Louder than Words

Dear Vivi -

One of the barriers we know that we will face when you first join our family is the language barrier.  You will have heard mostly Mandarin growing up, of which we will be lucky to know a few basic words.  We will speak words of love to you in English, and we will hope that our tone will speak better than the words you will not understand.

But sometimes pictures speak louder than words, and this one overwhelms us.

It has been eight days since we started our puzzle fundraiser to help bring you home, and 258 pieces have already been sponsored!!  That means that we are more than 1/4 of the way to having every piece sponsored and meeting our fundraising goal.

Thank you seems inadequate, and yet sometimes the simplest form of expression fits the best.  So we say thank you.  258 times.

So many different people have contributed.  So far, 26 different families have contributed, representing people from all different times in our lives.  It has been beyond touching to see so many donate to give you a new life with us.

The people that have donated will be etched forever, not just on the backs of these puzzle pieces, but in our hearts as well.  We promise you will know them, and they will be a familiar part of your story.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

If you would like to donate, please go to www.youcaring.com/bringingvivihome to participate.

The Only Piece Missing Is You

This is a different kind of post.

We're not going to write  a letter to Vivi on this one, but instead reach out to those who have expressed an interest in helping to bring our daughter home.

Many people have been following our journey to adopt.  Now that our paperwork has been formally logged-in in China, we are getting so close to being able to get on the plane and go to get our daughter.  But as we've mentioned before, adoption is very expensive and we're looking to raise some additional funds we need with your help.

We have created a unique opportunity for you to be a part of Vivi's journey home.  With the help of a fantastic puzzle site called Venus Puzzle, we have created a 1,000 piece puzzle and are looking for people to sponsor one (or more!) pieces.  Each piece can be sponsored for $5, so we're hoping to raise $5,000 through this puzzle. Your name or your family's name will be written on the back of the puzzle piece(s) you sponsor, therefore creating a record of all of our friends and family who helped to bring our girl home.

You can read more about the puzzle fundraiser here. Thanks to Venus Puzzle, who graciously donated our puzzle, 100% of the proceeds will go towards Vivi's adoption.  We hope that you'll consider donating, and maybe posting a link on your blog or Facebook feed to encourage others as well. You can use the link https://www.youcaring.com/bringingvivihome.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and your prayers and love for our family.  We're getting close to raising the funds we need to bring Vivi home to her forever family.  The only piece missing is you.

With love and gratitude,
Kelly and Tim

Logged In!!

Dear Vivi -

We got the big news yesterday: according to the CCCWA, we are LID!!  (This is code-speak for the Chinese government saying that they have received our dossier, processed it, and accepted it.)

But what it really means to us is that we are one huge step closer to you officially being our daughter and no longer an orphan.

We know that there are still many more steps to come.  We need to get our Letter of Acceptance from China, we need to get your Visa, we need to get Travel Approval, we need to fill out more paperwork, etc.  It only took one week for us to get the log-in date, something we were told would take 3-4 weeks.  It's our hope that the remaining steps take less time than predicted as well.

December 1.  That has been our goal all along - to have you back with your family by your 2nd birthday.  It's still a real possibility, and we're not afraid to pray that God will help this to happen.

Not getting any updates on you, despite two requests being sent, has been really hard.  We are desperately wanting to know what the doctors say about you and see how you've changed in the last five months, so this news is a welcome ray of light in an otherwise dark time of communication.

We hope our first care package arrived, and are sending another one soon.  It's a book of pictures of your family so that you'll know us when we finally meet.  We're sending it with lots of love and hope and faith that we will soon be real people to you, and not just pictures on a page.

Love,
Mommy & Daddy

Holding Out Hope

Dear Vivi -

When is a non-update actually an update?  When you have so many things to say and no reason to say them!

That's where we are now, wishing and hoping for you.  We have had no update since we were sent your file for our consideration.  You did indeed have an awesome file - up-to-date, lots of pictures, test results galore, etc. - but maybe that set the bar too high.  Maybe it left us wanting more of you that we cannot yet have.

But we don't want you to think that we have forgotten about you during the days that you are not with us.  We talk about you all the time.  When we celebrated Mother's Day a few weeks ago, Daddy got Mommy this:

It's a beautiful collage of our children.  And see who's right there in the midst of her brothers?  You.

Mommy took this picture on your bed, in your room.  The stuffed giraffe was made by Uncle Matt's girlfriend Katie.  You're going to love them.  Mommy made the book to send to you so that you would know what we looked like when we finally finally come to get you. We didn't forget about you.

