In China Itinerary

Inside China Travel Itinerary
Jiangxi Family - Hunsaker
January 17 — January 29, 2008

Jan. 17 (Thu) Arrive in Beijing Flight: KOREAN AIR 853/8:10pm
Stay at Zhaolong Hotel (3 nights)
Tel: 01186-10-65972299 Fax: 01186-10-65972288
FTIA Coordinator: Catherine: 01186-13910937695

Jan. 18 (Fri) – 19 (Sat) We will arrange tours to the Great Wall, Summer Palace and Forbidden City.
(Watch Acrobatic Show on Friday afternoon)

Jan. 20 (Sun) Morning: Beijing to Nanchang Flight: MU 5174 (11:35am-1:55pm)
Stay at Galactic Peace International Hotel (5 nights)
Tel: 01186-791-6111118 Fax: 01186-791-8865088
Afternoon: Go to the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jiangxi Province to receive your child
Local guide: Mary: 01186-13807914383
Jan. 21 (Mon) Morning: Go to the Civil Affairs Bureau of Jiangxi Province to complete the adoption registration procedure. Go to the Notary Office to complete notarization
procedure

Jan. 22 (Tue) – Jan. 23 (Wed) Tour may be arranged and will be optional. Free time available if not touring

Jan. 24 (Thu) Morning: Visit the Nanchang orphanage on Thursday
Afternoon: Pick up all notarized paperwork for your child

Jan. 25 (Fri) Morning: Pick up the passport for your child Afternoon: Nanchang to Guangzhou Flight: HU 7164 (3:30pm-4:55pm)
Stay at White Swan Hotel (4 nights)
Tel: 01186-20-81886968 Fax: 01186-20-81861188
A local guide will pick you up at the airport and will take you to the hotel
Local guide: Helen: 01186-13724018461

Jan. 26 (Sat) Morning: Have visa picture taken and medical exam performed for your child

Jan. 27 (Sun) Morning: Tour may be arranged and will be optional. Free time available if not touring

Jan. 28 (Mon) Morning: Your local guide submits the visa application documents for you to the U.S.
Consulate Afternoon: Tour may be arranged and will be optional. Free time available if not touring

Jan. 29 (Tue) Afternoon: Have the group-oath taken at the U.S. Consulate
Receive your child’s visa
Evening: Guangzhou to LA Flight: CZ 327 Dep.: 9:00pm

Have a wonderful trip!
We have arranged you to visit the orphanage. The round trip from the capital City to the orphanage is about 2.5 hours. The fare has included in your inside China costs.
(Please note: your actual schedule in China may vary slightly from this itinerary)

Christmas lights at Temple Square

After going to to Provo to see my sister's new baby (see post below) we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT. The lights were amazing - and there were tons of people. We spent a couple of hours walking around, watching the nativity and walking up to see the statue of Christ.

Uncle Nathan and Aunt Heidi went with us (lucky for us.... or I'm sure we would have lost a child or two). Meili would not let Nathan and Heidi out of her sight. They are so good to the kids and they (we) love having them around.

Congratulations Leslie and Tavis!!!!

Introducing Tavis Parker Johnson (aka... Parker)! He was born on December 22nd at 11:45 pm weighing 6lbs and 13 ounces and 19 inches long. We drove down Sunday morning to meet Parker. He is darling and so, so sweet!!! Leslie, Tavis and Mia are so lucky to have their newest addition.
Congratulations! We are so happy he is here and is healthy and mom is doing well too (looking great too)!!!

updated measurements - taken on 11/29

We just received these measurements:

Height(cm) 73 28.7 inches long - 3rd percentile
Weight(kg) 10 -22 lbs - 75th percentile (this is if she wasn't wearing clothes..i don't know if she was)
Head Size (cm) 45 17.71 inches 50th percentile
Chest Size (cm) 46 -18.1 inches
Feet Length (cm) 12 - 4.7 inches
Teeth 6/6 - not sure if the is 6 total or 6 on top and 6 on bottom..??

