Orphanage clothing fundraiser update

Thank you very much to everyone who has contributed donations to the orphanage clothing fundraiser!!  As of yesterday, $475.00 has been donated.  Praise God for what he has put on peoples hearts!!! :)  I recently asked our contact at Love Without Boundaries what it would cost to purchase a single outfit for the babies at Poyang.  He shared that each outfit (top and bottom) costs just under $4.00!!!  Based on the donations already contributed we have enough funds for LWB to purchase approx. 118 outfits for these children!  That's just over one outfit per baby.  I'd love to see that come up to two outfits per baby, considering that the washing and changing of clothes with little ones is frequent.  That would mean we'd need an additional $245.  Prayerfully consider donating $5.00 (1 outfit) toward this effort to provide summer clothing for the babies at Poyang orphanage.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at robinleese27@ymail.com or reference my original post, http://leeseadoptionadventure.blogspot.com/2010/04/orphanage-clothing-fundraiser-in-honor.html

Updates on Hadley
As of right now, we have still not received any updated information on Hadley since we received her referral just over 3 months ago.  We have requested information but our agency has not gotten a response back yet from her orphanage.  Of course we are hoping to get a glimpse of how she is doing and her sizes so we know what clothing and diapers to bring when we travel.  Our hope and prayer is to travel in July because my mom and dad will be watching Wyatt for the 2 weeks we are in China.  My mom is still teaching and goes back to work, the first week in August, so July travel would be a TREMENDOUS blessing!  There is the possibility that if we don't travel in July, just one of us will be going to China, so that someone can stay home with Wyatt.  God is good and he will work it all out according to his will. 


Last but not least, we celebrated yesterday because a family at our agency received their LOA in just 41 days yesterday!!  We are now at day 20 and praying for a speedy LOA which would allow us to travel faster.  Anything is possible and we are hopeful! :)

Have a great day!! Sending out big hugs!!
Robin

Cruisin along

About 2-3 weeks ago Wyatt really started cruisin around the house.  Wyatt's friend, Cameron gave him a cute little cart/walker that he's been moving around with over the last week.  Brandon calls it his grocery cart (ha!).  This video is from last week...he's so proud of himself!

Wyatt with his cousins

We spent the weekend in northern Illinois for Brandon's Uncle Arnolds 60th Birthday.  As you can see in the photos below...Wyatt is dressed for the movie Caddy Shack.  He looks like he's ready for a golf outing!  Brandon (Uncle Brandon) looks like a tree of children.  And Angelina and Donnie (Wyatt's cousins) are just too cute!

Orphanage Fundraiser update

Good Morning!  I have more great news!  We received an update yesterday morning (Monday) from Love Without Boundaries and at that point a total of $425.00 was raised so far, for the babies at Poyang!!!  I'm just tickled to pieces that friends have a heart for these precious little ones!  Thank you so much for contributing and Praise God for what He has laid on peoples hearts!!  YAY!!! 

If you would still like to make a donation, the link to LWB is... https://www. lovewithoutbound aries.com/ Donate.cfm? child_id= 0&category=134&spanishFlag= false&amount= Please see the posted titled, Orphanage Clothing Fundraiser in honor of Hadley for details and photos.

THANK YOU!!! XXOO

Robin

TODAY WE RECEIVED OUR LID!!!! HAPPY DAY!!

I wanted to share that today we received our LID (login date of our paperwork in China)!  HOOOOORAYYY!!!  One step closer to Hadley!!!  Now we'll be counting down the days till LOA!  EEK!!! We are so excited!!!

PLEASE SEE THE POST BELOW FOR INFORMATION ON THE ORPHANAGE CLOTHING FUNDRAISER.  I have great news!! Since yesterday there have been $280.00 in donations for the babies at Poyang.  It was also confirmed today that they have 90 babies currently :,-(  If you know anyone willing to contribute $5.00, please share our blog with them.  Every penny makes a difference!


Last but not least, I posted a few weeks back on a baby girl named, Lucy who was in immediate need of a family.  There has been an exciting update on her recently!  Check it out... www.dreamingofteafortwo.blogspot.com/  PTL!!!!

Hugs and MANY thanks to everyone who have been so generous!!!!!

