Alexandra Kai-Li

Kai

2009-07-08T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a current of Miss Kai. She has been home almost 2 years! Wow! Where has the time gone???

2009-01-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pic's from the holidays. The bottom one is Kai drinking salsa with a straw,LOL! Spicy girl!

I mostly post on face book these days so if you are on face book look me up!

My three girls

2008-10-29T11:50:00.000-07:00

Tons going on in the Hammel house! I will post when I get a chance. Enjoy!

Kai and Referral Day

2008-08-03T12:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the one year anniversary of receiving Kai's picture and information. She has grown so much in the past year! I was amazed when I first saw her picture. She just did not look like the picture I had had in my mind for the last 2 years. She was even more beautiful than I could have dreamed! The picture above is one of the first pictures we had, the picture below is one I took last week.

First Pigtails!

2008-07-22T03:03:00.001-07:00

Kai brought me a pony tail holder and wanted me to put her hair in pigtails. She showed me by holding one on each side of her head,lol. I really thought her hair was not long enough, but it was. she looks sooooo cute!

My favorite pic

2008-07-21T03:57:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite picture of Kai! She had been playing with the big girls in the garden and was rather proud of herself,lol!

More Pic's

2008-05-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

I am way to lazy to think of something to say...... so here are a few more pic's.

WOW, it has been a while!

2008-05-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Well, many of you know that Kai broke her arm and had to have surgery. It has been really crazy around here, but here are at least a few new pics!

Kai's Referral Video

2008-03-16T11:19:00.000-07:00

Just click on the red arrow.....

I have been practiceing with the video thing. What do you guys think? Am I missing anything? Any suggestions?

catching up

2008-03-10T14:33:00.001-07:00

Whhhhhhhhhew! It was a long month of yuk at our house. V had the flu and lost 8 lbs, and before that we all had a virus for a few days. So hear are a few pics from the last month.

Kai.... after the bath.....

2008-02-13T13:07:00.000-08:00

Gave Kai a bath this morning. See previous post for pics. Ummmmmmmm, this is her after lunch,lol!

Kai

2008-02-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

Our sweet little Kai Kai!

Mayflower Best Western, Wuhan

2008-02-07T13:13:00.000-08:00

This is the Hotel we stayed at in Wuhan. It was really nice. The last pic is of the hotel lobby. I wish I would have taken a picture of the outside of the hotel:(

Locksmith Kai

2008-02-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Last week O locked the bathroom door on accident. V used a credit card to unlock it. I guess Kai must of have been watching, because I just looked into the hallway from our bedroom and saw Kai with an old gift card sticking it in the crack of the closed bathroom door! She is SOOOOOO smart!

In other news, we took Kai to the Dr for a check up. The Dr we use only takes new patients that are adopted from China. She said Kai was the largest Chinese baby she has ever seen! Toooooo funny. she will probably be taller than her mama by the time she is 12!

the girls and teething

2008-02-04T09:18:00.000-08:00

Kai and Olivia love playing together now. It took a few months for them to both really get to know each other and enjoy each other,lol!

Kai is teething, YUK! I have never seen teeth come in like this. 2 of hers have had bloody looking blisters just before the teeth break through! Poor baby! She is such a trooper!

Silly Kai and ICE

2008-01-15T13:45:00.000-08:00

We went to see ICE at the Gaylord Hotel over the holidays with some GREAT friends of ours. We has a wonderful time! ICE is an indoor ice sculpture show ( duhh we do live in Tx where temps rarely reach freezing for any length of time,lol). It was really neat and the people who carve all of the sculptures are from Harbin China. VERY COOL!

16 months old today

2008-01-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Today Kai turns 16 months old. It is really hard to think that 16 months ago tomorrow she was found at the gate of the orphanage. I think it is harder to think about now than it was when we visited the orphanage and saw the location she was left. Something about having time to get to know her personality and fall even further in love with her makes it seem so tragic for her birth family and the choice they had to make. What a blessing she has been to our family. The pics above were two of three referral pics we received on Aug the 4th. She was 10 months old in the picture. Later today I am going to take a close up so we can all see how much she has changed. I love this sweet girl. Thank you God for bringing us down this road.

