Mommy and Aminah

I think this was our first morning together. She was wearing a little bonnet that made her look like a little Amish girl. Very cute though. I looked still pretty perky at that point. She was still pretty scared. She has perked up quite a bit since then. It really is an amazing transformation of what these babies have had to go through. Well I better go feed my daughter some lunch she is about to have a melt down.

Sleeping like a baby

Here is a picture of Aminah sleeping. There were a few days that the only time I could get her picture was when she was sleeping. She was a very "clingy" baby. She wanted to be held constantly which was fine for a while but then she decided that there were more things. She still is a very good sleeper. I'm very lucky.

Aminah's first step

Here is a picture of Aminah taking her fist steps (for me anyway). The nanny said that she walked but it took her a few days before she was comfortable enough to wander from me.
She is toddling now. We have a lot of fun playing in the room together. She loves to stand and then dive into me. She giggles and laughs. She thinks she is something else (and she is).

Let's try a picture

I think I have this figured out. Let's try a picture of a cute little girl. I think it worked. I will try another picture.

Sunday Afternoon

Well I'm surviving just fine. I had a couple of days with the stomach flu and thought I was not going to make it. Luckily I have some great friends that decided to take Aminah for me so I could get some rest. They walked her in the stroller and Aminah decided that it was alright to even be held by her new "grandma" Pat. She let one of the dads walk and rock her to sleep Friday night. Last night she was quite an angel for me and went right to sleep. We are still working on the schedule and deciding how she likes things done. She has a mind of her own and if you are not obeying her orders she will let you know:) I think she will fit in with the rest of the family just fine. If I remember correctly my nieces and nephews did the same thing. I now have either a cold or terrible congestion of the nose which makes things a little rough. On the plus side I can't smell the Poopy diapers. I still can't manage to upload pictures but it will make it more exciting for everyone once I'm able to finally load them. This is what happens when you rely on technology.

Gotcha Day

Wow! I have had Aminah in my arms for a few days now. Yesterday we signed the official paperwork and they congratulated me on being a mommy. Aminah is asleep in the stroller right now. She has decided that it is a lot of fun to cry if I sit down, should make for a great plane ride. Yesterday she decided that she enjoyed the stroller and I was able to get some relief. Traveling alone is difficult at times but the other people have been a great help. There are 4 grandmas here in Changsha that have helped me along the way. I now just tell them what I need and they help me out. Aminah is sooooooo adorable. I will have to add pictures later but for now you will all have to wait. I'm so sorry because I really think you all should see this little cutie. She can be sweet but she is a "spicy girl" which is what they call all the girls from this state. They like their food very spicy here and therefore the girls are also very "spicy." We have been kept so busy I really think that has helped me with the jet lag I'm sure it will be interesting when we arrive back in the states. Well I'm going to sign off for now. I'll see if I can borrow a cord to upload pictures.
Love to all,
Aminah's Mommy

I'm in Beijing

This is to let everyone know that I'm in Beijing. I'm typing from the business center of the hotel. So far I'm exhausted but doing fairly well. I would love to give you a play by play of what has happened so far but it is really all just a blurr. We had a very busy day yesterday. We went to the forbidden city, a silk factory, Tienamin Square (sp?) and went for a ride on a dragon boat. All in all the best part has been getting to know all of the fellow travelers. I am trying to upload a picture but it doesn't seem to be working. The lady just took the CD for me. So far the food has been alright. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch and of course rice for dinner. Today we are all going to the Great Wall of China. I will attempt to climb some of it. Our guide Sherry says that the men try to walk to the top, and the ladies walk to the picture point and then come back down to shop. I'm pretty sure I will be with the ladies. Tommorow is the big day. I will get to meet my daughter. Everytime I think about it I get very weepy. What a moment it will be. I am going to sign off for now but I'll try to update again later.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

I'm now hours away from leaving for China. It is about 11:30 PM the night before I leave. My plane leaves at 8:45AM from Bakersfield and I will be going to San Francisco before heading to Beijing. I have to leave for the airport at 6:45 so I should probably be asleep right now but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't get any sleep. I'm still in shock that it is finally happening. I guess I have been in the "waiting stage" for so long now that I'm sort of feeling like it is just another step along this journey. I am so thankful to God that He has brought be to this point. The peace that I feel is unbelievable, but I guess since Aminah's name means peace and secure in Christ it is understandable. The next time I write I will be in China. Thanks to everyone that has helped me get to this point on the journey.

