She's Back

Some of you may not remember THIS VIDEO. I posted it in one of my first posts when I started the BLOG, but it stopped working and I lost it.

But, I found her again! She's adorable!

Chew on this...

"God is completely predictable in taking care of His children and completely Unpredictable as to how He does it." - unknown

Can I get an "Amen!"

Happy Birthday Jada!!!

While we're still waiting on travel approval from China and still waiting for firm travel dates to China, today we celebrate Jada's 1st Birthday. For some reason, tonight my heart & mind is focused on Jada's birth mother and so many other women in her situation. If you could watch the first minute of this VIDEO, you'd have a better idea of what many women in China are going through everyday.

Sometimes its tough to know that our joy and the answer to our prayer is the product of a tragic situation halfway around the world. As we found out when we had Jada's Biography translated, Jada had some personal belongings that was described as "her necessities" left with her when she was found. That indicates that the parents were aware of the situation. They felt they had to do one last thing to provide for her before letting her go.

I think I can speak for Brandi and say that our first priority is to raise Jada to be all that God intended her to be. Also, we consider it our duty to provide her a loving home in honor of what her parents had to go through. We do not take this situation for granted.

So, we ask that you would please lift the families in China up in prayer. Because we know that God loves the mothers of those orphans. We know that God sees the heartbreak and the pain they go through. We know that if we were hurting, we would want someone to stand in the gap for us and intercede in prayer. We would want prayers for comfort and peace in our hearts, prayers for healing of the hurt caused bygiving up the child we created and carried. We can criticize the culture and question their motives all day or we can give the mercy and grace that we have been given. Brandi and I choose mercy and grace.

Reminder: Adoption Workshop!!

“His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family through Jesus Christ. And this gave Him great pleasure.” - Ephesians 1:5

REMINDER:

Healing Place Church's Adoption Ministry: His Heart for Orphans, will be having a FREE Adoption Workshop.

Saturday, August 5 at 8:00am - 12:00pm

Free Food / Free Information HPC style!!

P.S. We'll soon have an Asian connection for Jada to play with! Heath & Dina Slack, another great couple from HPC Adoption Ministry, will be traveling to Taiwan to complete their second adoption. They will be leaving in less than two weeks to pick up their new daughter Olivia. This is their second adoption, the first was a domestic adoption here in the U.S. Congratulations to the Slacks! Another orphan finds a GREAT FAMILY!! Here are some recent pics they recieved! We can't wait to see Olivia and Jada pal around.

Jada's Biography Interpreted

When we got the referral package from AWAA, some things were translated into English, some were not. Jada's biography was not. The biography consists of what information they have about a child before they were brought to the orphanage.

Well, when Brandi worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield, she met Li Chao. Li worked in the accounting department with Brandi. Li is from China and moved here with her parents. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and she gladly translated Jada's biography for us. Another great friend God put in our lives. Li is SOOO excited to meet and see Jada. She even went so far as to personally thank us for adopting from her home country.

So, here's what Li told us:

Jada was found on July 31, 2005 on the doorstep of the Pearl Market in Beihai. When found, the mother had placed some of the things Jada needed, her necessaties, with her in the basket or box she was left in. The police were called and she was taken to the hospital. The hospital guessed her birthdate based on bone structure, Jada still had her umbilical cord when she was found, this also helped them determine her birthday. Jada arrived at the hospital weighing 6.8lbs and 19.3 in.

You know, we just can't find any anger or bitterness in our hearts for Jada's birth mom. I remember a while back Brandi told me she would pray for Jada's birth mom. This was before Jada was born. You just have to understand her situation and the culture. You don't have to agree with it, but you can understand it. She left Jada at the door with "necessities". Doesn't that just scream love? If we can step outside our culture and our environment and try to walk in Jada's birth mom's shoes, you just have to have compassion for her. You have to believe that she is still grieving over either leaving her daughter at that gate or someone, perhaps her husband, leaving the home with Jada, going to drop her off at the Pearl Market. We just feel the urge to pray for her comfort and her peace. We can't begin to imagine what she has been going through. God Bless her heart! We know that what the devil meant for evil, God will use it to bring Him Glory!! Anyhow....

