Li Li's Development as of June 15, 2007

Here is a document we received today that was translated for us. It even included information about her day and place of discovery, but that is for her to share when she grows up (if she chooses to).

With the good care of ‘mother’ after she came to our Institute, Zi Zi has been growing healthily. Her crying sounds are loud; she has good sucking strength.

At one month old, she was strong in moving her hands and feet. When she heard the bell go off, she stopped her activity to listen to it. She was able to see the objects clearly, and able to trace a moving object with her eyes. She excitedly waved her arms when people amused her.

At two months old, she was able to keep her head steady. She was able to steadily lie on her stomach. She was able to raise her upper body with the support of her forearms.

At three months old, she was able to turn her head. If people showed her a picture or a toy, she stretched out her hand to feel it, giving out ‘Ao Ao’ sounds. She smiled a lot.

Zi Zi is lively and bright. She is very energetic. She loves to listen to music. She becomes fussy if she is in need of food or a diaper change. After her needs are met, she stops crying, and then she can stay quietly having fun by herself or go to sleep. Zi Zi is a very lovely little baby. She has fair skin, a pair of bright eyes and a pretty little mouth. She is pretty, lovely, bright and lively. She is energetic and happy every day. She enjoys being entertained. She loves to listen to music. Currently she is able to consume 110 milliliters of milk each time. She eats six times a day. After she has enough amount of food, she closes her mouth to tell that she does not need food any more. She is really pretty and quick-witted. Everyone loves her. We believe that she will become more and more lovely.

Zi Zi follows a good daily routine. She gets up at 7:00 am and goes to bed at 9:20 pm. Her mealtime is 7:15 am, 10:00 am, 1:20 pm, 4:30 pm, 8:00 pm and 11:30 pm. She is also provided with rice milk, vegetable juice and fruit sauce. Zi Zi eats well and plays happily in the daytime. She sleeps well at night. She takes two one-hour naps, in the morning and in the afternoon. Occasionally she gets a cold and she is recovered after taking some medicine.

She loves the toys that can produce sounds. Her favorite activity is to have her ‘mother’ hold her watching TV.

Guardian: Yao Yiguo

The Yifeng County Social Welfare Institute of Jiangxi Province

June 15, 2007

November 5th Referral ! ! !

Can't Sleep

I feel rested but I can't sleep. I don't know if I'm worried I'll oversleep the UPS stalking hour or if her face is keeping me awake. It's a fun kind of anticipation, though and when I say I can't stand it, I'm really eating it up. I guess I'll post a picture from yesterday. I received a call from our agency yesterday Morning, and by 11:40 AM Troy and I were at his office looking at her face! Just like I vividly remember details about the hours before Dodger came, I'll remember what I was doing, what music I was listening to, how I was excited FOREVER.

An Elephant Pregnancy

I don't know the exact length of an elephant's pregnancy, but our waiting for our baby girl is - believe it or not, 28 months from the time we turned in our first signed contract to Children's Hope International. We're on China's files as of 12/5/5 and as of today we are in the final stretch of the waiting game! We are eight weeks away from meeting our dear, cute, chubby cheeked, amazingly gorgeous daughter. We've only seen something similar to a mug shot, all b&w and fuzzy, but that was enough. We fell in love. The dark night of waiting this year has turned into hopeful waiting, due to God showing us His hand in the timing. It's so great when He gives us road signs along the way. One of those was the treatment I found for my tumor-like blood vessels in my head. Two surgeries down, and I'm a thankful, happy camper. The October surgery went amazingly well and I knew once that hurdle was crossed we'd be closer to our girl. If you ever want to read about a miracle worker, just google Dr. Milton Waner. This man was able to do what doctors in Nashville haven't had much of a clue about, and has greatly improved my life. I am so blessed to have found him and been able to be treated by him. There is story after story about God's faithfulness in my health issues but I'm not quite ready to type about it. I'm so ready to meet Lu Zi who was born March 14, 2007 and is waiting for us in the Jiangxi Province (southern China, east of Hunan). We are so full of joy that we are exhausted. So... I'm going to close this post and stalk the UPS man at 7:00 in the morning. At that time, our package will contain more pictures and history and stuff. Friends and family are so welcome to share this with us, celebrate and pray with us that she is well covered while we are apart. This just might be a long 8 weeks. Home stretch is feelin' good.

