Anna's first trip to Disney World!

I'm sitting and writing this post from  a wonderful balcony overlooking the ocean. Tomorrow we will be heading back home to enjoy the rest of summer vacation and to get our house prepared to welcome Samuel this fall.  A few months ago this trip seemed so far away.  With school schedules, adoption paperwork, K.C.'s work travel, and lots of home improvement projects I wasn't really enjoying my life as much as I would have liked to. In January, before we knew we would be adopting Samuel, we had promised ourselves and our kids that this year was going to be a vacation year.  The last two years of preparing for Anna, bringing her home, and adjusting to life with a little one with special needs along with K.C.'s work and travel schedule increasing had taken their toll.  Anna's adoption and medical care left us with little money or time left over for vacation. But vacations are important. They help you get away from the everyday stresses of life and connect as a family. So we decided that despite the fact that we were embarking on another adoption we really wanted to keep that promise to ourselves and our kids and we wanted to go to Disney World! Anna is at such a fun age, and the older kids hadn't been in years so we decided to just go and enjoy ourselves. Thankfully we still had 2 day tickets left to Disney we had purchased 8 years ago and with the miles on Southwest from K.C.'s business trips we were able to fly all six of us to Orlando for free.

While we were at Disney World I mentioned to K.C. that I felt a little guilty spending money on this vacation while we are in the middle of an adoption.  I was so blessed by his response, " You should never feel guilty about adopting a child."  That was the grace I needed. Adoptions are so expensive and it is so hard to figure out how to afford all of it, but God always provides. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need.  I know that right now, for us, we needed to go to Disney World. We did it as frugally as we could and we enjoyed every minute of making memories with our kids. At the end of our day at the Magic Kingdom we were riding the monorail back to the parking lot and a very sleepy little girl looked up at me from her stroller and said, "Mommy, that was fun going to Disney World." That was all I needed to know that we had made the right decision. In a few months Anna's life is going to change dramatically. Right now, spending time making her feel special and loved is very important. Taking time out of our busy life and just enjoying time together as a family is something we have all needed and it was worth every penny.

Here's a little slideshow of some of our Magic Kingdom fun.

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Happy 2nd Birthday Samuel!

This little guy turns two years old today!  It is so hard to know that he is celebrating his birthday without us.  I'm looking forward to at least getting some photos of him opening his birthday gifts.  Included in his birthday gift is a photo of our family. So today he will find out that we are his forever family!  We are so blessed that his foster home does a great job of preparing the kiddos before "Gotcha Day."  Anna was scared on Gotcha Day but quickly bonded because she recognized us from our photo and the gifts we brought her were the same ones we had sent her in her care packages.  I can't wait for Samuel's Gotcha day to come and finally hold him in my arms again! Thankfully we are one step closer.  Our dossier was officially Logged In this week at the CCCWA and should be going through translation and review.  Please pray that this process goes quickly and we get our Letter of Approval within the next two months.

A few weeks ago we got this adorable video of Samuel and his friend!  This one was taken by an American expat visiting Swallows Nest. We love our loud, fun little guy! (He's the one in the red shirt)

If you want to learn more about Swallow's Nest you can read the post and see several photos of our little guy and his friends at http://rickwarner52.com/2014/04/27/special-needs-orphans-get-loving-care-at-zhengzhou-foster-home/ The blog writer nicknamed Samuel "Mohawk Man" because of his crazy new haircut and the other little boy is "Spider Man" because he climbs all over the cribs.  Here's the link to the full video http://rickwarner52.com/2014/05/01/videos-of-chinese-orphans-college-sports/

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!  Love-Mommy

New Name, New Look, New News!

I decided that it was going to be easiest to just keep one blog going instead of trying to do separate blogs for My China Blessings.  I hope you will enjoy joining me on this wild adoption ride once again and continue peeking in on Anna's latest feats.  For those of you that follow by e-mail you may also receive a post that includes the "Announcement Info" I first posted a few months ago about Samuel. I wanted to make sure that ended up on this blog as well since I shut down the other account.

News!

Today is a big day for Anna.  She finally gets her casts off for good!  Three weeks ago she got the long leg casts off and got new "walking casts."  I talked them into making them waterproof so that she could have a bath again.  With the warmer temps and a girl who likes to play outside the sponge baths were killing my back!  The first 4 weeks in the leg casts weren't easy, and Anna definitely got bored, but she quickly learned how to crawl around thanks to her amazing upper body strength.  She even figured out how to stand up, but we had to tell her not to do that- Doctor's orders.  Much to our surprise she was in pain in her right foot with the walking casts.  It was hard for me to see her struggling and unable to walk for several weeks.  I had thought that since she wasn't in pain before that she wouldn't be in pain in the new casts, but apparently her achilles was still hurting making weight bearing too hard.  She eventually started being able to put weight on her foot and began eagerly riding her tricycle.  Her bright pink and green casts drew a lot of attention.  Especially once she started walking with them.  She just figures out how to make things work.  I can't wait for her to be out of casts and back in her braces and shoes again cruising around with her crutches!

