A Joyful but Busy Week!

On Thursday May 24, 2011 we received our "Official Referral" via Fex Ex. It contained original documents on "Ning Xing Yao", our little Madeline. Some of her medical reports had limited English translations, so we are still awaiting some more translated documents from our agency. But we did receive a full translated version of her general report via email, which includes her daily eating schedule, more details about her, when & where she was found, what she likes to do, etc. It is so awesome to read, & I cant wait to share some more of those details here on the blog as soon as I get it all sorted out and "Officially Accept" her referral. Basically, before we can officially accept her referral, theres a bit more we still need to do. First of all, as soon as we receive a few more translated medicals on her, we will get a pediatrician to review them & God willing everything will be ok and we will soon sign off on her paperwork & mail it off to our agency. Also this week, we will finish filling out the I800A forms ( which are forms required under the new Hague Treaty Regulations to bring an orphan into the US )  as well as the I800 forms ( which basically finalizes the immigration process of an adopted child from another country ). We have to send these forms together with our latest Homestudy report which was just updated. Normally we would of filed one set of forms first, waited for an approval by USCIS then after receiving our referral we would have filed the second set. But since we just updated our Homestudy & were pleasantly surprised with our referral earlier than we thought, we have to do everything at once. And on top of having to do this, we can't forget that we still have a home business to run ( which btw we are happy to have a few good projects in the works that will help us to pay for the rest of our adoption process ). We need any extra work we can get in order to finalize all of this, as you can imagine it has been really expensive mostly because of our long wait which has pretty much forced us to pay extra money to the US for re-filing fees. BUT....we know it will be all worth it in the end. 

 I will also admit though, that last week while it was one of our most JOYFUL weeks, was also very very busy and challenging for us. It was a challenge to get our work done, while trying to get our adoption paperwork organized, additional calls and visits, and making time to run off to 4 graduations, meetings, and dinners with families & friends that we had previously rsvpd. to. But, it was really fun sharing our wonderful news & showing off our treasured little photos we have of Madeline. In fact, I've been wearing a little locket around my neck with her photo on it & any chance I get to share with friends I am thrilled to do so! She's so darn cute I can't stand it! Will share pics soon, promise!  Hopefully this week "Baba" Kris will update our main site ( journeytomadi.com ). 

Thanks again for following along!

Here's a few pics of our week.

Here we are with our beautiful neighbor Marisa who graduated from High School. We've seen her grow up since she was about 4 years old & we are so proud of her. ( this pic was taken on Sunday, the day before receiving our referral ). 

And here we are with Hayat ( on Wednesday ), one of our God-daughter's Ivi's friends. This graduation ceremony was especially bitter-sweet for us as it was at the Jr.High School that Ivi would have graduated from had she not moved to Nebraska. We miss her so much, and wished we could of been there for her also as she graduates from 8th grade. Sadly though, for reasons out of our control, her family has no communication with us. Our only wish is that perhaps through this blog she may get to see & get to know her new cousin Madeline. 

Here we are with Iliana, another beautiful High School graduate who also grew up in our neighborhood. What an honor to be invited to share this special day with her. 

Here we are again with Marisa & her twin sisters who will be graduating in a few more years. Where does the time go?

Here I am with lovely Katura, our front neighbor, also graduated from High School.

Here I am with Monica, our very smart & pretty next door neighbor who still has 2 more years until she graduates but we took her to one of the ceremonies as she wanted to support some of her graduating friends. 

Here's a cute pic of all of our neighborhood girls ( except the one on the bottom right, who's a family friend ) taken about 7 years ago at a birthday party I hosted for my God-Daughter pictured on the bottom left. They have all turned out to be the sweetest & smartest girls. We are so honored that they still want to include us in some of their special days such as their graduation. 

Then on Friday, we were invited to a special birthday dinner of one our friends, parents of our God-Son "Alex" who's 8 and pictured above in the middle. His brother Ryan is 12. Both really great boys. Half Chinese, Half Mexican! So Madeline will fit perfectly! 

