Our Baby Girl Knows About Us!

We received some new pictures of our Thea looking at & playing with the photo album of our family that we sent to her.  Now that our travel plans are confirmed, Shepherd's Field was able to tell her about us and show her the album...thankfully Thea didn't cry when she looked at them! :)  Although, apparently she came very close to tears when they tried to flip the pages of the photo book to show her!  Instead they let her play with the book and check us out on her own...looks like our baby girl might be a sensitive little one! 

If you look close, she's drooling on my neck! :) 

Can't wait until she does this for real!

Checking out her cutie big brothers...or maybe the birds? :)

Because of her young age, I'm sure Thea doesn't understand much about the fact that she now has a forever family.  I'm so glad that we decided to send Thea a baby type album that she can have with her to play with until we meet her.  She will most likely be more interested in looking at the animal pictures on the album:), but our prayer is that by getting to play with the album and look at our pictures for the next 4 weeks...she would get used to seeing our faces, and hopefully this will make it a bit easier on her when we first meet her and begin caring for her.  Praying for this bigtime!

We had another lovely surprise today...Thea got her very first gift...and a beautifully wrapped one I might add!  My good friend Leslie gave it to me today...it was such a wonderful surprise and an extremely thoughtful gift from their family.  I let the boys open it for Thea...they were so excited...and while I was in tears when I saw the beautiful little dolly...the boys were oohing and awwing!  It was halarious really...obviously they don't play with dolls much (or ever really)...they couldn't get enough of this cute little thing, in fact I had to enforce 'turn taking' so they could both have their time with her!  Nathaniel was cuddling her, petting her hair, and talking to her so lovingly...and then Mataeus was playing make believe and giving her piggy back rides...so sweet!  I can't say how thankful I am for this gift...I have been looking everywhere for the perfect little doll for 'our little doll'...and here she is!  Thea will love her I'm sure! :)

After all the loving...the sweet little dolly is now safely tucked away until we can bring it to China for our baby girl to cuddle.

Gayle :)

Travel Plans & Sleepless Nights...

Well...it's official...we are leaving for China on May 26th...exactly 5 weeks from today!!  Soooo very excited!! 

I am already in total 'non-sleeping mode'...I really can't help it...this is how God made me. :)  I lie there awake thinking, while i really should be sleeping and getting the rest and beauty sleep I desperately need... but there are just so many things to think about! 

First I can't help but think about the day that we will finally meet our little Thea and wonder what it will be like...

I was able to chat with Sara from Shepherd's Field Children's Village again last night.  She told me that she will soon tell Thea about us and show her our picture album that we sent to her...these were Sara's words, "I will show her your picture book soon, but just so you know she is shy and doesn't smile to the people she doesn't know well, so I hope she won't cry when I show her your pictures". 

Well...needless to say, that was all I needed to end the 'fairytale type' dreams of how things will go when we meet our little one.  The reality of this is hitting me hard...I am praying like mad that our baby girl will adjust okay, and that the transition won't be too hard on her.  There is a very big possibility that she is very attached to her nannies at Shepherd's Field...this will most likely make it more difficult for her.  I'm also trying to prepare my heart for the fact that she might not want me or 'like me' much at first.  I cannot even fathom what this is going to be like from her perspective.  Imagine being taken away from everything you've ever known...to a place where everything and everyone looks different, nothing sounds the same, things even smell different.  Yes, children are resilient...but wow...I can't imagine how a child can even begin to process this.  How scary it must be for these little ones as they begin their new life with their forever families. 

And as if that wasn't enough for me to lose sleep...let's not forget the endless 'lists' of things to get done in preparation of our trip that are running through my head...finishing our travel plans, things to do (like maybe get a crib ready for her!), what we should pack, etc etc! 

Sooo...instead of actually working on those 'lists', i've used my time to do other things...like scrapbook...

The crazy scrapbooker in me just couldn't pass up the opportunity to scrapbook my very first 'Thea' picture...it was so much fun to use some girly colours after all these years of blue!! :)  The framed picture is now in our living room...it is wonderful to see it there alongside our boys picture, feels like she is already a part of our family.

Oh...and, although i've used amazing self control with regard to buying 'girl' clothes...I just couldn't pass up on this beautiful dress!  I'm very proud to say that this was my very first clothing purchase for our baby girl...

AND...the best part was that this thrifty momma got it for only $3.99!!!  How excited was I about that?!!  We have been so blessed by some of our friends that have girls a bit older than Thea...they have been graciously passing along clothing (like the cute black shoes to go with the dress I bought)...now I just need to finish sorting through all of the clothes and figure out what to bring to China that might actually fit our little girl!

