The Vickerman's China Adoption

Hayleigh's 5th Gotcha Day Anniversary!

2010-09-19T14:45:00.002-07:00

Hayleigh 5 yrs. ago...

Her new family - i love how she is gazing at Taylor in this picture - she adores her big brothers...

Hayleigh now - a beautiful 5 yr. old girl:)

Wow! 5 years ago today god was faithful and blessed our family with a precious gift- Hayleigh Rae Fukai Vickerman. (She was only 10 months old but developmentally was about at a 6 month old level due to being in the orphanage.) During the process we held tight the bible verse: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb. 11:1 We hoped for a "healthy" baby girl but never knew until this day 5 yrs. ago that this precious child would be forever ours. Going through the adoption process was a huge leap of faith for us and i'm so glad that we listened to the Holy Spirit and let Him guide us. Adoption was never in "our plan" but it was in His plan for us. The past 5 yr. have been amazing to see how He took control of our life because we let Him. As Pastor Steve said today - Is God your pilot? He has awesome plans for you - are you letting Him speak to you about what they are? I used to be a person with a list of things that I wanted to have and accomplish - not anymore! And, i'm loving the fact that God is MY pilot. He has the heart that cares so much more about my needs.

Hayleigh has truly changed our lives. She is such a sweet blessing to us and everyone around her. She has such a caring heart. She loves her brothers & sister so much! Her brothers & sister also loves her - i love how they unconditionally love her - what an answer to prayer. God has used Hayleigh for so much more in this world - Many people think "she is so lucky" but in reality WE ARE THE LUCKY ONES! I love how the boys love to cuddle with her, read to her help her and encourage her. Love knows no boundaries.

Granted, we have had some trials with her but God has uses those trials to help US overcome issues that we need to deal with.

Bottomline - I/we CAN'T IMAGINE OUR LIFE WITHOUT HER!

Thank you God for this wonderful belssing that you have given us. Thank you for trusting us to be her parents & to raise her.

ps. our plans today to celebrate are to go to Panda Express & then to get ice cream! yum!

The Vickerman Family Happenings: Hayleigh's First Day of Kindergarten! I can't b...

2010-09-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Vickerman Family Happenings: Hayleigh's First Day of Kindergarten!

I can't b...: "Hayleigh's First Day of Kindergarten! I can't believe that she's in Kindergarten! She was so superly duper excited to start school today..."

CNY 2009

2009-01-31T13:55:00.000-08:00

Hayleigh's 3 Year Gotcha Day!

2008-09-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it has been 3 years already! I still have flash back of the moment we saw her and she was ours:)

Here are some recent pictures - Enjoy!

2 yr Anniversary of Hayleigh's Gotcha Day

2007-09-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

2 years ago today God Blessed our family with Hayleigh - please check out our family website for our recent activities and a video of her gotcha moment!

The Vickerman Family Happenings: http://thevickermanfamily.blogspot.com/

Happy 4th of July

2007-07-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh is now 2 1/2 !

Happy Chinese New Year!

2007-02-21T13:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

Daddy's little Helper - she's helping him figure out the basketball game plan!

Hayleigh Turned 2

2007-02-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

A couple of precious pictures...

2006-09-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh's Gotcha Moment - September 19, 2005

2006-09-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

The day our lives changed again forever...

Our Last Post

2006-07-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

This is our last post to this website which originally was devoted to an unfolding story of faith of our adoption journey to Hayleigh. It has been an AWESOME journey for all of us and life changing! God has touched our lives in so many amazing ways it is sometimes too much to even imagine! If you are visiting this site for the first time with a desire to adopt, I encourage you to start reading our website from the beginning.

We will now be posting pictures and news to our new family website called "The Vickerman Family Happenings!" http://thevickermanfamily.blogspot.com/ Feel free to stop by anytime:)

Boy - It's HOT!!!!

2006-07-25T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh & Sam

We went to the Hermiston Water Park last week with our family to try to stay cool!

Hayleigh LOVED the water slide!

The boys had a blast too!!!!

More summer fun!

2006-07-19T09:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had a great time visiting Grandpa and Grandma Scherbarth up near Spokane. We enjoyed a day at Lake Roosevelt playing in the Lake and digging in the sand:)

When we got back - Big Brother Brayden graduated to a GREEN Belt at Tae Kwon Do

2006-07-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

Pictures from Baseball trip to Olympia, WA

2006-07-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh was such a trouper sitting at Taylor's baseball games everyday for 4 days!!!. He had 2 games a day. His team got 4th place at the State Tournament! We are all so proud of him! In our "off time", we went to Tolmie State Park and had a great time catching little crabs, sundollars and dead jellyfish! Hayleigh LOVES the water - she's a little fish...it's too bad that she has tubes in her ears:( Hopefully next year she can swim underwater!

Some summer fun!

2006-07-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh LOVES to go bike riding!

Big Brother Taylor's team won 2nd place in the Connor Classic
Hayleigh's 1st 4th of July Fireworks...she ended up sleeping through it:)

18 Months

2006-06-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

2006-05-31T20:08:00.000-07:00

Playtime with Delaney

2006-05-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh and Delaney at the park having snacks. Aren't they adorable:)!!!

What an Angel:)

2006-05-29T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh and I just got home from traveling to Arizona for my cousin's graduation. We had a fabulous time in the warm weather and introducing Hayleigh to more relatives:) She was a great travel companion, she slept on the plane, visited with all other passengers, and got lots of attention from aunts, uncles, cousins, great grandma and strangers:):) It was so much fun sharing her bright smile with everyone and i think everyone now knows how much joy she brings to our family!

Oh What Fun!!

2006-05-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of our little sunshine! Her personality is coming out more and more - she is a hoot!

Hayleigh is all giggles - her smile lights up the room

She is really into shoes! She tries to put on any shoe that she can and...

if she can't put them on her feet, she'll wear them on her arms!

It's hard to make it through lunch these days! We are trying to get rid of the morning nap and we just can't seem to make it through lunch without dozing off...

More Recent Pics

2006-04-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Lance watches Taylor mow - Taylor will now be Lance's "mower" since he can't afford a riding lawn mower to mow the 1/2 Acre! :):)
Hayleigh finally has enough hair for "pretties" - now we just have to keep her from taking them OUT!!!!
Hayleigh on Easter Day:)
All the cousins at the Easter Egg Hunt
Hayleigh caught on REAL QUICK!

March/April

2006-04-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

Hopefully our lives are about to slow down a bit... We've had alot of changes this past month: the boys are now in baseball, Hayleigh goes to preschool 2 days a week now, Taylor turned 10!, we moved to a wonderful home that is such a blessing from God, Hayleigh is walking, Hayleigh got ear tubes in, Easter etc... Here are some pictures capturing our lives the past month:)

Big Brother Taylor gets 2nd place at the Pacific Northwest Hockey Tournament!

2006-03-21T21:06:00.000-08:00

The Vickerman MARCH MADNESS!

2006-03-10T16:57:00.000-08:00

Here's a little update and we probably won't be able to update for a few more weeks and here's why:

First, i should let you know that Hayleigh had her 15 month checkup yesterday and she seems to be catching up and is still in her 45% growing curve:) She is almost 22 lbs. and is 30 inches tall. She is babbling up a storm which includes mama!!:):) She is soooooo close to walking! She has taken a few steps but she still isn't confident in walking yet and views it as more of a game! She will stand and twist and bend and then stand again but will not move her feet - the turkey!! Anyway, she is such a joy and we are always enjoying every moment! We are also trying to figure if and when we should do ear tubes - with our month as crazy as it is we will probably wait until April anyway...

