Twerp #4's home...

This is where Twerp #4 is living right now. These are the entrance gates to the Wenzhou SWI (Social Welfare Institute). I believe that in the SWI, there are places for both the children and the elderly who have no one to take care of them. In the CWI, that is just the Children's Welfare Institute and only children live there.

This is one of the playrooms where she is living. Man, those floors shine! They really take good care of their building. I'm so grateful to see that Twerp #4 has a nice, clean place to play with her friends. God has been good to her!

Drum Roll Please...

Last night on May 27th, we received Pre-Approval to adopt Huan Qin Li. Don't you just want to kiss that sweet face!

Her name will be Aaselia Ruth Huanqin Margala. Aaselia (pronounced Ah-seal-e-yah) is my Great-Grandmother's name. We chose Ruth because I love the story of Ruth in the Old Testament. Ruth leaves her home and travels to the home of her husbands family. There, she lives with her mother-in-law and says, "Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16. That is exactly what Huan Qin will do and I find the name so fitting.

I checked my email last night before we went to bed, but obviously we went to bed too early! We got our email of Pre-Approvel last night at 12:54 am! I gotta go and wake up Stephen...he doesn't even know yet! Horray for us!!!

Fun at a Graduation...

This weekend, my family is traveling a couple of hours to celebrate my cousin's graduation from High School. He was there for my graduation (as a 6 month old). Man, I'm feeling the wrinkles coming on! I'm sure that when I get there on Saturday I'll look like an old woman!

Anyways, I emailed my China facilitator, Sabrina, and asked if she had heard anything about our pre-approval. I'm just too darn excited to get her picture on my blog! I told her that I didn't want to be annoying, but that I was really excited to hear any sort of news. This is the email that I got from her:

Hi Michal,

I can tell your excitement and I was wondering how come you were so quiet lately. :)

I had been checking on your status daily. I had not gotten any update on the pre-approval yet from CCAA. As soon as I receive something, I will let you know. So far, I had not had any family being turned down. The pre-approval letter usually got approved in about 7-10 working days. So, I would assume that it would be late this week or early next week.

I have my first family who switched from NSN to SN program. Their LOI was submitted on 4/2/2009 and they just received their travel approval yesterday. That means they will be able to travel next month.

So, the total length is about 2 1/2 months from the beginning to travel time. So, this will give you some idea when you will be traveling to China and when you will have Huan Qin home. :)

Love, Sabrina


Our LOI was submitted on the 19th of May. Holy smokes! We might be able to go before our family reunion....or just after it's over! Come on, pre-approval, get here!

New Health Insurance anyone?

This youtube video makes me want to go right out and get new Health Insurance. I mean, what if this happened to one of my boys?!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rROvCnLu9hU

Enjoy!

Michal

Day 2

We're on Day 2 of waiting for our pre-approval. I've heard of people getting their PA within 7 days...hopefully that's the case for us. The same person also got their Letter of Approval (LOA) within 45 days. Again...maybe we could go to China earlier than anticipated if we get all our stuff that quickly! Here's to a speedy CCAA!!!

Journaling - Kindergarten Style...

I thought I'd share a couple of pages from Twerp #2's journal. She was journaling about our camping trip last weekend. Here goes (let's see if you can read it!)...

"laste weck on frida aftr i cam hom from scoll me and my Mom and Ishiah and Zachary and Dad wel Denice wotchis Drdey then me and my famley went on a trip to the mawtins. we pla shots and snacs. we went on two natshur wocs. Zachary fawnd two lade bugs. I fawnd a owinj lade bug. tha ar rar bey cus ther can bey owinj yellow or gren."

So much fun to understand how she hears the words in her head. Just in case you need a translation...

"Last week on Friday after I came home from school, me and my Mom and Isaiah and Zachary and Dad, while Denice watches Darby, then me and my family went on a trip to the mountains. We play chutes and snakes. We went on two nature walks. Zachary found two lady bugs. I found a orange lady bug. They are rare because they can be either orange, yellow or green."

She drew a couple pictures of our pop up trailer and the trees they were climbing. I love that she loves to write. Maybe I have a budding writer on my hands!

Application

We have been running around with getting current pictures and home study updates and fingerprints and medial applications to our adoption agency so that they can upload our application to the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). Our China coordinator works late hours so that she's working at the same time that the CCAA is open.

Late last night, after submitting a couple new family photos, we got an email at 11:33 pm. The email read:

Your application has been submitted successfully. :)

Congratulations!

