The Army-Man Crawl! Yippee!!

Here I Come!

Play time with Daddy! She seems to be daddy's girl!

Sleeping Beauty!

I love looking at her while she sleeps, so i thought that i'd share with everyone what i get to look at everyday:) Isn't she precious!!

Also, if you look closely you'll notice that she has some extra jewelry in her ears... I almost "chickened out" today but am really glad I went through with it (Camille was there for moral support - although her girls do not have their ears pierced!). I'm sure she will be thanking me in a few years too! She cried less then when she had her shots on Monday!!

Hurray! No Ear Infection!!!

Well, while we are excited that Hayleigh is ear infection free - NOW she begins some shots! ouch:(

We got a great report from Dr. Endo today that Hayleigh's first round of blood work came back great! Her HepB titters indicated that she needs the vaccination. The report from China indicated that she had received the HepB vaccination but Dr. Endo thought maybe it could have been an inactive dose (by mistake - being that it is supposed to be refrigerated and possibly was not). So she got poked for HepB and a flu shot and another one(i can't remember which... - i know bad mom:(:()

Since she's infection and antibiotic free... we hopped over to Kadlec for the rest of her blood draw. They are awesome there! The first poke and they hit a vein - halleluyah! After these results we should know the status of the rest of her immunizations and will know how many more pokes she needs:(

Thanks everyone for your continued prayers for Hayleigh! Like i've said before she is such a gift from God

Our PUNKINS at the Pumpkin Patch!

A Special Gift

Gramma B. spends several hours making counted cross stitch pictures for each grandchild. Today she gave Hayleigh her picture! As you can see it is AWESOME and there is alot of love that went into that picture. It is something that we will treasure forever!

Thanks Mom!! I love you!

Praise God!!!

Great news!! The Black's (Barron, Cheri, Sam, Noah & Grace) just got their travel approval TODAY!!! They hope to travel the middle part of November!

Also, our friends Mark and Kari Almquist are leaving tomorrow to get their daughter Mia in Fujian, China! I hope to have a link to their website soon - i can't wait to follow along their journey!!

Good Luck Friends - we are praying for you!!

Sharing at Tapteal Elementary!

My dear friend, Lisa Corning is a 5th grade teacher at Tapteal Elementary. Her class is "traveling aroung the world" and learning various things about each country. She asked if we could come and share with her class about our experience with China. We were sooo excited! The boys have early release on Wed.'s, so they were able to join Hayleigh and I! We brought several pictures and nick nacks that we had bought while we were there, but they were more interested in Hayleigh:). We shared with them how in 1949 the Communist Government took over China and they soon had a huge population boost. Then in 1979 the gov't inacted the "One-Child Policy" We talked about the result of that policy and that is the reason why we are blessed with Hayleigh. They already knew about the importance of boys in the family etc... We had a great discussion!! They had some awesome questions and Taylor and Brayden did a great job sharing about China too - I was sooo proud of them - they chimed in whenever they thought of something else!!! We were only there for 40 minutes but we could've stayed much longer:)

Thanks Lisa for inviting us to share - we had a great time!! I wish would have remembered my camera:( No pics this time:(

Hayleigh's Health Update

Hayleigh watching brother Brayden graduate to a Gold belt!

Big Brother Taylor making Hayleigh giggle:)

After 10 days on Amoxicillan (sp?) she still had an ear infection, so we are now on Augmentin - please pray for that to work! As soon as she is infection free, we can get her a flu shot and get the last round of blood work done to determine her immunization titers, which will show if we need to start her on all immunizations. China reported that she did have some immunizations, but we are double checking EVERYTHING just to be sure!

Last Friday we tried to have her blood drawn at a lab but they couldn't find any viens in her chubby arms! - It was an awful experience, so we went to Kadlec Hospital on Monday and they were able to draw her blood on the first poke! With this first round of blood tests they are double checking all the reports from China that she is as healthy as they say she is and that she seems to be!

So pray for a healthy report from Dr. Endo next week!!