So... why the madness? Well, Taylor still has hockey (his team is ranked 3rd in the league and playoffs/ tournament is the 17th-19th of March) He also has baseball going already! Brayden has Karate and his baseball will be starting on the 20th. Hayleigh and i now have 2 preschool classes a week and Lance is SUPER busy at work with budget stuff and is their baseball coach!

On top of all this, God has totally blessed us AGAIN!!! Everything is DEFINATELY HIS timing!! Our neighbor bought our house, she has sold her house and we have found a house. We are sooo jazzed and are still praying for His plan (with hopes that this is His Plan). We found a rambler with a daylight basement in the exact location that we have always desired! AND We are supposed to move March 31st!! We ask for your prayers that all the "little" things that need to get done do, so that it all goes well:)

God Bless,
The Vickerman's

2006-03-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

Ash Wednesday

2006-03-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." Psalm 51:10

Before Bedtime Fun!

2006-02-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

Hayleigh's personality is emerging more and more each day - it is sooo much fun:) The other night we were all getting a kick out of her "performing" for us. She loves to clap, play peek a boo, say "Uh-Oh" and blow kisses for lots of cheers from her audience:) And she is soooo close to walking - she will stand on her own but just will not take a step!!!

A Preschool Field Trip to the Children's Museum on Feb.22

2006-02-28T13:17:00.000-08:00

Big Brother Brayden graduates to an ORANGE Belt!

2006-02-28T13:10:00.000-08:00

He had special recognition for Technique too:)

Hayleigh spends several nights down at TaeKwanDo watching her big brother...

2006-02-14T13:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day from our Little Cherubs to Yours!

Mommy & Me Adoption Playtime

2006-02-06T18:25:00.000-08:00

Once a month we try to get together with our adoption friends. Here are some pictures of our quick playtime last weekend. We had to cut it short because there was a HOT basketball game that Brayden was playing in:)

A visit to Seattle

2006-01-31T11:02:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we had great fun visiting very good friends in Seattle and watching Hayleigh's big brother, Taylor, play hockey.

We stayed with my life long friend Trisha, her hubby (Jeff) and precious little boy (Josh). Hayleigh and Josh had fun playing all weekend long - it was great watching them play together :) Josh is 6 months older than Hayleigh...

Taylor did a great job at his games - it will be the last time that we have to travel until March (Hallelujah!) The team won both their games!

Hayleigh's First Day at Preschool

2006-01-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

Hayleigh had a great day at her first day at Preschool! There are only 5 other children in her class and she is the youngest but she had a blast! God has blessed us again with this opportunity! I get to co-teach her class and it is every Monday!! It is a co-op preschool at the Community College here where the mom's attend along side the child and learns various parenting issues too. It is called CBC Parenting and Early Learning Program. When the boys were toddlers, we attended the class and I also taught it way back then:) I am REALLY excited about this opportunity and feel that it is truly a blessing on how it all worked out!

Most of the kids in her class are much closer to 2yrs but that's okay! She had fun following them around playing in the water table, painting at the easel (and getting painted on!), playing playdough, puzzles, snacks, climbing stairs, playing with balls and singing songs, making dot pictures and playing with bubbles outside! As you can see she had a busy morning and before i was even out of the parking lot she was zonked out!!

Tri-City Chinese American Association - Chinese New Year

2006-01-22T21:32:00.000-08:00

Last night we ventured out to the local Chinese American Association New Year Performance. We had a great time! We felt like we were back in China - it was AWESOME!! Our kids dressed up in their Chinese outfits. We got there kinda late so our pictures aren't the greatest:( We had fun trying to figure out what they were saying - finally a sweet lady switched seats with her friends and began interpretting what they were saying:) We saw a traditional dance, kids singing, grandparents singing, a few chinese opera songs, an audience interactive game, ballet dancers, video of dogs (2006 is the year of the Dog - but we didn't put 2 and 2 together until today! - last night we thought it was kinda strange:):)), and a group sang a christian song in chinese - we know this because they had the english words on a screen... and the boys favorite part was that all of the kids were invited up to the stage to get a red envelope with $ in it. The grandparents gives this envelope to the children on New Years for luck! Both the boys got one and each had a $1.00 bill - they were thrilled!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

2006-01-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

It DID Snow!!! Last weekend we didn't have hockey - imagine that! And it was Lance's Birthday! So we went to Lake CouerD Alene with hopes to find snow to sled and snowboard in. Saturday it rained alllll day,but the boys went tubing anyway! Then on Sunday, we woke up to snow - just enough to play in. Below are some pictures of our weekend. Hayleigh loved the sled - she really like going fast...

What we are up to...

2006-01-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

Life is going just great for the Vickerman family. It seems that our fall was a blur and now that the Holidays are over we are finally settling into a great routine:) The boys continue to bring tears to my eyes whenever they kiss all over their sister or beg to be the one to get her out of her crib - God is soo good - we are so blessed that he has answered our prayer:) Below are a few pictures of what we have been up to - ENJOY:)

Hayleigh's friend Delanie came to play today - they are sooo cute!

Hayleigh LOVES to play under the Breakfast bar - especially when her big brothers are there!

Taylor's team had an awesome opportunity to join the Ams for the MDA skills challenge last weekend.

This is Taylor's favorite player - Taylor P........?????

Dadadadadadada.....

2006-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

Guess who says dada now and guess who is VERY happy about that!! Hayleigh loves her dada - she lights up whenever he walks in the room. It's priceless:)

Hayleigh had her first bubble bath - she's not toooo sure about it!

Our Special Christmas Gift

2005-12-28T22:21:00.000-08:00

We had a fabulous Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve at The Vickerman's - we opened presents, had dinner and then enjoyed the CandleLight service at church. As we sat at church, all i could think about was how grateful we are for the gift God had given us this year. (can you believe it! - i forgot to take pictures of the kids all dressed up:( Hayleigh was wearing a special Christmas dress that we had got in China...)

(Santa brought her a Fisher Price Doll house and she carried around this table from it for quite awhile:)) She also loved her Cabbage Patch baby - she gave it kisses:)

Christmas Day we had a fun time at my parent's house with more presents and dinner.

More Fun Times with my Brothers...

2005-12-28T15:02:00.000-08:00

Brayden loves to read to me!
I can finally "Big Girl" crawl!
Cute hands:)
I LOVE to play XBOX with my brothers!!

Playing in Forts with my brothers!

2005-12-19T11:39:00.000-08:00

Hayleigh's First Playdate

2005-12-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

It was so much fun watching Hayleigh play with someone her own size:) Her little boy friend is Jake Rohrig from church - he is 13 months old and is a cutie pie! At the end of our playdate, Kara took some pictures - aren't they sooo cute:) It was quite the chore to get them both to look at the camera at the same time. We first tried Hayleigh sitting in a little rocking chair but before you know it she had leaned sooo far forward that she fell out - so, we decided to sit them next to each other. They are precious!

There she is...

Whoops...where did she go???

