I'm a BIG helper!

Lily is helping Da Da make some new dressers.
One for Lily and one for Lana!

(Written by Da Da) As a home owner, home improvement projects are a way of life. I really enjoy getting out my tools to fix, assemble, build, or paint projects. These days I don't do any projects by myself, I have a helper! Whenever I am doing work around the house, Lily is right by my side. She is actually a very good helper and is a natural at putting things together! Lily can use a hammer, screwdriver, Allen wrenches and she can hardly wait to use power tools! Projects take a little longer, my tools are rarely where I need them, instructions are strewn all over the place, and there is a bigger mess to clean up, but when the project is done, it is all worth it when Lily smiles at her Ma Ma and says "I'm a BIG helper!".

Gotta love the "plumber pants"!

Adoption Day Tradition

Breakfast in bed!

Lily has been asking for breakfast in bed for some time, not sure where that came from, she has not seen it in our household! So, we decided that it would be a nice surprise to bring Lily breakfast in bed to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of the day we became a family. Lily had the biggest grin on her face when Da Da brought in the tray of food! Breakfast began with a chocolate donut with "sprinklers" as Lily calls them, along with eggs, sausage, milk and juice. We plan to make this a regular tradition for both girls on their adoption days.

Happy Birthday to Lily!

Lily celebrated her 3rd birthday at Build-a-Bear! We had a great time with friends and family! Almost everyone made a bear! We planned on about 9 bears, but even the older kids and auntie wanted to make one, so we ended up making about 15 bears, and a few dogs, too!

Day 19

Today is day 19 in the count down to Lana! I think it would be a great present to get our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) or better yet, our TA (Travel Approval) on my birthday in July! How is that for being optimistic? Our real hope is to be with Lana on her birthday September 8th. Lana has spent too many birthdays without her forever family.

In case you wondered where Xi'An is, it is almost in the geographic center of China.

Have Passport...Will Travel!

Lily's passport came yesterday!!! Lily has been waiting and waiting and waiting for her passport to arrive! Every time we checked the mail, Lily would ask "Is my passport here, yet?". I am not sure she knows what a passport is but she does know that it means she gets to go to China to get her big sister! One more thing to check off the list!

This picture is Lily with our dog Cami. Cami is a Portuguese Water Dog in need of a hair cut! They get along pretty well for the most part, especially when peanut butter is involved! One day, Ken was home with Lily and Cami and Ken thought it was a little too quiet in the kitchen where they were. Upon checking on them he found Cami very patiently sitting next to Lily on the floor, waiting for Lily to dip her hand into the peanut butter jar. Each time Lily's hand came out of the peanut butter jar, Cami, of course, licked Lily's hand clean and patiently waited for Lily to dip her hand again! So, now before using any peanut butter, we have to ask "Is this the dog's peanut butter?"

I See the Moon...

I see the moon and the moon sees me,
Down through the leaves of the old oak tree.
Please let the light that shines on me,
Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountains, over the sea,
I have a love who is waiting for me.
Please let the light that shines on me,
Shine on the one I love.
-unknown

Thinking about Lana, hoping she feels our love for her. Lily has been especially sweet talking about Lana lately. Lily frequently asks "Is my big sister waiting for us?, When can we go get my big sister?, Can we go get her today?".

Today is day 10 of our count down to Lana! Let's hope we will NOT join the century club and wait over 100 days!

A note about the painting, it is called "Watching a Lantern Show" by Wang Jinxi. I really enjoy the bright colors of the Jinshan Peasant Paintings. These paintings are created by Chinese peasants working in Jinshan County near Shanghai, China.

READY...GET SET...wait

We have our LID!!! Our Log in Date is 4-24-07!!! That means that China has received our dossier and now we can start the count down to Lana! If our wait follows the current trend, we should travel in August!

Lily has been talking about Lana almost daily. It has been very sweet to hear her ask "Can we go get my big sister Lana today?" And "Is Lana waiting for us?"

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Now, we wait!

Lana Adoption Update

We are getting closer to completing the paper chase for Lana! We received our PA (Pre-Approval) yesterday!

For those of you not familiar with the adoption process I thought I would take a few minutes tell you what we have been up to.

It all started when we found Lana on a waiting child list. We had been talking about adopting an older child (we are not getting any younger and not doing diapers appealed to both of us!) and we decided to look at the waiting children on the Children's House International web site. And after reading the profiles of the children and following the list for a couple months, we saw Lana on a new list. We inquired about her and asked the agency if we could adopt her. We explained to the agency that we thought we were meant to be her family, and the agency agreed!

