The Cheeky Robinson Clan

I Love Summer

OK, so I know it is not officially summer, but the weather has been nice in Walla Walla, and a few weeks ago we had a little dinner party on our deck with some buddies and enjoyed some fresh salads, incredible steaks, great drinks, and most of all - each other...a taste of summer!!

I hope you're all enjoying the warmer weather, and that you have a summer filled with Jesus, good times, and great friends!!

Cutest little girl EVER.

My godson, Grady, chillin'.

Honeydew - yummy!

Our friend Jamie with Abi. So cute!!

Dinner! Grilled steaks, Greek quinoa lemon-garlic salad, black bean/corn lime-cilantro salad and strawberries!

Precious friends!!!

Once again....cutest girl EVER!!! Also, she had a chair to sit in, but decided she wanted to sit on the patio steps. She is so funny!

After dinner, we had fun at our neighborhood park sliding and swinging!

Abi wanted to catch mama too!

My godson, Logan, playing in the tunnel.

Happy boy!

Love, love, love her!!!

Me and my girl.

Abi pretending she's sleeping in the tunnel.

She's awake!

And asleep again.

Only my farmer friend carries around bullets in his pocket!

What is it about your darling baby in the darling bath??

Cutest child ever?????

Showing how she can get her own hair wet. :)

Love Day

We had a lovely day of love on Feb. 14. Me and Abi hung out all day (but that is our blessing every day), and we also made homemade cupcakes to bring to a few friends. I got Abi her first Valentine's Day gift - a cupcake cup. :) We celebrated as a family at home with take-out Chinese food, candles, cards, chocolate and flowers! I didn't get pictures of the latter, but here are two from the day. :)

Our Valentine drinking from her new favorite cup.

Homemade cupcakes to bring to friends (and I saved some at home for Andrew too, of course): traditional chocolate cake with tiramisu marscapone frosting, toasted coconut and red sprinkles. :)

Chinese New Year 2013

It was a precious day to get to celebrate our first Chinese New Year together. Abi Mei wasn't interested in having her photo taken, and Baba wasn't able to be in the picure, but here's a few from the day. :) After church, we celebrated with dear friends of ours who are Chinese and own the best Chinese restaurant in town (or anywhere in Washington, I'm sure!). They had a Lion Dance during the meal. Incredible!!

Cute, cute and more cute!

Greetings, friends!

Just wanted to post some photos to share the latest of our lives. Hope yours is wonderful. I've been growing in deep ways as a daughter of God, mother of Abi, wife of Andrew, and a pastor at our church. Jesus has come to me in such beautiful, sometimes difficult, sometimes joyful, ways and I'm gobbling up every second He chooses to show up. This doesn't mean I get to spend devoted hours with Him every day, but I choose to get up early in the morning and be with Him, then actively seek Him and commune with Him while playing with Abi, or doing the dishes, or making dinner, or taking a walk with a friend, or working on something for my beloved church, or whatever is going on. If we seek Him, we will find Him, through the times we are flourishing or the times we are desolate. The key is that we seek Him.

May we all continue this awesome pursuit. Blessings!
Heather

Abi Mei loves spaghetti!

First Christmas together

Abi's big Christmas gift...her own little play house. She loves it. So does Baba. :)

Happy New Year! (and celebrating with cheeky, silly friends - as you can see behind us!)

Pigtails!

Abi now likes one of her favorite stuffed animals to eat with her. :)

First haircut! (while eating an orange and watching Veggie Tales) :)

My friend Jamie, the hair sylist, post-hair cut for Abi. SO CUTE!

Abi's first time in the snow. Abi didn't like it...she was too cold. :(

Abi in jeans! (She wouldn't smile or look at the camera for this picture because she just wanted to head out to see her bestie, Ada!)

Cute pigtails again!

Celebrating with dear friends that Abi is home...Three years ago they got us a very special bottle of wine to drink together when we had our child. What a special night this was...celebrating at last.

Bath baby!

So in love with my girl.

Happy 40th birthday, Baba! New guitar

Abi Mei with two of her cousins at my sister's wedding.

Darling

Ballet slippers!

PoPo with Abi Mei

Beautiful new family...my sister with her three daughters, new husband and his two children. Also pictured are my parents. It was a lovely ceremony, and Andrew and I got to officiate. What an honor!

Wally Lee and Kristi Canning-Lee with me and Andrew. Such a day of celebration!

Time to go play in the snow!

She was much warmer, but still did not like the snow. :( We'll try again next year!

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/