Merry Christmas

Love, Peace and God's Blessings from our family to yours

We are leaving on a Jet Plane

Our flights are booked we are leaving Newark at 3pm on Jan 12th and returning Jan 25th around 1:50...Staying the entire time at the White Swan. I've decided to take my laptop along so hopefully I'll be able to keep you all updated with photos etc.

Santa Train

Gramma, Carlee and I went on the Santa Train last weekend. It was just after the big ice storm so the trees looked like they were made of glass but the tracks were covered with branches so we couldn't make it to the end of the line and had to return to the station in reverse.

Persimmon Quest Animoto

This is Cool

Persimmon Quest

Pappy and Gramma have a persimmon tree in the field down from their house.
So Sunday right after church Pappy decides it's a good time to get Carlee a persimmon. So out comes the old step ladder (circa 1950) and off they trek down to the tree. Carlee is in her Sunday school dress with high heels.

The Gingerbread House

Gramma bought a Gingerbread house at Walmart the other day for her and Carlee to do. After quite a bit of work and instruction they completed it. I think Carlee was quite pleased with the result.

Latest News

Cadee Update

Got a call from our agency the other day looks like we will be traveling from Jan 11th to the 25th, but they are still trying to push the dates up earlier and will let us know by Tues or Wed.

Carlee Update

Carlee had a temp of 102 this morning and is home from school and won't be able to be in the Christmas program tonight :-( Hopefully she will be better tomorrow as Santa is coming to the house tomorrow night at 6 and Gramma Ritzman, Carlee and I will be going on the Santa train on Sunday. So today Carlee and I are confined to the house. I gave her Motrin and her temp is now 98.8 so we will wait and see.

Cadee Update

Here is the latest on Cadee. We received word last week that our agency couldn't get consulate appts for Dec so the earliest we will be traveling is Jan 8.

AFTH has 2 groups traveling one will be going to Jiangxi and our group going to Guangdong. We have approx 14-16 families in our group and approx 3-4 families going for their second child.

Our trip sounds like it will be a repeat of our trip to get Carlee.
Fly from Newark to Hong Kong. Stay at the Regal Hotel in the Hong Kong Airport then go on the bus with Ben in the morning to head to Guangzhou and the White Swan Hotel http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/eng/Public/briefIntro/index.asp. On the Shamian Island http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamian_Island stay at the White Swan for approx 10 days then back to Hong Kong and home.

I'm looking forward to seeing Jennifer's place http://www.jennifers_place.homestead.com/, Lucy's Restaurant, and the big dept store shopping spree again.

On the trip each family is assigned a number for Carlee we were family number 3. Well this time we moved up the list to family number 2.

There is another couple in our group from Harrisburg which is only 30 min from home. their daughter is around 7-8 mo. but hopefully we can keep in contact and let the girls get together once they get older.

Christmas Photo Out Takes

Today my goal was to get our Christmas Card photos done and printed up at Walmart. We didn't make it to Walmart until 8pm so I guess I'll be picking up the cards next week and hopefully get them mailed before Friday. Anyway here are some out takes of our photo shoot in the living room. ENJOY!!

Starting to get bored with the whole photo thing

I get this look a lot

And this one a lot too

Travel Update

We got an email from Adoptions from the Heart the other day it said be prepare to travel anytime between Dec 15-22 that means we will probably be in China for Christmas.

Jeff is hoping that we let before the 15th as Santa is coming to our home for the Christmas party on the 15th and I told Jeff if we are hosting the party here at the house we (Jeff) has to put up the outside lights. But if we leave before the 15th then he doesn't have to put them up.

I've been busy getting things ready for Christmas (wrapping gifts, decorating the house, making gifts to give) and getting the suitcases packed. So much to do and so little time

Christmas in the Park

Yesterday we went to Christmas in the Park. It was a lot of fun we asked Carlee's best friend J and her mom N to go along. There was lots of crafts, homemade soaps, Kettle Popcorn, freshly made potato chips and other good food. We ate homemade onion rings, pizza and a fish sandwich. And of course we had to bring home some of the homemade chips and kettle popcorn.

Carlee got to pose with Frosty for a bit. The girls also got to go on a horse drawn carriage ride. But the climax was sitting on the big guys lap. Mrs. Claus just happens to be a dear friend of ours and she just adores Carlee so needless to say the girls got to spend a lot of time talking to Santa however they couldn't remember what they wanted for Christmas. Stage Fright maybe

Side Note: Every time Carlee goes to see Santa she insists on wearing her Santa Dress.

