8th Referral Day Anniversary

Better late than never…

August 21st is a special day to Hannah and I as it commemorates the day I received Hannah’s referral call on Aug 21, 2009!  She was just 5 1/2 months old at referral!!

A photo montage of referral day memories followed by our referral day videos at the end.

2017 (8.5yo)

2016 (7.5yo)

2015 (6.5yo)

2014 (5.5yo)

2013 (4.5yo)

2012 (3.5yo)

2011 (2.5yo)

2010 (10mos)

If Only He Knew…..

I was going through pics from last year and came across this one and wanted to post it. 

Hannah and I attended our agency’s Holiday Party late in November.  One of the people in attendance was the gentleman above.   When Deborah told us who Byron was, tears immediately filled my eyes and the room blurred.

Byron was the gentleman who translated Hannah’s referral.  He knew my daughter’s face, habits, diet and personality before I did.  He took the paperwork that had been filled out by the caregivers and director at DaoXian SWI and carefully translated it into English so that I could learn the intimate details about the baby girl that I was already deeply in love with!

Byron is one of the many people that God used to bring Hannah and I together and I will be forever grateful for the time he took to translate her file.  I have held those papers, prayed over them, laughed, sighed and smiled over those papers. 

Byron….Thank you!

One Year Ago Today My Life Was Changed Forever in the Most Wonderful Way!!! **UPDATED**

(I’ve finally found time to upload my videos of ‘THE CALL’. You’ll find them about half way through this post)

One year ago today my life was changed in the most miraculous, wonderful way!! One year ago today I received the call of a lifetime!! On August 21, 2009 I found out that I was the Mom of a precious baby girl waiting for me in Hunan, China and I couldn’t wait to meet her!!! Hannah Catherine XiaoFen had arrived with one amazing phone call!

I remember many details of that delightful, sunny day and I believe that day will forever be ingrained in my memory! I was at my friend Sharon’s house for breakfast and remember leaving and saying, ‘Today could be the day! The next time you see me I could be a Mom!!’ That being said, all was quiet in Europe where the referrals normally arrived first so truly if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t believe that that would be the day. But a girl could still dream and dream I did!!

I remember skipping down the stairs of her porch and getting into my car, cell phone glued to my left hand where it pretty much was fulltime! There was a smile across my face that nothing could remove and I truly floated throughout the office. I’m not sure how productive I was that day but they understood! Rumor Queen was refreshed numerous times each hour as I eagerly awaited any iota of information pertaining to the anticipated referral batch. Emails were flying and I physically shook each time my cell phone rang.

The morning is a blur but I remember crashing a group of co-workers celebratory lunch who were going to the Mandarin. Norma was part of that group and I just didn’t want to be alone so I went along with them, trusty cell phone always in hand or on the table directly in front of me. I remember chatting with a family at the restaurant who had a 3yo daughter from China with them. I told them I was waiting for my call to arrive any day and they were excited for me and shared some of their experiences with me as we filled our plates with rice and lemon chicken.

I arrived back in the office around 2:00 and upon refreshing Rumor Queen’s page, the first indication of a call being made had just been announced! (I’m getting goose bumps just writing this as I can remember it vividly as if it were yesterday!) I remember trying to do too many things at the same time and not knowing what to do! Call people? Email? Text? Who to call? Too many to call! Calls were being made and suddenly I knew that Monday would be my day as truly my agency, being a Canadian agency, couldn’t possibly receive their package and begin making calls that day; could they??? Wanting to find out, I once again contacted my agency and left them a message. My question to Deborah was, ‘How soon after the US agencies receive their packages do you normally get yours?’ I waited with bated breath for her to call back so that I could relax (yah….right!) and prepare myself for a call the following week.

In reality what happened SHOCKED me beyond belief. At 2:57pm I received the following email from Deborah

*********************************

Hello Cathy,

I have good news – where and when do you want me to call?

Best regards, Deborah

**********************************

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! It was time!!! My call was coming!!!! I was excited, happy, barely breathing, shaking, running in circles, trying to lock up my desk and accomplishing a whole lot of nothing! :o) Thankfully my friend Rachelle happened to pass by my office and she could immediately tell that I was in labour!! Being the good (and trained friend as all my coworkers were) she grabbed my Flip and began recording!

