Cleft Affected Children - A documentary and how you can help

Gwapa, meaning beautiful in Visayan, is the fitting title of this vibrant, real-life story that follow two Filipino families and their struggle for a healthy future. Every year, 4,000 - 5,000 Filipino children are born with cleft lip, cleft palate, or both. Cleft lip and palate are two the most common and curable of birth defects. Sadly, most clefts go unrepaired in developing countries. Just one surgery can change a child's life forever. Gwapa (Beautiful) is Thirsty Girl Films' first feature length documentary dedicated bringing awareness to the high number of children born with cleft deformities in the Philippines and the great need for free reconstructive surgeries among the Filipino islands. This stunning and remarkable film will draw you into a powerful tale of strength, love, determination, and hope.

http://www.indiegogo.com/Gwapa-Film

Four Years Ago Today...

We brought our little Bunny FuFu home from Wuzhou China. Time does fly. We are SOOOOOOOOO happy you are our little FuFu.

Little Baby Bunny FuFu

Look what arrived in my email today. A baby photo of little bunny FuFu. This is the youngest photo we have of her and it is precious. This is the finding ad that her orphanage ran in the local paper saying that she was found. It is what they call a "finding ad" All infants that are placed on the "adoption tract" have to run ads in the local paper before the orphanage can start the process to get their files ready for adoption. The ads state the time date and place where the infants were found. I am seen many different finding ads for children in China. Some times there are many more than this number listed. It is sad, but when you look at it that these are the children who soon be one their way to finding forever families, it gives me hope.
Can you spot our little bunny FuFu?

a year ago...

A year ago we were in China packing up and getting ready to head home with a very big souvenir---HooHaa. We had fully planned on this first year being a tough transitional year. After all everything you read tells you that adopting an older child is HARD and trying. Well, thank God this little guy never read any of those books because these past 12 months have been a joy.

This guy has weathered a lot in the past year and has made some incredible strides. He has gone from knowing nothing in English and having had no schooling whatsoever to being top of his class. His first grade teacher was shocked to learn that he had only been here in the US for a year. She had no idea that 12 months ago he had no language and now is one of her best students. He is a kind boy that is well liked by many. He is always willing to help out and has quite a quick wit and humor. He has a passion for singing, dancing and basketball. He has an amazing ability to concentrate and focus and considers himself to be quite the snappy dresser.

My heart aches for all of the children over the age of 4 that sit in orphanages waiting and waiting for a family that may never come. Statistically these children will not find a home. That breaks my heart. I wish the "professionals" out there that write the books on adoption would write one that talks about all of the older adoptions out there that are not fraught with angst and trauma.

HooHaa we are happy to have you as our son. You make us very proud.

Oh mY sIx moNthS AlreaDy?

Boy does time fly...it has been six months since we first met this Charming Young Man. He has gone in just a short amount of time from being the only child in his kindergarten class that did not speak or read English to be one of the top five students in reading, writing and math. Now that is a testament to intense English immersion for kids in school if I ever heard of one. While definitely NOT politically correct...it WORKS!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AutumnWaitingFamilies/photos/album/1657746064/pic/967137032/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc Adoption Day (tuesday)He Likes us He Really Likes us He woke up a happy guy with no issues. We took Tobbers along with us to the adoption signing while the girls stayed back at the hotel. I expected major tears like the hour after gotcha once he saw the orphanage staff...but NO..nothing. He told the guide and the director that he had a very good time yesterday and really liked us and wanted to stay with us. That he thought we were fun and he liked that he went to a restaurant, ate ice cream and played at the pool---that is our life on a regular basis. He spend the afternoon singing NON STOP...the guy is a budding Karaoke singer...little does he know what waits for him at home. He is very sweet. Loves to share with everyone. He constantly is cleaning and organizing the room and his things. He is a cleaning machine....we will see how long that lasts until the other yahoos corrupt him. He loves to eat, he loves to clean, he loves to sing and dance. The nannies said he was a very sweet boy that is kind to all and is well loved and liked by the other children. They said he is very easy going and never causes probelms. We discover he has been in kindergarten and knows his letters and numbers and colors...albeit in chinese. We learned that he speaks Wuxi but can understand Mandarin. This is be very helpful for him as he transitions since we have access to Mandarin services at school and home. He has been picking up new words in the past 24 hours and has all of the kids names down already. he is a very smart boy. All of the kids are really pitching in to help him. They have been amazing. Tomorrow we go out touring.