Our Jubilee

The date and time of meeting our daughter, Mei Jubilee (Li Li) is an unfolding mystery. We have been wondering and waiting for this little girl for two years now. I have grown weary of predicting a likely date. Our timeline has more than doubled since we began the adoption process. To my great surprise and God's loving hand, our hearts are large with hope that only grows with the waiting. A year ago it was not so. I couldn't help but watch friends and family members bring children into the world and wonder when our daughter would come. I had questioned her coming at all. But the reality is that she is coming. And it will set in as time grows closer to her being a part of our every day lives. It could be just right around the corner that our highly anticipated fourth member arrives. As our excitement grows, I can't help but share everything I know, since it's all I have about her. The first thing I want to say is that we have not been matched with a baby yet. Our "plan" was to wait and name her after we received her picture. But with the wait came the need to connect with the idea that we will have a daughter, and she is a real person we can pray for. That means there is no particular baby waiting for us...yet. But God knows her and at the right time will match us (we are currently in the matching room in China). We have requested a baby girl, as young as possible, so she is not waiting for us...yet. At the time we began our process, she had not even been conceived! I'm spending time listening to rumors on chinaadopttalk.com each day to track others' wait and come up with new guesstimates all the time. We are basically in line for a referral within the next 4 months and will travel to China two months after. Our desired travel time is before the end of the year, but the likely travel wait for our date (according to rumors) is January 2008. If you would like to follow along with us, feel free. Just click on Rumor Queen under our links to the side. The one thing I would like to try to explain and it will hopefully make sense is that we are a piece of "approved" paper in China with the date of December 5, 2005. The organization that does international adoptions (CCAA) has completed paperwork up through November 14, 2005. We are close on paper, but they are processing only 6-7 days per month. Each month referrals come out (the first week or so) and each time they do we are one step closer to our moment. Please pray with us as we are matched! She is growing in our hearts and is somewhere on the other side of the moon. I was thinking about that at the beach...that (if she happens to have a window in her orphanage or has ever seen the night sky) we see the same moon. And someday we will look up at the moon together. Selah.
In the picture above, Dodger is holding a Jubilee tomato. We planted these in the spring and are watching them grow. It seemed like forever, waiting for our tomato plants to produce fruit. But they arrived when they were ready. And they continue to be so so good. I can only imagine how perfect God's timing will be when he brings Jubilee home.

Summer Fun

We've had such a blast since school ended that my last post was in March when Dodger turned 6! Since then, we had atleast five Kindergarten parties, because none of us want it to end (including the adults). And many of the moms from Mrs. G's class just recently started to bond, so we've been having girls night outs of our own! Many of us in the former K class have been hit with physical ills this past year and it has brought our group together. By the end of the year, Mrs. G was e-mailing prayer requests to the entire class. And out of our struggles - and Little Hayden who was born TODAY and almost came too too early - a prayer group was birthed to pray for friends in need. The awesome thing about it is that we're all from different backgrounds and denominations but love the same Jesus and have so much color to add to the mix. Make new friends and keep the old...Dodger's exhausted from summertime. Poor dude. All he wants to do is lay on the couch and watch a pup named Scooby Doo. D-man finished up baseball in June and met some cool new friends. He went to Honi and Daddy D's on an airplane, FLYING SOLO, attended Pirate Camp with the Katie and Sam, and today he swam for the Seahawks and won 1st place in his heat for freestyle! I thought summer would be restful, but I guess I've never had a 6 year old before! I'm trying not to hyper-parent and over activate the guy but we're having so much fun. July should settle a bit, and we're going to the beach for the first time that he will be able to remember. He wrote a book in Kindergarten about a hypothetical trip in which he played at the beach making sand castles, ate snacks all day and took a nap under an umbrella. I'm looking forward to that kind of trip. When we come back I will have my next trip to consult with Dr. Waner at the Vascular Birthmark Institute in New York City! I finally have a diagnosis. I have a diagnosis, Finally. Finally! A diagnosis!!!

Dodger's Class Party

Dodger had a class party that I can't fail to mention. He was king for a day and loved it. He requested green and blue rice krispy treats, and i was just glad he didn't want cupcakes. More work. Troy came and his whole class sang. He loves to be celebrated! And celebrate we did. Look at the Lick-A-Stick powder on his tongue.

