Sick husband and STILL NO HOMESTUDY

Well, I can honestly say that not a whole lot has happened with the adoption since the last time that I wrote. Actually, nothing has happened! I'm still waiting on the homestudy, I was hoping to get that today from Michelle, but apparently that wasn't in the cards. Wayne has been very sick for nearly a week. We think that he might have a gallstone. What? A gallstone? But Wayne doesn't have a gallbladder! Oh lord, what's next? He needed to get some more blood work done today to see what's going on. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring better news about what's going on.

With Wayne being sick tonight, I missed the waiting families meeting. I was truly bummed. Actually, I'm bummed that Wayne doesn't see why those meetings are important. He's too self absorbed with work to know the true anguish of the waiting. I suppose it's not his fault, but it still drives me nuts none the less.

I will be calling Michelle tomorrow to see if our homestudy is complete. I want to get our I-717H!!! At this point, I just want to hear word that the homestudy is remotely close. Ughhh...

Anyway, enough of my gripes. The kids are at Grams and Pops' tonight for a sleepover. Anna was really excited. Cam was too I think. :-) I'm off....G'Night!

Swim Lessons/New kiddos on AAI

Nothing new really to post about today. Kids started swim lessons yesterday. Anna has Amy Way again (wooohoo!). Anna loves Amy, Amy loves having Anna in her group. Speaking of Level 1 group...Anna is the only one. Yep! One on one swim lessons. Anna gets Amy to herself for an hour. :-) Cameron is in Level 3. He has Matthew Sutton and some other girl for his instructors. Cam knows Matthew from church and from the 2 prior years of swimming. Cam is a little bummed that Nathaniel isn't around this year. Nathaniel is Matthew's brother (they both are Mik's sons) and one of the most fun instructors. Both the kids love the program at West Shore and for $40 a kid, it's a good deal. To keep it more in the family, Matthew and Nathaniel's mom, Polly is the director of the program. Sometimes Rosanna and David help out too. The entire Sutton family, with the exception of Mik. :-)

I noticed yesterday that AAI has new kids listed on their website. There is one little girl Jing Jing that I would love to have as well. She has some ear deformity. I think Julia's is a little more critical, but Jing Jing is a cutie. Cam is still asking for a brother, I think it's something that Wayne is giving more thought about. He would love another son and much as I would. There are more and more boys from China going up for adoption and I think as smooth (well, at times) as all this has gone, I'm up for another paperchase. Why not? Anna is getting a sister, Cam needs a brother. :-) Ok, I need to get the kids ready for swim lessons! Later!!

How Mr. Bill saved my day/The finding Ad

Sooo...after the breakdown on Tuesday, I got regrouped and went over all our info that we need to get going on. We need to get our pictures together, we needed to get our police letters notarized, we are still waiting for wanes letter to get back from the Chinese consulate in Houston. This brings us to how Mr. Bill from the ISD saved my day.

As of Thursday morning I still hadn't heard from AAI about our reference letter from Beth. Feeling that I no longer could wait, I stopped at the ISD to see if I could scrounge up someone to write a letter on Wayne and I's behalf. I HIT THE JACKPOT!!!!! Mr. Bill was in his office and volunteered his services as well as his computer to write the letter at that same moment!!! So, we sat down with the requirements that MaryBeth had told me and we wrote (I typed) the letter. YAY!!! We got the letter done, he signed it and I was off to meet with my new love--The Fed-Ex man!! Lucky for me Cal-Chlor has a Fed-Ex account and there's a drop at the Shell station just a few blocks away. PHEW!!!! MaryBeth told me she would hold our home study hostage till she got that letter. I just hope it includes all that she needed. That was a HUGE weight off my shoulders. I wanted to get our info to officer Teske before she headed out on vacation, but it's not gonna happen. :-( Bummer, but I'm still hoping to be DTC (dossier to China) before the end of July, but I think that's just a bit to hopeful.

