Saturday, May 31, 2008

Prayers needed

Sunday is the craft fair and I have to work, Bill is feeling puny with allergies and Acer is feeling grumpy probably for the same reason.
Prayers of strength, healing and patience for Bill and healing and co-operation for Acer. They'll be there for quite a while and while Acer will happily go up and down stairs for hours, he will probably get bored.
Also, please pray that people BUY!
We need to bring Little Miss home!

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Acer's picture going in contest

We had our pictures taken earlier this year thru the Celebrating Adoption (link on side bar) program that our photographer, Once Upon a Time Photography (link on side bar) participates in. Tonight she sent me the following note in an email.

I am entering a photo contest and wanted to know if I could use Acer picture that I used on my newsletter. ... Anyways I have several others I am entering and wanted to ask permission to put Acers in the mix.

It is a really good picture of Acer, if you want to see it, click onto her site & then go to galleries and then Children. he's on the second page, left column.

Makes him look so quiet and angelic. (Hah!)
Heather BT

PRE-APPROVAL

Today we received notice from our agency that we have pre-approval to adopt He Chun Bin, our darling little girl. I think this means we can now post pictures, but I'm going to double check first. I also think this means we can send a package, will be checking on that too.

Here's the Official verbage
The application of WAB and HABT for adoption of He Chun Bin from Hefei Children's Welfare Institue, Anhui of Anhui province that you submitted was received. It is hereby advised that with a review of the basic family situation and the Rehabilitation and Nurture Plan for the Child, the China Centre of Adoption Affairs agrees to handle and process the case as an adoption of a special-need child after the application file arrives (deadline X that day inclusive)
China Centre of Adoption Affairs

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Many beaded bookmarks!

Last night my friends Kristen and Vicki came over just to help me get ready for Sunday's craft show in Bill's Library's parking lot. They worked with me to make up about another hundred or so items for sale. I was glad for their help because they made combinations of things I wouldn't have thought of, so we should appeal to more people.

Also, the knitting club has added another item to their list of items they're selling, cat toys. Yes, somehow from milk bottle caps they've made them and tested them on real cats and have gotten good reviews.

I'll be making more myself tomorrow and on Saturday night, Bill and James will be making cookies and Acer will be 'helping' wherever he can ;)

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Update from someone who's seen Chun Bin

Howdy!
My friend Velletta is over in China right now adopting from CB's foster home. She actaully met and talked to Little Miss in person. She took time out of her busy days to drop me this line (she know's I've been wondering what size she was and whether she was a doll baby girl)

I promise a fuller report late, but CB is adorable! Her English is not as good as Jenna and Rosanna's but I think you won't have a lot of trouble communicating in person. I was able to understand her. She is a little smaller than LuLu, and I think a size 6 or 6X would fit her well. Maybe even a size 4 or 5 in pants (at least at the waist). A 7/8 shirt and dress fits Jenna well, but a size 8 pants literally slide off. We are going shopping for shorts and pants today. I think CB would like dolls too. You are going to have a blast with her.

Can't Wait!

Heather

Friday, May 23, 2008

LOI has been sent!

Okay, now a new clock starts ticking.
We have three months from yesterday to submit our dossier to be able to adopt Little Miss.
This should be no problem time wise, how ever should be's rarely are, so please keep us in your prayers.
Also, Please pray for our booth at the upcoming Independence Twp Library parking lot craft fair. The Library's knitting group is knitting facecloths, bibs, and maybe hats (?) and they're letting us sell stuff too. We have our Bookmarks, jewelery from the Diggins' and we'll be selling some of Unca James' delicious oatmeal, walnut, chocolate chip cookies. Yes, He bakes all that into one cookie of goodness. Prayers that people are inspired to buy and donate. we need to bring Little Miss Home!
Heather

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Revelation

Today I figure out something pretty dern incredible to me. There was a reason for the delay in getting Little Miss' paperwork. Yes, it was indeed according to God's plan. If we had gotten her paperwork when we first asked for it, we wouldn't have had any way to get it done in the three month time limit. Our Immigration paperwork alone will take that long. So we have this delay, which makes us fret and wonder, and then when we do get her paperwork, it should give us just enough time to finish our dossier within the time limit. Once again God is Good!

