Friday, August 25, 2006

THE QUILT IS DONE !!!!!!!







WOW! That is the best word to describe Paul's 100 Good Wishes quilt. It is so beautiful and will be cherished forever. When I look at this quilt I see how blessed our family is to have so many friends and family members who care about us. It won't take Paul long to figure out that he is loved and cared about by many people. The squares came from all over the country. They came from new and old friends. Many came from families that we traveled with when we adopted Audrey. Some squares came from a couple of my dental hygiene patients and even from complete strangers.

For those of you who have started to follow our journey a little later in the game, I'll fill you in on how the quilt began. A friend of a friend, Sally, was invited to participate in someone elses "Good Wish" quilt. She brought this ivitation into the office that I work at and asked me if I had ever heard of it. I said that I had but knew that it was something that I could never do so I never even considered doing one. She called me the next day to offer to sew one together for me if I collected all of the squares. (You should all know that Sally and her husband Steve have 2 teenagers adopted from South Korea.) You usually create the quilt before you bring the child home but she said if we're going to do one for Paul that she might as well do one for Audrey. I was so suprised that she offered to do this for us. So at the end of May I set out to collect 100 squares for each quilt. The first 75 came pretty easy but I did have to harass a few people to get the last 20 or so. We (me, Ted and the kids) put in 5 squares. We used rooster fabric for the 4 corners since Paul was born in the Chinese the year of the rooster. Then I had the center square embroidered with Paul's Chinese name, his English name and his date of birth. Sally sewed the squares together then she gave me the top. Natalie and I pinned the top, the batting and the backing together. Then Delores (my MIL), Natalie and I tied it together with embroidry floss. Last, I gave it back to Sally and she bound it all together with a soft blue flannel material. I think it is a work of art made out of love. During all of this, I have been busy putting the "good wishes" into a scrapbook. You guys really out did yourselves with these wishes. Every single one is special. Thank you so much!!!!! As of now I plan to hang the quilt on the wall next to Paul's crib.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

How Paul came into our lives


Hi Everyone! I have really debated about this post. Below is an email that I sent to classmate from high school explaining how Ted and I came to the decision to adopt Paul. It is fairly personal but I feel that I should share how God is working in our lives. I do truly believe that God wanted this child to be part of our family.


"Well we knew while we were still in China adopting Audrey that we would adopt again. There is something very spiritual and powerful about someone just handing you a helpless child in a hotel lobby and saying "she's yours." We brought her home in Mar. of "05 and had planned to start the paperwork for another "healthy infant" adoption in the fall of '06. We figured we would have Audrey's adoption completely paid off by then. Our future started to change late last fall when I told Ted that "something" (better known as GOD) was telling me to think about adopting a special needs child. Ted said he would consider it if the right situation presented itself, but that we still had to finish paying for Audrey's adoption before we made any big decisions. January has rolled around by now and I came across a "waiting child" list from an agency in NC. There were about 30 kids on the list some with minor special needs and some with major problems. There was a little girl who caught my eye. She had a hemangioma birthmark in her private area. I couldn't believe that this child was considered special needs just because she had a birthmark in a area that no one could even see. I just couldn't imagine a child being considered un-adoptable for such a minor problem. As I was keeping an eye on this little one I would continue to look through the other pictures on a fairly regular basis. Their names would change colors if a family had committed to adopt them. Shortly after I started watching the list the little girl found her forever family. PTL!!! By now I started to have a warm spot for #11 ( Paul). I even showed Ted his picture saying "look at this little guy." We didn't really start to talk about adopting him for at least another month. I should tell you that the Chinese government only allows these kids to be on a WC list for 3 months. There are so many kids with special needs in Chinese orphanages. The government feels that it is only fair to the other children to be on a list for 3 months and then if there is no interest then that child is removed from the list to make room for another child's file. They usually only get one shot on being on a list because there are so many kids!!!

I had really started to feel something special for this child so I seriously told Ted that I wanted to talk about adopting him. Ted is a very compassionate man but his argument was "there are 1000's of healthy girls who need homes too, why not just adopt a healthy child again. We can't save them all." It's hard to argue with that because there are so many healthy girls who left behind every year. So I let it go. I started to pray that #11 would find his family. As time went by I started to be consumed with thinking about this child. Keep in mind that I had seen 100's of files of other kids but none touch me the way he did. I knew that #11 only had about 3 weeks left on the list. I actually started to feel psychically ill. ( I later told my Pastor that I felt like I was convicted, are you familiar with that term in a religious sense). I kept talking to Ted about it and his reply was the same. I even called my sister thinking that she would be on my side and give me some ammunition to change Ted's mind. I was shocked when she responded by saying that "Ted probably knows what is best for your family, you need to respect his decision." I cried and cried, she is always my support, my up-lifter. I started to think "well if Renee thinks it's a bad idea too, then maybe it is a bad idea". I'll never forget this night as long as I live. I felt the same heaviness in my heart that I felt after our 2nd child died in our arms. Just a miserable, painful feeling in my chest. I prayed "Lord, Ted and I have such a great relationship, I can't force him to want to adopt this child and I can't be mad at him for his decision." Then I prayed "Lord if YOU want us to adopt this little boy then YOU have to change Ted's heart." It was about 10:00 at night ( Ted works 2nd shift so he wasn't home) when I prayed all of this. I felt an immediate peace. I woke up the next morning and I wasn't mad at Ted anymore. We went about our normal routine. After breakfast Ted shocked me by saying that he decided that we should bring this little guy home, last night while he was at work. I started crying and crying and told him about my prayers. He surprised me even more by asking if I had a name picked out. Through my tears I said no, because I didn't even think he would ever be ours. Ted said, I want to name Paul, one because that's one of his uncle's names, but mainly because he said that Paul in the bible had to overcome a phyiscal disability just like our little Paul will have to. By this point I knew that as long as Ted didn't want to name the baby something like "Hector" I really didn't care what his name was. I was just so thankful that Ted was now ready to bring him home too. I called the adoption agency right at that moment and had his file faxed to us. We found out that Paul's Chinese name means "hopes of him being a strong man in spite of his handicap." They strongly recommend having the files reviewed by a doctor before you make any decision. By then I didn't really care what any doctor had to say because I had prayed so hard for the child to come into our family so we signed the initial applications for him that afternoon. Neither one of us has 2nd guessed our decision since. We can not afford this adoption but I know that God will provide for us. He already has in many ways since March. I was able to pick up extra hours at work just for the summer. Ted has only been at Crown for 9 months but last week he was promoted to group leader which will bring him to top pay sooner. It usually takes 2 years to get to top pay. We have applied for a few adoption grants so we're praying that at least one of those will come through. Thankfully Ted and I aren't too materialistic. All of our vehicles are almost 10 years old or more, so no car payments. We don't have any credit card debit. Plus we live in a nice but very affordable older home, that we can get a home equity loan to pay for all of the adoption. Paul's adoption will cost right around $23,000. I know that God will take care of us one way or another."


