Oh My! That's My Girl!!!

Recently I received a gift beyond measure!  A picture of Hannah taken 5 weeks before I met her while she was still living in DaoXian SWI!!!  That's my sweet baby girl on the left!

As you can imagine, seeing this picture immediately turned me into a puddle of mush and the tears flowed! 

This picture was a gift for so many reasons!

• It was unexpected that 3 1/2 years after we became a family I would ever receive another picture of the time in Hannah's life before we became a family
• There are 2 other babies in the picture.  I wonder who the sweet baby girl on the right is?  Were they friends?  Were their cribs next to one another?  Where does she live now?  Has she found her own forever family?  I was blessed to receive 2 cameras of pictures when I met Hannah but all of those pictures are of her alone.  What a blessing to see another baby with her!!
• I love that the picture shows the cribs tucked together next to one another.  Hannah loves to sleep touching me and it warms my heart to think that she had the opportunity to reach out and touch another in her sleep
• The SWI is so clean.  
• I can't see what she's wearing but based on the layers on the other sweet baby I can only imagine that my precious Hannah was bundled warmly too.  Also, all the blankets in the cribs helps me believe that she was warm as she slept at night.

I will say that earlier in the day before I received the picture above I was reading the blog of a fellow mom whose DD was also in DaoXian at the same time Hannah was there and I originally thought I might see Hannah in one of her pictures.  It was difficult when I realized it wasn't her but it was a blessing in that it led me to contact this mom and she in turn sent me the picture above of Hannah!! I don't think any adoptive mom ever stops scouring the web for glimpses of their baby before they met them and pieces of the puzzle that we can fill in for them.

This is the original picture I saw on her blog.

While it is not my sweet XiaoFen in the background, it is her nanny (to have a picture of her is a gift in itself) and in the forefront is her friend Emma who was adopted by friends in our travel group.  Hannah and Emma are still friends now and it's a gift to receive these pictures of them when they were together in DaoXian! 

This is a picture Hannah and Emma taken recently

I cannot express to you what that one picture did to my heart.  Is was such a blessing and I will be forever grateful for it!!!

As my Grandma says, 'Each new day holds some lovely secret just waiting to unfold.'  What an amazing secret and blessing the picture was!  God is so good!!!

Congratulations Debbie and Dave! Welcome Charlotte!

Last month Hannah and I were invited to join a travel preparation meeting of families from our agency. They had just received their referrals from Hunan province and 2 of the babies were even living at Hannah's Social Welfare Institute in DaoXian, China!! You can imagine that I couldn't say 'YES!' fast enough!! July 18th we travelled into Toronto and shared a wonderful day with 5 families who were preparing to travel. It was great to share of our group's experiences and be able to answer some of their questions.

Another huge opportunity that this gave me was to be able to send a photo album filled with pictures of Hannah back to the nannies in her orphanage. What a precious gift this was to me and I know will be to them too! Thank you Chia-yi and Laura for delivering this for me!

Yesterday as my heart was aching preparing to go back to work (another post about that soon) I was at the same time excited for these new friends who were just hours from meeting their babies. Last night it happened and now 5 beautiful baby girls are with their forever families!!

Debbie and Dave have a blog and you can check out their precious Charlotte and the other babies here!
Congratulations friends!!

DaoXian SWI Scrapbook Update

I belong to a wonderful yahoo group made up of families who have adopted from DaoXian SWI in Hunan province, China. Each year they make a scrapbook where families are welcome to submit pages featuring their beautiful children. Mine was very simple but I wanted to feature as many pics of Hannah as I could. I'm sure it will be a treat for her nannies to see how well she's doing and how she's growing since she left their care 4 months ago. I will be forever grateful for the wonderful, loving care they gave to my Hannah XiaoFen before God brought she and I together!

Here are Hannah's pages.

Favourite Toy

When we first returned home from China I had 2 disposable cameras to be developed. These were from the care packages I had sent to XiaoFen while she was still in the SWI and held precious insight into my baby girl's life prior to our meeting. I was excited to receive the pictures but did not realize how hard in some ways it would be to look at them. Part of me scans every square inch of each and every picture while another part of me aches while I do so. I know there is no way that I could have been there, but oh how I wish I had.

What the pictures do reveal is that Hannah was in a SWI where I believe she was being well cared for. Her clothes are clean, the rooms are tidy, her little bed is full of bedding and even has a mattress on it and more than anything, I see a little girl who was comfortable where she was. DaoXian was her home and I truly believe she was loved and well cared for when she was there. One glimpse of her light-up-the-room smile and you can't help but think she's pretty amazing! When she first meets new people that little smile can be hard to find but very quickly she's grinning at them, safe from the comfort of mommy's arms. We're still sticking extremely close together and I'm really happy about this decision. She's beginning to show even more attachment as she will now fuss sometimes when I leave the room for a moment. It makes it harder to get things done but I wouldn't change it for anything. Tidying the house can wait for another day. Cradling my baby girl in my arms while she naps won't always be an option so for now I choose to gaze at her peaceful sleeping face as the dust bunnies collect.

What started this (winding) post is that in the pictures I saw of Hannah while she was still living in China, often she was holding and playing with a ball with lots of texture.





