Connecting with Anna

We can send a package to Anna while we wait to travel. Our agency suggests sending something small and plush after sleeping with it for awhile. That way our smells will be on it to help ease her transition to our family. Funny and a little gross, I know. :) But there's also the fact that while she has it in the orphanage, it will absorb smells there further helping her transition. Soo... I decided to make her a flannal tag blankie with our pictures on it. And yes, we are sleeping with it. I'm planning to mail it the end of this week, along with a disposable camera, more pictures of us, and a list of questions in Chinese that I hope someone in the orphanage will answer. Hopefully, we'll get it all back when Anna is given to us. But as long as the blankie and other pictures get to her, I'll be satisfied.

Red Threads and Ladybugs

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break." --Ancient Chinese Proverb

We are still amazed by how God is working out our adoption. When John and I sent in our preliminary application by internet to our agency on the evening of January 2, 2005, we never could have guessed that our daughter had been born earlier that very day. (We will most likely never know what time she was born; we just know that China is 14 hours ahead of us and that she was found with a note that listed her date of birth.) We had started the process at that time because we wanted a baby who would be close in age to Rhodes and Cara. Little did we know that our baby, our daughter-to-be Anna, would live with her birth family for several months, thereby delaying her readiness for adoption until the fall of 2007. When delay after delay held up our paperwork to the point of it taking 16 months before our file was forwarded to China, although difficult we knew that God was in control, that He had some reason for the delays. Then in January of this year, we were unexpectantly sent our agency's latest waiting child list. We had already discussed checking these lists for toddlers but had decided that we were afraid of trying to "take matters into our own hands" and wanted to be sure we were waiting on God's timing. When we received that first list last January, John and I felt it was right to begin checking the waiting child lists for our Anna, ...just in time to have us ready and able to request Dongxing when she was on the November list.

When I saw Dongxing's information and pictures, I felt somewhere deep inside that there was a good chance we would be matched with her if we requested to be since she was almost 3 years old. And yet, I knew that there were about 200 families with our agency that were eligible to request children on the waiting child lists. Most of those families were ahead of us in line. Therefore, I did not let myself look at Dongxing's info or pictures once we made our decision to request her. I did not want to let myself get to the point that I would be too heartbroken if we were not matched with her. I never even made the connection with her birth date! We had a week to wait before we knew our agency's decision. On the 15th, the day we would find out, I felt weak and sick to my stomach all morning. The agency would let the different social workers know by 11am central time the families who were not matched with a child. Cara stays at school until 2:30 on Thursdays and Rhodes spends at least part of those days with his grandma. By myself, I spent the morning trying to pray and relax to calm down my nerves and stomach. As 11:00 slipped by, then 11:30, 12 noon, 1:00, I began to feel myself calm down. The thought came to me, "They want the families who were not chosen to hear from their social workers first so they won't see another family post a match with the same child on an internet group. So that means that the families who were matched would not hear from their social workers until later in the day." I was beginning to expect a match! When I heard from our social worker, about 1:30 that afternoon, in some ways I wasn't surprised. But in other ways, I was shocked! I had to completely change my mindset -- I had been mentally preparing for a "baby" 24 months or younger; now I have to get ready for a 3 y.o.! And I'm thrilled! She'll be close in age to Rhodes and Cara after all!

When we received a copy of Anna's Chinese name written in the Chinese characters and were able to have it translated, we were amazed that it meant "Blessing (Happiness) from the East." Such a beautiful, true statement of what she is to us! It meant even more to me because of a Bible verse that I came back across in January of '06, right before I found out we were having to get back at the end of the line at US immigration after 3 months of waiting. Isaiah tells us "Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west". This verse brought a lot of comfort to me at that time, as if it were a promise from God that He would bring us together with Anna. Anna Kathryn Dongxing Scott is a blessing from the east!

Ladybugs are a symbol of good luck or prosperity in China. Families adopting from China often say that a "ladybug sighting" means that referrals are on their way. While not a believer in "luck", ladybugs are a fun, cute symbol of China adoption journeys. And the weekend before we were matched with our Anna, while sitting outside at my grandmother's house 2 1/2 hours from ours, we were surrounded by a literal swarm of ladybugs. They were everywhere, flying all around us. I had never seen anything like it! It was pretty special, especially now looking back at it.

We have found out that, thanks to the Half the Sky Foundation, the children at Anna's orphanage have had journals with pictures kept for them. They started these back in November of '05. We are praying fervently that we receive a book for Anna when we meet her. For her to have a journal and pictures of (most of) her life at the orphanage will be wonderful!

More Information about our Precious Anna!

I've been trying to do 100 things at once with a mind not able to concentrate on ONE thing well enough to get it done! :)

Anna is in a Social Welfare Institue (orphanage that often has a wing for the elderly as well) in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. That is in southern China and is the city where the US Consulate is located.

We have some paperwork to do now to update our file in order to adopt an older child. (Our initial paperwork already in China has our request for an infant "as young as possible". In order to be "matched" with an older child, we only had to let our adoption agency know that we were willing to take a child Anna's age.) Once China reviews our request for Anna, we will have a little more paperwork to do. Then we will wait for our "Travel Approval" from China. Once we have that, we will wait again for our visas and for an appointment with the US Consulate in Guangzhou. Once all of that is done, we travel as quickly as we can get airline tickets! With all of that to do, it will most likely be between two and four months before we are able to travel to Guangzhou to be given Anna.

Please check back from time to time, as I will try to update this blog often!

And please keep praying for us as wait again and pray for Anna as this will be a confusing and scary change for her! Thank you!

Praise the Lord!!

Anna was born on January 2, 2005, the very day we sent our preliminary application by internet to Bethany Christian Services!!!

More news to follow as time allows!!

Fairy Hunting in Maine

Cara loves fairies, mermaids, and princesses. After hearing about Tracy Kane's Fairy House books, Cara and I decided we needed a little mother-daughter bonding time. We headed to Portland, Maine, to hunt for fairies and build fairy houses on little Mackworth Island.

Cara works on her first fairy house.

Cara's first fairy house: a leaf bead with shell pillow, a small leaf bedside rug, and an acorn table and chairs set.

Cara builds another fairy house in the rocks on the beach on Mackworth Island.

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Fairy houses we found that had been built by others there before us: ---

More sights around Portland, Maine:

October Pictures

Playing in the corn at the Corn Maze.

Fairy Princess for Trick-or-Treating in Downtown New Albany.

Spiderman at the trick-or-treating event.

Hugs!

The end of the night.

For the Reformation Celebration, the kids and I were Converts to Judaism from the deserts of northern Africa who were in Jerusalem at the time of the Passover when the Holy Spirit came. (It was for a Bible character contest! And although I did try, I don't think I ever was able to get the kids to understand all that!)

The outfits are authentic ones that I bought in the Republic of Niger. Mine I wore as 'everyday' clothes while I lived there.

More Pictures

Skate Party 2007
Dressing the part for a friend's Pirate Party.

Yes, Cara was born liking makeup.

Super Rhodes!

The Southern Belle.

50s Day at Regents, 2007.

Rhodes' Pirate 4th Birthday

Rhodes and Cara are made to wait in the den while Mommy hides the treasure!

Cara helps Rhodes decipher the Treasure Map.

Following the map.

Rhodes and his treasure!

(Who knew there were so many Christian "pirates" out there in books & on CD!)

More Pictures

Cara and Rhodes ride a pig near the market in downtown Seattle.

Cousins Cara, Rhodes, Emily, and Ben are silly during our weekend together at the lake.

The last swim party of the season at Uncle Stephen and Aunt Dianne's. Rhodes and Joshua with Cara and Ben behind them.

Cara's first day of Kindergarten! (August '07)

Rhodes and Cara in their Easter outfits. (Finally taken in August!)

Trip to the Northwest, July '07

We had a fantastic time visiting our good friends Gail and James and their kids Emma and Liam in Oregon. The kids are great friends: Emma is about 20 months older than Cara; and you would never believe it by looking at them, but Liam is almost a year younger than Rhodes.

At Camp 18 in Elsie, Oregon -- an old logging camp turned restaurant and tourist attraction.

At the beach -- the cold-even-in-July beach -- on the Pacific.

Eating ice cream in Seaside, Oregon.

In front of Multnomah Falls along the Columbia River Gorge.

Cara, Rhodes, Emma, and Liam proudly display their medals from the Kids Fun Run. They all did great, trying their best and finishing the race!

Watching the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field.

Having fun at the game.

Having fun on the rides at the base of the Seattle Space Needle.