Signs of Life : The Brownie Chronicles

Open House!  Sunday, January 30, 2pm to 4pm www.235dickinson.com 2900 sq. ft. 5 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath, study, family, living, granite island kitchen, eat-in, and dining. Wood and tile throughout 1st floor.  2 back yards: One large saltwater diving pool with waterfall spa, large decorative concrete patio.  Gorgeous!  Second gated yard for play area, garden, or more outdoor living. See website for lots of photos and details. Why Adoption Fundraiser? We will not put limits on God and how He will choose to further bless the adoption process by providing the funding we need to go get the boys, but at this time, Ken and I know selling the house is something God is asking us to do.  The sale of the house will provide what we need to travel, pay our remaining fees, and bring the boys home!  Whoever buys this home will be (whether they intend it or not) supporting the adoption!  Some families have auctions or sell tee shirts or flip flops.  We are selling our house!  Please pass on

{ Maria’s Big House of Hope } If you don’t know the story of the Chapman family, it’s worth learning. MBHOH is in a city just 85 miles from Tian’s and in his province, Henan. These are the days I wish I was prophetic.  How nice it would be to see into the future; to know how God was working this out and what was going to happen. Things we are wondering about at this moment and how my dialogue with God looks: When will we sell this house? Will we sell it in time to fund the adoption? If not, how will You work this out? Is it truly Your will that we sell this house? What’s up with the apartment we have planned to move in to? It’s disappeared off the face of the internet.  ?? Seems under new management.  Can this be good for us? Bad for us? No difference to us? Will our dossier be ready to send to China after Chinese New Year (CNY) on Feb 3rd? How long before we get travel approval? Do the boys have any clue we are coming for them? Are they okay? Safe? Warm? Well-fed?

Our dossier is now in the hands of our agency, CCAI.  They will take 9-11 days to critically review our documents, no less than three times! By February 1st, our documents will be sent to China!  This is a HUGE milestone known as DTC (Documents to China).

Pooh photo album and books for Xu. Camera with request for nannies to snap photos of Xu. Candy and nuts for nannies.  This is the gift package we recently sent to Travis .  I can’t wait to get some responses to our letter.  I’m trusting in faith that we will get those responses.  In this time of waiting, I’ve been reading as much as I can about attachment.  I will be sharing some articles with you soon.  The articles I share will be especially important for our family members and close friends who plan to visit us while we are working on the attachment process. Here are some of the books I’m reading/have read and some of my favorite web resources. Books: Attaching in Adoption, by Deborah Gray Toddler Adoption: The Weaver’s Craft Adoption Parenting The Lost Daughters of China Web Resources: http://www.a4everfamily.org/ Dos and Don’ts that I will post as a stand-along blog later. Adopted The Movie

Here it is, less than 2 hours into 2011!  We’re only 4 years away from the “Back to the Future” future.  I might be wrong, but I don’t think flying cars and hovercraft will be standard by that time.   2011 is a year of big changes for us in the Brown household, though. Just yesterday, our house went on the market.  Within a few hours, we had our first showing.  A few hours later, we received our I-800 from USCIS, approving us for two boys.  Thanks to our notary neighbor and friend, we were able to get them in the FedEx box just before 6pm.  We even saw the truck come to gather the mail from the bin.  We should get those last certified documents mid-week, then Ken will hand-deliver them to Houston to be authenticated at the Chinese Embassy. At that point, our dossier will be complete and ready to send to our agency, who will then send it to China! In other adoption news, today, we put together a care package for Xu through Ladybugs and Love from Above.  Angela, who runs Ladybugs

We know so little about our boys, so we get excited with each little thing we learn.  Today, I did some research on the Sanming Social Welfare Institute, where Xu is currently living. I like how the building looks a bit like a castle, although his life there is far from a fairytale. Here are the only other photos I could find anywhere online.  Pretty views from the orphanage; quite different than the very urban area where Tian lives. Xu's home until we can get him. This is during construction in 2005. View from the SWI On YouTube, we found this video from 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--clGrDkKJo This shows a girl with a cleft lip and palate being cared for by the nannies at Sanming SWI.  This is home to our little Xu “Travis”, who we learned the nannies call “En En”.   We will come get you soon, little one! *Note: April 2011. This may not be the SWI where he lives.  Trying to find out.