On Wednesday we received Julia's (aka Yin) finding ad. What's a finding ad you ask? In China, when children are abandoned they place "ads" in the local papers. Those ads consist of small grainy pictures, what little info they know about the child (ie: birthdate, what date the were found, what clothes they were wearing, the exact location of where they were left and any physical deformities). Some ads are just text, no picture. We are extremely lucky that her ad is a picture one. As luck would have it, Liz and Brion's son is 2 ads below Julia. I sent a scan of the ad to them. So what did Julia's ad say exactly? Here's what we got:

Ad #30: Name now: Lu Yin Gui, A girl Birthdate: 10/14/2003 (estimated) Finding date: 11/22/2003 Found abandoned at #2 Huarongshan, Xianan district, Xianning City (gate of the district orphanage) She was wearing a yellow sweater and white cotton pants with yellow flowers and had a red cap. She has no right ear.

This is similar info to what we got from AAI. I knew that it was her when they mentioned her clothes. Those match exactly to what AAI said. Wayne and I would love to have that outfit. I doubt I will get it, but it's always worth asking for. We feel as though this ad is as close a birth announcement that we will get for her. No matter I guess, we love her already. The kids are over the top about her. Here's a picture of her ad.





I also went to the summer Pentwater Art Fair. I purchased 2 of Todd and Brad Reed's books to take to China. www.toddreedphoto.com Go look for the book titled: Lake Michigan: Point to Point. I bought one for Director Lu and one for Julia's foster mom.

Ok, I need to go. G'Night!! :-)

My first breakdown and the power of ice cream and cookie dough

For those of you that know me, I am the emotional one. I tend to cry easy over silly things and not so silly things. Today I had my first major breakdown over the adoption stuff. MaryBeth called to say that she still doesn't have the letter from Beth for the educator side of the homestudy. This really bothers me. We need to have the homestudy ready so we can get those documents to USCIS and to finalize the dossier. I hate, hate, hate, hate having to depend on people to help me. From what I've read in my attatchment books, that could be a sign that adults let me down when I was a child. Interesting to say the least.... I'm finding that some of documents need to get notorized before they get sent to State. Sooooo...this leads me to the breakdown once Wayne got home. I just had to have a nice cry, get it all out. I feel somewhat better, not really a whole lot though. I had planned on a nice dinner, but now all I want is greasy, fattening comfort foods. I did have a small smidge of cookie dough, however it's healing power wasn't as effective as I had hoped. I plan on hitting Dairy Queen to pile up on little snacks for after the comforting dinner. :-)

Anyways, no need to worry. I will be fine, just feeling a bit overwhelmed by the control issues. I'm sure tomorrow will be a much brighter, happier day. Thank goodness that Julia doesn't know that her momma is a certified nut. :-) G'Night

Happy 4th of July!!

YAY!! It's July 4th. I'm sure that means nothing to Julia while she waits for us in China. :-) We did have a great time with all our families this weekend. It started out with us having my parents, grandparents, and sister over for dinner. Nothing that special, just hot dogs and brats. I think the kids liked having Granny and Poppa over as well as Grandma Denise and Grandpa Tom.

Saturday, we went to Tustin to the Stewart family get together. We had a great time talking to Aunt Susan and Aunt Wendy.

Sunday, I worked from 7-3 at the hotel and then we went to my parents for Theresa's birthday party. Aunt Susan and Uncle Brian came over for that party.

Today, we had the traditional Wagner family breakfast at Peach's house. Man, were there tons of people there today. Tyler came up while Theresa was at work. We did manage to make it to the parade (actually, the rain held off long enough for the parade to be held). It rained and rained and rained, ALL FREAKIN DAY!!! BLAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Kids had a great time with all their cousins. Anna loves being with Sydney and Madison. Cam loves being with Mackenzie, Adam, Mitchell, and Max. I'm sure that Julia will fit right in with all of the kids. Christmas should be a blast. :-)

Ok, I'm super tired. I will write more tomorrow. G'Night!!