Robin

ORPHANAGE CLOTHING FUNDRAISER IN HONOR OF HADLEY

Just before we received our PA for Hadley, I joined a yahoo group of families that have adopted from her orphanage to learn more about where she is living, the process, the children that are there and to get to know the people who have adopted from Poyang. In the process I learned that in the past these families have done fundraisers for important items that the Poyang orphanage is in need of.  The orphanage needed a hot water heater and the group successfully raised money to get them the hot water heater.  They've also done a fundraiser for winter clothing and summer clothing.  They are always in need of these items.  When a child is adopted by a family, the outfit they are wearing stays with the child and in turn leaves less and less clothing for the children remaining at the orphanage. I’ve included some pictures from last summers clothing fundraiser so you can see the impact. So it got me thinking over the last month...I think alot about how, “we need to do more, we’re required to do more” to come to the aid of the poor, orphans and widows.   So I contacted Love Without Boundaries; an organization based in China that works with Hadley’s orphanage. I also contacted the moderator of our Poyang Yahoo group.  In doing this I found out that Hadley’s orphanage has more children right now than they are accustomed to having.  To be precise, they have 80+ children under the age of 1 year (on average they typically have 35-40 at most).  That absolutely blew me away!  I can’t imagine what it must be like to manage 90 little ones that are Wyatt’s age and younger!  I also found out that they are in great need of clothing right now due to the number of children.  So my thought is not do something unique but just to get the word out, in hopes that  people will respond to the need.  My goal is to raise $1000.00.  This money will ONLY go toward the clothing that the orphanage has requested or additional orphanage needs that are made known.  In doing this I also wanted to find a way for people to make a donation to this specific cause anonymously.  I don’t want anyone to feel like they need to respond to me for this fundraiser, to let me know they have donated or chosen not to donate.  I genuinely want it to be something that you’ve made the decision to do without feeling pressured.  In the end, the only information I will receive is the dollar amount that was raised...I will not know who contributed.  At the end of the fundraiser we’ll get an update from LWB on how the fundraiser went, what specifically was purchased and photos which I'll take great joy in sharing with you all!!!

So how do you contribute? 

This is the response I received from the Orphanage Assistance Coordinator with LWB:

The way that the orphanage assistance program works is that, once a fund-raiser has raised sufficient funds, LWB has a facilitator in China who will purchase the items and ship them to the orphanage.  This is much cheaper than shipping from the US or Europe and allows each donation to go that much further toward providing the orphanage with supplies.  As the coordinator, I will keep you regularly updated via email, to let you know as the supplies are purchased and shipped to Poyang.  In addition, after the orphanage receives your donation, we will receive pictures of everything (which I would forward on to you).  This way, you can see exactly what you bought.

The best way to donate is to go to https://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/Donate.cfm?child_id=0&category=134&spanishFlag=false&amount= When you fill out the form, please make sure the Category is set to Orphanage Assistance.  Also, please put in the Note field a short note indicating that this is for the Poyang orphanage fund-raiser.  This will ensure that your donation makes its way to me.
 

With all of the little ones currently at Poyang, a joint effort could go a long way at providing them with summer clothing for this year! Every penny counts and every contribution makes a difference!  

Last but not least, we believe that the very first baby girl in the photos below is likely our Hadley.  We have no way to confirm that but when I saw her, I immediately had the sense that she was ours.  After blowing the photo up and studying the picture next to her newborn picture, the features of this baby girl are additional confirmation that she could be our daughter.  So we are doing this fundraiser in honor of Hadley.  She obviously saw the benefits of other peoples generosity and now we hope as a group we can return that to other children that remain at the Poyang orphanage.

Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.  ~Author Unknown

Psalm 82:3 and 4- Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!!  HUGS AND LOVE, Brandon, Robin, Wyatt & Hadley

SUMMER 2009 CLOTHING FUNDRAISER PHOTOS

                                                     A baby gets a bath at Poyang

Our Easter vacation

We returned home from FL yesterday afternoon and we're settling back in after a wonderful Easter vacation! :)  It was eventful!  Brandon's Butler Bulldogs made it to the championship game in Indy against Duke and had an amazing run this year!!  He was over the moon during March madness!! I'm including a video, which I'm sure I'll pay the price for later (haha!)  I took this from my phone when Butler beat Syracuse...It cracks me up!  It's a taste of what he was like during the rest of the tournament!  Just ignore my horrible cackling laugh in the background.  Keep in mind that Brandon is trying not to yell during the video because Wyatt is upstairs sleeping :)

So more exciting news over Easter weekend!  My sister, Kristen got engaged!  Her fiance, Mike proposed on Saturday night while they were in town visiting for Easter! CONGRATULATIONS KRISTEN AND MIKE!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!! 

