Here She Is!

Today we received a wonderful call from our agency letting us know that by 10:30 a.m. tomorrow we will have our "Letter of Acceptance" (LOA) in our hands courtesy of Federal Express! We will sign the LOA and return it with two other travel documents we will be working on tonight. It's possible we will be leaving for China during the last week of August!

Now that we have "officially" been approved for the adoption, we can finally post photos of our beautiful daughter!!! So, here she is (drum roll please!) .....

Xu Qiu Yan
Born December 31, 1993

Currently Living in Nanjing, China

Coming Home to Her Forever Family SOON!!

Yan Sees Photos of her Parents -- Oh, my!!!

Last week we sent a care package to Yan that included: photo album (family, home, friends, etc, with Chinese text added to describe photos), letters from Debbi and Kevin which have been translated into Chinese, two sparkle t-shirts (one butterfly and one with Bobby Jack the monkey), two disposable cameras (for her to take photos of her friends, school, etc), three bags of candy to share with other children at the orphanage, tote bag, photo frame with a photo of mom & dad, four teen magazines, stationery items (pretty writing pad, light-up pens, etc), a necklace from American Eagle with carved shell birds, four pair of colorful socks, barettes, pink plastic school box stuffed full of individual bags of Teddy Grahams, address cards with her photo and new address/email/phone to give to her friends so they can keep in touch and Ty "Peace" Beanie Baby. The package was sent by 3-day air and arrived in China on Friday (27th). So, she knows about us now!! Wonder what she thinks of us all?

As we hear more, we will post here!

We Have a Daughter!!!

Oh, my! We have a daughter!! Please help us in welcoming the arrival of our daughter. We hope to be able to fly to China soon to bring her home!!!

(NOTE: We have not received permission to post a photo yet, but hopefully soon!!)

Her name is Xu Qiu Yan. In China, the last name or family name is printed first, so "Xu" is her family name. "Xu" is pronounced "shoe". Her first and middle names are "Qiu Yan" which is pronounced "cho-yan" where the "yan" sounds just like the womans name "Anne" with a "y" in front. In Chinese, "Qui" means "autumn" and "Yan" means "swallow bird". We are told she goes by "Yan" although we have started to call her "Yannie" even though we have not met her yet!

Her birthday is December 31, 1993 and she currently is 13-1/2 years old. She is currently in Nanjing, Peoples Republic of China.

The short report we received on Yan states "She was an extroverted girl who liked to smile. She would sing and dance. She could play electric organ and was a little enchanter. She was a key member of the children's art group of our institute and performed many times in cites like Shanghai, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang." We are so excited to find out what Yan did in the children's art group! Did she sing, dance, play an instrument, act, etc?!?!?

In February of 2006 she passed the entrance exams and started school outside the orphanage. She currently is in 7th grade at Nanjing Hai Ying Elementary School. She also is a tutor to the younger children at the orphanage.

Her report ends with the following statement: "After seeing other kids being adopted, she requested to have a family voluntarily and wanted to live with parents and other family members. So we reported her status and wished she could have a family." And she does! We can't wait to meet her, to hug her and to tell her how much we love her!

Please help us in welcoming our Yan to her new family!

We will keep the blog updated with information as to our travel and any information we may receive about Yan. Hopefully we will receive permission soon to send her a care package.

Hugs and Love -- Debbi & Kevin & Yannie