Cheri Kay in Haiti....where my life became meaningful.

Yesterday was a hard one for me!  Not the hard that has you sad and crying or feeling beat up or anything.  But, the hard was keeping my brain focused! LOL!  My brain is a hot mess people!!!  I feel like I have so many loose ends to tie up before we leave for China in 9 days....yes, I said it, 9 days!!!!!  And my brain does not stay on one topic or project or even thought long enough to complete ANYTHING!!! LOL Insomnia is my close friend when I get like this!  I will fall asleep as soon as I get into bed, into a deep beautiful sleep....for 2 hours. Then: BOOM! Wide awake! Wide awake with a brain that runs in circles! LOL!!!! So, I blog! hahaha!  It's about 4:30 in the morning and as I sit here at my computer, I hear the wind and the rain outside. It's cold!  It's Michigan and it's the week of Halloween, of course it's going to be cold! But, I sit here and I listen to the sounds of outside and then I listen to the sounds of inside. Inside my home, I hear the sof

Processing adoption has been a huge focus at our house lately!  Not paper processing....emotional cognitive processing of adoption.  It is amazing! Amazingly hard, amazingly beautiful, amazingly confusing, amazingly enlightening, amazingly hurtful, amazingly joyful, amazingly bonding, amazingly tearful, amazingly exhausting and amazingly energizing.  And amazingly much more than that!!!! :) I was never one that could talk about my feelings very well.  This is not a good weakness to have when you are an adoptive parent!  It is ESSENTIAL that I talk about feelings and help my kid process through the difficult parts of their life stories.  Thank goodness for a village of other adoptive parents, social workers and counselors and even teachers who have come alongside me to help me make sure I handle this delicate subject to the best of my ability! Jaryse seems to do this quite easily, fluently, and with acceptance of the 'good' and the 'bad'.  I am pretty sure he has tau

OH my goodness friends!  Please excuse any grammatical errors or lack of detail in this post! It is CHUCK full of crazy exciting news and I've been shaking with excitement the last 4 days. So, China was closed for a National Holiday for about a week, about a week ago.  They re-opened last Thursday-ish (Nov. 8).  With the time change and them being almost a day ahead of us (well, 12 hours) I get confused what day it is! LOL!  Anyway, Since they opened things have been FLYING!  I kept thinking, "oh, I need to tell my friends on my blog", but before I could, another amazing thing would happen! So, here's the deal friends, long story short.......We are going to China!!!!!  Yep, in less than 4 days we received our Article 5 pickup, Travel Approval, a Visa Appointment at the Consulate and have purchased tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This baby girl is coming HOME!!!! We are leaving for China on Nov. 7 and will return Nov. 19th with the newest member of our family!!

If you see this amazing young man today, will you please wish him a Happy Birthday!!!???? I can't believe this little man is 11. Yes, ELEVEN!!!! I am so proud of him! He is kind, compassionate, and loves everyone! He is so excited to be a big brother to his new sister! I am so proud of him! He knows that having another sister who is deaf is not going to be easy, yet, he already loves her to pieces and he cannot wait to show her the ropes!  Happy Birthday Sweet Boy! Momma loves you like crazy!!!!  Any and all donations that come in today will go towards Jaryse's name in the Tag the Bag competition!!!

I had sweet dreams of my Dahlia Jane last night! I had dreams of meeting her. I had dreams of her walking to me with her arms out towards me. I had dreams of holding her, hugging her and seeing her sweet face in person! She has no idea how much we already love her and I cannot wait to hold her in my arms and show her the love that she deserves.   On another note, God answers prayers! Haha!  That is an understatement huh!!!???  :)  So, I have been planning to travel to China by myself with both Ecrissa and Jaryse. Meaning of course, that I'd travel to China with 2 kids by myself and home with 3 (two of which are deaf!).  I have envisioned quite the trip with just me and the three kids....can you picture it! LOL!!!   Well, I am so thankful for the love and support that God provides!  He has made a way for me to have some extra hands! My friend, Amy Smith, is planning on joining me and the kids to China to bring home Dahlia!  Amy is in ASL interpreter!  So, when I say

Ok friends!  So, things keep moving forward and I am so very excited!  We are looking at being about 6-8 weeks away from traveling to China to pick up our baby girl!  This is so exciting!  This post is going to tell you 2 things.  First, it's going to tell you about our fundraiser that is starting NOW as one last push to try to fund bringing our little girl home and Second, I realized that I keep calling this little girl by every title, except what her name will be!  I can't post her sweet face, but I can share what her name will be!  So, keep reading and you'll find out!!! Ok, so as promised, I am first going to ask you to please participate in this fundraiser!  The fees for the actual adoption have pretty much been saved, raised and paid!  YAY!!!  Now, we are working hard to find the funds for the travel costs!  These final costs include things like Chinese Visa's for all of us, airplane tickets, hotel and food costs, and the very final fees in China to bring our gi