Developmental Info:
- 1 Month: kicks off clothes
- 3 Months: responds to caretaker
- 6 Months: play with toys, hand to hand, interested with noises
- 7 Months: quickly crawls to go get toys, happy, likes to make noise, clapping hands, takes toys from other children,

Daily Routine:
* 6am - Wake Up
* 6am - Bottle of Milk
* 9am - Milk & Cereal
* 10:30 - Rice Soup
* 11am to 1pm - nap (Thank You Jesus!!)
* 12noon - Bottle of Milk
* 2pm - Milk & Cereal
* 4:30pm - Rice Soup
* 7pm - Milk & Cereal
* 8:30pm - Bed time

No wonder she is in the 90 percentile in height & weight. Girl ain't did nuthin' but eat!

We are anxiously awaiting Travel Approval from China. We should be getting concrete travel dates next week. More to come...

Bei Hai Pics

These are some pics from a family on the Yahoo! Chat group that went to Beihai last year.

This is the street the Orphanage is on.

Orphanage Gates

Front of Orphanage

House boats on coast of Beihai

Beihai fishing boat harbor

Beihai beach.

Meeting with our Pediatrician

Just wanted to introduce our Pediatric Team that will be taking care of Jada. Click on the picture to see their website. Brandi and I HIGHLY recommend Ashli and Samantha. I have known Ashli for almost 20 years and she has a heart of gold! Ashli and Samantha went to medical school together and we recently met Samantha and we have been equally impressed with her heart to care for babies. Both Samantha & Ashli have been excited to meet and care for Jada. Once again, God has put special people in our lives.

Ashli West, M.D.

Samantha Clark Gulino, M.D.






Ashli was one of my best friends in high school. I'm so glad both Ashli and Samantha will be part of Jada's caregiving. Both have responded positively to our adoption, they both have been researching foreign adoption medical information and we are very pleased with the proactive approach they have taken in the responsibility of caring for Jada.
Ashli just gave birth to their second child and is off on maternity leave. Even so, she invited me and Brandi to come by during lunch to look at Jada's medical information! It was so good visiting with her and her husband, but it was also good to know that such a good friend will be helping us with Jada's medical care.
She told us everything looked good as far as blood work, height, weight and developmental things (based on the limited info we have). She laid out a good plan when we get Jada here in the states. Best of all, it was good to see the genuine love and excitement that she'd get to be a part of this special season of our lives.
Again, without any hesitation and with full confidence, Brandi & I would like to recommend Ashli & Samantha to anyone who are in need of a good, loving pediatrics team in the Baton Rouge and Ascencion Parish area!

Visa Applications for Travel

We had to apply for visas to travel to China. So, we had to mail China's Visa application with our passports to AWAA and they will send the applications to the nearest Chinese consulate to be reviewed and approved. We had the option of going to the nearest Chinese consulate ourselves, using a private courrier to take the paperwork or use AWAA to handle the paper work for us. We went with AWAA, they've been REALLY good to us so far.

About 40 days 'til travel!!

Cool Sonogram

Found this on another families website and wanted to share it.

Jada's Destiny

Now that we have a tentative date for travel, the whole situation is really becoming more real to me and Brandi. We were talking the other night how things will definately change. We were sitting around talking and thinking about how in a couple of weeks, we will be having a similar conversation, but we'll have one or two or four eyes on Jada as she wanders around exploring her new surroundings. Then, Brandi said we have to make sure we keep our relationship and quality time intact. We have to keep doing the things we do together even though we have an awesome responsibility of watching and raising Jada. I'm glad we are recognizing that and I'm glad she said it out loud.
We have always believed that Jada would be a very special girl. If we look at the journey that God has put us on, with all the struggles and tests, and not realize that He has great plans for this child then we would not be good stewards of what God is about to give us. We have had confirmation of her destiny from some Godly people who we know hear from God that she will be special.