WYATT TAKES THE WHEEL ON OUR STOP FOR GAS, DRIVING TO FL 

UNCLE MIKE READING TO WYATT

AUNT JILL AND AUNT KRISTEN GIVE WYATT A BATH

Not warm and fuzzy but real...

I'm including a link to a blog for a little girl named, Lucy.  She is in DESPERATE need of family to adopt her right away.  Unfortunately her heart condition doesn't allow her the luxury of waiting.  She is darling, precious, perfect, innocent and 1 of millions that need a family.  Please read Lucy's story and pray for her.  She ideally needs a "paper ready" family and China is willing to expedite her.    www.dreamingofteafortwo.blogspot.com/


Romans 12:12- Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer

I took the sentence below from Lucy's blog.  WOW!!!!!  It's a very good question and for myself, I don't have a very good answer.

Uh-Oh Spaghetti O's

So we thought we'd see what Wyatt thought of Spaghetti O's....

Come on mom, can I talk you into dessert first??????

OK, I OBVIOUSLY lost this battle...Are you mad that I smeared spaghetti sauce all over myself?

PHEWWWW, apparently not if you were goofy enough to give me the spoon!

Alright mom, so I attempted the O's. Now may I 

please have my pears!???  Pllleeeaasssseee....Look 

how cute I am....How can you resist me???

DOSSIER TO CHINA!!!!

What a great way to start off our weekend!!!  Our dossier was sent to China today...It made it before the weekend!!!!  We are so excited and relieved that the paper trail part (for this phase) is complete!  Time to celebrate!!!  We are hoping that we'll be able to travel to China prior to August but time will tell, we're not sure how realistic that is...We'll truly know more after China gives us our LID.


Now getting ready for our trip FL, next week!  Can't wait to see my family and soak up some warm weather!! :))

DOSSIER TO MADISON!!!!

We are so excited!!!!  We sent our completed dossier off to Madison today!!!! YAYYY!!!!!  We are hopeful that our dossier will be sent to China before the week is over and at that point we will be waiting for our LID (login date).  SO EXCITED!!! Another step closer to Hadley!

Our precious baby girl has a name!!!!

Ever since we saw our little Lou Wei's face we've struggled with giving her the perfect name.  She's so special, chosen by God to be part of our family and us chosen for her.  Not being able to decide on a name that separates her really bothered me.  We kept going over zoodles of different names.  We prayed, went through meanings of names, consulted friends and family until we were completely confused, just looking for the perfect name that jumped out at us when we saw her face.  We kept coming back to square one...nada!  Well.....That brings me to when we began the adoption process about 4 years ago.  We both wanted a little girl from China when we started out but it wasn't the right time then and we were lead to Vietnam.  As we got deep into the adoption process somewhere along the line we fell in love with the name Hadley...We knew that would be our little girls name!  Well coming back to the present...When we got the call about Lou Wei, everyone asked if she was Hadley? I kept thinking...No, she was not Hadley.  Hadley was a sweet little girl we would never know that was in Vietnam.  I  eventually realized I was wrong because every time we'd look at her picture and say a new name we liked, it didn't fit and we both felt like Hadley did.  We kept it on the list and finally both of us in talking realized she really was Hadley.  Hadley was the beginning of our adoption journey.  She is the little girl we had prayed for and she was still Hadley but in GODS TIMING, not OURS.  


Proverbs 16:9- In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.

Camo Wyatt

I took this picture of our little man with my phone and I thought I'd post it...He's just such a precious lil stinker!!!!

If you have time, please read the blog below.  It left me convicted, in tears, speechless and in a fog...knowing yet again that there is so much more that's expected of me... www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/  

Last, I'm working on creating a, "China Travel List" in the right column of our blog.  I would love contributions from those who have traveled in the past.  I'll be adding to it as we learn more about what we should/need to bring.

Sweet potatoes

Apparently Wyatt thinks I look good in sweet potatoes.   

And then there were 3!

So ever since Wyatt got his 2 bottom teeth back in December, I've been sticking my fingers in his mouth like I'm hunting for Easter eggs looking for more to pop up.  Well yesterday,  I'm happy to say that I got bit!! :)  We have tooth number 3 and what appears to maybe be #4 right beside it, up top.  I don't think there is anything cuter than a babies smile with a few teeth.  On top of the teeth he's crawling like crazy and chasing the dogs now.  It's a good thing that they are all tolerant of him pulling on there lips and noses.  The only one who protests is Peyton, when Wyatt gets a fist full of his long hair.  Poor little guy is going to be traumatized between Wyatt and Lou Wei.  He still looks at me and stares when I'm holding Wyatt as if to say..."WHY MOM????!!"

