Some Nice Weather

This one is my favorite

We had several nice days here over the weekend and on Sunday Lennah had her first taste at playing on the sidewalk with chalk. I just think some of this pics are so cute. Plus she got to wear some of her new spring PJ's and outfits. Enjoy the pics. Oh and now she brushes her own teeth.

AHHHHH!

So we are slowly compiling our dossier and of course we can never be fortunate enough to avoid a problem. I was off from work two weeks ago and decided to save myself a trip down to Marietta since I still had a few more things to wait on for our dossier. Anyway, I mailed off for a certified copy of our marriage liscense instead I get a marriage certificate. I want to know can these people take the time to read requests? Now Keith will have to get up extra early and head down there before work which is not always ideal because he has been working almost 60 hours a week recently. Besides that we have been coming along pretty good since we had our last homestudy meeting on Saturday and were only waiting on birth certificates and the marriage liscense. Hopefully, we should have everything in about 2 weeks and it should hopefully be on its way to Ethiopia by April 1st at least that is what I am shooting for.

Well, in other news I have to red thread this on here. It is so amazing to see how one moment affects your life and the other people involved in your life. God is always amazing us because he works in your life without you knowing it. To go back to my ancient story of Sheridan and how meeting his mommy and daddy have changed so many lives. I met Kim and Michael on a cruise a little over a year ago. They were adopting from China, us from Vietnam, they lived only fifteen minutes away, and we both work for the same school district. What are the odds of meeting someone that close to you in the middle of the Caribbean and going through a similar life experience. Anyway, we instantly became good friends and we attend their baby shower for my future son in law (at least my mom thinks Lennah and Sheridan will one day marry). At their shower I met Laura and Tymm who were also adopting from China. During this time I had become friends with Jamie Serieka who lived in Ohio who was adopting a little girl from CHI and was placed on the waiting child list the same day as Lennah. (I am getting somewhere with this). After returning with Lennah, I soon found out Tymm and Laura were adopting from Ethiopia while they wait for their baby from China. A few months later I talked to them and they referred us to their agency and hence we are where we are. Well, I told Jamie about them and their agency and her and her family decided to also join us in adopting from Ethiopia since they too looked to expand their family. Well, last week Laura mentioned a little boy that our agency was looking to place and it looks like our friends the Serieka's are adoptiong him. I know this is crazy but is I never met our wonderful friends the Perry's, Jamie would most likely not know about this sweet boy. It is so amazing how we can touch each others lives and God's and how he makes our miniscule moments have such meaning.

Lastly, I am still doing some work on Delylah's room. We added her name to the wall which I think looks awesome. I have been working on Delylah's book and stuffed animal collection as well. I also went out this weekend and got a double stroller since Lennah will still need to be in one. Now all we need is baby Delylah in her room and stroller to complete everything.

Easter and Valentine's Pics

Well, I had Lennah's pictures taken for Easter and had some Valentine's pics taken in one of her Vietnamese outfits. I wished she would have smiled more in her Easter pics but sometimes she just wants to have her way and not be the happy baby she normally is. Other than that things are the same. Her new word has been circle. I was worried about her language development because of her chronic ear infection back in December/ January but the doc said she should be saying 5-10 words and she has definately said more than that but just not very clearly he said that was normal.
Lastly, I am plagarizing here but I found this on journey to me from a family waiting for Kaylee. It was a believe excerpt and I wanted others to read it.
An Orphan's Conversation with God
An orphan asked God "They tell me You are sending me to earth tomorrow but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?" God said" Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.
The orphan further inquired " But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy." God replied" Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
Again the orphan asked," And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?" God said, " Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak".
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?" God said" Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"But who will come and give me a home?" God said, " Your angel will come from way across the sea to love and care for you"
"Who will protect me?" God said," Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life"
"But I will always be sad because I will not see You anymore" the orphan said. God said " Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you. "
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from the Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked" God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
God said you will simply call her Mommy
(adapted from "A newborn's converstions with God")

