Wordless Wednesday: Thankfulness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

Tuesday's update

I can't believe how fast this month went.  We have to turn in our paperwork by Friday, if we want our home study done by January 10, 2013.  Almost all of the forms are filled out.  All the kiddos are going in at 2 pm today to get their TB test done and that should be a lot of fun.  I know the pediatricians office will be excited!!  The last time I brought in all the kiddos for flu shots, I thought they were going to pass out.

Last update on our girl was that she was doing well.  She did not end up getting her surgery rescheduled.  We are praying that paperwork, in China, gets done quickly and we can get her home!!



We are currently $800 short of making the first payment for our home study.  The agency was kind enough to grant us more time and split the amount into two payments.  One due by Nov. 30th and the second one in January.  Could you please find it in your heart to help us rescue our little princesses?


I am working on collecting some more items for a fundraiser and if you support us you will be entered into it.  Please keep praying for us! 

Thank you,

The Fristoes

Surgery

I just got an email that simply stated that Feng's surgery had been cancelled.  I know nothing else.  I want to cry for so many reasons.  I wanted to be with her when she had surgery, but I know it is best she have it sooner rather than later.  I was hoping that would help her stay healthier while she waits for the adoption process to occur.  Now, I don't know if or when she will get another chance.

Please pray for my girl.


I will push forward and see how fast I can raise money and keep praying for my girls.  I will try and focus on finishing our home study before the end of the month.

Goodnight and God bless you,

Suzanne

Tonight is the night, in China.

Wow, I made it through yesterday.  My emotions were on high after getting the email about Feng.  China is 14 hours ahead of us, so I am guessing that around 6-7 pm CST time Feng will be having her surgery.  I am assuming by the description of what is going to take place, it will take 8-10 hours to preform. 

 

 I am, once again BEGGING that sometime before you go to bed, PLEASE SAY A PRAY FOR FENG, THE DOCTORS, ANESTHESIOLOGIST, NURSES, NANNIES, AND EVERYONE INVOLVED IN HER CARE.  PLEASE PRAY SHE HAS A SPEEDY RECOVERY, HER PAIN IS CONTROLLED AND SHE COMES OFF THE VENTILATOR EASILY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, last night I was told that my son, Justin and his wife, Haley were going to have TWINS!!!  They already have a beautiful little girl, Eleanor.  How exciting!!!  They are due in June 2013.

 

 

Here is the first picture of the Twins:

 

Here is Eleanor:

 

 

 

 

Today on November 14, 1996 at 2:47 am my sweet baby boy, now young man, Daniel was born!! 

 

 

 

Happy 16th Birthday, Daniel!!!

 

 

 

 

I was able to take him shopping yesterday with me.  Our last stop was at Guitar Center in Independence.  He picked out the drum supplies he needed, so he could play in the worship band at church tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day.  I am going to try and keep very busy today, so time will fly by.  Please say a prayer!

 

 

Suzanne

 

Remember:  I am collecting  Pamper points and I am only 1100 point from my next reward.   Also collecting Huggies and Coke reward points.  All rewards I earn will be used in a future giveaway!!!  Help us bring our girls home.







Thursday is the big day!!

I woke up this morning with a list of things to do.  They first being to call the school and let them know my little ones wouldn't be there, because they are sick and to cancel bus service for them.   I went on my email to find and update about my sweet little Feng.  When I opened the email I was not prepared at all for what it said!!!!  Now I am nervous, scared and not sure what to do.  I know there is nothing I can physically do, but I really need to keep busy, so I don't worry myself sick.  I have finally received the answer to why Clara's surgery had to be canceled.  There is no way I could have handled her in the PICU, being post open heart and Feng all the way in China, having her open heart at the same time.  I should have known something big was going to happen!!!! 

Here is what Little Flower had to say today:

Feng has been waiting and waiting for heart surgery, but two things have been holding us up. One is that her surgery is risky and complex, and the other is that it's also very expensive. Today we got good news on both fronts - a visiting US pediatric cardiac surgeon is willing to cooperate with Chinese surgeons to do her surgery AND we found a generous donor willing to cover the 80,000 yuan (US$12,700) cost. Her surgery is scheduled for the day after tomorrow. Please pray that she's strong and healthy enough for this complicated repair, and that the surgery and recovery go smoothly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what I am begging for form each of you:  Please say a prayer that she is healthy enough for the surgery, that the US cardiac surgeon be skillful, blessed and successful.  Please pray that Feng is well cared for, by skillful nurses.  Please pray she will have an uneventful, quick recovery, her pain will be controlled, she will know she is loved, even if her momma is on the other side of the world, and complete recovery.  Could you also say a short prayer for me that I will find peace while all this is going on, away from me. on the other side of the world. 