flights

Well... after a long day of phone calls I have our flights!!! YEAH!!! I was able to use 120,000 frequent flier miles... another YEAH!!!
Here are our flights:
1/16 8:30- 9:29 Salt Lake City to Los Angeles
1/16 11:05 -5:10 pm (1/17 - we lose 15 hours) - LA to Korea
1/17 7:00 - 8:10 pm Korea - Beijing
(no long lay overs... :) )

1/29 9:00pm - 5:50pm (January 29 - getting the day back-notice we get back before we left) Guangzhou to Los Angeles
1/29 9:20 pm - 12:05 am LA - Salt Lake City (I think we will get a hotel in SLC)

I am so happy to have a direct flight from China back to the US. Hopefully we will sleep the whole way home. (but that may be bad because we will need to sleep again when we get home)

Travel dates

Mckenzie and I will be traveling to China on January 16th, 2008 and returning home on January 30th, 2008. We are working on flights and hope to use frequent flier miles (looks like it should work) but we will know more shortly. After we have the flights the China staff (for FTIA) will start making plans for our in-China travel and sight seeeing. We are flying to Beijing (get there pm on the 17th) and will probably spend the next day or two touring. I am excited to have this time to spend with Mckenzie... hopefully we will create some wonderful memories and it will be nice to get our feet under us before we travel to pick up Lili (I would guess the 20th or so).
We should have our itinerary by the end of the week!!!
YEAH!!! This does not feel real yet!!! I'm sure once we have all 5 kids home it will... aghhhh...

Lili is19 months old today.
I just received word from our agency that they think we will travel the week of january 14th. We will know for sure by the end of the week. I hoped we would be able to go a bit sooner but with the holidays this will probably work out better. We should have her by about the time she is 20 months!!! Yeah!!! (hopefully, with this longer wait they will potty train her :)... I am not having any luck getting Meili potty trained ... maybe that is what I should concentrate on for the next month)

TA...TA...TA...TA!!!!

I received the phone call around 9:30 that our agency received our travel approval today!!! YEAH!!! She said that we will travel with the group traveling the 16th of January... I begged her to try for the 2nd of January. She is going to try but she did not seem too optimistic!!! Regardless, Mckenzie and I are going to China to get our baby!! Mommy's coming!!! (This is why I am so superstitious.... with a lady bug sighting the day before - how can I not be?) Happy day!!! The lady who does travel arrangements at FTIA is out of the office today (go figure) and will be back in tomorrow and we can ask about the 2nd. We should have US Consolate appointments confirmed by the end of the week!!! Yahoo (Yaboo!!!)

Ladybug, ladybug...

Ok, call me crazy BUT...

I was sweeping my kitchen floor this morning (remember, it is December and it has been freezing temperatures for a good month and a half now) and after I was done I noticed a tiny, little ladybug walking around on the floor. We all thought that it was pretty amazing that the ladybug has stayed alive this long BUT I'm taking it as a sign that good luck is coming. :) (Ladybugs are known through out the international adoption community as a sign of good luck.) Maybe, just maybe we will get our Travel Approval tomorrow (or at least soon) :)

Here is Miss Lili

Our agency received this cute picture today! I love the look on her face. Look at her teeth and her LONG eyelashes and her bushy eye brows. Isn't she cute!!! The hemangiomas don't look so bad - we wonder if they are going down a bit. Her skin looks like it recovered well from all of the bug bites.

We are in love!!!

Only a few more weeks and we will have her in our arms. I can't wait to see what she really looks like- we keep getting pictures of her hemangiomas instead of her - better than nothing :)

snowy day

Well, we finally have enough snow for the kids to play in. I think Meili ate a couple of gallons of snow and the boys had a good snowball fight with Mckenzie and Lexi (the boys claim they won). After everyone came in I was getting a bit frusterated because I could not find Mckenzie and I needed her. I finally found her out shoveling our widowed neighbors driveway... wow... that made me happy :) Meili loves the sunglasses she just found at the bottom of the toy box and loves to pretend that she is mom (or various other people) driving around in her car with her baby.

I hope everyone is having a great day!

Melanie

I love this song...

My friend, Lora, just sent me this beautiful song on you tube. Jodie gave it to me last year but Meili hadn't spent any Christmas' away from us so it did not affect me too much. (I loved it and thought it was beautiful last year.) It hit me much harder this year! I think I would have cried big tears if my kids weren't laughing so hard at me. Anyway, here it is. I think it is beautiful http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7285661691084173302&q=third+day+merry+christmas&total=17&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=7

Scott just left for Texas. His trip was canceled last week an hour before he was supposed to get on the plane... so, he'll be gone this week instead. The boys cried when he left and now they are ready to "get the party started"... ugh... they wear me out! Gotta love it!!!! Enjoy your quiet week Scott!!! We love you!!!

busy day

We received our Letter of Approval via Fed Ex yesterday. It was so great! I had lots to do in order to get it back same day to our agency. I had to fill out all of the travel papers, gather and notarize tax returns, w-2s and k1's, passport copies, notarize vaccination affidavit, create, notarize and send for authentication a power of attorney (for Scott), apply for visa's (for myself and Mckenzie), and on and on.
Meili took a nice long nap which helped so I could get it all done.
It is always a bit emotional to complete part of the process. We've been waiting for a long time to be able to complete this step and to enjoy the day! The letter of approval (loa) asked us if we were still willing to adopt Hong Yuan Xiu and we had to sign and date it. Then, after the rest of the paper work that came with it was complete I sent it off. I had such a peaceful feeling leaving Fed Ex. We are so close to having her home!!!
Wow, a family of 7... pretty hard to believe :)
I completely spaced off my scout training meeting last night... oops... sorry guys!
Oh, we had to decide who was going to travel before we sent stuff back - it is Mckenzie!!! She is sooo excited. We talked with her teacher about her missing school. She agreed that it would be a wonderful trip. Mckenzie wants to go to the Great Wall - I need to decide if I am tough enough to deal with the frigid temperatures of Beijing in January.
Hope all is well! Take care!
Melanie

LOA

HI!!! WE JUST GOT THE PHONE CALL FROM OUR AGENCY at 10:30 am!!! THEY RECEIVED OUR LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. WE WILL TRAVEL SOMETIME MID JANUARY (probably).
I am soooo excited!!! She is our daughter!!!
Our agency will fed ex the package today. We will sign and send back tomorrow. and then it will be off to China. China then will approve us for travel (this is taking 3 weeks)- then our agency will request a US consolate appointment at the end of the trip - once the consolate date is set we will plan our travel.
YAHOO (OR YABOO - for my good friend in UT)

Mckenzie's passport

We received Mckenzie's passport today. Now if only we would get our letter of approval... day 82 - but, who is counting :)

We are home! We had a fabulous week away. First we enjoyed a few days in Portland with Scott's sister and family and then 4 or so days at Scott's parents house (thanks to Kim and Vaughn and Loye for letting us come). We had a great time just hanging out and being together. The kids loved playing with their cute cousins... it was amazing to watch Meili, Maren and Paige play so well together. (she loved baby Abi (sp? - Abigail)and baby Isaac) And, finally the 5 year old boy cousins played really well together!!! Yeah!!! I love it when they hit the age of enjoying each other.

When we got home we were lucky enough to make it for my niece (on the other side) b-day party (they actually brought the party to us (thank-you :) ) Happy b-day Rylee!!! She had most of her cousins here to celebrate with her. Our kids are going to go through cousin withdrawl when they have to go back to school on Monday.

Today we have waited 80 days since Pre-approval. Our agency was closed Thursday (of course), and Friday so on Monday hopefully they will have 3 days worth of packages delivered and hopefully one of them will contain information for us. Mckenzie is getting very excited to go... Scott and I talked about it today and we are pretty sure she will be the one who goes with me.

I found this pretty song on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSV5xW-NLu8 I love the songwritter and singer... I think he is a Christian singer and he writes a lot of songs about adoption. If you have a second take a listen :)

Have a great weekend!!!

Melanie

Mckenzie's passport

Well, Scott and I decided that we should get Mckenzie a passport. We took her to Costco to get her picture taken and then raced over to the court house with her birth certificate to order it. It is taking the passport people 6-10 weeks to process them so we also decided to do an expedited service (with the holidays and then she will also need a visa and that will take time)... so, she should have it in two weeks. She is thrilled with the thought of possibly being able to go (she said that 15 hours on the airplane with nothing to do but read would be heaven). The boys love the idea of dad staying home... I think Scott likes the idea... I'm not sure how I feel...??? It is a safe country and I know we would be fine... in fact, we'd have a great time together. If he does not go I may make him promise to take me to Hawaii next summer for our 15th anniversary :)

Our agency is saying that Letters of Approval are just trickling out right now. 1 or 2 at a time/ week or two weeks. If this is the case we may not hear something in the next batch like we hoped. Who really knows... it is definately taking a lot longer than they and we thought. I think we are going to start getting Mckenzie's stuff ready (passport, shots, visa, etc) for back up in case Scott can not travel. She would love to go and I of course would love to have her with me... but, it is such an intense bonding period I would definately love to have Scott along. Guess we will wait and see :)

Day 65

Well, we have been waiting 65 days today (some wait a lot longer - some do not). It is hard not to become obsessed. Hopefully, we will hear something soon! It is looking less likely that we will be able to travel during the Christmas break and end of year. Typically 6-8 weeks is needed between the next form we are waiting on and actual travel. Hopefully news will come soon!
The kids are doing well. They get out of school next Thursday (they go only a half of a day) and are out until the Monday after Thanksgiving!! Wow, it is a long break. Parent teacher conferences are on Thursday and Friday and the next week is for Thanksgiving.
We have been trying to potty train Meili. I am done with diapers. Her skin is so sensative that she gets sores from diapers... It has been a long 2 days but hopefully it will get better. She understands but just doesn't like to do it.
Hope all is well.
Melanie

Love without Boundaries

Dr. Buckmiller and Emily are in China doing surgeries on some children. It looks like they removed a hemangioma today from a child. (This is the nurse and doctor that we will take Lili to.) The address to their work in China is: http://lwbchinablog.blogspot.com/

Another address to look at is http://www.chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/ (Thanks Sara and Jodie for telling me about it!!!)

Halloween

On Tuesday, Scott and I were scrambling trying to put a Luke Skywalker Padawan (? Davis insisted it all went together) costume together. When Reese and Mckenzie got home from school they thought they should have one too... so, they all ended up being padawans and I have to say they all looked pretty cute.
Scott and I went to Vegas Wednesday morning and my mom watched the kids for us (thanks again mom!!! we love you!). We had a great time going to a show, dinner, wandering around and spent a lot of time with my brother Ryan. He is doing so great and it makes us very happy to see him happy and doing well. While Scott was in his classes Ryan took me all around town... and to the NY, NY roller coaster... we had a great time... it has been a long time since we have spent this much time together.
It was soooo nice to get away with Scott!!!
No new news on Lili. Hopefully, we will hear something soon.
I hope all is well. Melanie

A few activities this past week

I just uploaded these cute pictures. We have been enjoying the nice fall weather.

The kids had a great time last Monday carving pumpkins. (Meili insisted that her pumpkin had ears... Scott was great to go along)

One afternoon after school we went to the park and played with Meili's little friend Maddie. (I had fun visiting with Lora :) I hope is ok that we posted her picture...)

And I took the last picture today. Greg and his family are here visiting (he is interviewing at the hospital here... we would love to have them live here!!!). The kids have such a great time playing! I about died when I went outside and saw only the top of Reeses head... I think they may be digging a hole for me to get Lili :)

Mckenzie is trying out for the school play today. She is very excited!

No news yet on Lili. We hope to hear something soon... in fact, in order for us to have her home by Christmas or the New Year we need to receive our LOA this week. I am hopeful but it really could take another couple of months to get... if only I had a crystal ball. I am very glad to know that she is in great hands and that she is being taken care of.

