UPDATES!!!

Well, Lyla's orphanage did not disappoint. I had a feeling they would be quick in responding and they were. Today we received an update on her measurements and two pictures, taken 8/10/11! Our big girl is getting, well, big! Check her out!

It looks like they are letting her hair grow, or maybe she just needs a haircut. Either way she is perfectly beautiful to us. She looks like she is thinning out, and from the measurements we were given she has grown a few inches in a few months. I will say, measurements aren't always very accurate, but it's all we have, so we go with it.

This next picture made me burst into happy mommy tears. I had mentioned the care package we sent not too long ago. We weren't sure if she would get it, or if they would just put it away somewhere, well...

Our sweet little Lyla looking at us, her family!

What I don't know is if this was the only time she saw this photo album we sent, but honestly, I don't care. There she is, looking at us! I want to believe that the nannies read her the letter we sent that explained who we are and that were coming to meet her in China and make her a part of our family. I want to believe that she got to keep the photo album and that she was read each description on each page, and that she can look at it whenever she wants to. But, in international adoption sometimes reality has to take over, because the rose colored glasses are just not a good thing to hide behind. So, what I DO know is that in this instant, our girl, who lives half a world away, is looking at the people who will love her forever!!!

Immigration approval!

We got our I797 today! We were approved on 8/9 and we received it today. On Monday we will put it in the mail (overnight FedEx) to a courier who will walk it in to the Secretary of State in Austin, Tx. After it is certified it will be overnighted to a Houston courier who will walk it in to the Chinese Consulate for authentication. Then it will be overnighted to our agency in Colorado. Once the agency gets it they will have everything they need to send our dossier to China!!! Then the real waiting begins (you only thought we had been waiting for Lyla for 4 months).

Once our dossier gets to China our best guess to travel would be 4-6 months. Some of the steps are quite predictable, but some are not. Of course, we always pray to be on the short end of average, but God's timing is perfect, so we thank Him even if it's on the longer end!

More on Lyla!

Here is a little more about our big girl! This is the most recent info we have on her, and it was sent at our request, when submitted our letter of intent to adopt her.

April 2011

This is the very first sentence "...is just as smiley and zestful as before."

"...her plump figure grows increasingly cuter and silly."

Plump will fit in quite nicely around this house.

"Everyone who meets her really likes her."

Isn't this what we want people to say about our kids? I love this!

"Firstly, she really is incredibly cute; moreover, she has a sweet little mouth."

In the last report they mentioned her being cute many times, and here it is again!

"...if a child is naughty during a classroom activity, she will strictly scold them."

Macey and Xander have been warned. :)

"She has the demeanor of a leader, and can organize everyone to play a game together."

And this is why we know she will be the best big sister!!!

While we wait we hope to receive some more update on our girl, hopefully some updated pictures will come along with updated info. I'll make sure to let you know!

More about Lyla!

As we wait for some updated info on Lyla, as promised, here are a few more sentences from her background reports. This one was dated March 2011.

"She sleeps relatively soundly."

- You never know how that will change when she comes home, but at least we're starting in the right place!

"...a little girl with a cheerful personality who loves to talk and smile."

- Aw!

"She likes to express herself, every day, like a chirping bird, talking endlessly."

- And this would be my all time, favorite description of our girl! Ahahahahaha!

Today as I sat on the computer Xander came over to see what I was doing. I was reading the We Are Grafted In blog post for the day, and it had a picture of a street in China. He asked what that was and I said it was a picture of China. We do a lot of talking about China, we like to talk about Xander being born in China, and Lyla was born in China but she is still there until we can go get her. We talk about Mommy and Daddy will go to China and Macey and Xander will stay home with Nana and wait for us to come back. I learned, through our adoption with Xander, that these little ones understand much more than I originally thought, so we are forthcoming with everything.

Anyway, it's interesting what thoughts these two add when we mention China. Xander has called Lyla on his pretend phone to talk to her, he has mentioned that he knew Lyla when he was in China (he did not, but I love that he sees a connection), so you never know. Today's comments from Xander brought tears to my eyes. After he saw the picture of China on the blog he said, "I want to see Lyla pictures." So, I found them on the computer and just started a slide show so they would rotate through all the pictures we have. Then he began to say, "China is far away from our house. We need to go there. We have to walk there." I said, "Oh, you think we should walk there?" "Yes, we need some shoes. And Lyla needs some shoes." You could see his little wheels turning, "And Lyla can walk."

