Jennifer is incredible. A couple of days ago she passed on some amazing information after meeting my sweet little QiQi on July 15th! I felt so indebted to her, and still do, her news made my heart sing! She mentioned that she was pretty sure she didn't have any photos of QiQi. And that was okay... I knew we'd be seeing her in 5 weeks, so I was okay with that. But then today, she was going through her photos from their heritage trip and guess what? YES! She found a picture of my baby girl!!
Oh my goodness. I could hardly contain myself. QiQi is simply adorable. You have no idea how badly we want to hold our girl.
Just look at her, she is so intrigued with whatever is happening on that camera - I suspect the gentleman is possibly showing her a movie he's taken or some pictures. A camera though... seriously? Someone is already doing the ground work for me, getting her used to the big black dslr!
Oh my heart is full. QiQi, I love you... more than I can even comprehend right now.
Today your big sister looked at this new picture longingly, and said: "Mama...no more pictures! I want her for real."
Her words made my heart stop. How I wish the same. Very soon it will be 'for real' and it can't come soon enough.
I adore her little pink dress and the little jade necklace she's wearing and touching. So very special.
And I'm so very thankful for people, like this gentleman, taking a minute to stop with my girl and show her some kindness.
It means the world to me.
I received this message, this morning, from one of the Moms on the Yahoo group I joined for Phebe's SWI.
(I may have cried)
There are times when our daughter just feels like a dream and then this little piece of reality is thrown my way. So amazing.
I feel so grateful towards this Mom for messaging me and for her children, playing with my little girl.
(I might just be crying again)
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Jill,
We just returned home from a heritage tour in China. We were able to visit the ChangDe SWI & MET YOUR DAUGHTER! She is so cute. My daughters (ages 11 & 8) played with her. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of her. We heard all about how she is on her way to Canada! ;0) My daughters wanted to take her home to Florida with us. She is so cute & sweet!
Congrats!
Jennifer
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Today, Monday, I did a little spot check on the weather Phebe is currently experiencing in Changde. I couldn't help but notice how similiar today's weather is to our own! We both had thunderstorms today! Ottawa is 31 degrees, Changde is 32 degrees! But the humidity, I think 55% feels rough, so I can't even imagine what 85% feels like. Yikes!
On another weather related note, Beijing got some crazy floods this past weekend. Thinking about all these families that have lost loved ones... and praying that our little Phebe will be kept safe over the next month until we are able to travel and hold her.
While we've been celebrating the arrival of our Letter Seeking Confirmation this past week, I felt that QiQi should also be celebrating with us. So last week we had a care package with a cake sent to our sweet little girl through 'Gifts to China with Love'.
We got a little note from the SWI yesterday saying how happy they are to get the news that QiQi will be adopted in September.
I haven't gotten any pictures yet, but today we got an update on our little girl, which I love! My favorite part is that she smiles to her friends! You can not believe how excited I am to see that smile on her precious little face.
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height: 83cm
weight: 10kg
feet length: 13cm
teeth: 8 up & 7 down
QiQi gets up at 6:30am, takes a nap for 1 to 2 hours and goes to bed at 8pm. She sleeps well.
She is not picky for food. She will have 150ml milk before go to bed and after wake up.
She is an introvert girl, she is shy.
She lives in the orphanage.
She can say Mama, Baba, GerGer (brother).
She will smile to her friends.
She can climb up the floors (stairs) by herself.
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We are going to China!!
The flights are booked for all three of us... and four on the way home! We're going to be a family of four! Wow!
We leave at 11am on Wednesday 5th September, fly Ottawa-Toronto-Beijing. We arrive in Beijing on Thursday 6th September at 4:05pm. We get a few days to adjust, then fly to Changsha, Hunan and our Forever Phebe Day is on Monday 10th September! Which happens to be this day 8 weeks!
EEKS! ...I'm SO excited! We all are!!
My head has been spinning this past week. Signing our letter seeking confirmation. Figuring out our travel dates, because we want to leave for China a few days earlier to help adjust Lilah to the time difference and jetlag! And just the euphoria of knowing we will have our little Phebe in our arms soon.
So incredible!
I just want to stop and take a moment, as I have done so many times this past week... and thank my Heavenly Father.
Thank you God.
For giving us another beautiful girl to love.
For allowing us to bring her home, just before her 2nd birthday.
For Your perfect timing in everything.
You have answered my prayers... and more.
I have absolutely fallen in love with this sweet little girl, my daughter. I feel immeasurably blessed to call her our daughter.
God is so good - always.
I don't wear jewellery much. But while I miss my Phebe girl, I had this necklace
made by eclectic wendy designs on Etsy, so I can wear her name close to me.
our little family
C ♥ J
LILAH
PHEBE
Oh my favourite three letters in the whole wide world!
It arrived today, day 119! And we are over-the-moon excited! I mean, REALLY excited!
