Finding Ad

We hired a research company to locate Charlottes finding ad and we were so excited to get it in the mail this week.

What is a finding ad?? 

Since 1999, the orphanages in China are required to run a provincial newspaper advertisement for children that are found and brought to their orphanage. We call them "Finding Ads." These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them.  This is to give relatives a chance to come forward and claim the children.  These photographs are usually the earliest available pictures of the children, some from as young as a few weeks old.

Charlottes ad was in the Gansu Daily newspaper on December 9, 2009.  So, in the picture she is less than a week old. :)  We do know on finding day that she weighed 6 lbs 3 ounces...she was a little thing.  But look at the picture of her below....she has some chubby cheeks! :)

 

But this is such a treasure for us to have for her.  We have the entire paper from that day and of course cannot read a thing in it but, we think it will be such a nice piece of Charlottes history to show her one day.

We are getting closer baby girl!

Much Love

Kendra

We are getting closer!~ DTC! :)

The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster and all our documents are on their way to China.  I think I should feel more excited than I am but, I am just tired.  Tired of the adoption process at this point.  Just tell me when I can go get our baby girl already.  The boys and I are off to stay a few days with my sister and her family in St. Louis and maybe I jsut need the change of scenery & maybe some retail therapy will help too. :)

So as you can see on the chart below, we are getting closer. We are DTC (dossier to China) and are waiting on a LID (log in date). So the count down begins.... so according to what the best case scenario could be is we would travel in 14 weeks. :)

Will you join us in prayer that our paperwork will come quickly?? We are now approved with the U.S. and it is up to China to finish up the process. We are so ready to hold our baby girl!

Much Love!
Kendra

APPROVED!

I just called and our I-800a was APPROVED yesterday and we will be sending our dossier to CHINA very, very soon!  We are really coming baby girl!

SOOOOO EXCITED! We have been waiting almost 2 months!  So happy to be on to the next step....

With Much Love & Excitement!

Kendra

waiting, waiting and more waiting!

Not much going on here but, WAITING, WAITING, WAITING! :(  I am to call the USCIS tomorrow to see if we have an officer or have been approved.  Please join me in praying for good news.  We have been waiting for this one approval for almost 8 weeks and I am ready to move on. 

An online adoption friend of mine posted a very eye opening post on her blog called "We don't care if You Stare"and I would like to share it with you all.  Please check it out and let me know what you think.  It really opened my eyes to some things we might encounter once we get Charlotte and although I am very open about talking about our adoption now, as she grows older I don't want this to define her.  Anyway, read and see what you think...

http://dimsumanddoughnuts.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-free-time-is-much-more-limited-now.html

Hopefully my next post I will have GOOD news. :)

Much Love!
Kendra

New Pictures!

I was SO shocked to open my email this morning to find at 3 a.m. that I had received some new pictures of Charlotte! :) 

It had been a while since we had sent her a care package (in March) so yesterday I decided to send her one with a baby book she can hold with our pictures in it, some cookies for the foster family and another disposable camera.  The care package service is in China and they have items listed on their website that you can pick out to send to your child.  It is a nice service to offer to adoptive families in the U.S.  It still isnt cheap but, to mail our own SMALL package would cost us alot more money. 

I also paid for a letter to be translated that I had written to her foster family.  I tried to include everything important that I needed to say because it may be the only contact we have them until we are there.  I asked in the letter if they would talk to her often about us and show her the pictures so that hopefully the transition will be easier

Below is a picture of the baby book we picked out to send her.  Isnt it funny to think they offer this book in China?? 

Sometimes the care package service will receive updated pictures but, with our last package the orphange told the service that they do not supply pictures unless officially asked to by the CCAA. So I totally didnt expect to see any this time. 

We also received 3 pictures of her crying. :(  Every single time we have gotten pictures they have some of her crying...I don't know why they do this.  I wonder if it is to try and show us her cleft palate??? I don't know but, it does not do this mama's heart good to see her so upset!  She literally looks like she has been crying for about 20 minutes and snot flying everywhere...it is PITIFUL!  I think we will probably do one more care package before we get her and I might just ask that they not include any pictures of her crying. :(

We are just waiting on our i-800a approval, which could be approved hopefully next week and then we will send our dossier to China.  We are SO READY! 

I am LOVING her white fur vest!  She is much more stylin' than in her last pictures. :)  Her hair is growing a bit and covering her ears more.

Hoping this summer is going to FLY BY and that we will have her in our arms soon.  The boys have 8 more days of school left! :)

Much love!
Kendra