Dodger Turned 6

Last Monday Dodger turned 6. It was the first day of Spring Break, so lots of his schoolmates were out of town. We spent the whole year before planning and talking about when and where we'd have his 6th birthday party. He would tell me way back in July that he wanted a Bionicle cake and that we'd go bowling or to Let It Shine again. But as it rolled around, we had a small family party that turned into Dodger getting toys every day for a whole week! He almost has the entire Aqua Raiders Lego collection. We just hit Papa up for the big one last night. :) Those things are not cheap! But the best present, in my opinion, was a $1.50 kite I bought him. Monday was a sunny, windy day and we spent the entire morning outside. We got the kite up in the sky and it was a moment I wish i could go back to. I'm going to remember it forever. The great day didn't end there. I told Dodger he could be the boss that day and do or eat whatever he wanted...candy for breakfast, snacks right after that, you name it. He took total control as he said "Today, I'm going to be the Daddy". My sister and her daughter Winter came all the way out from Lebanon to spend the afternoon with us. It was so fun. Page is a 2nd grade teacher and was amazed at Dodger's ability to build Aqua Raider Legos and follow directions. The only problem was, when he needed help I couldn't help him. My brain doesn't work that way. If I'm bragging on him, I'm really just exposing my lack. ;) We played outside again until Winter gave out and once they went home, Troy took us to Chuck E. Cheese. My only bummer of the day was that we have a tradition of going to a movie with Julie D. on Dodger's "real" birthday and there wasn't anything suitable in the theatre for kids. But the day was super special and none of us would have changed it a bit.

I AM written by Nichole Nordeman

Pencil marks on a wall
I wasn't always this tall,
You scattered some monsters from beneath my bed,
You watched my team win,
You watched my team lose,
You watched when my bicycle went down again,

And When I was weak unable to speak,
still I could call You by name,
and I said “Elbow healer, Superhero,
come if You can,” and You said “I am”

Only 16, life is so mean, what kind of curfew is at ten PM
You saw my mistakes, You watched my heart break
Heard when I swore I’d never love again

When I was weak, unable to speak,
still I could call You by name,
and I said “Heart-ache Healer, Secret-keeper,
be my Best Friend” and You said “I am”

You saw me wear white, by pale candlelight,
I said forever to what lies ahead
two kids and a dream, with kids that can scream
too much it might seem when it’s two AM

When I am weak, unable to speak,
still I will call You by name.
“Oh Shepherd, Savior, Pasture-maker,
hold on to my hand,” and You say “I am.”

The winds of change,
And circumstance blow in and all around
us so we find a foothold that’s familiar,
And bless the moments that we feel You nearer
Life had begun, I was woven and spun,
You let the angels dance around the throne, who can say when,
But they’ll dance again, when I am free and finally headed home

I will be weak, unable to speak,
still I will call You by name
“Creator, Maker, Life-sustainer,
Comforter, Healer, My Redeemer,
Lord and King, Beginning and
the End, I am, yes, I am.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This morning I was dancing and singing to Nichole's Recollection CD that Troy just gave me - what a gift. At the same time I was stirring sausage, unsticking rice crispies from my fingers and watching Dodger play with his new birthday toys. Just now I was stopped in my tracks by this song and literally went to my knees, and then into a fetal position (or yoga if that suits your fancy) on the song above. You've got to hear it, and it will be the theme song on this blog, if I can figure out how to attach it.

Coffee For Li Li and Bainbridge Island Coffee Roasters

Our good friend, Hugh Robertson and former boss (where Troy and I met and fell for each other) came to town to host our very first coffee tasting. We have a history of good times, and having him here really made me nostalgic for the days when I was his assistant and he was telling Troy not to boss me around. :) Hugh has transitioned from the music biz to roasting high quality coffee, and since it is by far my favorite beverage and morning meal, I love that he is allowing us the opportunity to enjoy great, fantabulous coffee and raise funds to bring our daughter home at the same time. We had a coffee tasting on Friday, February 23rd. Did I mention that? I have some great photos from the soiree, and I was thrilled to have the event at our house so that I would finally make time to feng shui and bake. Not only was our time with friends a blast, we were so coffeed up, that we stayed up until Midnight and I heard some of the rest of our guests did too. I won't mention your name, Shell. :) There's much more to tell about how fab this coffee is, but first enjoy the pictures.

Coffee Tasting for Li Li

I was thrilled to have sister come a little before everyone else so we could talk and prepare. We all munched on Chic-Fil-A and talked about our week. She's my bud and I don't see her enough. Plus, she and I (and Tanner below) moved here together when he was 8 months old. We've both stayed and he's now a tween. I'm getting to be the age where I can't remember exactly how old I am, what year I was born or what day our anniversary is on. Don't tell Troy. No, tell him it is May 30th AND May 31st. That way he can take me to a B&B before Li Li comes.