I know you are thinking, oh Allison, you are over emotional. But here is what this little conversation meant to me, it was the simple, innocent thinking of a child, that all we need to do was walk to Lyla, and she needed some shoes too because she needed to walk to us. It was as if he was trying to figure out how we could get to her, or how she could get to us. I love their simple solutions to things, and believe me, if I could just put on shoes and walk to Lyla I would do it in a heartbeat...with some cute 2 year olds following close behind!

Care Package #1

I titled this care package #1 because we fully intend to send Lyla at least one more package, if not two, depending on how long it takes to bring her home.

Items included: Candy to share with her friends, photo album (photos below), disposable camera for pictures of her and her friends, tea for the nannies, Hello Kitty toy, bouncy ball that lights up and a letter (telling her a little about us and that we are coming!)

This will most likely be the first time that the orphanage and Lyla hear that she is being adopted. There is a chance that she may not get the items we sent, usually they are delivered and given to the kids, but there are instances when that does not happen. Mostly, we hope she receives the photo album, so she can be familiar with us when we get there, and the letter telling her about us and how we can't wait to come to China to meet her and bring her home.

Here are the pictures included in the photo album.

Getting to know Lyla

I thought it might be fun to start sharing some of the things we know about Lyla with the rest of you folks! Since she is our big girl there is a lot more that we know about her than we knew about Xander before we got him. In her file she has "background reports", these are in paragraph form and it is a description of daily life and some milestones that the child has reached, it also can give a glimpse into personality.

I'll start at the beginning, and quote a few lines of the description of Lyla from the first report. We've received a total of 3 background reports, and as we wait we should get some more, so I'll share as we wait.

*side note: these are actual quotes and the Chinese to English translation isn't always perfect

From a report dated September 2009:

"..., likes to be in the classroom and play room with teacher and kids to play games, she is cute, likes the outdoor activity,"

In her orphanage there is a program called Half The Sky and she is a part of the Little Sisters program. From what I have learned it is similar to a preschool setting, I'm not sure how much time she spends there or how often she attends.

"sometimes she is obstinate and impatient"

Oh, no.

"she likes the noise environment"

Oh, good!

"she is cute and likes to be cuddled by adults"

Um, second reference to her being cute and my Mommy heart is smiling big time, because I like to cuddle too!

Baby steps and surprises!

So today we got fingerprinted. It is a step that we have to complete, and one that Kevin and I have perfected in the 4+ years that we have been involved in the adoption process. We have been fingerprinted 2 times for FBI clearances and 4 times for USCIS approval, I actually had an extra time in there because one of mine didn't take, so I got to redo them. We have been the to immigration office so many times in the past few years that we have now made friends with the guard/clerk. She has been there every time we have come in and today I made small talk with her while she was looking over our paperwork. On our way out the door she said "See you next time." Hahaha! I bet she will!

Now we wait for the I797 approval from the USCIS, the one that says we are allowed to adopt a foreign child. Once we get this we send it, with our homestudy and our adoption petition (asking the Chinese adoption officials for permission to adopt Lyla and promising to love and treat her like our own) to China. Then we wait again. Hopefully all of this stuff will be on it's way to China before the end of August, that can be your prayer for us!

And now to the surprises! I am a member of a huge adoption forum on a blog called Rumor Queen. It is a great place to get advice, support, complain and make friends, seriously, I really have friends that I have met there. Yesterday someone noticed that Lyla was from Jiangxi and emailed me to ask what orphanage because she was adopting a little girl from an orphanage in Jiangxi. It happened to be the same orphanage, our girls are the same age and we have chosen the same American name for them! CRAZY! It gets even crazier, she had two pictures of our girls posing together, SO COOL! So she sent them to me. They were taken about a year ago, which is really cool because we have some pictures of Lyla from late 2009 and from early 2011, but nothing in between, so now we have some from late 2010.

It was just enough excitement to give me hope that this adoption really will happen. Sometimes during all the waiting it seems like there will never be a day when we get to hug her for the first time, but today put a big smile on my face and more hope in my heart!!!