As soon as I saw these pictures it became my mission to find something similar. That night I located an interim toy and you can see how happy it made her to hold it! (This video was taken almost 3 weeks ago.)



I have since found a similar ball and Hannah's little face just lit up in the store when I handed it to her!
I am SO thankful for the pictures of Hannah before we met and the glimpse into her little life.

Thank you Lord for being there with my precious daughter, each and every moment before you brought us together. Thank You for being with us now!!

Hannah's Current Home - A Gift from God!!

We are blessed beyond measure!! God is so good and I cannot thank Him or praise Him enough for my precious daughter!!

A friend emailed me recently and mentioned that I might want to read the post that I put up on March 1, 2009. Wow....just WOW!!! Little did I know at the time that Hannah was just 2 days old!! My sweet baby girl had been born and was living in the Social Welfare Institute (SWI) God had planned for her.

2 weeks ago yesterday I learned that Hannah's SWI is Daoxian (Dao County) SWI in Hunan province and it is a great home for her!! Every single person who has contacted me who has a child from this SWI says that their child was loved, healthy, well cared for, has transitioned well to home and the nannies truly loved them! I cannot tell you what this does for my heart! I'm overcome with thankfulness to God for taking such amazing care of Hannah before He brings us together. It takes my breath away!! It should not surprise me that God is taking such care of her but adopting a child from another country comes with no guarantees so I am blessed beyond measure and thankful that God chose Daoxian to be her first home.

Daoxian is a smaller orphanage with an average of 30-40 babies in it's care at any one time.

One gal came home just recently and she shared that in their group, 2 of the babies were from Daoxian. The drive from the SWI to Changsha where the families meet the babies is 5 1/2 hours. These 2 precious babies were escorted by 4 nannies and the orphanage director!! Wow! And, the tears of both the nannies and babies when they had to say good-bye was testimony to how they were loved.

For sleeping arrangements, rather than all the babies being in a large room, Daoxian babies live in more of a dorm style room. In smaller rooms there are 4 cribs and a nanny's cot. I believe there are just 4 little ones who are bonding daily with a daytime nanny and a nighttime nanny! I've seen pictures of the SWI and it is really nice! (Sorry, I've been told that they're not public photos so am unable to share them here.) The building was built just last summer so it is super fresh and clean. You can see this in her referral pictures too. Something that absolutely melted my heart and gave me such peace was to see little mattresses in each of the cribs. It is common in Chinese SWIs for babies to sleep directly on wooden boards so when I saw little mattresses my heart soared!

One of the other families in our group also received a referral of a Dao baby and in her picture you can see toys in the background. Yay! Mary and I are hoping and praying that our baby girls are in a room together so that they will make the long journey from the orphanage to Changsha with a friend and possibly they will recognize one another as we're together in China. So thankful that we live close to one another and hopefully the girls will have an opportunity to keep in touch as they grow up.

I don't know at this time if I will have an opportunity to visit Hannah's SWI but I will do everything in my power to get there. It may be a long drive but having learned how helpful it can be for the babies to transition I would like to visit. If would also be a wonderful opportunity to meet the precious women who are loving my baby before I meet her and to express my thankfulness to them and also see where my daughter will have spent the first 8 months of her life. This will be so important to her in the future if I'm able to visit. I've expressed my interest to my agency director and am waiting to hear back from her. I'll let you know what she says later.

(If there are any Daoxian families reading this who have pictures I could see (and maybe some I'd be allowed to share here) I'd really like to hear from you!! Have any of you had an opportunity to visit Daoxian SWI?)

Thanking God for placing Hannah in Daoxian SWI and for those who are caring for Hannah and loving her now.

My Baby is 6 Months Old Today!!!

Wow!! It seems like it was just last week when I announced I was the Mom of a precious 5 1/2 month old baby girl and now she's 6 months already! ;o)

Even though I have yet to receive her referral pictures I am already madly in love with Hannah!! I imagine what she might look like; what she might be doing. Is she sitting up yet? Does she prefer to play on her tummy or her back? What does she see day to day? Who is caring for her and are they holding her close and gazing into her beautiful eyes?

So many questions and yet.....peace! Peace that only God can provide. He is looking after her and I am so very, very thankful for that!!!

I have had an opportunity in these past 6 days to reasearch Dao Xian SWI in Hunan province and may I tell you everything I have read is extremely positive!!! I'm working on putting together a post as time allows. There is so much I want to share with you and will as quickly as I'm able.

Until then...THANK YOU!!! You have been amazingly generous with your prayers, kind words, support, encouragement and love! I still find myself stopping to wonder, 'Did this really happen???' I know it did but oh, it is more than I could ever have hoped or imagined! God is SO good and I thank Him for entrusting Hannah into my care. I can't wait to be her mommy in person rather than from half-way round the world.

Tomorrow or Saturday will be picture day when I finally see pics of my DAUGHTER!!! Cannot wait!!!

Is it Friday YET???

**Updated**

I love my Uncle Timmy to pieces and he jokingly reminded me that last Sunday was his 64 1/2 yo birthday and nope...no mention on the blog! Whatever was I thinking???

Happy 64 1/2 Birthday Uncle Tim!!

Love you like crazy! Cathy xoxo ;o)

**gotcha!!**