Good News

Today, I spoke with our agency and good news we are approved. They are getting our contracts out soon. I do not know why I was worried we have already adopted internationally but I always think in the back of my mind that maybe they will say no. Now it seems a little more real that we will have another baby in such a short period of time. I never would have thought that within a 2 year time span I would become a momma twice over.

Application Sent

Merry Christmas to all. Today we finally sent in our application to our adoption agency and applied for a baby girl under 12 months old. It is hard to believe that this time next year we will be chasing around two children. Unless of course something slows down our process because we all know that with an international adoption anything can happen. We are truly a blessed family knowing that this is our first Christmas with Delylah's big sister Lennah and next year a family of four. Now the fun of the paper chase begins, the 171 H chase, a new updated homestudy and all the trimmings that come with an adoption. Again, we want to wish everyone a joyful holiday season may you all be blessed.

5 months Ago today

Ms. Kelli and Lennah

Sometimes you often forget what a special day it is and today I almost did. I realized a little while after getting up that it was 5 months ago today since Lennah's gotcha day. It is so hard to believe that our little miracle has been with us for 5 months. She has grown so much in these past few months. We actually went for our 1 year visit yesterday and she is now 20.6 pounds and 30 inches tall. That is a long way from 14 pounds. It is also amazing to see her development and how rapidly she is advancing. I could keep bragging about her forever.

Yesterday was also a fun day because we met up with Kim, Michael, and Sheridan for lunch. It is always wonderful to meet with them. Sheridan is also doing wonderful for being home only a few months and his speech is amazing. I think we expect these kids to take awhile to adjust but sometimes they truly surprise you. Today, we also met up with Ms. Kelli who is also in the process of adopting from Vietnam. I look forward to meeting her little darling when she gets home. I know I have said this before but adoption really is amazing because it brings so many people into your life. I know for some of us out there we have lost friends and loved ones because they cannot understand why you choose to adopt, or why you are adopting outside your race, or even why take a baby with a special need. You may lose some but you gain so much more. I know that the people I cross paths with along the way will be there for a long time because we can turn to each other with problems, concerns, and support that we may not get from outside the adoptive community. So here is to long time new friends.

We also have more great news to report. My closest adoptive family friends (the Sereika's) are jumping into an Ethiopian adoption with me. They were really weighing heavily on going back to Vietnam but while looking at programs they decided to take that leap of faith and head to Africa. It is wonderful to now be going through another adoptive experience with them. I have to thank the Hoffmans for this because I think neither one of our families would be taking this route if it weren't for them.

I guess I would like to wrap up by giving thanks this holiday season to everyone who has become a part of our lives and our family. This year we truly have so much to be thankful for. Most important for God who has made this Christmas the most special because Keith and I have the most beautiful daughter to be thankful for. We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (Yes! Not a Happy Holiday) because we are celebrating Christs birth and a Happy New Year. I should have lots to post soon with the massive unwrapping of gifts Lennah will be doing in a few days and our impending trip to NY.

Our Decision

I guess I am a few days behind I am making the first official post on Delylah's website. On Monday (my birthday) Keith and I officially contacted our agency and made the decision to go ahead with an Ethiopian adoption. This had weighed on our hearts before Lennah even came home that we would most likely adopt from Ethiopia next. However, our agency for Lennah's adoption had different requirements; as did others, that made us think that we would be making another trip to Vietnam to expand our family. Well, a few months ago we met a wonderful couple who are now waiting to travel to pick up their son from Ethiopia and told us about their agency. Well, it looks like we will meet all the requirements and will be applying to them. So the paper chase for number 2 is about to begin. I don't forsee any issues just going through hoops that we thought we would avoid because our other adoption was so recent but of course nothing is easy with an international adoption. So I guess you can say we are proud to announce our decision to adopt a baby girl whom we plan on naming Delylah Aviella. Some may question our decision to not request a boy, but I had always wanted a sister so I am hoping that our girls have a bond that I never had the experience of. We do, at some point, plan on adopting an older boy; whether it is here meaning domestically or abroad at some point in the future. Since we would like to have three of four children. Thus begins our journey to bring another daughter into our hearts and lives. Please follow us and keep us in your prayers.

