From my baby

I didn't see this until after I got home from Walgreens with the prints Sandra sent. It's for ME! What a treasure. I can't wait to hold this myself and hang it Willow's room. Awwwww. I'm a mess - this is so sweet.

MORE new pictures from Sandra

Sandra emailed me about 20 pictures of Pili at the park. She wrote that Pili is not at all afraid of swinging high and going fast down the slide. She also wrote that on June 23rd she walked by herself - she went fast and they were nervous so they hold her hand mostly. She can crawl up and down the 13 steps to their 2nd level without help. She does not get tired, according to Sandra, and will go up and down 2 or 3 times without resting.

Sandra and Veronica had this made on Willow's birthday. It is the ink prints of her hands and feet. It's sweet because I had something similar made for Lily on her birthday and I was sad to have missed it for Willow's birthday. She saved it for me so I can have it when I go pick her up.

This was taken at Willow's doctor appointment for her 1 year well-check. She weighs 20 lbs and remains healthy. This must have been just before she "made the doctor sweat"! She's resting up for the big resistance.

Sandra hopes that we will get our birth mother interview done next week. People are being released from PGN about a month after the interview. Some are getting out 2 weeks after the interview, others 2 months, but the average is about a month. Rememeber, after I'm "out" (appproved) I wait 6-8 weeks to travel and pick her up. If they hadn't started doing all these interviews, I would have probably been out a couple months ago. If things progress as they are, I can expect to travel some time this fall - I'm hoping before Christmas.

Birthday Girl

Here are the pictures I received of Pili's birthday party. She is wearing a dress and shoes that I sent down for her several months ago - so thoughtful of Veronica to dress her in something from me. I only wish I could have spent this milestone with my girl. Remember - she loves the Backyardigans! I also sent down a CD with songs from the show (in English unfortunately) and kept a copy for myself so when she comes home she'll have something familiar.

I brought cake and ice cream to Jen's house. We had dinner, birthday cake and then watched Tate's soccer game. It wasn't as sad as I thought the day would be. I wish Willow were here, but she's happy, healthy, and completely well-cared for. Some day this awful wait will be a distant memory.

Pili went to the doctor recently and she HATES the doctor. She had to have shots for her 1 year exam and the doctor said:
"This girl causes sweats me, she has a lot of force".

Sandra then wrote: "Thanks to God, she is well of health." It's hard to get a lot of humor through these translations, but this humor is hard to miss! I can't wait to get my hands on this kid - that strong will and fierce determination are going to be a riot. My kind of girl!

There is no end in sight by the way. PGN did not release any files in May at all and there have been less than 10 in the last 2 weeks. There are still over 2000 pending files/families waiting to be approved. At this point I'm planning my summer without Willow and beginning to consider fall might be a little too optimistic for thinking she'll be here. I just booked Chinese Culture Camp for Lily, Grace and I for October - which I wouldn't do if I thought Willow might actually be here by then. I now pay $350/month for her foster care until she is home because the attorneys and foster families have no means to continue to support this broken system. A small price to pay for Willow's well being in a developing country, but a painful reminder that I have no control.

In the mean time Lily and I are going to have a memorable summer just the two of us. She started swimming lessons tonight and will spend a lot of time with Grammy while I'm teaching 16 days of summer school. We continue to pray for her sister every night. Tonight Lily begged me to buy her sister a tiny swim suit because she doesn't think it's fair that she (Lily) has so many suits and Willow only has 2. Willow is definitely part of our daily life - now we're even arguing about her. Sheesh.