Summers are so hot in Texas it is hard to go to the park. I have been looking forward to taking my sweetie to the park again! Its kind of a daddy / daughter time. We had not bought a new digital camera in over five years, so we took the occasion of the adoption and the travel to China to purchase a new one. We bought the Canon Powershot SD550 which is really fast and takes great pictures yet it is very small. So, today I went to the park to practice with it while playing with Maddie! We are so excited to make the trip to China at this point that it is hard to even allow ourselves to think about it. Pray for us that all is well. Here is a picture of Maddie at the park.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Fun at the park with daddy
Summers are so hot in Texas it is hard to go to the park. I have been looking forward to taking my sweetie to the park again! Its kind of a daddy / daughter time. We had not bought a new digital camera in over five years, so we took the occasion of the adoption and the travel to China to purchase a new one. We bought the Canon Powershot SD550 which is really fast and takes great pictures yet it is very small. So, today I went to the park to practice with it while playing with Maddie! We are so excited to make the trip to China at this point that it is hard to even allow ourselves to think about it. Pray for us that all is well. Here is a picture of Maddie at the park.
Friday, October 21, 2005
THAT'S MY BABY!!
We continue to be blessed this week. We just recently joined a Yahoo Group for Noelle's orphanage. A week or so a guy in the group by the name of Stephen posted a message that he was currently visiting the orphanage, as he had just received his daughter from this orphanage, and that he had taken a couple of pictures and video of babies that the caretakers said were about to be adopted out. Today Stephen who just returned from China posted two baby pictures. Guess who was Baby #2....you got it NOELLE!I just sent an email to Stephen begging for more photos and the video. He said he would be happy to share the video as he knows any information obtained prior to receiving Noelle is treasured memories.
What a wonderful blessing!
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Sweet Surprise
I was SO surprised to open up our email yesterday morning and find an updated health report and updated photos of our new baby girl Noelle. We were so NOT expecting it! The pictures were taken on October 8th. We think she is a true beauty and can not wait to go and get her!!
She is now 7 months old as of October the 7th and she weighs 17 pounds and is 26 inches long. Brian has prayed that she would be tall for a Chinese girl. I think God just might have answered his prayer!
Friday, October 14, 2005
Our New Niece-Baby Ellis
Our sweet niece Ellis decided she did not want to miss out on all the excitement of her new cousin Noelle last week. So she decided to join us three weeks early! Ellis is absolutely beautiful! Congrats goes out to my brother Jon and his wife Lisa and big brother Jase!Ellis Suzanne Summy
10/5/05 (2 days before her big brother Jase turned 2)
5 pounds 3 ounces
17 1/2 inches
Maddie is thrilled beyond belief to have a new baby girl cousin. She just beams with pride and excitement! Uncle Brian has already gave her a nickname "Ellie Belle"....Ellie Sue didn't quite go over to well with Ellis's mommy. =) Noelle is going to be so happy to have a girl cousin just 7 months younger than her.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Our Sweet Baby Girl!!
On Monday we got the call at 11:26 am from our Social Worker telling us they just received our "referral" from China. Our SW gave us some of the basic information about our daughter and told us they would email us some pictures later in the afternoon. Brian and I were both at work and had already decided that we would wait until we were together with Maddie at home to open the picture. The wait was brutal, so we both left work early and my Mom went and got Maddie for us, so we could all see her for the first time together. It was such an exciting time! We all ooed and awed over her and screamed with excitement. We then all (Brian, Maddie and I along with Grammy, Poppy, Uncle Jon, Aunt Lisa and Jase) went to eat at PF Changs Chinese Bistro in honor of our daughter. Uncle Jon and Aunt Lisa treated us to a wonderful Chinese meal...it was a GREAT day!God has truly blessed us with a beautiful daughter!
