A Helping Hand's Annual Family Picnic

Our adoption agency hosts an annual family picnic which we've unfortunately missed the past year or so.  Thankfully though, we were able to go this year and had the best time!  There were only a few families from our first travel group but since then we have made friends with some other families - so in a way it was almost like a family reunion.  The girls had a blast playing with their friends from China ... and me, well - I got a little misty eyed thinking of the girls from our first travel group and how Emma has "known" them even before she became our daughter.  It just further instilled in me how important it is that or Lianjiang daughters have a life long bond.

Susan was our travel guide with Rebecca's adoption.  In fact, the area we traveled to was her hometown!  While we were there we were blessed to enjoy some homemade dumplings that her mom sent to us at the hotel.  Best I've ever had!

Emma and Kate - We sat close to her parents on the trip to China and then became good friends too.

Emma, Sheridan & Mattie Grace - our little "Lianjiang Sisters"



Emma & Rebecca with Jenna - the daughter of a local family we met while waiting on Rebecca's adoption.  Neat thing with this friendship is that they are in the process of adopting again and their new daughter is from the same orphanage Emma was in. How cool is that?!!!

And just for fun - this picture was taken at the very first AHH Family Picnic we attended which was just about a month  after we had gotten home with Emma.  She was blowing kisses already!

Happy Emma Referral Day!

I know I post this every year, but it's such a wonderful memory for me that I just can't help myself. What a day it was! I had been emailing back and forth with a friend I had made through the adoption process. Her paperwork had gone in earlier than ours and she was fairly certain she would get a referral, but ours was several weeks later and so I wasn't sure. Hopeful though!

Sure enough my phone rang at work and it was our adoption agency. People gathered around my desk as they heard me asking questions. Of course the detailed list of questions I had PLANNED on asking pretty much got set aside as our family advocate started telling me several things from Emma's paperwork.

Brian and I really hadn't discussed the dissemination of information once we did receive the call and personality wise, he and I are pretty much at opposite ends of the spectrum. I asked our family advocate if she would email the pictures to me. Which she did. Then full 'Carolin' style, I promptly forwarded to everyone and their mother. Brian had assumed we would drive to Lexington together and see the picture together as a family. A tad bit of a disconnect huh?

Somehow in my hurry and excitement I emailed the picture to his personal email address but not his work address so he didn't realize I had even sent it out ... that is, until a friend of mine/coworker of his called him to congratulate him on his adorable daughter. Can you say "oops!"

But we made it through, I really don't think I could have waited until we drove to Lexington to see that precious little face anyway!

So, happy 6 year anniversary of our referral for Emma Lian! Here she is then.



and then here she is now (well - as of last fall anyway!)

I sure love that little dimpled dumpling!

Starfish Babies

As many of you know, Rebecca lived with Amanda at the Starfish Home in Xian, China. Amanda's mission in life is to help medically needy orphans get the medical care they need and then to take care of them until their forever families arrive. Words just can't describe enough how much I respect and appreciate her life work!

I really haven't had the time to reach out to every family who adopts a Starfish child but a couple of new families caught my eye the other day, one in particular because they are from Tennessee. Makes me smile to think of another little Chinese child with a southern accent :-)

Anyway, these two families will be traveling to Xian soon - check it out, wish them well and remember them in your prayers!

"Immeasurablymoreblessed"

and

"FaithWithOutWorks"

Tomorrow we will be welcoming home some friends who have traveled back to get their 2nd daughter. I need to make sure I take my kleenex to the airport, a new child home with their forever families ALWAYS makes me cry!

Starfish Friend Reunion

Our vacation started out in the coolest kind of way, we were able to meet up with the family who adopted the little girl named Jade from the Starfish Home. She and Emma are very close to the same age and I think were the two oldest children at the home. The girls didn't seem to remember each other at first but in no time were back to being the best of buddies!

