3 Word Sunday - September 6, 2009

Pug Mama recently restarted her 3 Word Sunday videos. If you'd like to see the great video she put together for this week you can view it here.

Here are the 2 pics I submitted.



Pug Mama is also celebrating 3 wonderful months with her precious baby girl! Check out how she's grown and is oh so happy!! So happy for you Pug Mama!!

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!!'