Confirmation!

CAWLI called this morning saying they have received confirmation from the American Consulate in Guangzhou, China, that we have our Consulate appt. on 9/27. That is where Meigan will become an American Citizen and receive her American passport! Our travel dates are 9/14-29th. We will be in Beijing for a couple days sightseeing and then we're off to Kunming, Yunnan province, and we will have Meigan either Sunday night or Monday morning!
Today, I sent the passports to my cousin in Houston for the visas and we also sent Meigan's care package to her orphanage even though she is not there yet. Hopefully she will have her blankie, toy dog and pictures during the week she goes back to the orphanage 1 week before we get her. She has been with a foster family quite a while. I know it will be hard for Meigan and her foster family. Unfortunately, we will not to get to meet them and thank them for caring for our daughter.
Expecting our travel package Friday so should have more travel details!

We Have TA!!!!!!

Scott, Logan, Jennifer and myself are very excited to announce we got the "call" today for our travel approval ! We are awaiting travel confirmation from our agency( China Adoption with Love, Inc.) , but looks like we will probably get to go on Sept. 14, which is Jennifer's 5th birthday! That's only 2 weeks! Will keep you posted when details are confirmed:)

Crate Training

Crate training Rocky hasn't been so easy but just took one day for Jennifer:)

And They Called It Puppy Love

We have a very special puppy in our household now. His name is Rocky and he is 3 months old.
Rocky was Matt and Shruti's " baby" and we happily agreed to be his "Godparents" since Shruti is now in Boston. (((Love ya Shruti! ))) When Matt brought him down when they first got him, Logan just loved him and wanted a puppy so badly. Matt and Shruti both knew how much Logan loved Rocky and Logan was overjoyed when we told him Rocky would be living with us. He really is a sweetheart and you just melt when you look at him. He is a boxer and will probably get pretty big. We've been told boxers are good with kids. Rocky is such a baby himself. Last night, Rocky slept between Scott and me and Jennifer was on the other side of me! We're thinking of taking over Logan's bunkbeds and give the kids and the dog our bed! Anyway, he has put smiles on our faces after so much pain and sadness. The picture below is of Matt holding Rocky a month ago. Will post new pictures soon.
Still hoping to travel in Sept. There is a group leaving the end of Aug. but I'm afraid we've missed that boat. If another group doesn't leave in Sept., we will travel ourselves. Oct. is hard to do because of a trade fair in Hong Kong or Guangzhou. Prices go way up and hard to get rooms. We are so ready to bring this baby home. Ar first, there was no way I wanted to go without a group, but now we are at the point of whatever it takes.

Much Family Saddness

This whole past week and a half is still so surreal. I wasn't sure when I would be up to blogging again, but I thought I should at least share some unexpected news to readers wondering why I haven't posted in a couple weeks. I lost my brother, Matt, to a sudden stroke on July 28th. He was 32 years old. He had just moved back to Tampa from Naples to be with his fiancee, Shruti.
They were planning to marry in March next year.
In a weird twist of fate, Matt passed away on Meigan's birthday. We wanted to change her birth date after this happened, but decided we need something to celebrate that day. Her and her uncle Matt will always share that day, and we will celebrate Matt's life and the gift of new life in Meigan.

No travel approval yet, but could be soon.

Bringing China to Us!

It's been a long week, but I'm finally able to catch a moment to tell you what we've been up to.
Besides Logan doing music camp at our church this week,( which really is a big deal considering it's hard to get him to do anything,) we are a host family for 2 kids from Hong Kong who are in a English immersion program here in Naples. They will stay with us for 3 weeks! Olivia is 14 years old and Sam is 11 years old. Through the week, they are gone all day until 6:00. The kids are enjoying each other and we're hoping we will learn from each other also!

Back on the Radio!

This past Tuesday, Logan and I went to Praise FM to drop off Yoo-Hoo and a couple of hot dogs to Arnie, who is the radio personality that has had me on his program previously. Those are his favorites and it's the least we could do for all they've done for us! Well, I was invited back to the studio Friday, (today), to talk about how much money we've raised thus far and how we did at the rummage sale. So this time, I took Scott and Logan to be with me. Logan thought it was really neat. They even asked him a few questions on the air! Now he wants to work in radio when he grows up! We took a picture of him ,with his headset on , with my camera phone but not sure how to transfer the picture to computer. It really was cute, though.
Another awesome thing that has happened thanks to the radio station is a letter I received yesterday. A gentleman that had called in to donate when I was on last time sent me a check and with it a letter saying he has a Bible study group that would like to help us raise more money for our travel expenses. Please call him for more info. So, of course, I called him and he said they would like to have a carwash fundraiser for us and he would love for me to speak at his church about Meigan and what we are trying to do! It seems God keeps opening more windows (or doors) for us ,because I never could've imagined things working out like they have without him putting the right people in our lives at just the right time.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
Knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
And to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

Rummage Sale Pics from Sat., July 8

Here are some pictures of our Rummage Sale on July, 8th. It was a lot of work, but well worth it as we made over $1400.00. This, along with contributions, gives us a grand total of over $2000 now.

Trip to Disney 6/14/06

Here is a picture of Logan and Jennifer that was taken at Disney World on June 14, 2006. They had such a good time. They even rode Thunder Mountain this year, one of the "big rides". Very exciting. Jennifer can hardly wait to take Mei Mei to Disney World to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Big Radio Debut!