Chinese Name: Lu Wei Fen
Soon to be: Noelle Grace Wei Fen Howard
DOB: 3/7/05 (almost 7 months)
Orphanage: Nanfeng SWI
Province: Jiangxi
Physical Description from the Chinese Letter we received about her: Wei Fen's skin is soft and supple with a tint of rose color. She has good facial expressions, spirited eyes, cherry like mouth, strong and lively arms and legs. She is absolutely adorable (lovely).
We can't wait to go and get her! We should leave in 6-8 weeks.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Maddie's Famous
We had our family photos taken a few months back by Steve Dobrenski. Steve is a co-worker of mine who does children/family photography on the side. He mentioned a few weeks ago that he entered Maddie's picture into a photo contest. Well his picture won and Maddie made the cover of the Frisco Style Magazine. It's distributed to 55,000 Frisco residents.
The art director of the magazine wrote a great article on the photo contest. I'll give you a few excerpts.
"At our deadline, I had 65 possible winners, and of those 65, I picked 20 awesome shots to make mock covers. Then in true democratic form we took a vote. I, of course reserved the right to overrule the result of any vote. I am the Design Diva after all! And, to me, there was already a clear winner."
"This is why Steve Dobrenski's photo of his friends daugher was the obvious choice. (For the record, I didn't have to use my veto.) The beautiful colors, crisp edges and contemplative composition drew us in. We wanted to know, what is she thinking about? Was she just punished? Was she watching someone or something? Was she ready to go home and take a nap? When I put her on the cover, it was like magic, she was the one."
We are SO proud of our girl! Congrats goes out to Steve, the photo is just beautiful! If you are interested in using Steve for your next photo, he can be found at (http://www.regentphoto.com/).
Friday, September 02, 2005
Happy Birthday BIG Girl!
My Big Four Year Old Girl!
August 28, 2001
Maddie,
You are such a big girl now. Mommy and Daddy look at you and cannot believe you are no longer a baby anymore or even a toddler for that matter. But as Mommy always reminds you, you will ALWAYS be Mommy’s little baby. I am so thankful God gave us a special precious daughter. Your personality is becoming more and more pronounced as you grow. You are such a sweet girl. You have the sweetest voice in the world. You are an avid talker with a vocabulary bigger than your Mom’s. Most people are so surprised to find out you are only three after hearing you talk. You are so smart, sometimes I sit in amazement at the things you understand and your logical thinking. I’m sure we treat you older than you are because of that. You do not forget anything that you are told, you do not forget about any place you have been, in fact you could probably direct us back to where we have been, you are very good at directions. You are very tall like your Daddy, you stand a foot taller than most of the kids in your class. You are so compassionate, you cried so hard when you heard that a bad person broke into Poppy’s car and stole his camera. You ran off crying to find him and comfort him. You are very opinionated and have a strong will. You come by that honestly. You love God very much. You say very sweet prayers at night, you tell Him, thank you for all your family, for a nice day and that you love Him. You ask Him to put angels around your bed. One morning you were writing in Daddy’s journal and I asked you to stop, b/c that was Daddy’s journal, you looked up and so sweetly said, “I’m just writing that God is awesome.” You also asked if you could go and see Jesus in concert. It was so cute, we had been to see everyone else you love in concert, why not Jesus…too cute! You can’t wait to get your baby sister Noelle. You pray at night that God will bring her home very soon. You are going to be a great BIG sister, I’m sure you will have an adjustment period, but once you realize that Mommy and Daddy have enough love for both of you and that Noelle needs you, you will be fine. You love to laugh and have fun. Your laughter is infectious, you exude happiness. You have a great sense of humor and a quick wit about you. You love to dance….hip hop dance that is. You didn’t care for ballet, but turn you on some fast jiving music and you can dance up a storm. Everyone comments on your dance moves, you have great rhythm. You love to play with markers, colors, paints, stickers, books, puzzles, and makeup. Maddie, God is molding you into a very special girl. I’m so thankful God gave Daddy and I the privilege to parent and guide you through life. You have blessed us and given us so much love. Our love for you is INDESCRIBEABLE!
