Journey to Larkyn

My How Time Flies!

2010-02-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

Larkyn is a joy everyday and is growing up so fast. She is absolutely the sweetest child. One of her favorite gifts at Christmas was the guitar from her big brother Joey and his girlfriend Shirin. Yes, we are the dorky family that plays guitar hero together -it's so much fun- and Larkyn is right in there with us, she has all the moves down it's so fun to watch.

I have to congratulate Fliss and Mike on their referral from China. Shauna is finally coming home. We were in the March 06 group together before we switched programs to Vietnam. It is so nice to see Marching Pandas get their referrals. As you can tell from the way I do not update this blog, I don't get on the computer much anymore but when I do I check on old adoption comrades. I am so excited for you all. I am so glad to see you all reach the end of this very long road.

One year old...Already!!!

2008-05-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

Here she is licking the butterfly that came off her cake clean. Everything tastes better on a butterfly...right? It is hard to believe she is a year old already. It seems like yesterday it was August and we were in Vienam getting her. This was cake that was supposed to be just for Larkyn but she didn't want it.

Now we're talking, she loves being in Daddy's lap.

The string is her favorite part of the toy at this point.
Grandmom and big brother watch on as Daddy teaches how to use the new toy. She'll be walking on her own soon!

Aunt Shelia came for a visit, that's always fun.
That is Larkyn with cousins Tanner (the big girl) and Hallie who is only three days younger.
Here is cousin Maddison with her recently short hair. She donated her long hair to Locks For Love to be made into a wig for a child with cancer...Sweet girl!

One Last Post

2007-09-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

It is so good to be home and see family and friends again. Larkyn is doing great, we love her to peices. She is so funny, we have such a good time playing with her and watching her learn and do new things each day. This will be my last post. I am happy to say, I no longer have time to spend on the computer. I am posting some pictures and videos of the last days in Hanoi and pictures and videos of Larkyn meeting family here at home. Remember to double click on the slide shows to open Google and see the videos. This has been a great journey and it is now over (Hurray!). Our adpotion agency and homestudy agency have taken care of us the whole way, they are wonderful people. Special thanks to Gina, Kristin, Nancy, Trudy, and Tou!! You guys are the best!

Since we have been home...

No more blogs!

2007-09-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone...we just found out that we are being moved to a different hotel, not sure which one. They did not book us past today here so we will not have internet. As far as we know we have our embassy appointment this afternoon and we will get Larkyn's visa hopefully in the next two days. We should be home the end of this week. Well I am off to pack now.

We are almost done here!

2007-09-09T02:09:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, sorry I didn't blog but I have been sick...stomach bug. I guess I ate something bad. Joe had to take care of Larkyn all day, all I could do was sleep. I'm still not feeling that great nothing at all looks good to eat. Here are some pictures from the other day. Double click on the slideshow so you can see the videos I think it is the first three, one is of Larkyn and two are of the streets. The others are just pictures.

We have our last Embassy appointment in the morning. Then hopefuly we will get Larkyn's visa Tues. and be able to fly home Wed. We will see, that is our hope for now.

Video of Cab Ride

2007-09-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

This is a a short video of our cab ride to the old quater. They honk horns to let each other know where they are, not to be rude. It looks really confusing and it is pretty scarry at first but even though it does not look like it they have a system and it works. They can go any which way on the roads.
Now that I know how to share video with you all, we are going to go out today and take more videos to show you. Pictures just don't show it all. Double click this to open it for video.

We had Larkyn's medical appointment yesterday. She has gained a pound and now weighs 10.7 pounds, still too little for the 3 to 6 month clothes I have for her. I have to get some smaller clothes when we get home.

So now we are just waiting for our 2nd Embassy Appointment, maybe Mon. or Tues. for that, then her we get her visa hopefully a couple days later. So we may be able to head home the end of next week.

Got Larkyn's Passport

2007-09-05T02:52:00.000-07:00

Today we picked up Larkyn's passport and tomorrow we take her for the medical appointment, which just leaves our 2nd Emabassy Appointment and getting her visa.
The other moms found a lady in the silk district that makes the traditional dress for Vietnamese women for a very reasonable price. We found her shop today to have one made for Larkyn and me. We all wanted to have something special for the kids to put away for them. She will have them ready tomorrow, I know...really fast.
If you double click on the slide show it will open Picasa and you can watch the video of Larkyn playing with Joe.

All Day Trip To Ha Long Bay

2007-09-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

This was an all day trip and we were tired but, it is really a beautiful place to see and we meet some very nice people from different parts of the world. Larkyn was so good all day! She started giggling today and talking very loudly. She woke everyone up in our van on the way home as she was playing.

Tomorrow we are to pick up Larkyn's passport and her medical appointment is the next day. Then we will be waiting for the 2nd Embassy appointment.

Too Much Cuteness

2007-09-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

Be prepared to OOOHHHH and AAAHHHH! Double click on the picture to go to the Pacasa Web Page, then you can watch videos of Larkyn! Thay are in the slideshow.

Hoa Lo Prison Tour

2007-09-01T01:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone for those of you who request here is more about Larkyn.
She is such a good baby!!
She loves to talk and smile.
She loves a bath. We bath her in the sink in the bathroom and she smiles at herself in the mirror.
When she wakes up she like to play and talk for a while before she eats.
She can roll over and push up on her tummy to play.
She loves her Pooh Bear that is connected to her pacifier, which she also loves!!
She watches T.V.!!
She is a wiggle worm.!
She is very alert and takes in everything around her.
She makes a little old lady face, that is soooo cute.
We love her to pieces!!

We decided to walk down to that prison and do the tour. It was used during the Vietnam War between 1964 to 1973. Senator John McCain was one of the prisoners there then. Hoa Lo Prison was here way before the Vietnam war though, it was opened in 1896 by the French. The French imprisoned Vietnamese patriots and revolutionist. They had life size models of the Vietnamese prisoners and how they lived in this prison.

On the way to the prison tour this lady stopped us to talk and take this picture.

It is hard to see in the picture but there is broken glass and bottles all in the top of this fence. It seriously turns my stomack everytime I see it.

Day three with Larkyn

2007-08-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

This is an old POW prison from the Vietnam War. We took this picture from our bedroom window. If you look close you can see glass embedded on the top of the outside wall, and the bars on the windows. We are going to try to go to the museum tomorrow. We were on our way to the first Embassy Appointment. Larkyn slept the whole time. She is such a good baby! A few of us got together for dinner at the Hoa Soa Restaurant, it is in the Old French Quarter. We had our own room which was a good thing. The babies were taking turns crying and we were tag teaming with them. It was great!

More on the G and R Day

2007-08-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I want to fill you in more on Larkyn's Giving and Receiving Day. We left the hotel at about 6:00am and got back here a little after 8:00 that evening. It was a very long and exciting day. They have road construction going on so that added to the length of the trip. As you can see from the pictures the country side is beautiful!! Larkyn's Province (Tuyen Quang) is North West of Hanoi, up in the mountains. So in the pictures you will notice as we go along there are more mountains also the livestock changes. Closer to Hanoi you see those brown oxen are everywhere as we got closer to Larkyn's province we saw only the Blue Oxen. They are so cool looking. The people would be on the side of the road with them or in the fields working with them. You notice the houses are tall and very thin but long. The reason is because road frontage is more expensive so the build then tall and narrow. Also there are little shack type homes. The picture that is kind of blury that looks like a yellow arch is the gate to the orphanage Larkyn was at. The building has three big doors on the front the fist door goes to the tiny baby room, the middle door is where Larkyn was (babies a couple of months old and up) and the last door is the toddler's room.
When we got there everyone was either being handed their baby or looking for them. I went over to one of the cribs and saw Larkyn right away. She looked just like the pictures we have of her, she has such a distinctive face. The doctor at the SOS Clinic said he that she would be an actress someday because her face is so expressive. After we all found our babies we changed their cloths and went to the Giving and Receiving Ceremony. There we signed the big offical record keeping book and the adoption papers. It is a very nice little ceremony for each family. Then we went across the street to have lunch. The orphanage Director and the caregivers all came with us. They brought out all kinds of food, I couldn't tell you what it was, but it was good. Then we headed back to the orphanage to visit while our guild went to take care of paperwork. The caregivers were so nice, we took lots of pictures and a couple of them gave us their address to mail pictures to them. They had such a hard time letting the babies go, they cried through out the day and kept getting the babies from us to hold them. The trip home was so long because we were all so tired, but it was a wonderful day. While Larkyn's caregiver was holding her I sat down by the little two year old girl that is in my lap in one of the pictures. She was so sweet and quite, she almost went to sleep in my lap. I had to have that picture of her because I wanted to take her home too. It was hard to leave her. :(

