My new niece/ sisters adoption

My sister and brother in law are in China right now adopting their 4th child - first adoption. If you would like to see their journy the link is www.langleysmeimei.com

There new daughter is very cute and very sad. It is so hard to watch and witness a child grieve like these children grieve. Please pray for "E" as she accepts her new family and grieves the loss of her foster family. Pray also for the foster family. They loved her very much.

LID

We got an email from our agency yesterday saying we had a LID. LID stands for Log in Date. That is the date that China officially logs in your dossier (paperwork) into their system. Our LID is June 22, 2009!

Skirts

If you are interested in anything please email me first instead of leaving a comment. I made the skirt below for my neice. It is a tiered skirt with an apron front. The apron is a white fabric with small pink polka dots. I embroidered flowers onto the apron. I used green ric rac for the stems and border. I can make this skirt in a size 2t-8. I have enough fabric for 2 more skirts. It cost $32

This is a matching peasant dress I made for my neice who is coming home from China in July. I used the green ric rac around the border and appliqued a flower on to the skirt of the dress. The fabric is gathered around the neck and hem of the sleeve. I will make and sell this dress for $40

People have inquired about the skirts and cross tees. The below fabric is made from seersucker. I will make the skirt from the pink seersucker and trim it in either white, pink, or yellow ric rac.

I can make the below fabric in skirt/tee. The skirt will be made from the pear fabric and apron from the red polka dot. I will use the brown or yellow ric rac for trim. The cross tee and skirt is $42

I tried my hand at smocking and made this bishop for my nephew. It is light blue and smocked with cream thread. The sleeve is smocked and trimmed with lace. Right now I am not going to sew and sell smocked items until I have practiced more.

skirts

I sewed 2 antique hanky skirts last week. I think they were very cute and a great way to use antique linens. These skirts were made for 2 sisters. In the next few weeks I am going to do an auction for a family in the adoption community. They are in process to adopt a sweet China Care little boy. For the auction I will sew 1 or 2 outfits and auction them to the highest bidder and I will give all proceeds to this family

Our daughter was in the China Care foster home during the same time her children were there. Their son who is waiting in China was best friends with their daughter Maddie. They had a super sweet relationship and she has never forgotten him nor stopped praying for him. These parents are so faithful and a wonderful picture of Christ like love.

I am not sure what size or style I will make, but if you know of something you would like to bid on please email me

On its way

Our paperwork was shipped to China today. We should have a log in date in the next 2-3 weeks. Our agency said they are matching clients within 2-3 months. We still need some time to save up money for the adoption so we have instructed them to not even try to match our family till the first of next year. So if you want to place an order for an outfit send me an email. I will do custom orders.

Below is an outift I sewed for my niece, Elizabeth. My sister and her husband John are adopting her from China and are set to travel June 25th. Here is their blog. The top has a zipper in the back and has a swing top shape and front pockets. It comes with a matching set of bloomers. This set is available for $50. It is also available in other fabrics.

Now for a little family news. About a week ago we decide to teach my 5 year old to ride his bike with no training wheels. He rode a loop around the drive while I held onto his seat. We paused for a moment so I could go in and change into my tennis shoes. I came out the front the door to find him riding his bike on his own with no training wheels and no help from me. He was very proud of himself and we were very proud of him!

This past weekend we had a "family day" at the Tennessee Baptist Childrens home 5K fundraising race. Below is my oldest running in the 1 mile kid race. He finished his mile in 9 minutes - no bad for 7 years old. He has always loved to run and enjoys running in races. Way to go Graham!

My 2 year old neice also participated. She is the little girl in the pink bow h0lding her dad (my brothers) hand. They had a 100 yard dash race for younger kids. "C" wasn't sure about racing, but did enjoy hanging out with her cousins.

Here is a picture of my brother finishing his race. He is the runner in the family. He ran the 1/2 marathon a few weeks back and runs in 5ks throughout the year. He also runs very fast. This race he finished in a little ver 21 minutes. For those of you bad at math this means he averaged right under 7 minutes a mile.

Last year I brought my oldest to this same race so he could run in the 1 mile race. I remember thinking how nice it would be to be in good enough shape to run, but never really consider doing anything about it. This spring I got a wild hair and decided I need to start running. So I ran in my first 5k this weekend and absolutely enjoyed it! I was happy with my time and finished in 27 minutes. My brother and I are going to run in a second run this weekend. Below is a photo of him running with me. After he finished the race he came back and ran the last 10th of a mile with me to encourage me to finish strong. Thanks Todd.

wrapping up the dossier

This week we finished getting our paperwork authenticated. Currently it is DC being authenticated and whatever else is done there. Our last adoption I knew all the terminology and process backward and forward. This time I feel like I am "winging it". I am not even sure if the right word is authenticated or certified. I guess that is what happens when you are busy with 3 little people and wrapping up a homeschooling year. Hopefully we will have our paperwork back from DC the end of next week and have it sent to China shortly thereafter. Our LID for Corinne was 5/31/2006. Funny if we end up being Logged in on the 31st again.