Our Journey to Courtney

Sisters

2010-11-20T21:24:00.001-08:00

Home

2010-10-03T19:52:00.000-07:00

Well this trip home was much quicker than the last with very little time between connections. Courtney did as well as any 2 1/2 year old could do with that many hours on a plane. The girls seem to like each other but are also very jealous if one is with mommy and the other is not. Still working on getting Courtney's nights and days switched but it seems to be going better than it did with Kaleigh. She has fun with daddy but is still clinging to mommy which isn't making big sister too happy. Our biggest issue right now is the fact that Courtney does not like the dogs. She will feed them sometimes but gets very upset if they are around during meals or if they run into each other unexpectedly. Anyway still exhausted but work needs me for a few hours tomorrow and daddy is on duty for the next month! Wish him luck everyone!!!

Red Couch and more...

2010-09-30T18:34:00.000-07:00

Well, the trip is almost over and we fly out in the morning for home! Courtney took a picture on the red couch and some misc. pictures from the last day in China. Can't wait for everyone to meet Courtney! I miss everyone...

It was there...right there...I know it was..

2010-09-28T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you who were there, or followed the blog of Kaleigh..you may remember the Italian restaurant that all of the families went to and had a birthday party for the girls..Well, its no more...The pic with Sandy and Courtney with the train statue is in front of a French restaurant that is next to the abandoned Italian restaurant. The other pic is Courtney in the swan room again...can't get enough of the swan room...Friday is the flight out!!!!

Swan Room

2010-09-28T03:25:00.000-07:00

Courtney is getting the White Swan experience. She had a great time in the room playing with all of the toys...and holding onto her little security blanket (aka a hoodie).

Few more pics

2010-09-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 more pics of Courtney...enjoying herself..

Courtney got her check up today! Lots of shots!

2010-09-25T07:42:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Courtney eating at Lucy's and in her bed at the White Swan! The pictures of Courtney with the flower is from her last day in Hohhot.

A day in the park

2010-09-22T21:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it stopped raining and we made it to local park. We had fun in the sun. Courtney is still adjusting to me.

"The Great Escape"

2010-09-21T05:24:00.000-07:00

The rain stopped!!! We walked to a 5 story mall today. I was able to get Courtney a new pair of shoes, as she was wearing a pair of shoes that were a getting a bit to small. While we were in the shoe store, Courtney was getting a little upset about not getting everything she wanted, and made a break for it! Uh-oh, she didn't get far. We made it to the grocery store, and we were able to pick up some snacks. Courtney is eating well and continues to bond with me.

Rain...Rain...Rain

2010-09-21T05:20:00.001-07:00

September 20th, today in Hohhot China, the final paperwork was completed! Courtney is ours!Rain is keeping everyone inside the hotel. Courtney is starting to bond with me. Here are some more pictures from the hotel. Enjoy.

COURTNEY!

2010-09-19T09:48:00.001-07:00

A few more sites.....

2010-09-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today was a much shorter day with us being at the hotel around 2pm. We started the day with a trip to see the pandas, then a trip to a temple, which always strikes me as odd since you are there as a tourist and the others are there worshipping. We then did a rickshaw tour and had lunch prepared by one of the locals and it was very good. The best part of the day was getting back early enough to walk down the street to Starbucks. I got a piece of New York style cheesecake and a hot chocolate! Time was spent getting some packing done in the room, then walking down to McDonalds for dinner. We have been so late the last two nights, we have only had Pizza Hut, which is located in our hotel.

Anyway, we leave early tomorrow and get our babies as soon we land tomorrow. I am so excited! i can't wait to hold Courtney. I'm also thinking back to our time spent here with Kaleigh, and all the memories I have of that time. I want my time here with Courtney to be just as wonderful in it's own way. Next post should have Courtney Pics!!!!!!!!

Great Wall and more!

2010-09-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Well today was another long day of touring and sightseeing. We left the hotel just after 7 am and got back to the hotel just before 8 pm. We did the Ming tombs and the Great Wall plus a jade store and a cloisonne store, lunch and a tea shop. I went to a different part of the Great Wall this time and it was extremely steep and there was no cable car to take you to the top. The bad part was that it rained all day here and the stairs were extremely slick.