Oh yes, we're not allowed to post pictures, but if you google Bethel Chun Bin you'll find pictures of an eight year old blind girl who should be coming to a home near us this year ;). These aren't posted on our website, they're on other sites completely so you can check them out.

Monday, May 19, 2008

BIG NEWS!

WE HAVE LITTLE MISS' PAPERWORK!!
About 11:30 this morning I received a call from Tina, our adoption agent at CHI, she said that the CCAA had given her paperwork to CHI. This is super news, we don't have to vie with other agencies for her like we thought we'd have to when they first said they were putting her on the multi agency list. Thank heavens that they changed their minds. I am walking on air. Bill says I was pretty dern incoherent when I called him to tell him.
Can't imagine why.
Heather BT

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Baba's Sweatshirt



'Acer' got Bill a new hoody. Here he is modeling it for Bill so Bill could see what he got. Acer and Bill went off to church band practice right after; he pulled the hood up and we called him Obi Wan Acer.

Acer Cooking



The day after Easter, Acer had another cooking lesson, one he really enjoyed. We made drop bisquits and the mixing, grabbing handfuls of dough and then dropping them onto the pan were really up Acer's alley. I love the fact that you can still see the squeeze marks even after they baked. We had delicious blueberry pie filling thanks to Bill's mom sending it home with us, so we had pseudo blueberry shortcakes. Yum and Fun, how much better can it get?

Acer's Interesting Hangouts


Sometimes, I'm just not sure where I'll find Acer.
Picture one, Acer has climbed into a computer box. He lets us know he's hiding by saying 'Oh No, where's Acer?" Then we have to track him down. Sometimes he 'hides' by putting my robe, that I'm wearing, over his head and saying it. It's not hard to track him down then ;)
Picture two Acer is sitting on/in Rugby's food bowl. Yes, really I do have a concrete moose birdbath in my kitchen. Rugby likes it because he doesn't have to bend down to eat; despite the fact that we have two dogs and there are two bowls to the birdbath/dogfeeder Lobelia doesn't eat out of it at all. She has to eat in another room, she used to require we feed her on a different floor, but now we've progressed a little.

Acer and Cane - Video



Here we are with Acer's first trip around the block with the cane a couple weeks ago. Acer seems far more interested in using it for whatever he can think of instead of how it should be, but he is improving.

Acer and Kiera At the Park Again!


Our first park get together with friend Kiera and her Dad Mark Two weeks ago. Kiera's gotcha day is the day after ours and she's nine whole days older than Acer. We got together fairly regularly last summer with Kiera and Mom Kristen so we're glad to start the fun again this year. Both kids are fairly comfortable with both parents so at one point, I was pushing Kiera on the swing and Mark was listening to Acer bang on the metal railing with a stick.
Aren't they just a too too cute couple of kids?

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

A FAMILY FOR ONE YEAR - TODAY!

Wow, a whole year with Acer.
Seems so hard to believe, from the days when he wouldn't sleep unless he was up on our shoulders to the six months of nights sleeping with his wiggly self in the bed with us to now when we're back in our bed and he's in his bed across the hall.
From the begining when he spoke three precious words in English, 'I love you' to now where he speaks in complex sentences.
Some people think we're doing this for some sort of obscure good charitable purpose, we get a lot of God Bless you's from people. The truth is, we are simply doing this to to be a family with children; and God did bless us, he blesses us every day with our little three foot blessing of Joy - Acer. He gives us so much love we know we're blessed every day of the past year.
Heather BT

Saturday, May 03, 2008

Humbling - Continued

I know that I promised this many days ago, but I was struggling putting it all into words, and so I took a little long, and I left you in suspense, but I appreciate all the patience.
B


I will admit, the idea of going through the second adoption was daunting to think about when Heather approached me with the idea of Little Miss. As you all probably guessed, it was in regards to whether or not we could pay for another process. I asked her if she thought we could afford it, and she said that we would have to trust God to provide, if He felt that we should do it. I had just changed jobs, and H was still on layoff, so I had to make that choice. Well, if you have read this far, you know the choice I made. :) We have been going along, selling our bookmarks and other things, and at every turn I have been seeing that the choice I made to “lglG” (let go & let God) provide was the wise one. As you have read before, some of the costs of this process have been reduced, like the home study, and some of the paperwork is exactly the same, so it is slightly easier.