After all this rambling...the main reason for this post is to ask you for prayer.  Please pray for our little Thea...I am getting so concerned that she is going to have a difficult time adjusting.  Continue to pray that God would prepare her hearts for us, and pray that Glen and I will know just how to comfort her through this transition.  I guess I need prayer too...that God would give me peace about it...I know I need to trust in Him, knowing that He will be there with us to help us all through it.

Gayle :)

Thea's Finding Ad

Yesterday we got a very special package in the mail – Thea's (Du Xiao Yang's) finding ad! 

The Chinese government requires that for every abandoned child that is found, a bulletin be placed in the newspaper in an attempt to locate the child's birth family.  A China based research group was able to find Thea's finding ad for us, and through them we were even able to obtain an original copy of the newspaper that the ad appeared.

Thea's finding ad was published in the 'New Legal Report' newspaper of Duchang County (Jiangxi Province, China), on August 31st, 2010... so this picture of her must have been taken within the first few months of her life.  What a blessing to have another picture of our baby!

The translation is:

On May 23, 2010, an abandoned baby was found at the gate of the Duchang County orphanage. 
Name is Du Xiao Yang. Female.
She was born on May 13, 2010. 
Characteristic of body: She has a round face, black hair, big body, and a cleft palate and lip.

As grateful as we are for this piece of Thea's history (and we are SO extremely thankful to have so many photos from her first year of life), our hearts can't help but sag at the sight of all of these other children whose birth families were unable to keep them for whatever reason, and abandoned them to be found and cared for by the government...and hopefully, eventually given to loving forever families.

This is just one newspaper... on one day... from one county... from one province... in one country.  We are so blessed and grateful to be the family to the sweet baby in “the top ad of column 3”, but what has happened to the other 24 children on this page?  It is mind blowing to me to think that there are 143 million orphans in the world right now (I had no idea that this number was so high until recently)...hard to even fathom really.  It's absolutely crazy to think about, and I already know that it is going to be heartbreaking to leave Shepherd's Field Children's Village with only Thea...

Gayle :) 

Precious Baby Girl...

What a gift to discover that Shepherd's Field Children's Village sent us a very sweet 'photo shoot' of our little Thea...basically to show us that she received the toys and blanket that we sent to her. 

She looks like such a little doll in these ones...talk about melting our hearts...

So very precious!

Check out those lashes!

This one melts my heart!

Can we say drool?...looks like she is teething again.

She looks so inquisitive in this one.

If you look close, she's actually twisting her tongue in this one...

a 'party trick' that she shares with her new mommy! :)

Did I happen to mention how in love we are with our baby girl?!  We are SO blessed!  It is the most surreal thing to see pictures of OUR daughter, and yet not be able to hold her, or kiss her, or tell her how much we love her!  She is definitely in for some major lovin'!!! 

The boys are as excited as we are...they both insist on having all her pictures pasted on their bedroom walls.  Before his nap & bedtime Nathaniel always says, "I want mei mei Feeva" and then kisses her picture...so very sweet.  We aren't really sure how much he understands about all this...maybe he thinks baby sisters can come in the form of pictures...lol...can't wait to see what he thinks when he realizes that she isn't 'just a picture' and he's not the baby in our family anymore!

She still isn't smiling in any of these pictures...but they are oh so sweet!  Glen is already talking about aquiring a shot gun...lol!  She looks like such a mellow little girl...definitely not what we are used to around here...I can't help but wonder what she will think of Nathaniel!! The funniest thing about the pictures is that she could really care less about the toys we sent...she is showing absolutely no interest in them at all...too funny.  Hopefully some of the other kiddies there will play with them! :)  As exciting as it is to receive more pictures of Thea...we also know that we most likely won't be getting any more now until her birthday next month...sigh... 

We were talking with our travel facilitator this morning, and it looks like we might be traveling even sooner than we thought...she is hoping to book our flights for around May 25th!!!  I can hardly believe it...instantly my head starting spinning...excitement that it won't be long (only 6 weeks) before meeting little Thea...and slight panic with the realization of all that we have to get done before then!

We're coming for you baby girl...

New Pictures of Our Girl...

A couple new pictures of our little Thea...these were sent by the doctor's assistant at Shepherd's Field Children's Village.  These are the first pictures we have seen of Thea sitting independently...and just look at those cheeks! 

Oh how I yearn to see our baby girl smile...not one of the pictures that we have of her yet shows her smiling.  Can't wait to bring her home and love on her big time!!!

We also got news that the care package we sent to Thea arrived at Shepherd's Field.  We sent this through a China based company called 'Red Thread China'...if it weren't for them we might have never know that our Thea was at Shepherd's Field at all!  Before shipping it, they sent us a picture of it...

