Wednesday, March 25, 2009

New pictures of our beauty!!!!

There's a great website, ladybugsnlove.com, that will call orphanages for adoptive parents and request updated information. We did this 10 days ago and today we got our updated information. Hmmmm... what should I give you 1st, the 4 new pictures or the information???? OK, stop begging, here's the pictures!! Oh yeah, she had her lip repaired!!!


We had no idea she was getting her lip repaired until we got the pictures this morning!! It looks great!! We got answers to 10 questions as well as updated height and weight. She is 26.7 inches tall, weighs 17.6 pounds, has 4 teeth, 2 upper and 2 lower and her feet are only 5 inches long!! She's wearing infant size shoes!! Here's all the new stuff we know about our daughter!!! She hasn't had any illnesses except colds and coughs. She has alot of friends and gets along well with all the other children. Her favorite toys are any that make music. She doesn't like strangers and is afraid of them (bad for us!!). Her personality is described as easy going, lively and gets along well with other children. She sleeps on her back. She crawls and stands by herself and will walk holding your hand. She likes to go outside. The orphanages wish for her when she grows up is that whe will remember and love China when she is grown. We are so thrilled to have this new information and the pictures, it's priceless!! In one of the photos you can see a lady's hands and it looks like the sign for play. We are hopeful they are using sign language with her, Scott and I plan on using sign language with her so this just gives us all a head start. Once again, please leave a comment, we will be adding them all to Laila's book!! Thank you all so much for your love and prayers!!

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Daddy's baby shower

Hi everyone!!! Thanks for checking back and just in time to see Scott's haul from his daddy baby shower. His co-workers had a great party for him today. He wore a blinking pacifier all day, wish I could've seen that. They brought in donuts for breakfast and for lunch they brought in queso, salsa, chips, sandwiches and lots of other munchies. They were all VERY generous and we can't thank them enough. They have really started Laila out with some great things. Take a look!!!
We registered for 2 car seats, one for each car, and they got us one of the car seats!! There's also some strap pad things so the straps don't dig into her shoulders and a little pink toy that you pull and it shakes. Pretty cute!!
Here's Scott with one of his favorite presents... a bib that says "I love daddy." How sweet!!
Here are the "bath" presents. There's a cute giraffe robe, 6 wash cloths, a ladybug pod (it scoops up all the bath toys and hangs on the wall), there's also the bedtime bath basket (bath soap, lotion, blanket, and the book Good Night Moon), and there's also the little yellow duck which fits over the bath faucet and makes bubbles to go into the bubble bath!!!
Here we have our "food" presents. We got a package of plates, a formula storage container that portions the right amount of formula for a bottle, bottle brushes and a really cool snack container that has a twisty type lid that Laila can put her hand in and get snacks but if she drops it, or when she drops it, nothing comes out. How cool!!

Here we have our "toys". We got another Good Night Book, a sassy baby photo album, a teething ring and a vtech toy that you push the top and it spins, lights up and plays music!! We love them all and so will Laila!!!Here we have our "adorable clothes". We got a beautiful Laura Ashley dress with cute little pink bloomers for underneath. We got a white top with little pink embroidered flowers and matching pink shorts. We also got 2 dresses with long sleeve white shirts and in 2 different sizes so she can always wear one!!! Genius!! Then we got 2 really cute little short/shirt outfits, blue and white with hearts and flowers and white shorts and then a coral shirt with a rainbow and khaki shorts. Adorable!!! We also got lots of barettes and 2 blankets!!!! Then there were the gift cards... $145 to Target!!!! Thank you so much everyone!!! You all were so generous and we appreciate everything!!! Thank you for making Scott aka daddy feel so special. You all are the best!!!!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Our first care package!!!

Hi everyone!!! We are thrilled that we could finally share our little beauty with all of you. Thank you so much for all the great messages, Laila is loved and cared about by so many!!! Today we sent off our care package to Laila!! I bought everything weeks ago, when we got our referral, but couldn't mail it until we got our PA and then I've been sick, so today was the day we sent our package so Laila knows she has a mommy and daddy who love her and are coming to get her, hopefully soon!!!
We sent a picture book, the plastic kind that little ones can chew on and it's pretty indestructible. Laila's picture is on the front so everyone knows who it belongs too. Inside is a picture of mommy, daddy, the dogs, her grandparents, her grandpa, her uncle and her aunt, uncle and 2 cousins.

We are also sending chocolates to the nannies as a thank you for taking such good care of our daughter. On the package it says for the nannies in both english and chinese.

We are also sending a digital camera. It was fairly cheap and we're hopeful they will take pictures and bring it along when we meet Laila. We'd love to have pictures from her orphanage to share with her when she's older.
We also sent 6 pairs of pants. 4 pair are of little leggings and sweatpants, 1 pair of pink cords and a pair of jeans.

We also sent 3 longsleeve shirts and a sweatshirt.
In some of the information we received from the orphanage it said Laila likes music so we also sent 2 toys that both play songs. One is a little book and the other one is more like a rattle and they both play music. We hope she likes them.

When my BFF Jami had her baby 2 years ago she gave us a little blue 1 piece heavy jumper that looks like a bear. It's really cute and warm!! She lives in Houston and never used it. It's too small for Laila but we know some little cuties can get some use out of it so we're sending it as well as a little pink hat. It's amazing how much you can fit in the flat rate shoebox size box from the post office!! Here it is all boxed up and ready to go!!!!Here's daddy in front of the post office sending a box off to our daughter. How exciting!!!!The post office man let me take a picture of him but I think he thought I was a little wacky. Oh well!!!And it's officially on it's way!!!! Hopefully 7-8 days and our sweet Laila will know she has a mommy and daddy on the other side of the world!!We love you Laila and hope to hold you, hug you and kiss you soon!!!!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Our beautiful baby girl... Laila JeanneLi

We are thrilled beyond belief to introduce to you our beautiful little girl waiting for us in Xinyang, Henan, China. I received the call at work on Monday, Feb. 23, Sarah from our agency said, "I have a beautiful little girl who needs a mommy and daddy, I was wondering if you and Scott might be her mommy and daddy." Thru the tears I said we might be and asked for more information. She told me Luo Min Li was 1 on Feb. 12th and has an unrepaired bilateral cleft lip and unrepaired cleft palate. She loves to look at her reflection in the mirror and also loves to go outside. She is beautiful, perfect and OURS!!!!! We sent all her infomation to our pediatrician and in a few hours he called us back and said what we already knew, she's beautiful, perfect and OURS!!! We sent in our LOI (Letter of Intent) on Feb. 25th and today we received our pre-approval from the CCAA to adopt our daughter, Laila JeanneLi Van Gieson. We hope to travel in May and will get her repaired here. Enjoy the pictures and please feel free to leave a comment, we will be turning this blog into a book for Laila and would love for her to see all of your messages.
And our favorite picture. She has a beautiful smile and such life in her eyes!!!!