The Church In China

2007-12-12T06:53:00.001-08:00

While we were in Wuhan we went to church. It was a school with a court yard. It was unique in the fact that there was not a pastor at this church but it was a feed from a near by church. Every room in the school was full with a tv for the congregation to watch. We arrived a little late and all the rooms were full but the court yard. The people there were soooooo friendly. They brought us out hymnals ( in Chinese) and Bibles ( also in Chinese). We just pretended to follow along,lol! I had no idea where they were in the Bible or the hymnal. All of the chairs were full so we sat on a little bench. Several of the older women in the congregation did not like the fact that A. we were sitting on the benches with the babies, and B. we were in the sun with the babies. We spent the next hour being moved from spot to spot in chairs so we would not be in the sun! It was very sweet and very funny! Kai was sleeping in her carrier when we first arrived and one of the older women leaned in to get a peek, she kissed her on the cheek and then whacked her on the cheek! This is a very normal thing for the Chinese! They are always whacking the babies on the cheeks.Its a way of showing affection. We really had a wonderful time and it was so moving to see the Chinese worship.

Lost Pics of China

2007-12-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

We had several pics that did not get transferred from the laptop we took to China and our home computer. We just realised they were missing a week or so ago. So here are a few extra random pics from our trip!The first is Kai setting in the window of our hotel in Wuhan. The second is one of my favorites,and the third is of the three of us after dinner in Wuhan.

Cowgirl Kai

2007-12-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Kai has some new pink cowgirl boots! She LOVES em! She is a bit of a shoe hound. She will bring me a pair of shoes and say shhhhhhh shhhhhh, that means " I really think these shoes are cute, please put them on my Yedi like feet so I may admire them!"

Flower Girl

2007-11-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

Olivia was a flower girl in a wedding this weekend. I think it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever been to. It was amazing! Here are a few pics.

Kai's Shower

2007-11-14T19:26:00.001-08:00

Liv was the photographer at Kai's shower last week. Notice the lovely picture of me,lol! We had a great time and Kai made out like a bandit! I love all of my home school girls who worked so hard to organize such a great shower!

On a totally different note, Liv was playing in the new stroller box last night and was standing in it ( it is tall and narrow). She tipped it over and feel backwards onto the tile. She had a nasty knot on her head but I really thought she was fine. This morning she woke up and immediately started vomiting. We took her to the ER and after a CAT scan they said she looked fine. Not sure why she was throwing up. Who knows. She is still a little weak, but is doing much better.VERY scary for the mama!

Princess Kai

2007-11-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

Princess Kai had a short photo shoot in the back yard today! She is wearing a dress a very sweet friend made for her. Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!

Shannon

Fall .......

2007-11-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

A few pics of the girls. They were taken a week or so after we returned home. Olivia and Kai are really starting to play together.

Shennong to 3 Gorges Dam

2007-11-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

From Shennong Stream we went on to the Three Gores Dam. It is the largest dam in the world. It was huge! I actually liked the little town around the dam more than the dam itself.

Back To The Cruise

2007-10-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

So, when I last posted about the cruise we were going from Chongqing to Fengdu, after that we cruised on down the Yangtze to a place called Shennong Stream. You take a large ferry to a small stream where you board small boats and are taken through some beautiful country. You also see the hanging coffins. They are these caves in the side of the cliff where coffins were found. They are like 2000 years old and they have no idea how the managed to get the bodies into the caves. This part of the trip was a lot of fun.

You Gotta Love The Hair!

2007-10-31T08:09:00.000-07:00

A Few Pics Since Our Return

2007-10-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

Chongqing to the Ghost City

2007-10-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

The first leg of the trip was from Chongqing to the Ghost City of Fengdu ( I think that how you spell it). It was great. I was not really in to the whole ghost city thing. Kinda creeps me out, but the architecture was beautiful. You have to take a ski lift thing up to the ghost city!

yangtze river cruise pictures

2007-10-22T11:39:00.000-07:00

Several people were interested in pictures of the cruise. I will try to post them in order so if you are thinking of doing the cruise you will know what to expect. The pictures on this post are of the ship and the room we had ( VERY TINY,LOL). If you notice the shower is connected to the sink! You turned a knob to change the water from coming from the sink to the shower head. You basically showered in the same place you washed your hands and brushed you teeth, heck, it was even the same place you used the bathroom! The toilet is just a few inches the the left out of the camera view.

