A Family for Lina

Thanksgiving

2005-11-26T20:12:00.001-08:00

We had a very nice Thanksgiving. We dished up Lina a plateful of the usual Thanksgiving day fare and she didn't seem to like it. But she did enjoy eating off of Justin's plate next to her (which had all the same food on it). Lina seems to be taking the whole holiday season in stride. She's curious, but not too much. She asks "what's that?" a lot when we're in the store or when I'm decorating the house and she seems to love the festivities. It will be fun this year to have a preschooler in the house for Christmas. She is a total doll and makes us laugh constantly. I highly recommend this whole adoption experience. It still tears me apart that someone had to let her go. I'm so grateful, yet so amazed.

This has really made me appreciate the adoption we undergo with Christ. I used to think of adoption as second best or not quite family. I never realized that Christ adopted us not because He had to, but because He wanted to. He picked us. He loves us. I know I don't love Lina any less than her sister and brothers. I know she is not any less "wanted". She is ours, she is a Dwyer. She is a perfect fit. God created her in China and in His awesome way, communicated to us that she was waiting. All we had to do was go get her. I'm glad we did.

So, am I thankful this Thanksgiving? Yes, very much so. I have a wonderful family. I couldn't want any more. God is good.

Wow has Time Flown!!

2005-09-12T16:27:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we've been home 2 1/2 months. So much has happened. Our trip was awesome. Lina traveled very well. We took over 1000 pictures...aaahhh!!!

We are very blessed to haved Lina. She is funny and she loves to laugh. Her English improves every day. She still sleeps with us. But she does have her own room now. I've never seen a child go through so many facial expressions at once. She seems to be taking the huge change in her life in stride. She knows our names and calls us by them.

Things she loves:
Dora the Explorer
Spongebob
chicken nuggets
Starbucks Frappacinos in the bottle
catsup
hot tubbing
baby dolls and Barbies
chocolate
baths
ice cream

Words she can say: Mama, Baba, Dodo (justin), Sheree, Dora, chicken, water, milk, no, yeah, nigh night, juhbuhjuhs (pajamas), shoeson (shoes), cart (shopping cart), towel, hot, dirty, baby, Barbie, peepee, paper (for toilet paper), spoon, and more...

She is an absolute joy. She fits in so well with us. And we all love her very much. We are definitely the "lucky" ones!!

Six More Days

2005-06-07T19:25:00.000-07:00

Six more days. The time is flying by so fast I find myself wanting to just be able to grab at it and slow it down a little, and then on the other hand, I want to be in China with Lina right now. Never have I been on a vacation that will literally change our lives as we know it. People ask me..."Are you ready?"...YES I AM. "Have you packed yet?"...YES I HAVE. "Are you excited?" ...ABSOLUTELY. "What does her bedroom look like?"...hmmm, it looks like it has a lot of her brother Mark's stuff in it, and it's not very "cute". Lina will be staying with us in our room for a month or so. Then we will be playing musical rooms. Mark will move into Eric's room, Eric will move to Reno. The more things change, the more...they change. Three out of high school, four to go. How can I be a mother to a 3 year old and a 22 year old? What is God doing here?

I've been asked if I'm scared. Not in the least. I'm only scared when I'm not sure it's God's Perfect Plan. If I feel anything, it is privileged.

So, this is my week, carpets cleaned tomorrow, doc appointment for me, David has an appointment regarding some minor surgery on Thursday, Sheree and Justin finish the school year on Thursday and have two different awards ceremonies. Friday Sheree goes to the orthodontist to have some strange appliance removed from the roof of her mouth and Saturday Eric graduates and we've been invited to a million grad parties. Saturday night and into Sunday morning I am working at Safe Grad. Sunday we go to church and get prayed for (I'm most looking forward to this). Monday we leave.

