Kaylee Kathleen

9 months without an update?

2010-03-21T18:36:00.010-06:00

Ok 9 months without an update is acceptable, isn't it?? I'm shocked they didn't kick my blog in to cyberspace for such a long absence! Incase anybody remembers us out there, here's an update lol

The boys are doing amazing in school, playing sports even! Sports? My boys? AMAZING! I'm loving seeing them active!! They love their schools and have made lots of friends. So glad we made the long move up here!

Kaylee's speech is really coming along. She is saying so much more every day! Can't believe she'll be in Kindergarten in the Fall! Seems like she just came home but it will be three years the beg. of September. Life goes so fast!!

K is a spoiled diva of a princess! Just ask her! lol Everything is about her and if it's not, well that just doesn't sit right in her world!

not a huge update but I'll add some pics to go along :)

some summer fun

2009-06-29T11:40:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

few summer pics of the kids

2009-06-18T14:26:00.000-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ft. Edmonton Park

2009-05-26T20:38:00.001-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More update pics!

2009-04-18T08:50:00.007-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I think 5 months without a post deserves a catch up!

2009-04-18T08:06:00.005-06:00

Ok, so I've become totally upside down and crazy in the washing machine of life since my last post! Life has been marching swiftly as you'd expect. After five months, I thought I'd better update, though I don't expect anybody to even remember this blog to see it! lol

BIG update for us, hubby got a new job! We're moving NORTH, way NORTH! :) Never lived any more than 60 miles from where we are now so a huge change for us! We're excited, overwhelmed and READY! Hubby has been gone 6 weeks already, he had to go asap to get started for his job. We had to stay back to get the house and ourselves ready. We did send a great majority of our things with him so we've been living out of partially packed boxes and selling everything too big to take with us for the last six weeks, enough to drive one insane!!

With most of the clothing already sent, gasp, Kaylee only has enough here to fit in a box on top of the dryer, this has greatly taken a toll on her love of changing clothes as many times a day as she can get away with it. She still gets home from school every day and puts her 'lounging' clothes (aka pj's, princess dresses, etc) on. I think she has enough shoes to start her own shoe store and she tries to wear her entire inventory on a daily basis as well. She can clomp with the best of them in her 'heels'! lol

Everyone has been doing great though, school has been going great for all three this year. Kaylee is using two word sentences!!!! We're so proud!!! She's come a long way from the little girl that came home 19 months ago with no language abilities. She's worked so hard and had some excellent speech therapists through the school system. She also had tubes put in her ears this January. Outsiders can usually only pick up a word or two of what she's saying, of course we understand many many more. She's also using sign language when she can't get her point across, which helps her and us. She's also learning her colors, doing some basic counting and recognizes K's like their going out of style, I contantly hear 'my name, my name!!' :) She loves to color and write these days. She draws people all the time and tons of circles in a line to replace the letters she's just not ready for yet.

Kaylee is an avid bike rider, loves jewelry of all kinds, you name it. Total girly girl but she can goes as many rounds with her brothers as necessary to get what she wants! lol

I'll try to add some pics from the last few months :)

Kaylee loves her tumbling outfit!

2008-11-22T09:24:00.006-07:00

Kaylee loves her leotard but has to add her own style of her high heel shoes! lol We had to giggle and grad the camera of course!

Wii

2008-11-11T07:12:00.002-07:00

I know of another great adoption fundraiser! Please enter for a chance to win a Wii and help a family! :)

Chance to win a brand new Wii System with the Wii Sports package (5 games),one controller, and one nunchuk. THEN there's an ADDITIONAL game pack,Wii Play, with NINE more games, and an EXTRA controller! A total of 14games complete with two controllers. Raffle ends Dec. 10. Chances are $2.50 each or 5 chances for only $10.

http://twochinadolls.blogspot.com/

Brighton

2008-11-11T06:15:00.002-07:00

This is Brighton, she's a little girl close to my heart. I was advocating for this little girl on Until All Have Homes. I can't tell you the ache in my heart as I watched her little face, continuing for months on our site without a family. I rejoiced upon finding out a family I know were the ones to see her as their daughter. This family and this little girl mean a lot to me. It would mean so much to me if you could find it in your heart to visit this site and enter the drawing (the proceeds going to the family's adoption funds).

Here's the site: http://www.thegiftofachild.com/pursedrawing.html

HALLOWEEN 2008

2008-11-01T08:39:00.001-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ohhhh my gosh, awful morning!!!

2008-10-09T09:45:00.001-06:00

OHHHHH my gosh, is it Friday the 13th and nobody told me???? My morning has been awful! Here's a run-down:

1:15 am-wake up to Kaylee screaming from the other side of the house, she's sitting in her hallway and won't come to my room until I come get her, she wakes everyone in the house up, including the puppy

1:15-4:00 am-the dog screams, howls and barks because he's now awake, I try to ignore him thinking he's just wanting out of his crate

4:00 am-realize dog was not just screaming to play, he's pottyed in his crate and has slung it all over himself, the wall, the floor and even the door behind him in his attempts to get away from it

4:05 am-after pulling his crate and his 30 lb self to the back door, he gets around me and walks a little bit in the kitchen and the living room with his soiled paws, I spend ten or so minutes scrubbing to clean that up

6:00 am-get up to get Jaycen up for school, all goes well in this one

6:30 am-Kaylee wakes up as soon as I get back in the house from taking Jaycen to the bus stop

6:30-7:20 am-Kaylee screams big toddler tantrums for a variety of reasons, she didn't want me to walk out of the bathroom while she's finishing up, doesn't want milk, pours out her milk and expects a new drink, yada yada yada

7:20 am-Kaylee continues to throw huge fit when it's time to get in the car, I finally lose patience of her throwing her arms around while I try to fasten her in the car, go back in the house, wake hubby up, tell him she's being punished by not getting to go with us, he'll have to wake up and watch her

7:20-7:40 am-take two older kids to school, our 3 year old dog rides with us, like every day

7:40 am-get home, notice carseat is wet, chalk it up to dog licking car seat again

8:00-8:30 am-hubby prepares and gives puppy a bath, I wash down newly found walls, door and floor

8:40 am-newly washed puppy jumping all over the place, stealing Kaylee's clothes as she tries to get ready, making Kaylee scream again, somehow even leaving a giant wet paw print on my butt

8:45 am-puppy has rewarded us for his bath by peeing on the floor!!

8:55 am-get in the car to put Kaylee in car seat, she immediately jumps back up, dog has not licked car seat, dog has peed in car seat!!!! of course this has never happened until this morning!

8:56 am-run in house to get towel for her to sit on and grab Resolve carpet cleaner

8:58 am-get call from school, Jaycen throwing up, have to pick him up

9:15 am-get back home and give Jaycen (6 years old) anti-nauseous meds, while making up make-believe story about what viruses are and how you catch them (by the way, they like cute people and jump on them when they see them, then they have a party in your body, which makes you throw up)

9:55 am-jump in car to go get my flu shot, scheduled for 10:10 am (with appt. slip saying I have to give 24 hour notice to cancel and I can't cancel because I to have it now since I still have 13 days before surgery), backing out of driveway 6 year old starts throwing up, I jerk backwards to help him get sick in the garbage bag we took along, just in case; foot slips off brake, foot struggles to find brake but only finds gas petal, pushing us backwards from the driveway at what had to be 30 mph, foot finally finds brake half way in street; vomit has been projectiled to front seat now, all over mom, 6 year old, car seat, car floor, mom's purse in front seat.....

9:56-10:07 am-wash car up, again using Resolve

10:07 am-call pharmacy to say I can't be there in three minutes, informed today they have walk-ins as well and I can come any time....

Think it would be safe to hide in bed the rest of the day???

E-bay Auction to help another child come home!

2008-10-08T08:36:00.002-06:00

I was blessed with financial help to bring our Kaylee home, I believe in trying to help any family or child I can the same way. I don't always have funds to accomplish this but you can always help in other ways. :)

I was graciously given a White Swan Adoption Barbie to help in our fund raising efforts. My hubby changed his mind about adopting at the time but I still have the doll. I want to help Bobbie's family bring Matthew home.

Can you please help me get the word out about this auction? All proceeds will be going straight to the family.Even if you aren't interested in bidding on the Barbie or don't have the funds, please still help by getting the word out, post in blogs,etc. I've seen this same Barbie go for $350 on Ebay!! I'd love if we were able to raise this for Bobbie's family as well! I started the bidding price low to attract attention.

Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250305350330

The family's name is Bobbie Steve and family.

Here's their website: http://prayingforonemore.blogspot.com/

Check out this really cool giveaway!

2008-10-01T16:15:00.000-06:00

Handbag Planet is almost here. To celebrate the October 15, 2008 launch, we are giving away a free handbag every hour for 24 hours on the day of the launch. Our high fashion, trendy handbags are inspired by popular designer brands and priced between $30 and $80.

http://www.handbagplanet.com/

URGENT PRAY REQUEST FOR FAMILY IN CHINA!!

2008-09-16T07:23:00.000-06:00

This is a desperate prayer request for a family in China now, please please pray for them and forward this prayer request to all you know

The Irwin family is in KunMing CHina right now with a very sick little girl. (Susannah) They had their gotcha day at the hospital. Needless to say, this is a crisis and we need to be thinking of them in the upcoming days. If you are a prayer warrior, please pray for them and their daughter. They need to find a way to get her back to the US as fast as posssible--as safely as possible. Having been in this position, I know God can arm you with a momma bear instinct and you "get it done". The family could really use our prayer support.Their blog is here: http://www.roomforatleastonemore.blogspot.com/

Happy Gotcha Day-one year!!!

2008-09-03T08:47:00.002-06:00

09-03-08

To our sweet beautiful daughter,

A year ago today we first laid eyes on you in person. I’ll never be able to fully describe the overwhelming emotions that led us to this day a year ago. Call it a destiny, a journey God put before us, the best decision we ever made and the happiest moments in our lives.

My first words upon seeing your beautiful face was ‘There she is!! Look she’s walking!’ (I knew you’d be walking but it was the first time I saw you real) I was so proud to recognize your sweet face, it’s hard to describe seeing someone only in a limited amount of photos for a year and then to see that person before you. I worried I wouldn’t recognize you but I had no need to worry, I knew you instantly.

You came to us with little burned feet from hot concrete, shoes that were pinching your feet and a bald head. lol You were still the most beautiful girl in the world. :)

This year we’ve watched you grow from a tiny little two year old that wore a size 12-18 month size to a big three year old girl, potty trained and wearing 2T clothes now! :) Your hair is long enough for tiny pony tails now, even with the haircut you gave yourself. :) You’re a little fashion queen that loves clothes and shoes and wants to have at least four outfits on a day.

I can never truly put in words how much you mean to this family and how much you’ve changed our lives to the better. You are so dearly loved my baby girl!

And so this day we celebrate the anniversary of our first day with you. We love you more than we could ever express! Thank you God, the US Government, Heritage Adoption, China, and your birth parents, without any of them, the pieces would not have come in to place and instead of celebrating today, we would be mourning. Thank you God for the beautiful blessing of our daughter.

Love Mama, Daddy, Drew and Jaycen

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Newer posts

2008-08-27T08:15:00.006-06:00

Today is such a sweet emotional day for us, it is Kaylee's third birthday and her first birthday with us!!
pictures!
July 20, 2008
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4e4441344d7a63354d3377334e4467794d5449350d0a&sb=1
Kaylee's 3!! :)
July 20, 2008
Oh my gosh, where do I start? It's our sweet little angel's third birthday and her first birthday home with us!! I'm already crying from being so grateful to God for sharing this angel with us almost a year now (we're about six weeks away from Gotcha Day Anniversary).
I wanted to compare life a year ago with today. A year ago your Daddy came home with a special little cake and had decorated it with your name. The family gathered around the table to blow out candles for you. Mommy was crying, especially missing you on this day. We thought we'd already be there to get you and spend your second birthday with you but God had other plans. That little cake meant so much to me. It meant Daddy was missing you too and that the whole family was celebrating your birthday, even if we hadn't met you in person yet. Oh how my mind dreamed of many presents for you, lots of hugs and kisses. It was a painful day for me.
Now a year later, Daddy brought you to our room first thing this morning to have a big hug session with our princess for her birthday! You loved the hugs and kisses, nothing new in your life about that now. You didn't seem to recgonize what a birthday was. The last birthday in the house was in December and you'd only been home three months then. We bought you a big '3' birthday candle for your cake last night, you've been carrying it around all night and today. First thing you wanted me to open the candle because we told you yesterday you could have it today. lol :) The boys sang Happy Birthday to you and you played hide and seek running around me while they sang.
Sweet angel, I will never be able to thank God enough for you!!! You have blessed this family beyond understanding! We all love you dearly!! We would go through any trial given to us, to do it all over again to bring you home. Your sweet little face and personality wipe every heart ache we suffered waiting for you, instantly away. I've honestly have never met another child that is as happy as you! :) You have taken this family, your family, by storm. Each and every one of us love you more than you may ever realize.
So sweetheart, as we celebrate your first birthday home, your Mommy and Daddy are praising God for the gift of you.
We love you sweetheart, Happy Birthday!!!

Kaylee Swimming! :)
June 15, 2008
Here's Kaylee swimming at 35 months and only having the pool two weeks!

Disclaimers! lol

1. Our pool is crystal clear but our camera is picky and only takes clear video and pictures when you hold it just right to catch the sun or light in a room.

2. The cosmic truth of kids one-upping each other has occurred here with my son deciding he had something to tell us right then!

http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a63314e7a63324d773d3d0d0a

June 14, 2008
Shhhhh.... I haven't broken it to the kids yet but it looks like rain again!!!!!! This is the third day in a row and the kids have been losing their minds about not getting to swim!

I'm buying a house intercom from Ebay. I'm soooo tired of screaming for the kids. They never hear me from selective hearing, tv, games, etc. I have to scream so loud to get them to come to me, I always feel like the neighbors are going to hear me before the kids do! It's only been used once according to the description (she bought it for use at an out building but had too many trees blocking reception and had no use for it in her house), it comes with a base and two units, should hopefully be $25 with shipping. I'm going to put one unit by my bed (I always seem to need something when I'm bed sick), the base by my desk and one in the kids' hallway (our house is set up that the kids' bedrooms are on the opposite side of the house from ours).
Pretty toes
June 12, 2008
Kaylee saw me painting my toe nails and had to have hers painted as well. She loves em! I'll post more pics with some other pics I have to add to the site. Here's a pic of us showing off our toes together! lol

Home after China posts (including cleft repair surgery)

2008-08-27T08:05:00.007-06:00

June 09, 2008
The boys have been picking at each other like crazy! We may turn out some Olympic runners at my house. For now on when the boys start their picking and fighting, they're sent out to the back yard to run laps. They hate it! lol Jaycen had to do a lap before he could eat dinner tonight and Drew had to stop in the middle of his dinner and run a lap for calling his brother a baby.

June 08, 2008
We're loving the new pool. We finally got all the kinks worked out and Glenn built a really nice deck for us to enjoy and give us access to the pool.

Kaylee hasn't gotten any real tan yet. Neither her or Jaycen. Now yesterday I got burned big time on my arms, chest and face. I think the kids aren't getting any color because of the life jackets. lol They're both doing really well in the water now. Jaycen is now out in the pool with us and splashing and hopping all over the place. He thinks he can swim because he'll get in the water now. lol We're careful to remind him he can't swim without his life jacket yet and to never get close to the water without it.

Oh gosh, I think I'm going to have to start stripping the kids at the backdoor on the way in from the pool! Yesterday there was water left on the kitchen floor and I fell hard! My arm is all black and blue today. I look like I've been beat! lol I think only my arm is really bruised because I tried to catch myself by grabbing the counter top and kinda bounced off of it.

June 07, 2008
I'm trying setting the timer for every 30 minutes today to get Kaylee and I back on track with potty training. We got out of the habit big time with everybody sick.
The timer really helps! It goes off and she knows it's potty time.

