New Photo's-Walk The Wall, Changsha

To our delight, the wonderful Eng Kwang sent us 3 new pictures that were taking yesterday of Sha Sha. ICC does a fundraiser called "Walk The Wall", see http://www.walkthewall.org/ and Sha Sha and other children from her orphanage were there.  Eng Kwang was extremely thoughtful and took these photos which I'm sure he knew would positively make our day.   I love that her hair has grown as bit since I happened to stumble upon some really adorable hair clips this weekend-hehe:) 

Paul and I must go into her room now 50 times a day.  It's amazing how the dynamics of our house has changed for the better ever since we set her bed up.  Just even walking by her room brings a smile to our faces.  Paul added a bar down low in her closet and we of course have been picking up little outfits that are now hanging on that bar.  We also set up a toy chests for her and are starting to fill that with fun stuff.  Of course we placed some stuffed animal "pugs" on top of it, one that we will be sending her in her care package soon.  Once the room is fully done we will post more photos but for now we are enriched with the 3 new ones below.

Please continue to keep Sha Sha in your thoughts and prayers because in about 3 weeks we will have our TA which means the wonderful people at ICC will tell her about her forever family who is coming for her soon

We're Cabled

We received an email yesterday morning from the NVC saying we are cabled and then got confirmation from CAWLI saying everything will go to China today.  This is a huge step again.  We now wait for our Article 5 to be picked up at the Chinese Consulate which typically takes about 2 weeks. Then after that we wait for our TA (Travel Approval) which is about 1 week after Article 5.  We are hoping to have our sunshine home by Thanksgiving which would be amazing.  We are almost done with her room. We found a low bed and have her bed and end tables setup. We are going to use Paul's dresser that his dad made special for him when he was young so that will be neat to give her.  Below is a picture of her bed, we still need a few more things but just having her bed set up has really validated that she will be home any day now.

NEW PHOTOS

This morning when we woke up we were delighted to see that Eng Kwang sent us six more photos of ShaSha. The amazing thing is three are with her foster family which we never thought we would get to see. We have always wondered what they were like and you can get a sense from the photos that they took great care of her. We believe the other woman may be her foster sister which ShaSha was very close with but we are not sure.  The top three are her now back at ICC. She has grown a bit more but is still the cutest thing ever.

"Here comes the sun, here comes the sun and I say it's all right "

Today was an amazing day. We got NEW PICTURES and an updated medical report.  We found out she loves the color pink which is great since her new comforter is mostly pink.  We also learned she loves to play piano.  Paul is currently investigating parental controls for the computer since she also loves to browse the internet, I'm pretty confident he is not going to sleep easy now-ha.  We picked out her bedroom furniture today as well.  Just a great day.  Check out our little ray of light below, so so cute. These pictures were taking at the orphanage back in 2009.  We are grateful to Eng Kwang for all that he has done, what a blessing.

800 APPROVED!!!!

Ni hao.  Just got the email we've been holding our breath over for the past few weeks.  Our fabulous case worker just emails us saying she got our 800 and approved it, it will go out tomorrow to the NVC.  We are just overjoyed right now.  Paul and I truly feel blessed with all the people who we have worked with along this amazing journey. There are not enough words to describe how we feel about our 3 ladies (Lillian, Meg and Cara) at CAWLI, one day I will be able to express in writing just how wonderful they all are.  And recently Eng Kwang at ICC, truly a blessing.  He has been nothing but amazing not only to us but to our number 1 priority Yao Sha.  It has shown from the beginning just how much he cares about the children at ICC and in particular our little "Sha Sha".  And last but not least Merredeth at USCIS.  She has been nothing but wonderful, she was very encouraging and always responsive which is exactly what you need when you are waiting for these big approvals.  We had read on other blogs how people were having issues with their case worker, I always sat in the background quietly thinking how lucky we were because she was truly wonderful and we didn't have a single complaint to say. All just another blessing.


So now we continue to wait a little bit more but we are in the final stretch now.  Paul and I started our Chinese class last night which was terrific and terrifying all in one.  Our teacher is great.   We also watched "Wo Ai Ni ( I love you)" last night and were truly moved in more ways then we can describe.  It's a documentary that follows an 8 year old girl getting adopted by a family in NY.  It definitely hit close to home and was at times hard to watch but was also very good for us to watch. Here is the link you can view it online if you want. www.woainimommy.com.

Here's to a great day, soon we will start our Rakocy family reunion, my uncle flies in tonight and then  my sister will be in, can't wait.

Please continue to keep Sha Sha (we learned of her nickname last night in class and of course love it) in your thoughts and prayers as she makes her way through her transition.