Eighteen Days

2005-05-26T20:23:00.000-07:00

So, how do you make 18 days fly by??? Well, I think I know how. We'll start with Memorial Day weekend. This should fly by. Next week we have school on Tues, Wed, and Thurs, then we take a school field trip to Six Flags Marine World on Fri. I'm chaperoning for that. And that will also be my last day working at Capital Christian. I am taking the last week of school off to get ready for the arrival of our daughter, Lina. Then, Eric graduates June 11, we'll spend the whole day celebrating this and that night I will most likely work at Safe Grad all night. The next day...June 13th, we leave for China. I can't believe how un-ready I am. I don't even have a bed for her. I think she'll sleep in our room for the first month or so. Mark will be gone all summer interning at Valley Springs in Roseville, so we'll move his stuff downstairs into Eric's room. Eric will be moving out sometime in July to move into his house up in Reno where he'll attend UNR in the fall. So, we'll move Lina and her belongings into Mark's ex-room. Okay, so can everyone follow this game of musical rooms??? Good, because my head is spinning.

I can't wait to get Lina!! Sometimes I can hardly stand it. I live almost as if she's with us now. My near future is starting to include Lina. Very soon she will be doing all that we do. She'll go to the store with me, she'll join us on our next vacation, she'll eat every meal with us, she'll be in our family pictures, her presence will be felt in every aspect of our lives. How blessed can one family be? I feel as if I've won the lottery. God's Lottery!! Wow.

Dear Lina,
We are coming soon. I know that you don't even know who we are. You have been living with a family that you probably thought would always be your family. But God has always had another idea for you. He always knew that we were your family. He's has prepared our hearts for you and I pray He is preparing your heart for us. We know that we love you. We know you are a gift from God to us. You are a part of our family and our hearts already. I've already registered you for pre-school in the fall. You will start a life with us. And I pray that your heart will grow to accept and love us as we love you!!

Mommy

Sick all week

2005-05-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

So, after thinking last week that I'd basically made it through the whole school year and not gotten any of the various and yucky diseases the kids at school got, I got royally sick and was out almost the whole week from school. I did work Wed. and tried to on Thurs. but went home. This has been very discouraging. But I think I've turned the corner. I finally went on antibiotics yesterday and feel I may recover.

Today we got our airline tickets for our trip to China!! We are really going. This is too awesome for words and I almost can't believe it. I can't be more excited!!! I've never gone on a vacation and brought back such an awesome "souvenir". A daughter! Oh my gosh. We also got our official document for travel approval. It has a picture of Lina on it, she must be under a year old. It's in black and white, but it looks like she has a baby rash on her cheeks. She is adorable! I want to hug her and kiss her all over her cute little face. I get scared sometimes and wonder if she'll like me. What if we don't bond? How well will she be prepared for us? How difficulat a transition will this be for her? God, You are in control of all of these questions and outcomes!!

Tomorrow I turn 47. Wow, am I too old to be doing this? I don't feel old at all. But when Lina graduates from high school I'll be 62!!!! Holy Guacamole. Eric graduates in 3 weeks. Ryan graduates next year. Sheree in 6 years and Justin in 7. Lina in 15 YEARS!!! Okay, big gulp. What am I doing? I'm doing what God had planned from the beginning of time.

Our Itinerary

2005-05-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you who would like to follow our trip, I will be posting excerpts and photos...hopefully daily...to our new Yahoo Group. Please come and visit often and post any messages you may have for us. Share our joy as we are...GOING FOR LINA!! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goingforlina/

So, this is NOT set in stone, but here is our up-to-the-minute, tentative itinerary for our Trip to Lina!! In case you are all wondering, Sheree and Justin will be going with us. The boys will be staying at home under the watchful supervision of our entire neighborhood and numerous friends.

June 13 Leave Reno 7:15PM
Arrive LAX 8:50PM
June 14 Leave LAX 1:40AM
June 15 Arrive Beijing 5:20AM

This is where we go through orientation. We will also see a friend of ours from Carson City who is studying in Beijing for a few months. We will visit Tianenmen Square, the Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China. From here we will fly to Hubei Province and GET LINA!!! We will then spend 5 days in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei getting to know our new daughter. After we get her passport we will travel to Guangzhou where we do the official adoption and appear before the Chinese Consulate for Adoption Affairs on June 27th. Then we are free to leave...