Anyway enjoy the pictures. Tomorrow is another day with the zoo, Tibetan Lama Temple and a ricksaw tour of the hutong on the schedule. After the tours tomorrow we head back to the hotel to repack so we can leave early Sunday and go get our babies. I can't wait to go get Courtney!

Let the tours begin!

2010-09-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day, but long and busy. We started out at the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, followed by the Temple of Heaven, lunch, a silk factory tour, the Summer Palace, and finally a pearl store. I got some of the gifts on my list for Courtney!!! I loved both the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. Both were beautiful! I have always wanted to see the marble boat and I finally got to see it!

Anyway, just finished a pizza hut pizza and getting ready for bed. We have another full day ahead of us tomorrow!

Safe Arrival

2010-09-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

China no longer allows access to blogger. So, Sandy will send me updates and pictures as she takes them. Sandy sent me an email at 3:30am Wednesday morning letting me know that her and Paula made it safely..Just some hotel reservation issues that were sorted out with the guides help. Ming tombs and Great Wall are on the menu for Thursday, which for Sandy and Paula is already under way since they are 13 hours ahead of us. Anyway, I will keep everyone posted as I get updates.

TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-08-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

We got the call today that our Travel Approval has arrived. We had to give some possible dates to our agency to request our consulate appointment. As soon as we get a confirmation on that date we can book our flights and hotels. We have had a hard time the last few weeks because we know Courtney is very small because of her open palate and the quicker we get her home the faster we can get it repaired and get her weight to a healthier number. I am so excited and so is her daddy. Thanks to everyone who expressed their excitement today, it means so much to us.

New Pictures!!!!

2010-08-06T19:47:00.000-07:00

We got an update and new pictures of our youngest today. She is just precious but apparently the orphanage still feels the need to keep her hair chopped off. She is 33 inches tall but only 21 pounds. She has 17 teeth and is potty trained!!!! Her palete had not been repaired so that will be a priority when we get home and hopefully that will help her gain weight as well. She is still taking a bottle which I have heard is common with the unrepaired palete. Everytime I look at these pictures and all the others we have I fall more and more in love with this child.

Update

2010-07-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

We hit another paperwork error with our I 800 approval but after several phone calls to our immigration officer we got it corrected and are back on track. We are now waiting on a letter from the Visa center and then I think we are waiting on TA. We are still hoping for a late August travel but with the delay on the I 800 approval we may be looking at September. That still is not too far in the future so I am slowly working on my packing list and getting supplies for travel. I have bought Courtney some clothes but until I am closer to travel and have an update on her size I am scared to buy too much. I am sure it is no surprise that Kaleigh has only worn about 2/3 of what I bought for her. The rest was the wrong size or the wrong season and some was just that she didn't get around to wearing it. Anyway we are so excited to be adding Courtney to our family. I have been blessed with one wonderful daughter and can't wait to bring home my second blessing.

LOA!!!!!

2010-06-07T20:07:00.001-07:00

Today was a very exciting day for us. I am sitting in my office with a staff member and see an incoming call on my cell phone and it says unknown so I continued with my meeting expecting that it was a wrong number. A couple of minutes later I was alone in my office and noticed that the caller had left a message. It was our agency and can I call them back as soon as I get the message. I instantly started freaking out because we were just lid 33 days before and the shortest time to LOA I had seen was 43 days. Plus there were people with our agency that were lid about two weeks before us and as of the end of last week they had not heard anything. So as I am waiting for our person to get on the phone, I am pacing back and forth I closed the door to my office expecting bad news. She gets on the phone and tells me that she has good news for me, she has our LOA!!!! This was such a shock and a wonderful wonderful surprise. For those not familiar witht the adoption world that means that China has given their final approval and we just have to finish our immigration paperwork and wait on travel approval so we can go get Courtney and bring her home!!!!!! Hoping for August travel or at least September. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for things to go fast for us.

New pictures

2010-05-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

We just got new pictures of Courtney this week. They are from her birthday party at the orphanage. We sent her a cake and a doll and you will see her enjoying both. The pictures are very tiny and I haven't had any luck with getting them bigger so enjoy and if I can I will get them redone to be larger.

Updates!!!