Oh Christmas Tree

Start with a new Lowes' Almost Like Fresh Cut Frazier Fir with 1250 lights (this years Christmas Gift from Mom and Dad)...Add 1000 more lights, 13 years worth of ornaments, some tinsel and some icicles and you get this years Christmas tree. It only took 3 days to finally get it fluffed and everything on it.

Close up

Birthday Girl

Carlee's 5th Birthday

Morning:

Working with the beads that Gramma Ritzman sent

Made a necklace with my name on I must wear it today

Afternoon:

Taking my nap...Getting ready for my big party

Party Time:

Gramma and Pappaw got me a Birthday Girl Crown

Got to Model it for you

Time for the Cake...Singing Happy Birthday

Carlee's requested a Princess Cake with All of the Princesses

Introducing Cadee Anne Becker

Born 3/16/2006 18 month old
Chinese Name: Ji, Xiang Wu (Carlees was Jin, Xiang Yi)
Currently Residing: Huazhou Social Welfare Institute, Guangdong China…Same province as Carlee

As of Aug 07
Height 72 cm
Wt 7.72 kg
Deep Sleeper…Hurray
Picks up a pill with her thumb and index finger
Has 8 teeth
Uses thumbs and index fingers deftly
Takes a block out of the cup
Bangs 2 blocks together
Turns over pages of a book twice or more
Imitates words
Knows what NO means
Responds to other’s asking for her objects
Cooperative when put on clothes
Takes off unlined clothes

She is quiet
Fond of playing with toys
Getting along with others well

That is all we know so far except we all think she is beautiful!!
God is GOOD

Uncanny

Carlee at 9 mo Cadee at 12 mo





Carlee 9mo Cadee at 12 mo

I think they look similar. Their orphanges are only about 50-100 miles apart.

Isn't it uncanny

Tomorrow....

I received a call from our agency this afternoon, the packages were Fed Ex ed overnight today. This means we will see Cadee's face and learn about her tomorrow...I don't know how I'm going to sleep tonight...

I'll post it as soon as I can I don't know what time the Fed Ex man is coming so keep watching

Referrals are HERE and We are in

From the Rumor Queen

They are HERE!!!!!November 1st, 2007
First referral report has happened!!! The family has a LID of 12/7, I know that’s the next question.
Congrats to everyone who will soon be seeing your children’s faces for the first time!!!!!!

We should be getting out call today or tomorrow and getting her photo Monday or Tues...

Oh My Word I CAn't believe it!!!

Halloween

Here is our little Indian maiden, Carlee says she's Pocahontas and I tell her she's Sacajawea either way, she took 1st in the town's Halloween parade for the prettiest.

Bee Sting the next Day

Here is how Carlee woke up this morning with alot of swelling around her eye
Here is a photo of her eye right after church around lunch

Here it is just before bed. She says it doesn't hurt that it just itches. We gave her some Benydril and put warm compresses on it so hopefully tomorrow the swelling will go down some. Poor Kid

Books Books Bookcase

During the school sale last month I pointed out a bookcase that was being sold and told DH J that Carlee could sure use a bigger one. He told me he would build one for her nicer than the one at the auction. So today he comes home with this nicely handcrafted bookcase. I really think it's super. As you can see Carlee has quite the library. I'm tickled that her books fit on the case with room to spare...

What a Day!

What a day, first around 1 pm we went down to the Fallfest at a local church. When we got there Carlee met up with her best friend J. I asked J's mom to watch the girls while they stood in line for the moon bounce while I signed Carlee in for the prize drawings. No sooner did I get in the prize drawing line then this awful scream and bawling came from the moon bounce line. I looked over and sure enough there was Carlee just crying her little eyes out. J's mom was trying to see what happened, I raced over and asked Carlee what was wrong and she said her eye hurt. Once I finally got her to let me look at it I discovered the poor kid got stung by a bee just under her right eye. Poor kid this was her first bee sting and what a place to have it. Needless to say we got some ice for her eye and went home. Once home we out cream on it and give her some Advil. The crying went on until about 2. Around 3 the eye was fine with minimal swelling.

We were planning to be in the town's Halloween parade today so around 3 I asked her if she wanted to be in the parade starting around 4. No she said I just want to watch. So I called J's mom to see were they would be standing so we could stand with them This was about 3:40pm turns out that J decided to walk in the parade, well that is all it took Carlee wanted to be in the parade too.

Mad dash getting her outfit on. Thank goodness we had everything laid out and her hair braided before we left for Fallfest. We made it to register at 3:55. She here she is walking in the parade. We decided to go with the Indian Maiden this year. She says she's Pocahontas...I say she's Sacajawea.

