Celebrating While You Sleep

 

 

My Sweet Luyana,

 

You are now 2 years old! Such a big girl! We celebrated today; we are so thankful that you were born and we cannot wait for you to come take your place in this family. This is how we celebrated...the only thing that could have made this day better is if you had been here!

 

Grandma bought you this doll for your birthday. It's so cute! And look how well it matches the quilt mommy made for your bed.

 

 

Well, then mommy thought that your new doll needed a quilt just like yours and a little pillow to match! I think we are going to look for a cradle for your baby doll for Christmas. If you don't like to play with dolls, that's ok. We have lots of cars and dinosaurs around here too.

 

Your big brother was pretty excited about your birthday today. Here he is holding up a balloon and saying, "Happy Birthday Mei Mei!"

 

 

I already know you like cake; we saw pictures! So I think you would have liked these cupcakes that mommy made special just for your big day!

 

Daddy was really happy when he came home from work that there were cupcakes. He snuck one before dinner. Naughty daddy!

Your brother wanted to buy you a birthday present. He picked out this toy for you; we think you will like it, it has lots of lights and spins!

 

Mommy made a special Chinese dinner!

Yum, Yum!

 

Your brother saw mommy using chopsticks and picked them up and started eating away with them. I think he is a natural!

 

We sang Happy Birthday to your picture...I bet we looked silly doing that! 



Next year will be so different. We will know you and know what you like. Mommy will make you any cake you want and we will have a BIG party! Love you little girl and I hope it isn't too much longer until we get to hold you in our arms.

 

 

Love,

Mom

Proof that we're not forgotten (blessed beyond belief)...

If I could only stop the tears so I could type this! Today is our sweet girl's 2nd birthday. I woke up sad and yet excited at the same time. I blew up balloons while Camden batted them all around. I started making cupcakes and while they were cooling, I checked my email.....BLESSED BEYOND BELIEF.

 

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!

I AM NOT FORGOTTEN

During this past week, I've never, ever prayed so much in my whole life. Not just for our daughter and the adoption process, but for most everything that came my way. I was praying for other adoptive families I've met through the process, requests that popped up on my facebook feed, and issues going on with family and friends. I was specifically praying hard for our LOA (letter of acceptance, our next step), LOA for a friend, TA (travel approval) for another friend, and a few other important things. God's answers in order: "No, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes." THAT WAS HARD. Within the week, he said yes to all my prayers for others, but no to us. My feelings were all over the map. I was and am genuinely happy and blessed by the yesses, but  was also confused and feeling FORGOTTEN by the big no. I really felt that God wanted me to keep praying, but why is it so hard? Why did I feel like I just wanted to avoid Him? All day yesterday I couldn't pray and I felt empty and I begged God to fill me up, so I waited. And today, we sang this song at church; I've never heard it before, but I think I know why the worship team chose this song.



God very clearly answered my prayer to be filled back up by reminding me that I am not forgotten, He knows my name, and He's the father to the fatherless. I am feeling filled and back to praying. Please help us pray and let me know you're praying. It fills me up even more knowing I'm not alone in these prayers! Here is what we're asking for this week:

1. Our LOA (letter of acceptance)...tomorrow would be nice, we're
    feeling a little overdue for that!
2. New pictures of Luyana. We sent a cake to her orphanage for    
    her birthday and there is a possibility of getting pictures of this.
3. That a friend in the adoption community, who is going to
    Luyana's orphanage sometime this month, will be able to meet
    her and report back to us!

You are not forgotten!

She's turning 2!

It is strange to desperately miss someone you have never met.

In 2 1/2 weeks our little Luyana will be turning 2 years old. I wish so much I was thinking about what cake to make and what birthday presents to get. Instead my heart is just aching. Although I know we're getting closer everyday, every day feels too long!

We will definitely celebrate this year when her birthday comes around and we will send a cake to her orphanage. (Sending a cake to the orphanage is also a super sneaky way to possibly get new photos too, I will die of happiness if we get to see a new photo of her.)

And I'll tell you one thing, she is going to have one special 3rd birthday party!

But for now, it just hurts.

extra paperwork, extra fees, no problem

Remember when I told you that the first time we wanted to view Luyana's file (back in February) we were told no? The reason was that our agency has a child spacing policy that the adopted child must be at least 9 months younger than your youngest child. Luyana is only 6 months younger than Camden. When we were finally allowed to view her file, we were told that it might not work out for several reasons; one reason being the age issue. We had to request a waiver from the agency by explaining that we would not raise them like twins. Amazingly enough, we were approved for the waiver several hours after we submitted it! I thought that was all over...until last night! I was looking at my home study for something and I realized it said we were approved for a child "no less than 9 months younger" than Camden. I emailed the agency and was told we need the case worker to write an addendum, we need to submit more paperwork to immigration, and pay $360 to submit that paperwork.

UGH. $360?!? I emailed the bad news to Mark. Whine, complain, moan about our lack of good fortune (pun intended).

Then Mark reminded me of how God had already provided this money in the last week through these means:

1. Mark's mom held a garage sale to raise money for our adoption and yesterday gave us the $285 she had earned.
2. Slowly, as we've been able to afford it, we are making a room in our basement into a play room. Our carpet guy was terrible, so we were looking for another one when I was reminded (hello!) that my cousin's husband does flooring. We hired him and saved $47 on the installation by using him (thanks Caleb!)
3. My mom's friend was selling a twin bed. And since our Little Buddy prefers to sleep on the hardwood floor, wrapped in a rug, we thought maybe he was feeling cramped in his toddler bed. She was selling it for $30. When we went to pick it up, she gave it to us for free and said to put the money toward our adoption. (Thanks Lisa K.!)

Drumroll please....grand total of $362. Exactly what we needed, plus $2 (which Mark said we were going to use to buy sodas).

Amazing reminder that God knows what we need before we even know it!

THE NAME

Before we knew who our daughter was,  Mark and I quickly agreed on a name and planned to use her Chinese name as her middle name. After we were matched with her, whenever someone would ask what her Chinese name was, I just loved the way it sounded. I loved saying it. It was her. THAT was her name. So after much debate, figuring, and deciding, we ditched the original name and came up with the perfect name for our little sweetie...

LUYANA CLAIRE

 

Say "Lu" like Lou and "yana" with the short A sound. (Like the A in art NOT like the A in grape.)

 

Our daughter's Chinese name is Lu Yan. We chose the name Luyana to honor her heritage and her beginnings. Claire because that's been Mark and my favorite girl name for a long time. Luyana Claire Potgeter, we can't wait to meet you in person!

When I was pregnant with Little Buddy, we had a prenatal name for him: Kip (think Napoleon Dynamite...you get the picture). It was a name that Mark always joked that he liked so I allowed him to call him that prenatally only! So we needed a pre-adoption name for our daughter and hadn't come up with one when my brother randomly called her Lulu. So it was very interesting when we saw her name was Lu Yan!  At this point we plan to transition off of Lulu and onto Yana as a nickname. My mother-in-law called me tonight and told me that Yana is a Hebrew name and means "He answers". I tried not to cry when she said that because yes, He does. Every time.

Just when you thought you couldn't handle any more good news....

We found out today that our paperwork in China has already been translated. This is VERY good news! This means that we can guess with a little bit more certainty about when we travel. We have prayed many times that we could travel before the holidays. November travel is looking very possible!