But.

What has me really humbled, have been the ways that He has provided for the actual monies that we are putting out to bring LM home.

To start, there have been the unbelievable sales figures of our bookmarks. We (H mostly) has been making and selling (ok, H is making, we both are selling) bookmarks that were designed and created by her. They are selling in numbers that I couldn’t have predicted. We have received donated items to sell in our store from one of the other families that we went to China with the first time, and those are selling pretty well as well.

However, the largest outpouring of His Love has been in the other people around me. Let me tell you about a couple of things that happened recently. There is a group at my work that comes in twice a month to knit and chit-chat. This group is made up of people I work with, and others who come in for the company and the discussions. They recently came to me to ask if they could knit and sell washcloths, the proceeds to be used as a fund for the adoption. As a kicker to this, the Library where I work is having a parking lot sale at the end of the month of May, and the organizers of the sale have donated 2 parking spaces for the group to sell their facecloths and for us to sell bookmarks, or anything else that we want to sell. I know that I didn’t ask for, or deserve, this blessing, but they found it in their hearts to do this for LM.

This was humbling enough, but there IS more.

I was in my office, and an envelope was given to me. I was told that it was sent anonymously, and that it was for the adoption. I was thankful at the time, and decided that I would open it when I was on my way home from work that day. I probably should have waited till I got home, for when I opened it, there was cash in the envelope enough to pay for the home study update, the 1 year update for Acer, with a little bit left over. I have never felt so blessed and humbled in all of my life. Here was something from someone that I don’t necessarily even know, and they had given me the faith to continue. I was starting to get concerned about that particular outlay of money when we did it, and here it was, provided by God, directly to us. That doesn’t even take into account all the donations that people have given over the last several months, those are reminders of the fact that we are doing the right thing in trying to bring LM home.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Humbling

I will have a post today about the occurrences of yesterday. I just have to find the time today to post it. That's why this is just a note.

God has humbled us, that is the teaser. ;)

B

Monday, April 28, 2008

Acer's First cane

Howdy,
Today Acer brought home his first mobility cane from school. We've been waiting for the right sized one to get in, the one she thought he'd need was too short because he's too fast. He needs a longer one to give him better reaction time. We're one step closer to having a less bruised child! He just enjoys running so much, that he's always running into things. Hurrah Cane!

Okay, so a less bruised child only happens if all around him do not run him into things accidentally. Tonight, one was added riight in the middle of his forehead. Not exactly sure of the details, but a graham cracker and an all better kiss later, he was fine.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Days and days of catching up to do.