Welcome Home Open House

What a blessing it is to have so many friends and family that love Hayleigh soooo much!

We had a great time on Sat. Oct. 15th! Our dear friends: Elizabeth, Cheri, Michelle, Shannon, Camille & Kara (i hope i didn't forget anyone:() did a fantastic job organizing & decorating! The punch, cake and ladybug cupcakes were delicious, the chinese decorations and fortune cookies were fun and the memory/guestbook is priceless! Also the video/picture slideshow that Gramma V. put together was awesome! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we truly appreciate everything you have done for us that day and for the past 16 months!

We thoroughly enjoyed introducing our precious gift from God to everyone. She has brought so much more joy into our family it is unbeleivable! I hope everyone there was able to experience a glimpse of the joy that God has given us through Hayleigh!

What a Joy!

We are having so much fun with Hayleigh - she is such a joy! Here are some more pictures of what we've been doing lately...

Daddy Likes to tickle me!

Hmmm.... should i open my mouth or not - maybe i should wait until they cheer for me:)

Yeah! They cheered - now i can open my mouth and they'll sneak some carrots in-shucks!!

My big brother Brayden turned 7 last week and he tested for his Gold belt this week!

You Are Invited!

If you have been following along through out our Journey of Faith to Hayleigh, we would love for you to come and meet this precious gift from God! We praise Him for blessing us with her and we would love to share with you how wonderful His love is and the amazing way He has worked in our life through faith:) As you have probably read, we had to have patience (TONS!), faith in Him and alot of praying. We would love to be able to thank you personally for praying for us, so feel free to stop by for a few minutes and say "Hi".

Several of our very dear friends are organizing the event and we are forever grateful for them:):) Thank you!

Spokane Friends in the Newspaper...

Hello Everyone,

We thought that we'd like to share a recent news article that was in the Spokane paper regarding some friends that are adopting. They too are using the same adoption agency that we are. Steve and Carrie are actually really good friends with our good friends, Cheri and Barron Black.

We hope you enjoy:

AREA COUPLES ANSWER THE CALL TO ADOPT CHILDREN FROM CHINAPage: 5AAuthor: Tom Lutey Staff writerSpokaneThe Spokesman-Review
Everywhere Lily Allen went with her new parents, the response was the same. Complete strangers would step forward to touch the infant girl and utter the two-word sendoff Chinese have spoken too often. "Lucky baby."
The strangers squeezed her tiny hands, her feet, patted her head, maybe hoping to leave an indelible mark on her memory of her homeland because Lily was leaving the country with her new adoptive parents, Steve and Carrie Allen.
"Lucky baby."
The strangers knew nothing about the Allens, but knew the Spokane Valley couple were changing fate. Fate in Chinese culture is everything; it is every person’s road in life determined at birth by the lineage of one’s parents. Fate assures your life will be no better than your bloodlines allow, but also no worse.
And fate is a cruel thing for orphans like Lily, discarded anonymously by parents with more children than government policy allows, or parents just one child under the limit who are holding out for a boy. Orphans have no road at all.
But luck trumps fate and luck for Lily looked like the Allens, tall, blond, a public school teacher and a stay-at-home mother from Spokane Valley willing to spend $19,000 they didn’t have to adopt a child they’ve never met.
This is the how luck pays the bills, by canceling the cable TV subscription, and watching the odometer roll over to 150,000 miles, then 200,000 and never thinking about buying a new car, by holding garage sale after garage sale and dreaming up wacky stunts worthy of sponsorship.
When the Allens adopted Lily, Steve Allen ran around the city limits of Spokane to raise money for the cause. Two years later, the couple adopted a second Chinese daughter, Abbey, with money raised through school bake sales and car washes, church donations and a refinanced mortgage.
This Saturday, the Allens will be at it again, as Steve runs around the city limits of Spokane Valley to raise money for a third adopted daughter in six years. To twist fate this time, the couple will also sell their Ponderosa neighborhood home and move into something more affordable, something smaller.
"We’re doing it just like everyone in America," Steve Allen said, smiling. "You get more kids and you move into a smaller house."
The downsizing and sacrificing makes perfect sense to Steve Allen, a dad who can be seen talking out loud to himself in Mandarin as he pilots his aging economy car to work every morning. Language tapes, he explained. It made sense to Allen’s wife, Carrie, when the husband explained adoption was something they had to do, even though she was pregnant at the time, even though they had 21 cents in their savings account when they started.
Luck isn’t a word the Allens use much. They prefer fortunate, or faithful. They’ve been on this mission to adopt Chinese girls for six years, have spent more than $57,000 they didn’t have, all because Steve Allen watched a TV program on Chinese orphans and felt afterward that adoption was a God-given calling.
The Allens could have adopted an American child, but that’s not what they were compelled to do. There is no foster care in China, no safety net for abandoned babies beyond an orphanage, which is only available until a child turns 14. One of the things that attract couples like the Allens to Chinese adoption, said adoption agent Kathy Storro is the desperation of the country’s children.
By Storro’s estimate, there are 300 families in Spokane raising children adopted in China. Not all came to be here through Storro’s adoption agency, Small World. Storro and her husband have five Chinese girls, the most the foreign government will allow an American family to have at home at once.
"On one of my trips to China, I was walking back to my hotel. I’d been shopping and I had my hands full and a woman walked up to me, and she was a woman in her 60s, and there was a girl, approximately 5 years old, standing with her," Storro said. "The woman was talking and pointing and all of a sudden I realized what she was saying. She was pointed for the girl to come to me. There was a language barrier; I couldn’t tell them that I couldn’t help. It broke my heart."
The Allens have also seen faces they just couldn’t say no to. Their next daughter, a girl they met two years ago while picking up their daughter, Abbey, is already 12 years old, an age where fate is most always beyond challenge.
So the real estate sign is up at the Allens’ home, the miles are rolling forward on the family car and, as luck would have it, no one is complaining.
"We’ve learned a lot about our capacity to love," Steve Allen said. "I feel like the Grinch, my heart grew three sizes today."

God is SOOOOOOOOO good!!!

He is still answering our prayers!!! Marilyn Brisbane just started our day with wonderful news!! She is from the Ibsen Adoption Network ( http://www.angelfire.com/home/ibsen/ ) and just called to let us know that they are giving us a $1000 grant!!! Isn't that wonderful - we are on cloud nine:)

Everytime I look at Hayleigh and everytime the boys make her giggle and kiss her cheeks - I just thank God for blessing us soo much! I also cry just thinking of how amazing God is for all of the wonderful things that he has done and continues to do for us. We are humbled and are in awe of Him!

GAP - God (truly does) Answer Prayers!!!!


"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

We Love our Church Family

Guest post by Lance

We were so joyful to get back to church today. Everyone was excited to see us and talk with us. Folks were asking alot of really insightful questions about our experience, how Hayleigh's doing, etc. Hayleigh just sat right through the service as happy as a lark. It was cute watching her stare at us while we sang. It made me think how different things will be for her here. We were asked to stand during the pre-service announcements and Hayleigh got a round of applause (I thought they were clapping for me but Kirsten said it was for Hayleigh :). There was a beautiful white rose on the altar for her. Our pastor also prayed for us thanking God for our safe travels and our new daughter. Then it was off to Sunday school. She slept on Kirsten for most of the hour. It was a great day here at the Vickerman's. <><

Dr. Appointment

Dr. Endo was pleasantly pleased with how healthy Hayleigh seems - so far... She weighs 18.5 lbs. and is at about the 50th percentile for height & weight! She has a liitle ear infection in her right ear - so she's on antibiotic. We are also in the process of testing her stool - there is a chance that she may have a "parasite", which is not uncommon for adopted children from countries where the water is not very sanitary. In a few weeks we will have her blood tested in order to figure out if she needs to start her immunizations over.

In this picture, the nurse pricked her toe to do a hemoglobin test - Hayleigh doesn't like pain at all!!