Family Advocate

While we were in North Carolina we were able to meet up one night for dinner with Katrina who was our family advocate when we first started the process of adopting Rebecca. She's no longer with the agency we used but we have kept in contact since she left. I can't help but smile when I think of Katrina, she gave Emma her very first sucker the day that Emma & I went to Lexington to turn in our paperwork. The friendship just built from there and she's also the same sweetie who sent Emma all the lovely "Fancy Nancy" duds that have gotten much use with our little girls. So thankful for such sweet friendships!

Adoption News

Oh wow, I'm a little behind on checking out blogs, particularly the ones I've been remiss in adding to my blog roll. Another one of those pesky little things on my todo list. But that aside, I have some great adoption news!!!

1. The lady who named Rebecca is on her way to China to adopt another child. Praise the Lord in the highest!!!! Finding out a child is about to join their forever family absolutely always makes me sing praises to our heavenly Father! Elaine volunteered at the Starfish Home the year Rebecca came to live there, but she never did actually get to meet Rebecca. Apparently there was a delay with Rebecca coming and Elaine was already scheduled to return home. However she was still able to name her and desired for her to have a good biblical name. I hope to meet this precious family one of these days! Click here to hop on over and wish them well on their trip!

2. I've recently been in contact with a family who is traveling to China to adopt a Starfish Baby!!!! Of course that really makes my day, another Starfish child will be united with their forever family. They will be leaving on the 20th and you can follow their story here.

I just know that the Father of the Fatherless is listening to the angels in heaven are rejoicing. The miracle of adoption, there's really just not adequate words to describe it!

So Many Blessings!

Our church hosted a fellowship the other night for adoptive families in our county. There wasn't an agenda, nothing planned ... just ice cream, toppings and cookies. Plenty of room and time for the kiddos to play with one another which gave the adults chit chat time. What a wonderful, wonderful evening catching up with everyone.

It's funny how it hits you sometimes. Especially when you see them all sitting together, but really - look at all these blessings. From time to time you cross paths with people who like to point out how blessed the kids are. Well, I'm here to tell you - it's all of us parents who are the recipients of the blessings! Our lives are forever changed for the better and our hearts just full of love and pride of our little ones.

What a wonderful and loving God we serve to bless our lives in the way he does. One little pint sized hug and kiss at a time.

What An Opportunity!

Amanda, Rebecca's foster mother from China, is in the US and her itineary included a a few days in Nashville. What a great opportunity for us since it's only about 3 hours away so we headed out Thursday afternoon to spend some time with her. I wasn't really sure how Rebecca would react, but since we do speak of her often and have been able to skype with her, I really thought it would be fine. Well, fine doesn't even do it justice - Rebecca was so happy to see her! We had the best time.

We had been invited to a small gathering that had been scheduled for Amanda to speak about her home and mission to help the medically needy orphans in Xi'An. It just so happens that several of the people who attended were also people who had sponsored Rebecca. Brian & I have talked about going down one weekend and attending the church there in Franklin that is such a big supporter of the Starfish Home but we just hadn't gotten around to it yet. I've written about this before, but it's so difficult for me to find the adequate words to share just how very much we appreciate the support shown to Rebecca and to the Starfish Home. To use a line from the Starfish Legend ... these supporters "made a difference to this one". Several people from their church traveled to Xi'An and volunteered there in the home (which is how I was able to get several pictures of Rebecca early on) and then others sent gifts to Rebecca. Her favorite little pair of pink crocs were sent by one of her supporters, another had sent her a build-a-bear. Lots of love was sent to our baby girl from one side of the world to the other! Simply amazing to me and so humbling.

The other little 'red thread' in all of this is that we were in Nashville when we first found out that Rebecca's file had been sent to the CCAA.

Here's a few pictures from the coffee/dessert thing we attended with Amanda.

Red Sofa Photo Op

A tradition among China adoptive families is to have a group photo taken on the red sofa at the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou, China. That's another photo I need to go snag off a drive for comparison's sake.