Howdy all who've been checking in to see what's been happening, I finally have enough lung power (and energy) to sit and type and try to remember our life over the past few weeks. I have taken picures though, so as soon as I can get Bill to put them up, you'll get to enjoy them!
Monday the seventh, Bill and I went off to work and Alex hung out with Mum and Acer, she even got to go to Acer's school and see what went on there. That evening she went off to church for Band practice with Bill, Acer, and Uncle James (he's our official Acer watcher during practice). She sings in her own church praise band and was even able to make a suggestion to help a song we're practing sound better. I stayed home and slept.
Tuesday the eighth was a busy busy day as Bill, Acer and I had our physicals for our dossier and homestudy. Finally, after almost a year, Bill went with Acer to the Dr's for shots. poor little Guy, he just dreads the Dr and she such a nice woman. My good friend Leigh was in from Toronto with her son Jarvis, we went off with the littles in the wagon and visited our favorite local park. We don't see nearly enogh of each other so it was good to spend even a few hours with her.
Almost as soon as Leigh and Jarvis were picked up by Husband/dad Matt to head home we headed out to meet Alex's grandparents in Lansing. We'd gotten there early and Alex was looking for a few craft items, so we stopped at a Michael's Evidently they'd had the same thought because we actually met her grandmother in the store, surprising all of us.
Wednesday I was sick, and Mum came over and watched Acer anyway, I was glas because I certainly wasn't up to his level of energy by anymeans.
Thursday I had to cancel visiting the school Acer will be in next fall. I just stayed home and tried to keep Acer safe and entertained. Thank heavens we could go out in the backyard for hours. If it had been rainy I would have been sunk.
Friday I went to the Dr, where she added to the med's my Dr had prescribed during the physical. It was also the day we had our home study. I was so wiped out I just apologized for the clutter and she basically didn't even care. What a blessing though, because she was already there to do a homestudy update she did Acer's final update at the same time and charged us $150 less than if she'd met us seperately to do it. That, combined with the reduction from a full homestudy to an update saved us $750 total. YEAH!
Don't remember much of that weekend, sick and on meds was my main memory, I didn't go to work and I didn't go to church or band practice on Monday night. Friday the Dr had given me a stay out of work note so I didn't have to go back until Wed. what a blessing. I've never been that sick before that the Dr basically said you ARE staying home. I think the fact that I work outside did play into that.
Monday the 14th I went back and she gave me a shot of something and yet another med. Basically, the infection was over but my lungs were still inflammed. That shot really helped me turn the corner into being a normal human being again. Mum came over and we kept Acer home from school because he was hacking a little and I didn't want to get the other kids sick. I think some of the other little ones there are medically fragile. Bill and Acer went to Band pratice. I slept.
Tuesday we went to the school Acer will attend next fall. It's the county classroom for the Visually impaired. There were kids of all ages attedning there, we saw five of them ages 4-12. A couple of them were being mainstreamed next fall. that to me was a big plus, that the two teachers were not trying to keep the children there, but were actively working to get them into normal classrooms. Obviously children of different abilities work at different levels, but they tried to get all of them of work up to their potential. Acer liked the toys in the classroom, and the snacks they served. He asn't really interested in much else except exploring. I was glad to see that there was a potty with a short, kids sized toilet attached to the room, just to make his life easier. Miss Weidmeyer, Acer's Orientation and Mobility teacher (canework) met us there to make sure there was someone there we knew.
Wednesday I finally went back to work. I worked slowly but steadily and made it through the whole day - yeah me! Mum also picked up my box of bookamrks from Acer's OT. She'd sold 4 but collected money for 5. Yeah Miss Diane! I'd also prepapred Bill and Acer's swim bag, but had forgotten Acer's swim vest. Ooops. They managed okay, and Acer liked holding the edge and then dunking himself down to find the floor (in the three foot section of course.)
Thursday, Friday and Saturday were average, nothing too exciting really.
Sunday the 20th I finally made it back to church and then did my normal cut out and go to work before church was over. Acer started the service with us, and then when he got restive, we took him back to the toddler room/nursery. We're trying to see if we can increase the length slowly until next fall when he'll be old enough for pre-school sunday school.
Monday the 21st we had band practice and it was not good on the lung power side, but at least I didn't have coughing fits. My voice was so off and airy and almost monotone that I didn't even bother with the microphone, I just sang to work on my timing.
Tuesday the 21st was an incredibly busy day. We had to get up early and go to downtown Detroit to get finger printed for our dossier. Thankfully the place was almost empty, at least compared to last time, and so Acer's sudden desire to be extra loud was easier to deal with. Acer and I went right from there to a meeting at his school about the transistion to next year's school. They had a panel of Mom's who shared their experiences - not sure how much I got out of it really but it went okay. We then went home, ate a quick bite, had a quick nap and then went to the Dr's for yes, another shot. Sigh. I gave him his choice of a new toy, frozen custard at Erma's or a trip to the park as a treat, and he chose the park. So off we met and he had fun, almost enough to make up for the shot. We tried to meet up with his friend Kiera and her dad Mark, but she actually napped through the entire two hours we were there so we made plans to meet on Thursday. We actualy had to leave the park because Bill's brother David was coming over to access some stuff he has stored in our garage. Acer loves Unca Dawe; Unca Dawei plays the drums ya know. He unearthed a shaker shaped like a banana and gifted Acer with it. Oh the joy, a new percussion toy! We drove David and his stuff across town and then realized we were hungry and only one block from good friends carl and Beq's house. I called to see if they wanted to order pizza, but they were already grilling and happily, they said they'd throw extra on for the two of us. Acer was not the best behaved and he chucked two glass bottles down the stairs at the same time (I couldn't grab him/them in time) and he made chortles of glee as he heard them bounce, bounce and shatter. Sigh. We really work on his desire to chuck things down the stairs, but he weighs the consequences and decides to do it anyway. We got home later than his usual bedtime, I put him down and he went right out. I wonder why;)
Wednesday I actually felt normal again - yeah me! Acer went to school with Mum and swimming with Bill. They went to the library and the grocery store afterwards. It'd been awhile since we'd had time to go shopping so Bill was able to get some needed items. Yeah Bill!
Thursday we has lots to do, but ended up doing them in reverse order. I tought I'd get us up and out the door before 10, but we were leaving the house after 12, running late to meet Kiera and Mark at the park. It was good to see them and let the kids run amok (within reason) we'd packed lunches and stayed for two hours. The kids weren't ready to go yet but I had things to do. We went back to the Dr's and Acer was finally able to have a good visit, they just checked his shot site and gave us the okay, then we rushed off to the post office. I mailed off a bunch of bookmarks for a friend in KC to sell to her church group. Bambi is my fundraising hero and she challenged me to send her as many as I could for her to sell. She raised an incredible amount of Money selling canned goods and other things to be able to bring her daughter faith home from Vietnam last year. If I hadn't read her blog, I doubt I would have had the faith to take our walk to bring Little Miss home. I saw what God did for them (with her hard work) and it inspired me to find my item to sell because Lord Knows, I'm no good at canning.
After the post office, we dashed off to Bill's work. We were leaving to drive across to Grand rapids to see Alex's choir concert. Bill came out with the set of four face cloths the Library knitting club is making for the sale - cute cute cute! (yes, I'll get Bill to insert pictures of these and the rest of the events as soon as I can). We drove and amazingly enough Acer stayed awake for the whole trip. We went to Alex's grandparent's house for a little while before the concert and just hung out. Alex was alredy at school to help with set up. The choir director chose west side story for this year's theme, they had eight songs sung by solists or small groups and then they had a mass choir finish up with a medley. Alex sang Alto in the mass choir, incredibly enough she was in the ront row and we could actually see her this year.
Afterwards she came over and swooped up Acer and ran around to show him off to all her friends. We knew who the important one at the concert was and were expecting this. Before we left, we talked in the parking lot with Gwen, her grandmother. We didn't get back on the road until after 9 and didn't get home until just before midnight. Acer finally went to sleep about ten, but he woke up and wanted to hold one of our hands. It was an awkward stretch, but we took turns and it seemed to soothe him back to sleep. We think he was just disoriented waking up in his car seat like that.
WHEW! I've now caught us up, and just have to get the pictures put in and you'll like this post even better,
Heather BT