We want to buy shares in Fed-Ex

I'm getting ready to send Wayne's employer letter to the Chinese consulate in Houston. YAY! Yet another piece of the puzzle that needs to be complete before we can bring Julia home. So, we need to get to the bank and get a money order for $25.00 for the processing and paperwork that goes with it. This letter was gone from Lousiana to Michigan, back to Louisiana, now to Houston, it will come back to Michigan, then on to China once this is all said and done. Hard to believe it will still be in one piece by that time. :-)

We are taking Anna to the doctor today. She has a lump under her right breast. I'm hoping that it's nothing, maybe a fatty tumor at worst case. I'm sure it's nothing, but we still need to know. I will keep you up on what's going on with that. Alrighty, I'm off. Later!!

Gooood News....

Let's start with the news from Brian Stuy. He found Julia's "finding ad". YAY!! We are waiting to get that emailed to us. I'm super D-dooper excited about what may or may not be in that info. Prolly not much more that what we already know, but I'm still glad to have that information non the less. It cost $30.00 to get the info. A small price to pay for what we feel is our daughter's "birth announcement".

Next item: We sent Wayne's employer reference letter to Louisiana to get sealed (authenicated). That went well except that I forgot to send the stinkin money order with it and ended up having to Fed-Ex that the next day. Grrr....Mind don't fail me now!! I need all the help I can get in this process. We are now waiting (still) on MaryBeth's homestudy. I'm still holding on to hope that we can get this all wrapped up by the end of July. Keep the prayers going and the fingers crossed.

I'm starting to get anxious like all the other parents on the WCC list. I didn't think I would, but I just want to get Julia home. I bought some collapsable luggage today at Meijer's. It was on clearance for $25.00. I saved $35.00?? At least that's what my receipt said. There are 2 pieces, one is an 18 inch and the other is a 24 inch. I'm not sure I've got it figured out as to what exact luggage we are taking but I'm sure Wayne will figure that out for me. :-) Wayne is doing really well with all this. I think he's more excited than he lets on. We have a great time talking about all the cool stuff that we are going to see in China, all the great food we are going to eat. I looked at these really cute shoes for Julia online today. Here's a link to the pair I like the best:
http://robeez.com/product.aspx?ProductID=121&deptid=3&PriceCat=2&Lang=EN-US&RefID=NAHPSHOE03&SID=9246b665-69eb-4f0d-972a-0d52c715637a

That's a super long link, but it will take you right to the pair that Anna and I like. I've bid on a pair of these shoes at Ebay for like half the price. They aren't the same ones, but they are just like them but have tulips on it.

OK...time to get some dinner around. I also need to get going on all the food we'll need for the 4th. I've got to get the brownies made for Aunt Colleen's party. Mental note to self: DO NOT USE THE GLASS PAN FOR BAKING. The brownies last year were too doughy. Anyways...I'm off!! G'night!

Kissing the Moon

This is a little poem I wrote a few weeks ago...just thought I would post it.


Kissing the Moon
Ever so quietly she tip-toes to the gate, she’s dressed you in the finest outfit. She places you where she knows that you will be found soon. The tears flow freely down her red cheeks. She kisses you softly on the forehead and wishes the best for the baby she can not keep.

She waits, the sun is coming up. There is a man on his way to work. He sees the tiny bundle at the gate. He motions to the workers inside to come and open up. They take you inside. She hurries away, she knows that you are now going to be taken care of.

Somewhere she knows what your real birth date is.
Somewhere she knows what your real name is.
Somewhere she knows how much she loved you and wanted the best for you.
Somewhere she weeps knowing she missed your first tooth and your fist steps.
Somewhere she looks at the moon hoping that you will find your way to a family that will love you as much as she does.
Many miles away that family has made room in their hearts for the little girl that has touched them in so many ways.

Many miles away, that family is making room in their home.
They talk about clothes, and new names for the little one they have only seen pictures of. Soon they will travel across a big ocean. They know this is daughter that was meant for them.

If there were some way to let her know how much that family will love and cherish her beautiful baby girl. They will never harm her, they will support her and take care of her. She will be loved as though she is one of their own. When we look at the moon, we hope and pray that she is seeing that same moon and will know in her heart that her baby is safe.

We love you sweet one. We love the one that did the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. She shall live forever in our hearts as the one that brought us together.

