The Cheeky Robinson Clan: August 2012

Picnic!

We went on a family picnic tonight! I didn't tell Andrew about the idea, and when he got home from work I had everything ready to go...picnic basket with plates, utensils, napkins, blanket, etc., and another cold-keeping bag with our meal - chicken caesar lettuce wraps (homemade caesar dressing!), homemade pasta salad, watermelon, Ginger Ale, Lemonade and a moon pie from China. :) Andrew got home, changed his clothes, and off we went to Pioneer Park - Walla Walla's beautiful, big park!!

Abi is ready to eat!

Moon Pie from China. She loves this treat...her cheeks are full of moon pie in this photo. :)

Weeeeeee!!!

Love this photo so much. Love my precious family.

Focused on the ducks and geese! She loved them.

Tine for some bird watching.

Pheasant from Nepal.

Pheasant from China.

She started running...

...then stopped just to be super silly! It was hilarious! (More photos below...)

Then back to running!! I love the look of delight on this face.

I love Abi's face in this picture!! Hilarious.

I have no doubt that this girl, in her life, will "take the bull by the horns"!!

The Delight of Abi

It still blows me away that this little life is in our life. Abigail Mei delights every part of me. If there is anything I have learned about parenting so far, it is this: nothing is more important (including obedience) than having relationship with this little one; having a heart-to-heart connection. I want Abi to know that there is nothing more I would rather do (not any project, not any cleaning, not any more sleep or to read a book, not to sleep in, nothing) than to be with her while simultaneously with Jesus, playing with her, honoring her, laughing with her, comforting her, feeding her, providing for her, listening to her, rolling on the floor with her, dancing with her, worshiping with her, praying with her, singing with her and to her, swimming with her, seeing her and her Baba play or cuddle; loving her and living life with her. In short: enjoying her. And there is nothing more I want from her than for her to simply enjoy me and our relationship. I don't want her to be obedient more than I want her to enjoy relationship. I don't want her to be compliant, or to go to sleep faster, or to stop taking the tissue off the tissue roll, more than I want her to just enjoy relationship with me and her Baba.

Abigail Mei, I love you with every part of me and all I want is a heart relationship with you; for you to know you are loved at all times by us, and most of all by Jesus.

You are our delight! You are His delight!

Playdate with Jamie and the Brown boys

We had fun on our first playdate at Jamie's house, my dear friend, with her three boys who are our godsons, Hunter, Logan and Grady.

Grady and Abi

Abi loves the piano

Love me some Grady!

Azlan

Abi wanted Jamie to hold her! So cute.

Lunchtime. I love how Abi's hand is on Hunter's leg. Too cute. And Logan cracks me up in this picture.

The boys were making Abi laugh.

Hunter was so sweet - he played with Abi nearly the whole time!

We were going to swim, so I had put a swim diaper on Abi. But then we didn't swim, and she went potty right through the thin diaper and her little skort. :) So that's why she just has a diaper on at this point. Also...notice how cute Logan is in the background inside his little tent laying on the couch.

Too sweet for words.

Yellowstone - drag racing, KOA style

One of my nephew's (Dan) and niece's (Courtney) planned a drag racing event with the boys and men in our family at the KOA campground...

It was Abi's bedtime...

...but she had to come cheer for Baba.

Baba didn't make it to the second round, but he was close!

After 10 or so of our guys raced, suddenly a motorcycle group came rolling in. It was funny! We cheered for them too. :)

Is Dan cheating or just playing smart?

My brother Thomas hitchin' a ride back to the starting line. Haha!