I immediately emailed Deborah back and asked her to call my cell at 3:30pm. By this point that was only 20 mins. away and I had a 10 min walk and drive to get to Sharon and my parents! My first call had been to my parents and then to Sharon as I quickly decided where Sharon worked would be the best place to receive the call and thankfully my parents were only blocks away from there at the time too! God had placed all the right people in just the perfect places to share ‘The Call’ with me!

Here I am attempting to send a quick email to close family and friends letting them know the call was coming.

When my file went to China in March of 2006 I placed beads in a jar. Each bead represented a LID that needed to be matched before I would receive Hannah’s referral. Here I am moving the final bead….Hannah Day was finally here!!!

I raced to the car making a variety of calls and Rachelle was wonderful enough to follow along with me capturing all of the excitement! Thank you Rachelle!

I don’t remember much about the drive to the library other than it was a beautiful warm sunny day. What I do remember is seeing my parents sitting in their car in the parking lot and yelling ‘RUN!’ to them as the call was coming at any moment! Heh, I’m sure we were quite a sight as the 3 of us ran into the library in search of Sharon. We quickly found her and Marian (who recorded this for us…thanks Marian!) and before we could even get settled the phone rang! Here it is! THE CALL!!!

Part I

Part II

There was much celebrating and many tears of joy! God had blessed me with a daughter and she was only 5 ½ months old!!

After leaving the library, the day begins to blur a little more as I remember calling a lot of people to share my amazing news. I’m a MOM!!! Calls took a few hours and there were more tears of joy and shouts of celebration! I think it’s blurred as all I could do was dream of what my daughter might look like but it was so amazing to have answers. Suddenly with one phone call I knew:

- she was a girl

- her name: Yong, Xiao Fen. Soon to become Hannah Catherine XiaoFen

- her age: 5 1/2 months

- where she was living: Dao Country SWI, Hunan, China

- when we might travel: end of October 2009

- when I was going to see her picture!!! One week later…ugh!! SOOO long to wait!

That evening I also signed up for Hannah’s SWI’s yahoo group and began reading the archives. What fun it was to meet other families who had children from DaoXian SWI. (It also ended up being amazing as one of the gals was able to find Hannah’s Finding Ad for me) on the Sunday and it was the very first picture of her I ever saw! Here is the first picture of my precious Hannah, taken within the first couple of weeks of her precious little life.

August 21, 2009 is a day that will forever be one of the most amazing days in my entire life! The Lord blessed over and over again and finally, more than 4 ½ years after I first felt God leading me to adopt from China, I had a daughter and soon she would be in my arms!

Here is her precious referral pics that I saw for the first time 8 days later on Saturday, August 29, 2009.

Today, Hannah at 17 moths holding her referral pic.

‘the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes!’ Psalm 118:23

Update:
Today Hannah and I spent the day with wonderful friends. At 3:30 we all celebrated and Doris snapped this pic of Hannah and I. Thanks Doris! I year post referral....right to the minute!

First Known Picture of Hannah!!

Wow!!! Here is one of the earliest pictures of my precious baby girl and quite likely the youngest picture of her that I will ever see!!!

2 days after I received Hannah's referral (yes, if your remember the timing it was 6 days before I saw her official referral pictures!) I was blessed to locate Hannah's Finding Ad* and see her beautiful little face!!! I fell in love instantly! She was less than 1 month old when this picture was taken!!

One of the ladies in the DaoXian SWI Yahoo Group had done some research and located finding ads for babies located there and posted links to the group. It took my breath away to look at this little picture and know that I was gazing at my DAUGHTER!!!

A *Finding Ad is placed in the newspaper by an orphanage, normally within the first couple of months of a baby being found. In Hannah's case it was placed just shy of a month after Hannah was born. The Finding Ad shared information about where my beautiful baby girl was found, what she was wearing and the date that she was found. The orphanage places this information in the newspaper allowing the birth family to come and reclaim the child should they choose to do so. I hold tight to this little piece of information and I can't help but wonder if a dear woman on the other side of the world also has this ad tucked away, knowing it may be the only picture of her beautiful daughter that she will ever have? I pray for Hannah's birth mother and birth father and ask God to comfort them. As I am anticipating Hannah's 'firsts', is this dear woman aching over all of the 'firsts' that she is missing? I truly believe with all of my heart that she is and I ask God to comfort her when the tears for her daughter freely flow. I will forever be grateful to her and the precious gift she has given me in Hannah Catherine XiaoFen.

