UPDATES!!!!

I once again received an unexpected surprise today of Anna's updates!! I am really beginning to like Chung Yi!! One of the coordinators at ASIA wrote me to let me know that her name has been changed to Li-Syuan (used to be Li-Xuan). Anyways, doesn't make a huge difference to me since she is our Anna Li Grace, but kinda glad they didn't change the "Li" part of it since we have already decided to make that one of her middle names. Here are her photos!!

Look at that SWEET smile!!

Look how cute she is!!! I can't help but smile when I see her little face!!! AND, did you notice the CUBE picture frame above her head on one of the shots??!! Yes, that is from US!!! It makes me so happy to know it's in her crib :) Atleast the caregivers were kind enough to include it in the picture.


I believe these pictures were taken sometime between May 19th and yesterday. (Since the cube was in the care package that they received on May 19th). She is getting so big! The onesie she has on is not one that we sent her, but it's still very cute :)

I was so happy to see more of an update this time... here are some things on the written updates about her ~ these are things that were observed from March 1 - April 10th.


The black writing are the comments from orphanage, the pink are my comments :)


Her nickname is Wa-wa (it means baby) and she likes to drink water (good girl!)


She drinks formula every 3-3.5 hrs (got some info on what type of formula also)


she likes her pacifier, doesn't like darkness and sounds of thunder (I don't either...)

She tends to regurgitate, need to feed her in different times and pat her back!(going to have to take extra outfits and many burp cloths!)

She can turnaround and move around lying down. She can lift her head and move right and left. She will blink her eyes if there is a light and if there is a sudden noise she will be frightened and cry with open arms and legs. (poor baby... wish I could comfort her when that happens)

She can make meaningless (love it..) sounds when hearing her name.

She likes to be massaged and patted on her back. (I laughed outloud when I read this because Aaron & Calvin are my "physical touch"(love languages) men and they are ALWAYS wanting massages and pats on their backs (especially Aaron).

Preferred toys are toys bells and toy animal (will have to find her a toy bell of some kind....)


Most feared item: Being alone (this broke my heart). She likes being held in arms.

Also noted that she needs extra massage and comfort (hmm, wondering if I am going to have a little cuddle baby? :)

She wears Pampers Size M diapers (good to know)


Sleep Conditions:

She likes quiet place and is easily awakened (uh-oh... could be a problem with house full of boys...but, I have to say, that is just like me) When awakened, we need to comfort her. (Ok, no problem...)


Special Habits During Sleep:

She needs to use pacifier and listen to music (I LOVED that! She is like me!!! ofcourse, minus the pacifier) We also massage her limbs for her (starting to sound more and more like Aaron)

She has normal appetite


She was drinking formula every 1.5 hrs, but has been training to go every 3 hours (Thank you, caregivers!)


She likes to drink water. She sleeps soundly at night until next morning for milk (nice!). Her emotion is stable (that's good, 'cuz her mama's is not!) Massage her limbs and speak to her and help her to sleep. (if she gets in the habit of this, we could be in BIG trouble! Just kidding, we'll do anything to make sure she feels loved :) :) )


I am so excited to know she is doing so well! I am praying for speedy court process! There has been people in the past that breezed through the court process so that is what my prayers are! I don't see any reason why she needs to grow up without us a minute more than necessary.

Just wondering.....

It is 11:20AM in Taipei... and I am wondering what Anna is doing? could she be hugging that pink snuggle blanket that I slept with for a month? Could she be hearing the voices of her family in the US as the nanny squeezes the bear for her? Could she be sad because she is not being held right at this moment? could she be taking her afternoon nap? It is so nice to know that I finally have a daughter that I can picture in my head ~ but now that I know who she is, I have mixed feelings ~ I feel sad that she is having "firsts" without me. I feel sad that she has no idea who I am. I feel sad that someone else knows how to comfort her more than I do (atleast for now). But I also feel so grateful... I am grateful that she lives in a wonderful orphanage where the nannies really care for her. I am grateful that she has a warm place to sleep. I am grateful that she looks so healthy and full of life. I am grateful that God chose us to be her parents. My thoughts go back to what she might be doing now.... maybe wearing one of the cute outfits we sent her and snuggling happily with the pink blanket and bear and perhaps staring into the picture of the one she'll one day call "mommy" :)

Authenticated Documents BACK from Taiwan Consulate!!

I just received an email from Fei at ASIA that she received the authenticated docs back from the Taiwan Consulate in Seattle!!! YIPPEE! She said that our dossier should go out to Taiwan tomorrow or Thursday! Finally, after over a month of waiting, our paperwork is closer to going through the court process! Ofcourse, our countdown doesn't even begin until our dossier is in Taiwan. Our agency says once the dossier is translated, it begins the court process ~ this will take aprox 6-7 months!!! This is the most painful part, because I don't know how I am going to handle waiting for 6-7 months for Anna to come home! God can certainly do miralces, and I am praying this will go very quickly.

A "blogover"

I am so excited to have this blog "blogged over". I used a wonderful charity blogover site called Blogovers With Love. The site has 5 designers that donate their own time to do blogovers in place of our donation, which is given to Half the Sky and other charities. I was assigned a wonderful designer named Jen who has her own design business.