 

 

Her surgery is scheduled for Thursday morning in Beijing.

 

PLEASE:  PRAYERS PRAYERS PRAYERS!!!!

 

 

 

Thank you,

 

Suzanne

PS.  Pray that her paper work will be finished sooner rather than later! 

 





We need your help.

I was approached, in July of this year, about my interest in adopting another very special angel.  I was sent a picture, which I proceeded to show my husband.  This totally threw me, I was expecting a NO WAY!!!  But instead I got a "What do we have to do to bring her home?"  After I picked myself off of the floor, I sent a reply telling them that yes we would be happy to adopt her, but we had to wait until Clara had been home for 6 months.  I have to admit we were not looking to adopt again so quickly, but God apparently had other plans.  I was planning on waiting until the very last minute to submit our reused dossier.  I figured that would give us almost 2 years between placements.  I was also looking for another 5-6 year old, not a 9 month old, but I figure God is having a good laugh right now.  Well, I keep getting sent pictures of our sweetie with another sweetie, so we have decided to try and bring home both girls.  Both have down syndrome but one has a repaired TOF and the other has an un-repaired ASVAD.   We have been waiting for her orphanage to finish up her paperwork so we could lock her file.  Hopefully they are close to being done.

I decided to start fundraising and held a Scentsy party.   My wonderful friend Christy was kind enough to donate all her proceeds to our adoption.  Halfway through the month I got an uneasy feeling about all of this and decided I needed to start my part of the paperwork asap.  I had spent about three days praying about this and had asked several of my prayer warrior friends to pray about this.  At the end of the week I received an email from the healing home she lives in saying that this wonderful group of American doctors called Little Hearts Medical.  You can read about them here:  www.littleheartsmedical.org.  They did an echo on our girl and said she would not be able to wait 6 or 8 months for us to come and get her.  This just about made me sick, but it also confirmed my feeling that we should be doing more.  I am currently waiting on the cd from Little hearts and a letter of recommendations.  I have been in contact with one of the team members and they think they can help speed up the adoption.  The healing home she lives at is unable to pay for her operation, but would if they could and the orphanage refuses to pay.

One of the biggest hurdles we encountered during Clara's adoption was when we sent in our I800A.  Our approval was held up for months while they searched for my "alien" file.  If you don't recall, I was born in Turkey, while my father was in the Air Force and Turkey recognizes dual citizenship, so I have a birth abroad birth certificate and citizenship papers, because I relinquished my Turkish citizenship.  I was inquiring about extending our approval, with an immigration officer, and she told me that if I file a supplemental 3 form before the expiration of our fingerprints, we can get approval in about 2 weeks.  So, now we really need to move quickly.  I have a home study agency that is willing to move quickly and get our home study completed and turned in before the deadline, the catch is we need $3000.00 to pay for the home study and 6 post adoption visits.

We are in a very desperate spot.  We don't have that much money available to us at this time.  So, I am asking anyone and everyone for their help.  We need to get this paperwork in asap.  Our baby girl's life depends on this.  I am begging for you to share, pray and donate to our chip in to help us bring our girls home.  I am planning on having a giveaway and I am collecting prizes for that, but in the meantime I have nothing to offer, but prayer.  If all goes as planned we could be dossier to China in January and just waiting on them to say we can come get them and have her here in the US for surgery by March. 



If you can find it in your hearts to help us, we will forever be grateful!!!

We need $3000.00 by the end of November.  Can you PLEASE help us.

PRAY, SHARE, DONATE.

The little "blue baby's" life hangs in the balance.

Would you be a part of our Miracle??


God bless you,

Suzanne

Happy National Adoption Month

Wow, this year is flying by.  I can't believe it is November.  October came, went and once again I didn't get my daily post up. :( 

Today was my sweet little man's birthday!  Five years ago, my little "BONUS" baby entered this world.  Our world has never been the same.  Aaron is just the sweetest little guy and has a big heart.  His early education teacher just loves him and tells me all the time she wants to steal him.  She told me that he is very good about including all the children in the room, when he is playing and that when someone is off by themselves, he goes over and tries to play with them.  I believe this, because he is one of Hannah's biggest fans.  He will do anything for her and gets so mad at us if we reprimand her in anyway.  I was all prepared to make him a circus train cake for him today and what does he do, changes his mind.  Instead he wanted a truck cake, so this is what he got.

 

 



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AARON MICHEAL FRISTOE!!!!!  I LOVE YOU BABY BOY!!!




We took the little ones trick or treating yesterday.  This was Clara's first trip.  She really did well, at the third house we went to, they let the kids just take whatever candy they wanted out of the wagon.  I had to laugh, Clara got this down quickly.  She just started picking up candy and putting it in her pumpkin.  They all thought it was funny and encouraged her to keep doing it as they called all their friends over to watch.  The best part was knowing she wasn't even going to eat any of it!! 