Happy Sunday to all!

A minor hiccup

This morning was our big trip to the Sec. of States office to get the state seals on our documents before sending them off to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago.  It was as smooth as it could have ever gone!  B and I prayed before I left to head downtown and I have to say I was shocked at how fast and smooth everything went, although I don't know why...God is a God of details :)  I found a parking space which in and of itself is a miracle downtown :)  I had to parallel park my monster and managed to do that without hitting anybody.  Then went into the Sec of States office at lunch time and there was not one person waiting.  Those of you who have been through this process know that is rarely the case.  I sat down, read for about 15 minutes while they processed our docs and I was on my way.  Mission accomplished!

The minor hiccup happened early this morning when I realized that 2 (out of state) docs that I thought had the appropriate state seal, did not.  I wasn't born in IN and we were married in FL, so both of those documents needed additional authentications.  The good news is we were able to get those overnighted to the appropriate places and we'll just wait until they return in hopes of sending them to our agency within the next week or so.  Longer than we planned but knowing the timing will be perfect in the end.  One step closer to Lou Wei!

We received our I-800A approval!! Yay!!!

There are different steps and milestones that get us steps closer to Lou Wei.  I'm planning to include a brief time line on the right side of our blog to show the steps and timeline.  One of the big milestones in the process is receiving the I-800A approval which is also called your I-797.  It's basically the approval notice from USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services)...Its simply the U.S. government stating that we have been "approved to adopt a child from People's Republic of China."  Now that we have received this document, we will be going downtown to the state capital to have all of our other documents sealed with our state seal.  From there we have our documents couriered to the Chinese Consulate in Chicago, IL., hopefully later this week to receive the final touches.  Once that is completed and we receive those documents back (which could take a few days) we will send our final paperwork to our adoption agency (Madison Adoption Associates) and they will send our completed dossier (the compilation of required paperwork) to China, this is called DTC.  Once our dossier goes to China we will be waiting for our LID (login date) and then from there, our LOA.  After the LOA, the next step is the "Article 5" and then TA (travel approval).  Once we receive our Travel approval, we will be able to travel to China to meet our little girl!!!  So we are praying that these remaining steps will go smoothly.  After we submit our dossier the rest of the process will be simply to continue to wait and pray for Lou Wei.

Psalm 27:14-
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord

Happy Birthday precious baby girl!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BO LOU WEI!!!!!! 
Bo Lou Wei turned 1 year on February 23rd.   I didn't have computer access over the last 3 days so unfortunately I wasn't able to post on her Birthday.  Of course we were sad that we couldn't be there for her very 1st Birthday but we found alot of joy in knowing that with Gods grace she'll be spending the rest of her firsts and Birthdays with us!! :)  The picture included is the care package that we had Red Thread China send out to the Poyang SWI for Bo Lou Wei.  Her Birthday cake will arrive later but we can't wait until she gets this and hope she'll get to see the photo of her family :)

Please pray for her when you think of her...

"Mommy, I prefer not to wear this hat"

Names for our little girl??????

We are in the process of trying to come up with a name for our lil Bo Lou Wei.  We've decided that we are going to maintain, Wei as her middle name...the meaning is, valuable and precious. We felt like it couldn't have been more appropriate and we both love it.  So now we are doing the name game dance.  B and I both like names that are a little different.  We've narrowed our search down to 3 (for now) but we'd love to hear your ideas! In no specific order, we like, Carsyn, Hadley and Channing.  


Also, we sent out a Birthday care package to her a couple of days ago!!  We were so excited!  Her 1st Birthday is Feb 23rd, so we sent her a cake, a stuffed animal, a letter, a photo of us and some other goodies.  We are hoping that the staff at the orphanage will take pictures with the disposable camera that's included so we can see what her Birthday was like even though we couldn't be there.  We have requested an update on her from our agency so we are hoping to have some additional info in the next couple of weeks.  We are praying for the paperwork to zip through the necessary steps so we can get her home as soon as possible!! :)))


Last and definitely not least....Wyatt a few weeks ago learning to pull up!  He turned 8 months on Feb 11th! :)