I love what Jen did with this blog. Cherry blossoms and the colors pink and brown are my favorite, as it matches Anna's nursery and the crib bedding.

This will be a fun place for me to come to for updates on Anna.

Thank you, Jen! If you are in the market for a new blogover, I highly recommend Jen, she is great to work with!

One Month

This day marks ONE month since we found out Li-Xuan is our Anna! We submitted our end of the paperwork at lightening speed, but, as we all know ~ that doesn't mean it makes it all the way to Taiwan in lighetning speed. Unfortunately, we are the only ones motivated to move fast and it seems from our Agency to State of Oregon to Taiwan Consulate is not as motivated to MOVE fast. I know they have other people to deal with and make happy so they'll move as fast as they can, but if only they knew how important it really is for us to move on with the court process ~ If only they took this as seriously as if they were trying to bring their own child home, I think the process would/could move quicker. In my mind, there is no excuse for ONE month of waiting to submit our dossier....

That said, I know that ultimately God is in charge and even the timing of this is under His total control.

We love her so much already and it pains me to think that she is growing up one more day without her family that we know God has given her.

We love you, Anna Li Grace ~ We are doing everything we can to make sure you get to us as soon as possible.... more importantly, we are praying daily that you are well-cared for and that you will come to us in just the perfect time!

A great email from our agency about our care package!

I received this email today from Fei at ASIA. Even though our documents are STILL at Taiwan Consulate in Seattle getting authenticated, this email made me smile because I now know that the orphanage likes us and they know a little bit about how much we care about Anna. Here's the email I received. I wish I knew Chinese so I can read exactly, what they wrote. I am sure Fei's translation is accurate though :)

Hi Pam,

They received your packet and ask me to pass this message to you:

Thank you very much for sending so many gifts and cloths to Li-Xuan. We feel the adoptive family really putting their heart into their daughter and prepare their daughter’s arrival.

Because the family sent so many cloths with different sizes, we like to ask the family when Li-Xuan can not wear those cloths anymore should we keep the cloths or let Li-Xuan take them back to the US? Or we should do something else with the cloths?


非常謝謝俐瑄的收養家庭寄了這麼多而禮物、衣服來給她，我們感覺到他們真得很用心的在為女兒的到來而準備。
由於收養家庭寄來的衣服很多，且大小不一，我們想要詢問家庭，若俐瑄已經穿不下這些衣服時，我們應把衣服留下，等俐瑄去美國時一起帶去；還是可以做其他的處置呢？
請您協助詢問！謝謝！

Pam, please let me know I will communicate with the orphanage.

I responded back that they can keep all the clothes except leave one outfit of their choice as a keepsake for us.

Sad Day

Today, while I was at the Orthdontist office, I found out by getting en email on my phone, that Steven Curtis Chapman's family suffered the loss of their youngest daughter, Maria...

It was a tragic accident that happened in the family's driveway.

My heart is so heavy for them as I try to understand with my human mind why her life was taken in such a way that will take a miracle to make better.

God is in the miracle business ~ and I know that He will do a miraculous thing in this family's life.

What a loss ~ but also, what a wonderful God they have and can rely on.

Care Package made it ~

I was notified by our agency today, that the care package I sent Anna was received. YIPPEE! I just feel happy knowing that she has something that we touched. I hope she liked the bear and the album and stuff.

On another note, the Taiwan consulate STILL has not sent back the authenticated docs to ASIA.... this is the only thing holding our paperwork from going to Taiwan, which then starts the court process. We can't even begin to count down until our dossier is in Taiwan and translated! Come on, Taiwan Consulte.... we need those docs sent to Taiwan NOW :) Ofcourse, God has had the timing of this in His hand all along, so I really should just focus on being at PEACE and at REST.

I think I'll go take a nap :)

We LOVE you, Anna Li Grace ~ Can't wait to see you soon!!!

Care Package, Authentication, and Non-employment letter

Today was a crazy busy day for me.... infact, it's not even over yet and the house is a disaster!

This morning, I sent off a care package to Anna. You can see the contents in the picture below...




Do you think I over did it on the care pacakge? When I weighed it, it was over 10lbs!! I just kept thinking of things little Anna will need... One of the very special things we sent her was a bear that Michael & I made at those stuff a bear places... we also included a recording of our voice on there from all five of us. Hopefully, she'll hug that bear alot and hear our voices all the time.

I also received news today that our dossier is being authenticated at the Taiwan Consulate (unlike China, our agency does this step for us and once it is authenticated and they send the complete dossier to Taiwan, our adoption can enter the court process!)

In the same email that I read about our authentication process, I was told that they need an additional paperwork from me... (a non-employment verification letter). They never stated they needed one in their dossier guide, so I am a little irritated that they are bringing this up now... especially knowing that I have had all our documents there for 4 months now and they could have gone through it so long ago. Anyways, I'm mostly irritated that I had to spend another fed-ex overnight fee when it could've been sent all at once. This is the one thing I really LOVE about our China agency, CCAI... they are SOOOO incredibly on top of everything that something like this would never have happened. I think I'm going to LOVE working with CCAI once we get our referral from China.