We are in Taiyuan

Our flight to Taiyuan was uneventful. Although the fly was just an hour flight, we were served a quick beef mcmuffin breakfast. Emily slept thru it. Just arriving at the Shanxi Grand hotel which is located downtown, we noticed chinese celebration it's still in all its glory.Today is the last day of the chinese new years celebration. Fireworks are everywhere and continue non-stop till after midnight. No kidding! It's just so noisy, polluted and the cars have a layer of dust. Breathing is not going to be easy around here. On top of that, SNOW! It snowed all afternoon and the streets are muddy, wet and there are no trucks to plow the streets. They do it manually and it's very very messy. Susan is our agency rep and she travel with her mom, Grace. Our other travel mates are Curtis and Teresa from IN. There are adopting little Gabriella who is 2 1/2 years old. We grab a delicious lunch and did some paperwork. Ended the day with dessert ice cream at the hotel and went night night with the sound of firecrackers. Tomorrow is our big day. We will go to the civil affair's office and meet Nathan. And or family of three will become a family of four. As always, your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Our Itinerary and we are out of here!

Feb 22 Flight to Beijing via San Francisco

Feb 23 Arrive in Beijing early evening

Feb 24 Visit Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Summer Palace

Feb 25 Celebrating Emily's 3rd GOTCHA day at the Great Wall!!!

Feb 26 Sightseeing Temple of Heaven, ride a richshaw bike!

Feb 27 Visit a Hutong tour, Peking duck for dinner

Feb 28 Flight to Taiyuan early AM, Nathan's city of birth

March 1 Nathan's GOTCHA DAY!

March 2 Adoption registration and apply for Chinese passport

March 3 Sightseeing in Taiyuan.

March 4 Visit place of abandonment, Yingze Park in Taiyuan

March 5 Flight to Guangzhou late evening

March 6 Visa photo and physical examination

March 7 Sightseeing and shopping tours

March 8 More shopping!

March 9 Visa petition documents and group photo

March 10 Consulate appointment

March 11 Visa's ready to pick up!

March 12 Leave Guangzhou via train to Hong Kong

March 13 Visit Tian Tin Buddha

March 14 Dim Sum at Victoria Peak via cable car

March 15 Stanley market and more shopping

March 16 Beaches and more beaches

March 17 Riding the Start Ferry

March 18 Fly home, sweet home USA

This itineray might change without prior notice

We thank you in advance for your faithful prayers and support!

Now, I just need to go to bed and get up at 3am ( that's in a few hours, yikes!) for our early 6am flight, if I can sleep!

See you next time from China!

Almost ready to go!

I can say that I am almost ready to go to China!

The floors are clean, carpets vacuumed and the plants have been watered.

Bills are paid, mail put on hold and garbage service cancelled.

Our bags are packed (almost), food have been emptied out of the refrigerator and neighbors have been advised to check our house now and then.

We are ready. I am ready to go. Next 3+ weeks living from hotel to hotel, eating out everyday, not have to clean floors or decide what to make for dinner sure will be nice! I will enjoy these days as much as I can, meeting our son and getting to know him on a daily basis will be a challenge.

But then, I am ready for the challenge and ready to meet this guy that stole my heart with just a simple smile!

Letting go and Gotcha day

At the same time we were adopting Emily in China, a baby boy was born back home. Since the moment his birth mother knew about him, she did not want to parent him. The opportunity to parent a newborn baby has seldom come and we jump in with both feet. Each month, I accompanied her to doctors appointments, and each and every month she will tell me the same. She did not and could not take care of another child, by herself. She was 26 years old, unemployed and living with her mom. She has a 6 years old son, a second daughter that she gave up for adoption to some acquaintance of us and a 7 month old daughter. All from different fathers that were not in her life or the kids life. Once again, she become pregnant and the birth father was overseas and did not want anything to do with her. One of the many reasons that she did not want to keep the baby. I find myself thinking, what are the chances we have on this adoption? It was so close to Emily's and I was worry about not been there when the baby was born. She had no worries and assure me once again that I was going to be the baby's boy mother.