Happy Birthday Little Miss Hayleigh!

2005-12-08T13:27:00.000-08:00

This was taken today!

Today is Hayleigh's birthday but i'm not sure if she'd think it was a "Happy" day - She had her well check visit with Dr. Endo today and had 4 SHOTS!! The Dr. seemed pleased with how well she is progressing. When looking at the American Growth Chart the Dr. uses, she is in the 48th % for Height at 29 inches and in the 49th % for Weight at 20 Lbs, 8 oz. However, while looking at the Asian growth chart she is in the 50th % for Height and the 75% for Weight!

This cheesy grin was on Monday:)

She has 4.5 teeth with 1 more almost there!

Party Time!!!

2005-12-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a very busy day! Shortly after her baptism we headed over to good ol' Hubby's Pizza where our close family and friends gathered to help us celebrate Hayleigh's FIRST BIRTHDAY!

I think she had fun!?! She seemed to be in good spirits:) She finger painted with her frosting and didn't really care for the sweet taste. It wasn't long before she started to poke her fingers in the cupcake. All in all, she was somewhat "lady like", which was good because i really wasn't planning on giving her a bath at the restaurant:)

We then opened a few gifts at the Pizza joint before we headed home. She enjoyed the pretty paper - i was a little to impatient and helped her out a bit:) She had fun and is loving her new toys, adorable clothes, special quilt and jewelry!

Her actual birthday is tomorrow - December 8th. This week i've been constantly thinking about her birth mother. Wondering if and what she is thinking about Hayleigh. I just cannot imagine what she had to go through. We were told that she was abandoned on the day that she was born. My heart goes out to the mother but i am so thankful that Hayleigh is in our Forever Family.

Baptism

2005-12-04T22:23:00.000-08:00

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

This is the Life Verse that we have chosen for our precious daughter. We presented it to her at her baptism this morning.

What a wonderful sight it was seeing Hayleigh in the gown worn by myself, her brothers, her uncle and her cousins. What a wonderful sight it was watching our Pastor carry her down the aisle at church to present/introduce her to the congregation - she only whimpered a bit as soon as she saw me drawing near:). What a sight it was to see our Pastor sprinkle Holy Water on her head and Baptise her in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. What a sight is was to see our Associate Pastor lay hands on Hayleigh and pray for her. What a sight it was to see our special family and friends there to share in this special time.

God Bless You!

Santa

2005-11-30T20:19:00.000-08:00

We had 1 hr. scheduled in our evening tonight to see Santa. Our plan was to visit with him between 5-6pm. Well, wouldn't you know it - Santa has a break from 5-5:45. That meant that we had 15 minutes to see Santa - luckily we were the 1st in line!!! We first had all 3 kids sit together on Santa's lap - Hayleigh couldn't figure him out and got wiggly so we let the boys visit with him. Taylor insisted on not telling us what he was going to talk to Santa about and he whispered in his ear what he wanted! Luckily, Santa's elf helped us in finding out what it was that he whispered - I think Taylor is still trying to figure out if Santa is real or not...:):) Then we had Hayleigh take a picture with Santa by herself so we could get the famous - "crying in Santa's lap" picture - Now we have one from each kid!! :):)

Then we rushed home to eat dinner before our Pastor and an Elder came over to talk about Hayleigh's Baptism on Sunday - I can't wait!!! We get to pick out a Life Verse for her too! There are sooo many - i hope we choose the right one:):)

More Pics

2005-11-28T11:42:00.000-08:00

Pictures from our weekend

2005-11-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

A very Thankful THANKSGIVING!

2005-11-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

We had a great day - SO much to be thankful for!!! Hayleigh had a fun day playing with her cousins at my brother's house. We took our traditional family picture, as you can see above.

2005-11-23T22:52:00.000-08:00

LOOK! We scored a precious daughter:)

Havin' Fun in the Tub!

Hayleigh's Certificate of Citizenship!!

2005-11-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

Great Grandma has fallen in Love with Hayleigh:)

2005-11-21T10:48:00.000-08:00

FRUIT PUFFS!

2005-11-20T17:58:00.000-08:00

YIPPEE! We are celebrating tonight!!! Hayleigh has finally eaten her FIRST Gerber Fruit Puff!!! And she was chewing on a biter bisquit!!! We are so excited as this is her first "solid" food:) We have been gradually working our way up the babyfood chain and increasing textures and tonight she ate fruit puffs!! We are so proud of her progress in eating - she has really come a long way in 2 months - HEY I JUST REALIZED IT HAS BEEN 2 MONTHS THAT SHE HAS BEEN WITH US - VERY COOL:)

We are also celebrating because our friends The Black's just got their Olivia today at 5pm !!! Praise God:)

The Spokane Valley Mall...

2005-11-19T10:12:00.000-08:00

It is truly amazing to us how God continues to touch our lives - Last weekend we were in Spokane for Taylor's hockey tournament. On Sunday, we stopped by the food court in the mall to get lunch before we headed home. After we all went to our separate food stops and were finally sitting together eating as a family, a man walked up to us and he didn't say hello or introduce himself - he simply said "Can i pray for your family right now?" We have NEVER had this happen to us before - let alone in a very busy food court! Lance and i looked at each other with shocked smiles on our faces and said "Sure!" We all bowed our heads and he said the most touching prayer for our family asking God to bless us and to bless our daughter and how thankful he was that we had brought her into our Christian family so we can raise her as a Christian and bring one more of Jesus children to him! - i don't think i have his exact wording but that was the gist of it. We said thanks to him and asked his name (Jim) and thanked him again - we really weren't sure what else to say. Then Jim and his wife left - i guess they were sitting next to us but we didn't notice them in all of our commotion in getting our food etc. We were/are so touched by this man's simple prayer and gesture - Thank you Jim (where ever you are! :)) And thank you God!

Hayleigh's 11 month Pictures from JCPenny

2005-11-15T10:09:00.000-08:00

She's Attached!!

2005-11-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

As you can see in these pictures, she is definately attached!! If i just walk out of the room for a split second - she cries her eyes out!! This is VERY good, but not so good when your trying to put laundry away in 3 different rooms and have to lug her around too:):) I also left her in the nursery for the first time on Tuesday at MOPS - she wasn't happy:(

SHE'S ALL OURS!

2005-11-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

As you can see Hayleigh's brothers LOVE her to death!!! God is soo good and has definately answered our prayer with 2 loving brothers:)

2005-11-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

Milk induced nightime sleep!

Hayleigh's friend Mia came home on Sat. - To see how their trip went click on the link "Journey to Mia"

Happy Halloween!!

2005-11-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

This is our "Shadow the Hedgehog" (from an Xbox video game), our little Ladybug and Neo (from the Matrix, which he hasn't even watched - not sure how this idea came about:))

The Army-Man Crawl! Yippee!!

2005-10-31T13:25:00.000-08:00

Here I Come!

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

Sleeping Beauty!

2005-10-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2005-10-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

A Special Gift

2005-10-20T21:04:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2005-10-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-20T09:41:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-12T22:49:00.000-07:00

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!

2005-10-09T21:00:00.000-07:00

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...

2005-10-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2005-10-04T09:45:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

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!!

What a Relief - we are HOME at LAST!!!

