In Two Weeks!

In two weeks from today John and I will officially become Alex's parents!! Monday, December 13th will be the day that we meet Alex and he is given to us. This day is known in the adoption world as "Gotchya Day"! Then on December 14 the official adoption will take place in Changsha, Hunan. I'm so excited for him...I'm so excited for us!! I have no idea how my body is going to handle all of the emotions this trip will have to offer. All I know is that little Alex had better be prepared for a whole lotta LOVE!!!
Here is some more recent pictures of Alex which were taken in November.
What a little heart breaker! John says he gets his handsome good looks from him ;D

We are bursting with pride as we introduce to you our Son, Alexander Orin Waite!

Yes! To our surprise we are now the VERY proud family of a beautiful little BOY!!!I have attached 2 pictures of him for you all to see! We have fallen in love with this little baby! How lucky we are to be blessed with this precious little guy. So cute....just wanna squish that little face!

John and I sat down with the girls to decide on a name for him and we have all decided that his name will be Alexander Waite. (“Alex” for short as we have already been calling him that here!!) John wanted to honor his Grampy’s middle name, and we also liked Alexander because it means “brave warrior” or “defender of men” So the girls thought it was good to name him Alex so that he can be brave until John and I go to get him and bring him home!

So here’s what we know about our son so far….

His Birthdate is January 27 2010. (so he is roughly 9 months old)

Right now he weighs 16 lbs and is 26 inches tall.

He is living in the Social Welfare Institute in Hengyang city in Hunan province. Other than his bottled formula, he eats rice cereal, mashed fruit, mashed vegetables, and sometimes egg yolks. He can hold his head up while lying on his stomach, can roll over on his own and grasps at toys that are close to his hands. He can stand up with support (as seen in the pictures) His development might be a little slower than we are used to, but he will be able to catch up in no time. He is a healthy and happy little baby from what we hear, and we feel so lucky to be welcoming him into our family!!! We just can’t describe how happy we are, and we can’t wait to bring him home for Christmas! Best gift EVER! “We’re coming Alex…can’t wait to hold you forever!”

The news has arrived...we have a BABY!!

Well, with everything that has been going on with us in the past month I haven't had time to update our blog, so, here it goes. On October 20, 2010 we got a phone call! Yes, we had a proposal!!!! We rushed home from work to meet our social worker who had the file of the child we would be adopting (how amazingly exciting that was!!) Since that day we have been filling out forms, writing letters, sending our baby a care package and crossing our fingers that we would be able to go to China before Christmas to receive our child! We got the news a couple of weeks ago that we would indeed be traveling to Beijing in December. The rush was on! We've had to book flights, line up a babysitter for our girls, get our flu shots and twinrix vaccinations, get our China entry visa's, fill out more forms and do lots of baby shopping not to mention christmas shopping!!! What excitement!
So now we are quickly getting prepared for the journey of a lifetime.....Check out our next post to meet our new little family member who we are more than thrilled to introduce!!

We are still here and we are still waiting!

Yes we are still kicking around :). As technology evolves I have found new ways to share news, photos and information regarding our adoption. Yes, I am talking about Facebook. Love it and hate it all at the same time. he he he. It will sure be a valuable tool to share news and photos when John and I head to China to meet and bring home our little child though!

New things have developed in our process so I thought I would update our adoption blog.

Just to keep people up to date, it has been over three years since we have started our adoption journey. Due to the length of time which has passed we have been asked to update some of the paperwork pertaining to our adoption. We are required to update our medical reports, police checks and child intervention checks. We also need to sit down with our social worker to update some info in our homestudy. Not too much has changed other than our address, so there shouldn't be much concern regarding China's review of the addendum to our dossier.

We have also launched our "Good Wishes Quilt" project for our future little family member! We are happy to see so many people participating in this. We have been receiving great pieces of fabric for the baby's quilt along with some wonderful heartfelt wishes! Thanks again to all of you who are choosing to participate!

We are keeping our fingers crossed that our day is coming soon. Our red thread has been cast. We are just waiting for that special someone to grasp hold of the other end and become a part of our family forever!

In the meantime we have sure been kept busy with day to day life. Cadence has graduated from kindergarten and Avery has completed her 1st year of pre-school. They are enjoying summer holidays so far...now if only we could get a little more of that sunshine! We have done a bit of camping and have made 1 trip out to BC to see John's brother and my Aunt and Uncle. Unfortunately we missed our annual trip out to Greenwater lake, but looking at everyone's photos has made us VERY committed to going next year no matter what...unless we get called to China!! We are taking our trailer out west for a summer getaway at the end of July. The girls both want to go to the ocean side to see whales and starfishes. Hopefully we will find a few starfishes on our trip as they have become a meaningful symbol to us in regards to our journey to be united with our little one. (see story below) We will also be attending my cousins' wedding in Vancouver and then heading home to enjoy the rest of the summer. Maybe a couple more camping trips and a little bit of yard work and the summer will be over in the blink of an eye! Funny how time seems to fly by in some aspects but stands still in others. Either way we are loving life right now and are very much anticipating many more good things to come!