 
The care package included a camera, toys, an album that has pictures of our family in it, a blanket...although this is not the super cute 'hot pink turtle blanket' I had chose :)..., and tea and cookies as well as a translated letter for her foster family (when we sent the care package we were still unaware that she was at Shepherd's Field, as we thought she was with a foster family in Duchang, Jiangxi).  Shepherd's Field has told us that they are not allowed to give her the album or tell her about us until we get our final travel approval from China (TA)...this is to protect the children, and I can totally respect that.  We are hoping to get our TA in about a months time (Mid-May).  They also told us that they will send more pictures soon...can't wait!

Gayle :)

Surgery Decision

The decision as to whether to have Thea's cleft palate surgery done in China (as Shepherd's Field Children's Village has scheduled), or wait until we bring her home was not an easy one for us.  After much prayer, as well as talking to the cleft surgeon here where we live, and also talking to friends that have daughters from China with cleft lip/palate...we were able to make a decision that we are at peace with and are confident is the best one for our little girl. 

In the end, we have decided to wait until we bring Thea back home to Canada before having her cleft palate surgery done. 

By waiting to do the surgery here, it eliminates all of the 'unknowns' and possible risks of having it done in China, such as contracting Hep B while in the hospital among other things.  It was so difficult to imagine our little Thea going through her surgery without us...she's our baby girl!...so this way we will be able to be with her to comfort her, and hopefully use it as an opportunity to build our attachment with her.  Although Thea's surgery will be a little later age wise, waiting will also allow the cleft surgeon and doctors here in knowing all the 'ins and outs' of her surgery for future follow up and her long term care.  We believe that the worst case scenario for us choosing to wait would be that her speech might be delayed a bit...really a minor concern in the big picture of life, especially with the resources available here to help with this.

I emailed the doctor from Shepherd's Field today to let him know of our decision so that they can cancel her surgery that had been planned for later this month.   We are hoping that this will allow them to use the money that they would have had to pay for Thea's surgery to provide another child from Shepherd's Field with the surgery or medical help that they may need.

Gayle :)

Letter Seeking Confirmation Signed & On Its Way to CCAA!

Our Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) arrived at our provincial adoption agency today!  We immediately went and signed it...and now it is on its way back to the CCAA (China Centre for Adoption Affairs). 

Basically, the LSC is the formal offer from China to the adoptive parents to confirm their intentions to adopt the child.  The Chinese government has reviewed our dossier (containing our home study, letters of employment, health reports, criminal checks, passports, birth certificates, marriage certificate, etc) and has determined that we have met their criteria to adopt Thea (Du Xiao Yang).

We are now onto the final step...waiting for China to issue us our Notice of Coming to travel to China for adoption (NoC), sometimes this is also referred to as Travel Approval (TA).  This is the formal invitation for us to travel to China to complete our adoption of Thea.

Our agency expects this to arrive in about 1 1/2 months...we will then make our travel arrangements to go to China.  At this point it looks like we might be traveling mid-June...yippee! 

Soooo excited!!  We can't wait to go and get our little girl!!

In addition to this...we received an email today from the doctor at Shepherd's Field Children's Village.  He told us that Thea's cleft lip surgery had been done on November 22, 2010 at Bei Da Stomatology Hospital in Beijing (the same day her referral pictures were taken).  He also informed us that Thea's cleft palate repair has already been scheduled for later this month.  He is giving us the option as to whether we want to still have her palate surgery done in China, or if we would prefer to wait until we bring her home. 

This is such a difficult decision...we are prayerfully trying to decide what would be best for Thea.  We have researched the hospital...it looks like a very good hospital with high medical standards and has it's own center for clift lip and palate.  The only downside is that it is also a 'teaching hospital' as well.  I called the surgeon here in Kelowna and he suggested that age wise she might be better off having the surgery done younger  (for speech development and other reasons) vs waiting until at least 16++ months when we would be able to have it done here.  Ultimately the decision is up to us...this is so tough...we can't bare the thought of little Thea having her surgery done without us there to comfort her...although because of where she is at (Shepherd's Field) it might be different from other 'stories of China repairs' we've heard about.  Please pray for us as we make this decision for our daughter.

gayle :)

Answers to prayers...

We have heard back from Shepherd's Field Children's Village!!! 

There are absolutely no words to describe the feelings of gratitude and relief we are feeling today.  We have so much to be thankful for!   

We had emailed them asking if there was any chance that Thea could stay at Shepherd's Field until we go to China to get her, as we are so concerned with the affects of her having to adjust to being moved back to the Duchang County orphanage and then again when we come to bring her home. 

Today Shepherd's Field notified us that they contacted the director of the Duchang County orphanage on our behalf (this is where we thought Thea was).  They have made arrangements for Thea to remain at Shepherd's Field until we go to China to bring her home!!!  Hallelujah!  We will get to go directly to Shepherd's Field when we arrive in China and meet our baby girl for the first time there...they also told us that we can most likely stay overnight right there at SFCV.  We are going to be allowed to have Thea stay in our room there with us as soon as we meet her!!  Sara from Shepherd's Field will then travel with us to Nanchang, Jiangxi (the capital city of the province that Thea was born in) to complete the adoption papers.  This is absolutely incredible news!  We have truly been blessed beyond measure! 