2005-09-30T19:22:00.000-07:00

We woke up at 4am on Wed. in China (1pm here on Tues.) to get ready to go! We left the hotel by 5:30 and our first flight took off around 8:30am. There were about 5 families with early flights and 2 of them flew to all the way to San Francisco with us. It was nice to have familiar faces to travel with and to figure things out together. A few of our flights changed around but we still arrived in Pasco at the original time. Instead of a 6 hr. layover in Seattle, we had the layover in San Fran. We used this time to sleep in the chairs, on the floor and to wash up and get refreshed for the final 6 hrs. of travel.

The boys and Hayleigh were EXCELLENT travelers! We are so blessed!!

We were SOOOO EXCITED to finally touch ground in Pasco Wed. night at 10:30!! We were soo surprised to see so many friends an family waiting to greet us and meet Hayleigh! It was really overwhelming and a HUGE RELIEF to be home and in the company of our friends and family:) We were welcomed with posters at the airport and posters, balloons, streamers, groceries, dinner and cookies at home! We really felt the love of Jesus being poured down on us - thank you to everyone!

We are on our way home (in 8 hrs.)

2005-09-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

We began our day with Hayleigh's first "photo shoot" :) The hotel has a red couch where it is a tradition for all adoptive babies to get their pictures taken. (I will do my best to post them here and on Flickr) The above picture are all of the babies from Hayleigh's Orphanage: Kate and Lily Chambers, Our Princess, Megan Cantor, Hannah Stanford, and Lilly Monks.

We then finished up our last minute shopping and at 3:00 we were off to the US Consulate! This is the LAST step here in China!!! We were not able to take any pictures of this last step - not sure exactly why... But we all (about 75 families -from our group and a few others) had to swear that all of the information that we had submitted on behalf of our child on Monday was true. After that, a huge stream of tears poured out... We were given her Visa and are officially going home with our daughter!

We are so blessed and thankful for all of the Lord's blessings that he has poured down on us with Hayleigh, our supportive friends and family and the wonderful people we got to meet here in China. It has been an experience like no other!!

We hope to arrive in Pasco at about 10:30 on Wednesday the 28th and any "night owl" is welcome to meet our little princess.

PS. Please check back later - i beleive that we will have a Welcome Home Open House for Hayleigh the weekend of Oct. 16th!

Toy Market Day!

2005-09-26T23:01:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh is posing with her first Barbie. Every guest that stays at the White Swan Hotel and is adopting receives this "Going Home" Barbie:)

We went to the toy market today! It was amazing! I was Huge!! And we only had 1 hour! There were 4 or more levels and tons of very small stores on each level. The boys were determined to find gameboy games - they did! They were soo happy. That was just about all that they bought. They ran out of time and still have alot of $$ left - oh well...

We also went on a dinner cruise this evening with everyone in our group. It was nice to visit with everyone. The boat was nice and the ride was pleasant and the food was.... well.... Chinese - imagine that... We all just had rice, noodles and bananas - we decided to pass on the chiken feet:)

We had a pretty uneventful day today - we did have Hayleigh's ears checked by Jennifer. They were too waxy - we put some earwax removal drops in them tonight so maybe she can see better tomorrow. Hayleigh was soooooooo soooooo MAD when Jennifer peeked in her ears - it took her about 20 minutes to stop crying and about an hour to not be crabby:( I hope it goes better tomorrow. We are so thankful and blessed that Jennifer is here - we all have a peace of mind knowing that she can help if we need her:):) (Jennifer and Phil have the twins)

We should will post pictures of the families in our group tomorrow - we have a photo shoot on the Red Couch tomorrow:)

Hugs - see you soon!

An Exciting Day in Downtown Guangzhou!

2005-09-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

We started our day out at 10am with a short bus ride to downtown Guangzhou. We first visited the Chen Family Temple. The Chen family is a very popular family in China and they built a temple for themselves. But then in 1949 when the government over took the country they made private ownership illegal, so now it is owned by the gov't. It is a very beautiful place. We all commiserated over the beds that they used to use (see picture below). We think that the White Swan Hotel still beleives that people prefer these types of beds as it feels like the ones that we are sleeping on - LOL :):)

We were then off to the downtown shopping area. It was VERY crowded and we had to keep VERY close tabs on our kids and the group - we didn't want to loose anyone! We shopped in the children's section of a Dept. Store for about 1hr. Then we started toward another section of shopping mall. It was like 3-4 stories at the mall and just HUGE. There were several of these. Anyway, we started for the mall for Pizza Hut. When we walked out the sky was dark, then just as we got close to the door to enter the mall a HUGE WIND came - HUGE!!!! It was kinda scary! Then a MAJOR downpour - and we were missing a dad and his daughter from our group:( But, after about 15-20 minutes, they showed up - very scary though! We had a nice lunch. We got a chuckle out of a family sitting next us. I think they bought a 1 trip salad bar b/c that plate was the biggest salad/fruit plate i had ever seen - we took a picture:)

Then we were off to the wholesale pearl market! VERY good prices!!! We picked out some pearls and they will be delivered to us tomorrow night:) Lance had fun at the wholesale DVD store. Each DVD was 12 yuan, which is about $1.25 each! On our way out of the mall, Jim Savley, the founder of our Small World Agency showed up!! They were on their way to the pearls too. We took a picture of him and thanked him. They were there with some members of his church checking on the new foster care program - what a WONDERFUL SUPRISE!!!

That was the good chunk of our day. Mom, Taylor and I did a bit more shopping when we got home and then we ordered dinner in our hotel (after the boys did a bit of swimming in the rain).

Hugs to all - a few more days!!

In Guangzhou at last!!!!

2005-09-24T22:21:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to be in Guangzhou! It is the last step of the HUGE process!! We can hardly believe it!!! We look at our precious daughter and cannot beleive how much God has truly blessed us with her - she is precious!!!

We arrived here around 8pm last night. She did great on her flight!!! It was a good test run for the BIG ONE:) We are staying at the White Swan Hotel. Everyone has ranted and raved about this hotel but i think that we were spoiled in Chongqing at the Marriott:):) Don't get me wrong - this is a very nice 5 star hotel. The rooms are a bit smaller and beds ALOT harder than the Marriott and we don't have adjoining rooms here:( But, the breakfast is much bigger and much more "western" style foods!! We have lightened up a bit on be so restrictive here in what we eat - which is nice:) We are eating more fruits and veggies... Also, the lobby is much more extravagant with water fountains in the hotel and a huge waterfall in the pool etc... The area seems a little more safer too - we feel comfortable walking around as we please:)

Today, we met at 10:30 and got all the children in our travel groups picture. Hayleigh was asleep when we got there and had to wake her for the picture -but not a fuss!!! Then we all walked down to the Medical Clinic. There were 3 stations: ENT (Ears, Nose & Throat), the medical surgical ( i think that's what it's called) and then the "vitals" station. We went to the "medical surgical" one first - the lady measured her head and then laid her down and poked around on her tummy and said she was good! She apparently was checking her liver etc...???? Then we were whisked off to the ENT. We were expecting them to actually look into her ears to check them but they just asked us if she could hear and then made noised with toys to see if she would look in that direction - okay.... She did actually pry her mouth open and looked in - i don't know if she did see anything though - she will hardly let us put anything in her mouth:):) Then they weighed her in at 18.4 pounds and i don't remember how tall. All in all, it was fairly painless. Several nurses gathered around her and kept telling us how beautiful she is:):) We just smile and say "xie xie" (thank you:)). ----Meanwhile, the boys and gramma were swimming in the rain. I guess gramma just sat under an umbrella:)

Then we had a lunch snack and were off shopping. I have been waiting for this for a long time - an finally i feel like i can BUY-BUY-BUY. There are some very good deals here:)---Cheri, let me know if there is something that i should not forget to buy for Hayleigh! :) We did buy a few things today but plan on doing a little shopping each day. Hayleigh got 2 free toys from 2 shops. The ladies went on and on about how cute she is. She can be quite the "flirt" and "ham". She loves to smile:):) She is such a joy!!!