Check out these sweet little girls:

 

 

 





I just love seeing their pictures!!!

Suzanne

Wordless Wednesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God Bless you!!!

 

Suzanne

Our trip to China

DS facts today:

4.  Down syndrome is not a disease and people do not suffer from it. They are born with Down syndrome and will have it their whole life.   They cannot give it to someone else and they cannot be cured of it.

5.  Common physical traits of Down syndrome include low muscle tone, small stature, almond shaped eyes, and a single deep crease across the center of the palm. Every person with Down syndrome is a unique individual and may possess these characteristics to different degrees or not at all.



A day late but here we go!!

May 7, 2012

Oh my!!!!!  We leave tomorrow and I don't have any of my official gifts!!!!

Abby and I ran to the mall to purchase some small tokens of appreciation for all those involved with our adoption in China.  We started out at Bath and Body Works.  Thanks to a point savings plan at Walgreens, I had four gift cards that valued 40 dollars.  I LOVE this store, so I had to work extra hard to keep my mind on the task at hand.  We went through all the sample bottles and found what we wanted.  Thankfully the samples were all on sale 3 for $10.00.  So, we headed to the counter and placed our items there.  The clerk asked why we were getting so many, so I went on to explain that we were leaving for China tomorrow to get our new daughter/sister.  She starts asking more questions and I answer.  She finishes ringing up all our goodies and says, "My sister was adopted from Korea and she is amazing!!!"  Your total is 85.26.  I look at her and say I spent more than that and she said, I gave you my employee discount!!!!!  So, I gave her all my gift cards and we were out of there.  Cool, only took 1 1/2 hours, about an hour longer than I had wanted.

Off to Wal-mart to find some sports memorabilia for the men in China.  We looked around for awhile and I finally decided to get something Royals or Chiefs.  Who would have guessed, everything was made in China, a big NO NO for us.  So, off we start looking, all over the store.  Finally we decide we are hungry, so we go up front and eat at Subway and try to come up with more ideas.  Abby has managed to find everything (plus) what we need for ourselves to be fully packed.  So after lunch/dinner, I am not sure of the time anymore, we are back to shopping.  I finally get a call from home asking if we were coming back.  I said yes, but we are not finished and asked for suggestions of gifts.  Than Dewey says, you know it is 7:30 and I started to cry, right there in the middle of Wal-mart.  I was tired and wanted to be home with my babies that I was leaving for 3 weeks.  It was awful!!!

I finally decided everyone left was getting Russel Stover Candy, so we left and headed to the candy store.  When we got there, they were of course closed.  We finally got home and got everything packed and the babies were getting very tired.  Got them ready for bed, rocked them, kissed them goodnight and put them in bed, once they fell asleep.  I went to bed a little later.


May 8, 2012

We are leaving for China in 6 hours!!!!!

We got up and got ready to head to the airport.  We left early enough to stop by the candy store and pick up some goodies and than we ran by McDonald's.  I let Aaron skip school.  There is noway on this earth I could have gotten on a plane while he was at school.  We managed to get everything into the terminal and I tried to use the self check in station and it said it was unable to check us in for this flight.  So, Abby and I got in line and the babies ran back and forth between Dewey, Daniel, Abby and I.  It took forever to get through the line.  We were finally checked in and all our bags made it under the 50 pound limit!!!  We had way too many bags!!!  We each had to checked bags and two carrry-ons!! 

We were standing around waiting to get in the boarding line when they started calling my name overhead.  So, I got back into line and asked what was wrong and she said I was at the wrong spot, we needed to go to the boarding line.  Off we went.  Once in the line the babies were getting tired of being good, so we said our goodbyes and they went to watch planes take off.  All of a sudden someone was coming to us and telling us people on the outside were trying to get our attention.  Dewey was standing there holding Abby's glasses.  I went and asked a security guard if they could get her glasses for us and a nice, older man went and got them for us.  This whole time they keep calling my name overhead, so I go to the counter and the lady just wanted to let me know they got us two seats together. 

Talk about nerve wracking.  I don't travel much and I don't care too.  All of this was such a huge step for me.  I hadn't been on a plane since 1997 and the time before that was 1986.  I am not scared of flying, I am just very content to stay home.  We got to Chicago without any problems.  Found the terminal we would board the next plane at and went to eat at McDonald's.  I know pretty gross to have it twice in one day, but I had been warned how expensive it was to eat at the airport and we only had so much money.  Dinner we seventeen dollars!!!!!  We went and exchange $350.00 for $1850.00 RMBs.

