The Bailey Collection...only on the All Roads Lead to You Auction to bring our Sophia Home

The Bailey Collection has been donated by my dear friend Sharon. I cannot thank her enough for her kindness and generosity. Her blog is 'And Bai Li makes 3' At one time, Tim and I saw the file of her beautiful daughter Bailey, but we were not meant to be her family, Sharon's family was. I met Sharon by seeing Bailey's familiar photo and following it to her blog. She has been a wonderful friend ever since and it has been a sheer pleasure watching Bailey grow in the love and happiness of her new family. Thank you Sharon for helping us bring our daughter home :)

Remember this dress?

It's now available to bid on.
Proceeds will go to help The Seventh Diamond family
travel to China to bring home their Sophia Jane.

This was one of the two 'dream dresses' I had hanging from my fireplace mantle in my bedroom where I could look at them every night before bed and every morning when I woke up for almost the entire 9 months I was waiting to go to China after we had found our Xia Xiao (Bailey Alexandria). I had spent so much on them that John was a little put out but sometimes, well.
This time last year, we were getting to ready to leave and I was almost ballistic with excitement. Those of you who have followed this blog for awhile know that Kimberley could have been matched with Bailey if things had gone a different way. Now that she has been matched finally with her own little girl in the Red Mary Jane's, Bailey and I would like to do a little something to help bring this China sister home.

'Le Pink' from Paris
Very light weight and fun to wear. Size 24 months

This dress ended up being a little small for Bailey even though I had brought it all the way to China for her to wear. She wore it a total of two hours to get her passport and then has never had it on again. It is basically brand new. I have been hanging onto a few lovely and meaningful things for sentimental reasons that I have finally decided is silly. If someone else can enjoy them now and we can raise a little money for a very near and dear to our heart's cause, then, as hard as it is to let them go, that is exactly what I should do. I know I will get a lot more enjoyment putting them to good use than allowing them to collect dust and looking at them every once and a while.

"God could not be everywhere, so he created Mothers"

My brand new sister in law, Kari gave this to me so you can imagine that it is hard to part with but I will put this in with the Le Pink dress if you come back and tell me that you have linked "All Roads lead to you" blog (Click here) and this post of mine here in one of your posts or on your sidebar so your own followers can find out about this fundraiser.

Also if the bid for any item of mine is over $25.00 then I will pay for shipping. Otherwise, it will be what Kimberly has set at $5.00 extra.

This item will close at 5pm pacific/8pm east coast, tomorrow 4/24/09

The Bailey Collection...Disney Outfit

This is an adorable Disney outfit that Bailey will not grow into for a while. It was a gift from a very dear friend of mine who I know will understand it's being used for this effort. It is brand new with the tags still on and comes with a little white cotton camisole under the frilly blouse. It is a size 4/5, runs a little big.

This item will close at 5pm pacific/8pm east coast, tomorrow 4/24/09

The Bailey Collection...Hobo Bag Gift to Highest Bidder on the Bailey Collection Items...

Another thing I will do to help make this effort successful, is to send a very nice gift to the generous, giving person who ends up with the highest bid out of all these items of mine. Kimberly will put these donations on her all roads blog also for her followers to bid on and you should bid there too but please leave me comments under this post telling me how much and on what item you would like so I will know which one of you to send the gift to. I assume you will pay Kimberly directly through paypal but I will ship it.

Many of you may remember this hobo bag too. I picked it up in a tres chic boutique in Beijing. I used it while in China and then not since I came home so it is just very gently used.

The Bailey Collection...Lilly Pulitzer Sunshine Garden Vista Print Dress

This is Lilly Pulitzer Sunshine Garden Vista Print, size 4T shift dress,(runs a little small) brand new and you can start the bids at $1.00. Hope you win!!

I love these colors and the elephants!

Please consider it and leave me a comment then check over at All Roads lead to you for more guilt free shopping. But don't bid on that tutu, that's mine!! ha-ha... kidding...mostly.

Bidding for these items will end at 8pm east coast time/5pm pacific, Friday night, 4/24/09

This is a little silk purse that we picked up for Bailey recently in China Town. She ended up getting a little silk drawstring bag also and she doesn't need both. I will throw this in for free for the person who ends up winning the Lily Pulitzer dress if the bid ends up going over &50.00.

This item will close at 5pm pacific/8pm east coast, tomorrow 4/24/09

New Babies Coming Into the Starfish Cleft Home Will Need Support

Amanda has been very busy at the Starfish Cleft Home. She has brought in more new babies and is coordinating surgeries to repair lips and pallats. She has let me know that the orphanage has called and has four more cleft babies that they would like her to take. The funding is not there right now for these four. I am not ready to start the fundraising campaign today, but I will very shortly. If you would like to sponsor a child, please let me know in a comment or an e-mail to timnkim@gmail.com


This photo is Antonia after her surgery. I look at this photo and watch the posts on the blog and I am just so thrilled. So many of you have stepped up for these children. All of this is possible because you banded together and spread the word.