Getting closer...

After some filing and organizing, we have all the paperwork we need for USCIS except for the completed homestudy. (YAY) I faxed Michelle Wayne's employer reference letter and as I'm typing she replied. Be right back! She said everything looks great and to keep her up on where we are at in that process. Another YAY! Ok...I've got to call Wayne. See ya for now.

OOOOOHHH YYYYEEEEAAAHHHHH!!! AAI took Julia's picture off their site. I was wondering when they would take her down and guess what, they did today!!! We put a hold on her on April 19th, right after the first meeting we went to. I knew she was ours from that point. How exciting!! Yet another step...!!!

On the warm summer breeze that blows, sweet kisses make their way to China...

How much paperwork can one 2 year old take??

Ok...so I'm back on the mad woman pace. Trying to get all our documents ready for the dossier is exhausting. We have almost everything we need for the USCIS except the completed homestudy which we are hoping to get just after July 4th. Ideally, I'd like to have our dossier to China by the end of July, but that might be a bit too hopeful. Michelle and Eric are going to be our guardians and wrote up a really nice care and nurture plan. They are really awesome. I wish they could adopt with us. They are going to make some child really happy.

I've been trying not to buy too much stuff for Julia, but it really is hard!!! I'm sure she hasn't had too many new things of her own and so I feel like I want her to feel special with a few new things. Anna wasn't too hard on her clothes, so there are alot of things that Anna wore that Julia will be able to wear. I still have a hard time calling her Julia. She seems more like a Yin to me. I can't wait to hear what her foster mom calls her. I'm thinking that I'd like to get the foster mom a really cool locket or necklace with 2 intertwined hearts. JC Penney's has a few at their website that I think are pretty cool. I'm also thinking that I'd like to get her a Ludington sweatshirt. I dunno, I think it would be cool to have something like that. But...I'd also like to go COO (carry on only). I might be a little too optamistic on that. :-)

OK..need to work on laundry...I'll be back later. Oh and Aunt Cheryl, thanks for all the stuff you did for the kids. They both got up Tuesday and asked, "What are we doing with Aunt Cheryl today?" I told them you had to head home, they said, "That's ok, we are going to Florida in a new months!!!" Kids are great! Love you both!! Bye!

**PA!!**PA!!**PA!!**

At 9:34, Thursday June 16th...Michelle called to tell us that we got our Pre-Approval. WOOHOOO!! :-) SO...our time line is now LOI (letter of intent) sent on 5-26-05, PA 6-16-05. The average wait on the WCC board has been 49 days from LOI to PA. We waited 22 days!!! Amazing. The little boy from Yin's orphanage that we have pictures of...his parents got their PA as well. I got to meet his adoptive mom at a meeting that I went to last Thursday night. She seems very nice and I think that we are going to like traveling with them. They have 3 older kids, 18-16-13. They are thinking they'd like to take all of them with to China. EY EY EY. Maybe teenagers would be better than my little monkeys that are 7 and 5. Ok...I'm off for a while. Aunt Cheryl is still home and I need to call over there. :-) ta ta

~~WE GOT THE PICS AND VIDEO~~

I'm not going to write alot because I think the pictures will speak for themselves. The pictures were sent on Friday afternoon. Oh Lord, thank heavans Wayne and I were together, as we had decided to look at the pictures together first. Neither of us wanted to be alone we when got to see her for the first time. We truly believe she is the most beautiful girl in China!! We are so thankful to Michelle at AAI for getting us the pictures and video. OH! About the video, Julia is adorable. She seems like a really happy kid, always smiling and laughing at the people around her. She was banging on a symbol and having a good time making noise. Sounds alot like Anna and Cameron!! Anna was playing her piano and this little pink flute thing at the same time!! I think Julia and Anna could have a Wagner Sister's Band!! HAhahaha!!

We also went to Grand Rapids on Saturday to have our fingerprints taken. Nothing that exciting to talk about, the kids went to Aunt Pam's while Wayne and I went to the INS building. I swear, I'm looking out for other families that are adopting or just Chinese people in general. There's a little store down the road from Aunt Pam's that I want to go to. It's called Ming's Chinese variety store. :-) I might find something interesting there.

