Brady's Journey To Me Site

I reactivated Brady's Journey To Me site. The username and password are both 'tiger'. There is also a direct link on the Righthand side of thise blog. I will probably be posting from here and there while in China. I will have to see what works best.

Brady's Shower

Some very dear friends gave us a shower for Brady today. It's so wonderful to know that others are as excited as we are about our newest addition. My friend Bonnie was there even though she leaves TOMORROW to go get her sweet Anna Reese LeHua. What a great friend! It was my dream from the start of our paperchase that we would be in China together with our Shantou babes. God has once again blessed me and my dream is coming true. Not only that, but my dear friend Tonya who I have talked to on the phone almost daily for as long as I can remember but have never met in person will be there with her sweet Ayla. God is so good!

We received so many wonderful things at the shower. Brady's room is Monkey themed so we got lots of monkey stuff that is so adorable. He also received some toys which is wonderful because I haven't bought many for him yet. There were some adorable outfits too and I CAN'T WAIT to see him in them. Won't be long! :) I want to say THANK YOU! to my awesome friends for the wonderful shower. While I am thanking people, I also want to say to Gina that I honestly couldn't do it without you. You are a gift from God. The girls will be with Gina and her husband Daniel while we are gone and while I will miss them INCREDIBLY, I will not worry about them one bit because I know that they are in great hands and will be LOVED, LOVED, LOVED while we are gone.


Bonnie and Me. I hope to post one of us with Anna Reese LeHua and Brady Daniel LeQiang very soon. Here they are together last October.

More Disney Pics

How many days?

Earlier I realized that it is already Wednesday in China, so really we are just 7 days away from holding Brady and not 8. How's that for cool? Off to change my ticker to China time...

Our trip to Florida with MeAll and Aunt Yoyo (Lori in AnnaClaire speak)

More to come!

Two Weeks!

Two weeks until we hold Brady in our arms! Tickets are here, visas are here, we are ready! But first is our trip to Disney. The girls and I leave tomorrow morning, swing by Atlanta to pick up Aunt Lori and head down to Orlando. We'll be picking up mom at the airport the next morning (guess she didn't want to spend an entire day in the car with a 4 & 2 year old:)). Friday we will be at the Magic Kingdom! Allie wants to leave today. She's ready.

We survived our trip to Miami. We had been on the plane for about 3 minutes when I noticed Jeff had glitter on his face. He said, 'that's from AnnaClaire' and then came my tears. If I can't handle 3 days, how am I going to handle 18??? When we got to our hotel, we no longer had a room. They lied about why and then took us down the street to a sister hotel and gave us a room on the 2nd floor overlooking Ocean Blvd directly over the nightclub that you had to walk through to get to the elevator to go to our room. Music was blasting and people were partying until 4:00am. Jeff is Mr.'Go With the Flow' and even he was livid. We are getting ready to go to China people...WE NEED OUR SLEEP! Then when we arrived back home, we were at baggage claim and my friend Yvette asks, 'have you ever had any of your luggage lost?' Little did I know that the answer was 'yes, TODAY!' I was doing a mental inventory of what all was in the suitcase and getting more ill by the minute. Thankfully, it was located and delivered to our house the next day.

Brady's room is a work in progress. We got his letters this week but haven't hung them yet. I had centered all the decor in his room around his quilt and then we decided to use the crib for him so I am just going to hang the quilt on the wall. Hopefully we can do that tonight. The girls and I get back from Florida on Monday night and then Jeff leaves Monday morning. He'll be back Thursday and then it is just 3 days until we leave, so we need to do as much as we can tonight. Whew!

Itinerary!!!!!!!

Guangzhou

May.15: Family Loos arrive in Guangzhou on Flight CZ7831/06:20, transfer
to* Victory Hotel.*

May.16: At 14:00 go to the Civil Affairs to meet the child and sign the
adoption agreement.

May.17: At 09:00 go to the Civil Affairs for the adoption registration,
notarization in the morning.

May.18: Pick up the adoption certificate and apply the child’s passport.

May.19: Free.

May.20: Go to local department store to buy some daily necessities for
the child. (if something is 'necessary', don't ya think we will need it by day 4? LOL)

May.21: Visit the White Cloud Mountain.

May.22: Pearl River Cruise.

May.23: Medical and photo for the child.

Mar.24: Free.

May.25: Pick up passport.

May.26: Visit the Six Banyan Temple.

May.27-May.28: Free.

May.29: 9:00 am visa appointment at the U.S.Consulate.