The goal right now is to have the home running at capacity so that as many children can be provided for as possible. Amanda is working hard to get the new babies stabilized, arrange whatever medical care/surgeries are necessary, get the babies paper ready and on the SN/shared list and pray that families will come forward for them. We want to see the number of babies helped by the Starfish homes increase.

Sunday...

Have a Great Weekend...

I am not blogging as much as I used to. We are very busy around here preparing for Sophia and Spring. Today I am hoping to put the finishing touches on Eli and Sophia's room and I'd like to get started painting the downstairs bathroom, we are going to re-do it too.

Zach is up at Michigan Tech with his Dad. That is where he wants to go to college, so they are touring the campus.

Tim's fishing boat needs some work, so he's going to be working on that this weekend.

We are busy busy!

Thank you for all of your comments below. I know that I will be using a separate travel blog, I still haven't decided about moving the main blog. I will let you all know the travel blog info.

Moving the Blog

I am thinking that I will be moving to a new blog to document our trip to China and our new family life which will include Sophia. I am not going to put a link to it, so if you would like to be informed when the time comes so you can follow us, please leave a comment below or send me an e-mail. I think we need a fresh start. This blog was about the wait and since we first saw our daughters face on February 19th, we are waiting no more.

A Peak at the Room...

Eli and his Grandma Peggy Bear. He just loves his new bunk bed. He's doing really well sleeping in the top bunk and can get up and down the ladder very easily and carefully. Eli has a quilt with sail boats on it.

Sophia's quilt came today and I just love it. It's from Target. It has different things embroidered all over it with different types of fabric. In the center is a princess ballerina with a toole skirt. I love the saying at the bottom of the quilt, I think it is so fitting for her... good night friends, I'll see you soon.


The shelf doesn't look level in this photo, the shelf is up higher on the wall, so I had to hold the camera above my head to get you this crooked picture. I'm not done with this shelf yet. The middle frame will have a photo of Eli and Sophia together on it. I like the doll on one side and the sailboat on the other, but I haven't finished in-between. It is a challenge to integrate a boy and girl room.
This is the top of Eli's dresser. It's not done yet either. But you can see where it is going. Eli's furniture is the stained wood. Sophia's is white. Most of Sophia's furniture is in storage since she will be sleeping in the bunk bed below Eli until we feel it is time to seperate them. When they move into seperate rooms, Eli will take the bunk bed with him and Sophia will have all white furniture.

I still have quite a bit do in their room, but I am happy with how it is coming together.

For those who have asked...yes, I got my cast off two days ago. I have a wrist brace I have to wear for 4 to 5 more weeks, but it is removable and I don't have to wear it at home. I am so glad to be rid of the cast!

Quote for the Week...

Mark Your Calendars! A Shower for Nancy and Arianna...

Have a Wonderful Easter...

I hope that you all have a blessed Easter. Grandpa is here to help Tim finish up Eli and Sophia's room.
We plan to have a wonderful Easter dinner on Sunday. We will be eating dinner on Grandma Peggy's China. It is the only possession of hers that was passed on to us, so we cherish it.
I hope I will be able to pull off the big ham dinner with only one usable arm...we'll see how it goes :)

Conversation with Eli about Sophia...

I have been talking with Eli about our trip to China and about Sophia. This is a conversation we had the other night.

Eli, "Mom, Sophia may not love us when we get to China."

Mom, "That is true, she might be scared and sad when she first comes to be with us."

Eli, "How do I make her love me Mom?"

Mom. "You love her first with all of your heart."

Eli thinks about this and I can tell he understands.

Mom, "You are so wonderful Eli that she won't be able to resist you and she will love you."

Eli looks at me and smiles as if to say "of course she won't be able to resist me", and goes off to play.

There Are Some Cute New Items at the Fundraiser!

Oh yes...who can resist a pair of red maryjanes???? I know you can't, so go ahead and click on my sidebar and head on over to Sophia's fundraiser.

LOVE THIS PURSE! You can have it...it's at the fundraiser :)

Is this cute or what?? Handmade for the fundraiser...you know where to find it!

If anyone would like to make a donation to the fundraiser, it would be greatly appreciated. I know that some of you have left comments to donate, but I haven't been able to find a way to contact you. So, if you could leave your e-mail address, that would be wonderful!

Come and See Our Girl...We Received Our LOA Today!

The photo in the header above is Sophia's referral photo. I fell in love the minute I saw her sweet little face. These photos are the most recent and were sent to us by Ann just a few days ago. This looks like a large play room.

I am guessing that this is Sophia's little bed. It does my heart good to see her little pink sheets and the little girl's vanity beside her bed. Her bedroom looks fun and comfortable.

This must be a little grocery play area. Love the pineapple! I don't know why they feel need to cut her bangs so short, but they will grow. We just can't wait to get to her.