Ok, so it's picture time!!! Here she is!! Julia YinGui Wagner!!!

This is our JULIA YINGUI!! 

Julia and a little guy that is getting adopted by a GR family and his foster mom 

Julia and her foster mom 

Next stop: June 27th

We had our 2nd visit with MaryBeth today. All went well, no surprises or anything. Not much new to report. Our final home visit is on June 27th. I was hoping to get it done sooner, but we need time to clean and get the required reading done. Keep your fingers crossed about maybe getting pictures of Yin sooner than 9 days. I'm praying that Michelle will find a way to get the pictures loaded up. G'Night!!

Getting news from the Eastern Front!!!!!

We got an email from Michelle last night (or this morning) and I'm going to copy and paste it so you can read the whole thing. :-)

Hi Wayne and Melissa,

I just returned from the orphanage where I saw Lu Yin Gui. Oh is she cute!! She has quite a personality too! I don't think that I can figureout how to send pictures but I took several, and got some video. I mether foster mother too. Lu Yin Gui is small but looks well cared for. Shewas so happy to get the gifts that you sent her and then she tried to takethe other baby's gifts too! Her foster mother looked at your pictureswith her and pointed to you and called you mama and papa. She alsopointed and said the words. She also pointed out 'big sister' and 'bigbrother'. She was such a clown! she played with all of the toys in theroom and found a symbol that she started banging on. The director saidthat her hearing is normal but that she needs corrective surgery to herouter ear. She certainly seemed to hear just fine. The director saidthat he will have pictures taken for you with the camera and that theywill have them ready for you when you come for her. He asked that I passalong his sincere thanks to you for wishing to adopt her. I also got somepictures of the city. Lu Yin Gui lives with her foster mother but comesto the orphanage every Monday to spend time with other children and tohave a medical exam. Well, I will be in touch as soon as I'm back; Ican't wait to share the pictures and video with you; she is reallyprecious!

Michelle

WOWZA!! How exciting is that?? We are really beside ourselves!! In just a few days we will see new pictures of our little girl!! We can't thank Michelle enough and well, there is thanking GOD! Ok, I need to get some stuff done around here. Take care and I will update more after the visit with MaryBeth afternoon. Later!!

After a long weekend of marshmallows, dirty feet and campfires

So....we went camping this past weekend. All went well, especially the weather. The weather was really good. No rain, no clouds, no bugs!! Anna had the dirtiest feet of any child. We darn near had to powerwash her feet after she ran around all day wearing nothing but flip flops. Hey, if she's happy, I can be happy. Cameron on the other hand, I never saw. He played with Max, Mackenzie and Adam the whole time. We brought the soccer net and so the boys played all the time. (Good idea, Wayne!!) Camping does get easier for us as parents as the kids get older. So what are we thinking by adding a soon to be 2 year old?? I suppose we could call it temporary insanity.

So, there are no new updates on the adoption process. We choose my parents as the guardians for the dossier and homestudy. We do have our 2nd homestudy visit in Jenison with with MaryBeth tomorrow at 3:00. Still no word from Michelle about whether she's been able to get to see Yin (aka Julia). We may not hear from her until she returns, but we are hoping for an email to let us know. We are also in a holding pattern for the pre-approval. That is suppose to take 6-8 weeks. So we are waiting for 6-8 weeks for our passports too. Wait, wait, wait...I think adoption should be renamed the Waiting Game. :-)

Now about the aka Julia mention above. I think we settled on Julia YinGui. I saw a picture of a little girl that died before she got a chance to find her forever family. She had been born with a severe case of spina bifida. Her lower spinal cord and tailbone were exposed. The picture they showed was horrible and my heart truly aches for that little girl. So, having tossed around the name Julia already, I think it's a done deal now. I like it, Wayne likes it and I asked both the kids what they liked. I asked if they liked Allyson or Julia better. Cam's vote was for Julia. Same with Anna. Besides Julia fits with the whole girl names that end in A in our family. Check out this pattern: Melissa, Theresa, Samantha, Carla, Sarah, Anna and now Julia.

