Closing This Blog...

Well, the time has come to close this blog. I have kept it open a full year since we met our little peanut and I now want to have it converted to a book. Blurb has an amazing program that can upload to content of your blog to a hard bound book. The software if easy to use for editing prior to sending it to print. I transfered the content of Abigail's blog and I could not believe how beautiful the book turned out. You can check their site out here at www.blurb.com

I have no idea how many people still read this blog but for those that do you can still follow Kaylyn's progress over at our family blog, which is:

http://abigailmae-xiao.blogspot.com


Love,
Heather

Family Day Celebration...

Make a Smilebox greeting

Many families that have adopted children celebrate their child's "Gotcha Day" also known as Family Day or whatever the family chooses to refer the special occasion to. For us it is a day to not only express how blessed we are to be mommy and daddy to our girls but to also celebrate the union of our family through adoption. Abba joined our family on March 12, 2006 and Kaylyn joined our family on March 16, 2008. We have decided to tell them the story of our trip to China on their special day and celebrate our "Family Day" on St. Patrick's Day. Curious why????

Chinese folklore says there are invisible red threads that connect a newborn child's spirit to all who will be important in her life. The threads my stretch and might even tangle, but they will never break. As the child grows, the threads will shorten, drawing closer those people who are destined to be together.

Through adoption I have heard many amazing red thread stories. Stories of how families grow through adoption that you know only God could have done. So if you are wondering why St. Patrick's Day, well because we were in China on both occasions over St. Patrick's Day. So our families "Red" thread is "Green".

The girls and I had a great day. The weather was beautiful and we started our day dressed in green. For lunch I made shamrock sandwiches and green milk, they thought that was too funny. Then we baked a giant green cupcake to celebrate our special Family Day. We ended our day having dinner with daddy at our favorite Chinese Restaurant.


To My Girls...Mommy loves you all my heart. And to everyone else Happy St. Patrick's Day.


Heather

One Year Ago....

One year ago today, March 16, 2008, we boarded a plane at the Beijing International Airport, for Lanzhou, which is the capital city of Gansu Province. It was a Sunday afternoon and it was a day to get settled in before we met Kaylyn the following morning. But just as with everything in adoption things change when you least expect it. Our guide met our group at the airport at 1:30 pm and we boarded a bus. We were immediately told that the ride to our hotel was an hour ride and that the children would arrive at 3:00 pm. This left very little time for families to check into their hotel room and prepare gifts, snacks, toys, etc for the children but we all did it. All along I knew this was going to happen so I was fairly prepared for the event, our family was first into the conference room. I remember waiting, those few minutes seemed like hours. The first little boy arrived, he was the oldest 6 or 7 I think, he was smiling but had no clue what was about to happen. Watching as he waited was myself, Ricky, Abigail and our mothers. Ricky and I had been through this before but our mothers had no idea what they were about to witness, they immediately began crying as they watched this precious little boy wait for his life to be forever changed and become an amazing blessing to his family.

Moments later the Orphanage director and nannies carried the children in one by one. I was so afraid I would not recognize Kaylyn but she came in first and I immediately recognized her. You could tell she was so confused as to what was going on and was holding onto her nanny for dear life, as was the nanny to her. We came to realize they had a very special bond and as I suspected the woman was actually her foster mother. You could tell this woman loved Kaylyn very much and struggled letting Kaylyn go. Kaylyn's gotcha day was very differenet than Abigail's. When we met Abigail the nanny handed her to us and we quickly moved onto paperwork. But with Kaylyn is seemed as if it took forever for me to get my hands on her. She wanted nothing to do with me and you could see the fear in her eyes. I can still see it like it was yesterday as we whisked her out of the conference room and her and her foster mother were pulled apart, and I can still hear the woman talking. It was heart breaking.

In Kaylyn's short life she has experienced so many changes but all in all is doing remarkably well. From the beginning Kaylyn has been a strong willed child that likes to be in control and have things happen on her terms. The road has been long but she is slowly learning that life does not always work that way, as a family we have come a long way but we still have a ways to go. But life is a work in progress....

Kaylyn is a funny little girl that has a ton of personality. She loves to sing and dance and loves all things girly. She loves to be the center of attention and likes to be where all the action is. Ricky and I laugh all the time, for those that know us, you know that we are not a real social couple LOL....we are defiantly introverts as is Abigail but Kaylyn is an extrovert and likes to be the life of the party LOL.

Kaylyn over the last few months is more accepting and giving of affection. I love to hear her say I lod you, so cute. And the relationship her and Abba have is amazing. Most of the time they play beautifully together but there are times that Abba wants her private time and needs it. But there is nothing that makes my heart smile more than when I see my girls hand in hand or embracing....that always brings me to happy tears. But I fear the good times will not last forever. Of course Abba does not really realize it yet but Kaylyn is her shadow does everything her big sister does and by everything I do mean EVERYTHING. I can hear it in my head now MOM make her stop copying me....LOL What is the deal with that....I laugh when I see it knowing what is coming because I had a little brother. We forever said "Stop copying me, stop touching me" LOL But until Abba realizes it Kaylyn is learning quite a bit from it :)

As for Kaylyn's health, she is doing great. Absolutely zero issues with her heart, thank goodness and she seems to finally be growing. She is still wearing mostly 18 months clothes and she weighs just over 24 lbs and is a whopping 32 inches tall. She seems to have caught up in all areas except for her languange, but she is doing much better there as well. After our move to Omaha, she pretty much quit talking all together. But a few months after she got settled again and was feeling comfortable with us again she started talking again. But one thing is if she is awake there is always noise coming out of her mouth and watch out if you don't hear her. She will be up to something LOL.