Officially Lennah

She can now feed herself

After she is official


Before her Big Day

Today, was a special day for Lennah it was day of officially becoming Lennah Abigail Paulsen. Although Lennah was adopted in Vietnam her name was still Thuy Thanh Nguyen and to get a birth certificate here in Georgia you have to go through a local readoption process. So for the last seven months on everything she was still Thuy. We want Lennah to always remember her name, where she came from, and who she was before she joined our family but we are happy for her to have our last name and truly be a forever family in the eyes of our state. We have to thank our friend Michael who worked on these papers for us without him who knows where we would be in this process. Anyway, to tell you about the day we did freak a little because Lennah has not felt well and when they called roll at the court we were named last. Boy, did I freak thinking we would have to come back after lunch and probably be there all day. But all ended well because we were called second and out in 30 minutes. Grandma and Grandpa came even though they have been sick too. Keith and I took Lennah for lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate but she really didn't touch much food. But she did cheer up when mommy took her to target to but a present for her special day. She found a doll that she had to have and honestly I could not take it away from her. She carried it around all day and I thought she would be taking it to bed with her (mind you this doll talks so I don't think she would have went to sleep). So overall even with her being under the weather it was a great day and we are so happy that we can really call her Lennah Abigail Paulsen.

Ethiopian Adoption Group and More

A hug goodbye with Chevella

A swinging big sister


Playing Basketball with Addison

Addison

Lennah's new friend Chevella

Well, Saturday Keith, Lennah, and I headed to a local Ethiopian adoption group that meets once a month. I have to say we had a great time. It was nice meeting other families who are like ours. It was also great to see Lennah play with the other kids and to know what a great big sister she will be to Delylah. I did struggle with where I should make this post; do I put it on Lennah's journey or do I put it on here. I decided to here because I do attend first fridays for since I have been home with Lennah which is mainly a China adoption group. I guess I feel like that is Lennah's group because she is of Asian descent and so are her new found friends from there. So I decided that we would not have visited this group without our impending adoption of Delylah so it rightfully belongs here. We met some great people that we will hopefully get to know better on our journey to bring home Delylah. I am so happy that we have been able to find support groups for our children to become a part of.

Cute stuff

On a second note I did a little shopping today. Before Lennah's adoption we did not purchase clothing because we were unsure of the gender even though CHI had told us to most likely expect a boy. We were glad we didn't make any purchases. Anyway, since we have requested another daughter I have been set on using Lennah's clothing for Delylah (providing they are around the same size on the same season) but today I could not help myself but to make two purchases and Delylah will need some of her own stuff to not feel like great I get left overs. Anway, I got her a little shirt that says I am the little sister and a photo frame for her room that says me and my sister. I am so happy that the girls will be so close in age and hopefully they will love each other more than any other two sisters ever could.

One Year Ago Today

Lennah One Year Later

Our Referral Picture

Today is a very special day for our family because we became parents one year ago today. Well, we received our referral of Lennah exactly one year ago. To recount our journey; we got on the waiting list with our agency CHI on September 2, 2006. It was supposed to be a short wait but times would be extended and Keith and I decided to start looking at the special needs children. If you are a CHI family you may already know this but they would post the special needs children on a special page on their website. I knew that CHI was going to be receiving some of these referrals so I waited (not very patiently) by the computer waiting for these children to pop up. I know it sounds obsessive but it was meant to be this way. On Valentines day a little girl that was 2 popped up we were not the first ones to inquire about her and now she has a wonderful family. The next day 4 beautiful children popped up around 11am. Nguyen Thanh Thuy was one of those beautiful faces. I hurried and called left a message and sent an email. I was the second phone call about these children because one little boy was already being looked at and the other three children were still available to be reviewed. We had never been parents before and knew that an infant as young as possible was right for us so we requested the profile of Nguyen Thanh Thuy. As soon as I got off the phone with Nicky I woke Keith (who works late nights) and told him we had a beautiful baby girl. I knew even before the medicals arrived in our email box that she was destined to be our daughter. Several hours later and after talking to the pediatrician we formly accepted her referral. In those months before we traveled I worried about her health, what she looked like, what she ate, what her personality was like, how she would bond, and everything else a first time parent would worry about. Even though she lived thousands of miles away for the first 5 months of us becoming her parents we loved her more than anything. Now we love her even more than we ever would have expected 1 year ago. Adoption is so wonderful and I cannot express how happy it has made us as a family. Keith said to me several months ago that if he was able to have children she may not have been our daughter and he was thankful for this. I know many out there may think that is crazy but we could not imagine our lives without her; temper tantrums and all.

