.  Don't have  our itinerary yet but it will be on it's way to us tomorrow.

We received our TA (travel approval) today

We got the call from our agency that our TA came back today, which means that we have 3 months to go to China to get our baby.  YAAY we are so excited.  My agency is contacting the US consulate and if they still have availability our tentative date to leave is March 9th.  WOW we cannot believe it, that is next week.  I just keep thing that in less than 2 weeks I will be holding my beautiful baby girl.

2 weeks already

WOW!  2 weeks ago today we received our referral.  I am so in love with that little face.  We got situated in the new place, I am starting her crib bedding tomorrow, and I have gotten some things together for my care package to send to her.  Does everyone send a care package?

My agency told me today that we could possibly be hearing something from China in about 2-3 weeks.  This is GREAT news.  Then my agency will make our appointment with the US Consulate and that will determine our travel dates. They will then make all of our travel arrangements and we will be China bound.

We are hoping for March, even if it is the end of March we will be happy with that.  I might be having my baby for her 1st Easter. 

Our new house

FINALLY, Today we found out that we get the keys to our new house tomorrow morning.  YAAY!!  I'm so excited.  I found some cute baby bedding online but it is custom made and of course the one I want is $500.00 for a 3 piece set (ouch)  So since I sew a lot I have decided to make it myself and only spent 1/5 on fabric.  Saved a ton of money.  So that is what I will be doing over the next few weeks.  My agency received my LOA (letter of acceptance) they have forwarded it to China so hopefully by the end of the week it will be in China's hands and they will be working on inviting us to come get our baby girl.  I am HOPING for March travel.  That would be a nice birthday present as my birthday is March 26...

New house, new baby, shopping, shopping, and more shopping

The day before yesterday, we FINALLY signed documents for our new house.  So that means the we should close by Wednesday of next week. YAAY!!  I knew this would happen, we would close on our house, and get our referral all together.  So that would give me about 6-7 weeks to get situated in our new house, pack for China, get the nursery ready and shop for a baby and new house stuff.  Obviously that is probably not going to happen, so I'm just gonna get our furniture and stuff in and worry about painting and decorating later. 

I ordered a Magnolia doll for my little Caydence. that is going with me to China.  We also found an Asian Cabbage Patch Kid a few years ago and bought that.  I am so excited to get my girl,  I get to buy and play barbies and dollies again, She is going to be so spoiled and she doesn't even know it yet.

Last night, I decided to get all the baby clothes out that we have been accumulating over the years.  Boy I had no clue how much I had. So instead of packing them away in a box, I packed them for China, today we are going to get a few more P.J's and jeans and then she will be done. That's one less thing on my mind.  If anyone has any suggestions on packing, I would LOVE to hear them.

The great paperchase

Yesterday we received our daughter's acceptance letter and a contract from the agency.  We read over her medical profile and of course signed and made copies.  This morning we overnight mailed it along with a notarized copy of our contract with our agency.  It should be there Monday morning by 10:30AM YAAY..  After that it will be forwarded to China, then HOPEFULLY in about 3 weeks we will get our invite to come back, then off to China we go to bring our little sweetheart home. 

Today I'm still on cloud nine

I slept pretty good considering I was non-functional all day yesterday.  We got Caydence's social story this morning by e-mail and it turns out she was found on June 14, 2010 outside the social affairs institute.  We were hoping it wasn't a bad story and it wasn't, we now know we are in for the best  time of our lives.

Of course that is after reading that she likes to take her neighbors comforters from them, gets excited to play with toys, play outside, do new actions, learn new things, loves to laugh, loves being held, friendly and outgoing, smiles often and will respond to her name and she will observe strangers cautiously.


We should be receiving her social story by mail this afternoon (February 3, 2011), we will be excepting and mailing the acceptance form right back to our agency. The process is moving right along, stay tuned......

We got our referral

We just got the call about an hour ago, We got our referral.  Her name is Song Xiao Zhi.  Her Birthdate June 13, 2010 she is from Guangdong province I'm over the moon obviously.  I don't think today is going to be very productive, as I cant even think straight. LOL

The Beginning

We first decided to adopt in September of 2005.  We can have children, but decided we didn't want to have any more because they come early.  We had a daughter named Carlie Mae on July 5, 1997. She was born at 25 weeks and weighed 1lb 11oz.  Sadly she passed away at the age of 5 weeks old.  The hardest day of our lives.  10 months later on April 29, 1998 we had a son Nathan Andrew born at 27 weeks and weighing 1lb 13 oz.  He is 12 now and healthy.

I looked into international adoption because California is not the best state to adopt from because they give the parent too many rights to come back.  Myself and my husband didn't want to adopt a child and turn around and have to give him/her back after a few years because the parents decided they wanted the baby back. I looked into Kazakhstan, Russia, and China. We chose China because overall they are the healthiest babies and girls are mostly given up.  At the time I could just picture myself, my husband, and son with a little Chinese girl.  I still can.

On October 3, 2005 we received our package from Living Hope Adoption Agency and that began our loooooong journey.  This week after 4.5 years of waiting I am expecting a call form our agency telling us our referral is in.