What an awesome experience this was! I had faxed our event info. to our local Christian radio station, Praise FM, hoping they would announce at some point about the rummage sale. I got a phone call saying they will announce our event for a week and they would like me to come on the air and talk about the rummage sale and the adoption. Mom went with me. I was pretty nervous! He (Arnie) asked how much we were trying to raise, questions about Meigan,and his host, Karole, asked questions as well. I talked about 20 min. During that time, 4 people had called in to donate money. It was hard to go back on the air without crying. Words cannot express how emotional that made me feel! The account we started, (thanks to Anita and Jack),
had quadrupled that day! God definately had his hand in this one! Thank you Praise FM, we are forever grateful for what you have done for us!

A few questions answered

I had emailed CAWLI, (China Adoption with Love, Inc. ), our agency, with a couple questions about Meigan we were hoping to find out before we get her. I wasn't expecting a quick response, but I'll take it! We asked if she still takes a bottle and does she sleep in a crib or bed?
We also asked for new measurements , but to no avail.

The update is: Currently she drinks from a cup, no longer uses bottles. ( I wasn't concerned about her being on a bottle still. We just needed to know because she would have required special cleft nipples).
She sleeps with her foster parents and sometimes sleeps in her own bed. Thank goodness we have a big bed! Now, there will be two between us from time to time! Maybe she and Jennifer can become couch buddies! Jennifer is hardly ever in her bed either!
We didn't ask if she was in foster care, but it was answered for us in the update due to her sleeping arrangement.
Will keep you posted as we go!

We have a LID !

I just received an email today from our agency that the CCAA ( China Center of Adoption Affairs) had received our dossier and we were logged in on June 7, 2006. This date is where we start the official time frame from till we get our travel approval. Usually 2 months from LID.
Could be sooner or later, but 2 months would be the average. When you're waiting for something this special, even a week seems like forever, but I going to try and keep busy prepairing for our rummage sale on July 8th. This is our big fundraising project to raise money for travel expenses. Keeping our fingers crossed we have a good turn out!

Comments anyone?

By request, for anyone wanting to leave a comment just click on the word comment at the bottom of the message. Don't click on the envelope. It's for emailing the post to someone.
When you get to the comment page, type your comment, click on other if you do not have a blog account, type your name, click on publish comment :)

Have a great weekend!!

Pictures of Meigan

These pictures are the ones I received with Mei Mei's file.
She is around 17 months here, taken in Feb. '06. We're assuming these are taken at the orphanage, though she may have been in foster care earlier due to her tan complexion. (Foster babies are outside more thus getting more sun.) It's hard to see, but in the photo to the left, she has tears in her eyes :(

We're DTC!!!

Ok, I know, what's DTC? DTC stands for dossier(which is all of our accumulated official paperwork) to China. We are now officially through paperchasing and now termed a "waiting family". We started the homestudy and paperwork in January so needless to say it's good to have that part behind us.
We are now waiting for China to log in our dossier and send us travel approval. This could come in 2-3 months. Once we get that, it's almost go time! Travel arrangements have to be made and we're put with a group. Will tell more as our journey unfolds!

Suffering from ship lag!

We returned from our 7 day carribbean cruise Sunday. It was nice to get away for awhile, but now it's back to reality. Sorry if there isn't much to tell how the adoption is going. Hoping to hear soon that are paperwork is processed and on its way to China. Will keep you posted when that happens! Mei Mei turned 22 months on the 28th. I hate the thought of her spending her 2nd birthday in the orphanage. We'll make up for it when she comes home , I'm sure!

It's All in the Name

Thought I would take a minute and explain the name change from Samantha to Meigan. We were originally set on calling the baby Samantha. It was a name that Scott had wanted for Jennifer, and since this would be the Conley's last grandchild, our next little girl would share her name with her grandpa Sam. In the meantime, we nicknamed the baby Mei Mei, (pronounced May May). It means "little sister" in Chinese. I also had joined aYahoo group for parents of adopted children with cleft lip/palate. Some questions would come up about naming their child since cleft children have speech issues with certain letters. "S" was a sound that could be hard to pronounce in her name. The "m" sound was an easier one. This got me thinking. We call her Mei Mei anyway, how could we incorporate Mei Mei into an American name, too? Having a Logan already it wasn't long before I came up with the name Meigan. Part chinese,(Mei itself means beautiful), part American. I asked Scott what he thought and we agreed she would be named Meigan Samantha.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday :)

My first post!

What a wonderful feeling to see Meigan's name as a website! It has been a long 5 months since we started our journey, but we are now beginning to see that this baby will soon be ours! I found Mei Mei, as we all call her, on our agency's website after just curiously checking their special needs listings. No pictures, just age, sex, and medical problem. There was one listing of a baby girl, 18 months, cleft lip (repaired) and cleft palate unrepaired. We were set on adopting a healthy baby, why was this one listing weighing so heavily on my heart? I decided to call Stephanie , the agency social worker, to find out more about this child. I have very little medical knowledge about cleft lip/palate, but I was willing to read her medical report and see her picture. When I saw those empty eyes staring back at me, my heart ached. The hard part was going to be convincing Scott and our families that her condition was something we could handle.
Fast forward 2 months.... After a lot of research, speaking with doctors and medical personel and lots and lots of prayer, we are excitedly waiting to bring Pan Dong Guo home hopefully in Sept. or Oct. !!
Yesterday, we received our "Holy Grail of Immigration", I-171H, after waiting 3 long months!
We received our Pre-Approval from China just a week before! Right now, our dossier is being processed, noterized, authenticated, and certified. This takes about 3-4 weeks and then 7-10 days to expedite it to China. Then we are DTC!!! (Dossier to China). They will then give us a log in date (LID) and travel approval could come 1-3 months later. Feels so good not being obsessed with the mail at least for the time being!