On a second note since our angels toys have taken over the house and with the impending adoption of baby #2 we decided we needed a play room for all of Lennah's toys. So we worked on this task last weekend and earlier this week. I am so happy with the way it turned out. We still have kept a bed in here for guests but we think this will be great for when the girls are bigger and have sleep overs. At least the noise and mess will be contained.So here are some pics of our project.

Getting Somewhere

Well, I will be posting more since we have begun the chase. Anyway, I have already tackled getting my employment letter for our dossier, Keith is chasing his higher ups to get his going. We ordered both birth certificates this week, have our friends and relatives getting our recommendation letters going. Our medicial appointments are for next week and that really is the main time consuming stuff that we need to chase for our dossier. THis is a breeze next to putting together a dossier for Vietnam. We also worked on the girls playroom last weekend and finished that this week. We have also finished Delylah's room at least meaning it is painted and the furniture is in. We have the bedding as well but we still need a few little pieces to complete her ensemble. I have also started moving some of Lennah's clothes that no longer fit into Delylah's room. Hopefully, they will be close to the same size around the same season because so much of Lennah's stuff is in good condition. I will update again soon for now here are some photos of Delylah's room. A pic of the girls playroom is one Lennah's blog already so there really is no point in reposting.

Well, I know that we have been moving slow for this new adoption but we are trying to space the girls out a bit so this way we really aren't pulling the hair out of our heads. Anyway, over the weekend we finally submitted our contract to our agency and our dossier prep fee. They received our packet today and now we are onto the paper chase. I ordered a birth certificate for me today and Keith is sending off for his tomorrow. Next week I am off of work so we are meeting with our homestudy to get that almost complete and I will be running around compiling our dossier. This time around everything looks like a breeze compared to Vietnam. Most likely we will have everything finished by mid-late March and have our paper work off to Ethiopia. It all seems real now.
Since our last post we have gotten all of Delylah's furniture for her room. We still need a few items to complete her room but all the furniture is in and it looks beautiful. We also painted so it is coming together nicely. This weekend we also worked on a playroom for the girls. Since Christmas Lennah's toys have taken over the house so we created a playroom/ guest bedroom. It was a guest bedroom that was one day going to be a gameroom but we figured it could be multi-functional for now. Once it is put together completely I will have to post a pic. We also figure that once the girls are a bit older and have sleep overs we can contain the mess in there because the girls could sleep and play in there and let the old folks sleep.
Well, now that the paper chase is on I will be probably posting more frequently.

Six Months and Friends from Nam

Six months ago today was the most amazing experience of our lives. It is hard to believe that six months ago today was our gothca day. I look back and think of how little Lennah was and how much she has changed. It is true they grow so fast. She says more and more words and has such a great understanding. She now says mama, dada, ba (Vietnamese for dad), cat, dog, cow, duck, dora (she just learned this one from Lilly), and occassionally we get some ones out of her that we only hear once. She also understands when we tell her to do something again, or when we tell her to do peek a boo and a bunch of other cute things. It is just awesome having her as our daugther, we truly are blessed and have to thank god every day for allowing us to be her parents.

Now, for the second part of my post. We had an awesome weekend. After months of communicating we finally got together with our CHI friends the Sereika's who adopted Lilly. If you go back and read older posts you will know that Lennah and Lilly were posted on the waiting child list the same day. Shortly after we started talking (Jamie and I) and became adoptive mom friends. We had hoped to travel to Vietnam with them but we were in the next group. So we planned a trip to go up to Gatlinburg, TN so we and the girls could meet. It was awesome and now we plan on making this an annual gig. The girls were so cute together. I had bought Lilly the same PJ's I bought Lennah for Christmas so they even matched. But it truly was a blast we took the girls to the aquarium and let them run around and Lilly taught Lennah about Dora this weekend. We have made some great friends through this adoption. Here are some pics of our weekend enjoy.

Oh I almost forgot two weeks ago we had lunch with several CHI families it was great. I am so glad to meet other families in the area. I am hoping that when their children come home we can also get together. It is wonderful to have that support post and pre adoption. It is also great for our children to be around other children who have been through their experiences.

Please Read

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just posted on Delylah's blog. I really would like all to read it. Although it is geared to outside the adoption community I would like all to keep the family that I mention in your thoughts and prayers tonight.