Just another crazy day
June 05, 2008
I have got to get going and run my errands and get my work done. I've been cleaning this morning. Kaylee had outgrown her toybox a few months back and had everything in a huge cardboard box, I went through Jaycen's old toybox, threw out all the trash in her box and his and moved her stuff to his toybox. He's somewhat out grown all the small toys for a box so I'm going to get him a rubbermade container to put his stuff in. We took the old toys to GoodWill.
I always try to do the GoodWill thing, I think it teaches the kids an important lesson about giving back. :)

Update on the pool
June 04, 2008
The pool people received an earfull from Glenn and me in the background fussing! lol Even with that, they still bumped us to today and didn't call us back! ERrrrrrrrrrrrrr As far as we know, they just didn't connect it right.
Finally in the late afternoon they came by and hooked it back up correctly, the original guys had done it wrong! At least it's fixed now!

Crazy pool problems!
June 03, 2008
Of course we're having ANOTHER issue with the pool this morning. When they put it in, Glenn had to go up to Lowe's, the guys said they'd be here when he got back. They put the filter facing the wrong direction and were gone when he got back. He called them and they said he could turn the filter the direction he wanted. He turned it half an inch this morning and all the hoses on the filter fell off, they never fully put the hoses on because nothing broke. We had water gushing out all over the yard! UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH They're coming out to fix it this afternoon. Needless to say Glenn and I were freaking out! :(
Mannnnnnnnn, problem after problem! It's worth it when we're in it but good grief!

June 02, 2008

Jaycen, Kaylee and I just came in from an hour and a half at the pool. It was the first time the kids had been in the pool. Jaycen was really scared and didn't really want to leave the stairs, other than the one time he let me carry him around the pool. I told him we'd be going out every day so he'd either sit on the steps every day or come in the water to practice with me. He told me he wanted a swim teacher. I asked him why he didn't want me to teach him, he said he didn't know, he just wanted a swim teacher. lol I did tell him a swim teacher would make him get in the water! lol

Kaylee was scared the first few minutes but then had a big time! She loved it! :) She had her face in the water, and was just holding my thumbs and kicking with her life jacket. Maybe she'll be a natural swimmer.

I have to say, the time in the pool today was the first time in forever that I remember spending solely with the kids and only thinking of them. My mind is usually on a million things I need to be doing. The pool is a good thing for all of us. :) Here's a pic of two of the kids ready for the pool. :)
June 01, 2008
I've been in the pool two nights now, LOVIN IT!! :)

We all still have the stomach junk, I was so out of it yesterday, the kids had me stopped at the gumball machines on the way out of Krogers, when they were done, I started freaking out because I couldn't find my keys. After five minutes of practically dumping my purse, Drew finally notices and points out they were sticking out of my pants pocket......

May 29, 2008
Glenn worked hard to build a deck for the pool this weekend but it rained so bad on Monday he wasn't able to finish so we still can't use the pool. He was really upset, I don't blame him.
Took all three kids to the dentist last week, couldn't believe it, nobody had any cavities!

May 26, 2008
Kaylee's doing well, with us both being sickly the last week (she was throwing up earlier in the week, now Jaycen has it), I didn't push potty time very much. Neither of us had the energy for it.
We got a pool! BUT Jaycen got mad at his big brother and decided to throw major clumps of dirt in it!! It's taking us forever to get it cleaned up. We can't get in it until we get a deck built. Glenn's working hard to get the deck built this weekend so we can though.

Jaycen's Kindergarten Graduation!
May 20, 2008
Jaycen had Kindergarten Graduation tonight, we were sooooo proud!!!!!!!! It was all I could do to keep my eyes dry, seeing how proud he was and how cute he looked in his cap!! Here's a pic of the kids right after the ceremony.

Got to witness
April 07, 2008
I got to do one of my favorite things today, I got to witness to another mom about adoption! She is a therapist at Kaylee's speech therapy. It's always so neat for me to get to do this. I've never had that opportunity in person before, done a lot of it over email though. :)
If she's reading this, I really think you have a little girl waiting for you, I could see it in your eyes. :) You have that passion you need to go the distance that adoption can be and I could see the love for the child already. I saw a lot of the same drive and hope in you that I have for children. Many blessings to your family in your journey and I hope I can help with any questions you have.

letters for orphans
March 30, 2008
I see all these sites for you to sponsor a child financially and writing them but what if I only really have love to give? Is there a program where I can send letters and gifts to a particular child and follow them like a sponsored child?? I know there are many children out there my oldest son's age (11) and older that might not find a home and I'd love to be an outside source of individual contact for them, even if I can't afford to sponsor financially. I have love to give and I can afford that. :)Please write me if you know of a way we can do this. :)

new pics of the kids in the snow
March 25, 2008
http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u211/charlliesweb/Snow%20pics%2008/?action=view&current=910921a8.pbw

Time marches forward and we're finally getting the house changed
March 15, 2008
wow, I'm feeling completely wiped out today! I think this junk has turned in to a sinus infection, I have a lot of pressure in my sinuses and they're very tender. Yea me... oh well

Well we started the big change over last night. I was lying beside Kaylee as I laid her down for a late nap and started thinking of a way to utilize all the beds without putting anything in storage and get the boys in a room together. So I got up and started busting my butt!! I moved Drew's full size bed to Jaycen's old room (the easiest part by far), then moved Jaycen's twin size bed to Drew's room. It took forever, it barely fit out the door way and had to be moved like a puzzle to get out of one room, slid back in the same room from a different position and then slid in to Drew's room. We finally took Drew's door off the hinges. I had sweat rolling down my face! The boys helped with it all. Then we went to a mattress store, bought another twin mattress and box springs with rails. They tied that to the top of the pathfinder, we brought them home, then went to Walmart for the boys to finally spend their Christmas money for the rest of what we needed.

We bought sheets and comforters for each of their 'new' beds, they picked them out (Drew picked out camo and Jaycen baseball) a comforter and curtains for Kaylee's new room (pink princess set), plastic containers for easy storage of underwear and socks to slide under their beds, (since they're going to have to share a closet, etc), new pillow, they then bought a new game for their PS2 (that's going in their bedroom now) and a color-art set for Jaycen.

It was all very expensive but in the long run, we saved money compared to the bunk beds we planned to buy. Plus all beds are being used with this plan, no wasting there. I did consider faking a heart attack at the register when I had to write a $71 check on top of their $400 Christmas money ($189 went to the mattress set and rails) but after weighing the ambulance bill being higher than $71, I quickly wrote my check and brought all the goodies and kids home.

I'm really proud of the boys, they've worked hard with me to clean their rooms and help with the transition. They slept in their new room last night, Kaylee's room won't be nearly as quickly to be ready for her to sleep in but we plan to work today and tomorrow to get it there. With the end result of Glenn and I finally moving toward an adult bedroom again, yippee!!!!!

And I have to give Drew credit, he was dutifully his Dad's son and protested over me moving heavy furniture and told me how mad Dad would be for me doing it on my own! lol I never let that stop me before, I get on a mission and I'll get it done, no matter how I have to do it. :)

Yes, I know I'll probably be spending months of getting up over and over as Kaylee protests sleeping in a room alone but we'll slowly work through it.... hoping the full size bed will help with transition, I'll have somewhere to rock her before I lay her back down (what's she's used to when she wakes during the night anyway)
March 12, 2008
The subject of being addicted to adoption came up on another of my groups and I thought I'd share my thoughts on the matter. (Though Kaylee decided my first draft was not sufficent and she erased it before I could send it! ughhhh.... lol)
Am I addicted to adoption? Yes and PROUDLY so!
Am I addicted to the paper chase? Oh heck no! I mean there are a few joys, when you complete one task and can move to the next but addiction worthly? I think not!
Am I addicted to the wait? Oh double heck no! lol I find no joy in waiting for what I want, regardless of what it or they are. :)
Am I addicted in the attention received from adopting? Are you kidding me? For the most part, I only experienced non-friendly attention for adopting. Definitely not that.
So what causes the addiction? I'm a mom and I can not look past a child needing me without the urge of rushing to their aide, scooping them in my arms and saying 'I'm your mother now, you are no longer alone in this world!' I walk the floor endless hours of the night with my children, endure toddler fits and angry outbursts. Teach manners and words, help with homework, play nurse when they are sick, rejoice and dance with them when they learn a new task, cry with joy upon seeing love for their family in their eyes and hearing a child's voice tell me they love me. I proudly display the grade K paper from my youngest son, proclaiming to his whole class, 'I love my mommy because she hugs me'. I have days where the first words I hear are 'You ruined my life!' because I insisted on lunch being ate before playing in the snow and end the same night with the same child signing to himself how he has the 'prettiest mommy in the world'.
So, is all this addiction worthy? In my books yes. And I don't want any recovery! :)

Six months of blessings
March 08, 2008
ok nothing ever gets done the easy way, I spent a long time on this and then couldn't get the song I wanted attached to the photo show, sooooooooooooooo:

first click here and start the photo show (it takes a minute to load):

http://www.photoshow.com/members/charlliesweb/all/VB8jw3Cd

then click here and start the song:

http://www.playlist.com/node/27933268

homesick for China
March 02, 2008

I was writing a friend that will be traveling soon and realized how homesick for China, Guangzhou actually, I've become after being home six months. I thought I'd post what I missed, feel free to add your own. I'm sure the new moms would LOVE to hear our experiences. I would have loved a post like this before we traveled. :)
I can't wait to live another China trip through someone (we were in Guangzhou the whole time). It's amazing, the country becomes a part of you because it's part of your child and you almost feel a little homesick for the country after you've been home awhile. I miss silly things like the nightly strolls Glenn and I took with Kaylee for dinner and to all the shops again and again and then to Starbucks. :) Glenn signed the guestbook at Starbucks, somebody look for it!! :) I've been dying for someone to see his entry, just to have that neat connection back from the country back at home again. :) The Starbucks people are SUPER nice, plus it's air conditioned (no place else really was, though that probably won't be a problem for anyone this time of year) and has nice coushy chairs that you can use to block off children's escape, like make-shift baby gates! lol Also there's a little store, gosh I wish I remember their names! It's between the Victory (the one across from the Bank of China) and Andy's on the corner. If I'm remembering correctly, they had a red ramp leading in the store. There were two girls working there, one stood there with me for the longest time, we practiced our English and Chinese together with a children's book. :) It was very cool, something that would never happen at home. There's not much else to do on the island except shop but it was so different from anything you'd experience at home, we never really minded. I miss the relaxed strolls we took. All the stress had to be left at home for the most part so I had to learn to relax! lol Two weeks may seem long but it's probably the only whole two weeks I'll ever get away from home! lol
I look at our pics now (they scroll as our screen savers) and feel homesick for that time in our life when our lives were changing so much and such a blessing of a little girl physically entered our lives. :) We'll never be able to thank China enough for the gift of our little princess. :)

Fever... :(
March 01, 2008
Our little princess has had a fever for not quite three days now. It was 102 when she woke up this morning. The doctor yesterday tested her for strep, it was negative and her ears were only slightly red. They gave us a antibotic but I don't know if it will help. This may be just a virus thing. Anyway, I'm a super nervous mom when it comes to fevers... say a little prayer for both of us. :)

BIG GIRL POTTY TIME!!
February 27, 2008

BIG GIRL POTTY TIME!! Little girl has had her very own potty for not quite two days yet. I think she thinks of it like her play kitchen, a smaller toy version of what the big people have and that's totally a cool fun thing for her! We head to the potty right after lunch where she looks at my InTouch magazine (a girl's got to stay up to date with fashion and the celebrities!) and me wondering why I punish myself to have to potty-train yet another child. I could figure out a way to instantly do that, I would pay a million dollars for it! My oldest son took a year and my youngest son TWO years!!! They say girls are easier, we'll see...
So, we're sitting there and she makes a stinky as she knows it by, in the potty! We all cheer and congratulate her, we have to call Daddy to tell him the good news, etc. She stands there with this priceless look on her face like what the heck are you all so excited about??? lol I know, I first days' fluke but I'll take it! Maybe she'll beat her big brother's record of a year to train! Hey, a mom can dream can't she?? lol

Early release date!
February 22, 2008
Kaylee has been doing really well. I decided to give her a slightly early release date from her no-no's, she was supposed to be in them till Wed. but I'm letting her out the Friday before. We're watching her for putting anything dangerous to her palate in her mouth but other than that, I've put the no-no's away this morning. I'm also moving her to a soft diet, nothing crunchy but soft smooth food, letting her chew a bit, she's loving it! :)

Kaylee in ponytails
February 16, 2008

We had Kaylee's two week checkup Wed. from surgery and the doc. says the hole we've found is actually better than last week when he saw it. He thinks it's in the mucus layer and the muscles have stayed intact. He thinks it will grow back on it's own. So two more weeks of no-no's and liquid/creamy diet and we're done for this round, yea!! Little girl is going to slam dunk those no-no's when she can! lol :)
Here's a pic of little girl looking super cute in some of her first ponytails! :)

Day four-Cleft palate repair experience
February 02, 2008
It always makes me feel better to write and hope my experiences will help others so here's what I've recently learned (we're on day four post-op)
Do:
Right after surgery expect a lot of mucus with blood coming from nose and mouth, think of wearing a dark colored older shirt to be able to hold your child for hours in
Expect your child’s face, feet and hands to be swollen for a few days
Expect your child’s body weight to feel as if it has tripled during surgery when they are in recovery
Expect night terror behavior when they are still waking up (I knew to expect this and even though Kaylee didn’t experience it, I heard other children around us doing it and parents scared and not knowing how to deal with it)
Expect a cranky child for days, even with pain meds
Plan ahead to have every possible food to put in the blender and/or soft foods (for example, puddings, yogurts, jello, soups) and plan for your child to turn their nose up at most of them
Expect TONS of drooling, get ready with extra bibs; Kaylee is going through 4+ shirt and bib changes daily right now
Expect to feel as if you were physically the one in surgery, full time care of a child after surgery is exhausting
Expect your child to have the most foul smelling breath you’ve ever smelled in your life!
Expect your child to act like they haven’t napped in days..
Remember your sweet child is still there, they’ve just undergone a surgery that’s going to have them not feeling themselves for a little while but you’ll both be happy after it’s all said and done
Don’t:
Expect your child to be themselves quickly, they are dealing with a lot of pain, the overwhelming concept of a liquid diet, wearing no-no’s and not knowing quite how to deal with any of it; plus pain meds can affect your child’s personality
Be afraid to ask for pain meds that you feel your child needs, they wanted to give Kaylee pain meds orally several hours after surgery but the taste of it made her not want to drink so the next time we were due for meds, I requested it be put in her IV, she started drinking again soon after
Forget to keep yourself fed, even when your child cries wanting real food with you (if you aren’t able to eat out of their sight), you have to keep yourself fed to be able to keep your energy up
Forget to stock up on groceries for the house before surgery so you don't have to leave the house with your little one, the less exposure to outside cold air and/or possible flu/cold germs immediately after surgery the better, pneumonia is easy to get after the body has undergone surgery
Worry about bringing pj’s from home for the hospital, frequent changes might be needed due to all the drainage and drooling, don’t worry about the extra laundry for yourself to do
Expect your child to let you put them down or them to want to sleep outside your arms, get comfortable in the rocking chair and rock that baby for hours; trust me, you don’t want to let go of them any more than they want you to let go anyway

Kaylee's home
February 01, 2008

We got released after staying overnight. I'm so tired!! I did that half alert sleep the night in the hospital and last night Kaylee had spit out some of her pain meds (meaning it wore off early and I couldn't really know how much she spit out to give it to her again early) so she was awake and fussing, she ended up in the bed with us at 12:30 and kicked in her sleep the rest of the night. That and all the emotions and I'm wiped out! She's honestly doing really well though. She's eating pudding and liquefied soups of every kind you can imagine. She doesn't like drinking out of a regular cup very much so fluids aren't constant like she's used to but she's getting enough. She can get into most anything like usual with her no-no's. I try to give her a break from them every so often and keep a close eye on her. We thought her incision would be down the middle of her mouth but it looks as if they made the cuts on the side and stretched the right side over to meet the left. The stitches are down her left side. He said her cleft was wide and her palate was short so she might need the lengthing surgery if she still has a lot of trouble with speech. I've devoted most of the day to her as I promised her I would. We took a two hour nap this afternoon. She's causing trouble now that I took a minute to update everybody. lol :)
Wanted to update everybody but she's not going to let me be on here long.

surgery tomorrow
January 29, 2008
Kaylee is having her cleft repair at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in the morning. She had a little cold over the weekend, not anything too bad. She's had the occasional cough the last two days so I'm hoping they won't postpone when we get in there. I figure it's best to just give them a heads-up and let them listen to her chest and make sure they feel comfortable still. We're ready to get this surgery over with....
My sweet little girl is going to be one cranky princess for a couple of weeks without her favorite foods. :)
Please keep us in your prayers. Thanks.