Adoption Timeline At-A-Glance

March 28, 2009: Made the decision to adopt from Nepal.
March 30, 2009: Google-searched for an agency that has a Nepal program (there weren't any in 2008 since we had searched at that time), and found Adoption ARK.
April 6, 2009: E-mailed Adoption ARK expressing interest in Nepal.
April 6, 2009: Linda Podas (adoption consultant) at Adoption ARK e-mailed back, and sent the pre-qualification application.
April 7, 2009: Completed the application and faxed it to Linda.
April 8, 2009: Linda lets us know that we pre-qualify, and have been put on the 2010 Nepal waiting list.
April 16, 2009: Linda e-mails letting us know that our name has come up on the Nepal waiting list and we can officially apply into the Nepal adoption program!
April 17, 2009: Linda sends us the official contract, and says that we need to turn it around within 72 hours, along with money. :-) The contract is 35 pages (!).
April 20-22, 2009: Read the contract, filled out all the pages, and sent it in the mail with our money by April 22.
April 23, 2009: Linda e-mails saying our contract has been accepted, and that we are officially in the program. She said our case manager would be in touch with us within 48 hours.
April 24, 2009: Alina Radoslav e-mails us introducing herself as our case manager. Sends us lots of information and lots of attachments to fill out!
April 30, 2009: Phone call with Alina to meet each other and go over what we should be working on right now.
May 1 - June 9, 2009: Worked on our home study.
June 17, 2009: Overnighted our home study packet.
July 14, 2009: Mailed I-600A form to USCIS.
July 31, 2009: Home Study interviews in Seattle.
Aug. 28, 2009: Home Inspection at our house.
Sept. 30, 2009: Heather has her doctor's appointment for dossier medical report.
Oct. 3 and 4, 2009: Psychologist interviews; MMPI-2 test (457 questions!); Rohrschach test; intelligence test; and some other test that I don't know the name of.
Oct. 5, 2009: Meeting with psychologist to discuss report findings and review letters written by psychologist for our adoption agency. (Note: Tests confirmed that we are not crazy. Whew!)
Oct. 13, 2009: Andrew has his doctor's appointment for dossier medical report.
Oct. 22, 2009: Home Study approval reports received in the mail. (!!)
Oct. 22, 2009: Home Study approval reports sent to USCIS for I-600A application.
Nov. 10, 2009: Found out the USCIS address they gave us to send our home study report to was incorrect. Had to re-send to a different address.
Nov. 18, 2009: Sent all of our notarized documents to the Secretary of State for certification approval.
Nov. 30, 2009: Fingerprinting for USCIS approval.
Dec. 1, 2009: Dossier sent to Adoption Ark.
Dec. 7, 2009: Dossier sent to Nepal.
Dec. 11, 2009: Our agency's in-country Nepal represent receives our dossier.
Dec. 15, 2009: We are officially on the Nepal 2009 list! We are #500.
Aug. 6, 2010: The US closes adoptions to Nepal. We plan to keep our file there, praying that the doors will open again. May the Lord move mountains so these precious children can be with their forever families!

A New Beginning - China
Mar. 21, 2011: Chose Lifeline Children's Services as our agency.
Mar. 22 to Oct. 5, 2011: 10 months of all of the same stuff as above. :)
Oct. 21, 2011: Received USCIS approval to adopt from China.
Nov. 9, 2011: DTC! (Dossier To China)
Nov. 23, 2011: Our agency confirmed that CCCWA has received our dossier.
Dec. 20, 2011: Matched to our amazing 12-month old daughter!!
Dec. 30, 2011: Pre-approval received from China for our daughter!
April 24, 2012: Letter of Approval (LOA) from China
May 16, 2012: i800 approval (USA approval) for our daughter
May 25, 2012: USA approval cabled to US Consulate in Guangzhou. Now the Consulate will prepare the "Article 5."
June 11, 2012: Article 5 picked up from the Consulate and taken to the CCCWA.
June 25, 2012: Travel Approval (TA)!
July 13, 2012: Leave for China!
July 16, 2012: "Gotcha Day" – family of three!
July 17, 2012: Official adoption day with China.
July 25, 2012: Consulate appointment – Abigail became officially ours according to the US, and officially an American citizen!
July 28, 2012: We returned home to Walla Walla as a family! Abi also became an American citizen the moment she stepped on American soil.

Adoption blogs I follow (all but the first one are Nepal adoptions):

http://hernkekid.blogspot.com/ http://achairtospare.blogspot.com/ http://aboyfortheharrells.blogspot.com/ http://pebbletostone.blogspot.com/ http://apennyanickeladollaroradime.blogspot.com/ http://themelsersfaith.blogspot.com/ http://yoloholloway.blogspot.com/ http://bfsmoms.blogspot.com/ http://oak2ktm.blogspot.com/ http://nepaladoptionadventure.blogspot.com/ http://bugbeanandreed.blogspot.com/ http://kjernald.blogspot.com/ http://www.nepaladoptionblog.com/ http://jsjobeadoption.blogspot.com/ http://whenwebelong.blogspot.com/

The Cheeky Robinson Clan

Picnic!

The Delight of Abi

Playdate with Jamie and the Brown boys

Yellowstone - drag racing, KOA style

Blog Archive

Labels