Yangtze River Cruise

2007-10-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

We decided to do the river cruise instead of the standard Beijing. Mostly because we were going to be in Wuhan and that is where the river cruise ends. We are so glad we did.
We flew from Dallas to LA and then from LA to Guangzhou. From Guangzhou we flew on to Chongqing where the cruise started. We arrived in Chongqing around 10:00am and was met by a guide. we could not board the cruise till 6:00pm so we thought we would tour the city for a couple of hours. Now for the honest part. Not sure if it was all of the travel time, the fact that I HATED our tour guide or culture shock, but I HATED Chongqing. It was rainy when we arrived and the city was very overcast and very dirty. all I could think about was thank God we were taking Kai from this horrible place. After a couple of visits to some tourist trap, high pressure sales type places we finally told our guide that we would skip dinner and board the cruise a little early. She was not very happy. She took us to the area where our boat was docked. We were greeted by men begging to help with our bags. I was horrified and told Sean to not let our bags out of our site. a good guide would have told them to leave us alone, but not our Chongqing guide. She allowed them to baggier us and follow us all the way to the boat where the staff of the cruise finally helped us with our bags. I was almost in tears and was so sad that I had this horrible feeling about my daughters birth country.
The nest 4 days were WONDERFUL! We loved the cruise. We met some great people and would not trade that experience for anything. The boat itself was supposed to be a 5 star. I would say it was more like a very nice 3+. It was very clean with very small but adequate rooms. But most of all the scenery was wonderful. The food was pretty good and the staff was always so helpful. I would recommend this cruise for anyone. Just know it is not a plush Caribbean style cruise. It is a very clean Yangtze river cruise with amazing views and wonderful people.
I will add more on this later, but by the time I left China I had fallen in love with my daughters birth country and was so very sad to leave. It is hard to explain, but I will always have such a love for the Chinese people and that beautiful country!
If any of you getting ready to travel have any questions please feel free to leave a commit or email me. I will post pictures when I can get them down loaded.

A few more random pics....

2007-10-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

It has been a week since I posted last and I wanted to show you a few more pics from our trip. The first is of a steamed chicken head that our guide in China LOVED! The rest are just random pics of Kai on our trip. The one of her hitting the other cutie is our friend L. She is half the size of Kai and I think Kai was being a bit of a bully,lol!

And.... a few more pics.....

2007-10-04T07:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, the first is of our bordello like sweet at the Victory hotel in Guangzhou. We had paid for a suite but were upgraded to this 80's Vegas style suite. It was so funny. I totally expected a disco ball to come down out of the ceiling! The room was complete with 2 full baths, a whirl pool tub, computer, bidet, and bar!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The second pic is so you can see how curly Kai's hair is in the back. It is soooooo cute!

Shannon

A few pics to get us started

2007-10-04T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here are a few random pics of Miss Kai! As you can see she is a very BIG girl. She was turned one on Sept 4th and weighs 25lbs and is in the 95% for height!Her hands and feet are huge! She has very light hair and it is kind of curly! All of the Chinese thought she was a "foreign girl". We were asked by the Chinese people if she was Chinese so much we joked that we were going to have a T-shirt made that says " Yes, I am Chinese". Enjoy the pics. I will post more later.

Shannon

We are home!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-10-04T07:07:00.000-07:00

As many of you know we were not able to access our blog in China. A little creepy but we seemed to make it. We just emailed our family and I will post updates and photos later. The trip was WONDERFUL and Kai is absolutely perfect! As soon as I get all of the pictures down loaded I will post pictures.

Shannon

and... I'm back

2007-09-11T03:53:00.000-07:00

Well after I roamed around in my ambian altered sleep, I figured I might as well try to go back to bed. I mean we are about to embark on a 30hr travel adventure! So, I did what any girl would do, found the bottle in the dark ( without waking Sean) and took the other 1 /3 of the original pill, that I had taken earlier in the evening which kept me asleep for exactly4 and 1/2 hours! Now just how long do you think this 1/3 kept me asleep????? You guessed it, 4 hours and a little change!!!!!!! I would say a little prayer here for ambian by it might come ac cross flip, when I truly am as serious as a mama with 8 hours of sleep can be!!!!!!!!!! See in LA!