June 29 Leave Guangzhou 2:20PM
Arrive Beijing 5:15PM
Leave Beijing 9:00PM
Arrive LAX 5:15PM
Leave LAX 9:55PM
Arrive Reno 11:25PM (argh)

From here we will start our new life with our new daughter, Lina Claire Ada Dwyer!

to be continued....

THIS IS IT

2005-05-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today is the day
We got our "TA"

Yes, folks, sometime around the 17th of June we will be traveling to China to get our precious Lina. My good "chat" friend, Tina, called me this morning while I was at school and gave me her great news...she had travel approval. I knew we had to be close behind. Within two hours we had our travel approval. God is soooo good. We should know in the next couple of days our exact travel dates. We are a very happy family right now.

Hang on Lina, Here we come!!

2005-05-02T21:51:00.000-07:00

Our animals, past and present and borrowed...

2005-05-02T21:31:00.000-07:00

All my kids. Sheree, 13...David, 22...Ryan, 16...Eric, 18...Mark, 21...Justin, 11

2005-05-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Chris and Minda (Valentines Day)

When will we get Lina?

2005-04-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

We should hear any day, any hour, any minute now that we have been granted permission by the Chinese government to go to China and get our Lina. This is called Travel Approval, or to all of us adopting and "talking" to each other on the different Yahoo Groups..."TA". Everything we go through, every hoop we have to jump is abbreviated. When we finish our dossiers and they're mailed off to China is called DTC. We send a LOI (letter of intent) to inform China of our request to adopt a specific child. When they get this LOI they have to approve it...this is PA or pre-approval. After our documents are DTC the next step is LID (log in date). This is the day that China logs our documents in and starts the months long process of approving them and then notifying us of our TA. There is also our SW-Social Worker, SWI-Social Welfare Institute that our babies are associated with, DH-our Dear Husbands who pretty much go along for the ride, NSN is a non special needs child and SN refers to special needs (which Lina is classified as). WC is a waiting child, also known as SN. LOL (laugh out loud) is what we do a lot instead of breaking things or yelling at our family during this long wait.

So, When will we get Lina? I don't know. I thought we would get our TA this week. But we haven't heard a thing. No TA. So, without that, we have no dates, no way of knowing when we will travel or when we will see her for the first time (even though I feel like I know her.) Lina is with me every second of the day. I think about her, pray for her, make plans regarding her life, imagine life with her...Thank God He knows the time, He has it all laid out. It's in His hands and that's the best place for it to be.

The Wait

2005-03-18T20:40:00.000-08:00

Well, according to everyone who posts online, The Wait is the hardest part. And it is. I feel kind of in limbo. I'm not overly excited because it could be two months before we hear anything regarding our travel to China. But, I've been staring at this picture of Li-Na since the beginning of December and I'd like to have her here with us. I am asked daily when we are going to get her?..do we know when we'll be able to bring her home?..when do we go to China?.....I WISH I KNEW!! Not having any kind of idea is hard. Should I apply for our Visas now? They're only good for 90 days. That would only give us until the end of June. I think that's cutting it close. Maybe I'll wait until the end of April.

A bunch of families on the Waiting Child website got their travel approvals this week. These families were DTC and LID around Dec. and Jan. In some ways, two months seems very soon. And in other ways it seems like an eternity. I will be 47 on May 21st. Will I spend my 47th birthday in China? I'd love it.

Musings

2005-02-20T21:15:00.000-08:00

Is it possible to miss someone you have never met? I miss Li-Na. I see her picture every time I walk on my treadmill and I pray for her. Chris talks about her all the time...I know he misses her, too. I'm excited to have her here with us. I have come to the point now where I think about her when I go places and do things and I wonder what it will be like when she's here. What will it be like when we take her to church? How will she react to her brothers and sister? Will she like the dog and cats? How hard will it be to communicate with her and how frustrated will she be with that? What will she think of the snow in the winter? How long will it take for her to adjust to our food? Is there some way to make her understand even now that we love her and want only the best for her, even though we are taking her away from everything she has ever known? That would be hard enough to fathom if we could speak the same language, but how do you get that across the language "barrier"? "Wo ai ni, Li-Na" Can you hear me? "I love you" I do. "Wo yuan yang shi ni de mama" I will always be your mother. Do you know that? I'm sorry to take you from all you've know, but I'm not sorry to be giving you a chance. A chance to have a forever family. A chance to have a good life and lots of love.