Then the pains of paperwork began. We scheduled a homestudy with a social worker, which means that we have 4 interviews with the social worker, she visits our home, she reviews our health reports, financial information, background check, and we each write an autobiography. The social worker then writes a report making a favorable determination that we can adopt.

The rest of the paperwork includes birth certificates, marriage certificate, employment letters, and all must be notarized. Each notarized piece of paper (we have 13 documents in all) must then be sent to the secretary of state for certification (meaning that the state confirms that the notary is o.k.). Then, the whole dossier (all these documents together make up the dossier) goes to the U.S. secretary of state in D.C. for authentication and then to the Chinese consulate. Whew! If only we could get the air miles that the dossier logs! After that the dossier is ready to go to China!!!

We are currently flying paperwork across the country. So, if all goes well and FedEx keeps up the good work, by next week, we could be DTC!

In case you have been trying to follow the acronyms, here is a list of the most common used in the adoption process:

LOI-Letter of Intent (the letter we wrote to China asking to adopt Lana)

PA-Pre-Approval (a letter from China stating that we are approved to adopt Lana)

DTC-Dossier to China (paperwork is DONE!)

LID-Log in Date (the date the China Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) acknowledges our dossier and when we can start counting days to TA!)

LOA-Letter of Acceptance (final confirmation from China that all is good to go!)

TA-Travel Approval (time to pack and finalize travel plans!)

Package to Lana

Kit the curly dog is on her way to Lana! We can hardly wait to see Lana holding her new doggie friend. We hope the pictures will help her get to know us or at least become familiar with our faces and help prepare her to join our family.

Lily had fun putting together the package for Lana that included a photo album with pictures of us (including pictures of Cami our Portuguese Water Dog), hair clips, and Kit the curly dog! Lily named Kit the curly dog after one of Cami's doggie friends.

A family traveling to Xi'An to adopt their daughter will deliver Lana's package. What did we ever do before YahooGroups? There is a YahooGroup for families that have adopted or are in the process of adopting children from Xi'An.

Introducing...Lana

Meet the next addition to the Life of Razz...Lana!

We can hardly wait to put a smile on that face! We are in the process of adopting Lana! Lana's Chinese name is Qian Hao (Lily's Chinese name is Qian Ping...coincidence...?!?!) Born September 8,2001. So, Lily is getting a BIG sister! Lana is described as quiet, obedient, and likes to help the little kids at the orphanage with their coats and shoes. We are not sure when we will be traveling, but we hope, hope, hope to be home for her birthday in September.

Please pray for speedy paperwork!

Lana is in Xi'An, so we get to spend a week in Xi'An! We absolutely loved our visit to Xi'An when we traveled to China to adopt Lily. It is a beautiful city and is the location of the Terracotta Soldiers.

Lily...Someday

Someday

Someday, she’ll be a famous pianist,
or maybe she’ll be a high school science teacher.
Someday, she’ll marry, and have a couple kids.
Someday, she’ll help millions of people
all over the world.
Or maybe she’ll travel,
send letters from Africa
or phone us from Rome.
Someday, she’ll be a strong,
confident woman…
…but we’ll always remember
the first time
we held her in our arms.
Someday, she’ll have
her own hopes and dreams,
not knowing that once upon
a quiet time, we closed our eyes
and dreamed
to have her in our life.

-unknown

Lily...Then and Now

Lily...Then. This the first picture we saw of Lily! Those big, sad, weepy eyes instantly melted our hearts! Born April 20, 2004, adopted May 18, 2005. Her Chinese name is Ling Qian Ping. Ling is the last name given to all the children at the Shangrao orphanage, Qian is for the county where she is from and Ping is a water lily! We did not know the meaning of Ping when we named her Lily.

Lily...Now. Here she is now, quite a little lady with her "big girl" haircut, showing off her dimples! Lily will be 3 years old on April 20th!

Some of her favorite things are:
-Noodles (Our "noodle girl" from the beginning! We absolutely fell in love with her when we saw her slurp noodles in Nanchang)
-Musicals (Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang tops the list)
-Singing (We sing nightly before bed)
-Hot Wheels (Stashed everywhere! I have found them in my shoes, in my chair, in my purse!)
-Shoes (Playing "shoes" is a regular pastime, we need to get some larger squeaky shoes when we are in China)
-Books (Books, Books, and more Books!)
-Friends (Includes her little girl friends, and her dolls and stuffed animals, they are all referred to as "my friends")

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!