We had to head back to the hotel for a 3:00 appt. with Rebecca (our Guangzhou guide) and Lily ( our China coordinator). We spent 2 hrs. preparing the final paperwork for our US Consulate appt.!! What a relief to have that completed and in their trustworthy hands!!!

Most of the group went to Thai food, but the "light weights" stayed here and went to a nearby restaraunt called "Lucy's". We ate with our travel buddies - the Collin's and then the Turner's have finally joined up with us! The Turner's are adopting 3 yr old Kayley from the Wuhan Province. They are very happy to meet up with the group, as they have been traveling alone.

We are planning on going to a Temple and to a Shopping Market tomorrow:)

Congratulations Heidi and Jeremy on your wedding day - Sept. 24th!!! You are in our thoughts
and prayers:):)

P.S. We can finally see our Blog:)

Our last full day in Chongqing!

2005-09-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

Well... we are ready to move on to the next leg of our trip!!! Tomorrow afternoon we leave for Guangzhou - hurray!! We should get Hayleigh's passport tomorrow morning and then we are off...

Today, Hayleigh has had 3 bottles so far - keep praying for her that she gets her appetite back. We are hoping that she's back to normal - it is not unusual for the girls to not want to eat b/c of the change in their environment. We are hoping that that's all it is and not anything else - but who knows - so please pray that she eats well :)

This morning we went to a Silk "store". They showed us how they raise silk worms and then get the silk from the cocoons - it was very interesting. They have to soak the cocoons in hot water and then they split them open to get the worms out (they keep the worms to produce more). Then they stretch it over a small metal upside down U frame and then onto a bigger one. Once there are 70 layers they hang them to dry. Then they make a few cuts and stretch it out to the size of a blanket that they are wanting to make. I have some pictures on flickr about this too. We didn't buy much here - just an ornament for our Christmas tree:)

Then we went to the Ancient Town of Ciqikou. We were thinking that it would be a real town but really it was an alley with shops. We bought Hayleigh a wooden carved comb, Brayden a wooden sword and Taylor nun-chukas. Then we were back to the hotel for a relaxing afternoon...

We probably won't have a chance to post tomorrow - so we will be back to the web on Sat:)

God Bless!!

Wednesday in Chongqing

2005-09-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

We all slept wonderfully last night. whew:) We had a great day... we just hung around the hotel and played around. Then around 2:30 we went to the Three Gorges Museum, which was about the Yangtze River. They are building a HUGE dam (we saw a replica) which will do all the wonderful things a dam does but it will displace about 1.2 million people. Apparently the govt. will be providing alternate housing for these families - i don't remember when it is supposed to be done... Then we went the the "city hall" which was just a huge building and auditorium type place in the center. Next door was a Pearl Store... I was the only one that bought something but i bargained for it so i felt good:):) I bought Hayleigh little pearl earrings - i really wanted some for her and thought that it would be special to be from her province - don't you think so too??;) Then it was back to the hotel. Lance rushed over to the bookstore b/c he had the camera developed that we sent to the orphanage - i guess ours was the only one that was returned. They are mostly pictures of Hayleigh in the orphanage with nannies etc... We will treasure them forever:) He also had to stop at McDonald's for dinner!!! After dinner, we took Hayleigh swimming! She did great - no fussing at all! You can see pics on our flickr link. The only thing that she does fuss about is eating. We have only been able to get her to eat about 2 bottles a day:( I don't know if it is the way thta we are preparing it or if it is the wrong kind for her. We are going to ask around to the other parents. She is also teething so it could be that too - who knows! We hope all is well with everyone - thanks for your prayers!!

Tuesday in Chongqing

2005-09-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

All i can say is that Hayleigh is wonderful!!! She is such a blessing:) Last night she slept GREAT but we didn't. We didn't know what to expect - if she'd wake up for a bottle or not... So with every groan, whimper and rustling around we were peeking over her crib. Finally we just got her up around 6:30 and fed her and soon the boys were hovering over her:) They really adore her:) Taylor especially has been a great help - carrying her diaper bag, getting things for us etc... So far, she is very easy going. This morning we got her all dressed soooo cute and we were ready to go down to eat, we got everyones shoes on and look over to Hayleigh and she was asleep! So we ate in shifts:) While they are in the orphanage, they don't get rocked to sleep or anything and usually figure out a way to sooth themselves. She puts her left hand on her left eye and sucks on her tongue - it is so precious:) She hasn't fussed much at all, but we are expecting this "honeymoon" period to end soon... She has the cutest little girlie voice:):) She is very smiley too:) She is 9 1/2 months but developmentally is probably around 6 months old. Yesterday she didn't grab for any toys but today she is. She also loves the tags on her blanket and toys:):) We sent a blanket, 2 cameras, and a few toys and a questionaire to the orphanage in August. Yesterday, We got her blanket back and 1 camera. We hope to get the pics developed tomorrow.

Today we went to Walmart and the 5 families whose children were from YouYang bought the orphanage a DVD player and 10 walkers. We were going to buy them a big washing machine but they didn't come in the size the ophanage had preferred. We then continued shopping and bought some snacks, bread, lots of bottled water, formula, and a cheap stroller. By the way, it's hard to find bread like the bread back home:) Then we were off to the Panda Zoo. We saw 2 pandas - we were kind of dissappointed:(

Tomorrow we go to the Three River Gorges Museum and the People's Great Hall.

Thank you to everyone for your comments and well wishes! We still cannot see our blog but the comments go to our email!! We can't wait to get home for you to meet our little Hayleigh!!

Gotcha Day!!!

2005-09-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

Before we knew it, it was 4 o’clock and we were getting on the bus. The government office was about 25 minutes away. What a sight it was to walk through those doors. There were many other families there were other groups who had already received their babies. We were funneled into a room and were told the babies would be arriving shortly, only to be told shortly thereafter that it would be another 20-plus minutes. However, one of the ladies in our group received her baby right when we got there because the baby was from a different orphanage than the rest of the girls which was closer.

We were watching out the front window for the bus to pull up after an 8-hour-plus ride from the orphanage. However, the bus must have parked somewhere else because the babies started arriving. It’s difficult to describe the emotions that were in the room. It was certainly electric, but with lots of love. We knew Hayleigh the instant we saw her. It’s kind of been that way from the start. They called off each family one-by-one to receive their baby (or babies as in the case of one family who got twins). We were one of the last, but we didn’t care. It was awesome.

She has such a fantastic personality. She just melted into Kirsten’s arms without crying or anything. This was very much the exception as a lot of the other babies were crying. After about 15 minutes she was smiling at us and playing with the boys. It’s a good thing we have a big disk in our camera because we took a ton of pictures and video – just wanting to be sure to remember it all.