A Child's Right . org

I love the pictures shown on A Child's Right organization website. They went to Nanchang SWI (where Lili is) in May of 2007 and installed a water filtration system. To see the great photos of the orphanage go to http://www.a-childs-right.org/projects.html and click on China 2007, and go to photo number 98 (this is where Nanchang starts). It will tell you at the top of the page what each photo is showing. There are so many amazing people that go and volunteer to make the orphanages a better and safer place. Very amazing and I am grateful to this group who made the drinking water safe for Lili to drink!

Lili is 17 months old today

We have had this bird (the kids insist it is a pigeon) on our roof. I took the pictures last night and this morning when I woke up he was still sitting there. Reese is insisting that we call animal control this morning so the bird will survive but I'm not sure what to do. The kids are learning the waltz at school during PE. Here are some pictures with Mckenzie and Scott, Reese and Grandma Hunsaker, and Davis and Meili practicing the moves.

More information

I received this from Maury today:

Hi, Melanie! Today we received a little more explanation re the Loving Families that Yuan Xiu is in:

Loving family is one of programs in the orphanage. The orphanage offers apartments to six selected families and six children live with each family. Mothers stay at home to look after children and fathers go to work.

Sounds like a good program

Updated Developmental Information about Lili

Our agency is amazing! Maury (the lady we work with) provided us this information this morning. She is surprised that the orphanage gave us so much information... generally they keep care takers and foster moms name private but they gave us them. Yahoo (Yaboo :)) She sounds perfect! I can't wait to get my arms around her... have fun reading about her :) (Oh, when it talks about Loving Family this means a foster care situation with 5-6 children)

Hong Yuan Xiu—10-16-07


The orphanage would not like to provide more photos since they just provided some photos on 9/24.
She is as same as a normal child except for her hemangiomas. She can sit, crawl, run and walk. Her physical development is normal. She can say some simple words like baba (dad), mama (mom), chi (eat) etc. She has 4 teeth on the top and 2 on bottom. She is outgoing and restless. She is very smart. She has no primary caretaker but she is very attached to one caretaker named Liu Yu Ping. She stays in the childcare center in the orphanage along with all other children between 4-18 months during daytime and she stays in the Loving Family at night. Her mom in the Loving Family is called Zhu Nian Ci.

The Today Show clip

On May 8, 2006 I happened to watch the Today Show. I finally came across the clip that I remember seeing: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12644600/ This is of the litttle girl with the hemangioma on her nose. The doctor, Dr. Buckmiller, is the doctor who will do Lili's surgery. During the clip you will see 3 kids before and afters and I think the the third child's hemangioma (above the lip) looks similar to Lili's. It is great to see how well the children look after surgery. This aired right before Lili's (suspected) b-day... I have been going through my calendar seeing what I had been doing around this time - so this is fun to learn that I was learning about hemangiomas about the time she was born.

Lili's current measurements...

I asked for an update on Lili and they provided me with her measurements. I was hoping to also know if she was walking, talking, etc... but, this is what they provided... which is better than no info at all:
Date of Provide: Oct. 9, 2007
Per our request the orphanage provided the following measurements:
Name Hong Yuan Xiu
Height 73 cm (28.7 inches) (American charts- below 5 percentile; Chinese charts - below 3%)
Weight 9 kg (17.6 lbs) (American charts - below 5%; Chinese charts - 10%)
Head Size 45 cm (17.7 inches) (American charts 10-15%)
Chest Size 45 cm (17.7 inches)
Feet Length 11 cm (4.3 inches)
Teeth ?
Looks likeLili is teeny, tiny!!! Quite a change from that finding ad photo... :)

Lili's finding ad

Hong Yuan Xiu

Female

She was born on May 18, 2006. On August 18, 2006 she was found at the gate of the Welfare Institute. She has single eyelids, and a round face.

This is the finding ad and translation that was placed in a newspaper in China.

Her cute, chubby cheeks are so large that she can't open her eyes. Someone was feeding her well.