First Day with Larkyn

2007-08-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, here are the pictures from our first full day with Larkyn. She had stomach ache in the morning but by the afternoon was feeling great. Her little personality is really starting to show. We took her to the SOS clinic, she has a rattling in her chest,the doctor said it is a cold and it is not in her lungs so just watch her and it should clear up. She weighs only a little more than 9 lbs. That puts in the vary lowest percentile on the growth chart "the smallest of the small," as the doctor put it but, she is healthy and very alert and smart. She loves to talk and smile. Her favorite thing is the Pooh bear that her pacifier is connected to, and the pacifier of coarse. We are going to our first Embassy appointment tomorrow. Change of plans they just called and we are to be down stairs at 2:00 for our first Emabassy appointment so I can't fill you in on yesterday now. I'll try again later. : )

Larkyn's Giving and Receiving Day

2007-08-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!! There is so much I want to say about this day but I am too tired so, enjoy the slideshow for now.

Day two in Hanoi!

2007-08-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

This was Saturday for us and Friday for you.

The water puppet show was really neat we took video of it but, I am not sure if I allowed to post it.

We go get Larkyn in the morning so we are just staying here in the hotel today, resting. The next set of pictures we will post will be of Larkyn and the Giving and Recieveing Ceremony (this is the adoption), her Province/orphanage and the trip to her Province. I will be making bottles this evening!!! Can't wait!

We made it to Hanoi!!

2007-08-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, we are happy to say we made it. Today is Saturday for us but it is Friday night for all of you at home. We got here about 11:00 AM yesterday which was Thursday for you and Friday for us. We were too tired to try to hook up Internet and blog. Another couple in our group was on our flight from Taipei. Our guide for our Agency picked us up from the airport to drive us to the hotel. Wow!! What a ride. I have read blogs from people here, and have told most of you about the traffic here and the lack of driving rules for traffic in Hanoi, but nothing I read or heard about it comes close to the real thing when you are actually here. Our guide told us how to say the name of the province where Larkyn is living. She is in Tuyen Quang province. Pronounced (to in quang) very fast. In Texas we tend to draw out what we say, they do not do that here, they put it all together and say it fast. Also I learned Larkyn's Vietnamese name is not pronounced the way we thought. It is not Le like we would say it with a long e sound, it is said with a short e sound. So it is a totally different name than we thought but, a very pretty name all the same. We also learned that Le means beautiful in Vietnamese, which she is of course. Here are the pictures from yesterday...enjoy.

We are going to get Larkyn!!!

2007-08-21T18:27:00.000-07:00

We leave tomorrow!!

Our Giving and receiving ceremony is set for Monday which happens to be Joe's birthday. What a great present he will get! We can hardly believe this is really going to happen. Our bags are packed and I hope I can sleep tonight. It won't be long and we will have our baby in our arms.