After a short while of bonding and pictures, we took a family picture which went on some official paperwork. Then we were able to ask questions of the orphanage director and nannies. How many naps does she take? What’s her favorite toy? We asked lots of questions but I’m not sure we remember much of anything.

Finally, we put our thumbprints on some paperwork. Hayleigh did too. It was very sweet to know that all these lives had changed in just the matter of a couple of hours.

When we got back to the hotel, we just looked at her some more. She really is beautiful. Long eyelashes, big black eyes, perfect little lips. She is sure to attract some handsome guys 30 years from now when she starts dating. Kirsten gave her a bottle and then we gave her a bath. She had lots of fun – no crying. Then we put her in a new pair of PJs and she went to sleep about 2.5 seconds later. It was kind of like she new she could relax now that she is with her forever family.

Lance

Monday Morning Paperwork

2005-09-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

What an exciting morning! Our travel group met with Frederick and Lily (our local guide and China adoption coordinator) who took us step by step filling out the paperwork. I made Lance do all of the writing:) They probably couldn't read my writing:):)

We were all soo excited to get our paperwork to fill out. In it had a copy of the newspaper finding ad of her. This picture is probably the first day that the orphanage got her, which was the day she was born. Under the picture it says that she was found on the steps at the Civil Affairs office wrapped in a blanket with a bottle and some formula. Lily thinks that the mother maybe hoped that someone would find her and take care of her... Then mayhem broke loose when we found a very recent picture of her - all of the families were in tears:) I will post a picture of us holding the paperwork with the picture (either here or on flickr)

We are all soooo excited! We have just 3.5 hrs before we meet to go to the Civil Affairs office! We are trying to keep busy:) The boys walked back down to a HUGE bookstore which has tons of toys on the 6th floor. They bought an electric car that goes extremely FAST. The store has a permanent track there and they went there to race their car around... OH - they just walked in the door and had a great time. When we were there yesterday it was PACKED! Today they said that there was no one there b/c they are all in school:)

So at 1am there we should be getting Hayleigh!!! We hope to post as soon as we can:)

Chongqing Update...

2005-09-18T20:33:00.000-07:00

We met with Frederick this afternoon and he gave us an itinerary, so we thought that we'd share it with you...

Monday - meet at 9:30 to fill out paperwork at the hotel, at 4:00 GO TO THE REGISTRATION OFFICE TO RECEIVE THE BABY AND COMPLETE PAPERWORK!!!!
Tuesday - At 2:30 visit the Panda zoo and go to Walmart
Wednesday - At 2:30 tour the People's Great Hall and the Three Gorges Museum
Thursday - At 9:00am visit the Ancient Town of Ciqikou. Receive and check notary paperwork in the afternoon.
Friday - Pack Luggage. Receive babies' passports and leave for Guangzhou!

We were all dissappointed that we weren't going to get our babies tonight or Monday morning:( But we found out the reason! Tonight is the Moon Festival!!! All families spend time with each other and have moon cakes b/c it is a "special" full moon. If you'd like to know more you can try to visit this link (i hope it works): http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa093097.htm

Frederick brought us moon cakes too:) Brayden was the only one that ate it all!!! go figure :)?:)?:)?

This evening half of the group went to Chinese food and the other half went to McDonalds - i bet you can guess who went to McD's!!!

Our last day in Beijing...and now in Chongqing!!!

2005-09-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

What an enlightening day... We began our day checking out of our hotel and then we were off to the Hutong Area, which is downtown area of beijing. We went on a rickshaw ride through the alley ways of Hutong. Many of these homes are owned by the government or are handed down generation to generation. They are very small and are in a rectangle with a courtyard in the middle but there are several "houses" in each rectangle (i hope that makes sense). We had the opportunity to visit a family. They had a dining room, bedroom and kitchen - maybe 500 sqft. They served us tea and answered questions that we had. They have 1 daughter at the University, which they were very proud of. We also visited a market, which was an experience - we took lots of pics. Before we visited this home we climbed up the Bell Tower and saw beautiful view of Beijing - the stairs were extremely steep and there were a lot of them...

We were supposed to go to the Silk Alley but we decided that we wanted to go to The Hard Rock Cafe instead - it was pretty good and we bought the typical T-Shirts:) We had just a little bit of time to kill so we visited a shopping mall. It was interesting to see the brands and how it was set up. There were about 10 floors and each floor had it's own department - this was our first relaxed shopping experience! We just strolled around and weren't worried about bargaining or someone asking us to buy something:):)

Finally - we were off to the airport! YIPPEE!!! I am so glad we had Mary!!! She helped us check in our luggage and was able to get our luggage on with out paying extra. Then it was off to the security check - very different than ours. We didn't have to "strip" down. They were more worried about our water - they made us open them and they smelled them looking for gasoline! We didn't have to take our computer out or anything... The plane ride was okay but very hot! The kicker was they (all the chinese passengers) were asking for BLANKETS!!! We were all waving our newspapers trying to fan us off and get cool:) Mary explained that the Chinese get cold very easily and most of them are in pants and long sleeves while we are in shorts etc... Anyway, we were relieved and excited to land!! Each step sinks in more that we are getting closer and closer to our daughter!! Frederick, our guide here in Chongqing, was ready and waiting for us (there were 3 families that flew together from Beijing) He swooped us up and took us to our hotel. He told us a little bit about Chongqing. It is 1 of the 3 largest cities/municipalities in China with 30 million people. It is also Hilly, Hot and Humid - 3 H's - and he's right. The weather is much more humid here, while we were in Beijing there was NO humidity:) This area is on the Yangzte River, so there is alot of water in the air. This area is also much more Westernized than Beijing - just around our hotel and down the street it looks like New York City:) We are going to explore down there more in a few minutes...

We are staying at the Marriott, which is the nicest 5 star hotel i have EVER been in! It is beautiful! We have adjoining rooms with mom and the boys (although Brayden has been insisting on sleeping with me everynight -so we'll see how the rest of our trip goes:))

Tonight is the Moon Festival, so the area is really hopping - more than usual, i guess. Frederick is supposed to stop by our room this evening to bring us moon cakes and our itinerary. It sounds like we don't get our little girl until 4pm on Monday:( We were thinking Sunday night or Monday morning - oh well... we are getting closer - we do have a crib in the room and we just got back from buying formula and rice cereal. :):)

I'm sorry about the pics - i am running out of space on flickr and i may have to get another photo program. Maybe tonight, i will have time to do that...

God Bless from Chongqing:):)

Ps. i realized that i haven't been changing the time on the blog - this is the real time we posted here:):)

A Full Friday!

2005-09-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

What a great day! We had a VERY good nights sleep - thank goodness!! We are sooo glad that we came to China a few days early to get acclimated here. We are feeling pretty normal - finally! Our guide, Mary, has told us sooo many interesting things about chinese people - very fascinating.