"You will keep on guiding me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny." Psalm 73:24

We do not believe that the last 6 years of waiting on God will be for nothing. I think about all the times in the Bible where great men and women of God have had to wait and how faithful God has been when prayers were answered. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful support system of family and friends to help us through this. We are so blessed to have a life giving church to equip us to have the family and live the life that God intended us to have.
So, we are preparing to provide Jada with an excellent home and an excellent family. I don't think Jada should settle for "normal." I don't want to settle for normal. I want my family to have the abundant life that Jesus promised us:

" I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10

We are prepared for people to question and judge us for the way we will prepare Jada for her destiny. We know that people will disagree with what we expose her to and what we WILL NOT expose her to. But, we feel we have been given a "Great Commision" when it comes to preparing Jada for what God has for her. We also know that when we meet Jesus at the Final Judgement, we will be held accountable for how we handled the responsibility for being Jada's parents.

Isn't it good to know that the same God that judges us, also gives us the tools and resources to carry out His commision to us?

Baby Shower Registration Part II

This is one of the 400 baby strollers they have. We couldn't decide on any of them.

Brandi and I love taking weekend naps on the sofa with soft, comfortable blankets. This may be one of the last times we get to snuggle before we go get Jada.

I don't remember what this picture was about. Probably the last time we both smiled during the registration...

You probably can't see it from this pic, but the gun now has 185 items that I've scanned. I never want to see the inside of a baby store again. We went home, took a nap and I woke up standing in the pantry with Brandi's stapler from her office scanning all the bar codes in the pantry...

As we were turning in our paperwork and scanning gun, we saw Pastor Marc Cleary from HPC and I shot a candid camera shot of him and his dad. They didn't even notice the flash. Guess they've been here a while too. He and his wife Becca just celebrated the birth of their second baby.

Baby Shower Registration

We have to thank two great friends who helped us out with the Baby Shower Registration. Jerri Lalonde and Lisa Latona. Jerri, mother of a 14 month old, took some time to make a list of items we may need. Lisa, mother of a 2y/o and a 13 month old, agreed at the last minute to come walk through Babies R Us and give wise counsel about each and every product. It's not that these two great friends took the time to help us, that was special, but they both did it with such enthusiasm and excitement! It was really like they were having their own child again. We are so fortunate to have friends who are great moms! What an example for Brandi and I to follow. Just when we wonder how we are gonna handle a 13 month old after 17 years of being on our own, we are reminded how God puts special people like Lisa & Jerri and many others in our lives to help us through whatever comes our way.

Free Ad. They really hook you up when you go register. Big folder full of neat stuff. I guess they treat us nice because we about to send them a little bit of business.

I don't guess they know how many forms we've had to fill out. Yet, they shove these in our grills.

The Gun! So much power, so many products, so little time. This is 20 minutes later but we're only on isle 2!! Did you know they have nipples for different months, small, meduim, large, supersized, high flow, low flow, medium flow, adjustable flow, curved, straight, clear, yellow, formed, unformed, leaded, unleaded, Adkin's no carb nipples...

There must be a limit to how many pics you can put on one post. I'll continue the adventure on another post and maybe it'll let me put more pics.

Stay tuned...

More forms to fill out!

Well, after a year of finishing up all the paperwork and waiting for our referral from Jada, the paperchase continues! We got back from a holiday trip to the fishing camp and the Travel Info Pack was in our mailbox!

We have to fill out a Travel Information Sheet, which is information about me, Brandi, Tut (my mom) and Brenda (Brandi's mom). We also had to sign a Travel Release, which means we can't suit/sue/soo AWAA for anything as a result of the trip. We had to fill out a Visa application, which we are doing through AWAA. We could have driven to Houston where the nearest Chinese consulate is located and do it ourselves, but we'll let AWAA do it.

They gave us a TENTATIVE date of departure of Aug 24, 2006! And they even said it has a 50% of changing one week EARLIER or on week LATER! We'd LOVE to be in China for our 13th Anniversary on Sept. 4, 2006, but we'd love to leave a week earlier on Aug 17, 2006 and get Jada sooner. The say we'll be in China 13-14 days, so 2 weeks.

We are having a baby shower/ birthday party for Jada before we leave for China. We'll post an invitation when we get the details.

Pray for us, this next couple of weeks are gonna be CRAZY!!!!!!

Jada's Name Translation

Jada = Wise (Hebrew)
Liu = Willow Tree; Pleasure (Chinese)
Xin = Early Morning; Dawn; Day (Chinese)
Lambert = Bright land or light of the land (French)

I can't really come up with anything cool with all this. But, seems like some good stuff to work with.

Suggestions welcome though.