New photo's and updates

Today we received new updates and photo's of our daughter. She is not in the orphanage like her paperwork said but is actually in foster care with an elderly couple. Her foster mother is 65 years old (in the photo) and has been caring for her from the beginning. The update says that she is tall and thin. She is crawling and standing up with help. She has to hold things very close to her to be able to see them well, as for toys and such. She enjoys playing in the water, and it sounds like she eats quite well but has an upset stomach often. They also let us know that she won't drink water unless her foster mother puts sugar in it, YIKES, and that she sleeps with her foster mother every night. SOOO, I'm guessing she is going to not be very happy with us when we first get her. I'm not sure what to expect but am so happy that she is being taken care of so well. I'm assuming from the paperwork and her pictures that her vision is going to be pretty poor. As you can tell from the photo's she is very light. Her eyes ,I'm assuming, are going to be very light sensitive. They are actually blue (you can't tell in the photo's though) but the whites of her eyes are somewhat pink (at least that is what her update paperwork said) due to the lack of pigment. I'm beginning the process of trying to figure out what steps we should take to have her eyesight checked among other things. I'm nervous and excited about bringing her home. It's completely different than Jaili's adoption process. I know majority of it is me overanalyzing things like normal. I just figure there are going to be alot of things I can't prepare for so I'll get a head start on the things I can.

 I also worry about people teasing and staring at her, comparing her and Jaili and just in general raising her to be a strong, independent, intelligent woman. When you have to wait several months and just stare at your child's picture before you get to hold her you tend to obsess alot about things. I tend to think worst case scenario with everything. I know once we are home and in our routine it won't be a big deal. The important thing that I don't lose sight of is that God has meant for her to be our daughter. We love her already and it doesn't matter what worries or fears I have. It's not about me or any of us. It's about her and I know Shane, Jaili and I cannot wait to bring her home. 
Just as a side note: I wrote all of this late last night and was crazy tired and apparently in MAY DAY mode. I know you parents of children with albinism are reading this and laughing ( I totally appreciate that : )  )  So now that I'm awake and thinking right...I need to add that We are so excited for our beautiful baby girl. I'm not wigged out about the sight thing anymore. Just can't wait to get to hold and play with and love on our new daughter
And off the topic, the name may be changing yet again...We arn't sure if she's an Eliana.

Prayers

 This is totally off of the subject of our blog but we are needing prayers. My mom has Crohn's disease and has been in the hospital now for  4 days and still no improvement. They are continuing to run tests, I believe it's a small bowel follow through today to figure out exactly where all the pain is coming from. She has a narrowing of her small bowel, which with Crohn's is not uncommon, but she is not able to tolerate any food except drinks of water and a little tea. She is on high doses of steroids and pain med's plus a litany of other things. We know that she is having a pretty bad flare, but they are also trying to figure out if it's ulcers also and if the amount of scar tissue in her small bowel is causing the pain. Her doctor is confused at the moment as to why the pain is not better yet. Anywho, if you could be sending prayers her way that would be awesome. For more info on Crohn's disease you can visit http://www.ccfa.org/info/about/crohns .
UPDATE:
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS!! My mom is out of the hospital. She has a long road ahead of her but she is doing so much better.

Thank you!

Shane and I would like to thank everyone for attending our fundraiser on Saturday. It was fantastic and thanks to all of your support. We are one step closer to bringing baby home. We made about $3000.00 profit from the fundraiser, so yea! It still leaves about $11,000 left to pay for her adoption and travel expenses but Shane and I know that this is God's path and He will provide. Everytime I start to worry about the money, I just look at her face and know that She is the daughter God has planned for us. Today I read an amazing blog about how God provides when you are walking his path. I realized that there are very few people that truly can afford adoption. Not many have all the money in the bank, yet so many orphans are adopted and that's because God hears the orphans cry. This weekend as I was thinking about how we are getting it all together, God just laid a peace on my heart that it's not about me or Shane or Jaili, it's about Eliana (yes, we changed her name). It's not about us getting a daughter or a sister, it's about Eliana getting a loving family, finally having a mother, father and sister that will love her with all that they have. In faith Shane and I are following His path and I know that in that faith He will provide. Through Him all things are possible, I can't say that there isn't a small amount of worry still there but it doesn't drive me everyday. Anywho, just wanted to say again THANK YOU so much to everyone that continues to support our adoption prayerfully and financially. It amazes me to see how people will step out to help eachother. I can't find the words adequate enough to say how thankful we truly are to all of you. We are eternally grateful.
Oh and on another note we changed her name. I just wasn't bonding with the name June. We wanted a name that reflects sunshine and happiness becuase that's what I feel when I think of her so we have picked Eliana Tian (Eliana means daughter of the sun, or God has answered in hebrew) and it's a portuguese name for Shane's side of the family and Tian means sky or heaven in Chinese.
I don't have any fundraiser pictures on the computer yet, but will post when I get them. Thought I'd put up a photo of our jailibird for now. : )

Benefit for June!!

