She is in foster care!

About 2am today we received confirmation that Emma Kate is with a foster family as we suspected.  This is such a blessing as she will have a lot more one on one time.  Another mom who is in China now to adopt her child offered to ask about Emma Kate and try to get pictures of her.  She couldn't get any pictures since Emma Kate isn't at the orphanage, but the director did say that she remembered sending the pictures to us a couple of weeks ago and that she is doing well.  I pray that this couple is taking excellent care of our daughter and loving her as their own.  I hope that Emma Kate is loving them back and learning what a family is.  While the transition may be harder on her if she is attaching to this family, I think it will help her attach to us if she is learning attachment with consistent caregivers rather than different nannies passing her around.  Please pray for this family she is with.  We are very blessed to have this picture of her with her foster family.

Baby shower from Carter's Sunday School friends

Today was Carter's last week in his Sunday School class before promotion Sunday.  His teachers decided to have a baby shower for Emma Kate :).  We got some very nice gifts and a donation from the class for our adoption fund!  We are so blessed to have people in our lives who care about our daughter already.  Here is a picture of the gifts we received.  Thank you all for loving our daughter.  I love everything and I am so excited to see these pink bags!

Car Wash

We had a car wash today to fundraise.  Several friends and family came out to help, and some friends came just to get their car washed.  We had a great time and raised $485!  A thunderstorm happened in the middle of it but didn't last long and we were all ready for lunch so it was perfect timing.  After lunch we were able to wash a few more cars before everyone went home.  I got a few pictures, wish I had gotten more but it's hard to take pictures and wash cars.  Thank you to all who helped us in some way.

Update on Emma Kate

Tuesday we received an update on our daughter.  We got these two pictures...

 

 

We requested the medical discharge from her surgery since there was nothing in her file that indicated she had any surgery other than the picture of her with her lip repaired.  They sent the medical discharge in Chinese so we asked our Chinese friend to translate it and she was kind enough to do so free of charge. 

 

We asked for updated measurements and pictures but we only got the two pictures, no measurements.  I'm very appreciative for everything we were able to get.

 

We received answers to the following questions as well:

 

1.  Does she have a nick name or what do the nannies call her?  Xuan Xuan

2.  Can you please tell us some of her likes and dislikes?  She likes to watch TV and dance with           music.  She doesn't like to be with strangers.

3.  Will you please let her hair grow while she waits for us to come?  Sure

4.  Which language is spoken to her, Mandarin or Cantonese?  Cantonese

5.  What type of cup or bottle is she able to drink from?  She drinks from bottle.  She likes water with flavor

6.  Is she walking?  Yes, she walks pretty well

 

The reason we asked what type of cup or bottle is because children with cleft palate are unable to suck and they will sometimes only take a certain type of cup or bottle so we wanted to know which ones to take to China with us.  Oh well, I guess we will figure it out when we get her.

 

I was so happy to get an update but it also brought up more questions.  Her file states that she is in the SWI, not with a foster family, and the pictures we have of her appear to be at the orphanage so we didn't ask if she was with a foster family.  After getting these pictures, we are now wondering if those are her foster parents.  Usually the children are photographed with the nannies and not any men.  Also, the lady in the picture is carrying her purse and the nannies don't usually carry their purses around with them.  Maybe we are over thinking it but we feel like she may be with a foster family.  It is very strange to wonder where my daughter is living and what she is doing.  It is 11:45pm in China so she is in bed right now.  Throughout the day I often stop and think about the time in China and what she might be doing and then I pray for her.  I pray that someone is comforting her if she is hurt or having a bad dream or if she doesn't feel well, I pray that someone is making sure she is fed well and I pray that someone is loving her.  I haven't received a picture of her smiling, I pray someone is making her smile.  She will be 18 months old Saturday.  I can not wait to go get her.

 



Introducing....

We are so happy to introduce our precious daughter... 

 

Emma Kate Xuan Pannell

Born February 10, 2012

 

We plan to call her Emma Kate.  She is 17 months old and we are completely in love already!  She was born with a cleft lip and palate.  Her lip has been repaired but the palate will be repaired after we bring her home.  There are no words to describe how I am feeling :). 

 

Thank you all for your continued prayers as we wait to bring our daughter home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PA!!!

I'm so excited I can't even think straight!  We just got a message from our social worker letting us know we got PA (Pre-approval) today to adopt our daughter!!!  I will post a picture of her and addional information soon!  YAY!!!!! 

Exciting News!!

Yesterday I had a feeling that we would receive a referral today.  Our agency was expecting to get some partnership files in at any time and I had a strong feeling that I would hear from our social worker.  The funny thing is that I even thought I would hear from her around 10:30 in the morning, and I received an email at 10:34 this morning stating that the shared list would be released tonight (not a referral but still good news).  The shared list normally comes out the last week of each month so this was a huge surprise.  The list was not released for May or June due to some changes China was making to the database so I guess they decided to release one now rather than wait until the end of July.  I just knew we would be matched with our daughter from this list.  Then I got the call at 9:49 PM!  There was a file locked for our family and our social worker would email the file and pictures right away!  We have now seen our daughter's sweet face and I couldn't be happier!  I will give details and pictures of our daughter very soon.  Thank you all who have prayed for us.  Please continue to pray with us as we wait to bring our daughter home.

I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  1 Samuel 1:27