Our Family's Journey: Christmas Day 2011

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas Day 2011

After opening up presents at home, we all get ready and headed over to Mamaw Justice's house where we saw Wai-gong, Uncle Steven, Uncle Josh & Amanda, Aunt Amy, Tyler, Aunt Jessica & Adam. Then we headed over to Wai-gong & Wai-po's house in Rockledge to have Christmas Lunch/dinner. Food was good, but Kaylyn was still running fever so her and I stayed up in an upstairs bedroom most of the time...poor baby...no way to spend Christmas week!

Ashlyn in the morning ready to open presents from Santa

Kaylyn in the morning ready to open presents from Santa

Ashlyn after opening all her Christmas presents

Mommy showing off her bling that the girls got her from the Christmas Shoppe at school

The cat in the box...she kept chasing her tail around and around while in the box

Kaylyn loving her new American Girl Doll, Kanani (you can just see she's miserable in the eyes...poor baby!)

Scout with his bone from his stocking (Santa answered Kaylyn's wish)

Run, Scout, run

Uncle Steven & Aunt Jessica

Mamaw

Me & Kaylyn

Wai-gong

Cousin Tyler

Christmas dinner around the table at Wai-gong & Wai-po's house

Uncle Tim & Mamaw

Aunt Jessica

Wai-po

Ashlyn & Wai-po (Ashlyn enjoying her new camera that Santa got her)

Aunt Demi & Uncle Tim

Mamaw

Wai-gong

Tommy & Aunt Arrietta

Grandma & Grandpa Drago

Adam & Aunt Jessica

Shyanne & Grandpa Drago

Aunt Arrietta & Riley

Taylor (a.k.a. Tay-Tay)

Grandma Drago & Wai-gong

Kaylyn with her new Girls Rule Skateboard from Wai-gong & Wai-po

Kaylyn & Ashlyn opening up more Christmas presents

Update on Kaylyn day after Christmas:

We just got back from urgent care since the doctor's office was closed today and we were told to go to the doctor's if Kaylyn's fever had not broke by this morning. They think it's still the pneumonia and it's not breaking up, so they gave her a shot on each side of her backside with something that should help break it up. Also, they put her an augmentin (sp?) which will be her third antibiotic in 9 days, so I bought some children's pro biotic also. Hoping that this will be it and she'll be better by tonight with those shots and the new antibiotic! We go back to Tampa tomorrow to get Ashlyn's bandages off and we would like Kaylyn to be better so she can hold her cousin...she was so upset last week when we stayed with my sister and she couldn't even be in the same room with her cousin who is 6 months old :-(

2 comments:

Joe SewellDecember 27, 2011 at 12:57 AM
Prayin' for Kaylyn. I thank God Joy hasn't caught the gunk. (Oh, by the way, Alan Broadwell was at our church for Christmas Eve. He looks like he's doing extremely well!)

When you get the chance (yeah, right), you m ight want to recheck some of the captions. You labeled yourself "Mamaw" in a picture with you & Kaylyn (I assume "Mamaw" is another name for a grandmother), and a bearded guy Wai-gong.
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JenniferDecember 27, 2011 at 4:27 PM
I fixed the one where I put me as mamaw, but the bearded guy is wai-gong...there are two wai-gong's in my family (Chinese for maternal grandfather). Thanks for the prayers!
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Ashlyn

is an adorable 13 year old girl who has overcome VSD. She had surgery when she was 2 years old to correct this heart defect and God put it in our heart to reach out to her and take her in to be our daughter. Kaylyn was excited about getting a younger sister (even if it's only 6.5 months younger). We couldn't wait to go to China to get her and bring her home so that we could be her forever family. Since being back, we have learned that she has had other special needs like infundibulum of the right ventricle, a submucous cleft palate, and a cholesteatoma with hearing loss. We take it day by day and we wouldn't want it any other way! She is a joy to everyone who meets her and God has very special plans for her.

Our Adoption Timeline

12/5/2009 - Travel back home

12/3/2009 - Oath-taking ceremony

11/24/2009 - Adoption is finalized with China

11/23/2009 - Gotcha Day...meeting Ashlyn

11/19/2009 - Travelling to China to pick up Ashlyn!

11/11/2009 - Mommy, Daddy, & Kaylyn getting 2nd Hep A shot. Done with immunizations.

11/5/2009 - Received Travel Approval (TA) (~ 42 days from Article 5 or ~ 87 days from LSC)

9/24/2009 - Article 5 is approved and paperwork is being sent to CCAA. (~15 days)

9/9/2009 - I800 paperwork was sent from the State Department's National Visa Center to China. (~ 13 days)

9/8/2009 - Received our Passports with the Visas in the mail. (~ 19 days)

9/3/2009 - Sent Ashlyn her second care package from Ann at Red Thread.