Five month reflections
January 25, 2008

Here we are, knocking on the door of Kaylee being physically with us for five months! It's so hard to believe, it's gone so fast!! I can certainly say five months with her has gone a heck of a lot faster than five months of waiting for her! :)
What all can I tell you about this sweet child? The one patting me on the arm and stopping to give me a quick hug as she runs by. :) She has truly been a reward for a hard fought journey! I wouldn't change a thing about her, even that hard-headed nature that just got her in trouble for playing in the dogs' water AGAIN, we've lost the fight of protecting our years and years of cd collections... we have crayon art on the walls, have given up unloading the dishwasher or dryer without help, everybody in the house knows who 'piggy' is and there is an all-out search involved at bed time if he's been left away from her bed, though I protest, my drink, the remote control and my cell phone are brought to me the second I step away from them, we all know she has to throw her own diapers away and put her own dirty clothes in the hamper, she's tough as nails and they weren't kidding when they described her as fearless!!!! She climbs everything, falls, brushes it off and climbs again. She loves changing her shoes at least eight times a day, loves to pick her own clothes out for the day, and knows she has the entire household wrapped around her finger. :)
A good example of the impact she's had on us all; I had a big day of researching to do this week so Kaylee went to visit with Grandma for the day. This was unexpected so the boys didn't know ahead of time. I picked Jaycen up from the bus, expecting his six year old mind to be more concerned with playing games than noticing his sister wasn't in the car. I was wrong. He said with fear, Mama, where's Kaylee??? His older brother was worse. He came in the house, said something like 'oh, is Kaylee up from her nap?' Then looking around, 'Where is she???', bless his heart, his face lost all color as he panicked waiting for me to answer. Her brothers love her very very much! :)
Daddy's Christmas wish was for Kaylee to finally be able to say Daddy and she did it, right at Christmas. :) He'd been practicing with her every day since we got her and she never even tried until she said it. Now she melts his heart daily with it. :)
I don't think I could even describe my love for her with mere words... :) She is a blessing to our lives and we all love her dearly. :)
PS: Please keep us in your thoughts andprayers as Kaylee has her cleft repair surgery this coming Wednesday, the 30th.

random updates
January 12, 2008
I'm a little concerned about Kaylee's size. At the doctor's the other day, she was 26 pounds and 32 inches tall. She was 24 pounds when we brought her home. She's gaining healthy and I know she's grown in height because she's outgrown some of her 18 months jeans. I like putting her in cotton pants now because they don't crawl down her butt as bad as jeans do. Anyway I asked the doctor if she was a healthy size considering the adoption, being Chinese, etc. She told me she didn't have any of the Chinese children growth charts there but I could look them up. (Personally I think they should add that to their office since we're one of many adoptive families going there but anyway...) So I get home and look it up, she's in the 5-10% percentage for height and weight for her age! She's really tiny even for her background. She's robust, full of energy, I can tell you she eats good. I just remembered looking at FengHong's growth averages for the same age as Kaylee and she was bigger than her. I'm sure she's fine, just would like to have a doc. tell me she's fine! lol

Doc. appts for this week, Tuesday afternoon the TEIS developmental girl is coming out to the house to make sure she's on target for development. Kinda excited to meet her, she's an adult with cleft lip/palate and I can hear a slight difference in her voice. The speech lady told me that this girl LOVES working with cleft kids, understandly so, so I'm sure she'll make sure Kaylee's exactly where she needs to be. I haven't heard back from the speech lady but I think they had to do the developmental assessment also to see what all she qualifies for (not positive about that). Then Thursday we have our first appt. with the pedatric cardiologist about the mumur. I'll be glad to get that out of the way and not worry about listening to her breathing and making her slow down when she gets really hyper, just in case. Then the following Monday morning early, we have our first cleft visit. We're going to be very busy the next week and a half!

Everyone's doing really well around the house, we HAVE to get the boys' rooms situated though and get Kaylee in her own room, she's waking up at the tinyest sounds and it makes it hard for three of us to be sleeping in the same room and Glenn and I to not wake her up. Plus the boys will come in there over and over to ask this or that. I can't hardly get her down for naps at all any more. We've got to buy bunk beds, that's our biggest opstacle right now to changing the rooms around.

Christmas :)
December 25, 2007
We had a good Christmas, the kids loved everything, Kaylee is constantly playing with her shopping cart and kitchen :) Jaycen loves his gameboy and Drew was such a little gentleman, he spent hours putting his sister's kitchen together instead of playing with his Christmas stuff! We were so proud of him! :)

The loss of a child
December 21, 2007
We lost a child we had listed with UAHH. The loss of this child, Abraham a child that passed away just a few days short of his second birthday in China; has truly spoken to me. These children really don't have anyone speaking for them if we (we as in fellow moms and dads, agency workers, advocates) don't.
My heart cries for a little boy I never met. I cry because what I want most in life is to bring more children home and see them happy. Losing Abraham means one less child to see that joy in. I know he's in a happier place now so I guess my tears are from the frustration that his life was not spent in a mother's arms or on a daddy's shoulders but instead waiting for what would never come for him.Blessings to the ones that show these children love until they have families, their hard work is easy to go un-noticed until you realize they were all a child had.I hope some good can come from his passing, I hope his story touches a family's heart that wasn't quite ready and helps them to push past those last thoughts holding them back.A 'Match' in heaven is probably the best 'match' a child could receive but I pray we don't have more 'matches' in this manner. I pray these children find 'matches' with families here.

I pray this child's loss will encourage us all to work harder for these children. To show them love by advocating for them until their forever families appear. Whether we advocate by posting about the children, praying for them and/or volunteering with groups to bring them home; it all matters. If you're doing something, you are helping! Don't let good intentions be too little too late. Make the effort today and don't let the loss of Abraham go by un-noticed. Advocate for the children still waiting for their homes. Let's make Abraham proud as he sits by God, now seeing everything with his eyes for the first time. Let God show him we are working for his 'brothers and sisters' left behind.
Blessings, Charlotte Temple

watch this! lol
December 15, 2007
OHHHHH MY GOSH this is too funny!! Too bad there could only be four elves, shucks, mom had to sit this one out!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1425120415

Bubba's birthday
December 04, 2007
Today is Kaylee's brother Jaycen's 6th birthday. She helped me carry balloons and cupcakes in the school for his class. Ok, she rode in the stroller and I balanced everything. Getting down right scary what I can balance pushing that stroller! lol Kaylee loved the kids and kept pointing at her brother and squealing. :) The kids were very interested in her and kept saying 'what a cute baby'. Big brother is having a big time with his balloons while Kaylee's taking her nap right now. :)

trimming the tree
December 02, 2007

Little girl helped decorate her first Christmas tree this weekend. She LOVES the lights and we have tons of trouble keeping her off the tree. It's so neat to see the wonder in her eyes though! :)

Picture perfect punishment
November 27, 2007
My family's out-smarted me! They're making me get my picture taken with them! Acccccckkkkkkk ekkkkkk ughhhhh (sorry, hair ball from the idea of having to get my picture taken)lol :o) For years now I've successfully avoided organized pictures involving myself. Hubby and I've been married seven years this January and we've never had a professional picture together. That means my youngest son and now Kaylee have never had a picture with me professionally either. You can start to see the artillery for their out-smarting me, huh? Of course my mom and hubby's mom have sang the 'it's all we want for Christmas!!' song for several years now, I've been sneaky and had the boys pics made and presented them with those instead and gotten away with it all till now...
Today, I think I'm smart, I tell hubby, it's your day off, I ask one simple request. Take Kaylee in her Christmas dress and have her picture made. He comes right back at me 'What about the family picture?!?' I respond, ok, I'll tell you what, we're knocking on the door of December, if you can get an appointment for us all today, I'll do it, if not, you go on and take Kaylee before Christmas is over. Needless to say, THANKS A LOT SEARS! ......
SO, think of me as I go have my picture taken... did I forget to mention I have a bump on my chin right now the size of a volcano??? ugh......

A special project
November 24, 2007
I have felt so led to help other children come home since we've gotten home with Kaylee. At first I thought maybe we should look at another adoption, then reality check hit, of course we couldn't afford that now, our family now needs to bond and have time for that security to build in the current family, all kinds of reasons...
A friend suggested I look into helping other children to channel these whispers from God. I'm so glad she did. I volunteered to join a group of fellow adoptive moms that work to bring hard to place Special Need children home from all over the world. The group is www.untilallhavehomes.org Those that know me, know I can't ever do something just simple, I have to add my own twist. My twist this time is an idea I really feel God Himself gave me as a task to complete. I'm compiling a list of Special Needs (SN) with medicial definitions, treatment information and most importantly, family input from families living with these Special Needs in their homes. How many times have children been skipped over because people hadn't heard of their SN and figured if they hadn't heard of it, it must be horrible and beyond what they can handle? My list is to quiet some of these misconceptions. To provide an introduction, right along side these children available for adoption.
I’m very excited and hope this makes some of these SN not as scary because potential parents haven’t heard of them. If you'd like to help, I need your input! :)
Here is what you can do to help, please answer the following questions on my little survey below:

1. Please describe your child’s SN, just the name is ok, I’m trying to add medical definitions for the meanings.2. Tell me what life is like on a daily basis with your child's SN? 3. Things new moms would want to know, is there daily pain or care for the SN?4. Are there aspects to this SN that you did not expect? 5. Did your doctors expect other SN's to accompany this particular SN?6. What is the long term prognosis your doctors told you to expect with this SN?7. From a mom's point of view, how has your child's SN affected them on a daily basis?8. If your child is old enough, have they expressed their opinion of their SN?9. Finally, to give encouragement for potential new parents: Can you give a statement to comfort a potential/or new parent to a child with this SN?

I’d really like to add contact information for volunteering families that wouldn’t mind speaking to interested families, so please tell me if I have permission to publish your email address or an advocate website with my list.
If you'd like to add to the list, please copy the above questions, answer them and email them to me at charlliesweb@yahoo.com

I'm so proud of my boys!!! :)
November 17, 2007
I have to brag on my boys! I'm so proud of them! They have been through so much with us this last year, pursuing Kaylee's adoption, doing without extras to save for the adoption, us fundraising left right and center, doing without their Dad and I for two weeks while we went to China and then having a new little sister that lives up to every expectation of a normal two year old little sister. Keeping all this in mind, here's what happened tonight.

We were driving back from my mom's, it's an hour drive and we always have lots of time to talk. I thought I'd take advantage of the time and explain to the boys that I'm starting to volunteer with an non-profit organization to bring more children home. I realized after I'd said that sentence that they were both quiet, Jaycen spoke up first. 'A boy or a girl this time?' and then Drew, 'I can help you fundraise this time!' It just brought tears to my eyes!! I quickly explained that I wasn't bringing children to our home but I was going to be working really hard to bring children to their own new families.

After all they've been through the last year, about to give up their individual rooms to share so Kaylee will have her own room (until we can afford to build another room), everything and their first responses at thinking we were going to adopt another child was acceptance and offering to help. I am soooooooo proud of my family!!! :)

Play group with the homeless
November 12, 2007
Ok so I get an email from a local agency that I will keep un-named for the fact this play group might not fairly represent the agency in whole. I think oh, how cool, this agency is local and would hold local get-togethers (since ours was out of state), it's at a convenient time, only a thirty minute drive, I could take the kids to play and I'll get to know some local adoptive families. Right.......... sounded like a good concept. Our adventure starts with the normal taking forever to get all three kids out of the house on time so we leave ten minutes late. No problem, I'm still keeping my cool, even though Jaycen (the 5 year old) has had a TOTAL meltdown refusing to finish his dinner and crying because he won't get to have any snacks at the play group (because of said not finishing dinner). Drew (my oldest, 11) does a great job at his first try at navigating and reading the mapquest directions for me, we only get mildly lost, making us another 5 or so additional minutes late. We find the church by accident, I slam on the brakes and slide into the turning lane just in time to turn into the church. We then shuffle every one out of the car, (did I add we've had suspicion of a dirty diaper for the last five minutes of the drive), venture our way to the door, only mild complaining from the boys for the rain we're walking through and the almost getting totally lost and not attending play group from getting lost. We pass people leaving a School Board meeting, still cool, that makes sense to hold at a church. We open the church, there's mattresses on the floor, mom starts getting nervous at this point. The kids are whining about wanting the snacks provided for the occupants for the mattresses on the floor and us still not being able to find the play group. We walk through the mattresses on the floor (me now cursing myself for choosing this outing and praying the kids don't ask me why the mattresses are there). We round several corners and finally find the play group! Hooray!! Of course the suspicious dirty diaper has to be changed first, I instruct the boys to play with the train set outside the bathroom door and whip in the door to change Kaylee, I'm almost instantly knocked out by the smell of the bathroom, ohhhhhhh my gosh! I didn't want to even lay Kaylee's head down on the paper towels on the changing table. We get done (of course she wasn't dirty by the way), walk out and experience the most unorganized form of a play group/adoption meeting I've ever seen. Ok, here's my soap box time. This group consisted of approx. 3-4 other children, not counting mine (I stood immediately out coming in with such a large group of children, no I didn't pick up extras, just my three), and probably 5-6 potential adoptive couples. I mean, maybe my expectations were too high, I expected a semi-organized not-so-formal meeting with someone from the agency mildly keeping the conversations going, perhaps papers explaining adoption to potential parents, snacks for kids (HELLO PLAY GROUP/CHILDREN usually involve snacks???), maybe pictures from families that have traveled and/or contact info. for families that enjoy talking to new potential families, etc. I expected things and/or people to encourage adoption. All my suggestions above didn't happen. It just struck me, if this is what is done to encourage potential adoptive parents in our area, kids don't have a chance! I could go on but I won't... SO, it's time to go, now we must make our way through option A-through the homeless people now starting to lay down on the mattresses on the floor or option B-outside around the entire large church to our car and chance coming up on an individual waiting for an idiot picking option B with three children. We chose option A. We make it through the mattresses, once again I have to thank God the kids didn't ask anything, other than whining about the snacks for the homeless people again as we walk by. We hurry everyone in the car and thankfully have an uneventful trip home. I'm all for helping the homeless but I think holding that and an adoption play group at the same church, with little outside lighting wasn't a good idea. Phew, we made it through this one but we won't be doing that again any time soon.....

Turkey season, Temple style
November 08, 2007
Today I got to do one of those things I normally wouldn't have been able to do when I was working away from home. Jaycen's school sent out turkeys drawn on poster board and asked families to work with the kids to decorate them. Kaylee, Jaycen and I went in the backyard and collected fall leaves, then we crushed them all up in a bag, colored the head, beak and feet of the turkey, put glue all over the body of the turkey and then went back outside and poured the crushed autumn leaves all over the glue. It turned out cute and the kids loved doing it. I of course am sneezing up a storm now, fall leaves are a huge allergen for me. lol Oh well, the kids loved it and it was fun hearing Jaycen amazed at watching me cut the turkey out and telling him my ideas for how to decorate the turkey. :)

Social Security day
November 05, 2007
Kaylee and I went down to Social Security today finally (we've had her Certificate of Citizenship for three weeks and every day I've found something more pressing than getting down there until today) to apply for Kaylee's Social Security card. After waiting in a room crammed full of people for an hour (Kaylee was excellent I might add, thank you Lord!!), we finally got our number called and made our way to the window. The lady starts looking at our stuff and says oh, you'll have to have this translated first! I'm like, huh? It said bring her adoption certificate and passport, I brought both of those AND her Certificate of Citizenship to be extra sure!