The Starfish

Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One day he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself to think of someone dancing alone on the beach. He began to walk faster to catch up with the figure. As he got closer, he saw that it was a young man and the young man wasn't dancing, but instead he was reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing?" The young man paused, looked up and replied "Throwing starfish into the ocean." "I guess I should have asked why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?" "The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die." "But young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!" The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said

"It made a difference for that one."

I will try to update this blog a little more often as events begin happening again! Will our wait be over soon?...Stay tuned to find out more!...

Live well and keep smiling :)

We wish you a Very Happy Year of the Ox!

Hello again to the readers of this blog.

We wish everyone a Very Happy New Year and may the year of the Ox bring much joy and happiness to all. The Waite family gets a little more festive with each passing Chinese New Year. We have more decorations now (which the girls love) and we are trying to incorporate more of the traditions and customs into this new holiday! The more we learn about Chinese New Year the more we enjoy it! Even John buys bags of oranges or tangerines and hands them out to fellow co-workers to ensure good relationships & well wishes to all. Tonight I made sure to sweep out of the house any bad luck from the last year. I also bought oranges and a new pot of blooming tulips to set on our cupboard to bring well being, health and happiness to our house. We will be having our own little Chinese New year feast again and then giving the girls their lei-see (lucky red money envelopes).

We are now over 1 year waiting for our little baby from China. Our 1st anniversary was on November 23 2008. Judging by how many referrals China got through last year, we are positive that we will not be receiving a referral in 2009. Nonetheless, we are keeping optimistic that a speed up is still in the works. We have heard that many Orphanage directors in China are now taking training and learning how to properly prepare documents to make more babies eligible for adoption. China's Center for Adoption Affairs is also trying hard to get more orphanages to participate in both the domestic and international adoption programs. We keep our fingers crossed and pray hard every day that our little baby will be in our arms one day soon.

Cadence and Avery are doing so well. They are both in a dance class together and it is so cute to watch them...they truly are sisters who watch out for each other! They will make the best big sisters EVER! They are so excited to get their little baby. Every doll in our house now goes by the name "China baby". We just can't wait for the day that we can finally introduce them to her!

We are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead. My sister Jackie is getting married in Costa Rica, which means we get to take a little vacation! It couldn't come at a better time. Both John and I are feeling a little burnt out lately. A little R&R is exactly what the doctor ordered and we can't wait! We are all looking forward to another great camping season too. Just today Avery asked "when we are going to go campin'". I told her "mommy doesn't do winter camping." "We'll have to wait until spring!."

Cadence will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. What a milestone! It makes me sad to think of my first baby going to school already. Thank goodness I still have my "baby Avery" to spoil!

I will try to post more this year than I did last as new things pop up in the adoption world!

We also have a little activity planned for all of you who read this blog. I'll post more about it when we get a bit more organized!!

Happy New Year!! Gung Hei Fat Choy!!!!

Well for some reason I wasn't able to post this picture in my previous post as I mentioned, so here it is...our 2 cuties play shopping at the science center! They had so much fun!

It's been a long time.......

Well, so far this year has been great to us...other than the snails pace of the China Adoption world right now. :(
We made it through Birthday Party season (whew) and are now full swing into camping season! The girls, John and I have been focusing on just having fun this year! We had 2 fun birthday parties for the girls, spent Easter in the mountains, made a trip down to the farm/Sask. and have been camping once already this year and are planning at least 4 more camping trips this summer. We are also planning on attending our annual week at Greenwater lake as well as my cousin Dani's wedding in July! Then at the end of the summer we have planned to spend several days in B.C. with John's brother Jason and my Aunt and Uncle. Yes, we will be very busy, but we are looking forward to every minute of it! I've posted a cute picture of the girls "grocery shopping" in Hooper's store at the Sesame Street exhibit at the science center. that day was lots of fun! the girls were sure played out that night.
People keep asking us how the adoption is coming along. We really appreciate the interest and concern, but it gets hard telling people time and time again that it is going to be a LONG wait before it's our turn. It's nice to get the chance to share information with the people around us who care so much about the adoption and our future daughter even if the news is a little bleak right now. One day the news will be GREAT! We are REALLY hoping to see a big speed-up of referrals once the Olympic Games are over. It just has to speed up....
China's earthquake was another thing people were asking us about. Wondering if that would have any effect on our adoption. To tell the truth we're not sure. All we can do is hope and pray that it won't have caused another new wave of abandonment's due to the poor conditions in the areas hit the hardest by the quake. I read about a lot of the young children wounded by the quake needing amputations and more. Our hearts go out to them and to those who lost their children and loved ones. So sad. The Starfish foster babies were not harmed by the quake! In fact the story of how the nannies took care of the little ones is quite amazing. I encourage anyone reading this to check out the Starfish blog site listed on the side of this page. It's quite an inspiration to read and learn about such an amazing cause and effort they have going on in that foster home. I would love nothing more than to help out in a place like that at some point in my life.
Well, we are off on another camping trip this weekend with John's Uncle Ed and his family to celebrate Fathers Day! And to all you Daddies out there, Happy Fathers Day to you too!

Everyone keep your fingers crossed this summer that the adoptions will really speed up after the Olympics in August! I know our fingers will be crossed...and our toes...and probably everything else we could possible cross!! :)
Take care!