We Love You,
Mommy and Daddy
You are such a big girl now. Mommy and Daddy look at you and cannot believe you are no longer a baby anymore or even a toddler for that matter. But as Mommy always reminds you, you will ALWAYS be Mommy’s little baby. I am so thankful God gave us a special precious daughter. Your personality is becoming more and more pronounced as you grow. You are such a sweet girl. You have the sweetest voice in the world. You are an avid talker with a vocabulary bigger than your Mom’s. Most people are so surprised to find out you are only three after hearing you talk. You are so smart, sometimes I sit in amazement at the things you understand and your logical thinking. I’m sure we treat you older than you are because of that. You do not forget anything that you are told, you do not forget about any place you have been, in fact you could probably direct us back to where we have been, you are very good at directions. You are very tall like your Daddy, you stand a foot taller than most of the kids in your class. You are so compassionate, you cried so hard when you heard that a bad person broke into Poppy’s car and stole his camera. You ran off crying to find him and comfort him. You are very opinionated and have a strong will. You come by that honestly. You love God very much. You say very sweet prayers at night, you tell Him, thank you for all your family, for a nice day and that you love Him. You ask Him to put angels around your bed. One morning you were writing in Daddy’s journal and I asked you to stop, b/c that was Daddy’s journal, you looked up and so sweetly said, “I’m just writing that God is awesome.” You also asked if you could go and see Jesus in concert. It was so cute, we had been to see everyone else you love in concert, why not Jesus…too cute! You can’t wait to get your baby sister Noelle. You pray at night that God will bring her home very soon. You are going to be a great BIG sister, I’m sure you will have an adjustment period, but once you realize that Mommy and Daddy have enough love for both of you and that Noelle needs you, you will be fine. You love to laugh and have fun. Your laughter is infectious, you exude happiness. You have a great sense of humor and a quick wit about you. You love to dance….hip hop dance that is. You didn’t care for ballet, but turn you on some fast jiving music and you can dance up a storm. Everyone comments on your dance moves, you have great rhythm. You love to play with markers, colors, paints, stickers, books, puzzles, and makeup. Maddie, God is molding you into a very special girl. I’m so thankful God gave Daddy and I the privilege to parent and guide you through life. You have blessed us and given us so much love. Our love for you is INDESCRIBEABLE!
We Love You,
Mommy and Daddy
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Maddie's Sweet Revenge
Maddie’s Birthday is just around the corner on the 28th. We are going to have a party for her at a place called “Pump It Up.” It’s an indoor inflatable heaven. We took her invitations to school yesterday to put them in the kid’s folders. Maddie was SO excited to be taking her invitations to school, so I let her help me put the invitations in the kid’s folders. So she stood on a big chair and I would call out a name and we would look for the folder. We got to one little boy’s invitation and she said, “Give that to me.” I said, “What”? She said, “He hit me yesterday, he is not invited.” I laughed and told her all the kids were invited, in fact this little boy had invited her to his birthday party. So we continued on. We got to another little girl’s invitation and she said “Take that out of that stack.” I said, “Why?” She said, “she does NOT speak nicely to me, she is not invited.”
It was a hysterical scene, Maddie was finally getting her revenge on the kids she felt had not treated her right in the past. We had a quick lesson in forgiveness and “do unto others” and I’m happy to say all the kids have officially been invited.
It was a hysterical scene, Maddie was finally getting her revenge on the kids she felt had not treated her right in the past. We had a quick lesson in forgiveness and “do unto others” and I’m happy to say all the kids have officially been invited.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Getting closer..
We and other couples had a meeting this week with Mr. Wu the director of the China adoption program at Gladney. He did two hours of Q&A and discussed many items regarding the logistics of the final adoption stages. We believe we will receive a picture and medical report of a specific little girl sometime in September- this is called getting your "referral". We believe we will travel to pick her up sometime in November.