Monday, April 21, 2008

Manna

I know we've talked about stepping out on faith on our quest for Little Miss. How we're trusting for God to provide what we need so we can bring her home. I'm not sure what I expected, a magic 20K check in the mail maybe. What God is providing is Manna. What we need, when we need it and no extra. For example, we sent out a check to cover our I-600A costs, we had donations and I'd sold enough bookmarks to cover all but $100. That weekend, one of the guys in our D&D group gave us a check for our efforts in that same amount. Manna.
I've had people selling bookmarks for me, one of Acer's teacher's. my Mandarin teacher and friend, and another friend. Together they've sold 18, but have brought in money for 32. Manna.
Today we found out that the knitting group, that meets at the Library Bill works at and Bill's Boss is a member of, is doing something special for us. They have a booth at the upcoming Library Parking lot sale, they're knitting stuff for sale to help bring her home and they want us to sell our bookmarks out of the booth. Manna
Just like Moses in the desert, we get what we need. Manna

Monday, April 14, 2008

Down for the count

Errgh, hach, gak, wheeze. That's about all I've been doing lately folks. Sorry. I haven't updated about Alex's wonderful visit and Leigh's dropping in from Toronto. I'm on tons of meds, and the Respiratory infection is on the way out, but everything is inflamed so I'm still not getting tons of air here. Steroid shot today to boost things along, steroid pack of meds for tomorrow along with two different inhalers. I sure hope this is as close as I ever get to asthma.