Larkyn's Baby Shower

2007-08-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Shelia, Julie, Jacque, and Lynne (and not to forget thier helpers too) we had a beautiful baby shower. It was so good to see all my old and dear friends again. Check out the T-shirts, everyone was so creative each shirt is as uniqe as the person who created it's design.
Enjoy the slide show.

Slide Show of Pets

2007-08-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!! It worked thanks Lisa for your help.

View Album

Get your own

This is Bo, Jiggy, Gizmo, and Pyper. This will be a great way to share pictures while we are in Vietnam.

Our Pets/Trying out photo options

2007-08-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

I am trying out some different ways to post pictures to get ready for our trip. So here are some pet pictures.

This is Pyper, such a sweet dog!

This our princess/spoiled brat Jiggy, but we love her that way.

We have a baby girl!!!

2007-07-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

I know it has been forever since I posted last but I have been busy switching programs. We sent our Dossier off to Vietnam on May 22 and just received an official referral for our beautiful baby girl. We knew she was the one we have been waiting for as soon as we saw her. God has lead us to her as we knew He would. We leave around August 22 to go get her. In the meantime we are running around like crazy trying to make sure everything is done correctly and in a timely manner. Really it is a good thing to have so much to do because it really helps the time go by fast. I hope to post while we are in Vietnam. If all goes well and I can figure it all out while I am there I will post pictures and share our trip. In the mean time here is our precious Larkyn Emma Le. To all the Marching Pandas and all others waiting for your little ones from China, my prayers are with you that things will speed up and you will have your children with you soon.

Oh...click on the One Hundred Good Wish Quilt link on the side and see the quilts they are finished. There are three a cuddle quilt, an around the world quilt and a 100 good wish quilt. They really turned out nice, I am very proud of them. I pieced the tops and a quilter (Shelley) did the quilting and binding. They will be something Larkyn can pass down to her children.

Eleven Months

2007-03-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

This wait just goes on and on. CCAA did eleven days this time. Oh... and we are out of the Review Room now, but it is hard to get excited about anything though knowing this wait will go on for another year most likely.

Ten Months and Counting

2007-02-02T18:55:00.000-08:00

So close and yet so far away! That is how we feel right now. After waiting what seems like forever to get through the Review Room we are so close but so far away, as they have only made it through March 22 and we are March 29th. But it is still really great just to see the word March in the CCAA update box. Now that we have made it to the middle of Oct. CCAA is five and a half months from our LID. But again that seems so close when it is really so far away. At the current rate of taking two months to get through one month of referrals, we are looking at, most likely getting our referral toward the end of this year. I just keep thinking that things will speed up. Maybe it is just wishful thinking but I really think it will. Here's to hoping!!

Nine Months!!

2007-01-04T16:04:00.000-08:00

Here it is...the new update. They are six months from our LID now. It would be so wonderful if they started matching a whole month at a time. We would get out refferal in June!! It could happen, I keep hearing things will speed back up at some point. We just pray that this is the point it will speed up. If they continue doing two weeks at time we are looking at twelve more months. That will be too hard.

Eight Months into the Wait

2006-11-30T06:19:00.000-08:00

CCAA has updated and we will be picking up with September 9th when they update again. Well no speed up this time. I was so hoping there would be but, at least it is not slowing down. Every little bit gets us closer.

Another Great Update

2006-11-03T18:44:00.000-08:00

Wow!! One day after referrals CCAA is another step closer to us. We are so used to things happening so slow and, far and few between that this is really exciting. Now we are two months from the Review Room. Okay... excitement over. We will go back to waiting now. Also hoping that things will continue to pick up a bit.

Seven Months of Waiting

2006-11-02T17:34:00.000-08:00

Well the October refferals came a little late, November 2, 2006. They were worth the wait. It included Aug. 10th -25th. This is a little bit larger batch, which is great news. Now we can only hope that this will continue to be the case. It would be really great if the next batch was a little bit more than this one but, I won't get my hopes up.