We just got back from a family vacation, hopefully the last one we will have without you.  But we missed you.  Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop bought you a dress, and we talked about what it will be like next year when there are four children, not three.  We didn't forget about you.

Mommy devoured a book on adoption while we were away, reading all about the joys and challenges we may face when you come home, things that we need to prepare for to make your entrance into our family go the smoothest that it possibly can.  We're reading all kinds of things so that we can be ready to take care of you, and to meet your needs.  We didn't forget about you.

We sent the last of our paperwork out to get authenticated by the Chinese Consulate in Houston.  Once we get those two precious documents back, hopefully this week, we will send them to the agency, and the agency will send everything to China.  One step closer to you.

Vivi, we know that one day, probably about a year from now, we will laugh together as a family of five about how long this process took and how it seemed like FOREVER until we could come get you.  When that time comes, we won't remember the pain of not having you, only the joy of having you.

In the meantime, we wait.  Some days we're patient, some days we're not.  (Well, Daddy is always patient.  Mommy?  Not so much. But you'll learn that too.)  We know we keep coming back to faith, but it's the only thing we have right now.  We have faith that God is watching out for you while we can't. We have faith that he is providing for your needs when we can't.  We have faith that his hand has been and will continue to be in each and every step of this process.

So while we wait, we do lots of things.  We pray. We hope. We trust. We love.  But we do not ever forget about you.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

The Promise of Pink

Dear Vivi -

I want to start off this letter by telling you how much I love your brothers.  Getting to be the mom of their smushy, crazy boy-ness has been a highlight of my life.  I was so grateful that Liam was a boy so that he and Micah could have each other growing up.

I love to watch them tumble together, play cars together, dress up like pirates, and build countless train sets.  They love fire trucks and ambulances and tractors and helicopters and monster trucks and anything that moves, and consequently I have learned to love these things too - because they do.

But I am looking forward to you.  To adding a touch of pink in our mostly blue lives. (Liam's favorite color is pink so we're not all blue.)  Having a little girl around to bring a different kind of joy to our already joy-filled lives.  People have given us some beautiful dresses and I loved finally shopping for girl things at the big yard sale yesterday.

Having said all that, I'm totally prepared for you to be a tomboy.  To follow your brothers as they tromp through dirt and throw mulch and play cars and mess up their clothes and climb things and giggle their way through life. And that will be totally fine with me.

But Vivi, I have to warn you - you'll be the prettiest dressed tomboy on the playground.

Love,
Mommy

Preparing

To Vivi -

We did some spring cleaning today.  We're preparing for Pop-Pop to come visit tomorrow, but we're also preparing for you, and helping your brothers understand that the room that will be yours isn't going to be their play room anymore!

The best way to do that was to start cleaning it out and build the bed.  So Liam and Daddy took on that task.

 

Building a bed can be hard work!

Liam gave your mattress a kiss before we put it on your bed.

Daddy tested out the finished product. I think he liked it.  Micah and Liam thought it worked better as an airport runway and a road.

Silly faces from your silly brothers.

Trying out your new bed.  The only face missing is yours, Vivi!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Waiting

To Vivi -

We are finally getting to the part of the process to get to you where we have little to no control over the timetable of when things happen.  Our Pennsylvania paperwork has been at the New York Chinese Consulate's office for a week now, and our Florida paperwork has been at the Houston Chinese Consulate's office for just short of that.  We're waiting for authentication of both sets of paperwork.

Everyday I check the FedEx slips checking to see if the packages are on their way back from their respective offices.

They're not yet.

Everyday I hope that we will get more information on you, another picture to see what you look like and how you're growing.

We haven't gotten one, not in a while.

So instead of focusing on not having you, we focused yesterday on showing you that we love you already and think about you all the time.  We sent you a care package today.

Your brothers picked out Tigger for you at the Magic Kingdom soon after we found out about you. They love Disney and wanted you to have something from one of their favorite places.
We sent you a cute little outfit, the first time Mommy got to go shopping for clothes for you.
We sent a little pink horse for you to comb her hair and probably chew on her.
We sent a picture of our family from Christmas with the Chinese characters for each of us on the back.
And we sent two disposable cameras that we hope will ultimately prove to be more of a gift to us than to you.  We were hoping that your foster family will take some pictures of you over the next few months while we continue to wait.  Then we will know what you did and what you looked like while we were praying you home.

Love,
Mommy and Daddy