Update, finally!

Lana and Lily

Where has the time gone? Lana has been with us for almost 9 months! Lana is doing great! She is a happy, healthy kindergartner. Her teacher says Lana is one of the most determined little girls she has ever met. Lana's latest accomplishment, the monkey bars! DaDa has taken the training wheels off her bike and Lana rides like a pro. We go back to Children's for a cardiology check up in July, and will probably only need annual check ups after that. Amazing.

Lily is excited for pre-kindergarten in the fall! She has been learning to read along with Lana. they love to pick out words they know when we are reading at bedtime. Lily also wants to take a gymnastics class as well as swimming and ballet! We are going to start with swimming and go from there.

We celebrated Lily's Adoption day in May. She has been home for 3 years! We also met up with our travel group and got to see Ava and Alice. They are all doing great! Beautiful and healthy girls.

Ava, Lana, Lily and Alice

One Month with Lana!

Lily and Lana
(AKA The Giggle Sisters)

We have been home just over 2 weeks and things are going pretty well! Lana (6) and Lily (3) are now known as the "giggle sisters"! They play really well and Lily is learning to share her toys and share MaMa

and BaBa. Lana warmed up to BaBa first and still seems to prefer BaBa over MaMa, most of the time. That has actually worked our to Lily's advantage, since she prefers MaMa most of the time!

Lana is settling in and is showing a stubborn side! If she does not want to move, you have no choice but to pick up her solid 40 pound frame and move her yourself! I guess the honeymoon is over!

Lana can count to 10 (in English), knows the ABCs and is learning some of the songs we like to sing! She likes to practice writing ABCs and asks "what's that?" about 100 times a day! For example, at dinner time she will ask "what's that?" about each item on the table, and we will name the things she points at, and then she will repeat the words we say. She is very eager to learn and we will start her in kindergarten soon.

Lana's Heart

When we first looked at Lana's file back in December 2006, we were informed that she had a heart condition. This did not change our minds about adopting her, we wanted her, heart defect or not. We had a cardiologist look at her file back in January and were told that her condition was correctable and that she would have a "normal" life, and a normal life span.

Lana's condition causes her to get out of breath and her nails and lips get a little blue. If she is playing hard, she knows when to sit down and catch her breath, and then she will join back in and play.

Lana had her first cardiologist appointment at Seattle Children's Hospital last week. She did really well through the EKG and Echo and then they scheduled her for a heart catheteritization. The cath was on Monday and they were able to get a clear picture of her heart (this is the procedure where they send a camera through an artery into the heart to take pictures). The next step is for the cardiology team at Children's to look at her case and plan her surgery. They would like to do the open heart surgery sooner than later, maybe even next month!

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we work through Lana's surgery. We had hoped surgery could wait awhile until Lana learned more English and we could better communicate with her through the difficult recovery from open heart surgery. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support for our Forever Family.

HOME SWEET HOME!

We made it home safely yesterday! It was an exhausting trip and we are trying to recover from jet lag. The girls slept 15 hours last night and woke up at noon! We just stayed home today and kept quiet. Our wonderful new neighbor stocked up our refrigerator so we did not even have to go out for groceries!

I will work on a recap of the last week in China soon. But in short, all went well. Our paperwork came together in time, we made all our flights together, and didn't lose any luggage!

Lana is doing really well adjusting to family life. She is learning English quickly. Her first word was "YEAH!" and at the airport in Beijing she put her first question together! She asked "Is this my juice?" Lana can count to 10 and says the A B C's in English. She is a smart little girl! She is eager to learn, loves to draw and practice writing Chinese characters. It has been really fun to see her excitement at seeing new things. When we arrived at the airport in Xi'An for her first flight, we pointed out an airplane on the tarmac and she gasped and squealed with awe when she saw it! We have heard this cute little gasp and squeal many times now, and we love it!

Sisterhood

I don't believe an accident of birth makes people sisters or brothers.
It makes them siblings, gives them mutuality of parentage.
Sisterhood and brotherhood is a condition people have to work at.
~Maya Angelou

Mr. R's Wild Ride!

BaBa, Shoes, Pizza and a Rickshaw

(Written by BaBa) Our adventures in China have been filled with mixed emotions. From the joy of meeting Lana for the fist time to the frustration of waiting and waiting in government offices. It has been a great trip and exciting to see my daughters become sisters!

