Happy Friday!

Just a little cuteness...

Good news for those adopting!

The Adoption Tax Credit has been extended and increased! A huge help to those adopting or interested in adopting! Hopefully, for us, it means we can start thinking about a sibling for Anna a little sooner!

From The Christian Alliance for Orphans Blog:

Amidst the intense controversy of the health care bill signed into law by President Obama yesterday, there’s at least one provision every orphan advocate can cheer. The adoption tax credit was preserved for another year…and increased in value!

To encourage and support adoption, the adoption tax credit was expanded by President Bush and Congress in 2001. This increased the value of the credit from $5,000 to $10,000, and indexed it for inflation (meaning the credit would increase each year to keep up with inflation.) For 2010, its value had risen to $12,170. However, the 2001 increase was scheduled to “sunset” at the end of 2010. This would mean that any adoptions finalized after December 31, 2010 would be eligible for—at most—a credit of only $5,000.

This sunset has now been extended one year. That means that it will need to be extended again before the end of 2011. For the present, however, this extension comes as very welcome news for families considering adoption or in the adoption process.

Specifically, the provisions contained in the health care bill include:

•The current adoption tax credit has been extended until the end of 2011;
•The value of the adoption tax credit has been increased from $12,170 to $13,170.
•The increase is “retroactive,” meaning that any adoption occurring after January 1, 2010 is eligible for this higher credit.
•The credit is now refundable. This means that even families that owe zero taxes can receive the full tax credit in the form of a tax refund to help with their adoption-related expenses.

Those who wait...

Something that has been weighing heavy on my heart since returning home from China is all of the children that are still in there ... waiting.

Most of you know that Greg and I switched from the non-special needs China program to the waiting child China program at the end of last May. The wait for the non-special needs (NSN) program is around 4 years right now and still growing.

This time last year we began looking into the special needs (SN) program in China. What we found was that this program had changed a lot since we were first logged in in 2006...there are now many, many children with very minor, correctable special needs ... such as heart murmurs and other minor heart conditions, cleft lip and palate, missing or extra digits and skin conditions such as birth marks, to name a few. In the SN program you are allowed to specify what needs, age, and gender you are open to. China releases a monthly list of available children and there are also agencies that have lists of children waiting to be adopted. Once you are matched the time frame to travel to bring your child home is anywhere from 3-5 months.

We don't talk a lot about Anna's "need", but she had a diaphragmatic hernia and it was already repaired in China when she was 6 months old. We are very blessed that she was able to have surgery in China and she is now a healthy, happy girl!!

While Greg and I aren't yet in the position to adopt again (praying that this day will come soon though), the one thing we can to do now is advocate for those children that still wait for their forever family.

Maybe you are interesting in adoption or maybe you would just like to sponsor a child waiting to be adopted. I'm going to start working on a list of agencies and organizations that can help you do either or both! Also, if you have any questions about the China SN program, please feel free to email me!

15 Months

Anna turned 15 months old today! The poor little thing had a rough week last week - she had a nasty cold, but she is starting to feel much better now. Last week was also my (Laura) last week before returning to work - BAH!

Now for a little more about Anna ... She is a real crack-up. She loves to mimic, which is pretty funny! She has learned to say kitty, doggy, hi, dada, mama, more (which sounds a lot like mama), and ball. She is also a signing fool - we're doing the Baby Signing Times dvd's with her and she loves them! We are totally amazed by all she has learned, I'm pretty sure she knows more signs than we do! We still haven't met a food that she doesn't like. She loves books...in particular Brown Bear, Brown Bear. She also loves music - any time we have music on, she'll stop what she is doing and put her hands in the air and start swaying ... very cute! We'll try to get it on video soon.

Didn't take a whole lot of pictures this week with her being sick, but here are a few.

Spring Fever

We are getting spring fever around here! It's been so nice to be able to get outside a little lately! Today we are going to walk to the park with Anna and the dogs. Anna had a great week ... she is now sleeping through the night without the 2:30am wake-up! We can tell she is feeling more content and secure around us and in her home. We have taken her swimming about 4 times now and this girl LOVES the water!

Here are a few shots from the week:

Anna reading to Minnie in the house the Dada built

She has learned to tell the kitty "no-no"

Mid-wink

Morning fun

Deep thoughts

The bib says it all...

Sunday afternoon (click images to enlarge)

Houston ... we have lift-off ...

(turn up volume for the full experience)

Home 1 Month

One month ago today we landed on U.S. soil and Anna became an official U.S. citizen! Life as a family of 3 has started to become normal for all of us ... we have routine, and routine is good! Anna continues to amaze us in all that she has learned since we have been home. She is one sharp little peanut!!