Today we are also officially finished with all China related paperwork. For those that don't know we are required to meet with a licensed Social Worker twice after the adoption. Once at 6 months home and the final at one year home. After each meeting a post placement report along with photos is sent to China. So we are officially done.



To My Little Peanut,

You are an amazing blessing to our family and you challenge mommy daily to be a better mommy, thank you. I feel truly blessed to be your mommy and I look forward to all that lies ahead for us.

Mommy loves you all my heart.


PS - you can click HERE to see Kaylyn's Gotch Day pictures

January and February Update...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

January 7th - Kaylyn climbs out of her crib for the first time. Daddy was on duty while mommy was out shopping. When I left the girls were napping, as usual Abba woke up first so she joined daddy downstairs. A little later daddy decided he better wake Kaylyn up as she had been sleeping too long. As he went up stairs she met him with a camera in hand....she had been taking pictures LOL. Thanks goodness she has only done this a couple of times, she is definately not ready to leave her crib.


January 13th - Kaylyn began gymnastics, which she loves but takes it very seriously. She has a ton of fun but is very into what she is learning. We recognized shortly after Kaylyn joined our family that she has tremendous upper body strength and is really flexable. We just watched for a while and decided to do a trial class...it was a hit. And she looks so darn cute in her little unitard.


January 19th - Kaylyn wears her 1st Piggy Tails


January 31st - We attended the Heartland Families with Children from China, Chinese New Year luncheon. Kaylyn absolutely LOVED the celebration...the Lion Dancers and loud music, she danced and was all smiles. She also experienced her 1st Red Envelope.

February 14th - 1st Valentine's Day, of course she loved it...chocolate is the girls best friend.


February 27th - A family in Florida contacted us with information regarding Kaylyn. They too sponsored Kaylyn during her time in Foster Care. This family told us how they came to sponsor Kaylyn and why, and they sent pictures as well. I know that someday Kaylyn will cherish this information.



January and February also brought many first with the snow. It has been snowing on and off since December but Mommy did embrace it and volunteer to play until February. It was fun for all of us but Kaylyn had a ton of fun learning to make snow angels, trowing snow balls, sledding and making a snow man.

Check back on St. Patrick's Day...it will be a Big Day for Kaylyn.

Love,
Heather

Happy Valentine's Day

1st. Piggy Tails..

I LOVE baby piggy tails...isn't she adorable. Kaylyn absolutely does not like to have her hair brushed, but she likes all things girly. For instance when you put a dress on her she automatically begins spinning. And she says sparkly things are "pitty". We noticed that her hair was bothering her during her first gymnastic class so I thought I would give piggy tails a try, to my surprise her hair was long enough. She wiggled around for the first minute of so but once the first piggy went up she was in love, she said "pitty" aka pretty.

Lots of Love,
Heather

More Baby Kaylyn Info...

I wanted to share some more exciting news. After my last post Ricky and I decided to call Holt International Adoption Agency to see if they would confirm whether or not we had all of the information that had been provided to them from the Wuwei Orphanage regarding Kaylyn. They were very reluctant but after much persuasion on Ricky's part they told us there were six report. I was immediately bummed because we only had five reports with pictures. But the woman was kind enough to tell us that report number six was only a letter informing the sponsors that the child (being Kaylyn) had been adopted. I of course asked for a copy of the letter and the woman said there is no letter that the document was in a spreadsheet for agency purposes only. Sounded untrue but I said ok and that was it. We had accomplished all that we set out to and that was to get all information Holt had.

So the next day I receive an email. Remember my first contact with one of the sponsors was a teacher from Normal, Illinois, he and his students had sponsored her. At the time he did not think he had the documents and had requested that Holt resend them to him, and of course Holt would not do this. So this wonderful teacher began to search and guess what he said he found one report and he was sending it to me with hopes it was not a duplicate but something I could use.

Yesterday, we received the package and when I opened it I was stunned at what I was reading. He did send the report which we already had but there was so many other things we did not have. One being the letter where he and his class had been matched with her for sponsorship. The letter is dated February 8, 2008, which was exactly one month to the date before we boarded a plane to China. The next letter is dated June 2, 2008, we had been home with Kaylyn for two months and it is the letter I had requested from Holt. This is what I read...

"Dear Mr Txxxxxx,

I'm very happy to bring you news that your sponsored child, Hui Ci Wu, has been adopted by a family in the United States. We can rejoice knowing that Hui is now home, enjoying the security and belonging of a permanent, loving family."

Of course I am getting chills as I read this now and tearing up all over again. I was saddened that Holt told me a letter did not exist because I thought wow that would be neat for Kaylyn to read later. So you can imagine my excitement when we received this letter. So I now feel like this tiny little puzzle of her past has been finished.

So to Mr T. and your students I cannot express our gratitude. These letters are priceless and they will be forever cherished. I hope you will continue to teach your students about the many orphaned children of the world and continue teaching the importance of sponsorship and how they can make a difference no matter what their age is.

Lots of Love,
Heather





If you have a desire to help a child in need, please consider sponsoring a child. For only about a $1.00 a day you too can help change a childs life. Please see the below links if you are interested:

www.holtintl.org

www.lovewithoutboundaries.com