To top it off they also shared with us that Thea has been with them since August 2010 (when she was only 3 months old)!  How lucky that she has been there being loved on and cared for by them for most of her young life.  We could not ask for a better place for our sweet baby girl to be until we can go and bring her home.  Because she has been there for so long, they also have pictures of Thea that they shared with us.  These are most precious...we never expected to ever know much of Thea's life before we met her. 

August 2010 ~ 3 months old

September 2010 ~ 4 months old

December 5th 2010 ~ almost 7 months old

This picture was taken shortly after her cleft lip surgery as she is still wearing the splints on her arms to prevent her from touching her mouth.

February 2010 ~ 9 months old

(check out that belly!)

We are still waiting to hear back from the doctor at Shepherd's Field with more information regarding Thea's cleft lip and palate.  He will be able to share with us exactly when and where her lip repair was done, and also share her other medical information with us.  How lucky we are to be in direct contact with those caring for our little girl!!  And to think that had we not sent Thea a care package, they would have moved her back to the Duchang orphanage before our arrival in China, and we might never have known she was ever at Shepherd's Field at all...crazy!

As you can imagine, we are absolutely dying to jump on a plane and go get little Thea now!  Good thing i've got tons of 'house stuff' to get done in order to prepare for her arrival...hopefully it will keep me busy enough that the time will go by fast.  We are hoping and praying that the 'official' side of things will move quickly and that we will get travel approval to go mid-June.  When I looked at the calendar today and saw 'April' at the top I felt relief...May & then June...I can handle this! 

Thank you for all your prayers.  It is so obvious that the Lord has watched over our Thea and has His hand in her life...we are so thankful! 

blessings to you, gayle :)

Father God,
Thank you for the incredible blessing of our precious daughter Thea.  While we continue waiting and desperately yearn to hold her, it comforts me knowing that you have your hand in her life and that you are in control.  Thank you for opening up the doors to enable us to find our Thea at Shepherd's Field Children's Village.  And thank you for Shepherd's Field and the loving care they provide for China's orphans... please bless them and the work they are doing for your children.   Thank you Lord for giving us the blessing of Thea's 'history'... what an amazing gift for her to have.  I pray that you will continue to bless her, protect her, and begin preparing her heart for us.
In Jesus Name, Amen.   

New Pictures of Our Thea!

What a wonderful gift to have these updated pictures of our little girl!  

We were told that our 'dainty little girl' is now a whopping 22lbs (only 5 lbs less than Nathaniel!) and has 6 teeth already!  Just look at those kissable cheeks!!  Glen thinks that she has really nice eyebrows too...lol :) 

A couple days ago we decided to send Thea a care package through a company called 'Red Thread China'.  In arranging to have the package sent, they just told us tonight that Thea is not in Duchang at the orphanage or in foster care, but rather she is at the Shepherd's Field Children's Village in Wuqing, Tianjin Province (just south of Beijing).  You can imagine what a surprise this was to us...this is about 700 miles from where we thought she was!  Even more of surprise is that the updated pictures show that her cleft lip has been repaired!! 

We immediately started researching all that we could, and have discoverd what an amazing place our little girl is in.  We feel so incredibly blessed that she is being cared for in such a loving, caring, and beautiful facility.  Here are some pictures of Shepherd's Field Children's Village...

The most incredible thing happened while researching about Shepherd's Field...we found a picture of our baby girl...and it dates back to sometime before she was 5 months old!  What a treasure this is for us to have!!  If you visit the website http://www.chinaorphans.org/index.html  and then click on 'Sponsor a Child'...our Thea is the first child you will see...they have her named as 'Allison'.

Glen and I are filled with many emotions about all these recent discoveries about our little one.  It was extremely hard to see OUR daughter featured on a website page to be sponsored.  And while it is such a relief to know she is being so well cared for, we have also been told that since she is being adopted, they will now move her back to the Duchang Country Orphanage.  We are so worried about how difficult this adjustment will be for her...especially knowing that she will then have to adjust again when we bring her home.  I am also unsure about how I feel about her having her cleft surgery done already...this was a BIG surprise to us.  I just have to keep reminding myself that God is in control...without doubt He has our little Thea in His protection.

We obviously have a ton of questions...so I have emailed Shepherd's Field with hopes of getting a reply soon.  We are definitely curious as to whether her palate was also repaired...and also when they might be moving her back to Duchang (or if they might let her stay at SFCV until we go and get her).

I hope to find out more soon...

gayle

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
~ Jeremiah 29:11