Shiloh's backpack and clothes are ready!!!

This backpack and goodies are gifts from family and friends and us for Shiloh to have while we are in China. I completed packing for her this weekend, even though we still have a while to go. We thank Nana and Poppy for the great clothes for our sweet girl. (And for Dakota too!) Of course we will pack cherios and some snacks that may help too. It is starting to feel real. We are getting so excited:)

Planning and getting ready....

I am a list maker and planner by nature....I get that from my very organized mom-Thanks Mama! So this weekend I took out my adoption packing list and crossed off all the items I have been tossing in a drawer for nearly 2 years. My first thought....."How on earth will all of this fit in my luggage when our suit case can only weight 44 pounds in China and our backpack should not weight more than 11 pounds?????" So I narrowed down a few things. Took some things off the list and then went out shopping to get a few of the missing items. (I still do not know how it is going to happen.) I know some of this we pack we will never use, but it is hard to decide what we should take and what we should omit. I always over pack but this is a tough one! Of course I am not packing right now, just kind of piling up what we need and checking the list! I washed all the clothes for Shiloh today that I plan to pack. Nana got us some really cute clothes so that she will be the best dressed baby in China! My friend Brandi, who got home with her son last October sent a backpack with Shiloh's name on it and it is so cute. I have packed it full of some toys for Shiloh....we can't take too much, but there is a magna doodle, coloring book and crayons, stuffed bear, finger puppets, play-doh, a few other little toys. I also have pink fingernail polish and lollipops to win her over with. (I had to bribe Dakota with something else to get the fingernail polish!) The hardest part about knowing we are closer to making the trip to china, is that I will be leaving Dakota behind for 14-16 days. I know she will be fine and will have fun with Nana and Aunt Wendi but I will miss her so bad, I think I will cry all the way to China, but this short two weeks will add so much to all our lives. I really have no idea if Shiloh knows anything about us. We have sent her two packages, but we cannot be sure that she got the items. It scares me to think about our first moments with her as I do not want her to be upset or stressed, but this will probably be the case. I have been reading up on toddler adoption trying to be prepared for anything and learning all I can about making her transition easier. If you are a praying person, please pray for our transition as a family, that Shiloh will know we are her parents and that she will accept us easily and that we will love her unconditionally. Please pray for our trip and pray for Dakota and Nana as well while we are gone.

LOA DAY.....

Chuck stayed home from work to be there for getting our LOA package from our agency. He told the Fed-Ex guy that he had waited on this package for two years!!! It arrived at 10:10am and Chuck drove to my office so we could open it together.....Shiloh....we are so close to seeing you!!!!

LOA........baby!!!!!!!!!!

This afternoon, sitting at my desk at work, my cell phone rang. I saw that the area code was 301.....I knew it was my agency. I knew we were only on day 59 waiting for LOA and I have friends who recently waited until day 87.....I just knew that maybe China was asking for something else or maybe something was wrong. So I answered and Jackie at Barker let me know, we did indeed have LOA. It is official, Wang Hongmei, Shiloh is ours!!!!! No further questions, but yes, more paperwork and waiting. Jackie also let us know that we will probably travel in June. This is so much better than the July or August I was thinking would happen. So it is here in 59 days and now it feels very real! We are no longer just pregnant in China...we are in labor, but 3 months worth of labor. To top off the day, prior to getting the notice of LOA, I had gotten 12 pictures of Shiloh from the contact in China that use to know her in the Baotou Childrens home. These photos are of her as a newborn and around 2 or 3 months old. While her palate is still open these pictures are priceless to us. They fill in the gaps on her early history and allow us a glimpse of what she has been through in her young life. Evidently she was in the China Cares Program and was given good care early in her life, which probably saved her life. So one more hurdle for us to make our journey to Shiloh, and this side of China, things are feeling really great! Tomorrow we will get the packet we have to complete via Fed-Ex. Chuck is staying home to get the package if it comes in the morning and I will be home in the afternoon to get it and to complete and sign all we need, so it can all go right back in the mail. The LOA is where we signed to accept Shiloh and it gets sent back to China so they know for sure we want her. Of course we do, no question there. Now the wait to TA (Travel Approval) begins. If this all goes well, we might be able to travel with some of my "renegade friends", I have made during the transfer journey and before. Amazing...this would just be icing on the cake to be able to be there getting our children together!

Newest Care Package sent to Shiloh...

Once again we have sent Shiloh a care package through Ann at Redthread. Sometimes Ann is able to get updated photos and that is what we are hoping for. I hope the SWI staff gives these things to Shiloh..I would not mind if they are played with and even if shared with the other kids. We want her to have something from us she can touch. The cookies get shared by all I hope. We included our pictures and pictures of the all the Grandparents. We also hope we can schedule to go shopping with Ann when we are in Guangzhou!