Our Daughter Had Heart Surgery 2 Weeks Ago...And We Just Found Out

I want to encourage everyone who wishes to send a care package to their child to do it through Ann and Red Thread China. She was able to get us updated photos of Sophia(and believe it or not she has another pair of red maryjanes on in these photos too). And she also was able to find out that Sophia had her heart repair surgery two weeks ago and is recovering well.
I was just in shock over this news. We were planning to do her surgery here when we brought her home. No one had said a word to us and when I spoke with my SW on Friday, she said they were not aware that it had happened.
I just can't stop thinking about my girl and how scary it must be to go through open heart surgery. She is old enough to understand that something very significant has happened and that she has been in pain and has a scar on her chest.
I hope that our care package brings her comfort.
Please pray for our girl.

Sophia & Eli's Room

Many of you have been asking me about Sophia's room. Sophia and Eli will be sharing a room for right now. We have a 4 bedroom house and Zach and Tyler would never share, so that leaves the little ones sharing for a while. I think it will help them bond.
I originally wanted to paint the room yellow, but Tim adamantly said he would not have Eli in a yellow room, so we are doing a lighter sage green. I really love it.
The painting is about 80% done at this point. Hopefully we can get the rest done this weekend and get all of the kids' things into the room. Right now the hallway is packed and so is our room and Zach's room. I tell you, the little ones have a lot of stuff!

Sending Sophia a Care Package Via Red Thread China

I heard about this company from Steffie. It is run by a woman named Ann. She is wonderful! They have many services for adoptive families, but the one we are using is for Sophia's care package. You can choose from many different items. We ordered the PJ Package which includes a doll, a pair of nice pajamas, a soft blanket, a camera, candy for the nannies and a letter translated for our daughter.
We also added the photo book. I e-mailed our family photos to Ann and she will put them into the photo book for us.
For an additional $8.00, Ann can make sure that your package gets delivered directly to your child's orphanage. This is important because if you send a package from home, often times it is delivered to the nearest post office to your orphanage and someone from the orphanage is required to go there and retrieve it. If no one from the orphanage claims the package, it may be returned to you at your cost.
Ann is also willing to contact your child's orphanage to see if they will give her updated photos or size information on your child. Many times they do. She contacted Sophia's orphanage yesterday, so we are anxious to see if we can have some updated photos of our girl!

http://redthreadchina.com

Important! Federal Adoption Tax Credit expires next year.

I read about this on Lena's blog. This is something we all need to take action on. Please post about this and get the word out that this needs to be renewed. Many families won't be able to afford to adopt without this credit.

New Items Needed for the Auction

I want to say thank you so much to everyone who has donated to and/or purchased from the auction. We are a little low on auction items right now, so if anyone has anything that they no longer use or want at home and think it would do well at the auction, please let me know.

Thank You So Much!

Thank you so much Kim and Kelly for the most amazing on-line shower I have ever seen! I had a wonderful time yesterday.
I want to thank everyone who came. It meant so much to me that you took time out of your day to celebrate our daughter.
A special thank you to Lynn at Livi Lu, Colleen at Nutty Chic, Kayce, Kathy's Bows and Doris for
donating the fabulous shower prizes.

If you want to see the photos, click on the link in the post below. There are so many that I can't do the shower justice in a post here.

Thank you so much everyone! I think our daughter is going to look like a little princess now.

Today is Sophia's On-line Shower hosted by Kim!

http://welcomesophiajane.blogspot.com/

Click here to join in!

Whirlwind...

I tell you, things are just a tad crazy here right now. I am used to having a lot going on and projects working simultaneously. But I am used to having two functional arms. Have you ever tried to get by for weeks only writing with your opposite hand? I'm hanging in there, right now I'm typing with my left hand.
I owe so many thank you cards. I've written some with my right hand and the cast, but I'm not supposed to and it starts to really hurt. So, please bear with me. I live in a house with all males and their writing is awful. so I'm kind of stuck.
But let me tell you how happy I am. The daughter in my dreams now has a face and she is so beautiful. I keep rehearsing in my mind what I will say when I see her for the first time.

Sophia's Shower...Hosted by Kelly

I want to begin by saying Thank You to Kelly for throwing the most wonderful shower that I have ever attended. I had a wonderful time and hope that someone has a photo of the two of us together. Thank you to Kim too, who I know also did a lot of work for my special day. Nancy, I can't believe you drove over 6 hours to get here..thank you, it a was wonderful surprise to see you. And thank you to Aunt Carol, Aunt JoAnn and cousin Melinda..it was great to have you there. And thank you to all of my special girlfriends who came and just overwhelmed me with all of the love you showed for my girl.


My pictures saved in different sizes, but this is me and Steffie. She was our official photographer. Our children are the same age and are living together in the same orphanage. We have spent the last two years together...waiting and half a world away our children have been together too.

These are Sophia's gifts. Each one was truly from the heart. Everything is so special.

There were a couple of times when I got a little emotional.

Here are some of the ladies underneath Chinese Lanterns. Kelly had each room decorated for the shower.

This is a shadow box that Kim made for Sophia. I wish you could see it better..it is amazing and contains things from Beijing where Sophia is from.

Kelly is holding up one of Sophia's beach towels.

Kelly made a wonderful lunch for everyone and the shower ended perfectly with cake.