Sunday- Arrived in Nanjing We made it to Nanjing on Sunday but my laptop did not. It is dead as dead can be. I am pleased but not as pleased as the kids to have a larger hotel room. Blogger is blocked as is face book, youtube and any other information self posting sites. So so much for keeping folks up to date. This should all change (except my computer) when we leave Friday for Guangzhou and arrive at the White Swan hotel. Gotcha Day (monday) Well...in a nutshell...we have it and it went amazing well...he likes us a lot. We arrived at the offical province office and found out selves sitting with around 11 other families. We were the "Duggers" of the group with family in tow. We started watching babies arrive and I was leaning out the window to gawk when everyone announced that he "hooHaa" was here. Me, leaning now all the way out the window cannot find him. Finally they grab me from out the window to turn me around to find a little man sitting in front of me wearing his silk traditional blue dragon pajamas and a CAL berkley hat. He was smiling, and content to sit with us and show us his photo book that we sent him of us. Everything was fine until his nannies decided to leave. Then the flood gates broke loose. There was not a dry eye in the house. He cried through our adoption family photo,,,,he cried on the van back to the hotel he wimpered back to the hotel room and then....in the typical Tomato family tradition, we brought out the food. Within 2 hours of him being with us he was laughing, smiling, singing and dancing. Yep this little guy is one of us. Flashy clothes and all. By the time dinner came around he was singing his name then each name of our family. Hong Hong...Baba...Hong Hong...mama....Hong Hong...meimei...everyone of us. This is a happy boy.

gotcha day photo link
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AutumnWaitingFamilies/photos/album/1657746064/pic/967137032/view?picmode=&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&count=20&dir=asc

Adoption Day Flashback

I must say the feeling is surreal...you arrive in a foreign country...they ask you to complete some paperwork (Okay so a LOT of paperwork)...you take some oaths and then they hand over to you one of the most precious child you have ever seen. The feeling the day left me with was like I was getting away with something and that at any moment someone was going to come out of somewhere and say...uhhhh sorry you cannot have her...we made a mistake---give her back.

The day after gotcha is the official adoption day when she became ours and boy was she a happy girl. In adoption you prepare for the worst (which included two pounds of M&M's - just incase I had to resort in two weeks of bribes to come near us), and you pray for the best. We could have not been more blessed...we had no tears...no fears...no signs of regret or sadness. Just one happy girl who loved to laugh and tease us and taunt us. As long as we fed her...she would have followed us anywhere. The M&M's you ask? Well she did not like chocolate or candy or ice cream. Just veggies and lots of them (little did we know what within 30 days of being home with the other yahoos that she would get corrupted into the world of chocolate and all things sweet) We knew within the first 24 hours she was going to fit into our family just fine.

Wuzhou Social Welfare Institute Guangxi PR China Photos

I am sharing these photos that I have of the Wuzhou SWI in Guangxi, China for those who might be curious to know what the first three years of MeiMei life might have looked like and for prospective adoption parents who are searching the Internet for photos of the orphanage and city. Wuzhou is a Half the Sky Sponsored orphanage and is more like a resort than a dark and dingy institution. By looking at the photos one could easily conclude that coming to the Tomato home from Wuzhou SWI was like taking a step down in amenities---but not in love. For those of you looking for Wuzhou photos please feel free to copy these...that is how I got them:-)

Gimme an L ...an O...and an A!