Fundraiser

Since we made our grand official announcement last night we have also decided to do some fundraising for Delylah. As most of you know because you have BTDT international adoption is not inexpensive. Ethiopia is one of the more affordable countries but it will still be difficult for us since Lennah's adoption was so recent. So if you live in the Atlanta area we are having a cheesecake fundraiser. All of our proceeds with help with Delylah's adoption. Here is our flyer that we are putting out. We would love for everyone to order if you are local to the area and delivery is available. Cheesecakes are my speciality so you will not be dissappointed. Obviously our flyer was much prettier since this is just a cut and paste version.

Cheesecake Fundraiser

All proceeds will go towards the adoption of a Ethiopian orphan

Don’t have time to bake for the holidays, maybe you need that perfect desert to end that holiday meal, or maybe you need a gift for that special someone you know with a sweet tooth; give the gift of a cheesecake.

Each cake is 10 inches wide by 3 inches high and serves 12-20 people. All cakes are made to order. Plain cheesecake is $25.00
All other cakes Fruit Topped or Specialty Cheesecakes (including reduced fat) are $30.00

Cakes can be delivered up until 3 pm on Christmas Eve within the Paulding/Cobb County area. If you are outside this area please call for alternate arrangements.

Flavors
Plain NY Style Cheesecake (Fruit Toppings- Cherry, Blueberry, Strawberry, Pineapple, Raspberry, Peach), Reduced Fat Plain NY Style.
Specialty Cakes
Caramel Apple, White Chocolate Cranberry (a holiday treat), White Chocolate Cherry, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, Mocha, Pumpkin with Cinnamon Whipped Cream, Eggnog Cheesecake, Gingerbread cheesecake, Snickers, Cookies n’ Cream, Turtle Cheesecake, Key Lime
If there is a particular kind not mentioned here please call because most likely it can still be made.

To place your order, simply call 678-372-1348. All orders must be placed by December 22 for Christmas Eve delivery.
Remember this benefits a good cause because you are giving someone the gift of a forever family
Cash or Check is accepted. Credit Card orders can be accepted through paypal. Please contact me by phone is you need to pay by credit card for instructions on how.

Definate Decisions

Today was my 29th birthday for several years in a row (LOL a woman never tells her true age). Anyway, today truly has been a great day. We had met some people several months ago named Tymm and Laura who are adoptiong a baby from Ethiopia (he is beautiful). Well, if any of you remember Keith and I had talked about this program and were thinking about this for baby #2. However, CHI has a policy for their Ethiopian program that requires the youngest child in your home be no younger than 3 years older than the child you are adopting. This knocked us out of the program because we do not want to wait until Lennah is 3 years old just to apply to adopt again. Well, Tymm and Laura told us about their agency and that the requirements may be a little different. SO Keith and I talked over the weekend and we both said that if they did not have the three year wait rule we would definately give Ethiopia a go ahead because financially it is so much less than Vietnam. I know you cannot put a price tag on the life of a child but we definately feel like God has called us there awhile ago and we were too quick to look elsewhere besides CHI. We absolutely love CHI and would love to work with them again so please do not take this as we do not want to use them again but in our current situation they are not the perfect fit. We have our homestudy update on January 2nd so we will officially be applying for angel #2 at the beginning of next month. Oh! we have also made a decision on a name since we are still applying for a little girl and we really think this will fit with our Ethiopian angel we are going with Delylah Aviella. Keep us in your prayers that everything goes smooth with #2. Here is our new blog for Delylah. Again we will still keep everyone updated on Lennah here so please keep reading.

http://delylahaviellapaulsen.blogspot.com/

Check This Out

A friend sent me this presentation. It is beautiful. Please watch it since it is only a few minutes long.