8/27/2009 - I800 was approved. (~ 13 days)

8/20/2009 - Sent off passports and paperwork to get Visas.

8/14/2009 - Our signed LSC and DS-230 paperwork was sent to China today and USCIS received our paperwork today

8/13/2009 - Sent the I800 and I864W along with all the proper paperwork to USCIS

8/12/2009 - Sent the signed LSC and DS-230 application to GWCA

8/10/2009 - Received Letter Seeking Confirmation (LSC) through agency (~59 days)

7/20/2009 - Received the updated I-797C letter from USCIS and emailed copy to GWCA (~ 17 days)

7/19/2009 - Received updated pictures and measurements for Ashlyn.

7/10/2009 – Sent care package for Ashlyn XiangLing to China. Sent to Ann at Red Threads to send out to the proper place

7/3/2009 – Sent paperwork to USCIS to get updated Approval Letter I-797C

7/2/2009 - Received updated Homestudy update correction in the mail

6/25/2009 - Received updated Homestudy in mail and found mistake with age range, so it had to be re-done

6/17/2009 – Signed the Homestudy Update Agreement

6/12/2009 – Received Pre-Approval (PA) letter from China for Xiang Ling and our dossier would go into the procedure for adoption of special need children. (~ 8 days)

6/5/2009 – Learned what Xiang Ling’s name means:

XIANG:From Chinese 翔 "to soar", 祥 "auspicious, lucky" or 香 "fragrant" (which is usually only feminine).

LING: From Chinese 灵 "alert, quick" or 铃 "bell, chime".

HUANG: From Chinese 煌 "bright"

6/4/2009 – Got more passport photos so that we could send color copies to GWCA for our LOI package & LOI was officially sent to China

6/3/2009 – We locked in Xiang Ling’s file to put together our Letter of Intent (LOI) and Waiting Child LOI Referral Agreement

6/1/2009 – Xiang Ling’s file was pulled for us

5/27/2009 – Another shared list came out and we saw a little girl named Huang Xiang Ling, age 6, on the list. We did not see the list till Saturday 5/30/2009 because we were on our 4th Disney cruise. We emailed GWCA and asked to see Xiang Ling’s file.

5/15/2009 – Mommy & Daddy got 3rd Hep B vaccine and Mommy, Daddy, & Kaylyn got 1st Hep A vaccine

4/8/2009 – Dossier Log in Date (LID) (~19 days)

3/20/2009 – Great Wall China Agency approved dossier and sent dossier to China

3/18/2009 – Sent completed dossier to Great Wall China Agency with next day delivery

3/17/2009 – Received the authenticated document from Los Angeles Chinese Consulate (~ 14 days)

3/15/2009 – Gathered pictures and created the lifestyle pages for the dossier and obtained our passport photos for the dossier

3/14/2009 – Received the authenticated documents from Houston Chinese Consulate (~ 12 days)

3/3/2009 – Sent the New Mexico document to Los Angeles to be authenticated by the Chinese consulate

3/2/2009 – Sent the Florida documents to Houston to be authenticated by the Chinese consulate. Received the certified document from the state of New Mexico (~ 7 days)

2/28/2009 – Received the certified documents from the state of Florida (~5 days)

2/23/2009 – Sent all Florida documents to Tallahassee for Certification & sent my birth certificate to New Mexico for Certification

2/20/2009 – Received I-797C Approval Letter (~30 days)

2/13/2009 – Approval for I-800A

2/10/2009 – Biometrics for I-800A

1/21/2009 – USCIS received I-800A

1/16/2009 – Completed the course With Eyes Wide Open and received 4 hours of Hague training (this completes our 10+ hours of Hague training)

1/14/2009 – Home Study complete and received

12/29/2008 – Home Study home visit

12/23/2008 – Mommy & Daddy received 2nd Hep B vaccine

12/8/2008 – Completed the course The Journey of Attachment and received 2 hours of Hague training

12/1/2008 – Completed the course Medical Issues in International Adoption and received 2.5 hours of Hague training

11/30/2008 – Completed the course Conspicuous Families: Race, Culture, and Adoption and received 1.5 hours of Hague training

11/25/2008 – Mommy & Daddy received 1st Hep B vaccine. Attended a China Adoption Waiting Child Webinar and received 2 hours of Hague training

11/24/2008 – Signed adoption agreement and paid 1st adoption fee. Received our birth certificates & marriage license

11/22/2008 – Attended Great Wall China Seminar