Our documents are still in China waiting for review. This week has been a week long holiday in China - it is similar to our Thanksgiving holiday (I'm told). Anyway, this means that nothing has been completed due to the fact that no one is working. Hopefully, they will get right back to work on Monday and quickly review our file so we can bring her home. (The Wefare Institute is the orphanage where Lili was found and is now living - Meili was found at the gate of a cancer hospital)

Info from Emily and update on our family

The nurse (Emily) that I am in contact with in Arkansas is so nice!!! I e-mailed her the new photos of Lili and she e-mailed me and said, "The hemangiomas on her scalp and back should not even be an issue, they are so small and not visible. The other two, I doubt will go away enough on their own, they are pretty good size. I agree, I think she has little bug bites, it doesn’t look like a rash or anything that has spread from a certain area."
It is so wonderful to have such a nice person willing to give us advice and help us. It will be fun to meet her in person.
Scott is headed back from Texas today (and I'm up early today because nice Delta called at 4:30 am to let me know his flight had been delayed). He has been there working since Monday. He will go for the whole week next week and then a week or so after that he'll go for another week. (We love this client :) )
The kids are doing well. They are loving school. We got the temporary permit yesterday so the kids will be able to go to school today in their actual school building (they have been going to a church down the street for classes). Davis cried and clung onto me tight yesterday. His teacher pealed him off of me and told me to leave. She craddled him on her lap and loved him and they told knock, knock jokes. It is nice to have a sweet teacher who is willing to cuddle the child when they are sad. He did really well after that and she told me in no way could I take him out of kindergarten and hold off a year (she is a good mind reader .:) )... anyway, of course I could but she really thinks he will be fine... (he might be but I may not be :( ). Reese, and Mckenzie are well and Meili (knock on wood) is enjoying her 1 1/2 hour toddler lab (2 times a week)... yeh!!!
Hope all is well.
Melanie

New pictures.......

Well, I guess we are going to have to wait for Leslie and Tavis to take some good pictures of Lili. Each time we get an updated photo of Lili I hope to see her cute face.... this is making me practice patience. :) I am sending all of the photos we get to the nurse and doctor who will take the hemangiomas off ... so hopefully, these will show her what phase they are in... to me it looks like they are resting because they have not changed much since the first photos... so, I'd guess soon they will start going down. I'll post more when I get an e-mail back from the nice nurse/doctor. She also has lots of dots on her face so I have asked if she has chicken pox or if they are just bug bites. I can't wait to get her... I'm starting to get impatient!!! 3 or 4 months to go.

Lili on 9/20

I received an e-mail from a lady who is in China on Friday. She said that she visited the orphanage and saw Lili. She told me, " I smiled and said hello to her while her caretaker was holding her. She seemed happy!" This was great to hear from this nice lady and hear that Lili looked well and is being taken care of.
We are getting a package ready to send to Lili. I made a small fleece blanket, a photo album for her (and the caretakers) to see what we look like, candy for the caretakers, a camera and I need to find something small enough to fit in the package for the other children. Hopefully she will get this... we sent one for Meili but we don't know if she ever got it... sometimes, you get the stuff back and sometimes not. Hopefully we will see soon.

Login Date (LID)

I'm so excited!!! I just received an e-mail from our agency stating that our dossier was logged in with the CCAA (Chinese office in China in charge of adoptions) on August 28, 2007!!! It was sent to China on the 24th of August - this is really quick turn around.
All this means is that the next step (2-4 month wait-we'd love sooner :)) will start with the date from our Pre-approval (PA) (9/6/07)and not our loggin (LID) (8/28/07)date. I was starting to worry that we would get a late loggin date which would make our wait much longer (they start the wait with the last date - so 9/6/07)- but, we didn't and all is well!!!
Come on Letter of Acceptance (LOA)... We are now into this wait 12 days!!!
We can't wait to bring Lili home!!!