May.30: At 16:00 pick up the visa in the afternoon.

May.31: Family Loos leave Guangzhou for home on flight JL5185/08:15, transfer
airport.



Lots of free time to explore. I love that!

Thank You!

I just wanted to send our thanks for the congratulations on our upcoming travel and union with Brady. We were watching the news last night and a correspondent was in Washington which made me think of an awesome trip to Washington that I took with a fellow waiting mom when I was waiting for Allie. It was in early June of 2003. If anyone had told me that less than 4 years later, I would not only have Allie but also AnnaClaire and Brady, I would have told them they were crazy! Fortunately when God placed these adoptions on our hearts we didn't tell Him that He was crazy...we just let everyone believe that WE were:) I can assure you that we are not crazy (yet)...just very, very honored to be allowed to parent these incredible children. I can't wait to finally meet Brady and see his personality unfold. Will he be quiet like Cameron? social like Brandon? sensitive like Ryan? adventurous like Allie? a willful little charmer like AnnaClaire? We really have no idea but I can't wait to find out!

The Pitter Patter of Little Feet

Jeff jumped out of bed at 3:52 this morning, waking me up. He said he heard something moving around. That 'something' turned out to be AnnaClaire running around the kitchen with her blanket and a telephone. Jeff took her back up to her big girl bed, kissed her and told her to go back to sleep and she did. What a stinker. We may have to put a gate outside her door:)

How Crazy is THIS???

My head is still spinning! I just got off the phone with the travel agent. We now have tickets to China! OUCH! Someone should have told me that in the summer you pay twice what you pay in the winter. Double OUCH! Anyway, this is my schedule for the next few weeks...this Friday (the 27th) Jeff and I head to Miami. We return on Sunday and then on Thursday (5/3) the girls and I head to Disney with my mom and sister. We return from Orlando on Monday Night (5/7). Then just SIX days later, Jeff and I head to CHINA to get our little man. We leave bright and early on Sunday the 13th. Boy oh boy...do I have everything ready??? What am I forgetting? AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

TO GOD BE THE GLORY!

BRADY DANIEL IS COMING HOME! We not only received our TA today but a confirmed CA. Praise God! We will jave Brady in our arms on May 16th! MAY 16th! That's less than a month! We will probably leave the 14th...that's less than 3 weeks. Our CA is 5/29 and we will probably be arriving home on the 31st. Home in plenty of time for him to celebrate his birthday with his big brothers and sisters.

Thank you God for this wonderful new addition to our family. We are so BLESSED!!!!!

Pay it Forward Latte Challenge

A few months ago I posted about the 4 boys from Shantou that were on CHI's Waiting Child List. Two are now waiting to come home, 1 still waits (and has a grant now, please check out Nathaniel!) but sadly, a few weeks after little Scotty was matched with a family, he passed away from acute pnuemonia. The CHIWC board wanted to do something in Scotty's memory and in a matter of days the surgeries for 2 children we completely funded. Today a LWB volunteer posted the following to the CHIWC board and I am passing it on. If we all donated $10, think of the difference that we could make for these children! ~Lisa

I think most of us know about Oprah and her pay-it-forward challenges
that she gives to her audience members...and now I'm giving one to
this audience, with Stefani's blessing.

My name is Nancy Brown, and I am the new Love Without Boundaries
medical fundraising coordinator - thanks to you guys! It all came to
fuition after dear Scotty died, and Stefani challenged this group to
help fund Flower's and Yuan's surgeries in Scotty's memory. I saw
that challenge and accepted it, just as you-all did, and in record
time, I might add. That got me to thinking about my passion in life,
and with 2 daughters from China, one nsn and one sn, and having gone
on a cleft trip with LWB in 2005, I knew it had to do with China. And
I knew I wanted to do more than an occassional donation for medical
surgeries....so now I am in charge of fundraising :-)

My challenge to you all is this: I call it the 2 latte
challenge...for about the cost of 2 lattes, I am challenging all of
you to go to the LWB medical donation site:
http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/SponsorNeedDetailMedical.php?ID=2
and donate $10 and call it Latte Challenge. I/we would LOVE it if
you could make it a once a month donation, so you can change the One
Time donation to Monthly, and then forward this challenge on to as
many friends/family that you can think of. Just think....if we can
get 1,000 to donate $10 a month, that would be $10,000, or more than
2 heart surgeries a month that are FUNDED! The need in China is so
great - we have 18 orphans in Shanghai right now having neurosurgery
by a wonderful medical team of volunteers from UCLA Hospital. And I
think it's important for you to know that not ONE LWB
person/director/board member/surgeon takes one penny in salary, and
ALL pay all of their travel expenses themselves. The overhead costs
for LWB is less than 3% of all donations, which is incredibly,
incredibly low compared to most non-profits. And your donations ARE
tax deductible.