2010-05-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

I heard from the agency today that our LID is 5/5/10. This is so exciting. I have seen LOA's arrive in as little as 43 days and then travel in 2 - 3 months after that. That would put me in China in Aug or Sept!!! I am praying for a fast LOA!!!!! It seems a little more real now that we know that China has our paperwork in hand and it is just a matter of them taking the time to look at it and give their stamp of approval for us to come and get her.

Happy birthday baby girl!

2010-05-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

Today was a difficult day for Brent and I. More so than it was to miss Kaleigh's 1st birthday by one day. I think it is because we have know who she is for so long now and because we still don't know when we will get her for sure. Anyway we celebrated by having cake at home and we sent her a doll and a cake for her orphanage. I hope we get pictures soon of her enjoying the cake. I know her sister enjoyed the cake here. We love you Courtney and can't wait to have you home with us!!

Update

2010-04-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to get an update on Courtney today. What a wonderful present to receive on our 10 wedding anniversary. It came with one picture that I have not been able to post because it was a part of a pdf file and I can't get it converted yet. She is so beautiful and has the same expression on her face that Kaleigh often has in pictures (the serious one). She looks very well cared for and she looks like she is doing wonderful. Her second birthday is coming in just over a week and I have sent a cake and a doll through one of the care package services so she will have something from her mommy, daddy, and sister on her birthday. Anyway size wise she is just a very tiny bit smaller than Kaleigh was at the same age so that is helping me to guess about her size a little better for when we bring her home (hoping for late summer early fall please pray with me). The paperwork said she is smart, outgoing, can choose her favorite toy, can run, jump, feed herself, drink by herself, wants to be held when she cries and can say "hug". Still wondering if that is hug in Chinese or English! I remember Kaleigh's paperwork talking about how active she was and if this paperwork is as accurate....we are going to have our hands full!

DTC

2010-04-24T02:37:00.001-07:00

We finally got notification from the agency that they had all of our paperwork back from DC and that we should be DTC on Monday!!!!!! For those of you who thought this should have already happened let me give you some advice. Make sure you double check all your dates on all your paperwork. My local background check ended up being dated incorrectly and no one caught it until it was in DC and 8 days ago I spent the day getting it redone and taking it thru the state level process of getting it state sealed. The process was not hard but very frustrating and a lot of running to have everything verified before it could go on to the next step. I was lucky that I spoke to people who knew a lot more about what I was doing than I did!! Remember to thank your agency if they take care of these steps for you, I know I did because I couldn't imagine doing this for every piece of paper that has to go to China. Anyway the most important part of this post is that as of Monday we will be DTC and one step closer to bringing Courtney home!!!!

Room progress

2010-04-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Courtney's room is about 2/3 of the way complete. We still have to do some accessories and art work but the furniture is in and put together, curtains are hung and bedding is on. I know some of you are waiting on pictures but sorry to say it was late enough tonight and there is still tools and such scattered around the room that I didn't get the pictures taken.

With each step in the process we are getting more and more excited and we have also met (online) a couple of other people who are with our agency and are within either days or a couple of weeks of being right where we are in the process. This is really exciting for us since we were so close to our travel group when we brought Kaleigh home.

Hopefully there will be good news this week (maybe DTC!!!).

Immigration Approval!!!

2010-03-25T20:16:00.001-07:00

Today when I got home from work I checked the mail thinking that Brent and Kaleigh had probably already done it, but just in case.... You can imagine how excited I was to see an envelope from immigration it there. Yes, it was our approval now I just have to get a copy to our agency so our dossier can head to China. We are now waiting on DTC and then LID which will hopefully be followed by a quick LOA. We are so excited and it happened at such a perfect time. We are having a yard sale Saturday to raise money for the adoption expenses and to clear out Courtney's room so we can start getting it ready.

Finger Prints!!

2010-03-08T19:01:00.001-08:00

Today we finally received the letter with our fingerprint appointments!!!!! It seems like we have been working toward Courtney for so long but in reality it has been so much shorter than it even was when we started our process for Kaleigh. Wish us speedy turn around!!!

Updates

2010-02-22T19:45:00.000-08:00

Well today is Kaleigh's birthday and we received notice in the mail today that Immigration has received our money/ application and we are now just waiting on our fingerprint appointment. So for her birthday Kaleigh got a step closer to her sister.

Homestudy done!