Info on Wang Hongmei...... (Shiloh)

I have been chatting with families on the Inner Mongolia Yahoo group, and found a lady who has a contact in Baotou. I asked if she could check about any information on Wang Hong Mei-(Shiloh), especially about foster parents. I was surprised with a response today and this information is priceless to us. Here is what this gentleman sent back.

"You asked me about Wang Hong Mei. I know this baby. When I work in Bao Tou. She was cared by Bao Tou's Children's home. I asked my friend about her. They told me some news about the baby's foster family. She have two foster family. Because of something special reasons, the first foster family cannot continue foster her. So the baby was send to second family. In her second family her foster mother was a worker in Bao Tou Children's Home. She loved this baby when she works in Children's Home. So She continue foster Hong Mei until baby was adopt. I don't have foster family number. When I get news about them, I will give you mail."

While the English is a little broken, it reads very well. All along I have prayed that someone, even just one nanny specifically loves my child. I wanted to know, while I could not be there that she had someone special. This is an answered prayer. I do hope we can find out even more. If we can make contact with her foster mother, we can get more history and maybe pictures of her at a younger age. I sat at work today with tears in my eyes, knowing my child is loved.


Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the East and gather you from the West. I will say to the North "give them up" and to the South "don't hold them back", bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Isaiah 43:5-6.

Day 50 Waiting for official LOA....

I think today is day 50 for us waiting on our official LOA (Letter of Acceptance) from China. We look at Shiloh's picture every day and pray she is loved and cared for and that our path to her after all this waiting will be fast. We are planning to send her another care package in the next few weeks with another letter and some pictures of us. I have no idea what she may or may not have been told about us. My dad recently said he was proud of us for our persistance in the entire adoption process. It truly has been a long journey full of ups and downs and moments where we were surprised by more information and moments like this where so many days go by with no word. Current families I know have waited much longer than the 50 days we have and I can feel for them, knowing if they have waited 80 plus days, we probably will also. Persistance is required, not optional. Our little girl is more than 7000 miles away and there is nothing we can do but wait and count the days in between each process we need to put behind us. Right now waiting for LOA, then after that another 8 to 10 weeks to get our travel approval. What I thought might be May has now evolved into the probability of July or maybe even later. So we will continue to be persistant and get the things on our end done as quickly as possible. So many families waiting on children from China continue to wait to be matched and so at least we know who Shiloh is, and right now we are ahead of so many in this same process. We need to be thankful that we are on day 50 and that soon we will be on to the next step....each step leading to the moment when we will hold our little girl in our arms and know that all of this was worth it.

KISSES IN THE WIND

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams

You are here each day with me, at least that is how it seems

I know you wonder where we are...what is taking us so long

But remember child I love you so and God will keep you strong

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin

Because here tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind

May God hold you in his hand until I can be with you

I promise you darling I am doing all I can do

Very soon, you will have a family for real, not just pretend

But for tonight, just as always I blow you kisses in the wind

May God wrap you in his arms and hold you very tight

And let the angels bring the kisses I blow to you each night

P. Durkota

Update through email and our agency

I did recieve word from our agency that Shiloh will remain in the orphanage until we get her, and she will not be going back to foster care. While it is best for the children to be in foster families, I think at this point it would be better for her not to be moved around yet again. So for now this is OK with us, not that we have much control of anything. Our original paperwork had said she was in foster care but when we asked they told us that a lot of the Baotou kids had been removed from foster care due to the families using coal to warm their homes and there had been fires.....not really sure about this story but for now I do think it is best she is not moved again. I wonder if due to the new nice building the SWI wanted the kids back to make sure the money stayed there?

A Great Big Sister.....

After her birthday, Dakota wanted to send some of her birthday baloons to her sister in China:) So she sent them to Shiloh complete with a kiss....

Happy Birthday To Dakota!!!!! Age 5!!!

A carnival style Strawberry Shortcake fun day! Dakota called it a circus, but it was a big hit!!!

Give me Five.....

Dakota will be "5" on Sunday March 7th. Tonight she helped bake cupcakes for her classmates. With the help of a pampered chef tool, she put the icing on all the cupcakes and then added the sprinkles!!! She is very excited about her birthday! I just cannot believe how fast 5 years goes by. The changes in her from 3 to 4 and now to 5 are so drastically different. Sometimes I feel like we start a race at the crack of dawn, but somewhere in the middle of all the running is where you find the simple fun things. A smile, an understanding of each other and knowing you belong to each other. A hug that makes everything all better and sometimes backing off so your child can spread her wings and fly...it is after all a journey and it has been an amazing five years. Happy Birthday precious girl!