My personal adventure began when we realized that Lana's shoes were really too small and she needed to have new ones before we did any sightseeing. We had also decided to have pizza for dinner (thank the "O" family for this bright idea!). Well, Pizza Hut does not deliver in China, thus began my quest to feed and clothe my family. The hotel provided me with a card explaining in Chinese that I wanted to go shopping and also to the Pizza Hut near the Bell Tower and then they graciously called me a taxi. So, with a the girl's feet traced on a sheet of hotel stationery in my pocket, I climbed into a Chinese taxi. I made it to the store with no problems and was even able to find matching shoes for the girls.

Then I set out to get pizza. I could not find the Pizza Hut so I had to do the unmanly thing and ask for directions! I stopped at a corner stand and asked and as luck would have it, they did not know where the Pizza Hut was. Then I decided to approach a man driving a motorized rickshaw and ask if he knew. I showed him the card from the hotel and he nodded that yes, he knew where the Pizza Hut was. So, I got in. I showed him a 10 yuan bill (about $1.30), he took it and off we went at warp 10! After about a block he stopped and began yelling in Chinese and showed me his cell phone with the number 20 on it, so I gave him a 20 yuan bill, and he took off again. We flew through traffic, against traffic, dodging cars and trucks and pedestrians, with me bouncing around in the back holding on to my daughter's new shoes! We jumped a curb, honked at the people in the way and screeched to a stop in front of the Pizza Hut! The return trip was uneventful, I successfully purchased two pizzas and showed my card to a taxi driver and made it back to the hotel to deliver warm pizza to my family.

The best part of the story was seeing Lana's eyes light up as she opened the box of her first pair of new shoes!

Family of Four

Our first meeting!

Lily was so excited to see Lana, she gave her a huge hug! Lana was not too sure about us at first, there were a few tears when the nannies first left her with us. Lily was very attentive to Lana. Lily asked for a tissue and wiped Lana's tears and stroked her hair, it was very sweet to watch.
Just a couple hours later! A happy girl! We had room service in our beloved Sofitel 5 star hotel, a few choruses of Ring Around the Rosie (that brought huge giggles from Lana), read books, sang a few songs and crashed!

The obligatory photo of the first night's sleep.
Little girls need their Daddy's kisses!

Leaving On a Jet Plane!

Leaving Wednesday September 5th! We will get Lana on the 9th, finalize the adoption on the 17th and fly home on the 21st! And just like that, we will be a family of 4! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers on our behalf!

Can you help?

We are getting closer to Lana, but are still waiting for our Travel Approval (TA). It has been over 3 weeks since we got our confirmation letter and we expect TA any day now!

As we continue our wait, we could use your help with a few things. Most of all, please keep us in your prayers!

Pray for Lana, for her adjustment to joining our family and that we will bond well together. She will be leaving the only home she knows, living with people who do not speak Chinese, and dealing with transportation, foods and sooooo many new things. This is a lot for anyone to deal with.

Pray for Lily, she will also be going through a big change in her life, getting a big sister! While that currently sounds fun to Lily, I am sure the reality will be difficult at times.

Pray for safe travel and good health for all of us. Auntie Karen and cousin Maddie are traveling with us, too.

Pray for us as we prepare to become parents to two precious little girls! What an absolute blessing and honor it is to be given the privilege of parenting these little girls.

Pray for our leave from work. That we use the time well, to bond as a family and help Lana learn English and get ready for school. (By the way - Ma Ma is having a little trouble with her employer and may not be able to use her sick leave (some contract glitch), and this could really cut into how much time we can afford to take off work. We would really like for Ma Ma to take 3 months off to be home with the girls.)

This leads to our last request, pray for our finances. There is no question that adoption is costly. While we would prefer to not have to ask, we could really use some help financially. While we are trusting that God will meet our needs, we also believe that sharing burdens, makes the burdens lighter. If you feel led to assist us in bringing Lana home, you can make a donation directly to our adoption agency in our name. Here is the contact information:
Children’s House International
P.O.Box 1829
Ferndale, WA 98248
Phone: (360) 380-5370
We have also applied for an adoption grant but have yet to hear if we have been awarded a grant.

Thank you so much for sharing our journey!

Life of Razz...So Far

Our Forever Family

This picture was taken in November 2006 at the Art Institute of Seattle. It was part of a photo shoot for WACAP. Lily may be in a publication someday promoting adoption.

It will be two years in May that we became a forever family! When asked how has it been going, we usually say, "We cannot remember laughing so much!". Lily is such a character and has brought so much joy to our lives. She has a great sense of humor, loves to sing and has the cutest laugh that is absolutely infectious!