Here's what we did today: We were picked up at 8am and we thought that we were going to go to McDonalds but the driver pulled up to KFC for breakfast - we weren't aware that they served breakfast but they did! However, they were out of egg! So, the boys had a chicken sandwich(which had corn, peas & carrots in it) and hashbrowns - we just had our Special K cereal bars (it was a very good thing we brought some food with us - Cheri: you better bring 1 suitcase full of food -i wish we had more!!) We hope to go to a market soon... Then we were off into the traffic to go to The Great Wall. On the way there i realized that i forgot to lock our safe!!!! - i was sick to my stomach, but Mary immediately called the hotel and the manager closed the safe for us and everything was okay(but we weren't sure until we returned at 4:30 this afternoon) On the way to the Wall we passed an abandoned Disneyland - apparently the developer ran out of $$$. We were hoping to go to the Wall at Mutianyu but ended up at the Badaling section (we were okay with that because it was closer) We took a little rollercoaster type of car up a small section on the back side of the wall - this was quite an experience! Taylor wanted to ride with me, but they put him by himself - i had to YELL at them NO NO!!! and they took him out and SHOVED us into the next car - whew! You should have seen Taylor's face - sheer panic. It turned out to be a very safe little jaunt but we had NO idea of what to expect. We walked up most of the wall - at one point there was a huge people jam - They were totally squishing each other and shoving to go through this little doorway - Mary ended up taking us a different and much safer way:) We climbed up for aways and it was beautiful! We then walked down to the roller coaster for a slow ride down - it was fun:) We bought a few things here... We then jumped back in the bus to head back to Beijing but the rode was broken where we needed to turn so we had to take a long cut:) Mary and Mr.Wang were hungry and wanted chinese food for lunch - we luckily had PB & J and snacks that we ate. We are not adventurous! We feel kinda bad - last night we ordered Hamburger, spaghetti etc. for dinner and with it came a cream of vegetable soup but it tasted like chalk and smelled like milk, then came a salad (which we can't eat fresh veggies) then our meal (which does not taste like it is supposed to) then dessert that wasn't too tasty either - we felt REALLY bad not eating much and the waitress hovers over the table to make sure everything is okay -she probably thinks badly of us now:( Anyway, we went to a Friendship Store (i think they take all of the tourist there) int he front of the store there was tons of awesome things to buy but we want to wait until we get to Guangzhou. In the back is the chinese restaurant where Mary and Mr.Wang ate. We wondered around and also visited a Cloisonne factory (very small and mostly a demonstration of how they hand make the vases) - very cool to see! Then we were back into the traffic and headed to MC DONALDS!!! Yeah!!! After the stressfulness of ordering what we wanted we got everything okay and it was delicious!!! We were then off to the Lama Temple and learned alot about Buddhas, the Dahli Lama etc. - very interesting stuff... At all of these places that we have visited they all have a threshold that you have to step over to stop the evil spirits (b/c evil spirits can only go straight) In some places you have to walk around a wall too b/c the evil spirits cannot turn and they don't want them to enter. They have gods for everything - mountains, rivers, heaven, earth, sky etc...

Anyway, we ran into an adoption group from Holt. I walked up to a man and asked him where he was from and he said Southern CA. I told him that we were getting our daughter on Monday in Chongqing - he siad that they were getting their son there on Monday too! They adopted a daughter from Chongqing 2 years ago! We hope to run into them again:)

I am not sure if i will have time to post tomorrow - we will go on a Hutong Tour, visit the silk alley and then to the airport to go to Chongqing. We arrive in Chongqing at 7pm.

I hope the website is working okay - i am not able to see it and can only post and put pics on through flickr - so be sure to click on the flickr link to the right of the page below our family pic:) I have been getting the comments that have been posted b/c it goes to my email too:) Thank you for your well wishes!!!

What a Day!

2005-09-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

We had such a busy day! We are exhausted and this may be quick... WE started the day at the hotel buffet and could not figure out what to eat and what not to eat - so we mostly had bread, croissant and made to order omelets. Then we quickly changed rooms b/c the first one was a smoking room and with the jet lag - the 2 didn't mix very well. After the quick switcheroo, we went to Tiananmen square where we had our first encounters with chinese tourists and locals. They were very "happy" to see us and the blonde boys (especially Brayden). They took pics of us - so i took pics of them! We then went to the Forbidden City - gosh it was huge!!! After that we went for lunch "American buffet"- we ended up eating white rice, cold french fries, fried chicken chest! We were then off to the Pearl Market - we bought a few strands of pearls but are hoping to get REAL deals in Guangzhou. We got to experience the bathroom here and needless to say - i just couldn't do it (but i tried!!!) Oh, the boys were so excited to get a piece of jade with their name hand carved in english and chinese and on the other end of the jade it had the animal that represented the year that they were born. We were then off to the Summer Palace and took a boat ride across the man made lake and walked down the longest corridor in China. Then we headed back to the hotel for another thrilling bus ride - who needs a rollercoaster ride or ammusement park, you just need to come to China and drive around!!! We dropped off Kelli and her sister Micki and headed to the Acrobat show. On the way, a taxi bumped into us - our driver got out and yelled at him and the taxi driver yelled at our Mr. Wang and then they got back into the vehicles and drove away!hmmm We then really enjoyed the acrobat show! We were sooo tired but didn't want to miss it and we are glad that we didn't. We then headed back to the hotel and met Kelli & Micki for dinner. I think we are all going to lose some weight while we are here and it a VERY GOOD thing that we brought PB &J and Bread!

I will post more pics tomorrow - everyone is asleep and i can hardly keep my eyes open! We go to the Great Wall tomorrow... until then...

God bless and thanks for the prayers and well wishes!!!

We Made it!!!

2005-09-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

After 22 hours of traveling and 15 months of waiting! We are finally here! I am not able to see our website, but have figured out how to post. To view pictures click on the "Flickr" link to the right of the screen located below our profile with our family picture.

We were exhausted last night and went right to bed. We got to the hotel around 8pm and crashed - we woke up at 4am! and here i am on the web! We had such good travelers with us! Taylor started not to feel well just as we were about to land in Beijing and moaned the whole way to the hotel but i think he'll be fine... He made a friend on 12 hr. flight. Jack (a 10yr old from Beijing) came to ask him to play and we sat 4 in a row of 3 seats so they could play Ziggity and game boy. After about an hr. of coziness we sent him back to his parents and we ended up napping until we landed. I'll have Taylor post more about him on his website later.

We were so excited to land and a little anxious on what to do next! We just followed the crowd through the health declaration line (saying that we are healthy) and then to the "Foreigner" line to get our passport stamped, then to the baggage claim and then out the door to the wall of people holding up signs. These were guides looking for their group - we found ours very easily! She has been great and such a relief to have here! She took us, loaded us up in a van for an exciting trip to the hotel. She gave us several of tips of does and don'ts! Our driver, Mr. Wang, is very experienced! You HAVE to be! I am going to try to get a video of our next drive - everyone honks, cuts off people, and keeps going through red lights well after they have turned. We were trying to take EVERYTHING in - the buildings, people staring, the bicyclists, the cars, everything! This is soo amazing! I am really glad that we are here a few days before we get Hayleigh - i hope that we will be adjusted to the country by then!

Our hotel seems very nice - mom and Taylor bunked up in the room next to us and Brayden slept in our room. We are going to finally meet Kelli at breakfast this morning at 7:30. I have only spoken to her for the past month after we found out that we would be traveling together. She and her sister Michelle are from Spokane. We are supposed to do alot of walking today. Mary changed our plans because she thought that we would want to get out and walk around instead of drive for a while to the Great Wall. We did see the Great Wall from the airplane though - very cool! WE will try to update tonight! (your morning:))

God Bless!