The baby was born on March 1, 2007, while we were in China getting Emily. My MIL took her to the hospital and cared for her for 2 days. On the 3rd day when my MIL was supposed to pick up the baby and take him home, she changed her mind and decided to keep the baby and told my MIL over the phone, not to show up at the hospital because there was not going to be any baby to pick up. My MIL was devastated, as we were when she gave us the news. I hid my disappointment and disbelieve while going ahead with Emily's adoption in China. There was noting my MIL or us could do to change the fact that she decided to parent this baby. I hoped and prayed that she made the right decision to keep the baby and give him and the other 3 kids the family life that the kids deserve. We never heard from her, again.


After our return from China, I took back the 2ND crib and many other items to the stores that I had bought for this baby. I focus my attention on Emily and Emily alone. All the baby boy clothes, toys ans such were put on boxes and down to the basement. I kept thinking that we should have never go ahead with this adoption while trying to bond with Emily. Fortunately, Emily did not want to leave my side, day and night. I did sneak out to work at the office on several occasions and each time she saw me again, I will get the most exquisite and tight hugs, ever!

Life went on and a couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity of giving away all the baby boys clothes to a worker of DH. I pulled all the boxes out, run my hands to the tiny clothes, pants, blankets and shoes that I was given to me or bought on my own. It was a painful departure but a healthy one because I was finally letting go of the painful memories that happened almost 3 years ago. I knew back then, that another domestic adoption was not in our future but I did not want to let go because I had tiny hopes that it might happen. I gave away 5 boxes full of baby boy clothes, onesis, toys, baby books, etc. I was finally letting go and have closure on that chapter of my life.

After a few days, I learned from my adoption agency that gotta day is going to be March 1st, in Taiyuan China.

I always believe that Gods timing is everything and that he has a great sense of humor.

Countdown has begun

I just purchased our international flights from US to China.

My wallet is $6000 poorer.

My heart is happier as each day is closer to meet Nathan.

There are still many things to be prepared.

I think I am ready. I think.

Getting ready has never been easy.

We flight on Feb 22nd to Beijing, the exact same day as 3 years ago.

What are the odds?

God's timing is EVERYTHING!

What's best for Nathan, not for us

When we received TA a few days ago, my heart raced so fast I thought it will burst!

Then, my travel coordinator gave me more than one option. Yes, 3 options that we can choice from. With Emily, we had one choice only. With Nathan, we have 3 options and I can pick the best the suits our family. And then some more.

Our first option is to be in province on Jan 24th. That means, leaving in less than 2 weeks.

Second choice is Feb 21st. Right after Chinese new year, meaning leaving the US on or around Feb 15th.

Third choice is Feb 28th, leaving US on or around Feb 22nd.

My first reaction was first choice, ASAP. We have been waiting for him for over 2 1/2 years. We will be able to see in person that little face smiling at us for the last 6+ months. Then it hit me that it was next to impossible due to work and family matters.

Then second choice will be right at the beginning of Chinese new year. This holiday in China is HUGE! Bigger than you can imagine. It is when sons and daughters return to the family house to celebrate the commencement of a new year, they talk about the goods things they are expecting during the new year, big and fancy meals are prepared, the gifts of "hong pou" (red envelopes with money on it), and much much more.

Third choice is Feb 28th. After Chinese new year's big celebration on traditions and family.

So, after much sorting, tugging and deep thinking, we decided on Feb 28.

I am certain that Nathan will like to spend it with the only family he has know in his short life. I want him to have happy memories from his foster parents who have been loving him and taking care of him for the past 3 years. I believe I owe him that.

Then after, I will have the rest of my life to enjoy him.

After 2 1/2 years of waiting, I can wait just a little bit more. What's a couple more weeks so he can have memorable moments with his foster parents, remembering their love, nurturing and the only family he has known since his birth. I think, is the least I can do for him before his world turns up side down!

China, we are coming on Feb 22nd. Just a few more weeks and we are on our way to the boy who stole our hearts, with just a simple smile!

TA is here!

IT'S HERE AND IT'S ALL OURS TO CHOOSE!

More about it in a few days!

Is that airplane taking us to China?

It's amazing to me that some of my words stuck to my 3 year old daughter. I usually in a rush every morning to get out of the house and on time to work so that means getting dress, brush her teeth, eat breakfast, etc. and with me on the background saying: hurry, faster because we don't want to be late.

This lesson came up the other day. Every time she sees an airplane, she will ask me when are we going to China to get her brother. She knows that we must get into a big airplane to go to China. I kept saying that Nathan is not ready and that we have to wait a little bit longer. She usually is patience and considered of others, but after 5 months, her patience is wearing thin so she told me the other day, "Can Nathan hurry up and be faster so we go get him?" Oh, I so wish it will be that easy.