By this time Kaylee is standing on the counter in her little dress, I had my hands on her legs to steady her so I started tickling her legs to make her laugh, hoping her cuteness might get us worked through. Then she leans remotely close to the hole in the window so I say oh Kaylee, are you waving at the lady?? Kaylee being Mama's girl and knowing what mom's thinking (let's get the heck outta here and not come back! lol), quickly puts her hand through the hole and starts waving at the lady in her famous two-year old wave. It worked! LOL

Ten minutes later we walked out with our paper that we'd have her card in two weeks, leaving behind a room full of people that for the first time that entire hour, probably wished they were the one waiting with a two year old! :)

just a day
October 25, 2007
Had to keep my youngest son home from school today, he's got a little flu bug. Kaylee didn't like him being sick one bit, she's mad with Jaycen for being home and not playing with her like normal. lol Poor Jaycen's like why is she bugging me today??? lol
Right now she's screaming and running to go tell on me for taking her drink away when she didn't put it where I told her and spilled it instead! lol She's something! She slams all the cabinet doors when she's mad! sheeeeshhhh LOL
I tell ya, she is somethin!!! lol She don't put up with nobody messing with her the wrong way! lol I don't worry about her wandering off to play with the boys cause I'll hear her if anybody gets too rough! She might not be able to talk yet but she gets her point across! :) She's such a little survior! All that time trying to get her here, I thought, wow, God must really have something special planned for her life to have all this take place to get her here, now I see that we had something special planned for us. :) I've never met anybody that could tell me so much with their eyes. It's amazing how expressive she is with them. :)

My guys are so taken with her as well, Jaycen today was worried that this attorney at work had spent too much time looking at him and Kaylee I guess, he piped up when the guy was leaving, telling him not to take his Kaylee! LOL

Gosh little girl is getting big!
October 24, 2007
Kaylee is getting so big! Not even six weeks ago when we got home, she couldn't reach the top of her highchair to get her drink down, now she puts it up on the tray herself and can reach to get it down too!
She's so funny, she has to change shoes a million times a day. She's all about her fashion, she loves for you to tell her she looks pretty. She pulls on her hair wanting it to be long so she can brush it like I do mine. Her favorite stuffed animal is her soft pink piggy. It's not quite half her size, perfect for her to wrap around at night and that flat piggy face is perfect for kissing (which she has to do over and over when she gets in bed, along with hugging him and saying awwwwwwwwwwww). :)
She loves dolls now, she was a little afraid of them when she first came home, now she first has to take every diaper off to make sure it's a girl. Then we start over and over of her taking the diaper off and me putting it back on. She'll do it until the tape won't stick. Her big brother taught her how to hold the dolls, feed them and carry them around in her purses.

another update
October 16, 2007

The kids are doing better with adjusting to not having my sole attention. We're really working hard with Jaycen to help him start getting back to acting his age. He's doing a lot better, still a few under-age melt downs but better. Drew's accepted that his not doing his work at school has cost him his good grades (and games at home) and says he's working hard to bring his grades back up. Kaylee's got a little cough right now but we've had a little 24-hour virus going through everybody at the house so its not surprising for her to have been up coughing last night. She's such a joy though, we couldn't have asked for a better child! She can melt your heart in a matter of seconds. :) She can be acting up and in the middle of it, run to you to give you a kiss so she's not in trouble! lol Little tease! lol :)

Everybody keeps asking me how I am, me?? LOL Me is a mom with three kids, there is basically no me left, for a little while atleast! lol I'm loving it but am trying to keep a balance to atleast watch a tv show for myself everyday so I don't lose myself in the sea of kids. :) If the money situation was better, I'd probably go shopping. :) I love this time of year and Hobby Lobby has wonderful potpouri and fall decorations I bet. Fall and Winter are my favorite times of year. I love the upcoming holidays. :)

updates
October 07, 2007

We've been home three weeks tomorrow. Kaylee's been sleeping all night almost a week now. Big relief there. I've had to turn into 'kicking butts and taking names' mom to my other two. I came home to grades slipping (the oldest in middle school his first year, apparently had been taking advantage of mom being pre-occupied with the impending travel to get Kaylee and then us being gone and was hiding test papers from me) and our five year old reverted back to a three year old, crying at the drop of a hat for any old non-reason and even throwing himself on the floor to have fits?!? Mean ole mommy's back in town now though. I did the unthinkable, took the PS2 out of the living room completely until all grades were C's or above and the five year grows back to being 5 (I have to suggest this to people, it really has an impact! lol) I've also been brought back to the reality of trying to make sure each child gets the mom attention they need, a good bit harder with three than I realized it was going to be.

Kaylee is rooming with us, something that we thought would be just a couple of months, then we'd move the boys in together and have her in her own room. I think it's going to be quite a while longer than we thought though. She's sleeping all night now but only with her toddler bed directly by my side of the bed and being able to constantly look up and make sure I'm still there. She's about six months behind behavior wise (not bad I think, she could be much further behind) so I don't feel like she's going to feel comfortable enough and we won't be able to verbally explain what's going on enough for her to feel comfortable by herself for quite a while.

I get the energy to type emails and then take forever to reply back when people answer me, sorry about that.

Anyway.... there's my ramblings on for today. :)

A chance to reflect
September 28, 2007

Wow, I've been a mom to three now almost 4 weeks (this coming Monday). I can't believe it, it's happened so fast. This has been my first real chance since getting home to sit and reflect on my feelings and how I feel about adoption now that I'm a BTDT (been-there-done-that) mom with adoption.
So, how do I feel? Omg, I can't tell you how beautifully blessed I feel!! My daughter is truly the daughter I waited my entire life for. I love her and feel her as my own flesh and blood. She couldn't possibly be more my child in any way.
I love all three of my children equally, not one more than another. That makes me feel good, I worried I might be more partial to Kaylee after the fight to bring her home but being a two-year old, she has a special way to remind Mommy she's a normal kid, just like the other two. :)
I wanted this memory in writing, before it has a chance to fade any more. As much as I love all three children the same, the best memory in my life now involves my daughter. My favorite memory is looking across the room and seeing her walking to us, our first sight of her in person. Everything else in the room faded out, there was only her. I recognized her face instantly. Another worry I'd had is that I wouldn't recognize her from only pictures. I did though, without any hesitation or doubt and immediately. My first words spoke were 'there she is! She's walking to us!'. I was filled with awe that was indescribable. To use a phrase from an old song, 'did you ever see a dream walking, well I did'. That fits what I felt perfectly. A year's worth of tears, prayers, hopes, disappointment and joy, came to life with a toddler's bewildered look and walk across the room.
Do I still find myself an advocate for adoption? Now more so than I could ever describe. I have truly been blessed by God to have our daughter join our family and I dearly thank Him with all my heart for this beautiful little girl. :)

Home one week
September 22, 2007
I've had trouble this last week adjusting to having a two year old again and getting the entire family adjusted together. Our youngest son's had a horrible time between us being gone for the first time in his life, his first full weeks in Kindergarten and now a new sister. The child had huge black circles under his eyes when we came home (he never does that and the only thing I can think is that he wasn't sleeping well while we were gone). He's gone back to crying and throwing himself on the floor. (This started before we got back so it's not copying Kaylee) It's been breaking my heart but the only thing we've known to do to help him has been reassuring him verbally and with hugs and coming down hard with correction when he acts up and throws himself on the floor. He is better now than he was last Friday when we got home. Our oldest son on the other hand (the one we thought would be having the hard time and enjoy ignoring both his sister and brother) has come out of his loner shell and is having a blast with his sister! He carries her around, plays with her, looks for her if she's not following him around. It's the total opposite of the reactions we expected. I've had a huge amount of catch up work this week from my job. So bad that Kaylee starts throwing a fit when I come to the computer (and I've only been coming here for work this week) Yep, she knows how to make mommy feel guilty! lol I'm feeling better with the 'adjusting' this morning. I went through this with both boys too. I always go through a 'resentful' (for lack of a better description) phase with a new child until I can sleep all night again. I always take good care of the kids through this phase but feel over relied on, overwhelmed with the new responsibility, I guess that's a better way to describe it. Kaylee's sleeping better now (I think last night might have been her first night not waking up, which resulted in me sleeping probably 13 hours! lol), she never had trouble sleeping in China! ugh... lol I have eliminated straight milk from her diet until I get her sleeping all night for atleast two weeks, then I'm going to try her on it again. She had that liquid yogurt stuff right before we got on the planes and that's when her fits during sleep started, kicking her legs really hard, constantly bending her body over frontwards (like you would double over if your tummy was cramping), twisting and turning in her sleep. She had three glasses of milk the first full day home (she loves it) and had a horrible time sleeping that night as well, more of the kicking and fighting you as you tried to comfort her. The longer the period of time since the milk was cut out, the better she's sleeping. It might be the comfort of being more used to home now but we didn't have this problem at all in the hotel and she slept in her crib there with no problems whatsoever (but no whole milk either). Guess that sums up our first week home. :)

WE'RE HOME Daddy Journal
September 15, 2007
Well we finally made it back home last night around 8:30 pm. Kaylee was a little angel on the plane from China to Tokyo and only fussed a little bit on the flight to Detroit when she would wake up from short 20 minute naps she wouldnt know where she was and got scared. The flight from Detroit home was a different stiory poor baby screamed 45 minutes of the hour long flight.
I personally blame this on the fact that we were delayed and missed our flight by the complete incompiotence of Detroit international airport, US Customs and Immigration especially Agent Salazar and the TSA. When we landed in Detroit we had over 2 hours to change planes more than enough time. Well after waiting in a line of three famlies we flew with for 2 hours while Ms Salazar proved why government jobs are so cushy she dissapeared for a good 45 minutes. When we said we would miss our flight. Her response oh well North West will get you on a new one. I tell ya what after witnessing the way these agents treated people from other countries was insulting and embarassing to say the least no wonder Americans are sometimes thought of badly in some parts of the world. Now as an "American" family arriving "HOME" to their country with their 2 year old daughter we were treated like criminals we had our luggage x rayed and "sniffed" 6 times at 6 different locations in ONE airport. All this while sorry to say it Muslim "looking" people soar through without a single check because we aren't allowed to "profile". Well I don't recall an American family with a 2 year old in a stroller commiting terrorist attacks. Sorry but when made to feel like a criminal I vent ALOT. Now by the time we finally boarded our flight little Kaylee had been pretty much awake nearly 24 hours so she let the world know how tired she was. I don't blame her a bit.
My mother in law picked us up at the airport in Nashville and we headed home to find a beautiful banner (thanks Jill) Welcome Home Kaylee in english and Chinese. Our boys could hardly contain themselves. After a wirlwind of presents and stories we all went to bed and after a few hours in the most incredible bed in the world I got up and headed to Krogers for Bacon and Eggs sorry Victore but no matter how hard ya'll tried the bacon and eggs sucked lol. Had morning coffee in my new Guangzhou Starbucks mug and thought of the Posey's and the Kennedy's we miss you guys all so much. Kaylee loves her two BIG brothers and follows them everywhere and they love her too. It makes a Dad smile seeing his family finally complete. Kaylee is an absolute blessing and I find myself just staring at her wondering if it's all real if any of this was real. Just a couple weeks ago I was walking throu the old market and having Pizza Hut with Jerry Posey in Guangzhou China and today I'm trying to recover from jet lag while my girls nap.
Hopefully the articulate member of the family my beautiful wife Charlotte will update with something more than my rant of the week with something more substantial and some new pics as well.
China we thank you for allowing us into your amazing country and culture and allowing us the gift that you have given us in Kaylee Kathleen the most beautiful girl alive. The people of China were wonderful hosts to us and I will never forget that.
Last but not least I want to thank our guide Bob. I have nicknamed him Lightning Bob because he seemed to have connections everywhere and when we thought we'd be hours we were done in 15 minutes usually. Bob thank you so much. If anyone is travelling to Guangzhou and has Bob as a guide tell him we said hello and thank him again from us.
Glenn aka daddy.

Charlotte's Guangzhou Tips-Shamian Island

2008-08-27T08:03:00.000-06:00

Charlotte's Guangzhou Tips-Shamian Island
March 02, 2008

This should be fun :) I have people ask me all the time about China. I guess because I advocate for the kids and China has become near and dear to my heart because of our adoption. Here are frequent questions I get, feel free to email me with more and I'll post them too. :)

Where to stay? We stayed at the Victory across the Bank of China, the rooms are cheaper and much nicer than the White Swan. Our room was so nice we literally thought they gave us the wrong room!

Travel arrangements: we had the best deals through http://www.sunshinetravelusa.com/

Where to exchange money: Ok, the Bank of China is supposed to have the best rates but get ready to stand in line at least two hours (that including one hour of waiting before they open), once you get the big transfers done, I'd suggest doing most of it at the ATM's at the White Swan, they have English as an option and they're right by the guard at the door so it feels safe
Where to have laundry done? Jennifer's, close to the other Victory (I'd suggest bringing lots of under garments if you travel in late Spring to Fall, it's extremely humid, I would sweat through clothes on the walk to breakfast, I know, yuck! lol)

Where to eat? Lucy's of course (have the sweet and sour chicken) and the Cow Bridge (I lived off steamed rice and chicken there, soooo good!)

People to see: Go visit Jordan, he loves meeting the families and will do your child's name in Chinese characters for free for you. Tell him the big 'tattooed rock star looking' guy from the summer and his wife sent you. lol He might remember us, my hubby's a big tattooed guy, hard to forget in China. :)

Must walk-through: the old style street markets across the bridge, total experience not to miss
Get ready for: tons of bikes and cars coming up behind you as you walk through the alleys, you get out of the way, they don't

Home away from home comfort: Starbucks, coffee from home (don't drink the coffee at the Victory, warning you ahead of time), and nice cushy chairs that can be moved and used as make shift baby gates for a few moments to relax; also look for the quest book my hubby signed (Glenn), we're still waiting for someone to report back seeing it :)

Funny things to get used to hearing: the shop owners recognizing you and your family and asking how much longer you have on the island (they have the comings and goings done like a heart beat), people always asking you if this is your first child, are they a boy or girl (with all the head shaving in the summer)

Best places to shop: we really enjoyed the House of Love, right near the White Swan, they had really good deals and a large selection of children's clothes; also, the ladies are so used to the kids, they like to play with them while you shop, we also liked Andy's on the corner (I think there were like 3 or 4 Andy's)

Where to buy water: we bought water by the masses at the Andy's grocery store, right next door to the Victory we stayed at, don't remember the name but we bought the one with the large green upside down triangle top

Diapers: ok, don't expect Pampers there to be the quality of Pampers here, they were crap, no pun intended; if you have a good idea of your child's weight, I'd try to bring atleast a mega back from home, especially for night diapers

A few pics of China and Gotcha Day

2008-08-27T07:52:00.008-06:00

IN CHINA POSTS

2008-08-27T07:49:00.002-06:00

READ FROM BOTTOM UP

Our last day!
September 13, 2007
It's our last day here and Mommy and Daddy are READY to get home!!! We miss our family at home sooooooooooo bad!!! Kaylee has quite the shock waiting for her with the long plane rides for sure! Let's hope Mommy and Daddy have hair left and haven't pulled it all out by the time we get done with flights that long with a 2 year old!!!! :) LOL
9pm- Well, after all the waiting and two weeks here, our time in China is almost complete. Our daughter is officially ours now. Once we land on US soil and clear Customs, she's a US citizen, third child in the family to accomplish this before Dad! LOL Now that the adoption is complete, we will work on poor ole Dad getting to be a citizen instead of a permanent resident.
Kaylee is looking way cute in her pj's tonight but is also being a handful of two year old trouble! lol Dang nab it, hard to be Mommy when she's lookin so cute! :) Thankfully things like shutting the bathroom door can curb one trouble area. That won't last long! lol
Don't worry boys, you'll hear Kaylee's name in trouble as much as yours! lol
We love you all and can't wait to start heading home to you!!! Give Annie doggie hugs for us, tell Cookie to get ready for another troublesome youngster, and break the bad news to Cassie that the castle isn't really hers (I think that covers the pets) lol
Pray for our travels home, our wake-up call is for 4:30 and we leave the hotel at 5:30. Love you all. Charlotte, Glenn and Kaylee

Consoluate Appt.
September 12, 2007
Bob attended our consoluate appt. this morning. All went well, we have our oath ceremony tomorrow at 3 pm, than we're basically free to travel!! Yippee!! :) We've had a good time but we miss our boys terribly and are very ready to get our family under the same household again! :)
Kaylee is SOOOOOOOOOO a typical little girl, she and I have fallen in love with the traditionally dressed China dolls. We have 'fought' all morning over a booklet of them that we picked up at a shop last night. Later this afternoon after nap, Glenn and I plan to go out and find her a Barbie doll she can play with since she can't play with my dolls I'm going to collect. She and I were both in heaven last night at a shop looking at the dolls. Too funny! The girls in the shop were laughing at Kaylee and I ohhhing and ahhing together over them! :)
We've had a few more two-year old meltdowns. Glenn and I just ignore the behavior, she doesn't get what she wants, hopefully she starts understanding the tantrum only gets her ignored instead of what she's throwing the tantrum over. It's all very typical two year old behavior, nothing to do with being adopted (for anyone that wondered). We have realized that she most definitely acts out more when she's had too much stimulation. We went out to dinner last night and sat with a few other adopting parents, we then let her walk holding my hand all the way back from dinner instead of riding (quite a long stretch for a 2 year old's legs), then we went to the pool to cool off. She LOVES the water and likes to splash Daddy and kick her legs while I hold her walking around. After all that activity, she was VERY tired and we knew it behavior-wise for sure! LOL Can you say cranky? lol That's ok, Mommy gets very cranky when she's tired too! lol

