Washington Family Ranch 2009

We just returned home from our most favorite week of the year, our week at Young Life Camp where Marc helped out, for the 5th year, on the medical team. Here are a few of our favorite pictures.

We had a great week and as always, it is good to be home!

As we unpacked our suitcases tonight and Marc put them away he said, "Well, the next time we use these we will be heading to China!" CRAZY!!!!

Photo Album

So, we mailed off the photo album to Mei today.

A new friend who is Chinese went over my translations (from the Internet) with a fine toothed comb and made sure everything I said was appropriate/correct. In the process she taught me loads about Chinese culture. For instance, it is proper for Chinese girls to call their older brothers "Big Brother" instead of by their name. She said that shows them much respect. Interesting.

I thought creating this album was going to be an emotional process but it wasn't. I kept picturing my niece (who is 4 months younger then Mei) receiving the pictures and I know all she'd want to do would be to eat them...probably. Regardless, Jorie and I had fun covering the book with stickers. (I have hope that if Mei doesn't care about the pictures then at least she'd have fun looking through the album to find the stickers)

The only picture that brought some emotion to me was Jorie's picture. I looked at it and prayed that Mei would come home with a connection already in her heart for her older sister. There is no one more excited about this adoption then Jorie. I hope that Mei sees that in Jorie's face.

You know, you always wonder if this little album will even make it to Mei. I don't know. I hope it does. Our agency said we couldn't send anything else. That's fine with me just because I am such a skeptic about if it would even arrive. Anyway, I will be praying over this album. I will pray that it, in some way, starts helping Mei and her caregiver to prepare for the transition that awaits them. As they look at our pictures and read the words that I wrote, I hope they will both start to see how much LOVE awaits little Mei and that that will be a comfort to them both.

thinking of a little name switcheroo

Well, normally I wouldn't recommend posting on your blog all of the names you are thinking about naming your newest child. But I have never struggled with a name like I have with this child. Marc and I simply are on different pages and both way too influenced by everything you can imagine in this "naming" process.

I THOUGHT we had settled on Mya. We even made this official announcement to our kids a few days ago that "mommy and daddy are done talking about it and her name is now officially Mya!" ....a sigh of relieve came over all of us to be done with that process.

Then tonight on a bike ride Marc informed me that we can't name her Mya because he thinks it sounds Indian. He also doesn't want her middle name to be Maria (which is my middle name) because he thinks it sounds too Mexican. He further informed me that he wants to name her a name that "sounds" Chinese. I do love my husband but this is getting ridiculous.

From the beginning of this process I wanted her name to be "Mei". I think it sounded really cute and obviously Chinese. It is a cute name and honors her heritage. Plus, when she goes back to visit or live in China some day I wanted her to have a name that can easily blend in. I hoped that she would come with that name on her referral so that the choice would be obvious. But she did not. For the record, I have always had Mei in my mind but have also had about 18 thousand other names choices I liked too.

Anyway, Maria has always been my choice for the middle name. I want to give it to her because it is MY middle name and giving her MY name is very special to me. She won't have my blood, genes, or looks. I want to give her my name. I know Marc doesn't like it but I am holding firm on this one.

So, I am not making any official announcements. I am simply putting in writing my latest choice for a name for my daughter....oh by the way, when I just got home from the bike ride and looked up the meaning of Mei, I found that it means: the youngest of sisters, beautiful.

Mei Maria Skipper

Here I am humbled by your Majesty

Covered by your grace so free

Here I am, knowing I'm a sinful man

Covered by the blood of the Lamb

Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine

Since you laid down your life

The greatest sacrifice
Majesty, Majesty

Your grace has found me just as I am

Empty handed, but alive in your hands

Majesty, Majesty

Forever I am changed by your love

In the presence of your Majesty
Here I am humbled by the love that you give

Forgiven so that I can forgive

Here I stand, knowing that I'm your desire

Sanctified by glory and fire
Now I've found the greatest love of all is mine

Since you laid down your life

The greatest sacrifice

song lyrics by Delirious

Here is our daughter, Mei

is this really real?????