So how about it, CHI family? These kiddos really need our help, and
once they are healed they get on Waiting Child lists and can have a
chance at finding their forever families - maybe even one of you!

Thank you, and please forward to everyone you know (but just not to
the APC list, as Kathy, the listowner, does not allow fundraising).
Let's see how big and mighty this group can be for those babies still
waiting for a chance in China! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Nancy Brown

Yeah for AnnaClaire

Daddy tucked her in last night for the very first time in a big girl bed. She went right to sleep and I even had to wake her up for church this morning. We were pretty busy today and she didn't get a real nap so I am not sure if those are a thing of the past or not. I am just so proud of her for staying in her big girl bed last night. Hope tonight is as easy!

Guess Who Has A New Big Girl Bed?

 

How Can You Have a Bad Day

...when you live with AnnaClaire?

 

For You 'Idol' Fans

We were once die hard American Idol fans but haven't really gotten into it this season. Today at lunch Allie said, 'Chris is going home.' Of course my first thought was that she was talking about American Idol but she hasn't seen it enough to know anyone's names so I asked her what she meant. She said, 'On American Idol' Then I asked her how she knew. 'Jeremiah told me' I guess tonight we will see how smart Jeremiah is. (For those who don't know, Jeremiah is Allie's imaginary friend)

Day 100 (*UPDATED*)

We are now officially members of the century club. When we started this adoption only the unlucky ones waited over 100 days. Now almost everyone waits that long. So sad for the little ones waiting, many needing treatment for their special needs. There was a TA posted last night for a family that got their LOA on 4/2. Hopefully that means that there will be several more coming in these next few days. Our agency said yesterday that we probably wouldn't travel until very late May or early June. I guess my dream of a May 21st gotcha won't become a reality. I hope that they are wrong and that we are able to get an earlier CA. I really want to be there asap! Our TA needs to come soon because this morning Allie asked me if I was losing my mind!

UPDATE: One person has posted that their agency has told them that their TA will be mailed tomorrow and another said that they have been told that their TA is waiting to be signed. Looks like next week could be a very good week. I also wanted to mention that the CCAA has a new program that alerts agencies about LIDs immediately and also when TAs have been mailed, so we should know our TA is on it's way before it arrives.

Pictures from Mee All's Birthday

My sister Lori with Allie


Mee All and Popaw


It was my mom's birthday last Friday (yup, the 13th) so we headed down and Saturday to visit. No cake, she's on a diet :(

I'm due!

It was 9 months ago today that we were matched with little Shan Le Qiang who will soon be our precious Brady Daniel. I pray that the waiting part will be over soon and we can be together. I thank God that we listened to Him when He spoke to us about Brady. We dove in head first with hearts full of faith. If Jeff and I had sat down and rationally discussed adopting at that time, we would never have gone forward. It truly made no sense. But God doesn't always make sense to US...and He doesn't have to. So when you hear God telling you to do something, don't tell Him that you can't. He already knows that by yourself you can't...but WITH HIM YOU CAN! God blesses those who are faithful. Just look at my family!

Visas Arrived!

Now we just need TA and we are ready to roll! It hit me last week that we are going to China soon...yikes! I went out and bought meds and the other stuff that we will need for the trip. I think we have about everything other than the orphanage donations and gifts for the foster family. What do you give someone who has taken your child in and loved them like their own??? Nothing I can think of seems adequate.

It's been 13 days since our LOA was received at our agency. I really don't know when to expect TA. The last group from our agency got TA 16 days after their LOAs had arrived. I am not expecting it to come that fast but I guess it is possible. I am not sure if it matters because someone from my agency told me that the group before us has 5/17 CAs and we can't go before then. I hope it means that we can go soon after, like possibly getting Brady on the 20th or 21st of May. Ohh, chills...that's only 30 something days from now. After all the longing to hold him, it is really going to be happening in the near future.

We are super busy the next few weeks so the time should go by quickly. The last weekend of the month Jeff and I are going to South Beach. The week after that, the girls and I are going to DISNEY WORLD with my mom and sister. That is going to be so much fun...a GIRLS ONLY trip! Pray that my sister can survive the ride from Atlanta (where she lives) to Orlando with Allie and AnnaClaire! LOL