2010-02-03T19:32:00.001-08:00

Well, it seemed to take forever but in reality only took about 2 months. The home study is done and we are just waiting on our immigration appointment!!! We have been stressing about getting everything done on time but it seems that at this point we are so close to having everything that the agency can ask for an extension so that is making me breathe a little easier. We can't wait to bring Courtney home and start showing her how much we love her and getting her the medical/ dental attention she will need for her lip and palette. Having two so close in age is going to be an adventure and one that I am so looking forward to. Kaleigh has such an amazing personality and by looking at her pictures it looks like Courtney does too. It should make for interesting times!

Belated Christmas Present!

2009-12-29T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today I got updated pictures of Courtney from the agency along with updated measurements. It looks like she is not only walking but running already. She is still a little smaller than Kaleigh but I think she is close to the same size as she was two months ago other than being slightly shorter. Anyway this soon to be mama of two is so happy to be looking at more pictures of her little one tonight. Please continue to keep us in your prayers that all of our paperwork is gathered and submitted in time so that we don't lose our Courtney Grace!

Updated Pictures of our little one!

2009-12-14T18:32:00.000-08:00

Today the service that I used to send a care package sent me some updated pictures of Courtney. They did an amazing job on her lip repair. She looks so wonderful. I will say that seeing the pictures of her and how much she has grown has made me realize that these next serveral months are going to be much longer than I thought. Anyway enjoy!

Paperwork Paperwork Paperwork

2009-12-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

I don't know that I actually forgot how much paperwork goes into an adoption but with a deadline this time it is much more stressful. Plus so many requirements have changed due to Hague. Keep the prayers coming everyone because we are head over heels in love with this one too. Well obviously you already know how much we love our little bit otherwise known as Kaleigh! Anyway thanks for all of your support and love!

Here are pictures

2009-12-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

I know several of you have been waiting on pictures of Courtney so here are the only two that we have at this time. The one appears to be when she was just a few weeks old and the other appears to be when she was about 6 to 9 months old. I don't have any pictures yet of her after the lip repair but they have been requested so as soon as I have those I will post them as well.

Paperwork, paperwork

2009-12-04T18:57:00.001-08:00

Wow and I thought I would never forget how much paperwork went with an adoption. We received all the paperwork from the agency yesterday evening but I just got started today. Kaleigh had a FCC Christmas Party last night. One other difference this time is that we are doing the adoption with a different agency and since they are not local we have to use another agency to do the homestudy. This time we will be getting things completed much quicker!!! We can't wait to bring our little angel home to be with us and her sister.

The beginning of this journey

2009-12-03T20:13:00.000-08:00

As some of you know we wanted to do two adoptions while we were waiting to bring Kaleigh home. As the wait grew longer and longer we started giving up on the hope of a second child. The completion of our journey to Kaleigh and the beginning of our journey with her really opened our eyes to special needs adoptions. We read so many stories of people who did sn adoptions and the children came home with almost no issues or issues that were so easy to correct. Then we went to China and found out that healthy referrals do not mean there will not be issues. Our precious wonderful Kaleigh was severely delayed physically and she has struggled to catch up with her peers, but she is a very determined little girl and she will get there. Some of the other children we saw in China ended up having major health concerns as well. So for anyone out there who is considering adoption just remember that just like having a child you don't know for sure what you are getting until you have it.

So we started looking at special needs list and talking to our social worker about the sn process. We looked at a few files and some were obviously not right for us, older, not sure if we could handle the needs of the child. A couple of the ones we looked at were matched with someone else first. Then comes this cute little girl with a cleft lip and palette. There was something about her eyes and the thick hair on her head. So we requested to see her file. She was only 2 1/2 months younger than Kaleigh (we almost switched to twins while we were waiting) and was developementally right on track. While at a Halloween party for Kaleigh the pediatrician called to let me know that she looked good other than her obvious special needs. I called the agency and said we want her. They said we think someone may have just placed her one hold let me check and I will call you back. That was a LONG 15 minutes and then they called and said she is on hold for you and this is what you need to do to request Pre approval. On November 2nd, I sent in the paperwork that China needed to show that we were qualified and that we had a plan to care for this little one. On November 30th, I got the email that said China had approved us. Now we have a deadline to get the next part of the process completed, but Pan Li to be known as Courtney Grace will hopefully be coming home to her forever family in 9 to 12 months.