Meet Our Son

His name is Nathan Scott Wei. He is 3 year old and lives in China. He loves to play outside with sticks and rocks. He is shy and fairly an introvert. He is also potty trained and living with his foster family for the past 2 1/2 years.

Nathan, your sister has talked about you for months now. She cares very much about you and includes you daily in her prayers, wants to share her toys with you and even saved some of her Halloween candy for you to enjoy. She is not so-patiently waiting to go to China and meet you so you will be reunited with the family God has chosen for you. Mommy and dada are also very eager to meet you and bring you to your forever home. We will be there as soon as China allows us to go. In the meantime, we wish you happiness and longtime memories with the family who has taken care of you in your short life and for that, we are very grateful.

We interruped the regular scheduled programming to announce...

We are so happy and can't hardly content our selfs.

We are going out to celebrate.

Look out Nathan, we are coming to get you!

How do you explain waiting times to a 3 year old?

And specially, time such this as waiting for your brother who is on the other side of the world, waiting to be reunited with us?

This waiting part has been so hard and difficult for all of us involved. It has been 4 months since I saw Nathan's face for the first time. Never for a moment doubting that he will become my son one day. However, the waiting part has been hard on Emily too. She is just 3 years old and does not understand the word "waiting" to its full significance.

Let me explain it.

On one occasion, she saw how the big brother of one of her classmates came and pick him up. Her classmate, "J" was so excited to see his brother and without knowing, transmitted this emotion to my little girl. She just stood there in awe, glaring at them with wide open eyes for the longest time, as they embraced in a big hug, following by greetings of love and camaraderie. She took it all in and on our way back to the car, showed me her deepest emotions. She asked in a very soft voice, where her brother is, why wasn't he ready yet for us to go to China and get him and why we have to keep waiting and waiting and waiting. Her face was very sad and she had a thousand more questions all over her little face. Questions that I did not have answers at that moment, at least not the ones she wanted to hear. I wrapped her in my arms and explain the best I could. She was very silent on our car ride home, trying to process what she just witnessed and realizing that the waiting part will still be there no matter how I tried to decode it. We all hope and pray that the waiting will be less each day, that someone is preparing Nathan's heart, to the best of their knowledge, what is like to be part of a family with a mom, a dad and a sister, who is anxiously waiting for him to come home.

So I ask, how do you explain waiting times to a 3 year old?

For families who switched agencies

I got an email from my adoption agency in regards families who switched agencies.

:Dear families,

We found out the CCAA internal process for the switched families. This is what they do when they have families make a switch.
v Administrative office receives the switching letter from both agencies
v Administrative office checks both letter and money to see if they are in the place
v Administrative office finds the dossier from either Dept I or Dept II
v Administrative office director reviews the dossier and give permission to switch or not
v Administrative office pulls out your dossier from your old agency and put into the new agency
v Administrative office Issues you a new LID and LID #
v Administrative office then passes your dossier to the Dept I, then Dept II
v If your dossier is already reviewed, Dept I will pass it to the Dept II. If not, Dept I reviews your dossier, then pass it to the Dept II
v Dept II issues LOA and director signs the LOA
v Dept II sends out your LOA to the new agency

It looks like an easy process to me, but the CCAA says this process takes time. I think it will take 1 or 2 months to get the LOA after the new LID. This is just my guess, because none of our switched families have received the LOA yet. The CCAA also mentioned that this process takes most of time in the Administrative office. If you already have your new LID and your dossier was logged in before 12/31/2007, the process should be fairly fast now.


We did get a new LID as 10/20/09, so setting my new goal to on or around 12/20/09 to received LOA. If it's not once thing, it's another and so but the timing keeps getting higher and higher and I just hope we get to Nathan before his 4rd B-day, in early April.

Wait for us Nathan, your sister says Hi everyday and can't wait to share her toys with you.

In the meantime, we hang in there, keep praying and keep hoping.....till new news develop.

More waiting to do

I talked to our agency and they said everything is in order with CCAA, they don't need anything else from us and that they hope we will get LOA in a month or so.

Yes, another month, same waiting.