We learned from speaking with Mr. Wu that Gladney is in frequent contact with many Chinese officials and purposely maintains close relationships with Provincial government officials (their version of U.S. state govts), Federal government officials, and CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) officials. This week Gladney was distinguished as one of only two adoption agencies in the United States to receive a diplomatic visit from a high official in the social welfare agency in China that is over the CCAA. Mr Wu, Gladney senior management, and many families who have already adopted from China met these officials in Fort Worth and brought their girls who had been adopted from China to meet them. Gladney entertained them in authentic Texas tradition at the Fort Worth Stockyards and did many authentic Texas things. They even met them with roping cowboys which I find quite hilarious. Apparently the officials seemed to have had a fun time and they were very interested in how the little girls were doing. They seemed genuinely happy the girls were doing so well. At one time Mr. Wu said the officials were visibly touched to find that one Gladney family had adopted from China a little girl who was totally blind. The officials had wanted to see how the children were doing who had been adopted and I'm sure they were very blessed to see their work was changing lives for these abandoned baby girls. I can't help but think God will do a work in China through these adoptions.
I'd like to give some details about what this stage of our process involves for our family and friends. The CCAA as mentioned above process all paperwork, approves international adoptions, and matches children to families. 95% of the children available are girls since they are the ones abandoned due to a strong cultural preference for boys and the one child policy in China. We will receive our referral picture, medical information, and acceptance documents at the same time as 7-8 other Gladney families. The CCAA processes applications and produces referral matches constantly but only releases them monthly and they send groups of matches to the various accredited agencies like Gladney. Once we receive our referral we complete the acceptance forms which are then sent back to China for travel approval which takes 6 weeks.
We learned in the meeting with Mr. Wu this week we are responsible for the airfare but the minute we step off the plane we will have a guide who has worked with Gladney for years that coordinates all of our logistics, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, food, etc. From what we hear from other families Gladney almost over-prepares everything and there is no guessing or stress. Hearing all of this was obviously very comforting since China is so far away and such a different culture.
The neatest situation is that although it takes almost two days to get to China we will actually receive Noelle on the third day! Everyone has to go to Guangzhou, China to the U.S. consulate to process the INS paperwork and everyone stays at the White Swan Hotel which is famous because literally everyone who adopts from China stays there. I read a review of the hotel on Yahoo Travel and it said there are "packs" of adoptive families everywhere. You can see pics, information, and comments about the hotel here: http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-368689-action-pictures-white_swan_hotel-i;_ylt=ArkSkIX54SZQhGMroSWeWJ7iphQB
When we travel to China and meet up with our group one of the nice things is that some of the families will be from North Texas. It is valuable to be able to form these bonds of relationship with others who have adopted from China- especially since some will be in our area. Typically these groups of families stay in touch and have play groups, annual reunions, and keep in email contact. I personally look forward to Maddie and Noelle having some friends through this. It is a prayer of mine that we can have some play friends that have the same family makeup we have.
We would appreciate the prayers of our friends and family for the Lord's help with these important details:
- Our dossier will be in the CCAA "matching department" next month- please pray God's leading hand in matching us to Noelle!
- Also, help us pray that while Noelle is still in the orphanage she will have someone who takes a special notice of her, looks after her, and gives her love and affection.
- Pray that she also receives formula because many orphan infants only receive cows milk.
We learned from speaking with Mr. Wu that Gladney is in frequent contact with many Chinese officials and purposely maintains close relationships with Provincial government officials (their version of U.S. state govts), Federal government officials, and CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs) officials. This week Gladney was distinguished as one of only two adoption agencies in the United States to receive a diplomatic visit from a high official in the social welfare agency in China that is over the CCAA. Mr Wu, Gladney senior management, and many families who have already adopted from China met these officials in Fort Worth and brought their girls who had been adopted from China to meet them. Gladney entertained them in authentic Texas tradition at the Fort Worth Stockyards and did many authentic Texas things. They even met them with roping cowboys which I find quite hilarious. Apparently the officials seemed to have had a fun time and they were very interested in how the little girls were doing. They seemed genuinely happy the girls were doing so well. At one time Mr. Wu said the officials were visibly touched to find that one Gladney family had adopted from China a little girl who was totally blind. The officials had wanted to see how the children were doing who had been adopted and I'm sure they were very blessed to see their work was changing lives for these abandoned baby girls. I can't help but think God will do a work in China through these adoptions.