WE ARE LEAVING IN 15 HOURS!!!

2005-09-12T13:44:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it! For the past 15 months we have dreamed about this and it is finally here! As you can see we are packed! We have 5 checked luggage and 5 carry ons! We weighed each piece of luggage and the heaviest is 46 pounds. When we fly within China we may have to repack because we will have to pay extra if it is over 40 pounds. Oh well - we'll worry about that later - we can buy more luggage if we need to:)

We leave for the airport at 3am tomorrow and our flight leaves at 5am. Lance's parents will meet us there to say good bye. My dad will be bringing my mom to the airport and say his goodbyes too...

Talk to ya later... From China!!!

HIS Purpose!

2005-09-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

What an spitually emotional morning! As I sat in church this morning, I reflected back on God's good graces that he has poored down on us and continues to bless us. He is soo amazing! The tears that I have been shedding these past few weeks, today and days to come are tears of JOY! Tears of amazement that HE loves us and has entrusted a baby girls life to us. We hope that we can live up to His expectations of us and spread His good word of how he has worked in our lives this past year.

Our church is gearing up for a HUGE campaign for "The 40 Days of Purpose". It is kind of interesting that this will begin in a few weeks at our church. Lance and I credit this book for playing a role in our purpose in adopting. Lance read this book in early 2004 and we read it together shortly after we decided to adopt. While reading this book it assured us that we were on the right path and felt that we were doing something that was HIS purpose for us. We have NEVER waivered in our decision. We have felt strongly that we were meant to adopt Hayleigh.

This is one of the scriptures that really spoke to me this morning and I wanted to share it with you. For us, it is perfect timing:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

So, if you haven't read "The 40 Days of Purpose" yet - you better read it now!! It can have a huge impact on your life! Our church is having it's first sermon on Sept.25th - you can buy a book at our church for $7.00! Please, come to Kennewick First Pres - read the book - we'd love to see you at our church when we get home and attend as a family of 5 on Oct. 2.

God Bless you!

The TICKETS are HERE!!!

2005-09-09T18:18:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it!! We actually have our airplane tickets and we leave in 4 days! We were gettin' kinda nervous but had faith that they would make it here! We watched them travel all over Washington State but I am glad to report that the tickets are actually in our hands!!! We even have Hayleigh's return ticket - so cute:) Now we just need to pack our clothes!

"For we walk by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

China Here we Come!

2005-09-06T22:12:00.000-07:00

It's official we are going to China! The Travel Approval is actually in our hands and most of the airline tickets are in our hands too! The arrangements for Beijing is DONE! and the final arrangements with our agency is done too! Now it's time for the last minute things like pack, shop, wire money, shop, return things, shop, make more lists, shop, go to the doctor for last minute check ups, shop and of course more shopping - ugh!

Anyway, we are hoping to finish all of these little details so we can relish in the fact that we leave in 7 days for China to get our daughter!! It is soo amazing!!! We are so in love with this tiny picture and cannot wait to hold her!

Here's our Itinerary in case you are wondering where we will be and when! FYI China is 15 hours ahead of PST.

Sept.13 - Depart out of Pasco at 5am and arrive in Beijing on Sept.14 at 4:55pm
Sept. 15 (Thurs) Temple of Heaven and Great Wall (at Mutianyu)
Sept. 16 (Fri) Summer Palace (Pearl Market), TainAnMen Square, Forbidden City and an acrobatic show in the evening
Sept.17 (Sat) Hutong Tour, Silk Alley, Shop and fly to Chongqing at 5:10pm

Sept 18 - Relax in Chongqing at the Marriott
Sept. 19 - Hayleigh is brought to us at the hotel or Civil Affairs
Sept. 20 - 23 Site See, relax, finish paperwork and wait for her passport.

Sept. 23 fly to Guangzhou
Sept 23-25 relax at The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou
Sept. 26 - US Consulate Appt at 9:30am
Sept. 27 - probably her medical exam & get her Visa
Sept. 28 - Go home! We leave Guangzhou at 8:30 am and arrive in SanFrancisco at 9:15am, fly to Seattle for a 6 hr. layover:( and arrive in Pasco at 10:30 PM on Sept. 28th!

If anyone is awake at that hour you are MORE THAN WELCOME to greet us at the airport!! You can carry us to our car - LOL :)

God Bless!

Psalm 100
"A thanksgiving psalm. On your feet now--applaud GOD!
Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourselves into his presence.
Know this: GOD is God, and God, GOD. He made us; we didn't make him. We're his people, his well-tended sheep. Enter with the password: "Thank you!" Make yourselves at home, talking praise. Thank him. Worship him.
For GOD is sheer beauty, all-generous in love, loyal always and ever."

New Photo Program!

2005-09-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hayleigh in her walker
Originally uploaded by hayleighsmom.

This is a test post for a new photo downloading program. We hope that this will be easy to use while we are in China and we hope to be able to download ALL of our pictures while we are there! If there are problems you will be able to click on this picture of Hayleigh and see everything in our photo album at flickr!

It's Chaos Here!

2005-09-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of the chaos going on here trying to get ready! YIKES! Will we ever be ready?!?!?! The real packing hasn't even begun - we are still gathering supplies...

Donation

2005-09-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

God continues to provide and answer our prayers!!! He is SOOOO awesome!!

Lance's parents just gave us large donation - we thank them from the bottom of our hearts! We also thank my parents for my mom traveling with us - we couldn't make this trip without her too!!

And we thank those that have supported us along the way too - we thank God for everyone and everything He's been doing for us!!

We are still sccepting donations. Anyone wishing to do so can donate through our pay pal link!

God Bless!

Another shower of blessings...

2005-09-01T22:34:00.000-07:00

We are truly blessed with wonderful friends!! A few friends from our church where we were married and kids baptised at gave us a shower. It was so wonderful catching up with everyone and sharing with them how God is working in our lives.

I took home some very cute and stylish clothes! This girl is going to be the best dressed person in our family!!! Thank you my RLC family!!!

The boys are off to a GREAT School Year!

2005-08-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was the first day of school and both boys were very excited! They had the typical "butterflies" but no tears!! I was so happy:) After school we told their teachers that they would only be there for 2 weeks and then gone for 3 weeks! They were very supportive and excited for us.

New Links!

2005-08-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

We just added 3 more links! Check it out!

The boys now have their own website! They plan on journaling in it everyday - please feel free to ask questions or comments. They are really excited and hope friends and family will communicate with them this way:)

Also, we added a link to China's weather so you can see how hot and humid it is!! :):)

A Poem...

2005-08-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Once there were two women
Who never knew each other.
One you don't remember,
The other you call "Mother."

Two different lives,
Shaped to make yours one.
One became your guiding star,
The other became your sun.

The first gave you life,
The second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love,
The other was there to give it.

One gave you ethnicity,
The other gave you a name.
One gave you the seed of talent,
The other gave you aim.

One gave you emotions,
The other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile,
The other dried your tears.

One gave you up--
It was all she could do.
The other prayed for a child,
And God led her straight to you.

So is it heredity or environment
That you're the product of?
Neither, my darling, neither--
Just two different kinds of love.
---author unknown