We finally boarded our International flight to Beijing.  This is were all the trouble started.  As soon as we got in the air they were feeding us a snack.  About a half hour later, they were shoving a late night dinner down us and than lights out.  I couldn't fall to sleep.  All I could think about was what was she going to be like??  Would she smell funny??  Would I not like the way she looked??  What if she was mean??  Why am I doing this??  I want to go home!!!  I don't want to go anymore!!  What if her poop smells so bad, I can't stand to change her??  Yes, I have issues with smells, started during my first pregnancy and has gotten a little better but still there.  I finally fell asleep.

I woke up several times, but the final time was to them serving us breakfast.  I had my final REAL diet coke with ICE.  We arrived in Beijing at 1030 pm.  The airport is huge and empty.  We got our bags, got on a tram that took us to another terminal and we went through customs.  I went to a counter and asked for help to get to our hotel and they told me to use the phone and call the number on the paper.  I did this only to figure out the workers at the hotel spoke very little English.  They told us we would have to get a taxi because the shuttle was done for the night.

Getting taxis in China isn't fun.  I had read about all the fake taxis, don't take black ones, make sure they have a letter C on the license plate.  We were deciding where we should go and these drivers came up to us and wanted to take us to the hotel.  We hesitated for awhile but finally went with them, because we didn't know what else to do.  He started driving us and kept going and going.  It was dark, the roads were empty, there were cars parked between trees all over the place.  We were getting nervous, when he got on his phone and started talking to someone.  He up and stopped in the middle of the street and started to back up.  He stopped again and than went into this empty parking lot and stopped.  I was noticing all the black cars sitting around in the trees.  We were both getting pretty scared when he turned around again and started driving around again.  He slammed on his brakes and backed up some more and finally turned down a street and pulled into the hotel.  YAY!!!!!  I was really starting to think we were going to be robbed or worse!

Once in the hotel it took about a half hour for them to get us checked in and we were the only people in the lobby.  We got to our room and tried to get Internet.  We tried to watch the "American" stations, but couldn't find them, so we went to bed.  This all happened over 24 hours.  It is now May 9, 2012.

May 10, 2012

Our first morning in Beijing!!!!

We got up and got dressed.  We tried to get Internet, again.  I finally texted my sister, in Missouri and asked her to get on my email and see if Serena had messaged us and given us a phone number.  I than had her email her and tell her we were there.  We went to the lobby to see if we could get Internet down there.  While we were sitting there, in walks an American and she comes over to us and says, you have to be Suzanne, I'm Serena.  I was so happy.  We collected our stuff and headed off to Little Flower. 

By the time I got there I was so sick to my stomach.  Everything I had thought about on the plane came rushing back.  We got out of the car with our donations, one entire suite case, of supplies.  We took lotion, candy and 7 different types of hot chocolate for the nannies and some bandages and clothing for the kiddos.  As we walked around the corner I scanned all the babies faces and found my sweet Mei Mei.  I walked over to her and the nanny told her to go meet her new momma.  She came over to me and gave me a hug and sat on my lap.  All of the devils attempts to ruin this bonding failed.  I was SO IN LOVE!!!!!!  I played with her for awhile and than she wonder off.  It was close to lunch time so I attempted to feed her and that was a terrible mistake!!!!  She screamed, kicked and flung her arms, so I gave the food back to the nanny and she just smiled and ate her lunch. 

We got a tour of Little Flower and had our first REAL Chinese meal!!  Believe it or not, I loved the food.  I am usually the pickiest eater, but I really enjoyed the food.  Now the luke warm water is a whole different story.  In fact the water is often served warmed, just gross!!   Diet coke in China is coke zero here.  Coke zero in China is also coke zero, so I am not sure why they sell both.  I was able to drink the coke zero and obtained my required caffeine that way, but I also drank a lot of bottle water and sprite.

It was time to say goodbye to Mei Mei for the day and Lynsay, from Morning Star, came and picked us up for some sight seeing.  Off to the portion of the Great Wall called Yellow Flower.  It was an hour away and in up in the mountains.  It was a very interesting drive.  In China for less than 24 hours and got to see our first week and first dead body just laying there at the scene.  Apparently that was a very common spot for wrecks.  We were told we were lucky that they had at least thrown a cardboard box partially on the body.  I was thinking, wow I brought my 14 year old daughter all the way to China, so she could see her first dead body on the road. 