After the parade the kids play in the park and roast hot dogs until they announce the winners of the parade. Well guess who won 1st place for the prettiest individual. That's right the Indian Maiden. Here she is with her trophy. The day turned out pretty good after all!

Kindergarten Picture

This is our kids Kindergarten photo...Ain't she cute! I can't believe how quickly she grew up.

2 more weeks til TSO

Less that 2 weeks and my Best Friend Forever (BFF) Kate and I will be going to see the Tran Siberian Orchestra (TSO) Christmas concert. I can't wait. Jeff and I went for the past 2 years and I have enjoyed both performances. The songs are, dare I say, ROCKIN' and the light show is to die for. I have all their CDs and I must admit they are the first Christmas CDs I get out sometimes before Thanksgiving.

If you can't place the group TSO here is their website. http://www.trans-siberian.com/intro.html If they ever get near your hometown I would highly recommend going. What a great way to bring in the holiday season.

Halloween Pumpkin

Gramma Ritzman and Carlee carved this pumpkin during Gramma stay. Carlee drew the face and helped gut the pumpkin and Gramma did the carving. Not too bad.

Here are some of Carlee's "scary" Halloween faces...They look a little devilish to me.

Our Girl is Reading!!

Carlee read her first book to me last night it was "Jack and Jill and Big Dog Bill" I'm so proud! She is not even 5 yet. She didn't know only 2 words in the whole book.

She had been reading Go Dog Go and some of Dick and Jane but never completed the whole book.

I can't believe how much a little kid can learn at such a young age.

China Adoption ...The Process

Step #1...Complete many forms, get a homestudy, find your birth cert., marriage license and many more documents. Get everything notarized at the Dept of State. Get fingerprinted for Homeland Security. Get phyical, Gather past 2 yrs worth of taxes, Send all of these documents and forms (about 24 pieces of paper in all) now called a dossier to the Center for Chinese Adoption Affairs (CCAA) in Bejiing China.

Step #2...Once the CCAA recieves your dossier they log you in their books as to the date they recieved your paperwork. Call Log In Date or LID ours was Dec 7, 2005

Step #3...Wait

Step #4...1 year has passed since you did your homestudy and fingerprints. Send in more money to get everything renewed

Step #5...Wait

Step #6.. Dossier goes to the CCAA Review Room Our dossier (paperwork) checked and double checked to make sure everything is filled out the way they want it and that all of our paperwork is in order. Once the dossier is completely reviewed then it is sent to the matching room.

Step #7...Wait

Step #8...Nearly 2 years has passed since home study. You must renew the homestudy again as in PA you can't travel unless you have a current home study.

Step #9...Matching Room...In the matching room they review this months available baby dossiers and make sure there are no issues with them. Parent dossiers are reviewed months before, baby dossiers are reviewed when they arrive and then immediately matched. So now they have a stack of baby dossiers. They look to see how far this stack will go in the month without sending out a partial day and they pull all of those files. That is the likely cut-off date. Sometimes something happens and they don't get this far. Sometimes something happens and they get farther. Next they match orphanages up with agencies. This orphanage has six babies, this agency has six families. These two orphanages are in the same province and have a total of 12 babies, this agency has 12 families. When they are through with this is when (I believe) some agencies start to get information about the cut-off date. And then they start matching individual babies to individual families. The CCAA has matched up to Nov 30th 2005 as of the beginning of Oct 07

Step #10 ...We hear from our agency that we have been matched and are given the details of our daughter. Hopefully this will happen the last week of Oct or the first week of Nov.

I'll let you know about what happens next .... More coming soon (I hope)

Getting Ready

I am praying that we get matched with our daughter and get Cadee's picture and info the beginning of Nov. (I'll explain how the Chinese adoption process works later) I know I'll be really anxious and nervous the last week of Oct and the first week of Nov.

I'm really starting to buy things for Cadee now and I thought it would be nice to have Carlee and Cadee some matching outfits. I really makes it difficult because most of my purchases come from yard sales or second hand stores. Sometimes I do splurge though

Here are some of my purchases so far.

I thought I would have Carlee wear her Jie-Jie Sweatshirt to Kindergarten on the day after we get Cadee's picture. I wasn't sure if we would get our match in the summer or winter so I had to buy for both seasons of course. Won't the girls look too cute wearing these once Cadee comes home.

Here are dresses I found ON SALE at the Gymboree outlets

And how could I pass up this outfit for Cadee I found at a yard sale with the tags on...