I'd like to give some details about what this stage of our process involves for our family and friends. The CCAA as mentioned above process all paperwork, approves international adoptions, and matches children to families. 95% of the children available are girls since they are the ones abandoned due to a strong cultural preference for boys and the one child policy in China. We will receive our referral picture, medical information, and acceptance documents at the same time as 7-8 other Gladney families. The CCAA processes applications and produces referral matches constantly but only releases them monthly and they send groups of matches to the various accredited agencies like Gladney. Once we receive our referral we complete the acceptance forms which are then sent back to China for travel approval which takes 6 weeks.
We learned in the meeting with Mr. Wu this week we are responsible for the airfare but the minute we step off the plane we will have a guide who has worked with Gladney for years that coordinates all of our logistics, lodging, transportation, sightseeing, food, etc. From what we hear from other families Gladney almost over-prepares everything and there is no guessing or stress. Hearing all of this was obviously very comforting since China is so far away and such a different culture.
The neatest situation is that although it takes almost two days to get to China we will actually receive Noelle on the third day! Everyone has to go to Guangzhou, China to the U.S. consulate to process the INS paperwork and everyone stays at the White Swan Hotel which is famous because literally everyone who adopts from China stays there. I read a review of the hotel on Yahoo Travel and it said there are "packs" of adoptive families everywhere. You can see pics, information, and comments about the hotel here: http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-368689-action-pictures-white_swan_hotel-i;_ylt=ArkSkIX54SZQhGMroSWeWJ7iphQB
When we travel to China and meet up with our group one of the nice things is that some of the families will be from North Texas. It is valuable to be able to form these bonds of relationship with others who have adopted from China- especially since some will be in our area. Typically these groups of families stay in touch and have play groups, annual reunions, and keep in email contact. I personally look forward to Maddie and Noelle having some friends through this. It is a prayer of mine that we can have some play friends that have the same family makeup we have.
We would appreciate the prayers of our friends and family for the Lord's help with these important details:
- Our dossier will be in the CCAA "matching department" next month- please pray God's leading hand in matching us to Noelle!
- Also, help us pray that while Noelle is still in the orphanage she will have someone who takes a special notice of her, looks after her, and gives her love and affection.
- Pray that she also receives formula because many orphan infants only receive cows milk.
Monday, August 01, 2005
I Love You 60
We always go back and forth with Maddie when we say "I Love You" to tease her that we love her more than she loves us. Some of her cute responses over the last year have been...
I Love You to the moon and back(Not an original b/c we have a book that says that one)
I Love You to Six Flags (I don't feel that loved when she says that one =) )
I Love You to San Antonio (Her trip to Seaworld this year left quite an impression)
I Love You to Zero (Hmm...I'm not sure what she means by that one, I won't ask)
I Love You to the deps (yes, she leaves out the th) of the ocean
Her latest when I tell her I love her is "Mommy, I Love You more than that".
But today she told her Grammy, "I Love You 60, which is as high as I can count!".
How adorable is she?!!! I swear I'm going to squeeze her to death.
I Love You to the moon and back(Not an original b/c we have a book that says that one)
I Love You to Six Flags (I don't feel that loved when she says that one =) )
I Love You to San Antonio (Her trip to Seaworld this year left quite an impression)
I Love You to Zero (Hmm...I'm not sure what she means by that one, I won't ask)
I Love You to the deps (yes, she leaves out the th) of the ocean
Her latest when I tell her I love her is "Mommy, I Love You more than that".
But today she told her Grammy, "I Love You 60, which is as high as I can count!".
How adorable is she?!!! I swear I'm going to squeeze her to death.
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