One of the other things that brought joy to my heart Friday was that my nephew Tanner wanted to come with Page (his mom, my sis). He doesn't even drink coffee, but wants to help bring Li Li home, and that means the world to me. He has a tender heart towards God and others. He is going to be a great husband and father someday - it was evident the way he loved on Ayana.

Coffee Tasting Pictures

These two girls holding bebe Ward are Ikuho and Liho - our beloved neighbors from Japan. We are praying God will keep them in America longer than expected. Pray with us for that! :) Masako is my good good friend and I just realized that when I pronounce her name, I put the wrong emphASIS on the wrong syllABLE. Ayana Ward is with her mama, Sonya and she, Bryan and Jarett have recently adopted her from Ethiopia. One of the coffees that we tasted was an Ethiopian bean and it was Troy's favorite... I'm sure it would be Ayana's too, if she were allowed to imbibe.

Kindergarten Days

This photo is already outdated. Dodger's hair is twice as long now as it was then. And we've cut it, twice. We took this picture just before we boarded Minnie Driver, our van for Lipscomb Elementary School sometime at the end of August. It's all a blur because I cried the first week - no, the first month. But Dodger is in good hands, the best in fact. Mrs G. (Laurie Gross) told Dodger on the first day that she loved him and I knew it was a relationship meant to last. She is everything and more than I could ever dream of in a teacher. We are on the same page about loving and teaching and nurturing children and she does a great job at bringing the best out of these kiddos. But the parties, man. They are over the top. I'm not one to complain but come Dodger's birthday, he's gathering some pretty lofty expectations for what parites are. Maybe if it doesn't rain we'll do the deal here. I'll make the cake. And we have a pinata that we bought a year ago and forgot to use around Easter. The kids will never know... shhh. It needs work, but here's what I wrote one day after dropping Dodger off at class.

THE RED BALLOON

(my emotional letting go of Dodger into Kindergarten)

Red

Not the square, flat color of a brick

Not the shell of a ladybug, that is more orange than red anyway

A bright, round candy-apple red

The kind of red that makes your eyes smile when you see it

The red that looks so good you want to eat it

Balloon

Not the kind you blow up yourself, wearing out your cheeks and your

Lungs

Not one from the grocery store that looses all its air and pops on the

Way home

A carefree, weightless balloon floating in the sunny breezy weather

The only way to keep it with you is to hold on tight

Red

How I'm feeling

Gravel dusting my shoes, everything grey at the carnival, except...

The reddest shiniest candied apple

The kind you don't care to spend two dollars for

Hardly waiting to take the first bite

Getting sticky on my face

Sticky on my fingers

But I'm no way ready to clean up

(Unless licking counts)

Balloon

Cheery cherry balloons lined up near the stone steps

Attached to poles, these weightless fliers

All those balloons who can't stand still

They're blowing back and forth, back and forth in the breeze

I wanted to tell them they didn't need the poles

They could fly around the whole world if they wanted to

But would they come back to me?

A Red Balloon

It caught my eye - It made me think

I stopped my step - I couldn't blink

Even though I always walk down the stone steps

I closed my eyes and imagined that red feeling

The crisp autumn air

A candy apple in one hand and a red balloon in the other

I took a step

I headed away from the school and toward the car

I placed both hands on the apple

Something slipped through my hand

I took a bite with sticky on my fingers

Just then, the red balloon floated

Happy and carefree

I held on to my apple and I set the balloon free

Picking It All Up

I can't begin to recap the last year. But I can hilight. I've been picking up all sorts of things. Not just me, we've all be picking up stuff around the Vest casa. We recently picked up our living room and turned it upside down. I thought about picking up the Christmas tree box and putting it in the garage, but it's too heavy. The last time I posted it was last Christmas. But rest assured, the tree has been put up twice since then. Since last Christmas my dear, beautiful, role-model grandma-lee-the-Busby went to be with Jesus. My heart needed to blog about it but it was too difficult. So instead, I have a computer "account" of events that I wrote it into. But since then, you could say I've been pretty un-motivated and out of time for blogging. I needed to pick up some extra minutes before I could pick this back up again. And by turning this house upside down last week in preparation for a coffee party, I have those minutes back. The house was so cluttered it was a chore to maintain. But now, well, we threw it all out (including the tree) so I have time to write. I'd tell you about the summer, but I don't even remember it. Oh- here it is: Tennis shoe obsession where I went on a 2 month quest to find the right shoe. Didn't work. Robin and Steve came to visit with their bunch and Troy told me he's officially taken over the friendship with Steve. Every day the thought of kindergarten approaching was looming and I was trying to make the most of my time with Dodger. By the time he started, he told people he didn't want to be in school for 7 hours a day. I wonder where he heard that? It has been such a wonderful and exciting first year of school. I know there will be none other like it. I bet Laurie won't even read this (if you do, send me a note!) But she is amazingly gifted as a teacher and a God-send for our family. It's been the best year for the three of us and has made the dark night of waiting for Li Li not so bleak. In fact, the waiting is fun now as we get closer and closer to her arrival. I need to start on the arm weights again. I've been a little lazy, but soon I'm going to be picking her up and I don't want to put her back down on account of my arms. Well... I'm already behind on this posting stuff. I'm going to pick up where I leave this post...