And here we are celebrating the beautiful dinner evening that my college friend Brenda prepared for her husband Mike. We had a wonderful time with 10 other couples, & from you can see in our faces, we are thrilled to finally be on our way to parenthood. We both love children, & we have always joked that we are so tired of just the two of us! Finally....we can enjoy morning cartoons, a messy kitchen, sleepless nights, outings to the zoo, dirty diapers lol! Well....everything except the dirty diapers. 

Reflections of Today...our God-Daughter's Birthday.

Today is November 8, 2011, and exactly 13 years ago, a very special baby girl was born whom would forever change our world. She was our very first niece from my side, born during our first year of marriage. I can still remember the day when she first entered this world. My husband and I were just outside a curtain from her hospital room waiting for her to let out her first cry....it was around 3 in the morning. She was bright red, had a ton of black hair, and scrunchy little eyes. She was beautiful...and we were clearly smitten with her, no doubt.

During her first year of life, our niece, along with her parents, lived with my folks only a few miles away, which abled us to visit quite often. At about 6 months, we were thrilled to be chosen as her God-parents, and I’d say that ever since then, we took on the role very seriously, vowing to always care for her, love her unconditionally, protect her from harm’s way, guide her through life, and show her direction towards a spiritual life.

By the time she was to turn 2 years old, her family moved up to Northern California for a few months, and while they worked on relocating back to the area, our God-daughter came to live with us during the summer. We have so many incredible memories from that summer, and the bond that we developed during that period will forever remain priceless. We really got to love everything about raising a toddler, including changing diapers, although that summer we did help her potty train. We also helped to wing her off the bottle she had been so used to sleeping with, the one she would request with “leche con quik” (milk with Quik Chocolate ), which had unfortunately already started to ruin her teeth. I remember that one night as she woke up with a cute little whimper asking for her bottle. It only took a small conversation with her in Spanish to let her know that drinking chocolate milk at night was not good for her teeth. Unbelievably as it seems ( as she was only 2 1/2 years old ), she seemed to understand the concept. Our conversation went something like this ( but in Spanish ):

“drinking milk with chocolate at night will make your teeth yucky, drinking water instead is better” .

then we continued to go down the list of family who drank water but not chocolate milk at night, until it was her turn to recite it, so her conversation went something like this ( but in Spanish ):

“Nino doesn’t drink milk but water yes?”,

“Nina doesn’t drink milk but water yes?”

“Samson ( our dog ) doesn’t drink milk but water yes?”.

then as she took a deep sigh, she finally said:

“Nino.....can I have some water”?

Ahhh! What a tender little moment. She continued to learn many new things with us, in particular -many new “English” words. She also mastered her “Sign of the Cross” as she held her little hands together while she prayed to “Diosito” and asked for many blessings for her entire family and extended family including our dog “Samson”. And I could still remember her sweet little voice as she would often say to us “I wuv you”. She always knew what to call us. We were her “Ninos” ( which is short for “Padrinos” the term for God-parents in Spanish.

Eventually, her parents relocated and they lived with us for about 6 more months while they found a house nearby to purchase. During the next several years, we were very blessed to play a large role in not only our God-daughter’s life but in her little brother’s who was 4 1/2 years younger. Living just a few blocks away from each other, the kids spent many many days, nights, weekends, and many summers with us throughout the years. We did countless school projects together, swimming classes in the summer, small weekend trips, and just about every little thing you can think of. We really, really enjoyed every moment.....and it was evident that our God-daughter & her little brother filled a void in our lives for many many years. We got to experience parenting to the fullest, but now that they have recently moved to the Mid-west, we will truly miss being a part of their daily lives as they grow into their teen-age years.

So for today, I will have to settle for sending special presents via mail, posting on her FaceBook wall, and sending a “virtual” but deeply heartfelt Happy Birthday wish to our beloved God-Daughter Ivi. May you always know how very special you are to us, how you have inspired us to pursue adoption, and how you continue to help us to be better people.

Love,

Nino & Nina.

This photo was taken around the time she was 5 years old.

Here's one of our more recent pictures together, which was taken right before she moved to Nebraska, during the summer 2011.