Just wanted to remind everyone about our fundraiser we are having to bring June home.
It is SATURDAY OCT 10th @ 7pm. (This saturday : ) )
Dancing, wine, silent auction and raffle
Held at the Salem Center 50+ on Portland Rd.
$10pp (Open invitation)
I'm super excited and nervous about it. It is a big thing that we've put together, now we just need to people to show up!
Thank you to all who have helped us with this. To everyone who has donated time, services and things for the auction. Huge thank you to Deb Seeck (Mz.Jitterbug) and Bodhichitta Winery! You all are awesome!!

Jaili girl and baby sister

Everything has been coming along great, although I found out that Shane and I have to do a supplement to our I-800 form (the form that the you have to fill out for the US government to give approval for the adoption and bringing her home) anywho, since on our original approval it doesn't specifically state albinism as a special need we are approved for, we have to send in an addendum and pay $340.00 so they can add the word albinism on it. GRRRR, I was so irritated about this. We wrote on our approval...special needs including, but not limited to, and then we named a bunch of special needs, but crazy enough leaving off albinism. I just thought that since we were open to so many different types of needs we didn't need to list every single one of them, the phrase including, but not limited to, would cover that. I was wrong. So , that's my rant for the day. But whatcha gonna do?? If it's another $340 to bring June home than so be it. On another note, Jaili girl is pretty excited about baby sister, I get asked almost everyday "when we are going to go get her?" but I can also see that it is going to be a bit of an adjustment when she comes home. Jaili bird already has told Shane and I that she is feeling frustrated because we talk about baby sister too much. Then today at Shane's work, she saw that he had June's referral picture up and said "Daddy, why do you have her picture up here?" which Shane said because she's part of our family and I have yours and mommy's picture up to. So needless to say we are going to have to remember to make a HUGE effort to help Jaili girl feel included on everything for baby sister. I am excited to watch their bond grow though after we are all home as a family. I feel enormously blessed to have such a wonderful family and I have to wonder sometime what Shane and I did do deserve 2 beautiful daughters. Jaili girl is just the light of our lives and I can't wait to bring our next little light home to love her and give her HER family. I do honestly worry sometimes about her eyesight when we get home, if she is legally blind, the changes we will make, raising her to be an independent woman, all that stuff that goes with it. I worry about sibling rivalry with bird and June bug as they get older ( Jaili being able to get tan, June not so much, etc...) but then I realize it's not about me or Shane, it's about our daughters and that God has blessed Shane and I with the opportunity to love and guide such wonderful pieces of heaven. I have to rest in knowing through him there is peace.

Thought I'd post one more picture

We had one more picture that I thought I'd post of June. Yes, she completely looks like a boy in this one and WOW gotta love the 5 layers of clothes... Even with that thought she is still BEAUTIFUL! Just like her sister : )

Announcing our newest daughter!!!

I spoke too soon with my last post. We are proud to announce the referral of our next daughter Fu Yan Yang soon to be June Skye. She is currently in Fuzhou city in the Fuzhou SWI. Her birthday is December 11th which happens to be the anniversary of the day we got our Jaili girl. She is 9 months old and is beautiful. She has blonde hair and blue (we think, not positive though) eyes, no I'm not kidding she has albinism. Shane, Jaili and I are so excited. We were not expecting her referral so it was a bit of a shock. I actually saw a post about her on another forum that someone from another agency posted. I was on a forum that I don't usually check and on a Saturday am which I never check on sites on the weekends. The post said that on the shared list that just came out there was a 9 month old baby girl with albinism that had not been matched to a family and that her agency had all of her info and her picture (along with 10 other kids off of the shared list)I immediatly emailed Holt on Sat am to ask about her file. They were fantastic and looked on the shared list right away for us.They let me know that another agency had locked her file but they would keep checking to see if her file became available on Sunday night when the lock would go off from the other agency. I thought there was no way her file was going to become unlocked so we put it out of our brains and went about our weekend. Fast forward to Monday morning and I had an email from Holt from Sunday night that said her file was unlocked and they locked it for us. We were emailed her info today and 10:30am and sent Holt our LOI (letter of intent) this evening. Crazy round about way to find out about our daughter but when God has her meant for us, she will get to us. Shane and I knew immediatly that this is the second daughter God has intended for us. We are so excited and all of us can't wait to bring her home.I'll post more news as we get it and also information about albinism so everyone can understand it better. I know we will be getting alot of questions. There is actually a wonderful site www.albinism.org to learn more about it. Take Care everyone.