Members Page

We hope to use this page to keep members updated on each other.

Just beginning...Home Study phase!

The newest faces at ALWW. If this is you send me an email with your names and where you are at in the process so we can add you!

Home Study Complete!! The Paperchase Phase!

Meet our families in the dreaded paper chase!! I promise you will get through this!!

DTC!!!! Our paperwork has been sent to China!!!

And the wait begins.....

The paperwork has been sent! Maybe you have your LID --- maybe you don't. We didn't even get ours until we had our referrals! Maybe you have your brown envelope...maybe you don't! The Vortherms never got theirs. Tell us how you are feeling guys!

Erin and Bernie are DTC Sept. 5th!!!

The Worley's are DTC in October!

The most emotional of our group! Mother's and Father's of the most beautiful babies in the world. Of course they had better share that referral photo here or they could be in trouble...

Jeff and Carrie Schaffart

DTC May 26, LID June 3 Referral 4/27/06

Amy Cassner-Sems and Marty Sems

DTC 4-25-05 and LID on 5-9-05

Finally recieved their referral after a crazy glitch that kept their travel group from receiving referrals when they should have!

What a beauty! The discription of "rock star hair" is perfect!

Meet our daughter, Jada Mei Ling! She has lots of hair and it is wild like her mommy's. ;-) She is 11 months old. Her birth date is March 30, 2005. She currently resides at Jianxin Social Welfare Institute in Jiangxi Province. Her current name is Feng Chang Gan (Gan Feng Chang the Chinese way). We do not know yet how old she was when the pictures were taken.

The Millers recieved their refferal on November 10th!!! Here is the information she has passed on so far:

We have a girl! Her name is Xi An Ling from the Anhui Province. Her birthday is March 8, 2005. We are getting her pictures and information tomorrow.

MaryM

LID March 30,2005

Referral 11-10-2005

****NOTICE: The requested 2-3 year old, is 8 MONTHS old! Just goes to show that you never know! Congratulations to the new parents! Cant wait to see her picture!

Name: Hai (Sea) Ya (Elegant, graceful, refined)

Date of Birth: 4/2/04
Weight: (8/9/04) 11 lbs,

Orphanage/place: Foshan Nanhai/Guangdong Province

Parents: Dion and Autumn Frymark

Referral Date: 11/9/04

Name: Hia Ling (Smart)

Location: Foshan Nanhai SWI/Guangdong Province

Parents: Betty and Larry Vortherms

Referral Date: 11/9/04

Travel Approval - we are off!

In this column we hope to highlight the travelers. As the members send us the information we will update their stories. If the family allows I will post emails from China, etc. -- otherwise you will have to wait until they send news on to us!

The Sems will be traveling May 2 -18th! They are lucky enough to be doing a stop in Beijing on the way for some sight seeing.

Our families have returned and recovered and moved into everyday life. Come be our friends!

Returned home 12/31/04...just in time to be a tax write-off!

Alia is adjusting well with no major medical issues. Attatchment and bonding are in the works and we have had no problems with these issues to date. We did make sure and take it slow at first. 6 months post adoption finds us settled in and enjoying our family of 5. We have really been blessed.

Returned home December 2004.

As of July 2005: Emma is now 18.5 pounds and 28 inches. She did not bear wieght on her legs until the middle of January...and has currently begun walking. We are still waiting on the 1st tooth. Emma babbles but we can only understand about 6 words -- but she understands us and does many cute things like "So Big", "Give me Five" and she folds her hands and prays.

We arrived home on December 2 (2005) with our newest family member, Mia Jinmei Allen. She is adjusting so well and has picked up so much English already. We took our older kids along, we have a son who is 13 and a daughter who is 11, Jinmie was our first adoption.

It was wonderful to have the other kids along. Not only did they get to experience their new sister's culture, but they were so helpful when it came time for Jinmei to join us. She latched onto them very quickly because they were able to play with her and she was familiar with being around other kids. They were the first ones to get her to smile.

We haven't had any issues over the last month, things have run so smoothly. I had read horror stories about adopting older kids, Jinmei will be 6 next month, and had prepared myself for the worst. To my delight, she is happy, outgoing, courageous, funny, and a very beautiful child.

Jinmei's special need is that she is blind in her left eye. It is amazing how we don't even really notice it anymore. Her little eye droops and looks like it has a cataracts, I thought that it might bother people and other kids. Nope, occasionally people are curious, I explain that she fell on a stick when she was one, and that is the end of that. She is treated normally from that point on.

She is so wonderful and as you can imagine, we all enjoyed Christmas a little more this year. Jinmie caught right on and it wasn't long before she was yelling "My Turn!" and diving into the packages!

I am keeping our website active for the next year. You can check out pictures and more stories.

www.babyjellybeans.com

enter Mia as the firstname Allen as the last name

Jinmei as the password

The Millers returned home in January 06 with An Ling.