LOA..Yep the three letters that all adoptive parents seek to see in print. What does it mean? It means were are "Approved" Not pre approved or kinda approved but the final final of approvals. We are to overnight the signed acceptance to our agency and off to China it goes. Once China receives it they will authorize our travel approvals which will enable us to apply for our Chinese travel visas. With the recent HV1/Swine Flu issues China is cracking down on those traveling from North America into the country. They are requiring us to jump through some extra hoops in an attempt to restrict those entering the country. One does it mean to us?...uhhhh not quite sure other than more paperwork and possibly not as large of a travel group as we had hoped.
The good news is that we can expect to travel in September/October when the airfare drops...Yeah! Should we have travelled this summer as we first er...uh second thought we would have spend more than double what it looks like we will spend since we will travel after summer. Hey at this point in the game I will take was ever good news I can find!

We are DTC! Tsing Tao's for Everyone!

Well we received an email from CCAI today (our new old agency) and here is what is said...
CONGRATULATIONS,
Here’s the news you’ve long been waiting for—your dossier was sent to China today (3/26/2009)!

Yes that is the news I have been waiting for....

Tsing Tao's for everyone....

Two Years Ago Today... Happy FuDay MeiMei

It hard to believe that two years ago we met a very quite reserved little girl that was in shock. She left a world of knowns and was handed over to two large scary looking people with big eyes and big noses and were so dumb they could only speak gibberish---yep that be us!

By the time dinner rolled around and we sat her down to table of food, we had a new girl. Everyday she opened up more. Everyday in the past two years we have seen more of this bright shining little girl. She is a burst of energy wrapped up in a full sense of self. It is hard to not imagine her singing and dancing around the house. Her alpha personality fits in quite well with the rest of the yahoos. Funny how one can travel around the world and end up with a child that is just like the ones you birth....go figure

I'm posting a "gotcha day" photo of her on my lap taken about ten minutes after the "handoff" and one next day photo (in the striped poncho) and three current photos of her wearing her own picked out outfits worn with great joy. MeiMei is quite the "princess" in a very non princess house. Not sure where it comes from, but if it sparkles, shines, and is hoochy then we know she will want to wear it. In fact, we just might have to post some of her "hoochier" outfits in a later post.

Happy FuDay MeiMei!

Gimme a P....Gimme an A

What's that spell? PA! that's right PA!
The ladybug was right! We got the call today that our formal Pre Approval for HooHaa has been granted. We have pre approval from the People Republic of China to adopt HooHaa. Yeah..... We have been waiting 42 days and it arrived today. So what does this mean? Well for starters it means he not available to anyone else and that we had better get our dossier dusted off and updated to send off to CCAA ASAP.





We are meeting with our social worker this Friday for the homestudy update. I need to send off the medical forms and file the new I800 form. Hummm guess I need to make a big list...yep a big list and check it twice. So it has been a long wait but here he is... Introducing the newest and final member of our crazy household... HooHaa.

Yeah! more photos to follow. Off to go make the list for his first care package ...yeah....yeah.....yeah....yeah...

LOI - 27 days but who's counting?

Well it has been 27 days since we submitted our LOI (letter of intent) to adopt another yahoo. Since we are going about this differently from our adoption of MeiMei, I have absolutely no clue as to when we will hear anything from China. Could be tomorrow....could be next week or could be September? Who the heck knows...so in the interim we sit here and get on with life as we join the many other waiting parents.


Last year we travelled to Guangxi China and added MeiMei to our tribe of Yahoos. Most people we know thought we were crazy. We have two in their 20's (who are officially off the payroll, good job girls), two seven year olds and why would we want to adopt? Are we crazy? Well for those that know us well, know the answer to that question. YES, we are. We are crazy, our home is crazy, our yahoos are crazy (after all how many 7 years olds are do you know are in their rooms blasting Jimmy Buffet, Herb Albert, and KC and the Sunshine Band?) Yep...that's my boy...

This photo is the only photo we have of our "gotcha day" We are the ants holding the little one in purple way in the background. I am thankful to one of our travel mate families who snapped this photo that we happened to be in. (thanks amfam)

This time around we will have a Plan C for gotcha day photos.