Finally, the count down is on!
We will be travelling to get our sweet little QiQi on either the 6th or 7th of September!
We'll have our baby girl home just in time to celebrate her 2nd birthday on October 1st.
SO incredibly blessed.
If you know me well enough, you'll know I have a tiny obsession with hair accessories! Lilah has more hair clips than I care to acknowledge, and the great thing is that Phebe can share these hair clips with her big sister!
However, her name is not Lilah and since Lilah has quite a few personalized hair clips... well, it only seems fair that Phebe should have her own collection too! I am slowly building it up... as we speak!
Personalization however, it not my biggest dilemma right now. Looking at the most recent pictures of our beautiful Phebe girl, I'm afraid she's subject to the good old buzz cut! Ahh yes. How hard is that for this Mama that loves hair and hair accessories! I know the SWI have a very good reason for this though, so I totally understand. Anyway, all that being said, it looks like my littlest monkey will be needing a few extra teeny tiny baby hair clips.
I'm working on it, well Etsy is! What would I do without Etsy?
I can still hardly believe that I've been blessed with another daughter. Thank you Lord.
100 days waiting, praying, anticipating...
We've been waiting for our Letter Seeking Confirmation for 100 days now - in some ways it feels like a lifetime and yet in some ways it feels like yesterday when we first saw our little QiQi's face. I thought it would be easier this time, the waiting I mean, simply because we have our Lilah girl and she is a pretty huge distraction. Although this is true to some degree, I also feel like a mother already, to QiQi, and I'm having a really hard time living without her.
We had a super exciting moment this week when our agency called at 8am, their name showed up on our call display and my husband grabbed it in full anticipation of hearing the letters LSC!! However, it wasn't the case - our coordinator was just calling to say that some paperwork for the immigration process had arrived. Oh well. Our time will come. Originally, we were told (by our coordinator) that we should expect the LSC by approxmately mid-July... but of course, the optimist in me wants to believe that it will come sooner than that.
After LSC, it's about 6-8 weeks until travel. We're looking at around September timeframe, I imagine.
“May the love hidden deep inside your heart find the love waiting in your dreams. May the laughter that you find in your tomorrow wipe away the pain you find in your yesterdays.” ~unknown
I really haven't much to do for the arrival of Phebe Jayne.
Since Lilah moved into her new bedroom last summer, the nursery has been left 'as is'. I bought a few new things, of course!
In fact, Lilah and I went to IKEA last Saturday for a little lunch date and shop. We found this cute little push toy for Phebe - shown in the photo below. A funny situation happened when we were there. I had picked up a few things for Phebe and something for Lilah too, however, as we were standing deciding over this toy for Phebe, Lilah said to me... "It's all about Phebe now, isn't it?" Of course, I took it that Lilah was feeling a bit offended about it being 'all about Phebe' and I really didn't want her feeling that way, so I was trying to play down the fact that everything was all about Phebe and that we love her (Lilah) so much and explained that before she came home from China, we also talked about her all the time and bought her lots of things too... blah blah blah... you know how when you go into a bit of panic mode, you overtalk, well that was me! Anyway, by the time I came up for air, Lilah was looking at me like I was a crazy lady! She calmly replied, "But I want it to be all about Phebe, because I have enough toys."
Oh my, she is going to be an awesome big sister. Of course, I told her that too - I told her that was a very kind way to think about her Mei Mei.
It's June already!
While we wish for you and wait for you, today you turned 20 months old.
We simply cannot wait to meet you and learn more about you, sweet girl.
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God has perfect timing; never early, never late.
It takes a little patience and it takes a lot of faith.
But it’s worth the wait. ~unknown
The only thing different from these two pictures, taken 3 months apart?
A jacket (or two!) and a set of very cute chubby cheeks!
Our beautiful girl sure is growing, and if it's even possible, she looks sweeter than ever!
I was reading the Choice Gleanings calendar this past week and felt so encouraged by the verse and comments the author had touched on in Tuesday's gleanings. Sometimes I forget that the Lord is walking with me, he's right beside me and he has feelings just as I have feelings. There are days that I feel emotional and worry about my daughter, and it never really struck me before that the Lord has a very real compassion and He feels for us... for ME... as I wait for my daughter. I felt encouraged, and I felt a strength to know that Lord has compassion on my daughter too. In fact, He's looking after QiQi and me in the exact same moment in time - He's omnipresent and feeling for both of us in our different emotions and situations, that's how incredible He is.
For we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities... Hebrews 4:15
We constantly read about the Lord's compassion. He had compassion on the multitudes because they were as sheep having no shepherd. He had compassion on the possessed and diseased and healed them. But the compassion of the Saviour continues even as He sits in heaven. We read that as our great High Priest He can be "touched." What a comfort to know that the Lord feels with us, and for us, and that He fully understands what we are going through.