The day got better and we drove up the mountain and through some villages.  We learned about how the people live and how they used everything to its fullest potential.   We hiked up part of the mountain side and than climbed a ladder made of tree limbs up onto the wall.  This is a part of the wall that most tourist will never see.  It was in its full natural state.  It was deteriorating and just amazing.  I thought the hiking up the mountain was bad, but it didn't get any better once we were on the wall.  I went as far as I could and Abby went further.  I was beautiful up there.  But at the same time it was sad how smoggy it was.  There is a constant haze all the time in Beijing.  From the wall I watched some villagers work in their fields, studied their houses and looked at all the trees and flowers.  It was very peaceful up there.  We discussed how amazing it was that people built this wall with out all the machinery of today.  It was a wonderful day and I sat there, prayed and thanked God for taking us this far.

Lynsay took us to a wonderful restaurant and we ate till we were full.  She took us to a grocery store for some supplies and we went home, showered and fell asleep.




Okay, we aren't going to make it through the whole first week there in one post.  I will continue with the rest of our time in Beijing, tomorrow.  I will also add pictures tomorrow, because I can't find the cord to my external hard drive right now and I am so ready for bed.


We are hitting the fundraising trail hard now.  We are not able to reuse our original dossier, so we need to raise $1400.00 for a new one. We are hoping to earn enough in the next month to start our new home study.

We are currently running a Scentsy party, that will run through the 23rd of this month.  This is a great time to pick up some really nice Christmas presents and help save some orphans!!!   Here is the link to it: https://ctaylor5477.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=107903430
I am collecting Pamper points. These are located on the inside of the diaper packages and on the underneath of the wipes packages.  I would be very grateful if you are not collecting them, if you would send them my direction and I would put them to good use.
I also started collecting Huggie points.  These are also located on the inside of the diaper packages
I collect coke rewards too.  Inside coke product boxes and under the cap of bottles.
I am working hard to earn as many prizes as I can for our auction/giveaway.

Even one code is helpful. You can just pm them to me or pm and I will give you my address or send you a SASE.

Please, Please, Please share this with everyone you know. We are hoping to expedite this adoption, as soon as the girls files are ready, which we were told should be by the end of November.
Thank you in advance for everyone's help.

Suzanne

Welcome to Down Syndrome Awareness Month!!!!

Did you know that in 1984 President Ronald Reagan signed a proclamation making October,

National Down Syndrome

Awareness Month!!!

 

 

My goal is to give you some good down syndrome information this month, as well as share our adoption story of Clara.  She has now been home 4 months and is doing so well.  I will start tomorrow with our first week in Beijing, where we spent sometime at China Little Flower.

 

Since it is the third of October, here are your first three facts:

 

1.  Down syndrome is the most commonly occurring genetic condition at 1 in every 691 births.

 

2.  Down syndrome occurs in people of all races and economic levels. 

 

3.  More than 400,000 people in the United States are living with the condition.

 

 

 

Clara--5 1/2 years old and Hannah--3 1/2 years old

 

 

 



 We currently have two beautiful Angels in our house, that sport that designer chromosome.  We love them to death and have decided to add one or maybe two more little ones to the mix.

 

So:

 

We are hitting the fundraising trail hard now.  We are not able to reuse our original dossier, so we need to raise $1400.00 for a new one. We are hoping to earn enough in the next month to start our new home study.


We are currently running a Scentsy party, that will run through the 23rd of this month.  This is a great time to pick up some really nice Christmas presents and help save some orphans!!!   Here is the link to it: https://ctaylor5477.scentsy.us/Scentsy/Buy?partyId=107903430

I am collecting Pamper points. These are located on the inside of the diaper packages and on the underneath of the wipes packages.  I would be very grateful if you are not collecting them, if you would send them my direction and I would put them to good use.

I also started collecting Huggie points.  These are also located on the inside of the diaper packages

I collect coke rewards too.  Inside coke product boxes and under the cap of bottles.

I am working hard to earn as many prizes as I can for our auction/giveaway.


Even one code is helpful. You can just pm them to me or pm and I will give you my address or send you a SASE.


Please, Please, Please share this with everyone you know. We are hoping to expedite this adoption, as soon as the girls files are ready, which we were told should be by the end of November.

Thank you in advance for everyone's help.


Suzanne

I don't know what to say!!

Today, I made my second, well actually third trip to the Social Security Office and this is what I was told:

We cannot issue you a Social Security Card at this time because:

The Department of Homeland Security is unable to verify the immigrant document you submitted as evidence of your lawful alien status.  You should contact that agency to clarify your current immigration status.

Ok, they were called and still nothing.  Now a formal "investigation" is going to take place, which could take 6-12 weeks!!  Really???????  How can they not be able to verify the document they sent me???  You would think that this would be the easy part.  I mean, I spent a lot of money getting FBI fingerprints and waiting on immigration approval, before I even left for China to pick Clara up.

