Amaris Turned 2 in China!

While we celebrated Amaris birthday in America, 

she celebrated her special day in China. 

Check out her cake... 

this photo doesn't quite do it justice because it is a huge cake! 

I love the tiger! The Chinese sure know how to make a cake!

Her birthday hair-do!

Notice in the background on the top toy shelf... 

her ladybug/flower blankey, photo album, and Chinese baby doll 

from Mama and Baba.

This must be her nanny! Amaris is adding two birthday candles. Fun! Fun!

Look at her smile... 

one of the only photos we have right now of her smiling!

I just want to cover her in kisses, 

but this photo shows something very disturbing. 

She may have bug bites on her face, but I think it is probably scabies. 

She did not have these two weeks ago in her Chinese New Year photos. Ugh! 

Her orphanage is known to struggle with scabies. 

If only I could put some warm water and tea tree oil carefully on her face. 

Look at the size of her slice of cake! Geez. Enjoy it girlfriend, 

because you won't see a slice that big until you are 10. 

Please pray that she remains healthy: 

that her heart, lungs, and other organs will not be affected negatively. 

Her fingers appear much more chunky/swollen 

since her first update in August, 

which causes me great concern that she is dealing with this edema. 

What a little princess! I can't wait until she is in our arms. 

She will travel to Guangzhou to meet us about 5 or 6 hours via train.

We hope to go back to her orphanage, 

so that will be a VERY, VERY long day...

traveling 5 or 6 hours there, visiting her orphanage and city for 5 hours, 

and then return to our hotel that evening. YUCK!

But, it may be the only time we ever get to do this, and 

though it will be hard to do physically and emotionally, 

it is just one more day but we will have memories for a lifetime!

Thank you Lord for our littlest princess! 

Please keep our baby safe!

Happy 2nd Birthday Amaris Nanette!

Today we celebrated Amaris' second birthday. The joy in this is that on my 40th birthday, my husband surprised me with my biggest birthday party ever! Our home was loaded with many, many of my closest friends... at least the ones he could figure out via my phone, facebook, address list, and emails. 

What we didn't know, was that God made this day extra special in China for us. 

We waited 16 years for Gabriella, but we waited 18 years for Amaris. She has had her name since 2009 (born in 2010). She was found in June 2011 in a MIRACULOUS way! You can read the June 2011 posts for her story!

Amaris' name means "God has promised". Her given English name was Nanette. We kept that name because we have been praying for grace and favor along our journey to our next two girls. When I found out both her English and Chinese name meant "Grace and Favor", Jason and I decided we wanted to keep these names from our great, miracle-working God. 

We hope to receive updated photos of her and her Chinese birthday cake this week. But, until we do, here was her cake in America. 

We are "In Process"

Late this evening I received an email from Marilyn from our adoption agency. 

"I just received this great news… wanted to share it with all five of you.  This is something CCCWA has just started to alert us on…. so I can’t say how long before LOA, but at least we know things are moving forward."

Marilyn, 

These families' status has changed to "in process" as of 2/15/2012.  It means that their dossier has been translated and will now be reviewed.

1. McFarland
2. Wilson
3. Fouts 
4. Williams
5. Black

Sabrina 

Since my girlfriend Emily is sleeping, I decided to research her blog and check her emails for her stats in relation to her LID, "in process" remarks, and LOA. She was LID in mid December, "in process" on December 30th (14 days later) and received her LOA's February 8th... about 5 weeks after her "in process" status. 

In theory then, we are 5 weeks away from our LOA for Amaris... but, we also waited 4 weeks for our "in process" status. Our pile of paperwork has been translated into Chinese though, so now we wait for our first LOA... which may be around April 18th. 

We, of course, are anticipating great news about Annabella... whom we have NO PAPERWORK for. We are praying for her file to be given to our family. 

God sent a ladybug to us yesterday... while I am excited about our "in process" status, I really am believing He sent that ladybug because we are going to be hearing about Annabella soon. 

Amaris and I will celebrate our birthdays together on Monday, so, hoping good news will come then. 

Medical Update from China

Earlier in February we received a medical update on Amaris. We were given her ultrasound in color. That was nice. But, I don’t think she was REALLY seen by her cardiologist because the information I was given was an identical repeat from her pre- and post-surgery reports.

Ultrasound Suggests (CHD Postoperative)::

Pulmonary artery velocity is faster

Patched place did not show shunting

Tricuspid valve with mild regurgitation

Atrial left to right shunt (the last cavity type, recommended review)

The normal range of left ventricular function

                                                                                                     

While I don't yet understand cardiology talk, I did have her cardiologist here in America look at the reports. And, if her reports are accurate, this is what he said...

Patty:

I am very reassured from the February reports.  What they describe in the echocardiogram report sounds like a very good result from surgery.  I am having a hard time thinking of a heart reason for her color to be blue, if the echo reports are accurate.  That may just be normal.

