Sunday, November 18, 2007

How this all happened...

As many of you know we were in the process of adopting last year when I became pregnant. It is something Chad and I have talked about doing for the last 5 years, I guess it all comes down to a matter of "God's Time" when it was to happen. Unfortunately, my precious son Chase was stillborn this summer at 38 weeks. It has been the hardest thing to go through and I want to to thank my family who has been there for us at any time of the day or night. People just don't realize the devastation of losing a child, he was our hopes and dreams of 4 years in the making. We believe that God has a plan for our lives, although it may not be the plan we would thought would happen there is a greater one. We have to believe that. It may be sad to see my son Chase's website but I believe he is a link to our son Aiden, he was put in my life for a reason. I just need to include him in this journey. http://chase-zeigler.memory-of.com/About.aspx
When this all happned -even in our grief we knew we wanted to adopt yet. Chad was the first one to say, "There is a child out there for us, and we will have a few more one way or the other"... he always believed this. He is such a blessing a great father and husband, always there to support us. He has given up alot to give us the life we have, with all his trips overseas due to the military. It is a sacrifice being a military family, but I believe we are stronger and appreciate life so much more because we know it can be taken away at anytime.

Well enough with all that, I just wanted to post how I was feeling and for people to understand how we came to our little guy. Someone on a board I belong to who had lost her baby at 40 weeks and adopted told me, "I have learned it is okay to have grief & saddness in my life as well as happiness and joy, all at the same time"... We will never forget Chase as I think about him day and night but I know there is happiness for our family as well.

So now we are preparing for our little guy from China... I am pretty sure we are naming him "Aiden" but that is always subject to change! Thanks for sharing in our journey. We feel very blessed.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

New Picture Oct 16, 2007

































This is a picture of Aiden someone took in August while they were getting their child.

Pictures of Orphanage Foshan Nanhai SWI



































Aiden in middle row

Friday, November 2, 2007

How things started...

Well on September 23, 2007 someone I knew on an adoption website I belong to knew of what had happened with our previous adoption and with Chase. Her name is Donna and she is such a blessing to many families. She advocates for Chinese orphans for agencies on different web sites. Well she contacted me with this list of children and I saw this little boy that just popped out at me. So I contacted the agency, "Bay Area Adoptions" and decided to look at this little boy, Hai Zi Gang, he was 15 months at the time. When Chad saw his pictures he was very impressed and after getting his medical file reviewed we decided to pursue him. It all happened in a matter of 5 days. It really is amazing because most waiting children lists people already are matched with the kids or it seems to be a wait and see what happens (if they pick you to be matched). There are many families that usally petition for a child so we really felt this little guy was led to us.

So we sent in our "LOI" Letter of Intent to the agency and had it translated at then it was sent to China. Around October 15, 2007 we were pre approved for our little guy, which means no one else can be matched with him. So now we are collecting all the paperwork, getting authentications and fingerprints done... etc etc LOTS of paperwork and also a waiting game. When all this is done (which we think should be done around Christmas) we will send our "dossier"(collection of papers) to China. We are hoping to travel anywhere from May-August... hopefully before just because the Olympics are in Beijing in August and we know it will be busy. The only thing is, is that Chad might be going over to Iraq for 6 months again in January. This hopefully will be his last time for awhile. He is signing up for his last reinlistment till he retires! 6 more years after June of next year.
I added some pictures under the Adobe section as I was not able to download the pictures in the right format from China. These are updated pictures of our little guy, direct from the orphanage. That was such a blessing. The China director at Bay Area has been so great in getting updated information on him. I will copy and paste what the diretor said in the next post.



I hope you all are doing well.

How Aiden is doing in China

Here is an updated report on how Aiden is doing- from China..

He has lively and open personality. He is lovely and loves to smile. He babbles and likes colorful balls and toys that make noises. Hecan look for toys to play with. He likes to play with his friends in theactivity room. When you play with him, he will giggle out loudly. He canwalk independently. If he falls he won't cry, instead he will get upbravely and continue walking. He likes outdoors. He likes sweet andporridge with meat in it.His condition is currently good. During the time he has been in the orphanage, he occasion when he hadpneumonia, colds and fever, sickness that is common for children. Aftertreatment he has completely recovered from all these sickness. Thischild is physically strong and he seldom gets sick."

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Aiden Orphanage



This is the room he is in... he is in the back middle row.

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