So, this is our story in a nutshell. I know that God is working in our lives. I have reposted the little picture of Paul that we fell in love with. When one on my sweet co-workers first looked at his picture she said "look at those eyes, he's looking for his mama." Well, I hope he doesn't mind that he's not only found his "mama", but he's also found his dad and 3 siblings who all can't wait to get him home!!!!!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Paul's Finding Ad



I was able to get a copy of Paul's finding ad. A finding ad is exactly what it sounds like. The orphanage actually puts an ad in the local newspaper of the children who have been recently abandoned. The ad is placed in hopes that a family member will come forward to bring the child back home. There is a man name Brian Stuy who lives in Utah who somehow has a lot of the Chinese newspapers. I emailed him last week with all of Paul's information including his birthdate and what orphanage he is in. Mr. Stuy contacted me a few days later saying that he did have a copy of Paul's ad. I received the actual newspaper, an up-close photo of just his ad and the translation of just his ad. From what I can tell Paul is the only boy in this group of pictures. I making this educated guess by looking at the symbol right after his name. The other 12 pictures have the same symbol and his is different. His translation read's Chen Zhi Qiang, a boy, etc. Audrey's SWI didn't do finding ads, but Mr. Stuy had been to her SWI in 2004 and made a video of the inside and outside of the orphanage. We bought the DVD shortly before we traveled to bring her home. The video is priceless. He has been to many SWIs in China but has not yet made it to Chenzhou. He told me that he hopes to get there sometime in the near future. We will definitely get a copy if and when he gets there.

On another note Paul's "Good Wish" quilt is almost done. My friend Sally gave me the completed quilt top last week. On Saturday Natalie, Delores ( Ted's mom) and I tied the quilt together. Now the quilt is back in Sally's hands ready to have the binding put on. I'm almost done with the "Good Wish" scrapbook too. So many of the wishes are so sweet and thoughtful. We will treasure both the quilt and the scrapbook forever. I will post pictures as soon as it's done. Sally is also putting together Audrey's quilt top so I will be sure to post pictures when her quilt is done too.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

We have LID!!!!



Today we received an email from our agency saying that we were officially "Logged In" with the CCAA ( Chinese government). Our "log in date" is today 8-2-06. This is one of those dates that you never forget. I'll always remember Audrey's LID was 7-2-04. I'm still guessing to travel in October or November.

Monday we went to the court house to apply for a passport for Natalie. As of now we are planning to take her to China with us. We originally wanted to take Andrew since he is the oldest but he DOES NOT want to sit on a plane for 12 hours. Plus he thinks "all of those Chinese people talking Chinese" will get on his nerves. It would probably be the other way around, Andrew would probably get on the Chinese peoples' nerves. We didn't argue with him. Natalie eagerly offered to take his place. I think Natalie will be a good travel companion. She is so excited about seeing Paul for the first time and having her picture taken on the Great Wall.

To pass time during this waiting process I am looking into sending disposable cameras to Paul's SWI. We sent 1 camera to Audrey's SWI and it was given back to us the same time we received her. The pictures are priceless. We used UPS the first time but this time around I am using an internet business to take care of it. When we sent Audrey's we probably spent almost $100 ( $75 for shipping, $25 on the camera, blanket, toy and photo album). Blessed Kids will send a letter in Chinese explaining who we are and what kind of pictures we would like, 2 disposable cameras, 1 stuffed animal and 2 lbs. of candy for $81. I know it still sounds expensive but we will have so little to tell Paul or show him about his first year and a half of life, the extra pictures will be well worth it.

We received this picture of Paul the same time that we got the other 2. I was having computer problems that day so I only was able to post those pictures. Paul doesn't look too happy here. I bet he's just mad that they made him stand by the wall for no reason. I saw this picture of the ultrasound on someone else's online journal and thought it was too cute. The term "paperwork pregnant" is used quite a bit in the international adoption world so this picture reflects that.

Please continue to pray for our sweet son. Alison