Birthday report from Sarah's foster mother

Sarah Mei's Foster Mom wrote this report.
"Sarah Mei had her first birthday this month! We were all very happy. Though she had a party at the foster home, we wanted to celebrate at home. We bought her a birthday cake, and some of our family came with birthday gifts to celebrate with us. Sarah Mei was so excited. She was clapping her little hands to welcome our guests. Now that she's one, she is learning many things. She moves very quickly in her walker, and it won't be long before she starts walking, as she's already doing it in her crib. She is also very watchful and pays attention to everything that's going on. She loves to be held by me. When I try to put her into her crib, she holds onto my neck, looking into my eyes and "asking" not to be put down. When it is time to come out of the crib, Sarah Mei is very happy, kissing my cheeks and smiling broadly. She makes me so happy and fills our home with laughter. Sarah Mei's health is very good now. She has 5 teeth, so she eats more solid foods. She is very proud of the fact that she can eat by herself. We are so happy to see Sarah Mei making so much progress, and we wish a very happy 2nd year!"

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

I sent a birthday care package a couple of weeks ago to make sure it arrived at New Day by March 29 (Sarah's first birthday). It got there in a week and a half and we promptly received pictures of Sarah opening her gifts. We sent a talking phone that sings the alphabet, numbers, etc., Tadoodles crayons and a coloring book, a DK word book, and a new pink dress. We also sent Easter candy to share with the kids at the foster home. I have mixed emotions about her birthday. I'm glad she got the gifts, but at the same time I'm sad that she has reached this milestone without us. We're glad that this will be the last birthday without her family!

P.S. Sarah is now wearing a new "lightweight" spring snowsuit! :)

Kindness of strangers

Yesterday I was checking my email and decided to clean out my "junk" folder when I saw the post, "Beautiful Sarah." I immediately clicked on the post and got a wonderful email from a "cyber" friend who is currently in Beijing with her husband and adopted Chinese daughter. They are staying in China for the whole month of March and visited New Day Foster Home on March 15. While they were there, they took 42 (!!!) pictures of Sarah for us! I didn't know that she was going to take pictures, so this was an unexpected and pleasant surprise for us! And we finally have a couple of pictures with her coat off! :) The first picture is Sarah with her foster mom and the last two are Sarah with L. and her daughter.

She has teeth!

Grandma P. decided she wanted to send a care package, too! She sent Sarah 2 dresses, a shirt and pants outfit, a book, and a stuffed animal. Here are pictures of Sarah with these gifts. Her foster mother dresses her very warmly, so most pictures we have of her she is wearing this "snowsuit." It's a nice snowsuit, but we'd like to see her arms and legs at some point, too! :) However, we are grateful that Sarah is so well taken care of! We like this picture because she looks so happy and you can see her two front teeth!

Cool blog banner!

Thanks to my good friend Ferrill who not only designed the cute blog banner but also came over to my house to help me get it installed! Thank you, Ferrill!

Hey, this must be my family!

Exactly two weeks after I sent the first care package, we received an email from New Day that simply said, "pictures of Sarah." I had been stalking my email for several days waiting to hear if the package had arrived, and suddenly, there it was!

It was so fun to see Sarah looking at the photo albums we sent. She seems to be very interested and intent on looking at the pictures! We hope these pictures will help her make connections with us and recognize us when we go pick her up. The sweet lady in the picture is her foster mother. I wanted to get something for her, too, but wasn't sure what to get. I asked some of my cyber friends and finally decided on some lotions from Bath and Body Works. These are supposed to be a big hit.

Next care package I am sending Easter candy. American chocolate bunnies and jelly beans should be something new and different. And I must say, Sarah already has beautiful clothes! Check out the adorable red boots!

February update

We were thrilled to get Sarah's February photo. Her foster mother wrote a sweet report about her and how she celebrated Chinese New Year. At the time, she was nicknamed "Emma" by New Day Foster Home.
"Time flies and here comes the year 2008. On Chinese New Year's Eve, I dressed Emma in new clothes, a New Year's tradition. We all had fun celebrating the arrival of the New Year. That night, Emma was extremely excited. Usually she goes to bed around eight p.m., but since it was a special night, she stayed up with the rest of the family. She watched the New Year's TV special and "helped" make the traditional dumplings. Emma is doing a great job standing up, and she always wants to help out. She talks all the time, though we're not sure what all she has to say yet! She is in good health, and she is gaining weight each month. She loves to be cuddled, which I love too. When she's in my arms, she gives me hugs and kisses me. She giggles all the time, and it makes me so happy."

Retail therapy

After we received PA (preliminary approval) to adopt Sarah from CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs), I emailed the director of New Day to introduce myself! She was so helpful and kind and said we could start sending care packages!
So I got right to work on this task! I went shopping in the "pink" section for the first time ever for my own child! It was actually pretty overwhelming and more emotional than I had anticipated. But it was definitely FUN, especially since the stores were just putting out Easter dresses and spring outfits.
So here are pictures of some of the things we sent to Sarah. We are saving the white dress for when she comes home! We also sent 2 photo albums so she could see pictures of us, her brothers, her grandparents, her house, her room, etc. We hope these pictures will help her get to know us a little better and maybe recognize us when we pick her up.

New Day Foster Home

Sarah's file did not have very much information, but it did say that she had been transferred to New Day Foster Home in Beijing. I didn't know what this meant at the time, but it turned out to be a huge blessing. About a week after we had sent our letter of intent (LOI) to adopt, I stumbled across an adoption blog that had a link to New Day Foster Home. The name rang a bell, so I clicked on it and found a wonderful website (in English) that explained all about New Day and the children who live there.
I started frantically searching through the pictures of the babies and after a few minutes, I found Sarah! She was nicknamed "Emma" at the time, but I could tell it was her even though her picture was more recent than the ones in her file.
This discovery really changed everything. We had been praying to know our little one was safe and happy. I specifically wanted to see more recent pictures of her and to be reassured she was doing well. We were also wondering if she had already had surgery on her cleft lip and were hopeful that it had been successful. All of our questions were answered when we found the New Day website.
Our prayers have been answered so completely regarding Sarah and we are very grateful that she is affiliated with such a wonderful foster home! I am able to email the director of New Day whenever I have questions and they send us regular updates. We can also send care packages and they send us pictures of Sarah with the things we send. This amount of information is very unusual for a Chinese adoption, and is an answer to our prayers. Miracles happen every day!

First file photos

First glimpses of our daughter

I had been searching waiting child lists for several months and we were getting pretty discouraged. It seemed that when we expressed interest in a child we were "too late" or not far enough in our paperwork to be matched.
One January afternoon I had just about given up in frustration when I pulled up AAC's website and saw that they were downloading four new waiting children. I was immediately drawn to a tiny picture of a baby girl in pink. I grabbed the phone and called the agency to find out more about her and requested her file.
Sarah is considered a "special need" adoption because she was born with a minor cleft lip. Her lip has already been repaired in Beijing. Because of this special need, we are able to bring her home much more quickly! We knew she was meant to be ours and sent our letter of intent (LOI) to adopt the day after we received her file!

Our Family

This is the picture we used in our dossier and sent to Sarah at New Day Foster Home.