Hey Mom and Dad I sure have missed you guys! Hope all is well! We love ya and will be praying for you! See ya soon.

Shannon

Leaving soon baby!!!!!!!!

2007-09-11T00:33:00.000-07:00

Well it is 2:23am....... I was sure that sleeping pill I took would at least get me to 3:00 or 4:00am...... YUKKKKKK! Know I just cruise the net and wait for everyone to get up!

We will post from LAX later today and then from Guangzhou ( ummmm that is at 6:20am on Thursday) . We are 12 hours ahead of you guys here so when you are getting ready for be we are pretty much getting up. After we board the cruise we probably will not have wireless access to it may be Monday before we are in Wuhan in a hotel where we can post again.

Please pray peace, blessings, and safety for our entire family.

Shannon

4 M.O.R.E days!!!!!!!!!!

2007-09-07T05:39:00.000-07:00

4 DAYS! Can you believe we only have 4 days before we leave?!?! Life is VERY crazy around here. Victoria has started throwing up, Sean's work load is crazy, he is on call this weekend, the girls were exposed to whooping cough 2 weeks ago ( just found out yesterday), i woke up at 12:00am feeling like I was going to be sick, Olivia is starting to just want to sit in my lap and be rocked, we did not get to go to our homeschool classes due to Victoria throwing up............ The list goes on! Oh yah, we leave on SEPT 11th! Of all of the days in the year to travel this would be my least favorite!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BUT, after 4 short days we will be on a plane to a country I can hardly fathom. This time next week Sean and I will be on a river cruise dn the Yangtze river, and in 11 short days we will meet Miss Alexandra Kai-Li for the first time! God is good!

When Sean and I were praying about the adoption in Dec of 2004 and Jan of 2005 God gave us this scripture and it confirmed in our hearts that this was Gods will for our lives:

Isaiah 43:18-19

Stop dwelling on past events and brooding over times gone by;I am doing a new thing; it's springing up- do you not perceive it? I am making a road in the desert, and rivers in the wasteland.

Kai turns 1 year old today!

2007-09-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAI!

Our sweet baby Kai turns a year old today. I am sure she has no idea that in 13 short days her life will forever be changed. Please continue to pray for an easy transition for all. Now here's another picture of our sweet baby girl!

We are going to China!

2007-08-30T05:14:00.000-07:00

We finally have our flights nailed down. We will be leaving on Sept 11 and returning on Sept the 29th! We will spend 5 days and 4 nights on a cruise down the Yangtze River to see the Three Gorges Dam! For all of my homeschool friends this is the largest dam in the world. Have the kids check it out, it is way cool! We will be in Wuhan at the Best Western Mayflower Hotel from the 17th till the 25th. On the 25th we will fly to Guangzhou ( we will be staying at the Victory) and will depart Guangzhou on the 29th.

I don't think I had any idea how crazy this part of the process would be. It is very stressful! Trying to think of all of the little details is making me a crazy women,LOL! I am not a detail kind of gal. Gotta go add some more stuff to the list of things to buy before we leave.......geeezzzz I am going to be broke when all of this is over,LOL!!!!!!!!!!

Poor baby!

2007-08-30T05:01:00.000-07:00

Did I ever show the picture of Olivia's unfortunate dog encounter? We were at my bil last Christmas and he had some friend over with a dog. Olivia went to hug the dog..... and well..... you see that did not go so well. UGGGGGG! It has healed but she has a raised scar on the side of her nose. Now, you would think that would make her a little more leery next time but not my baby girl! She is not afraid of anything ( umm... not true, she is afraid of bugs and rain,LOL). She will STILL run up to totally strange dogs and try to love all over em!

TA!

2007-08-26T05:13:00.000-07:00

We finally received TA ( travel approval) on Thursday! We are so excited! Now we just have to wait for our consulate appointment ( should get it on Monday) and we will be able to book our travel. We have tentative dates of Sept 1oth - Sept 28th. Just 15 or so days from now!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooo Hoooooooo!
Hey Kelli! Hope you find our blog. It was so good to see ya yesterday! Her is a shout out to all of the B family!

Shannon

The name game!