Our other exciting news is that we are DTC! That's a fancy adoption acronym that means our dossier was sent to China!  Three months of hard work and the first trimester of this paper pregnancy is finally over.  We will now wait for our dossier to be logged in and then the wait for LOA (Letter of Acceptance) starts. This part should be shorter than it was with Anna's adoption because we were matched with Samuel prior to our dossier being logged in. The time frame on LOA is anywhere from 45-100 days. We are praying for 60 days or less.  If that happens we could actually go to China in September! This photo of Samuel was taken a few days ago at an outing to a local park.  His birthday is this Saturday. I can't stand it that he isn't home for his birthday, but thankfully his birthday presents are there for him and I've been promised more photos.  Love this little guy so much!

Surgery went great. Glad to be back home!

All dolled up pre-surgery

Bubbles always make things better

Everything went so well with Anna's surgery.  She did great pre-surgery and only asked once Thursday morning to have something to eat.  We had prepared her the night before that she could have Sprite for breakfast and she seemed happy with that.  K.C. and I were so blessed by the Ronald McDonald room at the hospital.  There was always food and snacks for all the waiting families.  We will definitely continue to save our "pop tabs" for the Ronald McDonald house and it would be nice to take the kids and volunteer sometime serving dinner.   Many of the families in the room were having difficult conversations with doctors and there were many in tears.  My heart broke for them. I am so thankful for what Ronald McDonald house does to provide a safe place for families facing the difficulties of having a child in the hospital.

Such a happy girl after getting some food in her tummy!

This time, for us everything was good news. The doctor was able to do everything he had planned and Anna did well in post surgery recovery.  Unfortunately they gave Anna a bit too much apple juice post surgery and she ended up vomiting it all up right before they were going to let her have some crackers. Poor girl kept begging us for some crackers, but all we could offer was sips of juice for an hour.  She was soooo hungry!  Everything went well after that and by 8:00 she finally got to eat dinner- Chinese food of course!

All smiles with her "baby"

It didn't take long for Anna to go to sleep and she seemed to sleep well throughout the night despite the nurses coming in to take her vitals periodically.  She only complained of pain one time, so they gave her some ibuprofen and since then hasn't seemed to be in any pain at all. Like I mentioned in the last post. There are actually some advantages to having Spina bifida- Numb feet!  The rest of us would have been crying for pain meds if we had gone through the same surgery!

Anna is pretty excited about her bright yellow casts.  They definitely match her spunky personality!  She started crying a little this morning that she couldn't walk, but she is adjusting well to the limited mobility.  I am sure she will be crawling around all over the place soon.  We were happy to get discharged before noon and Anna had her favorite lunch of Chinese noodles and watching Kai Lan.  She's enjoyed getting spoiled by her aunt Tracy and Grandma Gail with presents and treats.  She is having fun at home zipping around in her wheelchair right now.  She hasn't ever gotten to use it inside the house before. Cousin Evie thinks it's pretty cool too and tried to give Anna a ride to remember!  We are so thankful to have so many family members close to love on Anna.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.  We are so blessed to have so many people lifting up our little girl.  She did so great during her time in the hospital and as always we are so proud of her.  She is so amazing at handling difficult situations and making the best of them. The next four weeks will be different but I know she will make the best of them. Especially after we add some girly bling to those blue boots!

Foot surgery again

As you all know Anna's left foot is a club foot.  Last year she had serial casting and tendon release surgery to correct the foot enough to get it in a brace so that she could learn to walk.  She has done so well that she has walked her way into more surgery! Yay and Boo all at the same time. Initially the plan was to do a complete workover on her left foot to align the bones and get the foot in a more "natural foot" position.  Currently her foot still turns under if she doesn't have her brace on. Last week when we went in for her pre-surgery consultation I started talking to the doctor about problems we were having with the brace on her right foot.  He watched her walk and looked at the foot and said that it is a foot problem that is making bracing that foot difficult.   So..... she's also having surgery on her right foot now.  Poor girl will be in full leg casts on both legs for four weeks! Thankfully she has a wheelchair she can maneuver herself and she will be able to get down and crawl.  But no walking for four weeks. After that she will have walking casts until her new braces arrive.

So tomorrow, April 3rd at 12:00pm she will have a 3-4 hour surgery to correct issues with both of her feet.  We had hoped for an earlier appointment which would have made going home the same day more feasible, but it looks like Anna and I (or K.C.) will be spending the night at the hospital.

A lot of people have asked me if this surgery will help her walk without crutches or without braces. Pretty much the answer is no. She will always have to have braces on her feet to support her and there are too many factors involved to know if this will help her to walk without assistance.  The main purpose of the surgery is to get her feet more easily braceable in order for her to continue to be as mobile as she is.  It might even help her walk without crutches, but the truth is that her left leg is just not very strong and has so many issues that walking unassisted just may not be in her future.  Of course, Anna likes to break the rules, so you just never know.  She does amazing things with what she's been given and we know this surgery will help her to have the best mobility we can give her.

Please pray that Anna does well during and after surgery and is in minimal pain.  The one benefit having Spina Bifida is that her sensation is greatly decreased in her feet, especially the left one.  She will be in much less pain than the rest of us would be in.  Also please pray that she would adapt well to using her wheelchair and crawling for 4 weeks.  She has proven that she can adapt to any situation but she is so mobile right now that I know it will not be fun for her to have two bulky casts on her legs. 

Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers for Anna.  We know that this temporary discomfort and inconvenience will be worth it for the end result.  Although there is no surgery that is going to allow her to walk without bracing, this surgery will help her to continue to increase her level of mobility. 

Introducing Samuel Xiaofu Allen!

The day I fell in love!

We are so excited to introduce you to Samuel Xiao Fu Allen.  His Chinese name, Xiao Fu, means "Little Blessing." and Samuel means "God listens."  For over a year we asked the Lord to bring Xiao Fu into our family.   I held him in my arms the day we visited Anna's foster home and we bonded instantly. From that moment I knew that I was his mom.  

In January we began sponsoring him and in July filed paperwork requesting his file.  The day before Thanksgiving we learned that his file had arrived at our adoption agency!  But good news was quickly followed by bad.  We were not first in line to receive his file, in fact we were told that there could possibly be several families in line ahead of us. We prayed, I cried. So many prayers had been answered to bring this child into our family and it seemed that only a miracle would bring him home. Almost two months passed and there was still no word from our adoption agency. I had given up hope and was trying to move on. The Lord gave me peace to let him go.  

Exactly two months later, I got a call from our adoption agency!  I burst into tears, asked tothe agency representative a few questions, and in an hour I had finally received the thing I had been praying for for so long.  The file of Zheng Xiao Fu- our son.  We hope you will enjoy following our journey to bring him home.

Samuel Xiaofu Allen

Born May 24, 2012 Zhengzhou, Henan China

Referral date: January 27, 2014

Pre-Approval from China: February 12, 2014

Exciting news!

It's been six months since my last post and so much has happened! If you haven't heard yet, Anna is going to be a big sister! On February 12th we received pre-approval from China to adopt our son. We are so excited to introduce you to Samuel Xiao Fu Allen. His Chinese name, Xiao Fu, means "Little Blessing." and Samuel means "God listens." For over a year we asked the Lord to bring Xiao Fu into our family. There were several difficult months where it seemed that only a miracle would make that possible and we pretty much gave up hope, but in the end we got our miracle! He is a constant reminder to us that God truly listens. You can read more about Samuel and his amazing story on his blog- Xiao Fu's Blog I haven't decided yet if this will be his permanent blog location, but will let you know so you can follow along on our journey to bring him home.


We have been very busy getting a home study update and last Friday our documents were received at the USCIS Immigration office. This officially starts the (very long!) countdown to bringing our little guy home. We plan to travel to China sometime this fall.


Anna is super excited to be a big sister! She carries a little laminated picture of Xiao Fu around and prays for him every night. She can't understand why he can't come home to play with her right now. It is so cute to hear her praying about what toys she doesn't want to share with him and that he won't be naughty! I'm sure they'll be best buddies and worst enemies. It will be an adjustment for our "little princess" to not be in the limelight so much, but we think she is going to love having a sibling who shares so much in common with her. They even both spent their first two years in the same foster home. Swallows Nest has been such a blessing to us. We are so thankful that Samuel is being loved on and cared for by such wonderful ladies until we can bring him home.


Anna continues to brighten our lives and challenge our parenting abilities! She is a clever little girl and we still can't believe her vocabulary. A few days ago she told K.C. that she was jealous of Esther and I because we went shopping without her. What three year old uses the word jealous in context!? She loves to be the center of attention and is so used to people commenting on her cuteness that she waltzes into stores and restaurants as if she is the queen happily saying hi and introducing herself to anyone that will listen. She currently uses forearm crutches to help her walk and really gets around so well with them. About a month ago she decided that she wanted to start feeding Chloe our dog. It is quite the process, but she loves to be independent and responsible. Here is the video clip.

Because Anna is doing so well her feet are requiring more surgery. On April 3rd she will have surgery on both feet. She will be in hard casts for four weeks and then in walking casts until her new leg braces arrive. I will create a separate post with more details and prayer requests for her surgery. Also, please continue to pray for her excess spinal fluid to decrease. The October MRI showed no increase in fluid which was great, but we would really like to see it decrease. This of course is not possible without medical intervention, so The Great Physician is who we are trusting on this one. On June 23rd she will have another MRI of the head and spine to see if anything has changed. Please pray that the MRI will show a decrease in fluid.  We know God listens. He hears our prayers and answers as He sees fit. We ask that our Heavenly Father would see fit to heal Anna in this way and keep her from a spinal surgery.

Thank you for all of your support for Anna and our family.

Since I tend to lean toward being an optimist I know that reading my posts might make it seem like raising a child with Spina Bifida is easy for us. In reality it is not. It is a lot of hard work and both physically and emotionally demanding. Thankfully God sustains us every day and blesses us with the joy that comes from seeing the impossible made possible. Anna helps us to see how to rise to the occasion, how to adapt in difficult circumstances, and how to trust God for everything. Her joy and excitement for life are contagious and even though there are many tiring and difficult days we can't imagine even one moment of our lives without this little girl.