The finding ad information is personal to us and in time I will share these precious details with Hannah and should she choose to share them with people it will be her choice. This is her story to tell, not mine and I am keeping this information for her alone.

Soon this beautiful little girl will be placed in my arms!! Two weeks from today Hannah and I will become mother and daughter, forever!!

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.

Sharing More About My Beautiful Baby Girl!!

Last week when I received the official paperwork accompanying Hannah's referral I was blessed beyond measure! My tiny baby girl is doing so well!! God is taking such amazing care of her and she is so healthy!!

Here is what I have learned about Hannah Catherine XiaoFen (XiaoFen means 'Fragrance of the Dawn'):

- XiaoFen has been in Daoxian Social Welfare Institute (SWI) since she was 1 day old. (More about Daoxian SWI in a post tomorrow)

- she was 6.6 lbs at birth and 19 inches long

- her medical was on June 24th, just 3 days before she turned 4 months old

- at her medical she weighed 12.5 lbs and was 23.5 inches long. These are the most current stats I have although hope to possibly receive more when I send Hannah a care package using Ann's services at Red Thread China. I've started buying 6 and 9 month old clothing to take to China with me at then end of October and also purchased a package of Pampers size 2 diapers

- she has no teeth yet

- this part made me laugh: When the doctor tried to check her hearing, sight and smell she, 'would not cooperate' Heh...that's my girl! Not cooperating at less than 4 months old!

- all of her other medical information was great and my doctor said he has no concerns at all. Thank you Lord!

More information about my baby girl at 4 months of age

- she is a deep sleeper. Yay!!!

- she can hold her head up when laying on her tummy

- grasps a toy near her head

- picks up small things with her fingers

- tears paper

- locates the direction of sound/voice

- visually follows moving toys

- looks for dropped toy (I thought this was great for her age!)

- reaches and grasps a toy beyond

- transfer a block from one hand to the other

- follow you with moving head from one side to the other

- laughs aloud! :o)

- distinguishes between acquaintance and strangers

- sounds directed at someone or something

- she is active and restless

- fond of listening to music (that's a good one for a piano teacher's daughter)

- having a ready smile

- quick in reaction

- closest to caretaker

- favourite activity: rocking the rocker bed

- favourite toy: drum...uh oh!!

Notes from Nanny....my favourite part!

- XiaoFen is said to be optimistic and a cute girl

- she loves to laugh when being teased and her face looks cute

- Little XiaoFen is physically healthy

- when held by an adult she can sometimes sit or stand for a few minutes

- she loves to be held and walk around by the nanny.

- when standing next to her Little Fen (isn't that cute!) will cry so that you will hold her (These last 3 are so precious to me as it shows that she is being held and loved by her nannies)

- if something drops, she will look down and search for it immediately

- Little Fen loves to lie on the rocking chair and let an adult gently rock her to sleep. Awwwwwe!

- she also likes to ride the walker and play with other children

- she likes to chat when talking to her (that's my girl!!)

- when everybody teases her, she will laugh

- she likes to eat rice, chicken paste, fish soup, egg, vegetable past, etc. They also feed her fruit juice and cake! Wheee...add some ice cream and we're all set!

The final sentence on the Nannie's report gave me goosebumps. 'We like her very much and hope she can obtain a new family as soon as possible and live a happy life.'

Hannah, Mommy is coming and we will live a happy life together! Dreams really do come true!!!

More and More in Love Every Single Day!!!

I cannot begin to tell you how in love I am with my precious daughter!! More and more every single day!!

I knew that the moment Hannah was placed in my arms she would have my heart forever and we would be inseperable!! What I wasn't fully prepared for (and maybe had a bit of my 'guard' up just in case it didn't happen) was how she would grab my heart the instant I heard 'Congratulations Mom! You have a daughter!!' It was that very instant that my heart opened up and Hannah jumped in. When I saw her precious pictures on Saturday those feelings only intensified and every single day I am more and more in love my beautiful baby girl and soon we'll be together forever!!