Nice quiet day so far
September 11, 2007
We've had a nice quiet day so far. I probably got up at 7, Kaylee and Daddy slept till 8:30 when I started turning on lights to make them wake up! lol Can't take a chance of sleeping through the free breakfast. lol While here, my plan of attack has been to load Kaylee and I up at breakfast, Glenn and I usually skip lunch and Kaylee eats in the room for lunch. Then we have a nice dinner.
Kaylee's down for her nap right now. After the orphanage visit, I should know nothing should bother her noise wise when she's asleep. They close doors, etc. at full volume there and the babies don't hardly move. Yet I can still hear her move around slightly from behind me at the sound of the computer keys. :)
Trying to think if she's been doing anything new the last few days. I do have to tell you, it's amazing how much she seems to have matured even in the last week. When we got her, she very much reminded me of a 12-18 month old baby, now a week later, she's letting us hear new different baby sounds, she basically says 'eeeeeeeeeeeee' for something she wants and 'wahhhhhhhh' for look, she's showing her independent side, has to put her socks and shoes on (over and over) all day, she brings us baby wipes and a diaper if she needs to be changed. We're not going to bother trying to potty train her here of course. I want her to be comfortable at home and then start. We've waited our whole lives for each other, I think we deserve a couple of weeks before we start any hard growing up training. :)
I can't wait for the boys to meet her. I've lived the moment over and over in my head, thinking what each one will think of her and what she will think of them. I can't wait to introduce her to home. :)
All this time to bring us together, almost a year, through all the hardships, scary moments, personal problems, everything we've been through this last year, she's worth every moment and I'd live every moment of this year over again to make sure she was in my life. Being a mother with two boys naturally and one daughter through adoption, I can tell you from personal experience now, I feel no difference between them. The pain I went through, tears, frustrations, etc. for Kaylee's adoption, it all equals as much 'pregnancy' as I had with each boy. Any moms out there with children through adoption only, never for one second let anyone tell you that you haven't endured pregnancy, you most definitely have.
Kaylee is a blessing for sure and we love her as much as our boys. :)
Orphanage Visit

September 10, 2007
Daddy writing today.
We went to Donguan City SWI today and discovered right off the bat that Kaylee was very popular there. Nannies were running down hallways and corridors when it was learned she was there. The sad part was that her main Nanny was off today and missed her.
It was very obvious how much she was loved at the orpahanage by the way they laughed and played with her. We were told about how smart she was and how she used to lead another girl around trying to teach her how to walk. I bet that would've been quite a site. One of the directors told me that they were always worried about what family would adopt her as she was so special to them and that once they saw our pictures they could tell by our faces that we were a perfect fit. I'm sure they tell every family this but it seemed so sincere when they were talking.
We gave the second director the cleft bottles we brought and the special scrap book photo album from Donguan families. They really seemed to take alot of interest in the album and seeing how the children have grown. Several children were crawling over Charlotte and she looked like Santa Clause. I took as many pictures as I could of these children in case someone recognises one as their little piece of joy. I tried to sneak pictures in the crib room but wasn't allowed. They let me and encouraged me to take the pictures of the little ones crawling on Charlotte.
I will say this after visiting the orphanage today, it's very clean and very friendly. you can tell that these nannies genuinely care for these babies so much and they are thrilled when they are adopted. They made me promise to grow her hair long lol that was already on the cards. I promised the nannies and director that we would love and care and protect Kaylee forever and they thanked us. In a way it was difficult to see your daughter jump into the arms of a "stranger" and laugh and giggle but it was theraputic as well. I now know that this has always been her personality and has always brought smiles to peoples faces just as she does now. Another difficult part was seeing all the little ones waiting to be adopted by a loving family, it's hard to not grab them up and run for the door but we did find out that several are waiting for their paperwork. If you have ever had an incling of adoption in your heart please do it please adopt one of these loving children.
Daddy!

Running late
September 09, 2007
Running late for Kaylee's blessing at a temple this morning but I had to stop and type this quickly. We actually had two people ask to be removed from our 'update' emails on Kaylee. I think I have all the requested emails removed but if not, tough, you can remove yourself. My daughter is the most precious little girl in the world and if you don't want to hear about her, it is MOST DEFINITELY your loss.
I'm so sorry to talk this way, especially on Kaylee's journal but this little girl is a huge part of our world now and if you don't want her, you don't want us.
Sorry, words from a hurt mommy this morning, off to get our little girl blessed.
Charlotte

I think it's Saturday??
September 08, 2007
Can't help but feel a little sad this morning, the Posey's are on their way home so we won't be meeting up for breakfast and Starbucks. We've all gotten really close this last week and we'll miss them. I'm sure Kaylee will wonder where the boys have gone to. Especially her Starbucks' pole dancing partner Genghis (aka Chris). We all agree that must have known each other, they stared and were too familiar with each other not to have, Kaylee and the boys were all three at DongGuan City SWI.
Kaylee is quite the little ham, let me tell you! She did pretty good last night, decided to be a little night owl and watch tv from the crib with Daddy but that's ok, as long as she wasn't fussing, I didn't make her go to sleep. Too funny though, she would stand up (I was facing Glenn going to sleep) and if she saw Glenn tap me to show me she was standing up, she immediately dove to be laying down on the bed. LOL
I guess I won't know what it's like to shower by myself for a while. She can't stand to have me out of her sight now. If I go to the bathroom, she has to be with me in the room, when I shower, she has to be attached to my hip and from the way she clutches on to stay put with the water, I've gone to calling her my little monkey. She loves the water as hot as I do though and loves to take showers that way so atleast I can still have a hot shower, even if I do have my little puppet in there, imitating everything I do. She had to help me brush my hair while I blowdried it last night. She's dying to have her hair long too. She keeps pulling on it when I brush mine, like hers is going to get longer that way. lol
She is a little sweetie for sure though. :) She's had a full blown two year old tantrum already when Daddy took his new movie he'd just bought away from her. Complete with throwing herself on the floor, crying, grunting, screaming mad. We just did the two year old taunt of 'you can do better than that, can't you? Is that all you got?' After nobody picked her up and she didn't get the movie back. She finally gave the tantrum up, I'm sure more than a little disappointed at its failure.
Boys, you better be exercising now, your sister's going to give you a work out running around the house! Jaycen, I think you have a running partner!! Drew, maybe you can sneak off the radar and sit by me (shhhhhhhhhhhh maybe we can watch tv if they don't notice us! lol)
Opp, little sweet face (as Glenn calls her) is up, better jump off here.

Good Lord, I have no earthly idea what day or date it is any more! lol
September 07, 2007
Last night we had to experience the hard but necessary part of adopting. The greeving process. If we weren't first time adoptive parents, we probably would have seen it coming a little more. Kaylee had bloomed in to full blown Kaylee yesterday! :) Hyper little girl, laughing, playing, teasing, running, everything. Well, after dinner last night, we'd come back to our room, played for a while, etc. I got up to go to the bathroom and was going to take a quick shower to rinse the sweat off (I could take 40 of these a day and still not feel clean, I HATE all this sweating!!). Kaylee did her normal of going to the bathroom door to lay down and look under. Usually she will bring her toys and play waiting for you to 'return'. Last night she started whimpering. Glenn got up and started playing with her on the floor. She started full blown crying. He picked her up, screaming, crying, kicking, full of grief. After I realized this wasn't just a normal cry, I opened the door and let her in with me. She calmed down, took a shower with me, latched on my hip like a little monkey, playing with the water as I bathed her around her latch-on position. She was laughing in the shower, perfectly fine. We went to get out, Glenn snuggled her up in a towel and took her to the bedroom while I quickly dressed. Then the greeving really kicked in. She started crying for 'ah-eee', baby for Auntie, which is what she would call her Nanny at the orphanage. She cried and cried. Normally all crying stops when I hold her. Not this time. I walked the floors with her (Glenn was in torment over watching her in this agony cry). I finally sat on the bed with her, let her cry and just kept talking to her. I rubbed her back and head, told her how much we loved her and that we'd never leave her. After a while the sobs slowed down to whimpers. After a little while longer, the whimpers tapered off. I sat her back from me on the bed and started playing with her like everything hadn't happened. I got her favorite album of us and gave it to her, pointing each person out by name like she loves. After a little of this, she got back to normal, only more affectionate with both of us. She played her the next couple of hours, Glenn and I both got lots of hugs and kisses from her. She had more trouble again at bed, I just laid in our bed singing to her and after 10-15 rounds of Hush Little Baby, she fell asleep and is still asleep this morning.
We knew this greeving would come, it has to. It's her little body and mind letting go of her past and opening herself to the future. It shows she can make bonds and truly allow herself to feel love and security toward her family. It's very hard for parents to watch and experience though, trust me.
Glenn and I have decided that as much as I have wanted to visit her orphanage next week, we don't think it's a good idea for Kaylee to go back for a visit. We're afraid she may backslide if she thinks for one minute that she's going back. The first couple of rides in the van after we got her, she had fear in her eyes and clutched me the entire time. She's now fine with riding in the van. Glenn is going to do the visit and thank her Auntie for giving her the obvious extra attention Kaylee has received. For her to be this loving and well adjusted and never been in foster care, (so we've been told at least), she HAD to have had a special Auntie.

Life with Kaylee
September 06, 2007
Well, God knew what He was doing of course! lol Kaylee is quite the comediene, tease, girly girl, smart, a clean freak and HYPER after sugar! lol She'll fit right in with our clan! lol Did I mention she loves TV and finds any where we go that has one??
She wore us out yesterday! lol We stayed in the room the most of the day and just played. It was very good for Glenn and Kaylee especially. It's hard to describe, she's bonding a little faster with me but not totally shying away from Glenn either. We are all three addressing it together and it looks that we are being successful. I will sit on Glenn's lap and kiss him, with her in our laps, then we both kiss and hug her, she seems to be getting the idea that if Mommy does it, it's safe for her too. She's sitting with Daddy right now with her new flower book so I can write here.
She can't wait to get home I think and play with the boys!! One of her most favorite games is looking at her picture album we sent to the orphange and point to everyone's pictures, having us tell her over and over who everyone is.
She can't stand long sleeves, she constantly pushes the sleeves up, (they would be a new thing for her). lol
Had quite an adventure the other day. We were on one of our many trips for the adoption when our driver suddenly stops in the middle of the road, jumps out of the van and runs down the road like an Olympic runner! We're just sitting there, going 'uhhhhh.....?????' Our guide, much to Glenn and my's humor, tries to act like this is very normal behavior! lol Apparently someone on a bike (without any of us except the driver seeing, feeling or hearing anything)bumped in to the van and kept going. We just sat there with a line of traffic behind us honking and us just looking like, okkkkkkkkk.......... He came back mad as a hornet that he didn't catch the man. No damage done though! ;)
We'll be going off the island today for a little shopping.
OHHHHHHHHH, Kaylee is officially OURS!! We're just in the waiting stage for her to have permission to leave the country. Please pray for Japan, they have a typhoon headed their way and of course I don't want anyone to get hurt but we HAVE TO FLY THROUGH Tokyo next week!

What day is it? What month is it?
September 05, 2007
So tell me, we've been gone like months already, haven't we??? Now that we have Kaylee, time goes so slow and so fast at the same time! Kaylee is just something else! LOL She gets excited when her tummy is full and wants to jump up and down! AHHHH, that could be a bad combination! lol So far no bad results, we're trying to curve that. lol
Lavonne gave Kaylee this duck canteen that she likes to carry around like a purse. It was pouring down rain last night so Kaylee and I took a few laps around the lobby, her holding one hand with me and the other held up in the air so her 'purse' wouldn't fall off her shoulder. lol The whole time squeaking with every step in her new squeaky shoes! lol Too cute!
Boys you would have loved seeing Dad acting silly last night. One of the squeakers had fallen out of Kaylee's shoe so Dad put it in his mouth and blew in it to make it squeak. Then he took giant steps around the room making the 'squeak' when he stepped down, Kaylee thought that was too funny!
We miss you boys so much!!! Gosh Jaycen, Kaylee looks so much like you sometimes! Especially when she's sleeping! And Drew, she may be smitten with you, she met a guy a little older than you last night and did everything she could to get his attention and make him smile at her! :)
Drew, I hope you feel better soon!! :( Make sure to take your allergy meds and ask for a tyneol if your headache gets bad.
I'm glad to hear Cookie is still eating! Are the dogs looking for us? I know Cassie's probably just happy with the new arrangements and calling interior decorators during the day to figure out how she's going to re-do the house now that she's become the throne with us being gone! How mad she's going to be when we come home! Guys, make sure she doesn't get the credit card!!
Jill, glad you like our bed, isn't is the greatest??? AHhhhhhhhh.............. :) Even room for all the furry clan to share with you! lol
Mom, its so funny, Kaylee is a big sleeper! She slept ten hours last night and still would be asleep if we let her and she takes two hour naps on top of it, yep my child, definitely! lol
Love you all! I'll try to answer emails soon. We've been running all kinds of errands and appointments with the adoption. I guess that's why the days go by so quickly.

We must get off to breakfast and then Starbucks! Yep Cat, I said STARBUCKS! LOL
September 04, 2007
Kaylee is sooooooooooo cute!! Oh my gosh! She's a little sweetheart who likes to be a helper. Every time I left the sliding closet door open, she went over and gently closed it for me. If you point at her cookie on the floor and tell her to pick it up, she goes and gathers every tiny little piece. She shares and loves to collect her blocks back and forth by giving them to us, taking them back one by one and putting them in the square they go in (they are the shape sorters and Glenn has her already trying to figure out how to put them in the correct shape). She's very intelligent but I think her emotional level, though very healthy, is probably more of that of a 12-18 month old than a typical 2 year old.

She has to have her highchair table clean, even if that means throwing food on the floor, she then inspects the table to make sure nothing is left and it is clean. She wore her hat with no problem, thought her headband looked cute so she left that sucker on a long time. When she took it off, she'd look at it and put it right back on. We put her in a pink top with an icecream cone on it yesterday evening for dinner. She was holding her shirt out so she could see the design. She gives hugs when you ask for them and has given a few on her own as well. She hugs you tight and squeezes your neck gently with her hands while she's hugging you. She wore her ladybug pjs to bed last night and was strutting around the room in them. She was quite proud of them. :)

She has a little congestion in her chest, I gave her a little bit of cough med. before bed, she really didn't cough that much though. She cried at first when we put her to bed but after three rounds of 'Hush Little Baby', she was fast asleep and slept all night. She hears me typing now and is moving around a little. We took some adorable pictures of her sleeping! She likes to sleep with her arms and legs sticking out the sides of the crib! LOL

She got mad at me last night. Glenn gave her a little piece of chocolate, which she liked but she was holding it for a long time and it was getting on the white sheets so I threw it away. I got quite a face for that one. lol She loves eating cheetos with me, she scooted right up close to my lap facing me as if I was about to give her the prize of the centuries. :)

The boys are going to love playing with her! I think she'll definitely have them wrapped around her little finger in no time!!

I know totally how to load pictures at home from the camera to the computer but since this is the computer in the room and I don't know much about the laptop, I'll have to let Glenn tackle getting pictures on line. Trust me, they'll be worth the wait! Even the big American Mama didn't mind having her picture done yesterday! lol :) I just got through looking through them all. You see her walking to us, the look of 'who the heck are you????' on her face upon first seeing us. You see me in mid-picking her up for the first time. You see Kaylee and I both look like we're about to cry! lol Then you start seeing her starting to smile in Glenn and my's arms. We're very lucky, this little girl has had a lot of attention and is used to being loved and attended to. I have a feeling when we visit the orphanage, we're probably going to encounter a nanny that was very loving to her and is going to miss her.

I tell you, I've loved our visit but now that we have Kaylee, I want to jump home and have everybody together again!! :) :) Miss and love you all.