Sabrina

She said in an earlier email that once our application has been submitted, we should hear back from the CCAA with a pre-approval in about 2 weeks. So the countdown officially begins! We've decided as a family that we're going to do something "special" at each point in our wait. After we get our pre-approval, we're going to go to get dessert at Ruby's on the end of the pier. Can't wait. So here's to our 14 day countdown! Hopefully we only have to wait a week...the kids can't wait to get their own chocolate malt.

Heart troubles...

So we went camping this weekend. I almost had a heart attack...but only after I snapped a couple of pictures just to prove that I had a good reason to have that heart attack. Stephen and I were setting up the pop up trailer. We could hear the kids down by the fire pit having a great time with some buddies that they'd made as soon (actually maybe before) we were parked. It seemed too good to be true. After a little while, I made my way the 20 feet to see what they were doing. This is what I found...

My baby was in a tree. It wasn't a little tree either. It was at least 40 feet off the ground.



I didn't want to scream at him to get down. I didn't want to freak him out so that he'd fall. So, in my calm "Oh Crap" voice I said, "Hey buddy, what are you doing?" Duh, like I couldn't figure that one out on my own!



"Hey, Mom! I'm way up here in this tree, isn't it cool!" And then, for effect, he tightly hung onto the trunk with both feet on either side and started to rock back and forth. Man, I almost needed a Depends!

"Mom, is it OK if I just sleep up here all weekend? The birds and I would be great friends!"

"No, buddy, it isn't OK. Daddy would be so lonely sleeping all by himself."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Let me know when it's time for smores!"

I spent most of the tree climbing weekend in the trailer reading...and waiting for any sign that Stephen would have to rush right up that tree to help out. I sure wasn't going up there! We love Dogwood campground and can't wait to get back!

Crooked Fingers...

Twerp #1 has some crooked fingers. I took him for his 8 yr. old checkup and the doctor asked if there was anything that I had any questions about..."Well, he has these crooked fingers..." Dr. Lin looked at them and then looked at me with HUGE eyes and low eyebrows. He took out his pen and started drawing the Twerps fingers on his paper. (See a visual of his crooked fingers here.)

Dr. Lin called a couple of days later to say that he'd spoken with a Rheumatologist and the official diagnosis is that "it's weird." Official, huh? Yeah, maybe we don't want to go with the "It's Weird" doctor. He said that with a child of 8, he should be seen by a Pediatric Hand Orthopedist. Where do you go to school to get that specialized?!? I can understand the Orthopedist part. Even the Pediatric Orthopedist. But the Pediatric Hand Orthopedist? Too detailed for me...although I'm glad they're around because this is exactly what the Twerp needs right now. It's getting hard for him to write at the end of the day. His fingers hurt. Besides, I don't want my kid having a "severe medial deviation of the middle finger" anymore. Sounds too ugly. So...we'll probably have some x-rays done tomorrow. Hopefully they won't have to break his fingers. Maybe we'll wait until school is out for that (if it has to be done). Ouch. Hopefully there's a "straighten your middle finger pill."

But for now, he's like the Sink Guy...Melmo...Uncle Keith. And there's nothing better than that, cause in the Margala household, we love Sink Guy.

What the heck!?!

So I saw this idea for dinner one day on the internet. Thought it'd be cool to try with the kiddos. I stuck a bunch of raw spaghetti through hot dog pieces. Fun enough in itself. Then, while the water was boiling, I hid them from the kids.

While the dogs were boiling, I told the kids that I had bought a "different kind of hot dog" and that it was gonna freak them out!

The kids found these on their plate. I had put butter on them - as best I could - and then sprinkled cheese on top. Twerp #2 thought that I had simply put the noodles to the edges and "glued" them with some syrup. Twerp #3 turned that one upside down when he bit through the middle and found the noodles inside the hot dog! Twerp #1 just thought about it for awhile and then said, "I know how you did it Mom!" He promised not to tell his brother and sister.

Beijing Time!

I've added a clock to my homepage where you can see the time in Beijing. No more time spent trying to figure out whether our daughter is sleeping or napping or playing with friends. Now we'll know with just a look!

I have to say that the Internet is amazing. Email is amazing. I've never thought about how long getting updated pictures would have taken before. You have to have 35mm film. You take the picture and then have to get it developed. Then, you'd have to mail the pictures 1/2 way around the world to an adoption agency. Then, they have to forward you the pictures. That would take a month! But with technology, we take a digital picture, upload it to our computer and email it away. 10 minutes tops!

When we're in China we're planning on using Skype to talk to the kids. Free. Again, how costly would that have been if we didn't have Internet. I can talk to our kids daily. They can see pictures of their sister. We can Skype to multiple people at once and talk to Grandparents, cousins, siblings...all with the touch of a button. I guess I'd better learn how to use that button before we head over there. It'll be one of my summer projects!