Fifth and Sixth Month of Waiting

2006-09-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

I am very behind but, Oh Well! There is not much to tell. Things are moving very slow as you can see. Last month (August) we only made it to July 22. The good news is that this month (September) CCAA matched 18 days worth of LID'S. That is the most LID days matched in a very long time. Another good thing is that all of 2005 have made it through the "Review Room". It should not be too much longer before we get to jump that hurdle.
So here we are waiting for the end of October to see if maybe, just maybe... things will continue to move forward a little faster.

Four Months

2006-08-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

Well, we are four months into the wait and it has just extended on out to 13 months since CCAA only did referrals for a little less than half of the month of July. Now the referrals for next month, August will begin with July 14, 2005. This means that we are at this point looking at an April referral. Anyway... one thing I know for sure is that things are always subject to change. Wonder what next month will bring?

I am getting very close to getting all the squares and wishes for Larkyn's 100 good wish quilt. You can see them on the link on the side bar for the quilt. They are so pretty.

Three Months Almost

2006-06-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

We almost made it to the end of June. CCAA did 13 days this time, so next month they will pick up with June 29, and start praying now that they will go all the way to the end of July. That will keep us at 12 months and the wait will not extend out another month.

I have joined an online group for those who turned their paperwork in to China in March. It is the March LID'ers. I have met so many nice people that will be traveling at the same time as we will travel. They have a great idea to make luggage tags to put on what ever we are carrying so we can spot each other easily when we travel. It would have our logo on it. I am also in a group to swap quilt squares for the 100 Good Wishes Quilt. I am going to try to do another blog for the quilt and put the link on this one so watch for that.

Speaking of quilts, I was with my grandmother this week as my cousin Debra, on the right, was there visiting before being stationed in Germany. My G-mom showed us a Friendship Quilt that was made when she was a little girl. The neighbors and family would each do a quilt block with their family name or a individual name in the middle of the block. Interesting who close that custom is the Chinese custom.

Catch Up Time: How China Adoption Works

2006-06-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

Here goes...I will try to explain where we are in the process and how it works.

Roughly how it works:
Referrals (where the adoptive parent recieves a photo and some information about the child they have been matched with by China Center of Adoption Affairs, CCAA) usually go out at the end of each month. At that time the adoptive parent can accept or not this referral. Which of course we will accept with great joy.

Where we are in the process:
At the end of this month referrals will begin with the people who logged their paperwork into CCAA on June 16, 2005 (in the world of adoption lingo this would be "people with a LID, log in date, of June 16, 2005"). A one year wait from LID to referral. Last month, May, CCAA sent referrals out to LID's of June 7 through June 15, 2005, nine log in dates. :) Which is better than last month, April, only seven LID's were sent out then. Which leads to...

Why is it so hard to say when we will get our baby?
As you can see now we do not know from month to month how many referrals will go out at a time. Back in the day (about a year ago) CCAA would send out referrals for a full month at a time and you could pretty much count on the wait, from logging in your paperwork in China (LID) to traveling to China, to be about six months. As you probably noted above each month that referrals only cover part of a month and it is taking a few months to get through one month of referrals it pushes the time table into a longer and longer wait. So we are currently at a twelve month wait from LID to referral. Our LID, which is our place in line in the process, is March 29, 2006, so as it stands now we look to get our referral about that time next year. This is all subject to change of course, and things will happen when God intends for them to happen. When it should happen. We are truely getting a lesson on patience.

This is all new to me!

2006-06-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, I may not be able to do this. This is my first post and am not sure what I am doing. I want to have a place where family and friends can log onto to check the progress of our adoption. It is going to be a very long wait so I will have plenty of time to get better at this whole blogging thing. Our log in date is March 29, 2006. The wait time from log in date (LID) is now at twelve months. So.... since I have so much time, I will sign off of this for now and try again tomorrow to add more details to this blog. I did get a picture in! :)