Shower for Lucy

Well, I think we are all set for Lucy. We had our family shower this past weekend and Lucy was given A LOT of nice things. We had a great time visiting with family and friends. There is so much to be excited about and this just adds to it all! Thank you everyone for your generosity it is definitely helping us with the all of our preperations to bring Lucy home. I thought I knew that babys came with a lot of stuff but WOW!

What a Weekend!

Our weekend started Friday night. We thought we were going to our friends house for a "end of volleyball season" party. Instead it was a shower for us. We are really lucky to be blessed with such awesome friends! We were overwhelmed with all of the gifts. First of all by the generosity and thoughtfulness of everyone and secondly by all of the things babies come with!! Thank you everyone. Then on Monday we received our final travel approval. It is official we will be leaving on Nov. 19th and returning Dec. 4th. Our flight leaves from Milwaukee goes to Chicago and then directly to Beijing. Only 13 1/2 hours from Chicago. Yiippeee! It travels the same route only backwards :) on the way home.

Lucy looks healthy!

Today we received the translation of Lucy's medical records. After talking to the nurse practitioner down at Children's hospital...who by the way also has a daughter named Lucy. Weird! But our daughter looks healthy and from all that they see she seems to be right on track developmentally! Yeah! Some of the fun things we found out about her is...her height 68cm/27.75in, 7.8kg/17.2lb The nurse said she is tall and skinny. Wouldn't have guessed that from them cheeks. :) She wakes up at 6:00am naps between 12:30-2:30 and goes to bed at 8:30. We will see about that. Her favorite toys have motion, sound and lights. Between 1-2 months she was holding her head up and her eyes would follow movement of toys, 3-4 months she would hold head up while lying on stomach, turn her head to follow things, grab toys to put them in her mouth and roll to side when on her stomach. Between 5-6 months she could sit up, roll back and forth freely and crawl backwards. As far as her personality they described her as quiet, lovely and a ready smile. But of course! Be tween 3-4 months she started making sound like "yi -yi and ya-ya" and by 5-6 months she was able to laughed loudly. I can't wait to experience that for the first time. The thought of it brings tears to my eyes. We are happy to have some more information that everything seems to be great with our daughter. Again more answers to our prayer.

Lucy Gill

She is here! What more could we ask for! Born 1-25-2008. We recieved the call yesterday around 1:00 and saw her cute face for the first time around 1:30. I can't wait to hold her in my arms. Today we recieved the Letter of Confirmation and need to get that back to the agency A.S.A.P. so they can start planing our trip to China!!!!! We expect to travel mid November and will probably be there for Thanksgiving. Quite appropriate! God is Good!

Bucky

This is Bucky. He has no idea what is in store for him over the next few months. Poor guy. :)

Scott-n-Carrie on our Wedding Day!

The beginning

Scott and I(Carrie) decided to start our adoption journey in June 2005. Both of us newbies to this entire process really had no idea what we were in for! When we first stepped into our adoption agency we REALLY thought all we needed to do was fill out some paper work and it would be smooth sailing. Boy were we in for a rude awakening. As most of our close friends and family are more than aware of, it didn't really go just like that.
Over the past 3 years Scott and I have had to ask ourselves many times what to do, we wondered if we made the right decision, and we would think are we really cut out for this? Individually I don't think we would have made it this far but, together I truely believe that this is exactly where we are meant to be. How could we question it. I mean come on, we got fingerprinted 3 times, had our background checked locally and by the federal government, we proved that we are finacially ready, we even proved that we are healthy by having our Dr's give us every test known to man.......among numerous other things that really don't seem to matter anymore. Honestly the fact that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel brings such anticipation and joy.
During this process we have been told by people who had completed their adoption already, that once you hold that baby you will forget everything that you went through to get to this point. And I know that they are right. I chose to start the story of our journey now because all of that which is behind us may have been a struggle at times but we know that our story will begin once God brings our family together. We have trusted that God knows what he is doing and that is what has allowed us to wait patiently (sometimes no so patiently). I am grateful everyday that I had Scott to go through this with, I don't think I could have managed to move forward and keep the faith without Scott's insights and humor (of course). It has all been a matter of perspective and Scott is always good at putting that twist on things. When Scott pointed out how difficult these little babies lives are from the start and how good we have it, it was like wow! I started to focus on all the blessings we have around us daily. I also started to realize that waiting which seemed like such a hard thing really became, well no so hard. When realizing that when I'm hungry I can eat whatever I want. When I am cold I can grab a blanket or turn up the heat. When I want a hug I have plenty of willing arms around me. Many of these simple things that we take for granted, daily, these little babies go without. So that is what kept us going strong and with a smile on our face. I'm lucky to be blessed with such a smart man.