FUNDRAISER ALERT!!

Lia Sophia Online and Home Party 6 pm tonight!!!

Lia Sophia Fundraiser!
April 16th 6pm - April 18, 12am
Adoption Jewelry Party; Help us bring our son home!
Directions for Placing an Online Order:
1. http://sites.liasophia.com/sites/lisariportella/catalog-intro
2. Type hostess' name: Jenni Padgett
3. Have fun shopping and place the order!

Wait! If you do not want to purchase jewelry, you can still make a donation! Just click on the "Chipin" on the right side of our blog.
Thank you so much for your support of our journey and thank you to Jennifer Padgett for hosting this for us!

Judi's 7th Birthday

Nothing makes you reminisce like a little one's birthday. Our Judi, our little Kunming firecracker, turned 7 yesterday. She has been home a little over 3 years and the changes in her have been nothing short of amazing! She came to us a tough, independent, take-no-prisoners attitude-wielding, extremely capable little girl just shy of her 4th birthday. In our 3 months home after Gotcha Day, I would deliberately not let her do things on her own, so that she would learn to depend on me and therefore bond. She had to ask for everything so that we could clearly establish who was in charge.

Today, she's learned to use her take-charge style more appropriately, plays cooperatively with her friends, and loves nothing more than having someone to play with. She is funny, smart, witty, incredibly perceptive, and can size up a situation in a snap. Our lives are definitely enriched for having her in our family!

She had an awesome sleep-over (her first) and then Sunday we had a family party; it was a really great, but tiring, weekend. No more birthdays until June and then we have 4 within 3 weeks!

Debbie

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I don't know what's happening with our Chipin today, but thank you to those who have contributed today and previously!! You are awesome and you have no idea how much your support helps right now!
Debbie

Lucky is so Sad

This is a picture taken April 11, 2012. Lucky is the boy wearing the white jacket with the red, puffy eyes. The family adopting Seth (seated in the middle next to the foster mom) is there and have met with Lucky and Ned while picking up Seth. It was a very emotional day as they were able to witness the friends' goodbyes and those of the foster parents. To say these boys appear well-cared for is an understatement. It was said that Lucky was very emotional during the whole day which in a way, makes me feel better. Not, of course, because I want any child to have to go through this kind of sadness, but because it shows Lucky and his friends have been raised in a way that they are not afraid to show emotion and care deeply for someone. It shows he has a deep attachment and bond with his friends, as does Seth with his foster family.
The family adopting Seth plans to visit the orphanage frequently over the next few days, so hopefully, they will get to see more of Lucky and tell us more about him. I also hope Lucky has time to really read our letter and decide on one of the names we offered! It would be nice to call him Jeramy, Jaxon, or Jonathan!

Also, an update on the homestudy! We sent off all the documents to the agency today, and we're hoping to have it all done by next week! From the time we started the first visit (3/28), that would be a 3-week turnaround; awesome!! Only glitch is the final draft comes with a $2600 bill! We've saved up some in addition to the amounts in our Chipin, but are still about $500 short; please pray for a miracle in the next few days!
Debbie

Lia Sophia Online and Home Party

Lia Sophia Fundraiser!

April 16th 6pm - April 18, 12am

Adoption Jewelry Party; Help us bring our son home!

Directions for Placing an Online Order:

1. http://sites.liasophia.com/sites/lisariportella/catalog-intro

2. Type hostess' name: Jenni Padgett

3. Have fun shopping and place the order!

Wait! If you do not want to purchase jewelry, you can still make a donation! Just click on the "Chipin" on the right side of our blog.

Thank you so much for your support of our journey and thank you to Jennifer Padgett for hosting this for us!

Having a good day by Jazmin Cavender, age 8

This post is by Jazmin. Today was a best day and all this week and next week our class will have no homework, except maybe for math. That is because we have MAP testing. MAP means Missouri Assessment Program and Assessment means Test, so we will be taking tests this week and next. If I get an "Advanced", I will get to go to Worlds of Fun! Mommy says I have to go to bed earlier than usual and eat a good breakfast. I will tell you one thing that is good to eat for breakfast is the cereal Whole Hearts....I had some this morning and it is sooooooo good!

Addendum by Debbie...

just wanted to say we had an awesome weekend celebrating Easter with God and our family. Saturday we "tried" to have a garage sale to raise funds for the adoption, but it was a bust due to cold, rainy weather. But in the afternoon, Jessica, our oldest daughter, and I went prom shopping! She must have tried on at least 15 dresses, but we found a beautiful one that is royal blue; she also got gold strappy sandals and we found a sapphire and diamond necklace and earring set (fake stones of course), all at the same store! She looks so beautiful in her dress; hard to believe my firstborn is getting so grown up.

That evening, we grilled out and had S'mores; an all-around awesome day (except for the garage sale, but it was only the first one).

Sunday, we did church with the family, and went to my Dad's for an Easter Egg hunt and lunch. The kids had a blast looking for eggs. Then we roped everyone into a game of Pictionary and after that the kids watched the movie HOP while my soon-to-be-stepsister figured out how to do Jessica's hair for the prom. We had Jess try on her dress and show everyone; Daddy's eyes got big seeing his little girl all grown up and looking like a princess! I've posted a picture of the dress, but not with Jess in it until hair and makeup are done!

Then we finally got home, put the kids to bed, and got on to begin one of our adoption training classes. We made it halfway through until we got so tired we couldn't focus on the words.

Today, we got good news that the church will let us do a fundraiser for Lucky; I'm thinking a lunch thing after the second service, something easy to put together like baked potato bar, taco bar, etc. Plus desserts....my stepmom-t0-be is an awesome cook, so I think lots of people would come just to eat her goodies!

As I sit here, I'm thinking of Stacey and Richard in China, it's about 7 am there on Tuesday. They meet Dusty (Seth) today face-to-face for the first time. I am so nervous I feel like I'm the one over there! Am saying many, many prayers for a harmonious meeting (and that she gets to meet Lucky and Ned!). If Lucky gets my letter, than he may be a Jeramy, Jaxon, or Jonathan by the end of the week!

Debbie

Teen adoption

Recently, some on my Yahoo groups have posted many issues with teen adoption, in some cases, real horror stories. To read some of these, you would run screaming in the other direction and never consider adopting an older child. Then you read the posts of those who had the opposite experience. While I can't imagine any transition being seamless and perfect, there are those who have experienced less "bumps" in the road.
Am I more scared now than I was? Yep. Am I more aware of what things to watch for? Yep. Do I worry about how this will impact our current children? Of course! Each time we adopted, we spent time rebuilding a "new normal". I cannot speak for anyone else, but I feel it was crucial for us to wait so long between adoptions to get to that "good" place that can weather another upheaval and adding another teen will definitely upheave us!
We talked with all our kids at the dinner table tonight about all the things that "could" happen and what we would do. As advised in some of the posts I mentioned above, having a plan is the key. We even discussed changing certain behaviors that we don't want our new son to mimic and that we would all need to be tremendously patient while Lucky finds his niche in our family. We even talked about our basic family rules (which is hard to put on paper definitively if you've never done so!).
I especially have to be prepared for him to not want affection or touching or hugging for a long time, if ever. That will be hard for me, as I show my affection physically with hugs, kisses, a pat on the shoulder, etc. I think when we come home, one-day-at-a-time will be my motto.
Debbie