Well, it's now 10:59 and I'm tired. I'm glad you liked your sweatshirt Auntie Cheryl. Thanks for being the most supportive person in this journey. We are happy to have you along for the ride. Many hugs and kisses!! G'Night!

What a day for adoption stuff

First, to start the day. We had a 9:00am meeting with MaryBeth for a first homestudy visit. I think that all went well. We were given more homework and talked briefly about our views on adoption, our families feelings, and our marriage and family life. Everything must have gone alright because MaryBeth gave Michelle the ok to go ahead with our pre-approval package to China. :-) We should know in about 6-8 weeks if we are pre-approved. From what it seems from both MaryBeth and Michelle, Yin is essentially ours if the PA goes through. No one has given us any real reason to doubt that. We took all our little gifts for Yin to Michelle today too. We sent a teddy bear, a blanket that I made, a disposable camera, a ladybug book and a photo album of our family. We can't wait to see pictures of Yin. I'm sure she's grown into a very beautiful little girl. We also found out that family from G.R. is pursuing a little boy from the AAI special waiting kids program, that little boy is at the same orphanage as Yin. I'm hoping that we get to travel with that family. I think a small group would be nice.

We also had a nice batch of mail. One piece from USCIS!! We got our fingerprint appointments, June 11th at 10:30am in Kentwood. It's a Saturday, so that works well for Wayne. We also got our birth certs. and marriage certificate from the state with the Great Seal on them. Woohoo!!
Also in that batch of mail was a letter from Michelle stating that she was going to be in China for 2 weeks. This is already knew. ;-)

This is probably the last post for the weekend. We are headed to Benzie for the 11th annual Wagner Family Campout at Timberline. Samantha is going again. YAY! She's a huge help. Theresa and Tyler are coming up on Saturday. It should be a fun time. Ok..I'm off. Aunt Airry if you get your present call us on our cell phone. We can't wait for you to see it!! :-) G'Night!!

Updates!

Ok...so I've taken some time off to regroup before posting a new message. First, Michelle emailed us on Friday to let us know that she WILL be travelling to where Yin is at. Can I get a big WOOOHHHOOOO???!!! We are beyond excited about that. Michelle offered to take some items over for us. I rounded up some pictures of our family, our home and our extended family to add to our photo album. I'm hoping to get a blanket over there to her, but I understand if Michelle doesn't have the suitcase space to take it. It will just have to wait till we get to travel in November. Slowly but surely this is all coming together. We will meet with MaryBeth on Wednesday for the homevist. Michelle mentioned that she already has our letter of intent, our nurture and care plan, and the agency recommendation headed to the translator to send to CCAA for pre-approval. It seems we are headed on a highway at 80 mph to get Yin home to Michigan...Oh, that's a GOOD thing by the way. :-) Friday also consisted of applying for our passports, getting background checks and talking to Beth (Stenzel) about getting a reference for the homestudy. She agreed (YAY! I did have to agree to attend a pampered chef party. Haha. A girl can never have enough pizza stones or good kitchen tools!!) We needed to have a teacher or admin person write a letter on our behalf about our qualifications for parenting another child, a child with special needs, and how our own children are going to react to the addition of another child. Without a doubt, I'm sure that it will all go smoothly.

We spoke with Michelle Schoon at the kids soccer games Saturday. Michelle and her husband adopted their daugher Ellie from China about 2 years ago. She's adorable! I'm sure people will think that of our Yin as well. Michelle was very positive and supportive, I look forward to having more conversations with her about their adoption process and how their family is now.

Wayne and I went to Muskegon today and bought 3 of our 4 required reading books. I couldn't find the "eyes wide open" workbook. I do think that MaryBeth said that we could get that at their office. I'm almost half way done with The Lost Daughters of China. It's been a great book, and I now see why they recommend that new adoptive parents read it. (Hey..Auntie Cheryl, when you come home I'll let you take it back with you...it will explain more of the situation in China than I ever could.) I'm excited to get reading...although..I'm not sure