Mattie Grace wasn't included in that shot because, well - how do I put it ... her dad knew what time the shoot was scheduled but for some reason didn't realize it was important and failed to tell the mother. Not sure he ever lived that down. Anyway, one of the moms mentioned the other night that since our hotel had red sofas in the rooms that we should do an updated red sofa shot. So, after bath time and jammies were on we met up in her room and took this. This time Mattie Grace was included.

Pool Party

As I mentioned in the last post or so, we met up with our travel group this past Friday night pool side at the hotel where most of us stayed. The girls looked too stinking cute in their little swim suits and the parents were able to visit quite a bit while the dumplings swam.

I really should go back and find pictures from when we were in China and do a then vs now comparison ... but I'm not sure I'm up to perusing through that drive. It sounds good in theory but I know I'd end up spending 4 hours looking through pictures! ha. Maybe I'll get that done in the next few days.

It didn't take long after the sun started setting for them to discover the hot tub. The little hot tub honey-bunnies.


Mattie Grace - This is the little one that had the Derby themed birthday party. She's as sweet as she is pretty! She's much taller than little Emma too.



Jubilee & Emma hamming it up for the camera. They had such fun together.

Little Amy (Jillian's little sister) ... I like to tease her mom that she should have been my baby. She looks just like a Hunter child to me :-)

Jubilee and Emma ... they played a lot together. It seemed like they couldn't keep their hands off each other, it was really cute to watch.



Jillian - Isn't she just beautiful? My memories of her in China are of her clinging to her mom like no tomorrow. She was such a tiny little thing and looked so scared. It didn't seem like I got to know her mom that well while we were in China but became really good friends after we returned home and now we visit quite frequently. Oh, and Jillian really likes Ryan and was so disappointed that he wasn't with us.


Sheridan - I can't look at this little cutie and not think of being in China with her mom and dad. A very, very nice and genteel couple - just so easy going and easy to be around. We were on the first leg of our trip in China (2005) and we were getting ready to tour the summer palace. Freddy (her dad) wore one of those fanny pack type things and as we were pulling up to get off the bus and it's raining cats and dogs. Freddy is the first one to get to the door of the bus and there were all kinds of street vendors heading towards our bus. The door opens and Freddy holds up a $20 bill and offers to buy everyone an umbrella. We could not believe the reaction, the street vendors went nuts and were trying to sell theirs to him, they were even going for the money. It was almost like being rock stars and being grappled by fans or something. Somehow in the melee his fanny pack thing was even broken. The bus driver came off that bus and we couldn't understand a word he was saying, but that wasn't necessary - you didn't have to know Chinese to get the point. The street vendors backed off and we all just bought our own umbrellas.

Travel Group Reunion

We had the great pleasure of meeting up this past weekend with several of the families we traveled to China with back in 2005. All of our daughters came from the same orphanage and within our group, several of our girls shared a room together. Several families live in Kentucky but others are spread out as far as Virginia, Texas and Chicago to name a few. You just can't imagine what a treat it is to see the girls, see how much they have grown and then to watch them all playing together. We're so thankful that it's important to many of us that our girls have as much of a relationship as they can have.

We met up on Friday night and let the girls just hang out at the pool together and then on Saturday we went to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. It's hard to believe we've been here since 2001 and had yet to have visited there. What an awesome place!

Here's some pictures from the Horse Park on Saturday, I'll post some from the pool party later.

Pony rides were a huge hit with the girls!
This is Emma and her friend Jubilee. They really seemed to hit it off and played a lot together. Which is funny, because we really hit it off with her parents when we traveled with them. Their son John Randall is the same age as Ryan and they had taken him on the trip so he and Ryan had lots of fun hanging out together. In these two shots, I caught the girls playing this little game of peeking around a pole at each other which really made the little dumplings giggle!

