A Hope Update!

On Friday we were super excited to find an email with an update about our sweet Hope. When I sent her birthday care package, I included a list of questions for the staff about Hope's past, some personal info, and info about her orphanage life. I thought we would get the answers to these questions when we picked her up. However, they sent the answers via email to my agency rep in China, so I have the answers now.

Here are a few of the answers that we were excited to get.......

How long was she in foster care? I am so excited to find out that she was in foster care for four years!!! This is very good news because this means she had some good early bonding and has been part of a family. She went back to the orphanage in March of 2008.

What do you call her? They call her NaNa (pronounced nahnah). I was happy about this too, because I had a fear that they called her LeeLee since her first part of her name is Li (pronounced Lee)

I asked about her special need and what they do for it? They responded that she doesn't have that special need, so needless to say, we are a little confused right now! But no worries, we don't really care what her need is! We know she has one need, and that is to have a family and WE ARE IT!

What kind of food does she like? She likes spicy food! I knew there was something about this girl I loved! Makes me a little sad though that my dad will miss out on getting to know this one. Sounds like they could have been eating buddies.

Are there any baby pictures of her? They said that there PC crashed and they lost all of her pics. So, I am really hoping that we may be able to get in touch with the foster family and that they may have something that we can have for her to fill in the gaps of her past.

How does she feel about adoption? She has seen our pics and is very excited about us and about coming to the US to live with us. Yeah!!

My favorite part of the update was that she wants her new family to send her some pretty clothes! I have no clue what size she is, but if my girl wants some clothes, we will send her some!

I was super excited to get the update, then yesterday I was blown away to open my email and see these precious photos of our girl!!

I love this first picture! That is the smile that I fell in love with! That smile is the one that had me on my knees praying that a family would come forward to adopt her! I love that God had me praying for myself-He has a sense of humor doesn't he? We couldn't be more honored that he has chosen us to go down this path again.

Check out those eyes! They seem so deep and soulful! Most of the pictures I have of her she has that same giddy smile, so it is fun to see those great lips and beautiful eyes! I love the outfit!!! LeeLee has her own creative sense of style and it appears NaNa does too! I had my own amazing sense of style when I was younger (and still now), so I so understand this! Part of me wonders if she picked this out or not. Paul and I have decided that we are just going to take a few outfits for her, and we will take her shopping when we get there so she can pick out some clothes. I may feel a little like TLC's Clinton and Stacy giving her some rules on What Not To Wear! Before anyone asks, yes, this is her bed! They are like this for safety issues. She is in a really good orphanage, and they take great care of her.

Needless to say, this makes me want to get to her faster!! We are so excited!

USCIS Fingerprints!!!

We just got back from Atlanta, and we have now been fingerprinted by USCIS!!! Now we just wait for the FBI to clear our prints. Once we get our clearance, our paperwork will soon head to China! I can't wait!!!

I love it!!!

Noelle has always been adamant that she will not cut her hair. Since I am the hair cutter in our family, she always makes it very clear that she will be angry if I cut off more than one or two inches. She has always gotten alot of attention for her hair, and she has in some way been defined by it. I talked with her today about donating it for kids who really needed a wig because of cancer. She decided she was finally ready to let it go. Here is the before picture.

Here is the after picture.

Here is all the hair that we will be mailing to Pantene Lengths. That hair in her hands really weighs alot.

Then here she is with the doll I bought her because I am so proud of her! It is an Our Generation doll from Target, and I must say I am impressed with the doll for the money.

I love the new hair do, and Noelle does too. We sent a text picture to Paul so he could see. He responded correctly when he said he loved it. I can't wait til she over shampoos and conditions her short hair and we spend days trying to get it all out. Oh yeah, and have I said lately that I love this girl! Her heart amazes me!

$5 fun

Last week Noelle and I ran across the street to a yard sale. The lady who lives there was moving into a retirement home. We saw a wedding dress that we both knew LeeLee would love. She had been having alot of pretend weddings, and we just knew she would love to have a dress. We didn't like the current price, so we waited til the end of the garage sale and went back. We were able to get this "Beautiful" (as LeeLee calls it) eighty-five year old wedding dress and veil for $5. She loves it, she wears it to marry Mr. Man. She makes it very clear that these are fake weddings and that she will continue to live with us. Yesterday she wanted me to do bridal portraits, and this is one of the pictures. This child cracks me up!

RA Derby Car

This was our first year of many for the Royal Ambassadors Derby Car Race. You start out with a block of wood. Hunter decided he wanted his to look like a tiger. I tried to talk him into a car that we painted a tiger on, but he wanted it to look like a tiger. Thankfully his dad is well connected and they were able to use some precise equipment and cut the car. We painted and lacquered, and set the wheels and axles. I was really proud of how it turned out. We raced last weekend at our church and he placed second. He was so excited to have a ribbon. Then this weekend we raced in the associational race, and he didn't fare so well, but he brought home a trophy for most unique. He again was so excited to walk away with something. We learned alot this year, so I know that next year we will be able to make improvements that will help with speed. Hunter has already picked his design for next year and it is a amazing. We will see if we can pull it off.

We won!

I had several faithful readers of my blog ask me why I put a picture of a hair clip on my blog. I know it is uncharacteristic of me, but it was for an entry into a contest to win a bouquet of flower clippies. The girls wanted us to win so bad so we could get the hair clips for Hope. I think they will look adorable in her little head, with what we are now calling her pixie hair do.

The Boy and His Dog

I know I say this all the time, but Rags really is an amazing dog. I have no doubt in my mind that he was sent to us by God to help our son. Rags did more for Hunter than hours of physical therapy, speech therapy, and equilibrium therapy combined. He truly became a best friend and play mate for Hunter. Even though Hunter doesn't rely on Rags for therapy any more, there devotion to each other is still so strong. Hunter fell asleep in my bed, and this is what I walked in my room to find. As long as Hunter was going to hold him, Rags was going to stay. I am so thankful for him, and for his devotion to our family.