Last Christmas Photos

Sharing a cookie with Santa
Santa is reading to Lennah

Mommy, Grandma, and Lennah

Uncle Billy, Daddy, Grandpa, and Lennah

Grandma, Grandpa (aka Big Ba), and Lennah

Mommy, Daddy, and Lennah

Today, I received that last of our Christmas photos we took. Since Lennah had her birthday to take and photos with Santa and her mommy and daddy we had to have two sittings. Here are some cute family photos and Lennah with Santa. I think Santa will be bringing her a whole lot this year to celebrate her first Christmas with her forever family. Enjoy. Oh! In case you haven't noticed I have become a picture junkie with Lennah. I do not want to forget any moments with her.

Happy First Birthday

Are these all my presents

My own personal cake yummy!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!! Today was Lennah's first birthday. It is so hard to believe that our baby girl was one year old today. It was only a mere four months and nine days ago that we were able to hold our precious baby girl in our arms and now she is already one. We had a grand celebration in honor of Lennah's first birthday. Of course momma stayed up late last night cooking for the affair with Grandpa's help because Daddy was at work. Grandma packed the party favors. It was a little chaotic in the house last night but fortunately today everything went off without a hitch. Her party had a cute little princess themed birthday because she truly is our princess. We also had a beautiful cake and great home cooked food. It was also wonderful to have our family and friends gather for this event. We are truly blessed to have this little girl in our lives and to have so many people who love and care about this little girl. Of course being that our angel is growing up mommy and daddy had to pop in the video recordings today of the first day we met and to look back and see how much she has grown is truly amazing. You do not realize that your children change on a day to day basis. It is truly amazing to see how your child develops by a year old.

We also just recently had her first birthday photos done and her individual Christmas portraits so we have some beautiful new photos to share. Well, then again she did not smile in her birthday portraits but she still looked beautiful.

Thanksgiving

Ava and Lennah

Aunt Vicky and Grandma Smothering me with Kisses

What a Face ?

Mommy and Lennah

Daddy and Lennah

Lennah's Christmas Tree

Thanksgiving has came and went and this year we had a lot to be thankful for. Obviously, our greatest thanks is to God for blessing us with a beautiful and intelligent daughter. We were fortunate enough to have two Thanksgiving celebrations, one with Keith's Aunt and Uncle last weekend and one with my family on Thursday. Lennah enjoyed dinner with all her trimmings. I think she especially liked her sweet potatoes. We also had a busy week putting up the Christmas trees and all the decorations. Last year we purchased a new Christmas tree and we decided that our old one would become a childs tree in our family room. So this year we had the excitement of doing our traditional adult tree and Lennah's own personal Christmas tree. Lennah has enjoyed pulling ornanments off the tree so that is a battle we have not won yet. We have also talked to our homestudy agency and when they come out to complete our six month post placement report on Lennah we are also having our homestudy updated. So we can say that our official journey to baby Paulsen#2 will start on January 2, 2008 when that meeting takes place. From there we will go ahead and get our new application into CHI and then start our I-600 A. This weekend we also took Lennah to get her portraits with Santa, family Christmas pics, and her first birthday pictures done. Having to do all three at once was wallet busting but her photos came out beautiful and I cannot wait to have them in about a week and a half. Her first birthday party is this weekend so I will be busy in the kitchen getting all the prep done on Friday. It is hard to believe that she has been with us this long and that her birthday is here already. Well, here are some photos of our Thanksgivings.

Sorry

Sorry about the poll not being up and running yesterday like I thought it was. It should be fully functional now. Please feel free to take our poll and tell us what name you like best. Hopefully, it will help us decide between our three favorites.

P.S. In case you haven't noticed yes we do like the middle initial A. That is because Keith and I both have a middle name with A and we kind of think it could be a cute tradition.