2007-08-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok...... We have had Miss Alexandra's name picked out for a LOOOONG time! Years actually! Hence the title of the blog Alexandra Li. Soooo when we first saw her Chinese name we loved it ( Kai, pronounced Ki, rhymes with tie). We then decided to name her Alexandra Kai Li. So when all of our family and friends ( us a well) starting talking about calling her Kai instead of Alexandra it was a hard mental switch! Both of our girls have very traditional names and I just don't ever want Alexandra Kai to ever feel like she is the odd man out, but yet it is a BEAUTIFUL name and it reflects who SHE is. I'm afraid I will scar her for life if we call her the wrong name! Don't laugh! I am serious!!!! I lay awake at night worrying about this! I think I need some kind of anxiety pills, but then of course I couldn't go get my daughter!LOL!!!!!!

PS. For all of those not in the know, China has recently said you may not adopt if you are on any kind of anti depressant!!!!!!!!

Hubei and Daye SWI

2007-08-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

First of all thank you all so much for all of the comments! You guys are great! In all of my excitement on referral day I forgot to put down what orphanage Alexandra Kai Li is from! She is from the Daye SWI. It is in the city of Daye and is about 50 miles southeast of Wuhan.There are very few referrals from this particular orphanage, so information is limited. We know that she is or has been in foster care. If anyone has any info on Daye, the city or the orphanage please share! I am dying to know more!
In other news, we received the translated information about Alexandra! She is described three times as naughty! Cracks me up! One says " Naughty little Ye Meng Kai"! Soooooo funny!

Shannon

Meet Alexandra Kai-Li

2007-08-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL! We got the call today at 11:39. we were at Sean's work and were taken a little off guard. I really thought we had at least a few hours before the call! Here is all of the 411 we have for now:

Name: Ye Meng Kai

Born : 9/04/2006 ( she is 10 months old)

Weight: 17 lbs.

Hubei province

She is a moderate sleeper, ummmmm I am not sure I like the sound of moderate! we are soooo very excited!

We are FINALLY close!

2007-07-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we are finally on the down hill slide! We have a LID of 11/17/05 and are expecting our referral in the next two weeks! I am getting up every morning doing hair and makeup and looking for the "perfect outfit", so when the time comes, I am READY! Lights, camera, action! We have waited for this for SOOOOOOOOOO VERY LONG, it will be so nice not to wonder WHEN any more. Stay tuned!

Im baaaaaaack!

2007-01-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

Well , It looks like it has been a year since my last post! It has just been so hard with the wait stretching out from 6 months to who really knows! It is looking like we will get our referral sometime between April and May. I have decided I really need t start blogging again so I will began to postmore often! Alexandra Li

Drum Roll Please! We have a LID!!!!!!!!!!

2005-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

We FINALLY have a LID, what is a LID you ask? Well, that is your log in date, the date that China logs in your dossier into their system! This makes you official and the count down starts from this date! So, Nov 17, 2005 will be one of the most important dates of our journey to our sweet baby girl! The wait is looking like anywhere from 8 to 10 months but could speed up ( I am praying for that one) or slow down at any time! It seems that in one of the provinces that many internationally adopted babies come from, has had an issue with baby trafficking, so they have halted adoptions from that paticular province till they can have a resolution am not clear on all of the details just yet but hope to sort it all out and document it for Alexandra to have when she gets older. I am in the very early stages of starting a life book (similar to a scrapbook)for Alexandra to document our journey to her and to document her journey to us!
that's all for now, must go partake in my drug of choice these days, shopping of course! Hope you all have a very merry Christmas!

I know, it's been a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-12-13T17:31:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok, I know I have not bloged in a while but honestly I just have to sometimes pretend it is not really happening, the adoption that is ( call it self preservation)! You see, what we thought would be a 6 month wait, has turned into an 8 to 12 month wait! We were hoping to travel in late spring or early summer and it is looking more like fall or even winter! Sooooooo, in order to cope I have to put it in the back of my mind or I would totally loose it!
It seems the CCAA ( the powers that be in China) have slowed down the process a bit and depending on how many people you ask, you will get that many different explanations! So, I have passed the time with Christmas shopping!
Want to hear another Olivia story? We were in the car last week and Olivia says" Mom, do you feel married?" Me " Do I feel married?" Olivia, " yah, do you feel married?" Me " Yes, I do." Olivia, " I do too." Victoria " What is she talking about!" Me " I have no idea!"
Another one you say? Olivia " Mom where do babies come out?" Me, huge breath " well, they come out of your vagina." Olivia " what's that?" Me "Your tee tee." Olivia " Ohhhh, that's funny!"
Ummm, funny is not how I would describe it, but I did not feel the need to go into great detail on birthing babies with my 4 year old! That's all for now!