This picture is of the first moment I saw Hannah's beautiful face across the table. Angus had been talking and I'd done my best to listen but then it happened. He moved a piece of paper and I-SAW-HER!!! Suddenly Angus' voice was a muted 'wah, wah, wah' in the background and all I wanted to was get a closer look at Hannah's sweet face! (Sorry Angus! ;o)

Before I knew it he handed me 3 pictures of Hannah and suddenly I was all alone, just my baby girl and I. All I wanted to do was to look at her and memorize every single detail about her. I couldn't stop staring and drinking in her beauty!

Once again I was blessed to have mom and dad with me so when I could part with each picture I passed them on to the proud Grandma and Grandpa who were just as quickly falling in love with the granddaughter they have loved in their hearts and prayed for for many, many years!! I cannot tell you how blessed and thankful I am to have parents who are so very supportive of my decisions and who are as madly in love with Hannah as I am. They have been with me every step of the way and will be right beside me in China when Hannah is placed in my arms. Thank you Mom and Dad!! I love you so very, very much!!!

Angus had a lot of papers to go over but as you can see, I wasn't doing very well at listening yet. LOL!! Thankfully he was patient and gave us all the time we wanted with the pics before moving on with the remainder of the paperwork. I'm guessing he knew that if he didn't wait he'd only end up repeating himself so he waited patiently.

We eventually were able to go through all the paperwork and I learned what I need to do this week to prepare to formally accept Hannah's referral next week. I took her medical to the doctor yesterday and he said it looks great! She's tiny by North American standards (25th percentile at birth was still in 25th percentile at 4 months) so I'm wondering if she'll stay that way? Next Tuesday evening I'll meet with my Social Worker and he said before he leaves that night he'll have everything packaged up to go back to the agency. (Our agency rep had delayed her vacation until the end of August sure we'd receive our referrals in July so now we have until early next week to return it to them.)

I was also so blessed to have M & M with me and they were able to share in the excitement as well as capture all these great pics and a video too! Thank you!!! I'm so glad you were there to share this extra special day with me!!

A few of my favourite pics from the day!

Mommy and her precious daughter!!

Thrilled new family!!

And yes....almost 2 weeks after referral and I'm still floating on cloud nine feeling like this!!

CHFI Follow-Up Interview, Mon. Aug 31, 2009

What fun it is to share the great news of Hannah with those around me! CHFI has asked me to keep in touch with them and let them know how things are moving ahead with meeting Hannah. What fun it will be to do that!!

We taped this follow-up interview bright at early the morning of Monday, August 31st at 6:35am and then they played it right before the 8:00am news. Sharon and I were up north at her trailer which was an extra challenge as my cell phone doesn't work too well there but my friend Deb let me use her cottage with a landline and it was all good! Thanks Deb!

I have listened to CHFI for years now and it's really neat to have them taking an interest in our story too!

So many people are excited about my sweet baby girl and I CANNOT WAIT to hold her in my arms!! She is in my heart and has me wrapped around her little finger already and soon I will also be holding her close, loving her in person!! Now that it's September I can say, 'NEXT MONTH Hannah and I will meet in person and forever be Mother and Daughter!!'

Radio Show Follow-up

It was fun this afternoon to receive an email from the producer of CHFI's morning show asking if they could do a post interview to find out about what it was like to see Hannah's face for the very first time. Fun!!!

We're recording it bright and early tomorrow morning and they anticipate playing it sometime before or after 8:00 tomorrow morning.

If you want to listen in you'll find it here and click the Listen Live link.

I'm Over the Moon in Love!!!

Here she is!!! My beautiful baby girl, Hannah Catherine XiaoFen!!!

Isn't she absolutely adorable?!?!?! I grow more and more in love with her every time I look at her pictures!!!

(Update: Hey...check out my sweet baby girl's shoes!! My friend Joy pointed out that her shoes have Mickey Mouse on them!! Isn't that amazing?!!! Heh....she truly is my daughter!! I love how God is into the details. Even little Disney shoes on my daughter!)

The pictures reinforce all I've heard about Dao County SWI, Hunan Province. They say that the babies are extremely well cared for and these pictures show that. There are mats on the floor, a soft teddy bear and her clothes are perfect for her! Thank you Lord for placing Hannah in the arms of those who are loving her and caring for her before we meet.