It seems like is all we do around here. My hopes to travel by the end of the year were crushed, so I'm setting my new goal to after Chinese new year (Feb 14). The positive side of it, airfare will be less, not so cold temperatures up north and warmer weather in the south. End of February 2007 was when we travel to China to adopt Emily, three years ago. I am sad that Nathan will have to keep waiting for us, her sister keeps asking over and over again and most of all, we will not be spending Christmas together. He will spend one more holiday with his foster parents, making memories that we hope he will remember someday.

Trusting HIM is the best goal I should have.

Some news

I heard from my agency this morning. CCAA is reviewing our file as I blog, and we should hear from them on LOA very very soon.

My hopes are very high today.

I will post it as soon as I have any news.

Emily and we can’t wait to get into that big, big airplane to China!

Day 75 of waiting for LOA

But, who's counting anyway?

I'll rather eat chocolate and catch up on my Zzzzzzz.....

HIS plans are not our plans

I started this blog to document the long wait to our second daughter from China. I figured it might be end of 2011 or 2012 before we will get a referral on the NSN list and the 4 or 5 years apart will be a nice break. Our one year LID anniversary was approaching, June 11, and I felt frustrated that the lines were still moving at snail pace. DH and I talked about other options such switching countries or domestic, but at the end China is still were our 2nd daughter was. You see, I have a Chinese (Cantonese) background and wanted just another Chinese girl so Emily will grow with a sister close to her with the same background and heritage. Well, the best laid plans are not always your plans. Obviously, God have other plans for us.

We contacted our social worker and began investigating the WC special needs. After much thought and research, we fill out the WC medical list with the conditions that we considered we can handle and send it to our agency. A few weeks went by and while I was reading some blogs, they have mentioned about this little boy on the private WC list at another agency. I will not share his special needs on this blog, they are private. He just turn 3 years old. Since it was not on my agency’s list, I figure why look? But curiosity turn me back and I contacted this agency and request to look at his file. It took a few emails back and forward and they told me that another family was reviewing his file and they can send it to me if become available. I said, oh well. He will probably be adopted very soon. I didn’t even mention to DH, forgot about it and went on. A week later, I received an email asking if I was still interested in his file. I said OK, I'll take a look at it. He is described as shy and timid. Good eater, in foster care for the last 2 years, etc. etc. etc. I printed out all the files and call DH and told him about my story. He hesitates to tell me about his opinion right away and over the phone, so I decided to bring the medical files for the pediatrician to look at them. We also call 2 friends who are doctors and asked them to take a look. I slept very little that night thinking about the possibilities. The next day, our friend doctors told us that his test are as normal as they can be and he seem healthy. Another 24 hours later, the pediatrician calls and said the same. I have already made my mine and to say YES to adopt him but wanted DH's confirmation. We will take a leap of faith and bring him as our next adopted child. Now, we just need to prepare Emily for the news and wait for the official LOA from China.

Pre-approval received!

Today, we received pre-approval from China to adopt our little boy. China is averaging 50 to 60 days so hopefully by the end of September we will have our LOA (letter of acceptance). After LOA, 6 to 8 weeks for TA (travel approval) then we should be on our way to China.

Emily has been asking almost everyday when are we going to China. I told her that he is not ready yet to come to us. So hopefully, by end of November or beginning of December we can travel to China to meet him and be his forever family!

In the meantime, we have been doing a lot of painting, re-arranging furniture and getting his room ready. And of course, a lot of shopping for little boys which for this girlish mama, it’s not easy to do, but I’ll make the sacrifice!

It's a BOY!

Yes, we are so in love and happy with the great news! It's a BOY and just 3 months younger that Emily! I think they call them "virtual twins".

We reviewed his file in 48 hours and everything looks good. We are slowly preparing Emily for the great news. We asked her if she wanted a sister or a brother and she said a sister. Oh boy, she is in for quite a surprise but we know that with love and patience, she will adjust and they will become siblings. I know big adjustments are coming and we are looking forward to what God has prepared for us!

One year anniversary

Today, 06/11/09 marks the 1 year anniversary of our paperwork logged in China. The wait continues to increase for NSN children. As of now, waiting has been 40 months. We had a good talk with our social worker and we have decided to submit our names into the special needs children's list. Perhaps on this list, we will find our daughter.

04.11.09

The tittle says it all. Month ten in waiting!

Waiting for Emily was hard (15 months) but I anticipate waiting for mei mei to be 3 times more or longer.