We are DTC!!!! (and other tid bits)

2005-11-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

We are officially DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are soooo excited! Friday morning around 6:00 a.m I was down stairs in the living room doing my Bible study. I could hear little foot steps coming down the stairs, then Miss Olivia came around the corner with her blanket over her head ( this is an every morning ritual, she covers her head with her blanket, we pretend to be scared, she takes the blanket off and says " its just me! Olivia!" and we say "Ohhhh you scared us!") she crawled up in my lap. I told her we were going to Pei Wei tonight for Chinese food to celebrate. She looked like she didn't remember Pei Wei so I told her it was the place with the chop sticks. She looked puzzled for a minute then she said " Oh, the place with the crackers". I was trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about when she said " you know, the sweet crackers with tags in em!" Sooooooo, sweet!
We put up our Christmas tree Friday as well. I know its 80 freaking ( freaking is not a curse word is it?) degrees but I figured it was a great way to celebrate being DTC! Victoria broke out the Christmas music ( of which she listens to ALL year!) and we got busy! We decided to make our smaller tree in the dining room a Chinese tree! We have decorated it with chop sticks and with some of those sweet crackers with tags in em! It is so cute! Victoria makes little ornaments with notes to Alexandra on them! one said " To my Chinese sister, good luck!" I love her so much, she is such a sweet girl! I told her the other day that we would try to visit China when Alexandra is older and she wanted to know if we could get another baby when we went!

Not Very Interesting today!

2005-11-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been kind of quite around here. We are hoping to be DTC tomorrow so it is another one of those hurry up and wait days! BUT, on a much happier note we are going to celebrate being DTC tomorrow by going out to eat at Pae Wae (sp) with the "P's" and the "E's"! I am so excited! After dinner we are going to go back to "Harriet's" ( come on "Harriet" you know who you are!) house for coffee and cake! Well, I better get to cleaning! The laundry continues to multiply somehow and ignoring it is not making it go away!

Halloween! I think not!LOL!

2005-11-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know I am probably a bad mom. Last night it was somewhat cool and I really did not feel like taking the kids trick or treating so I did what any good mom would do. I went to Blockbuster rented Robots, came home ordered pizza, turned off all of the lights, went upstairs to our daughters room( she has a DVD player in her room, we do not, note to self: steal Victoria's DVD and give her the VHS), and told my 4 yo that Sat. was trick or treat day ( went to church fall fest). We all squished into Victoria's full sized bed and celebrated the fact that we had received out I-171 and that we would hopefully be DTC by Friday! We are one step closer to our new baby girl! Lord, please keep her safe and well.

Room For Baby?????????

2005-10-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

Ok, I was just tucking Olivia in bed, and she was asking where our new baby was going to sleep. The conversation went something like this:
Olivia: "Where is the new baby going to sleep mommy?"

Me: "Well I guess she can sleep in your room" ( thinking she would think this was cool).

Olivia:" ummmmmm, I don't know."

Me: "Well she can sleep in Victorias room or in the extra bedroom." I said.Olivia just looks at me and I can see the wheels turning in her little head. You see, Victoria sleeps in Olivias room EVERY night. I can see the internal struggle of do I lose Victoria as a sleeping buddy and put all of my chips on this new baby or........

Me: "Well, Alexandra can sleep in your room with you AND Victoria." Her eyes lit up! That was the answer for her dilemma!

Olivia: Mom, that is a great idea! Lets do that!

Another crisis averted! A moms job never ends! Now how I am going to fit THREE little girls in one room is another dilemma in itself, but one dilemma I am sure glad to have!