I have more details about my little one and will post those soon. For now, I know it's the pictures you were longing to see so I wanted to post them as soon as I could.

Thank you Lord for this most precious gift of a beautiful baby girl...my daughter!!

2 1/2 Hours and Counting!!!

Ahhhhhhh!!! Only 2 1/2 hours and I will be gazing at pictures of my sweet Hannah whom I love deeply already!!!

As you've followed along here my constant theme has always been that Hannah's entire adoption is a beautiful puzzle orchestrated by the Master Himself!!! Many times I have talked about God's perfect timing and He bringing Hannah and I together at the exact moment He ordained long ago. The first meeting would be by picture and even though that exact date and time was a mystery for me, it was never for Him. He knew that at exactly 10:00am on Saturday, August 29, 2009 He would reveal Hannah to me in the form of pictures! It gives me goose bumps just typing this knowing that the day is finally here!!! The exact day and time that she will be placed in my arms is still unknown to me, but not to God! He also knows that and once again in His perfect timing He will orchestrate that as well!!! Continually trusting Him....

Now, if you think this mommy sounds pretty calm then words have hidden my true emotions!! I'm a jumpy, giddy, excited, wonderful mess of emotions right now!! I got some sleep last night but it was so funny as 3 times I woke up and looked at the clock and it was exactly on the hour!

First waking was at 1:00 (after sleeping mere minutes at the most!) and I quickly did the math and thought....only 9 more hours until I 'meet' Hannah!!

Second waking was at 2:00 exactly and it was 8 hours. I celebrated!!

Third waking was sometime after 3:00 and I was up for almost an hour. Too excited to sleep and suddenly feeling the need to try again to fix my scanner. Alas, no luck. My scanner just refuses to work with Vista. Will be heading to my parent's place to scan Hannah's pictures it looks like!

After sleeping a little more, albeit fitfully, I woke again and looked at the clock as it read 7:00 on the button. I laughed as once again I'd woken exactly on the hour! And then....truly laughed out loud at myself as I realized the reason why I'd woken at exactly 7:00 was that the radio was playing as that's when I'd set my alarm! Oops!!! Excited much???

I'm off to get ready and then heading into Toronto with my parents for our 10:00 meeting...HANNAH's picture and referral meeting!!! My mom asked if I wanted her to pick up a Timmy's for me and can you believe I said 'No?' Given my track record these past couple of weeks I can barely hold a cup of coffee when I'm sitting still at my desk at work let alone in a van bouncing along the highway!!!

I'm off!!! Soon, so very, very SOON I will see my sweet baby's face; know more details about her; be able to read her medical report and get an idea of how big she is. Guess who's shopping today?

God is SO GOOD!!! Praising Him for answered prayers!!!

'I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.'

1 Samuel 1:27

Video of Radio Dedication

Yay! They played my request! It was really neat to hear the DJ's voices as they learned a little of our story. They talked about our travel group both before and after the request was played. Fun!! I called them afterwards to thank them for playing it and also to answer they questions they had posed.

The picture isn't exciting to watch but the content moved me to tears...again. I think part of my bladder is permanantly parked behind my eyes right now and I'm guessing today will be no different!

Enjoy!! Baby Baby by Amy Grant!

Tomorrow I'll See Hannah's Picture!!!

I heard from my agency late this afternoon and TOMORROW is the big day!!!

I have an appointment at 10:00 to meet with my agency to receive Hannah's proposal including PICTURES!!!

I'll be travelling into Toronto to receive my proposal so I'm guessing it will be late afternoon before I'll be able to upload pics here. I'll want to share them with family and friends and then here. Wonderful things come to those who wait....I know! :o)

Radio Dedication Request **Updated**

I've dreamed of doing this for over 3 years and tomorrow could be the day it happens it I'm selected!!

If you live in the Toronto area you might want to tune in to CHFI 98.1 at 8:00am tomorrow (Friday) morning. Each morning there is a 'Feel Good Favourite' request and I called in, shared a bit about the excitement our adoption group of families is experiencing and told them that we anticipated seeing our babies faces for the very first time tomorrow!! (It's looking more and more like it might be the weekend as we haven't heard any more about the status of the translations but I'm still holding out hope!!)

I'm not sure they'll play my request but they just might. It's a unique story so that might encourage them to play it and also, I've been sharing my adoption journey with one of the morning show hosts as she has a friend with 2 daughters from China. It will be fun to listen and find out!