GOTCHA DAY!!
September 03, 2007
We finally have our beautiful Kaylee!! She walked into the room at Civil Affairs all on her own after a nap and we have the biggest SWEETHEART ever. Of course that might change when she wants it to. LOL She LOVES to play, she's very smart and funny! She waves bye-bye, loves to copy you, she'll stick her tongue out to copy you, do her lips in kissing fashion when you do and has only cried when we tried to put her in a stroller. She wants to be held, big time! Which we don't mind at all for right now! :) She's perfectly happy on my hip in the hip sling. She's a chunk!! Very heavy to pick up, I was shocked! She's wearing an 18 months size outfit right now that's a big size 18 months. She'll probably fit in 24 months size pretty well too. We still have to go buy her some shoes. She had her bath like a champ, she splashed in the water and stood up and reached for me to get her out when she got cold.
We met up with several families for dinner tonight, she and I shared steamed rice for dinner. She points at everything. We're in heaven! She looks for us when we walk away. She's fussed a little bit for me if I wander too far.
We've taken tons of pics but want to spend more time with her tonight before we try to download any pics.
Boys, get ready! This girl has an arm and likes to throw! lol

WE GOTCHA DAY-KAYLEE!!!!!!!!!
September 03, 2007
What we've all been waiting for!! Kaylee is here!! Oh my gosh, we've been blessed with a SWEETHEART!!!!! Of course that may change when she wants to. The only time our angel has cried thus far was when we tried to put her in the stroller for the first time. She took to the bathtub like a pro and splashed and played. She is very inquisitive and points at things with wide eyes. She loves Daddy and Mommy so much and loves to play. Jaycen and Drew ge ready for playtime with your little sister she loves blocks. She's a big girl and we have a feeling she will melt some hearts very soon. Pictures to come soon.

only a matter of hours
September 03, 2007
We're down to a few hours, TODAY is the day!! The day to finally hold our daughter for the first time!! Immediately tears sprung to my eyes even typing the words!
After almost a year of working toward a most often feeling-winless fight, we are scheduled to meet our daughter, in just a matter of hours. I remember so many hours of driving and talking with God, asking with excited fear, 'Lord, could this really be happening?? Me Lord?? Could I be called to adopt?? Would you be willing to give me such a blessing?? I know I'm not worthy. How could I ever be worthy of this happening??' Many many times in this last year, God has taught me, NOPE, I wasn't worthy enough but everytime I thought, well, here we go, this is the stopping point now, this is where it all falls apart and God tells me No, you aren't going to receive this blessing. God had to correct my thinking, it wasn't whether I was worthy or not. It was what He had planned for our lives, we just had to be open to His plans. Being open has lead us to the other side of the world. Being open has lead me to be typing to you from the country of China, a place I never thought I'd be. :)
I've so many times in the past wrote here at moments like this, where the Lord has lead me to the computer, making me feel compelled to pass along my feelings, knowing someone out there is reading this for a special reason I may never know. Today is one of those times. I met some very special children yesterday. Were they special because of color, an age, a special need, or me feeling like they needed me somehow? No. I met a beautiful thirteen year-old girl, with a full beautiful heart for her new brothers. Making me stand back and admire her so much. She is going to be a wonderful mother to many more children herself one day. Being a mother with love in my heart and feeling such a need to protect and love as a passion, it is easy for me to spot the same qualities in others. This girl has it. :) I met two little boys, ewually special and they too won my heart yesterday. The Poseys' boys Chris, JUST like our Jaycen at that age!! Like Jaycen to a 'T', I love his want to play and make people laugh. And Alex, so much benefiting from his parents hard work this last week, laughing and wanting to play last night! There is nothing better than his giggle in response to being tickled! And beautiful Jin Jin!! She opened my eyes to older child adoption. A delicate little princess and a girl after my own heart, that can burp with the best of em! lol This little sweetie took great care to make sure we all had forks, napkins, didn't like pizza at all but still had to sit between her mom, Abbey and I as we ate. :) She made me LAUGH as she asked Glenn to tickle her daddy Sean too!! Abbey and Sean have worked hard with Jin Jin too and it shows.
What I experienced yesterday was pure work of love and if I thought my heart could not be opened to children, especially children with special needs even wider than before, the Lord showed me how MUCH more He could open my heart yesterday as I spent many treasured hours with these chidren and their new families. If you are a person that ever felt that tug toward Special Needs adoption, don't ignore it. It's not just an easier or faster route to getting a child home. It is truly a blessing straight from our Father himself. Are they still kids? Oh yeah! Still getting in trouble, acting up, just being kids. Do they have additional medical needs to be met? Sometimes but the only difference between that and adopting a Non-special needs child, is knowing ahead of time part of what you're facing. There's not a one of us in this world that has spent every day in our life healthy, some of us were just born lucky enough to not have a health problem to start life with.
I know I'm not an author, a poet, or anyone with great power at writing, but please take my words to heart. Adoption, especially special needs adoption is on an entire different level of a blessing. Not just for the child but the adopting family. I felt so much love from the children I met yesterday and their new families and I left them looking forward to our next meeting and my next time to get to spend more time with them.

Dad Reports from the silk road.
September 02, 2007
Dad or DH or just Glenn making my first entry to Kaylee's site.
First thing first Drew and Jaycen we LOVE and MISS you guys sooooooooooooooooo much we really wish you guys were here enjoying this with us.
Boys someday we are definatley coming back the whole family for a visit. I'll tell you what though both mommy and I can honestly say we would live here. I love this city so much already, the culture and the people are absolutely wonderful and amazing. Drew your the man of the house right now son so take care of Jaycen and the animals lol. Boys dad is gonna be bringing ya home some cool presents too. Help Grandma and aunt Jill and be good.

Still Sept. 1st, couple of hours later now! lol
September 01, 2007
Ok boys, Mama forgot to tell you what I planned the whole ride to China to tell you about and forgot earlier!
You boys know how Mama is about the bathroom, no barging in, give everyone their space etc. Well when we got to Tokyo, I headed to the bathroom and came face to face with my first squatty potty!! These suckers are basically kinda like a funny shaped potty seat except flat on the ground! I panicked inside! lol I knew I couldn't aim like a boy, you know us girls have to sit down! I'd have to take all my clothes off to keep from having an accident on myself to use one of those! lol Thankfully I backed up out of that stall and saw normal potties down the row. Normal, so I thought! I headed in to a stall and got to read all kinds of directions while I sat there for a second! The potties had all kinds of buttons you could push! You boys would have been in there for hours playing with buttons!! One for spraying warm water on your bottom to wash it off (ok, I know you boys are laughing now!! lol), then a button to blow your bottom dry. A button to push to spray air freshner I guess and my personal FAVORITE that I think somebody out there is a genious for inventing! A button to make the sound of the toilet flushing if you have any unlady like toilet sounds to make! How great is that?!? And here I thought I was a genius for learning to turn a sink on for the same effect, when I was about Drew's age!! So there you go guys, Mama making you laugh! :)
Oh, I also forgot to tell you about Dad. He wore his hat so he wouldn't worry about having to comb his hair before we left. Every time we had to go through a check point in the airport, they kept having to motion to him to take his hat off so they could compare his picture on his Passport to him! lol OH, and Dad said he had a rejected cranky former lunch room lady for our flight attendant! She kept bumping into his arm EVERY time she went by, including getting him with the cart when she could. You would have thought we'd asked for gold when Dad asked her for some sugar for my coffee. Oh well, except for a couple of bruises on Dad's arms, we got off that flight safely.
We watched three movies on the plane, Drew, I think you'd like The Last Mimsy, well probably Jaycen too. I personally read my book the whole movie. AND I had the drop'sies' the whole day traveling too! I droped my pepsi back on my tray and it splashed on the poor girl's laptop computer next to me and up on the movie screen!! Dad had to get out of his seat and dry the movie screen off a little bit for me! Tank goodness a movie wasn't showing or everybody would have seen a sudden splash up on the screen!

WE'RE IN CHINA!!!!!!!!
September 01, 2007
We're here! It's about 12:45 am here and this is the third time I've tried to write this, they have this weird thing at the Victory Hotel where your room key has to be in this special slot or all the lights turn out when you shut the door! Glenn went out the first time and it totally freaked me out! Everything went dark! lol Then I got the lights back on, he came back in, put his card in with mine and they went out again! The hotel is really really nice though!! I can't believe it's only $71 a night! We only got about 2 hours sleep the last 30 hours. We tried to not sleep on purpose to catch up with their time. We'll be going to bed here in a little bit. Wanted to write this first.

The flights weren't horrible. We were really tired starting on the last one though. The twelve hour one was relatively comfortable for a 12 hour flight. I have no idea how Kaylee will deal with the long flights. The cleft bottles didn't make it here, we filled out a missing luggage claim, hopefully they'll make it here soon!

The hotel staff just brought our crib in the room! I cried when we touched town in China, to think we're in our daughter's homeland right now!!

Please tell the boys we miss them soooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!
P.S. BOYS, pepsi tastes funny here!!! It doesn't tast right! lol

Gonna leave for the airport in less than 2 hours!!!
August 31, 2007
Of course I'm already awake and NERVOUS at 5:30am!! lol Ohhhhh my youngest Jaycen, told daddy when he woke him up, 'please don't leave this day' and my oldest Drew, said 'mama, I wish you and I both had one of those 'hug me' shirts and we could both hug ourselves when we missed each other and feel better!' Way to bring mommy to tears already this morning! lol
Please pray for us while we're traveling and our family at home! :)
Boys, WE LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH and are going to miss you terribly!!!!!!!
We won't be able to send you a message until tomorrow when we get to China.

We're getting so close!!
August 29, 2007
I'm feeling sooooooo nervous this morning! I got up realizing, only two days and nights before we leave!! I have to work today and this evening so this day is going to fly by. Tomorrow night we will be packing and making sure everything is ready to go. I can't believe after almost a year of waiting, this is here! I'm so scared, nervous and excited all at the same time!
I go to sleep and wake praying for everyone's safety and well-being at home while we're gone, our safety as we're traveling, and that Kaylee will bond very quickly with Glenn and I. I also pray that we're equipped with what she needs to take care of her and any lasting effects of growing up in an orphanage or any medical needs she might encounter. It's not that I doubt myself to devoting myself completely to what she needs, I just know that without God, I would have never have gotten to this point and I know I need Him to continue and complete this journey.
I can't imagine holding this little girl after all these months of staring at her picture, taped up all around me and saved on the computer. I pray God will open her heart and let her see the love I have for her and let me in quickly. I pray that she can learn to trust me and let me in.
Glenn thinks I expect the worst too much, I call it being prepared for the not-so-always-great reality. I've seen too many personal friends go through periods of time with their adoptions waiting for their child to let them in. I've read way too many other family's experiences with it. Let's face facts. We are going to look like foreign aliens to her, we'll be speaking a language she's rarely heard and won't understand, and we'll be taking her from the only home she's ever known. Hey I'd be ticked with all that, why wouldn't she be?? It's going to take time to slowly show her we aren't there to hurt her and they're we're actually pretty nice people and give good hugs and cuddles. :)
You know what? From the little I've read about my daughter's personality and seeing her pictures, I can't shake the 'feeling' she's a very independent little girl and she likes being the boss. lol Another control freak like mommy, this will be cute! LOL Glenn always talks abut her turning those little eyes up at him and daddy melting and giving her what she wants. Somebody better watch out, mommy will be doing some melting too! lol
I worry about my boys and being away from them. Ohhhhhhhh that part physically hurts me!! I love my kids so very very much!!! They're my life! I can't imagine this much time, this far away, from them. Please pray for us all, for us and our boys at home.
Drew and Jaycen are going to be such good big brothers to Kaylee. You should see these two protect each other when they get the motivation! lol I've seen Drew watch out for his brother at birthday parties, I've seen Jaycen protecting his brother for getting in trouble for a squabble with him! lol I'd like to take credit for some of that, Glenn and I really work hard to teach them to protect their families first. Even our dogs come running if they hear somebody cry. lol
I know our family's not perfect, I'm far from perfect, I'll be the first one to admit that! But we do try, I'm not saying we always succeed or never fail each other but we love each other so much. I know that love is something genuine we have to give our new daughter that is more valuable than any gold, gems, or riches. I'm so grateful to God that He would see all of our human faults, and still place us on this journey and reserve this daughter, thousands of miles away from us, to be part of our family. Who could ever doubt His power to make such a thing come true??
So Kaylee, as mommy sits here, writing novel after novel of my love for you (I wish I'd had the same outlet for the boys, their baby books would be full of page after page of my love for them as well), get ready sweetheart, we're coming for you. And no matter how scary it is, we love you with all of our hearts and we're going to work really hard to show you we're good people for you to put your trust in.

Getting ready
August 28, 2007
Oh my gosh, I'm soooooooo excited!! I just got through typing a two page list of everything I can think of to do with the house, kids and animals for my mom while we're gone. Trying to make sure everything that someone could think of to ask is answered ahead of time.

I had bought all kinds of little bags for the caretakers gifts but with so many and now I'm confused with all these assistants to the director, etc., I've decided to use one really big bag, put all the gifts in (as sort-of a grab what you want thing, we got all kinds of bath puffs, scented soaps, deodorant, playing cards, flavored pretzels, TN guides from the state), let them know the bigger bag is for any caretakers that would like to chose gifts, and I got a pen/sign-in book with a place for a photo in the front for the director (I think I'm going to put just hers (Dear Lord I hope the boards were right that the director is a woman, I have our agency checking for sure) with a TN book, and maybe one of the nice purses I was selling on Ebay in a giftbag just for her.
I'm even more confused now, our agency said the Dongguan SWI director is a man and my board has said female! ughhhhhhh

I packed just meds, supplies and gifts Sunday night in to one suitcase, it's 46 pounds! No clothes included!! LOL We're going to check the cleft bottles and aren't taking many clothes for ourselves, we're each packing one pair of sandals and wearing tennyshoes in the airport so hopefully we can get all the major clothes/necessities in the other suitcase. We each have a carry-on bag as well for an extra change of clothes, etc. We're carrying our laptop with us since we don't know if we're in the old part or new part of the Victory and the computer is planned as our communication home.

We also are packing light weight tupperware bowls in our carry-on, since I'm not a veggie eater and plane food makes me sick to my stomach, we're going to buy plain burgers at the airport and put them in the tupperware bowls for my meals on the plane. Trying to think ahead. :)

I'm worried about my boys and my furry babies while I'm gone!! Especially my Annie girl (she's a shih-tzu, maltese mix) and she's just big time a mama's baby. She snuggles with us all the time and gives you doggie hugs! She's a big time family dog, even though she's probably around 15 lbs. We have an older dog as well, she'll worry herself sick (literally) from us being gone, worry about her too. The cat will just think she's finally been officially handed the palace to herself and probably won't worry one bit about us! lol :) I know the boys will love on them big time still while we're gone so hopefully they'll all comfort each other. :)

very old posts-#2

2008-08-27T07:43:00.003-06:00

AGAIN, READ FROM BOTTOM OF POST UP

Buy supplies early!
August 19, 2007
You'd think with all the money worry we've had with this adoption that I would have thought ahead and been buying supplies for months! Wrong! Big DUH to me! Please learn from my mistakes! Buy something every week with your groceries. You wouldn't believe what all that children's medications, adult medications, travel stuff, gifts for the orphanage, nannies, etc. cost when you start buying it all at once. I went off another experienced mom's packing list to write down everything I needed and went to four stores in two days and spent a small fortune! I came home last night with a big knot in my shoulders from the stress of spending so much and woke to the beautiful gift of another donation for what I'd spent the night before!! GOD IS GOOD!! And I thank the people that have helped us so much!!!
People don't realize how hard this journey is and without the help of others, whether it be financial, emotional support, encouragement, words of advice, everyone helping to make our trip possible by watching our children at home while we're in China, and having a great adoption agency, there's no way we could do it. We thank everyone. It takes a family to raise children and we're very grateful that we have a family that realizes how important our little girl is to us and are helping us bring her home.
We realize we're having to ask several people to take time out of their lives, take financial risks; we know the inconvenience this is for so many people, and I can't tell you what it means for people to understand how important this is and how instrumental they are to bringing this new member of our family home. We are very blessed. :)

WE GOT A GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 17, 2007
Well, all my late nights not being able to sleep had me up to 2am last night but I woke to a beautiful message this morning, WE GOT A $4,000 GRANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh!!! I can't believe it! We're soooooo excited and grateful to God, we needed this so badly!!! Just when things were seeming so bleak, God comes through again. You'd think I'd learn by now, huh? I can't thank God and Gift of Adoption enough!! We pray to get TA (travel approval, maybe this Monday) and try to travel August 30th.