Big Decisions

Well, I guess after much talk I guess we can announce to say that we are going to start proceeding with our second adoption. I had a conversation, with my good adoption friend Jamie, on Friday night and it made me realize that we need to start moving forward with our next adoption. She made me realize, that God will make it happen and the money for it will come. If he leads us we should follow. So I talked to Keith and he is ready, set, go. Adoption has touched our lives dramatically and we really can't wait to expand our family even more. After talking to Jamie, I also realized that God is calling us to Vietnam again. We kept looking into other programs and agencies but none seem to fit like Vietnam and CHI. So we are going to start moving forward to get a homestudy update (luckily ours is not that old so we do not have to start all over). I also talked with our CHI rep today and she said we can officially start moving on some paperwork but we just can't actually apply until January because we have to wait until 6 months from our last adoption. We also have decided to move forward to adopt a little girl again regardless of the wait. I know many may say that is crazy but financially it will give us a bit more time to get all our ducks in a row, I had always wanted a sister (not that I want to give up my brother), plus financially it was be less of a burden because of course we have an over abundance of girl stuff. So we will be starting a new blog after we decide on a name for the next little one. (WE NEED HELP ON THIS SO PLEASE VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE NAME.)

I feel like I missed out on so much because I did not start Lennah's blog until after her referral and I wish I would have the beginning steps more documents. I am not shutting down this blog because this is Lennah's and we need to keep her amazing story going and inform all of our friends, that we have made throughout our adoption journey, on how she is doing. SO PLEASE KEEP READING. In addition, we want each of our children to have something of their own. We hope everything goes as smoothly for this adoption as it did for our last. I know so many families have been upset with some recent problems with some Vietnamese adoptions but I truly feel that CHI is the best agency to be with. We also will be opening up to special needs this time around right from the start. Lennah was a waiting child and she is doing extremely well. Hopefully, this will help ease some of the extended wait times. I will keep everyone posted on how we are coming with this. To help also ease the financial burden I am going to work on cheesecake fundraisers. I used to sell cheesecakes a few years ago for extra income. (It is a special talent to make an awesome cheesecake) Anyway, we are hoping that some fundraising efforts will help us with Baby girl #2.

Well, after all my babbling here are some new pictures of Lennah. Hope everyone enjoys.

Happy 11 month Birthday

Well it has been pretty normal since our last post. Yesterday, we celebrated our first Halloween. Mommy and Daddy took that day off work to have family time and to take our angel trick or treating. She was a hit with the neighborhood since everyone thought she looked adorable in her minnie mouse costume. She was also lucky enough to get some treats that she can eat since some of the neighbors had mini bags of animal crackers.

Since the last post we have done some fun acitivities like going to fall festivals, going to a country western jamboree at church. I think a lot of these activities will be a lot more fun for her when she is a little bigger. It is so funny how I cannot wait for her to grow up for some experiences and at other times we want them to stay so little and cute. Either way, Keith and I enjoy every precious minute with her and we are so thankful that God has blessed us with her.

Not only have we been trying to find time to do family activities she is also learning faster. She now knows how to say cat and points to cats. She can't say it that great but it is definately the word cat.

Today Lennah also turned 11 months old. It is crazy to think that only a month from today is her first birthday. We are excited about out planning her big first birthday party and have decided to do a princess theme. Well that is all to report for now. The holidays are coming so I will be excited to update about her holidays. Enjoy the new photos.

Let's Get a Pumpkin

Feed Us
Lennah searching for a pumpkin

Our little Picasso

Swing Me Daddy

Happy Hayride

FrankenLennah

Yesterday was a great family day. Lennah, Keith, and I went to pick some pumpkins and attend a petting zoo. I was hoping that we would have visited a real pumpkin patch like we had back north but this was close enough to enjoy a fun filled family day. Lennah was a little freaked by all the animals surrounding her but she quickly got over it and enjoyed watching them crowd us for food. She also enjoyed playing on the swings and learning how to paint some mini-pumpkins. She was a real picasso. We even took a hayride which would have been more enjoyable if it was not 80 degrees. The guy at the entrance thought she was so cute that he gave her an extra mini pumpkin. The place where we went even had a baby kangaroo; that is something you do not see every day in Georgia.