If you don't live in the Toronto area you can still listen in by clicking here (8:00am EST) and selecting the 'Listen Now' link.

The feel good favourite of the day needs to be an up-tempo, happy song so I chose Karen Carpenter's, 'Top of the World.' That's exactly where I am knowing that I'll soon be gazing at pictures of my precious daughter Hannah!!!



**Update**
They played my dedication!!! So cool! They changed the song but the one they chose, 'Baby, Baby!' by Amy Grant was perfect!! I caught it on my Flip and hope to post it later today. It was neat that the DJ's were touched by our story. Cool!!

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!!**

Still on Cloud Nine!!!

Wow!!! As someone said in their comment, 'Dreams really do come true!!' (Thought that was a perfect comment for this Disney gal!!) It's been a little over 48 hours since my life changed forever and I'm still on cloud nine!!

Friday evening was filled with phone calls with family and friends as well as a trip for celebratory ice cream with my brother and sister-on-law. Now that's the way to celebrate...with ice cream!! Dave and Trish had 2 of their boys with them as well as my niece Makenna who is now 10 months old. She's still such a baby and I was in awe to realize that Hannah would be 2 months younger than this when she is placed in my arms!!! Still amazed at this and continually thanking God for allowing her to be so young when we meet!!

I got a few hours of sleep Friday night but as soon as I woke up and realized that I was the Mom of a beautiful 5 1/2 month old baby girl on the other side of the world, that was it! I was up for the day with a grin on my face stretching from ear to ear!! I walked into the living room and was graced by all the wonderful gifts Hannah and I had been blessed with at the shower Wednesday. (That will warrant another post at a later time.) I looked at each gift with such different eyes now that there was a real live baby...my DAUGHTER Hannah XiaoFen....and she had a name, age, province...she was a real little person!! WOW!!!

Saturday was spent (still floating)with Sharon, Grandma and Grandpa. They put up with my giddiness and we talked and talked about Hannah! They even surprised me at supper with the gift of an adorable little pink hat and the cutest little pink boots you ever did see!! How wonderful it is to look at clothes and finally have an idea of size! I'll know more later in the week but it looks like I'll be shopping for sure since the smallest clothes I'd let myself buy were size 18 months!

I cannot begin to tell you how amazing and wonderful it is to know 'who' my daughter is!! God has a beautiful baby girl waiting for me in Hunan province and soon I will travel and we will forever be mother and daughter!!

I also want to say thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU for all your comments, well wishes, prayers, celebrations, emails and so much more!!! All of them have added to the joy of this amazing time!!

Counting down to seeing her pics and learning more about her! 5 more sleeps!!!

\o/ \o/ Praise God!! I Have a Daughter!!! \o/ \o/

It is with thanksgiving to God that I share this most amazing, wonderful news with you!!! God is so good and He has answered prayers in a beautiful way!!!

I want to introduce you to my daughter!!!

Her Chinese name is: Yong, Xiao Fen

Soon to be: Hannah Catherine (CN) Ryan

Born: February 27, 2009 (Yes...she's only 5 1/2 months old!!!)

Currently living in: Hunan Province, China

Dao County Social Welfare Institute

God is so good and I give Him all the glory!!! Praise be to God!

This is all the information about my sweet BABY girl that I have at this time. It looks like it will take about a week for everything to be translated and I will see my sweet DAUGHTER's face next Friday or Saturday!!!

I am already over the moon in love with her and SO thankful that I will have the awesome privilege of being there when she learns to crawl, walk, talk, her first Christmas and her first Birthday too! God is so good!!!

Today is a day unlike any other and I was thrilled to share the referral call with my Mom, Dad, best friend Sharon and her coworker and our friend, Marian!! We took lots of video and will share those later. You should have heard the shouts of excitement when we heard how old she was and then yes, I did the big, ugly cry!!! Oh well, I've done it more than 20 times again since then, each time I've shared her referral news with family and friends on the phone.

Our estimated travel time is the end of October. That seems like forever away but I'm sure it will fly by!!

My heart is overflowing with love for my precious baby girl! I cannot wait to see her picture next week and then to hold her in my arms in just 2 short months!!!

'I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.'

I Samuel 1:27