I bought a new license plate frame. The old one said (with all the certainty I had...) "Game Over Score: Boys 5 Girls 1". Okay, I was wrong, the game isn't over. So now I have one that says "Final Score: Boys 5 (heart) Girls 2". I'm even hesitant to be so positive with that one. What if God has a little sister for you, Li-Na? Oh, I just can't go there.

So, we wait for you. We miss you....

Mama

2005-02-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

Our Lina. Born August 7, 2002. Lina was born Xue Li Na. Her birthday is the same day as Chris's mom's, Claire. Claire passed away in March 2004.

Our Journey So Far

2005-02-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

Our Journey So Far begins sometime last year in the spring of 2004. I was asking God what He had for me in the near future since our children are growing up and moving out of the house. David is 22 and lives in Reno and is attending UNR. Mark is 20 and is currently living at home and is attending WNCC. Eric graduates in June from Carson High School. Ryan is a Junior at CHS. Sheree is our only daughter (right now). She is in 6th grade at Capital Christian School. And my baby, Justin, just turned 11 and is in 5th grade at CCS. As I began thinking of what this stay-at-home mom would be doing with the rest of her life, I asked God what He might have for me. I had contemplated real estate and various other careers. But God had something different in mind. Or maybe He had something the same in mind. As I asked Him what it was that I was "good at", He said..."You are a mother". That's what He created me to be...a mother. Not the most esteemed profession these days, but it's what I've been doing for the past 22 years. Well, God, Now What? That was when He gave me a picture in my mind of our family. It was a family portrait and it contained all of us, and one more. She was a little Asian girl, right in the front of this family picture. I asked God..."Who is she?" He replied, "She is your daughter." "But, God, we don't have an Asian daughter."

"Oh, but you will..."

Thus began the journey. After some inquiries we found Holt...our adoption agency. We applied at the end of August 2004. Before we knew it we had a social worker. Sevana Newman with "A Child's Dream". She came to our house 4 times. She told us we needed to get finger printed with the police department. We did this in the middle of September. Then she told us we needed to get physicals at the doctor. So we ALL did. We also had to get our financial status, pictures of the family, letters of employment, birth certificates, marriage certificate, shots, clearance from the police department....etc,etc. And then, we waited and waited. It took over 2 months to get those fingerprints back from the FBI. We were at a standstill until we got those fingerprints back and our homestudy completed. Once we did, we hit the pavement running. We took our approved homestudy to Reno and applied with USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.) And we got to be fingerprinted AGAIN!! After four weeks, we had our beautiful I171H form. Who would've thought that the word "I171H" would mean so much to us. After receipt of this I took all our documents that we had been gathering over the months to the Secretary of State to have them all state certified. The homestudy had to be mailed up to Washington as that's where it was notarized. The homestudy came back from Washington before all the documents that I took down the street did!!! Then we made the 4 hour trip to San Francisco to have everything authenticated at the Chinese Consulate. We dropped everything off on a Friday and Chris drove back the next Wednesday to pick everything back up...all authenticated and ready to go.

Then I photocopied and put together our dossier and overnight mailed it at the UPS Store by Starbucks (that's very important to note). By 10:23 the next morning (Friday Feb. 4th) it was in the hands of Holt International. And the very next Friday...Feb. 11th we were DTC. DOSSIER TO CHINA!!!!

And now we wait...some more. Aside from a few details, we are on pins and needles waiting for the phone call from Holt telling us we can go get Lina. Our wait could be anywhere from two to four months. So, we are "on call" between April and July, I guess. We'll keep y'all posted as our wait progresses...

2005-02-15T16:13:00.000-08:00

Our Family: I'm in front. On couch: Mark, Eric, Ryan, Chris and David. On back of couch: Sheree and Justin. Picture of Li-Na...our China daughter