This is Mary with Jubilee and Emma. She is from the Virginia area and is just as sweet as can be! What's even neater ... and a long, long story - but her older sister named Rebekah traveled to China recently to do some volunteer work. You'll never guess where she ended up? The Starfish Home! Which is the home our Rebecca lived in. Isn't that too cool! Her mother figured it out in a round about way & sent me an email asking if that's where Bex was from. Really, what's the statistical chance of that happening?
More shots of Jubilee & Emma.


From left to right: Rebecca, Jubilee, Emma, Sheridan & Mary
We met up at the fountain first thing that morning to get a quick shot before it was too hard to get them all back together again!

Left to right: Erin, Amy (a new little sister to Jillian), Rebecca, Sheridan, Kate, Jillian, Emma & Jubilee

Welcome Home Baby Kate!

Earlier this month we welcomed our friends Shawn, Melissa & Leah home with their new little bundle of Joy, Kate. Adorable. Absolutely adorable. Little eyes that twinkle like stars in the night, she's one amazing little girl!

There's just nothing like being at the airport and welcoming home families with their new babies and knowing their new children are coming home to a life time of love. The emotions just overtake me sometimes. I took my camera to catch these moments with them being welcomed by their extended family, but I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't get nearly as many shots as I wanted ... and a lot of the ones I did get were blurry. Emotions and telephoto lenses do not go hand in hand!

We're so thankful for the friendships we have made along this journey of life and made possible by the kinship of adoption. Each friendship unique in its own way. People who love life and who are so much fun to be around. Friends here in theLouisville area and friends coast to coast. All of whom we are so thankful for!

Tuesday Ramblings

Since being downsized/outsized/reorg'd or whatever the correct terminology is, the kiddos are no longer going to daycare. Ryan rides the bus home and then I take Emma to preschool and pick her up at noon each day. Along with this it seems like we are home a lot more than we used to be. While not uncommon to have somewhat of a messy house, it seems like it's REALLY messy now.

A few things I've learned ... or most likely just now noticing ...

• One would assume that not being in the office 8+ hours every day that your house would stay spotless once you spend that time at home. Not so in our house.
• Ryan has turned our once always clean living room into his own personal office and playroom. Needless to say, it's never clean now. If I ask him to clean it up, it will appear to be clean at first glance ... but don't step in. There you will find items lined up against the wall that you do not see until you are actually in the room. Makes you wonder if he's thinking "if mama can't see it then it must not be a problem".
• I spent all kinds of time turning our basement into a play area for the kids replete with shelving, cloth storage bins with handles to make it easy for little hands to pull out and toys ORGANIZED. The 'organized' part lasted approximately 3.2 hours.
• Emma has decided to use one corner of the dining room for her personal storage. I have found all kinds of treasures there. Flip flops, lip stick, books ... all kinds of things. She uses a corner that you would not see from the kitchen nor from the hallway. Maybe she's always done this and I'm just now realizing it's a habit? Maybe she learned this pesky little habit from her brother Ryan?
• Rebecca likes to play in the toy kitchen that has been in the den since Santa brought it for Christmas. The problem is, she likes the pots, pans and even the toy coffee pot to make noise .... so anything she can find to stick in said toys to make them make noise is open game. Light Brite thingy's ... perfect for stirring in the pan or putting into the coffee carafe. Little wooden pieces that go w/ a toy cake decorating thing ... those are even better . If I had a penny for every light bright thingy I've picked up I'd be a very wealthy woman.

These nuisances are minor compared to this though. You can't imagine how many times I've been asked if Emma and Rebecca are sisters. I thought I was well read and well prepared for this question but obviously not because the hair raises on the back of my neck and some not so nice/kind words come to mind (just thankfully not out of my mouth) when asked this question. What is odd to me is that I have never ever been asked this question about Ryan and Emma, nor Ryan and Rebecca but yet they ask it about Emma and Rebecca with both of them right there with me. Yesterday at the park the question was asked "are they sisters or what"? What the heck does "or what" mean?

