When Half Your Heart is Half a World Away

Dear Vivi -

The last picture of you that we received is just beautiful.  You are so cute, and you keep getting cuter all the time.  It was definitely the last picture that we will receive before we meet you in person.

We hope it's soon, because we can't wait to hug this girl.

We signed our Letter of Acceptance.  We got so excited that we had it delivered to Daddy's work and he brought it to Mommy's and we signed it right away so we could send it right back to our agency.  (Sorry to our respective places of business for taking a few minutes out of our days to do this!)

You are ours, Vivi.  The letter proves it.

What we didn't know was how difficult the process of adopting you would be.  Not the paperwork, although that's been a big chore.  Not the wait for the Letter of Acceptance, although that was l-o-n-g. What has been the most difficult has been watching you grow up over the past year without us.

From the minute we saw your face, we knew that you were our daughter.  And we knew that we wouldn't have you for months and months.  But we didn't know that half of our hearts would take up residence in a Chinese city where our baby girl was rapidly becoming a big girl.

It's been challenging, maybe even more so now that the light is at the end of the tunnel.  We just want to go already, and bring you home!  We want to get to know the little person behind the big eyes and contagious smile.

We know we will be there soon, but until then we wait - sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently until we can get you and put our hearts back together!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

L.O.A.

Dear Vivi,

One day you will learn your letters.  We will sing the alphabet together, your brother will teach you to do it backwards, and you'll start to learn all about how to put letters together to make words or create abbreviations.

Here's your first lesson on the value of putting three little letters together.  Apart, these letters don't mean much.  Together, they signify a hugely critical step on our journey to you.

These letters don't mean much outside of the adoption community.  Once you're a part of the adoption community, however, they mean the world.

They mean that the Chinese Center for Children's Welfare and Affairs has approved us to adopt you.

Letter. Of. Acceptance.

Tomorrow, we will receive this L.O.A. from our adoption agency.  It formally asks us if we want to adopt you.  Once we sign that letter, you are ours. Officially.  No turning back.  And no one can take you away. Ever.

The countdown also begins once we mail that document back to the agency, which we will do tomorrow along with your immigration documents..  It means that we will come and get you most likely in the next 10-14 weeks.  That means we'll have you by the end of the year, and that we'll most likely be traveling over Thanksgiving or Christmas to get you.

In a post from last Christmas, I mentioned that we told Micah and Liam that there would probably be one more Christmas without you.  Now we have hope that you will be here with us as we celebrate Christmas together.  Which would lead to three more letters that, not so coincidentally, spell one of your middle names

J.O.Y.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

So Blessed

Dear Vivi -

I feel like I say this a lot, but you are so blessed.  One day when you're older, maybe we'll be able to explain it to you so that you will understand how much people already love you and are waiting for you and praying for you - and helping us bring you home.

The puzzle fundraiser is closed, the statistics are in, and they are astounding.

• 114 - number of people or families participating
• More than 20 - number of different ways we are connected to all the people that gave, including complete strangers, family, coworkers, former coworkers, lifelong friends, family members of friends, and our church families
• From 1 to 100 - the number of pieces given in one donation
• 33 - the most number of donations made in one day (when Derek Maul wrote about our journey to you on his blog)
• $5,965 - the amount of money raised through the website
• $1,660 - the amount of money people handed us in checks or cash to buy puzzle pieces

And the totals are...

• 1,525 pieces sold
• $7,625 raised to help bring you home

I have never claimed to be a math genius, but even I know that we oversold by having sold 1,525 pieces on a 1,000 piece puzzle.  We did this because we had so many people who purchased large numbers of pieces tell us to please only write their name on one and sell the rest so we could make more money, so we took their advice.  Everyone who contributed to the puzzle will have their name written on at least one piece.  We are also putting a book together so that we will have the puzzle for you and a book you can read one day so you can see not only the names of all the people that purchased a puzzle piece, but how they know us, along with any comments they made on the website or cards/notes that they sent with their donations.

Why all of this meticulous notetaking?  We know that this won't mean anything to you for quite some time. You are still so little, and the next months and years of your life will be spent focused on exactly what they should be focused on - learning, healing, bonding, growing, laughing, talking, being part of our family, being a little girl.

But the day will come when you will want to know your story, when you will want to know about your history and how you came to live with us.  We keep these notes for that day.  We want you to know who they are because without these people, you would not be coming home to us. They are part of our story and now they are part of yours.  Forever. 

One day, we'll get to tell you the story.  It's a long one, but Vivi, it's one of the most beautiful stories you will ever know.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy