The journey of bringing home Baby Ava and Maya: April 2009

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Celebrating Maya's 2nd Birthday

As we anxiously await to bring home our daughter we are celebrating her 2nd birthday and are so glad that her next birthday that she will be at home with us!! We can't wait to have her as a part our our daily life in our home. We are praying that God will prepare her for this huge life adjustment and that she will have a fierce attachment for us. We also thank God for whomever is caring for her now, feeding her, holding her, rocking her, dressing her and loving and protecting our daughter for us.

Happy 2nd Birthday Maya!! We love you.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The planning ,waiting, and prep

We are eagerly waiting to hear of our travel dates. We don't expect them for awhile yet and hope to travel late summer/early fall. We have received our pre-approval letter from China and then next we hear from them will be our confirmation letter and with that our travel dates!! We have our pictures of little Maya and are praying for her transition to our home/family to go smoothly. We are so anxious to go and meet her and are loving her so much already. I (Jill) am starting a life book for her and hope to have it completed by the time we travel. It will be the story of all the information we know from birth until we meet her. I have her referral pictures in it and am starting on putting all the paperwork/information. It is a bit overwhelming and exciting all at the same time. Her given name is Wang Xiao Xue. Wang means hope, wish, desire. Xiao means morning and Xue means snow. Maya means great one, Minnie means desire and protection. We are naming her Maya Minnie XiaoXue Munson. My great-grandma who was so special to me and I have such a fondness for is why Minnie will be her middle name. We have also kept her first name from China as her middle name.
We are also preparing for the trip in other ways such as visiting the Great Wall, the forbidden city and other great sites. The girls and I have studied China in our schooling and are enjoying embracing the culture. We are thrilled that the grandparents will be joining the four of us on our trip.

Adoption Timeline

July 13, 2009 - Pick up Maya!!!
July 12, 2009 - Fly to Guangzhou
July 9, 2009 - Arrive in Beijing
July 8, 2009 - Leave for China
July 6, 2009 - Travel Meeting at adoption agency
June 26,2009 - Buy airline tickets. We leave July 8th!!!
June 2009 - Travel Approval
May 22, 2009 - Re-fingerprinting appt. in Tukwila. Our first prints expired May 20, 2009
May 22, 2009 - Sign the Letter of Confirmation
May 21, 2009 - Letter of Confimation from the CCAA has finally arrived
May 5, 2009 - Receive updated pictures of Maya and answers to our 10 questions from ladybugsandlove.com
April 18th, 2009 - Maya's 2nd Birthday
March 12, 2009 - PreApproval letter received
February 26th, 2009 - We have received our referral!! The news came at 10:20 p.m.
February 9,2009 - LID (Log in Date) in China
January 27,2009 - Dossier to China (DTC)
January 26,2009 - Chinese New Year, Year of the Ox
January 2009 - The wait begins for baby Maya from China.
Dec. 2008 - On the 9th our homestudy is handed to our adoption agency
Dec. 2008 - We are working very diligently to be done with all our paperwork by the end of Dec.
Nov. 2008 - After lots of prayer and talk, Rich and I decide to move forward with a concurrent adoption in the China program.
Nov. 2008 - For the 3rd time we are approached by our adoption agency to consider another country . We can stay with Vietnam and do another adoption alongside Vietnam, or switch all together.
Nov. 2008 - Talks in Vietnam are postponed
October 27th, 2008: Negotiations to officially begin to work out an interim agreement between the US and Vietnam.
September 1, 2008: Agreement between the US and Vietnam expires and adoptions are halted
August 13, 2008: Get an email from Faith International saying that an interim will not be met by the deadline. In the next few weeks we should be getting some more information. It is possible that our paperwork will all be sent back to our agency.
April 28th, 2008: Hear from our agency that if there isn't an interim agreement met by September 1st, 2008 then we will be put on hold until an agreement between the US and Vietnam is made.
April 10, 2008: Dossier is sent to Vietnam, all paperwork is on its way after being translated!!! Yahoo, we can't wait for a referral, although this could be several months.
March 3, 2008: Get approval from the Department of Homeland Security to adopt a baby.
February 20, 2008: Drive to Yakima to get fingerprinted and file the I-600A
February 8, 2008: Home Study completed
January 12, 2008: Home study started.
January 2008: Chose our agency after researching several - Faith International Adoptions in Tacoma, Washington

Vietnam Facts

Official Name: Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Government type: Communist state
Capital: Hanoi
Location: Southeast Asia - bordered by Laos, Cambodia, and China
Population: Over 83 million
Economy: The average working person in Vietnam earns around $10 per week.
Climate: mainly tropical
Terrain: low, flat delta in south and north; central highlands; hilly, mountainous in far north and northwest
Geography: Vietnam has over 2,000 miles of coastline. At its narrowest point, Vietnam is only 31 miles wide.
Natural hazards: occasional typhoons (May to January) with extensive flooding, especially in the Mekong River delta
Religion: Buddhist 54.14%, non-Religious 21.80%, Christian 8.16%, Traditional ethnic 8.10%, Cao Dai/Hoa Hoa 5.60%, Chinese 1.10%, Muslim 0.70%, and Baha’i 0.40%. Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom are meaningless, as government policy is to control all religious movements, including Buddhism.
Religious persecution: Believers are harassed, beaten and imprisoned for preaching illegally or illegally organizing evangelistic activities. Persecution is especially harsh for unregistered and ethnic minority churches. Seeing the role of Christianity in the demise of communism elsewhere, the regime has attempted to either control or wipe out believers. Government efforts have intensified as churches respond to persecution with growth and outreach. Believers see church registration as compromise, and failing to register churches is seen as illegal in the eyes of the government, forcing the church underground. (As quoted from Voice of the Martyrs)
*Of all the countries in the world, Vietnam was recently ranked #3 where Christians are most persecuted for their faith.
*Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) was named after Ho Chi Minh, meaning 'bringer of light', which was one of the fifty or so aliases used by Nguyen Tat Thanh (1890-1969), communist guerrilla fighter and first president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
*The Vietnam War began in 1958 and lasted until 1975.
*The country continues to experience protests from the Montagnard ethnic minority population of the Central Highlands over loss of land to Vietnamese settlers and religious persecution.

China Facts

Official Name: People's Republic of China
China is the 4th largest country.
Government type: Communist State
Capital: Beijing
Population: Over 1.3 billion (8% of population is below the poverty line which is approx. earning $90 per year. An additional 35.5 million rural population is officially above the "low income line" and lives on approximately $125 per year).
Economy: China's economy is huge and expanding rapidly. However, there are still inequalities in income of the Chinese people.
Climate: The climate differs from region to region. In the North it can get extremely cold and in the Southern regions it can get extremely hot.
Natural hazards: Typhoons, tsunamis, drought
Religion: Buddhist, Christian (3-4%), Muslim (1-2%)

Encouragement

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest if you must, but don't you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don't give up though the pace seems slow--
You may succeed with another blow,
Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far;
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."~ Unknown

The journey of bringing home Baby Ava and Maya

The Munson's

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Celebrating Maya's 2nd Birthday

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The planning ,waiting, and prep

Bonding with Daddy

The first glimpse of her forever family!!!

The sisters!!!

Our girls!!!!

Sunset on the Pearl River cruise

Mackenzie playing at Maya's check up in China

Maya

Holding the White Tiger at the Zoo

Papa and Sydney feeding the giraffe

Maya

Maya - 16 months old

Our family waiting to bring home Maya and Ava

Adoption Timeline

Map of Vietnam

Vietnam Facts

Map of China

China Facts

Our adoption agency and Homestudy Agency

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