1st day of school

It finally happened... after only a nine day delay the kids started their first day of school at Xavier Charter School. We are so excited for this opportunity and are very excited about the amazing teachers and wonderful curriculum. Mckenzie is in the 5th grade, Reese 2nd grade and Davis started Kindergarten (and he loved it!... can't believe he is old enough). Scott has worked his tail end off getting the school ready.
The kids are all well. Mckenzie is busy with violin, piano and swim team (starts tonight). Reese is doing soccer and just started piano lessons. Davis is enjoying soccer and some speech therapy (not really enjoying that). Meili goes to a toddler lab that is at the college for an 1 1/2 hours twice a week. This is really good for her ... she needs to learn that we will always come back for her :) .Anyway, the house is pretty quiet. Time to add more activity.. hopefully by Christmas we'll have Lili .

Current wait time

1-10 weeks for Pre-approval (PA) (before ours it was 3-7 weeks-ours was fast & one was really slow)
2-4 months from PA to Letter of Acceptance (LOA)
2-4 weeks from LOA to travel approval (TA)
2-4 week from travel approval - actually traveling

So, the earliest from these time frames that we could travel would be early December and the latest would be sometime in January/February. I'm trying hard to not hope that our LOA will arrive in record time like our PA... even if it does not early December - January is not that far off. I keep wondering what we will do if we need to travel over Christmas... there is no way I'd put off traveling to get Lili.... as soon as they say we can go, we are going... I keep coming back to Reese being obsessed last year that Jesus really wasn't born on the 25th... so, I guess we could celebrate as a family on any day we choose.

FTIA's summary of Lili

Our agency lists all of their waiting children on a site that is password protected. Here is what they say about Lili:
"Born May 2006, Yuan Xiu is diagnosed with hemangiomas on the right side of her face and back; she also has an umbilical hernia. Yuan Xiu likes to be entertained by adults and likes to watch other children play games. She is a pretty girl who enjoys looking into a mirror; she is active and enjoys the outdoors!"
I thought it was cute.... we may have to buy some more mirrors and she'll have lots of opportunities to watch her siblings playing (hopefully, she'll prefer to participate).

Arkansas Children's Hospital

Today I had a nurse who works at a hospital in Arkansas contact me via e-mail. She had read my post on the same group that I found the pictures of Lili on yesterday. She works in the Vascular Anomalies Center at the hospital. Anyway, she gave us her advice on treating Lili and had the doctor look at her photos as well. We are going to continue sending pictures (if we receive more) so they can keep current with how Lili's hemangiomas are doing. We will probably make an appointment with them as we get closer to bringing her home and have this amazing team work their magic on Lili. Both the doctor and nurse thought that we could show up on a Monday for an appointment and have a surgery Tuesday and fly home either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. This facility has a team that only deals with vascular anomalies... they are (from what I have read) one of the best facilities in the world!!! Here is the link to the hospital http://www.archildrens.org/medical_services/clinical/ent/vascular_anomalies.asp and a link to the amazing video of the doctor and the surgery of her little girl. I remember seeing the story on the Today Show or something... she did the surgery and became so attached to the girl that she adopted her... quite amazing story. Here is a link to the video about her surgery...
http://www.archildrens.org/spotlight/gong_lu.asp (this is the doctor that will probably do Lili's surgery)
They think that we can have the hemangiomas surgically removed only leaving a small scar on her face that will eventually go away and if it doesn't we can have a plastic surgeon take care of it in a few years. Also, I had another lady e-mail me that works with this hospital. She told me that her organization pays for these sugeries that Lili will need for children who have been orphans and then adopted, if the child does not have insurance or if the insurance company won't pay for the surgeries. WOW!!! Our insurance will cover Lili and any pre-existing conditions but will not cover cosmetic surgeries... if they are necessary they will pay for them (just like any one else in our family)... so, we are not sure if it would be covered or not but it looks like there will be a good chance that birthmark.org will help if they don't. Did I say wow!!! What an amazing day!!! I can't believe how kind these ladies have been to help!!!