Well, the first few days were exciting after we got our referral....the day we had been waiting for. Then it all seemed not real. Like it was all imaginary. I had her picture and a few minute details of her health and A LOT of unanswered questions. I read over and over the little information I had and each time I finished reading through it I felt like I had more questions about her than answers. I began to wonder if she was even a real person. It was kinda a bizarre feeling. The weirdest part to me is that through all of it I continue to feel tremendous peace. I think that this peace comes first from the Lord and secondly from the fact that this little amount of info. is what every adoptive family gets and they usually end up with a baby in their hands at the end of the journey.

Yesterday morning we received an email from our agency listing quite a few complex pieces of paperwork that we now need to move forward with. Thankfully, my husband is going to take care of those. Those thousands of little details put me over the edge.

Then the agency encouraged us to make a photo album (little scrapbook) to send to our daughter introducing our faces to her. So, Marc and I stayed up late last night trying to decide which pictures to send. This project (which of course I LOVE) has helped it seem more real to me. To think of this sweet little girl getting pictures of "white" people (I wonder if she has ever seen people with blond hair????) makes me think of her as "real". I really don't know if I'll be convinced she is real until I am holding her in my arms. That's just how I am.

Making this scrapbook, in my mind, is actually just as much for Mya as it is for her foster-grandma who she is living with. I am praying for her and her heart as she has to let this baby go in a few months. I am hoping these pictures I send will help her with that process. In the scrapbook I am going to write a letter to both Mya and her foster-grandma. I know that Mya will not understand a word of it so it doesn't hold that much significance to me.....but her foster-grandma on the other hand will understand every word ( I am going to have it translated into Chinese) (which by the way, I think it is amazing that I have about 4 Chinese people on my mind that I could ask to translate for me. I see so clearly how God has been preparing us and building around us a Chinese support system.) These words to her are important to me.

We also asked our agency to try to obtain a few additional pieces of medical information for us....such as "Has her cleft lip been repaired yet?", current height and weight, etc. It sounds 50/50 as to if we will receive answers to our questions or not. we'll see.......

Last night as I was lying in bed I, for the first time, imagined the moment when I see her for the first time and take her into my arms. Just the thought of it was almost too much to bear. What an intense moment that will be. Those feelings definitely made it seem real.

Well, that's where we're at today. Every day seems to be a new adventure and we experience different emotions then the day before.

Kindergarten Graduation

The best part of Kindergarten were the friends made. I couldn't have picked a better group of boys for Luke to hang out with and be influenced by. They were each so precious!


It's not a celebration for Luke if there isn't strawberry shortcake involved.


Hi mom!

I love this kid!

You have no idea the drama behind what should be a simple family picture....

The waitress at Red Robin made him this hat!

Two graduates in the family this year....and on both ends of the spectrum:

Luke from Kindergarten and my sister from medical school.

the graduate with the grandparentals

Luke was singing this song, The Twelve Days of Kindergarten, with such passion it made my cry from laughing so hard.

my boy.

It's Official

Well, it is as official as it can be right now. This evening we sent our Letter of Intent to the Chinese government to adopt this little sweet girl. Marc and I have already fallen head over heels for her and can't wait to squeeze her and hold her. I keep staring at her picture. I have taken her picture off of the blog b/c I heard from someone else that I am not suppose to put it on a public website yet....not sure the details of that but until I know for sure I don't want to do anything to mess this up! We are very happy and God's peace fills our hearts despite so many unknowns. This adoption process is a wild adventure.

Referral Day!!!!!!!!!!!

After another wild emotional 24 hours yesterday we received our second referral today. We haven't officially accepted this referral yet but we plan to this evening. She is an 18 month old with cleft lip and palate. She is living with a foster grandma which is awesome because that means that she is hopefully learning to connect and attach. We have received very little medical info. on her which is hard but we still feel a tremendous amount of peace....that we never had with our first referral. The info. given to us states that her favorite activity is "playing outdoors" which is a perfect match to our family!

Please pray for us that we continue to have peace as we proceed with writing up our acceptance letter to the Chinese government.