Come on TA!! Mama's got to sleep again some day!
August 15, 2007
Ok, silly me, I started adoption thinking, wow, won't it be neat to start my daughter's life without the exhaustion of just giving birth??? HA!!! I haven't slept in months and it keeps getting worse! I guess there are good points, did you know the internet works much faster at midnight?? Sleeping pills you say? Ha again, my body laughs at such amateur attempts to sleeping! Who knew one's mind could be so occupied with things such as 'hmmmmm our update said Kaylee was a big girl, I wonder what size diaper that equals out to??' or 'I wonder if those smaller outfits we got her will fit', 'I wonder if she like hats or those hair clips???', 'I can't wait to sing to her the same songs I sang to my boys when they were little and crying.....' The thoughts go on and on, I thought I'd share with my fellow moms. :) Plus maybe staring at a computer screen will be mind numbling enough to make me sleep. :)

A history lesson for me on Kaylee's first days
August 05, 2007
I decided to give myself a little history lesson of what life was like the day Kaylee was born. I wanted to find out for myself if her name meaning 'rain' went with the weather the day she was found. It did. From closer inspection of our papers and internet research, I found the following, she was found the opposite road of Shi Jie Town Home of Respect for the Aged in Dongguan City on July 22, 2005. The doctor decided her date of birth to be July 20, 2005 due to physical results and development information. She seems to have been named at the orphanage. I wasn't able to find weather history for Dongguan City but found it for nearby Guangzhou. Below is a website address for the weather history for Kaylee's day of birth.
The day our daughter was found, it rained for approximately 7 hours straight. From noon until 7pm. I have to think that somehow her mother must think of her on similiar days. ***update, Kaylee's Chinese name meant 'watches the rain'***

So close and yet so far...
August 03, 2007
So close and yet so far....
It's hard to describe the feelings you have at this stage, it's a mix of all kinds of feelings all at the same time. Our TA (travel approval) could be days away or just a few weeks away. On one hand, it can't get here soon enough; after seeing her little face the other night, that's all we've thought about-getting to her; on the other, knowing the finances are still needed, I know a little later could be better. I just keep praying for grants. It's so hard waiting and knowing the waiting could be for nothing (in regard to the grants), we've applied so many times before and not received them, of course with our new financial hardship, we could be qualifying much better for them now. I hope these recent hardtimes will be outweighed by the blessing of badly needed grant money. I'm hoping the hard times we've been experiencing these last few weeks were all part of God's plan to help us get to China.
There's no magic words to say to people to ask for help, I think I've tried everything I could think of already, several things more than once and from a different angle. :) It's not that I think we deserve the help as much as I know She deserves us getting there as soon as possible. She's been through so much in her short little life, I just want to start making her life better. Put a smile on her precious face. :)
Sorry, I just got to rambling tonight, I know so many other families are in our exact same spot and my prayers go out to you as well for God to help us bring our babies home. :)
Blessings, Charlotte

Possible Kaylee sighting!!!!!!!!
July 26, 2007
Below is an email I just received from a family in China now!!
Dear Charlotte-
We are in China now, coming home tomorrow. We got Zeke last Monday, and had an unexpected free day today. Our guide was able to arrange a visit to the orphange. They did not allow us to tke pictures of any children. But they took us in one room full of babies. The nanny was holding one little girl, and said that was Zeke's best friend. I'm almost positive that was your Kaylee! I touched her little hand and looked in her eyes, and so wanted a picture of the two of them, but no luck there. The ladies told us that Zeke and his friend (does her name mean "raining"?) used to push a cart through the halls! He is a very happy boy, and I'm praying that Kaylee is too! I showed my husband her picture on the yahoo group, and he also thinks it's the same girl. I hope this brings you some comfort. I know it's not as good as having her in your arms yourself... SHe was very quiet during our visit, but that could be because Zeke was wailing up a storm and freaked her out! Again, we're not 100% sure, but we're pretty sure. Please keep me up to date on your travel.
God bless!

me----Oh my gosh, even the thought of this being her brings so many feelings to surface, I've read the email over and over! We've heard several translations of her Chinese name to mean rain!!

LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
July 17, 2007
We received our LOA today for Kaylee!!! (for months she was known as Maegan, if anyone missed my post, hubby and I went through a lot the last two weeks and on our road back we decided to get us back on track TOGETHER our first step, naming our daughter together). :) DH and I with the boys are very excited. God only knows where the money's going to come from, I mean that literally; but I've learned a good phrase from my friend, 'God take the wheel'. I know after everything we've been through in the last few months, and an especially hard time recently, God has a plan and I need not worry because He has it all planned out. :) I wanted to share my joy, the first I've had in weeks. :)

More dreams of Maegan
June 24, 2007
I dreamed of Maegan a lot last night. I dreamed of Glenn and I sitting in a room and them walking her in to us. Her hair was long (something that won't be true due to the tradition of them cutting the younger children's hair short for easy maintenance) and she was short and chubby. lol :) She made me smile immediately though. This child in my dream looked unlike any of the children I've seen in pictures. She was dressed in layers, a little dress and a little white sweater that was too big for her. I remember picking her up, trying not to scare her since she won't know me as I know her. I again looked in her mouth to check her cleft palate (as I did in my other dream of her), I guess in my subconscious, it must be the protective mother in me wanting to check her health. I remember being over come with emotions but trying to hold back tears.
The other dreams I had related to her last night were about myself surrounding myself with things I'd consider for her, Strawberry Shortcake sheets, etc.
I always try to write these dreams down so I don't lose them. When I was pregnant with Jaycen, I dreamed of a child that had his exact physical characteristics, hard to do consider he was born with almost white blonde hair and Glenn and I both have darker blonde/brown. :)

God has been teaching me
June 23, 2007
If God has taught me anything this last month, it's that I'm not in charge. I thought the approval process was done and we had that beat, He taught me different, I thought I had the funding sewn up with those grant applications, He taught me different, I thought I knew when we'd be basically traveling, He taught me different, I thought I had a clue! lol He taught me different. He taught me, the hard headed child I am, that I have to leave everything in His hands. I was reading recently that those that renounce their sins (even our good inteneded ones to be in charge) and pray for His mercy, receive it. I tell you, I put the Bible down right then and there and asked for forgiveness for trying to lead this journey. Our intentions are pure of heart and are obeying His commandment to us to care for His orphans. I believe with all my heart (even though I of course worry) that God will bless us for this. :)

No celebrating quite yet
June 22, 2007
Just got a call from our agency. CCAA (China's Adoption people) reviewed our case again last night while we were sleeping. According to our agency's China representative, they expect to be able to obtain our final approval this Monday morning, Sunday night while we're sleeping. Please don't let up on those prayers quite yet. They expect no problems but we're not celebrating until we have that final approval. Thanks for sticking through this with me.

Our God is full of mercy!
June 19, 2007
Of course we still don't have a 100% answer yet but our agency just emailed me that their China contact now feels very confident that she will have us a 100% full approval by this Friday with no further problems!!! PRAISE GOD! Of course we're still praying 24/7 till we know for sure but this is a wonderful update! :)
Our God is full of mercy for this servant that has grown very weary on this journey..... :)

Please continue praying
June 17, 2007
It is already Monday morning in China. Our agency hopes to have a final answer this week. Please continue praying for us, we know God is all powerful and His plan will be achieved. Please continue to lift us up in prayers as we await His answer for our adoption.

God is in control!
June 14, 2007
Friends thank you so much for your prayers! They mean so much. I've of course thought of nothing else since we heard last night and one thing has rang true. Why would God want this to happen, to put this extra step in front of us? He knows me, he know that when I need him most, I reach out for help from everyone around me and share his witness of what he can do in our lives. He knows the best way to reach his people is by examples of his love and what better example would this be? When I am scared, I have strength to reach out to people about God that I normally wouldn't be brave enough to.I pray daily and try to lead a Christian life but I'm not a daily Biblereader, yesterday I felt a strong need to do this. I've always openedthe Bible and read where God has me land to see what he has to teach me. Yesterday he opened the book to the story of Ester. I knew the story but never knew she was an ADOPTED ORPHAN who later saved her people because of the love and strength she had from the family that raised her. I didn't understand why God wanted me to read this except for the adoption part but an email helped me to see something I had not thought of. We are bringing these children home to Chistian homes to be taught to follow God. Who knows what God has in store for them? We are yet vessels in his plan and have nothing to fear because we are following his plan.I believe God wants me to reach out to my fellow Christians for helprignt now. I have a peace about this, I know God will reward us forour following Him through this journey. I've got to keep this faith.I know God loves us and the journey has not been for nothing. Iappreciate these prayers as I am praying 24/7 myself. I am trustingGod with all my heart.
God is with us, we have nothing to fear!!

WE NEED YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!!
June 13, 2007
Ok, here's the situation, China is at 80% at approving us for our adoption. They are being forwarded the documents that were used to obtain our PRE-pre-approval the end of last year. (for those of you not familiar, China placed new restrictions in place May 1st, we were logged in March 27 but the new rules would restrict us from adopting there, the pre-pre-approval was obtained to make sure they would approve us) We need your prayers now more than we've ever needed them!! I KNOW God has the power to move this mountain of red tape to bring our little girl home but I need your help, please help me in praying to Him for our approval and being able to bring our little girl home.
We've come a long way and I know God is in charge and can make this happen! We should know a definite answer hopefully by next week, in the mean time, please forward this email to anyone and everyone who would pray for us. You all know how dear this child is to me. PLEASE PRAY WITH ALL YOUR HEARTS!!!
Thanks, Charlotte

Very old posts-#1

2008-08-27T07:38:00.002-06:00

START AT THE BOTTOM AND READ UP, I had to transfer old posts to this new blog

Ok prayer warriors
June 01, 2007
Ok prayer warriors, today is June 1st, sometime within the next few weeks, our medical is going through it's final review in China with the visiting doctors. This is our last remaining step before our approval. Please remember us in prayers, especially for the next few weeks. This review is very important, to say the least. We appreciate and need all the prayers we can get. Thanks.

Prayers needed please
May 22, 2007
Just heard from our agency, we didn't get bad news, but I did just get news that could delay the adoption a little. Our doctor updates passed preliminary appoval but CCAA (China's adoption office) has requested our medicals once again be reviewed from the visiting doctors (we went through this before for our pre-pre-approval). The visiting doctors only come once a month and won't be there again until the second week of June. Now the reason the delay could be very disappointing is because of the fact that we won't travel for at least 6-9 weeks from this approval. Delaying this last approval will mean an extra $1,000 for the plane ticket for Maegan (because she'll be over two then) plus we run in to the scary problem of figuring out how the boys will make it to school while we're in China. Worst case scenario would be us being turned down completely at final review (we feel we'll be ok because our information has all been in front of these doctors before and passed their review).

Our agency has requested the China representative to gently remind CCAA about our medicals already being put to the test with the visiting doctors and see if they will go on and approve us. This is just a very gentle push, we aren't in any position to get pushy. It would be completely in God's hands for them to go on and push us through now.

So long story short, please pray for us going through this last review, whether it be CCAA going on and saying we're ok now or if we have to wait till next month. I would love to jump on the first plane tomorrow but I know I have to leave it in God's hands. He knows best.

The good news, once we pass this approval, we're approved to adopt her. :)

a love letter to Maegan
May 20, 2007
Dear Maegan, weekends are hard on mommy. They give mommy time to think about you without as many interruptions. Weekends are the time I know I have to focus on finding the funds to bring you home. I can't give up just because I've approached the subject every possible way I can think of. I have to continue pushing myself because I know there's still some way out there that I just haven't found yet. So, I stare at the computer screen, I research different fundraisers, I've just about given up on grants. Mommy just can't seem to find the words to help the grant people understand what we need to bring you home. These people aren't bad, they're helping other families to bring children home, this makes those people good, just not the people that can help us.
Today I burst into tears after seeing a little girl your age in a bathing suit, I was reading how her parents are in China now, in the pursuit of bringing her home. I'll probably be crying again before I finish writing this. I miss you so terribly much, I want to hold you, kiss you, make sure you are safe and happy. My heart hurts, it aches without you in my arms. Without hearing your voice in the background playing with your brothers. Hearing your brothers and you arguing over this or that, I hear the future sometimes and it makes me miss you in the present.
How do I explain this love to someone? Love so strong for you, a little person I've never held, a little person whom I've never heard your voice, a little person that I don't even know what you really look like now (the pictures I have of you are ten months old today), a little person that may hate me when you meet me because I look different than the people that take care of you now and in your little world, I'll be a stranger that just shows up one day and takes you from everything you've ever known in the world.... How can all of this be true and yet I love you so much that I'm willing to give everything I have to bring you home, willing to talk to strangers and ask for help to bring you home, willing to beg on the street corner if I thought it would help? Why is all of this true? Because God has chosen you as my child and he's chosen a mommy for you that loves her children beyond what words can describe, that is willing to do anything for you. This is the mommy God has chosen for you sweetheart. I pray that when we're finally together in person, God will allow you to see these facts and allow you to love me back. If not, I will cry, yep, us mommies do that a lot, but I'll wait until you see me for the mommy I am.
I am your mommy, I may have never been blessed to carry you in my body like your brothers, but I feel you just the same, I swear sometimes I think I must be carrying you inside me some how, maybe it's because I carry your spirit with me. Daddy says I'm snoring like I did when your brothers were inside me! :) My emotions are everywhere and I swear I could eat everything in sight! lol So on second thought, maybe I am blessed to be carrying you inside me, maybe not in the traditional sense, but you are with me in every other sense of the word. There is never a waking or sleeping moment that you are not in my thoughts.
I love you, my sweet little angel and mommy will continue to do everything I can to bring you to my arms. I love you,
signed
Mommy

Waiting will drive you crazy.......
May 17, 2007
I don't know why I'd be surprised that waiting for Maegan through adoption would be any different than when I was pregnant. Waiting for my kids has always driven me crazy!! When I was pregnant, I used to get up in the middle of the night, wander with my beach ball tummy leading the way through the dark house, always ending up in our rocking chair, in the baby's room, just rocking, rubbing my belly, talking to our boys and wishing time would warp speed to their arrival.
Now, waiting for our Maegan, the waiting is just as agonizing, sometimes I think worse. You don't get to feel the baby move inside you to remind you of the coming days, you don't have people on the street stop and congratulate you or give you a chance to talk about the coming baby, because they can't tell anything by your physical appearance. The dates are just a guesstimate and if you go over your due date, you won't have a doctor willing to induce, you just have to wait miserably longer until a government decides it's time..... These things make it much harder. Now would I give up this journey? NO WAY!! Though the waiting is hard, I can't wait to hold our little girl in our arms, no matter how long it takes!! I will sit here every miserable day, I'm sure whining my way through them, but I'll wait them out because she's worth it.
It's hard for some people to understand how you could fall in love with a blurry picture and a brief description of a child and fight ferociously for this child as if they had been yours all along. But then again, don't we fall in love with our ultrasound pictures? We trace every little line, die in amazement to see them already sucking their thumbs, put these pictures on our fridges, etc. It's the same concept. :)
Anyway, sorry, guess this is my outlet for my waiting for the day.. :) And ideas on helping myself through the waiting period? I don't think Glenn could live through another shopping trip when I'm going to make myself feel better! lol

Can't stay down for long
May 08, 2007
Another adoption facto, you can't let yourself stay down long after a bad day, there's too much else to be done!
I decided to advertise in five counties through the Tennessean for our fundraising baby dolls (trying to generate more sales before we hopefully travel late this summer). They gave me a discounted rate since it was for the adoption so I thought I would share this with youall; in case it might help you too. The girl told me to make sure you call an office, rather than doing it online because the computer can't give you a discount but people can. :) :) (psttttttt, I saved the girl's number of who I talked to if anybody needs it, just email me)So, if you see an ad for Berenguer Baby dolls in your paper, it might my ad! :) Please pray that these ads generate lots of sales and not just lost money on the ad. Thanks so much. :)

Day 43
May 07, 2007
Most adoptive parents will tell you, our days are numbered, literally. We count each one with a vengence because each day we get through brings us one day closer to our children.
Well, for the record books, mark Day 43 from LID down as a really bad day for me. I just had a lot of discouraging things happen. I'm so soft hearted, it's hard not to take things personally. I know not everyone is on the edge of their seats to hear about our adoption but I am. That's all I know to talk about. That is our major/main objective for our family right now. I don't need to go on because this site is about Maegan not just me.
The new restrictions for Chinese adoptions were mentioned again today. Some people had heard of the restrictions (that weren't in place before May 1st) being enforced to people logged in before the deadline. This would be absolutely determental to us. Of course our waiting to hear whether or not China is satisfied with our doctors' letter updates isn't made any easier with this news.
My logic says God has a plan and he's carried you a long way for this to not be what he wants. The other side of me stares at this little girl's picture, worries and begs God to let her be mine...