Lili and Nanny on August 9, 2007

Look at these cute photos of Lili!!! I am so excited to have these!!! I recently joined a yahoo group and noticed a post a month ago referring to a bunch of photos taken at the orphanage Lili lives in... I thought I'd just get to see what the outside looks like so you can imagine how excited I was to see her in two of the pictures. I needed to see someone touching her... looks like she can't walk yet as she is really leaning on this nanny.
When I found these tonight I certainly felt like my prayers have been answered. I have been so worried about her. I feel like I have just experienced one of those loving moments from Heavenly Father when He lets me know He knows my needs. This nice lady (that posted the pictures) also e-mailed me and told me this, "Those two photos do not fully capture the warmth the nanny showed to your daughter. She clearly favored YOUR baby above all the others." What a miracle!

Pre-approval!!!

WOW!!! Just after I posted the last post I received a phone call from our agency. We have officially been pre-approved to adopt Yuan Xiu!!! This was much faster than they or we expected!!! This is wonderful!!! The more I look at her recent picture the more I realize she needs a love from her momma!!! Hopefully we will now be able to travel by January (worst case scenerio!!!)

New picture of Lili (9/6/07)

We received this darling picture of Lili today. She looks so big... she is not a baby anymore like our other photos... she is definately a toddler. She looks tired or like they just woke her up or maybe she is sick. A sweet friend (whom I've just met through this process) said this and I couldn't agree more..."Lili has such beautiful soft eyes but is lacking the sparkle that only a family can give her. She looks like she is ready to come home." I can't wait to get her to kiss her cheeks and touch her coarse looking hair. Her hemangiomas should start to flatten out sometime soon... they look so sore but they are not suppose to hurt.

Our agency told us yesterday that we probably have at least 5 more weeks until we know if we have been pre-approved to adopt her.

We learned on Tuesday that her hemangiomas are not inside her body. We had a CT and MRI done on her brain and liver and all the MRI saw were the ones on her face (and she has a small one on her scalp and back) and the CT said everything looked good. So this is great and exciting news.

She looks healthy (other than she may have a cold or really sleepy) and like she needs some siblings to run and play with.

Lili An Hunsaker

Here is sweet, little Lili An Hunsaker (Hong Yuan Xiu). Her birthdate is May 18, 2006. She is residing at the Nanchang Social Welfare Institute in Jiangxi Province, China. We submitted our paperwork to adopt her on August 23, 2007. Hopefully, we will be able to travel right when Scott's life is busy at work February/March... of course we would love to go tomorrow but February/March is realistic with the timeframes right now. These pictures of her were probably taken when she was around 8 months or so. She is now 15 1/2 months... so by February she'll be 21 months old - she should be jabbering in Chinese by then and just about into the lovely 2's.

New family blog

We decided to start working on a blog for our family. We think we will use this for our next trip to China.
An update on China... Friday we completed all of our paperwork and sent it off to Washington DC to be authenticated by the US and China. A week ago we were told that within the next 'few' weeks the agency we have been using will be getting their new list of children (I have been trying to figure out what few means but know with how unpredictable the adoptions have become it may mean anywhere from 2-22 or more weeks :) ). We hope we will find the baby/child that is suppose to be in our family on this list... if not we will continue to look until we find the one that we know is suppose to be apart of our family. After we find Lili, Rebecca or Ben... :) (Davis thinks it will be Ben) the long process will then begin. It takes anywhere from 5-8 months to get all of the paperwork completed in China. It all starts with a letter (LOI... letter of intent)sent from us saying that we would like to adopt and then they send back a letter of approval (LOA) to us... this is taking 2-3 months..., then after we send the letter of approval back with our dossier they then make sure the baby is still doing ok and send back preapproval (2-3 months)... then we send another form for them to ok us to travel and after 3-5 weeks we get a letter back allowing us to travel to pick up the baby/child. It seems as though we do many of the steps over and over again but this is the way it is. Knowing the reward at the end of the long wait makes us realize we will do what it takes. (I'm not even sure if I got all of the steps totally correct...)
Anyway, we will definately keep you posted on the process/progress.
Melanie