I just don't know what to think about all of this.  At the present time, I am unable to even enroll Clara in school, because she doesn't have a USA birth certificate or SS number.  I was having trouble deciding if I was going to enroll her in school or not and now the decision has been made for me.  I was going to have her get her therapies at the school, but now we are going to go private.  I am hoping getting her state issued birth certificate will be easier.   Only time will tell.


Suzanne

The Cleft Palate Clinic

I woke up bright an early so I could take Clara to her appointment.  I have really been looking forward to this appointment.  I feel it will be my first really positive one, like we are finally going to make some progress.  I get ready and wake Clara up, which is never a smart thing to do.  I did it once in Ghonghua and it was not fun.  I had just planned on putting her in the car and dressing her in the parking lot, but she was apparently very well hydrated and needed to be cleaned up.  So, to start the morning she wasn't very happy.   We finally head out the door.  Thankful traffic wasn't bad and we made it in the hour I had allotted.

We didn't have to wait long to be called in.  Dr. Singhal was the first to come and see us and he was so happy we finally had her home.  I had asked him last November if he would care for Clara and he had agreed to and said he would put her tentatively on the schedule for July of 2012, so she wouldn't get here and have to wait a long time for surgery.  Dr. Singhal is wonderful and has a long, long waiting list.  We only got him after we had a terrible incounter with another one of the plastic surgerons and I refused to go back to him.  He talked with Clara and played with her.  He said her surgery was scheduled for August 7th and they had already scheduled all of her preop appointments and gave me those dates.  He said it is usually an overnight stay, but after the cardiac cath incident, she would spend aleast one night in the picu and 1-2 on the floor.  He then said he was happy I had gotten her home and thankful I asked him to do the repair.  He is such a wonderful man!!!!!!!

We then went for a hearing test.  She did well on the left but lost it when it came to the right.  She has very little moment of her eardrum on both sides, but the right is worse.  The ENT cleaned her ears with a microscope and they retested her.  Still didn't due well on the right, but she has an appointment on July 18th to see the ENT and they will start with the right ear and see what happens.   We then saw another nutritionist and she gave us instructions on how to help her gain some weight before all of these surgeries.  She said from the other nutritionist's notes she saw where she did not agree with weight gain.  The new one said she probably wouldn't agree with it, if she wasn't having two huge surgeries in the next 3 months.  So, hopefully Clara will gain a few pounds before her open heart surgery, which should be in October.

We saw a occupational therapist, social worker, and speech therapist.  We are now waiting to hear when her therapies will start!!!  What a busy, busy little girl. :)   We are also scheduled to see a dentist on July 19th to see if she needs any teeth pulled, before open heart, but during the cleft repair.  Dr.  Singhal plans to do a complete repair in one surgery.  He said it has been open too long and she needs to get talking.  I agree she needs to talk, but I am not always sure I want to know what she is thinking.

I bought an external hard drive so I could transfer my pictures off of my PC.  My memory is almost full and I can't download any of my pictures from China.  That is my goal for the day.  I have a lot to tell you about my trip to China, some good and some bad.


Here is what the girls were up to yesterday while I was folding clothes.

God is good!!!!

Suzanne

We are heading to the USA

Just wanted to drop a quick post about the fact that we will be heading back to the USA on Friday, May 25th!!!!  We will be leaving Guangzhou at 7 am and heading to Shanghai, where we will sit until our flight to Chicago which leaves Shanghai at 4:10 pm, on the 25th and lands in Chicago at 4:50 pm on the 25th.  Boy do I wish it only took 40 minutes to get home, but we will get to live part of the 25th twice.  So, around 5 pm, on May 25th, Clara Mei will become a United States Citizen!!!  After hanging out in Chicago for 5 hours or so we will board our final flight to KANSAS CITY!!!!  I can't wait to be home with my oldest daughter and new daughter.  I miss all my kiddos at home, hubby and even the dogs.

For those interested: Our flight is suppose to land at KCI, terminal C, American Airlines, 11:35 pm, on Friday, May 25th, 2012.


Sorry about the late arrival, but by taking it and suffering through a 4 1/2 hour layover in Shanghai and a 5 hour layover in Chicago, we saved $2300.00.

I promise when we get home and rested I will blog about our entire trip.  Once we got Clara we were just so busy, I didn't have time to blog.  It has been an amazing trip and I thank everyone who helped us get to this point!!!  Thank you and God Bless each and everyone of you!!!


Suzanne

We are in China

I have been wanting to post, but we didn't have internet in Beijing, except when we were visiting Mei Mei.  I wanted to spend my time getting to know her and not blogging, sorry. 