Ladies and Gentlemen, We have it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-10-30T19:21:00.000-08:00

Ok....... I ....am .....soooooo.... excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday I checked the mail before we went to our church fall fest, no mail. When we got in later in the evening I forgot because we had friends follow us home for dinner. Today went to church around 8:45 a.m. and returned around 8:30 p.m. When we pulled in I realized I had not checked the mail since yesterday! I went to the mail box and I think I heard angels singing when I saw the magic words " Homeland Security"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We now have the beloved I-171, after 5 weeks and 2 days! Hold on Alexandra Li, momma and daddy are on their way!

Addicted to blogs!

2005-10-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, I have a problem I am absolutely and completely addicted to other peoples blogs. Mostly about their adoption experience! I found myself feeling rather nauseas with a sharp pain in my shoulder over the last week or so, could not for the life of me figure out why! Well eureka! I figured it out yesterday. It seems that if you spend several hours scrolling down you CAN get motion sickness! I am not kidding I think my nausea has been directly related to the continuous scrolling of other peoples blogs! As for the pain in my shoulder, I think it is from moving the mouse and having my arm constantly tense! I can see it now: Hi, my name is Shannon and I have an addiction! Great!

I officially Hate the wait!!!!!!!!

2005-10-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have decided, I Hate the wait! We are waiting on the much coveted I-171 to no avail! I wake up every morning with the post man on my mind,why the post man you ask, because he will deliver one of the most important documents so far. Permission for us to bring in a foreign born child to the US. This is the last document we need before we can send our dossier ( the dossier is all of the paper work that china requires all bound together)to China. I am sure the poor post man thinks I am crazy. Every day I wait around the window till I see his old beaten up black and silver blazer, then I run to the mail box the minute he has pulled away ( a few feet)! So far no luck! And the really yucky part, our mail does not run till around 5:00 pm! Makes for a very nerve racking day! Sooooooooo, I continue to wait, to pray, to try and keep up with all of the endless chores that seem so irrelevant when someone I love so much is a world away.
I cant describe how odd it is to feel such a strong love for someone I have never seen, or possibly not even born yet. I wonder if she is born yet, and if she is, is she warm? Hungry? Loved? Played with? Lord I just pray you keep her safe till we can hold her in arms!
Well, I am off to begin the stalking process for day # 36!

Where does pee come from????????

2005-10-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

Olivia is very interested in where pee and poop come from. She has asked me several times at which I have replied your tee tee and your heiny. Soooo, the other day I walk into MY bthroom where Miss Olivia is sitting on the potty,Olivia: "hey mom, I opened "it" up, and pee comes from the little hole and poop comes from the big hole and I am pooping rite now!" Mom "great" as I walk out of the bathroom shaking my head! "It", I have got to do a better job than this!

Must catch everyone up!!!!!!!!!

2005-10-25T05:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, I (we, I am not smart enough to figure this whole blog thing out so Sean set it up for me,for people who know me this will not be such a surprise!) set up this blog so we could look back and remember all of the crazy, sad,happy...... stuff that went along with this process. Sooooooo, let me catch you up on what the girls think of Miss Alexandra Li. Victoria loves the idea of having a sister that she can carry around and love on ( Lord knows Olivia will have none of that!LOL). She totally gets the whole adoption thing and REALLY wants to go with us. Victoria (9)is my sweet loving mostly responsible child. Olivia (4) on the other hand thinks all babies come from China including herself ( my little blonde headed brown eyed girl thinks we got her in China!), loves the idea of a baby, but in reality will have a horrible time with the new addition! The other day we were in the car talking about the different states we were all born in, after Sean myself and Victoria had given our respective states Olivia said " I know where I was born" I looked at Sean, " ok honey where" "China" she responded, with a look of great pride!LOL! I love this age!

I-171 Wait

2005-10-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

So, today we are on week 4 day 4 of our I-171 wait! It is driving me crazy! I really have not been anxious throughout this process so far till now. There is something about it being totally out of my control that really AGGRAVATES me. Oh well I will continue to stalk the mail man like every other adoptive mom does at this point in the journey!

Alexandra Li...Ready or Not Here We Come!

2005-10-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hi. We are Sean and Shannon. We have been married for 11 years and have 2 bio girls 9 and 4! In November of 2004 a missionary visited our church and spoke on supporting orphans in India. After Sean and I began to talk about this for the next few weeks Sean said "maybe we should consider adoption". We started looking into international adoption and after a ton of research we decided on China. And so our journey began in April of 2005! Alexandra Li, here we come!