Please, please, please - if you are reading this and you're not an adoptive parent - please do not ask a parent this question. Just because our family is built a non traditional way doesn't make us any less a family. Nor the girls any less siblings.

If you are an adoptive parent and have been asked this asinine question - how do you handle it? With a simple graceful "yes" (which is what I have been doing even though that's NOT what I want to say) or do you get miffy, irate or maybe even try to use some humor? My mom suggested I simply say "no, they are brothers" and walk away.

Brian does not at all understand my frustration with this question but so far I do not think it has been posed to him. He tells me to judge not least I be judged and while I value his judgment and wisdom, the question still gets under my skin.

Where Has The Time Gone - 4 Years ... WOW

Yesterday marked the four year anniversary of when we received "The Call" for Emma aka Miss Divine, M's, The Emmanator ... and some other little pet names we like to call the little dumpling. My goodness, where has the time gone!

To read the details of that day, click here:

http://hunterhappenings.blogspot.com/2007/03/happy-2-year-anniverary-of-referral-day.html


Who would have ever thought that little chunky monkey would have these dimples and sparkly eyes? Her paperwork was right on the mark though as far as her personality. It said something along the lines of "she shows strong preference" .... mmmhmmm, that's a very nice way of putting it!

The Lord certainly poured out a whole heap of blessings when he had His hand on matching her paperwork with ours. Amazing, she is simply amazing. She's so full of fun and life and absolutely never meets a stranger. We joke that she knows more people's names in our community than we do. Nothing like having a little goodwill ambassador in your family!

13 Days Until Departure!

With Christmas now behind us it's time to start thinking of our trip. Not that I wasn't thinking about our trip over Christmas, because I was ... I just had a lot of other things on my mind too! It's hard to believe though but we have only 13 days until departure. So much to get done!

We were there in May the last time so we really only had one climate to think about, hot and humid. This time we will be up north for about half the trip and then in the southern part of China for the last half. We're told to expect Chicago type weather in Beijing and Xian but Florida type weather for Guangzhou. Sure wish there was an easy way to pack for that!

Consulate Appointment!

We received the news today that our consulate appointment will be January 20th at 9 a.m.! Now we can make our travel arrangements!!! Looks like we're leaving for China on Thursday, January 8th & returning on January 22nd. WOOHOO!

On a not so woohoo note, Emma is going to be a flower girl in a friend's wedding on January 24th. Oh my, a jet lagged flower girl :-)

Rebel for a Cause

Check this out! I ran across this on the Ni Hao Y'all site.
Stefanie has such a heart for adoption and especially for special needs children. Her story really touches my heart because not only have they adopted several special needs children, but she works tirelessly to help others and is such a strong advocate for special needs children. She truly puts into action that which is in her heart.

She recently had a giveaway on her site to raise money for her sister's adoption and I was the lucky winner of a beautiful Suzanne Myers necklace! She made individual charms for it for each of my kiddos & even though Rebecca is still in China, her name is proudly displayed on it too. I would take a picture & share it with my blogging buddies but unfortunately my canon baby is the repair shop. :-( It looks like this one, but the stones are different.



But - bop on over to My Charming Kids & enter to win your own Rebel! I absolutely love mine! There's even more in the package than the camera too, wow - lots of stuff. More importantly though, the proceeds go to help bring children home to their forever families.

"Emmagination"

Ok, lots to blog about but no time to write.

A quick snippet about Rebecca - Fedex delivered our LOA on Saturday. We filled out the necessary paperwork and then drove to Lexington after church on Sunday & dropped everything off in our agency's mail slot! Hopefully TA will come soon!

On another note, I mentioned a few weeks ago about buying some monogrammed things for the girls. She has the cutest items for sale! Check out her site:
http://emmaginationonline.com/

Here's a few pictures of buttons I bought for their backpacks. I also bought some that I put on lined baskets in the top of their closet. Cute stuff!!!