We had 3 very interesting days.    May 8th- May 9th Our flights were uneventful, which is fine with me.  We had a 4 hour layover in Chicago so we decided to have dinner.  I had been pre warned that airport food was high, but I was still in shock when our big mac and quarter pounder meals was $14.55.  We lucked out and got bulk seating on our flight to Beijing.  I had forgotten how noisy planes were.  For some reason I was expecting it to be peaceful, but no, it was loud and gave me a headache.  Luckily for me the flight from KCI to Chicago was worse and I had already taken some Advil.  We landed in Beijing at 11:35 pm.  This is a huge airport that was basically empty, except for our plane full of people.  We made it to our luggage and everything was there, so we went to find the hotel shuttle.  The shuttle was already gone, because they forgot us, so we ended up taking a cab.  This was interesting, we finally found someone that spoke a little English and loaded up our stuff.  We headed to the hotel and it seemed like it was taking forever to get there.  The driver stopped in the middle of the road and started to turn around.  Abby and I got scared, because it was dark, we had no idea where we were or how to get where we wanted to go.  The driver called someone and they started talking and finally he started driving again and got us to our hotel.

May 10th:  We started the morning trying to get internet and never was able too.  I finally had to text my sister and have her email Serena and let her know we were there.  Later we decided to go to the Lobby and try and get internet, while sitting there, Serena walked into the hotel.  She had been trying to call us but the hotel personnel spoke very poor English and kept hanging up on her.  She took us to Little Flower.  Mei Mei was easy going and allowed me to pick her up and love on her.  The nannies kept telling her I was her momma.  She likes to hit people and the they kept telling her not to hit her momma, they may have been telling her more, but I have no clue what else they were saying.  At lunch I was going to try and feed her and she got really mad.  She was screaming and waving her arms and thrashing her head about.  So, I let her nanny feed her and I just watched.  She would smile and wave at me.  After lunch she was happy to play with me and then there was a birthday party for one of her sweet playmates.  Rose was turning 4.  Mei Mei loved playing with the sunglasses Roses family sent her.  It is a good thing my secret sister set her her very own pair, which I will give her on Gotcha Day.  When it was cake time I sat by Mei Mei and this time she let me help feed her some.  After that I cleaned her up and I went and had my first "real" Chinese lunch.  When it was time to leave Mei Mei gave me a hug and blew me a kiss.  We then we to visit the Great Wall.  We went to a section of the wall called Yellow Flower.  It is not a real tourist area, but it was beautiful and in it natural setting.  (Pictures to come.)

May 11th:  We got up and headed to Little Flower.  When I got there Mei Mei put her arms up for me to pick her up as soon as I got there.  We played with toys, sang, she let me feed her and later we went for a walk outside.  I have pictures, but I can't figure out how to get them off my phone.  We visited the Summer Palace during the afternoon.  Very peacefully and beautiful.

May 12th:  We started the day by going to the Forbidden City.  There were so many people there.  We also went to the silk market.  We bought some shoes, dresses, jewelery and a silk bag.  We  also went to this wonderful noodle restaurant.  I was unsure I would like it, but it was delicious!!!  I would go back there in a heart beat.  Plus they served their drinks cold!!!!!  We then headed to Little Flower to visit Mei Mei one last time before we headed to Taiyuan.  She met us at the door and immediately ask to be picked up.  We enjoyed the evening.  When it was time to leave, our plans were a little messed up and I had to try and communicate with the nannies we needed a taxi to the airport.  They understood enough to get us in touch with Jimmy and he was able to get us a taxi.  The plane ride was good and we were met at the gate by Anna.  Anna took us to the hotel, checked us in and got us to our room.

May 13th:  Our first trip to a Chinese Walmart.  It is quite different from ours.  The carts can move in just about any direction, even sideways.  This comes in handy because they drive their carts just like they drive their cars.  I will post on that later, it is a wild experience.  We then went back to the hotel and rested for about 4 hours.  Before we went to dinner, I decided to make sure I had all the paperwork I needed, so we could pick up Mei Mei.  This is when I discovered our Power of Attorney was missing.  I texted our social worker in a panic, asking where it was and how I was suppose to get it.  I also emailed her and then realized it was like 4 in the morning in the US.  I also called our guide Anna and asked what I was suppose to do.  Since there wasn't anything we could do,  Abby and I decided to go out and try to find dinner.  Anna gave us a map and we headed out.  We walked around town for about 1 1/2 hours and never found the McDonalds or Pizza Hut we were told was there.  We ended up coming home and skipping dinner.

May 14th:  Skyped with Dewey, Daniel, Aaron and Hannah, this really made me homesick!!  Aaron told me to go to the airport and get on a plane and to bring Clara with me.  I told him I couldn't do that yet but would soon.  We finally got our Panda Phone, so we now have another way to contact people.  We are now waiting for 3:30 to come so we can finally pick our sweet Clara Mei up.  I recently got an email that she is running a very high temperature and they started her on antibiotics.  Please pray this keeps her from getting any sicker.  I noticed while I was visiting her that her gtube was oozing some nasty fluid and she was retracting while breathing.  Please, Please pray for her.