Here are some random shots from the last week or so. Notice Anna's cool new ride from Grammie (thanks Grammie)!

Happy Valentine's Day & Happy Chinese New Year!!

Anna made her debut at church today and she did great! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

One Month!!

Our Forever Family Day was month ago today! It's hard to believe a month has already passed by, but at the same time it feels like Anna has always been with us. We still have much to reflect on about our time in China and plan to share more with you over the next few weeks.

I know it's really all about the pictures though, so here are a few shots I snapped yesterday morning

Big progress in a week

Anna really made a lot of progress this week! She is now sleeping in her crib (without us sleeping on her floor)! She is almost adjusted to the time change, she's still waking up around 2am or so for about an hour every night, but that so much better than being awake from midnight to 4am!!

This week Anna had to start her immunizations and also had to have some blood work done. She was terrified of the blood draw, it was so hard to watch her get so scared and upset. She is one tough cookie though! The doctor thought she looked great...the little quirt is in the 15% on the American charts, which is really pretty good, we didn't know if she'd even make it on the American chart!

We continue to work on our bonding and attachment. She is really doing great considering all of the changes she has been through in her 13 months. She is getting comfortable in her house, loving meal time, getting more and more curious about the cat and dogs, and learning that mommy and daddy will always be there for her.

One week home

We've survived our first week home ... it's been a rough one, though! I'm pretty sure that we underestimated the effect the jet lag would have on Anna. She has really had a hard time sleeping!! The first 5 days she was awake on and off from 8pm to midnight and awake and pretty upset from about midnight until 5am, then would crash for a few hours. Greg and I were on survival-mode until about 2 days ago, when Anna finally started adjusting a little and we all were able to get a little more sleep. I'm hopeful that in another week or so she'll be fully adjusted. Then we can start slowly getting her used to her crib ... she is in a pack-n-play next to our bed right now which is where she seems to feel most secure.

Other than our sleep issues (and cutting 2 molars), Anna seems to be adjusting to her new home. She is enjoying playing with her toys and exploring her new environment. She's getting more curious about our cat ... and our cat more curious about her. We have yet to introduce her to the dogs, other than through the back door glass. We'll work up to that ... two 70lb dogs probably look like horses to her!

Greg starts back to work next week and Anna and I are going to miss him greatly!! I couldn't have survived this week if he would have gone back to work already.

We wanted to thank everyone that has helped us survive this first week - all of the food you all provided was appreciated more than you'll ever know. It was so nice not to have to worry about cooking! Thanks also for your thoughts and prayers during this journey and we ask that you continue to pray for Anna as she continues to adjust to her new home and family.

Here are some pictures from our first week home. Have a wonderful weekend!!

Home Sweet Home

We made it home safe and sound. Anna did pretty good considering we were all awake for 24 hours. Thanks to our family and friends for the awesome welcome home at the airport! It was so good to see you all! We are glad to be home and now trying to get our days and nights back to normal. Here is a little video of Anna enjoying her room and toys.

Made it to Hong Kong

Hi, sorry, no pics to post. We made it here, the train ride was nice ... by the time we made it to our hotel it was around 7:30 and we just ordered room service and got Anna to bed a bit ago. We'll check out at 9am and head to the airport. It's still weird to us that our flight leaves Hong Kong around 11am on Friday and get to Chicago around 11am, still on Friday ... jet lag, here we come! Better head to bed now, good-bye from China!!

Love to all,
Greg, Laura, and Anna

Last night in Guangzhou

We can't believe this is our last night here ... tomorrow we'll take the 2 hour train ride to Hong Kong and Friday we'll fly home! We've been pretty busy the last couple of days just taking in all we could before we head home. We have really enjoyed our time here and as anxious (minus the flight) as we are to come home, we are sad to leave. Our time here has been so special and we have made some great friends too!

Today we had our swearing-in ceremony at the US consulate. We were there with about 30 other adoptive families ... as impersonal as that sounds, we were a bit choked up thinking of the culmination of events over these last many years that brought us to that moment, standing there with Anna in our arms.

We'll leave you with some pictures and we'll try to post from Hong Kong tomorrow, but not sure how much time we'll have (Blogger has apparently been having some technical difficulties with video and pictures). We won't get to our hotel until the evening and our flight on Friday leaves around 11am. We ask for your prayers during our 14 hour flight to Chicago! Thank you all so much for you support, words of encouragement, and prayers.

We joked that this is China's idea of adoptive parents ...

For a laugh ...