SANTA BABY

It's been three weeks now, but Dodger hasn't forgotten. We went to the local library and got to see Santa! We took a list from home. Dodger sat on his lap and wondered why Santa didn't want to look at the list, so he read it to Santa. (But all in all that Santa was a great one!) Then he ate snacks, had his picture in the Brentwood Journal, which I STILL haven't seen! And saw a magic show! We had such a great time. And Jennifer Bell and the Weavers were there with us. The very next Monday Dodger and I were at the Green Hills Mall for a few things and GUESS WHO WAS THERE....Santa! I told Dodger that we wouldn't be able to go see Santa that day and he replied "Oh, I don't want to. I already sat on his lap at the library, remember?" :) He (Dodger) has new questions about Santa all the time. Like: Why is he always wearing different clothes? Why don't we see reindeer? Where are the elves? Can we go see them? Can we go to the North Pole? Then why can the kids on Polar Express go there? Is it always dark at the NP? When Santa goes to China, can he speak Chinese? Will Santa get cold taking presents all over???

BATMAN GETS FIRED

Actually, Batman lives at our house. He's a lot shorter than I imagined him...and his alterego isn't Bruce Wayne. It's Dodger Vest. Someday he's going to make it all much simpler and just change his name legally to BATMAN. He told me that last week. He reassured us he would still live at the house. Dodger, I mean, Batman doesn't like the idea of someday moving from our house. He also thinks that "getting fired" means falling into hot lava. But we haven't let him see Star Wars III, so he must have made it up. We also talked a lot about heaven. It's been a frequent early-morning-in-the-car discussion and I like it...because I remember doing the same thing with my dad. I wanted to make sure I was going to heaven...Dodger is making sure that Batman, Spider-Man and Superman will be there too. It's fun having Batman live at the house. He fights off the bad guys and gives Dodger a chance to visit his grandparents. One night Batman told us that Dodger was on his way to Nana's on a plane. The next day he went to Honi's. He wore his mask even to bed so we wouldn't discover his alias. We were so concerned that Dodger was gone for too long that Batman lifted his mask and whispered to me "It's me, mom. But don't tell dad".

Our Casa

Questions

Dodger is at that fun four-year-old age where everything is literal and if not, he's asking me what it means. "What does 'keep on truckin' mean?" He's got the questions...and we don't have all the answers. I like the Berenstain Bears book about God "The Big Question" which is all about explaining that God made everything. Sister bear asks at the end: "Did God make questions too?" Anyway, I wish I could remember half of the questions Dodger's asked this week. I do know that he could finally go to bed tonight because he had the answer to what time we are waking up in the morning. He needed to think about those numbers since he's got a digital clock by his bed (and I wonder if he'll wake up in the middle of the night just waiting for 7:00.) We are heading to Chick-Fil-A, then the library to see Santa. Dodger has a small list of wants, mainly Legos and Bionicles, which are really just fancy Legos. But his big concern is why we always see Santa ("Momma, why does he always wear a different looking suit?") but never his reindeer. Who cares how santa fits down the chimney, how does he get around? We had a Paddington Bear adventure for two days this week (Paddington's now on the Christmas list, thanks Genevieve!) and it was the most precious thing to see Dodger talk to Paddington and take care of him. He told me that "Paddington can't wear his boots in the house because they are muddy and no shoes in the house". And "Paddington might want to run away in the middle of the night to his mommy". Paddington had a question for Dodger this week. Dodger had a little "gleek" come from his mouth when he was talking and Paddington asked "What's that?". Dodger said: "It's water...actually slime. We have slime and blood in our bodies". All in all, Paddington liked our house. I hope he comes back for a visit again soon.