Good Bye for now and I will post pictures ASAP.  Gotcha Day is upon us and the time is near.

When I return, we will be Mei Mei's new family!

Suzanne

Here we go!!!!

We are going to CHINA!!!!!!!!!!

We are headed to meet our sweet baby girl!!  We are leaving on May 8th.  Let the planning begin!!

There is so much to do, but she is so worth it. 


I want to Thank every person who helped us get to this point.  Everyone of you is responsible for getting us to this point.  We are not allowed the contact information of anyone whom has donated to our fund, so I just have to pray you all understand how thankful I am.  Every pray was heard!  Our sweet girl is going to meet her mommy and big sister very soon.  Thank You for every blog post, facebook post, and twitter post that was made in our favor.  I don't know what else to do, I wish I could send everyone a thank you note personally.  Please believe me, I am so humbled by everything big or small done by every person, that has helped us on this journey.  I know it has only begun and I hope you will continue to follow along as we go and get our butterfly and watch her spread her wings!


Praying thanks for all,

Suzanne

The Winners are?????

I want to apologize I did't get this information up yesterday, but life took over and has been in control. I will tell you more about that when we finally get home today. So on to the important stuff.

The WINNERS:

iPad---Jackson R. Hays

$50 ITunes card--Heather McFarland

AMC Movie tickets---Theresa Wood

Stationary Set---Autumn Winkles

Picnic blanket---Pamela Rist

picture frame---Chad Whitehead

Cd---Sarah Brumfield


Please contact me @ fristoefamily@yahoo.com and I will get your prizes to you. We are not given any contact information on donors, so please contact me. I want you to get your prizes!!!!


THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED. We just found out all of our paper work is complete and we are waiting on our official invitation to come and adopt CLARA MEI FRISTOE!!!! We should get to go sometime in May!!! I am so excited!!

Suzanne

$1500.00 Challenge

Good morning.  I am going to make this brief, because this is a very busy time of morning.  Over the weekend we were offered a matching grant from a friend.  Very simple:  We have until April 10th to raise $1500.00.  If we raise $1500.00 they will bless us with the remaining $1500.00 we need to make our $3500.00 goal. 

Our current fundraiser runs until April 6th.  You can see all the great stuff here http://bringinghomeourchinesebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/03/fundraiser-extended-new-prizes-added.html.



Please help us by: Praying, Sharing or donating.

Thank you,

Suzanne

A gift for my Niece

My niece, Stephanie got married last year and moved to Bahrain with her husband.  She has been living there for about 6 months. 

She has a "LOVE" for peeps and looks forward to their appearance every holiday.  For years it has been my greatest desire to "bless" her with her favorite Easter item.  So, this year to continue my "thoughtfulness" and to show her I missed her and how much I love her, I created this for her and sent it with my sister, all the way to Bahrain.

I am happy to report that she called me Thursday afternoon to tell me that it arrived safely.  Actually one peep slide off of its toothpick and was easily replaced.  She also told me that she really liked it.  I am hoping she sends a picture of where she displays my work of art.

I love you Stephanie and I really enjoyed making this for you and I hope you get a little joy out of you peeps this year.

Suzanne

Don't forget to check out our final fundraiser at http://bringinghomeourchinesebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/03/fundraiser-extended-new-prizes-added.html.

FUNDRAISER EXTENDED, NEW PRIZES ADDED

Due to circumstances beyond any one's control, I am needing to extend the ending of this fundraiser. 

The new ending will be April 6th at midnight.  The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced on Tuesday, April 10th.

We were full funded, but with the hold up in immigration, we will now probably not travel until very late May or early June.  Mid May starts China's Tourist season, with that comes increased ticket prices, hotel prices and food prices.  We now find ourselves short $4500.00.  We have $1000.00 in savings, we had put aside for her health care once she got home, but we are now going to use it towards our tickets.  That still leaves us short $3500.00. 

With every $5.00 donation you will get 1 chance.

You can also earn a chance by sharing on your facebook, blog, or twitter.  Please be sure and leave a comment when you share, because there is no other way for me to keep track of this information. 

If you use the "Chip in" button above, it will go through RR and will also be tax deductible.

This is what is up for grabs:

I Pad II

$50 I Tunes Card

$50.00 I Tune gift card

 

 

2 AMC Silver Movie passes and 2 Large drinks.

Stationary set

Coke picnic blanket(waterproof)

5X7 picture frame

Jeremy Camp CD

Thank you for help us bring home our Butterfly!!

Suzanne