Here is the face that I waited so long to see

This was the picture that I received on June 25th. How will I ever be able to wait to see her in person?

What has happened over the last 14 1/2 months

It all started June of 2004. I heard an advertisement about adoption on my local Christian radio station. I hadn't thought of adoption until then. I thought that I was getting this message for someone else. I even questioned God and asked him to give me peace and finacial security about adopting. I asked Him if He remembered me praying for a husband and then a baby and I thought I heard him say, "All in good time." So I continued to pray. I talked to my sister and she asked if I was still planning on naming my daughter Whilamina after my grandmother. I of course said "YES" and she said that I shouldn't do that to a child. Then she said, "If you do I will shorten it and call her Aminah." I thought that was a nice modern version. The next day I went to a bookstore and looked up meanings of baby names. I didn't even think that Aminah would be in the book but it was, and it meant, Peace and Secure in Christ. The two things I had been praying for about the adoption. That is when I knew that I was going to be a mom to a daughter named Aminah.

I filled out an application with America World Adoption Association and was put on their single's waiting list. I was told that it would be about 6 months before I would be off the waiting list. In the meantime I went ahead and began my homestudy and it was finalized two days before I was taken off of the waiting list (this is not the recommended way but I felt I was being led to do this) the first week of October. The dossier (paperwork) just seemed to be overwhelming at times but I continued with the piles referred to as the "paper chase" for this "paper pregnancy," which is what adoption is referred to in the adoption community. My paperwork was finally able to go to the agency the last week of November and I thought it would go from there to China but I had another piece of paper that needed to be done before it could go on. I was finally DTC (dossier to China) on December 10th, 2004. The next thing that I waited for was the day that China logged in my paperwork, December 21st, 2004.

The wait began . . . I was told that it would be about 6 months before I would be able to hear about my daughter. Some people get their referral (which is what they call it when China sends information about the child that they are planning for you to adopt) in 5 months and sometimes it takes 7 months, in the past it used to take around 14 months. In my mind I figured that I could hear the first week of May at the soonest but referrals were running late and they started showing up later and later each month. So towards the end of the school year I was very anxious. I didn't receive a referral in May so it looked like it would be June. Each day was a blur as I just jumped each time the phone rang. I watched the websites for any little rumor that referrals were coming.

Finally, on June 24th, at 11:22 am the phone rang. It was offical! It was an 11 month old little girl her name was Yong Xiu Ping. Yong was her last name (meaning forever, everlasting), Xiu was her first name (pronounced shou like in shout, and means focused), and her middle name was Ping (meaning peaceful or calm). She was born on July 20th, 2004. Getting this information was such an amazing feeling. I had been waiting a little over a year for this news. I would have to wait for the next day until I saw her picture. It doesn't sound like it would be that difficult but it would be similar to not being able to see your child for a day after he or she was born. So another wait time began. After seeing her little face I began to realize that this little baby was really my daughter. The next wait time began. I had to wait to find out when I was going to travel. School was going to be starting in August so I was hoping to travel before school began. I didn't find out until the end of July that I would be traveling on August 18th and I would be able to see and hold Yong Xiu Ping (to be named Aminah XiuPing) on August 22nd, 2004. This is called "gotcha day" and many families call it the day they became a "forever family." That brings everyone pretty much up to date.

Timeline

I am only 7 days away from leaving for China. I would love to be able to add to Aminah's site each day that I am in China. Hopefully I will be able to share this awesome experience with family and friends. Please check back.
Aminah's Mommy