Dang nab holidays!
May 04, 2007
We didn't think the Chinese holiday would be effecting us since we were just LID on 03-26 and thought we'd just be in the middle of a paper shuffle somewhere about this time. Turns out, you never know what will effect you or not. It took me a week to get our doctors' updates and since I wasn't thinking about the holiday (in the least little bit), I didn't get them in until the 1st (I thought I was doing good, getting the last update took me standing in front of the front desk in the doctor's office for forty minutes so they were intimated in to continuing to look for my update). UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! :( I know it doesn't make a huge difference in our time line but I usually wouldn't have let a deadline like a holiday coming up get past me. Duh to me! Dang nab holidays!!

Just a normal day missing you Maegan
April 19, 2007
Oh little Mae, mommy misses you! This is just a normal day in our waiting, nothing special, nothing to make me miss you more than any other day; every day is like this. Nothing is quite right without you, my days always seem to be lacking something, that something special is you! Who knew mommy's heart could have something missing all this time, when I only learned of you six months ago? It feels like my heart has always missed you. I guess that's because God always know you were to be ours. I'm so glad God has the wisdom to see what we need in our lives, even when we don't.
I wish so badly to see an updated picture of you, I bet you have a head full of hair now, maybe enough for two little ponytails. Certainly enough for a little bow.
I know it's probably just because you are ours but you look so much older than your age. Wisdom behind those eyes, a brilliant mind behind your beauty...
hopefully soon you'll be in my arms my little sweetheart, until then, you're always in my thoughts, my heart, my dreams...

Dreams of Maegan
April 14, 2007
I dreamed of Maegan last night!!!!! These dreams have been few and far between. Now I dream strange things on a nightly basis, this week alone, I was swimming with a whale and feeding him animal crackers! LOL All of these dreams and I seldom dream of Maegan, this was why this one was so special. :)There were no words between us, I just got to hold her in my arms.She must have started crying or yawning because I remember trying so hard to look in her mouth to see that her palate, it was just fine with a minor small hole on either side of the roof of her mouth. She is a special needs baby with a cleft palate if that part didn't make sense, sorry. :)I just had to share, I didn't want to get out of bed because I knew I'd start losing more and more of the dream from my memory. At least now I will have this to remember it by. :)Char

A gift from one mother to another
April 11, 2007
This morning I had a wonderful gift. A gift from one mother to another. There's an extra special something about this kind of gift that most often only another mother would understand. Now when I describe a mother, it is not just your traditional mother that gives birth to a child. A mother is a woman that has given her heart and soul to a child or children, whether through birth, adoption, a niece or nephew, God children, or that special child down the road that you've watched grow up and if they were to fall off their bike, you'll probably be in a race with the birth mother to get to the child. :) I think that would be a good description of a mother, not every mother has been blessed to have a child of their own with them all the time.
On to our gift. For the last six years, we've been attending a charity event that tries (successfully) to raise money for cancer treatment/awareness for children with cancer. The event is called Cruefest. These events were started to honor the memory of Skylar Neil, the daughter of Motley Crue's lead singer, Vince Neil (who lost his daughter to cancer). These events are usually weekend long events where fans of the band Motley Crue get together to see old friends and new, hear bands that donate their time and music, and bid on auctions, all money raised going to charities to try to prevent the loss of more children (or anyone for that matter) from cancer. This event is very near and dear to our hearts because of the true genuine feelings generated at these events, the hard work the organizers go through, and the wonderful friends that we've met over the years that we now call family.
Sorry, I said I was getting to our gift but I'm long winded, I never can tell the short story. As much as Cruefest has meant to us over the years, bringing our daughter home has meant even more so when we looked at our home to try to decide what we could part with to sale, to raise the money for her adoption, nothing was more important than our daughter, including our years of collectables and one particular collectable, a hand made clutch purse from the 2005 Cruefest.
I put this item on Ebay with the same little wince I felt with our other collectables but never looked back. This morning, I had a beautiful gift from another mother. She contacted me, telling me she understood what a mother would do for their child but for this particular item, it would not include us parting with it. She instead donated $50 to us to take down the auction and keep the purse. This was truly a gift from the heart. This long story is to thank her. Corrie (CruetotheCor on Shout), thank you, from one mother to another. You are now one of the cherished people in our lives that is part of bringing our little girl home.
Thanks for reading my novel, Char

Ramblings of an expectant mom....
April 06, 2007
My mom took me to lunch at a Chinese buffet yesterday (all my life, I've only stayed and ate at one other Chinese restaurant (and that was probably ten years ago, every other time was take out). I can hardly describe the feelings. All I could think of was Maegan, I was comparing every waitress to what Maegan might look like at that age or this one's age. The decorations everywhere were memorizing to me. It was overwhelming! lol I stared at all the food as I walked the buffet and wondered if this was what it would be like when we were in China, seeing all kinds of food I wasn't used to; did I forget to mention I'm your typical meat & potatos girl, with occasional rice and pizza thrown in for variety?? lol (I'll probaby loose 30 pounds in China! lol) I tried not to stare at someone from the restaurant's son that was walking around while we ate. I wanted to stop everyone there and tell them all about Maegan! lol How could anyone but an expecting adoptive mom go through all that on a trip for lunch?!? lol It was like I was 8 months pregnant in Babys-R-Us all over again! lol Sorry, the ramblings of an expectant mom....

Wooooo hoooo, snoopy dancing!!!!
April 02, 2007
We are officially LOGGED in to China!!! Yea!!! Our LID date is 03-27-07! For those of you not used to the adoption lingo, this means our paperwork is in China and logged in to their system for review! The official count down starts once you're LID. Yea!! :) This doesn't change our estimates of hoping to travel late July but it is another big step done with the process. Had to share our good news!!! :)
Charlotte

Got to be girly! :)
March 22, 2007
Since China is known for giving all the children close hair cuts, what a more perfect way to stay girly but a bracelet! Here's Maegan's first!! :)

WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOO, we're Dossier to China!!!
March 19, 2007
WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!! We're DTC today!!!! That means our paperwork is on a plane to China today!!!! We're mega closer to bringing Maegan home!! It took six months of paperchasing and governmnet hoops to make here but we're here! Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!
Ohhhhh, we're hoping to be China bound this July!! :) :)
HAPPY CAMPERS tonight!!!!!!!!!

Want to go shopping??
March 07, 2007
If you've got to be shopping online anyway, click on the below link to make sure it's not a store listed. If it is a store listed and you enter the individual store from clicking on this link, we can a small credit for 'referring' you. We'll try any fund raiser that's free to do. :) It doesn't cost you anything extra either.
I also just spent two hours posting a ton of baby and toddler clothes on Ebay. :)

Another way to help
March 06, 2007
There's another way to help, (if anyone wants to). We're quickly running out of items to sale. I never let myself collect too much because I've always spent it on the kids but now that means I don't have anything left to sale (ok, so I'm not very talented in the craft area and people aren't buying those! lol).We've already had a few very generous dear friends donate some Motley items for us to auction. If you have a duplicate item in your collection that you wouldn't mind parting with, or any collectable for that matter (they seem to sell well), precious moments, other band stuff, anything you think (baby and toddler clothes sell like hot cakes!). It would only cost you the shipping to us, we'll take care of the rest. I like to put on my donated auctions the fact they're donated as well. Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I will be sure to share lots of pictures when we get her home. Charlotte

AMAZING DAY-DONE PAPERCHASING!
March 02, 2007
Yesterday and today have been amazing for developments! We got our I171h approval yesterday! Woo hoo!!! (That's our approval from the U.S. Government to adopt overseas) Then today my passport arrived!! The only other thing we had to send for our dossier was another set of passport pics for Glenn and I, pictures of the house, us with the kids and a picture of the entire family. The entire family picture had us stuck, who was going to take the picture??? I loaded the kids up and drove to the dealership where Glenn's boss took our family portrait. I drop the film off at Walgreens, take the kids out to Wendy's for dinner and go back to pick them up. Duh! Glenn's boss had his finger over the flash! They didn't turn out! I immediately went in to resourceful mode. I questioned the cashier, if I can fit my whole family in front of your passport screen, will you take our picture?? lol He said yes! So here we are, all four of us squeezing in front of the tiny (meant for one person) passport screen. I guess we were making memories. lol We had the Walgreen people laughing with us.
To top the night off, we got to seal our Fed-Ex to be sent to Heritage tomorrow. I made Glenn kiss it for luck with me! lol I never claimed to not be goofy, why were you wondering! lol
Great day! We're through paperchasing! As long as everything makes it through authentication ok that is. :)

To everyone, you think you can't but you can!
February 27, 2007
I keep having people telling me, I wish I could help, I really do but I can't think of a way I can. I've had people tell me, I could afford but $5 or $10 dollars but I don't want to insult you, I know you need more. No, $5 or $10 is great!! Really! $5 or $10 adds up! It gets us one little step closer to where we need to be. You have to think of it in larger terms, it would only take ten people to give a donation of $100 (at ten a piece). Every little bit does counts and we appreciate every penny. There is no insulting donation to us.
Check out our ebay items:
We're grasping for ideas to raise money, any ideas to help raise money is worth sharing with us. Please forward us any ideas you have. charlliesweb@yahoo.com
Please, add us to your prayer list, leave us encouraging words on our guestbook, everyone has something to give. You never know what might not seem 'enough' to you, could mean the world to a desperate mom wanting to bring her baby home. :)

Maegan's dolly
February 20, 2007
Maegan, Mommy got a surprise in the mail today, your doll! She's adorable, she has her little toes curled up, just like you do in your picture. Mommy doesn't know whether to hold on to her for a little while to remind me of you or to put her in your care package.
If I do put her in your care package, I'm going to sew your initials somewhere on her clothes or body so if she'll be extra special for you. :)

Reflections from my heart
February 17, 2007
It's amazing the changes that have occured in my heart and life since the Lord placed Maegan and adoption in my heart. Beforehand, I've always loved my children and family with all my heart but I kept trying to save 'me' from being lost. I never realized I had never lost 'me', 'me' had changed. I was a mother and wife but thought that being those things meant having to lose my identity. When God spoke to me about my little girl, I realized God's plans for my life. It is ok to not want a career or be about what the world thinks you should be about. Life is about sharing God's love with your family and your children. And if that makes you glow with happiness, maybe that's what God has planned for your life.
I look at these children without families, and think of what my little girl may feel like right now without us and it's beyond anything I can fathom. I just don't understand why the entire world doesn't feel the strong pull I do toward these children. I guess if they did, there would be no orphans. I thank God for these feelings he's given me because they have brought me so much closer to him and I've learned to lean on him so much stronger. I feel so humbled to be given such a gift of being allowed to adopt my little girl. I pray for other families to feel these feelings and learn the love of a child through adoption. I wish there were more I could do to teach other families about adoption. I just thank God that he opened my eyes to this precious gift. Thank you Lord.

Mommy's been shopping
February 16, 2007
Maegan, today Mommy let herself shop for you for the first time! :) Mommy's been waiting for this. Sadly, I haven't found the outfit I want to be classified as your first outfit. Yet...
But.. Mommy did find your first doll. I have a little sleeping outfit coming for her too to keep her warm.

The 48 day wait...
February 14, 2007
Waiting is so not an attribute of mine. I whine, I cry, I try to distract myself, I whine some more, I pray and pray. Patty, my adoption buddy was there for it all. Always the supportive fellow mother. She was so encouraging!
After forty eight days of waiting, we were given the best Valentine's gift of our lives, our official Pre-Approval to adopt Maegan from China. For the non-adoption community, this mean, China recognizes us as the family that has requested Maegan to be their child. And if we meet their standards, they will allow our adoption.

We joined the Criminal World today
January 23, 2007
We joined the Criminal World today, ok well not really but we were finger printed like real criminals! lol Today we submitted ourselves to being fingerprinted by the Federal Government to be part of our background check for our Immigration application to adopt an orphan.
I even got a compliment, she said I have good prints! :) The Nashville office was great!!

What's the sense in waiting around??
December 14, 2006
With a happy tear stained key board, I continued to look around when Heritage's new Special Needs list came out. Of course, the new list came out one day after our pre pre-approval (now tell me God didn't have a hand in that!). I saw our beautiful little girl. BUT someone else had placed her on hold to review her file. I sighed and continued looking down the list. I emailed poor Peggy at Heritage only a zillion times the next few days, asking her if she's email me the instant someone released their hold on a child so we could review a child's file. (Holds are basically good one week) A week goes by and suddenly there's an email from Peggy. One child, one file had been released. Our beautiful Maegan of course! :) Peggy emailed me her medical to review and her pictures. I was instantly love struck and on the phone demanding Glenn check his email that instant! :) He calmly reviewed her medical, (how can men stay calm like that???), then looked at her picture and announced, she's ours! It was then up to us to convince everyone else she was ours. :) That was December 21st. Heritage was right on top of things, they immediately overnighted the necessary information to us, we filled everything out, including our letter to China, gushingly begging the most polite way I could figure out to be given the right to adopt little Guan Guanyu as she is known in China. Our LOI (Letter of Intent) was mailed by us on December 26th, as soon as the post office was back open after Christmas! :)

Journey to Pre-pre approval
November 10, 2006
Us being us, of course we couldn't be the typical adoptive family. We have a medical condition in our family that is soon to be on the list of restrictions for China. What that means, was that China had to approve us before we could even apply to adopt in their country. We entered the adoption world officially with as much fear as possible.
Heritage sent a letter on our behalf to China. Basically it said we have a family, they have all these positive qualities to raise a child but also have these possible restriction in a medical issue. We prayed our hearts out and on December 13, 2006, we were given our pre-pre-approval. We were finally scenario approved to start our adoption.

The search is on...
October 30, 2006
The search was on, and I, 'Ms. Research' herself, bombarded the internet for every bit of information the internet had available about adoption. I bet I emailed and/or talked to fifty adoption agencies in our searching. It was during this searching I met a dear friend who has to be part of this website because without her daily encouragement, I don't know if I'd continued on at many times. Her name is Patty:
Patty, take a bow and get your blushing over with! :) Patty is currently on the journey of bringing little Gracie home. :) Patty taught me the best part of the adoption world, the love and support of fellow adoptive parents. They're great! They always have an answer, support or will just whine along with you about how horrible the waiting is. :)
Patty suggested I speak to her agency, Heritage Adoption Services. We did and the rest is history. If you need help, Heritage is great!! They've been very supportive of us. :)

The first thoughts of adoption
October 27, 2006
Our first thoughts of adoption came about after Glenn's aunt in Canada passed away in October 2006. Glenn had to travel back to Canada to be with his family for the funeral and got to see his cousins spending time with their daughters. After coming home, he mentioned he felt like maybe we were missing something not having a little girl. That was all she wrote, we were off and running immediately! :) We considered several countries but our hearts always came back to China. I really think it's all been part of God's because he always knew where our daughter was, even when we didn't yet.

Kaylee

2008-08-27T07:32:00.002-06:00

Please meet our beautiful angel baby blessing, (originally named Maegan Mae-Li now Kaylee Kathleen to honor a dear friend

It is with much prayer and excitment that we announce her adoption!!! :) Her parents are Glenn and Charlotte and she has two big brothers, Drew and Jaycen. We are very proud to welcome our daughter to our family. We can't believe our great fortune to have such a blessing of this little girl.

Kaylee is from Dongguan City, Guangdong China and was considered a 'Special Needs' Child because of a repaired cleft lip and unrepaired cleft palate. We consider her Special Needs because we NEEDED her home! :)

I am copying posts from the past into long entries, very long but nothing is lost this way.