I think that Amaris will be in pretty good heart health for a child with repaired Tetralogy of Fallot.  Most of the time children after a successful surgery do not have any cardiac limitations during childhood. 

You are doing all the right things...  Let me know when you have your return date and I can help the schedulers find an appropriate visit time.

Good luck,

Troy    

Valentines Day 2012

This week we took some family photos at our local park... we are still missing our littlest princesses Amaris and Annabella, but the big kiddos are all here.

Mama and Amaris will share a birthday this week.

Kai will start his journey with the Army at Boot Camp.

And, we pray diligently that we will hear some news about Annabella soon.

Got Another FEBRUARY 2012 Update!

I requested a medical update on our baby Amaris Nanette. It wasn't a true update. It was basically her same paperwork that was in her file. Though we did get her cardiac images in color.

The appearance was given that she was seen on February 3rd as a result of our request. I don't believe she was actually seen though.

We were given cardiac images in color as well as written information about her. I am hoping that though it is not translated in English, that it will still be understandable to our cardiologist. 

I personally don't understand any of it yet; however, I will be forwarding it on to Amaris' cardiologist at our local Children's Hospital so that I can ask him what miracles to pray for. 

Like most adopting families, all we can do for our child's health is pray. So, that is what I will do. 

Psalm 138:3 "As soon as I pray, You answer me." 

(The Message Bible).

Chinese New Year Update

This is our third update with photos and our second update with words. These are the questions that we asked Amaris' orphanage to help us hopefully better understand how her little heart is doing. She was post-op TOF at 15 months of age. 

Please pray that God will heal her little heart, cause the appropriate oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to exit her body, that her edema (swelling) will disappear, and that God would continue to watch over our little princess until she can be in our arms. 

Happy 2^nd Birthday Nan Duo Duo

Mama and Duo Duo have the same birthday!

1.       Does Nan Duo Duo take any medications for her heart?

a.If she does, how many different medications does she take each day?

b.What are the names of her medications?

c.What are the doses of her medications?

Answer to #1:  She had not taken medication. 

We took her to Guangzhou Military Hospital on 4/20/2011 and 
she had her heart surgery on 4/26.

2.          Does the orphanage have photos of Nan Duo Duo growing up?

Is there a way to get these photos?

Answer to #2: Yes, we will give you a CD on Gotcha Day. 
It will have Duo Duo's photos. 

3.          Do you remember anything about the day Nan Duo Duo came to the orphanage?  

a.What was she wearing?

b.Do you still have her clothes? Can we have them?

 Answer to #3:  Yes, the police sent her to our orphanage on 4/11/2010. 

a) at that time, she was wearing a floral shirt with white color.

b)  If we can find her clothes when she was sent to our orphanage, we will bring to you on Gotcha Day.
Please remind us before Gotcha. 

4.          May we get updated measurements for Nan Duo Duo?
        a.Height? 76.5cm
       b.Weight? 11kg

           c.Head measurement? 46cm

           d.Shoe size? 12.5 cm

           e.Dress size?

Answer to #4: Height: 76.5 cm; Weight: 11 kg: head 46 cm; Foot: 12.5 cm. 

Clothes size: Please buy the clothes according to her body measurements.

Thank you for agreeing to let her hair grow long. We are excited to see her in “pig-tails”

Letter to the Nannies and Duo Duo.

Happy Chinese New Year 2012!    AND    Happy 2^nd Birthday Princess Duo Duo!

Dear Nannies,

Thank you for all the love and care that you show for these precious little babies. Our family is very happy to be able to bring Duo Duo home to America this summer. She will be our youngest princess.

Please tell her that her Baba, Mama and her brothers and sisters already love her very much. She has 3 brothers and 3 sisters.

Thank you for letting Duo Duo and her friends enjoy this birthday cake. Please take lots of photos for our family. We would love to get more photos of her and her friends and where she eats, sleeps, and plays.

Thank you so much,

Duo Duo’s Baba and Mama

We Got Our LID

Today I found out that we are one of six families from Wasatch that received our LID (Log-in-date) from China on January 19, 2012. This means that our paperwork has officially arrived in China and been acknowledged. Our paperwork was sent off to China on 1/10 and arrived in Beijing that next day. This means our LID took 9 days.

The Chinese New Year celebration was January 22nd through 28th, so I thought I would be waiting until February to get our LID and find out that we were LID... it's fun to have one more thing checked off the list.

I snuck a peak in my journal for January 19th because this is such a special day for adoptive families, and this is what I wrote from Jentezen Franklin's book: Fasting.


"Now is the time. You've prayed about it, dreamed about it, asked me for it, longed for it, it's been prophesied over you. Prepare yourself!"

Wow... now, that's prophetic! I love how God is working in our lives. I also wrote down this verse: 


"Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."   Hebrews 11:6: