WAHOOOOO!!!!!!! WE HAVE OUR LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone:

Sometimes my email system rejects certain messages because it thinks they are spam. Unfortunately, it chose to reject an important message from our agency last Friday.

The good news is that a new message was sent today and we learned that we have our Log-in Date (LID!) Can you believe it is 4/24/07. The CCAA received our dossier on 4/23 and logged it in just ONE day later!! Wahoo!!!! I am so happy that we made the 5/1 deadline with plenty of time to spare. Actually, I think we may have broken some land speed records! Ha ha!

I just knew those ladybugs, fortune cookies and the trip to Philadelphia were all good signs! I told you business travel brings good luck to our family! :) Smiling with OUTRAGEOUS joy!!

With love for our Abbie (and all our beautiful children!)

Tracie and Dan
LOI 2/13/07
PA 4/10/07
DTC 4/23/07
LID 4/24/07

...More Silly Girls!

Ladybug Siting!

Hi! Okay, call me superstitious, but I still believe in ladybug sitings! We went on a family bike ride this morning, and not more than five minutes after Dan yelled out to me, "Don't get a flat tire," he hit a gigantic rock and yep, got a flat tire! Ha ha!

While we disengaged the bike trailer and let the toddlers run free on a grassy knoll, I heard squeaking and squealing behind me. I walked over to the girls and immediately saw the source of their excitement...ladybugs galore!! Tons of them were flying and walking on the grass and pine trees. What a site! You know what they say, when you see a ladybug it means that something good is about to happen with your adoption. Come on LID!

I'd like to thank my parents for coming to visit us. We had a blast and love you both! Say "Hi" to Cathy and the boys for us! I would also like to wish my sweet grandmother, Violet Dorothy (Toodie) Graham a Happy Birthday. She would have been 92 today. We love and miss you dearly.


Click on the link to join us at the Ladybug Picnic!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr8vUTm64h0

Have a great week! Tracie

Daddy and His Girls

Yep, Still Waiting...

...Told you I'm not a patient person! (I know, I know, it's only been a week. :) Hopefully, we will hear about our Log-in Date soon. On Monday I leave for a big Human Resources Conference in Philadelphia. I have never been to Philly, so this will be new territory for me. I am looking forward to seeing some old Marriott friends and hopefully, hook up with my good friend Lisa from New Jersey. I haven't seen Lisa, or her daughter Sydnie, since we all left China in November 2005. I have never met her other daughter Sam in person! I will be at the conference until Friday, but you can bet your last dollar that I will bring my lap top and will be checking email for our LID daily! On a funny note, I received our referral for Lucy while I was at a Human Resources Conference in Houston in 2005. Business travel must be good luck for me....come on LID!

Praying for safe travels back to my family...

Love, Tracie

Photos, Photos and More Photos!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA GENE - YOU ROCK!!!

Happy Birthday Pop! We enjoyed the cake and ice cream...and your lovely comb-over wig complete with cool eyebrows. It was especially lovely on mom (it was cool how you channeled Grandma Toodie!) Ha ha! Boy, do we have some great pictures to post up tomorrow!

Enjoy the crossword puzzles...love and kisses, T, D, K, E, G, L & A XOXOXOXO

Abbie's Family Photo Show

Hi Everyone:

Checked in with our agency today - not LID yet, but hopefully by next week! If you have not already done so, be sure to check out our "Abbie's Family Photoshow" by clicking on the link on the right. I have included some of my most favorite pictures of all the kids. I really wish we had digital cameras when the teenagers were little! I am going to have to scan some old photos to a CD someday! I also included some pictures from our trip in 2005 to bring Lucy home. All of my children are so special and beautiful in so many ways. This photoshow makes me cry each time I watch it! I've rounded out the show by including pictures of our Abbie. She is already deep in our hearts! Whenever I show Lucy and Gracie pictures, they say "Ohhhh, that's baby Abbie." They know she is their sister and that she will be coming home soon. Kids are SO amazing! Off to clean up from my bike ride, then read a book to relax.

Sweet Dreams Abbie!

Love you all! Tracie XOXOXOXO

A Beauty in Pink (and the Drool Drop Cloth again :)

Here is an absolutely beautiful picture of our Abbie before her bilateral cleft lip surgery. She truly has a smile and eyes that light up the whole world!

A couple of wonderful pictures of our Sweet Girl taken by a good friend!

These pictures were taken a couple of months ago by another adoptive parent on a special visit to Abbie's Orphanage.

We are truly blessed to have these, and so many other precious pictures of Abbie. Policies are constantly changing in China in regards to picture taking and orphanage visits. Although often sad for adoptive families who hope to thank the caregivers in person and see where their children lived the first part of their lives, the policies are good because they protect the safety and well being of the beautiful children in their care. They also allow the caregivers to focus their time on what is most important; ensuring the children receive good nutrition, medical care as needed, nurturing and stimulation. Having had the opportunity to visit Lucy's orphanage in 2005, I can tell you that the caregivers do a wonderful job and love the children as their own! We are forever grateful to Lucy's foster family (the Zhang Family) and Abbie's Ayi (a special name for the caregivers, translated as "Auntie" in Mandarin) for the selfless love they have given to our daughters.

Our Precious Abbie!

FABULOUS JOB FEDEX MAN!

Abbie's package has officially arrived to the Chinese Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) office for logging-in, reviewing and hopefully, quick processing!

Apr 23, 2007 (China Time)
11:33 AM
Delivered!
BEIJING

Fabulous job FEDEX!!!

On Our Way to the CCAA!!!!

Apr 23, 2007 (Monday morning in China)
8:48 AM
On FedEx vehicle for delivery
BEIJING CN
7:38 AM
At local FedEx facility
BEIJING CN

GO FEDEX GUY!!!!!

Syd and Sam!

I love this picture I just received of Sydnie and Samantha the beautiful Jiangxi daughters of my good friend Lisa. Sydnie (on the left, who is also the younger of the two), and our Lucy, are from the same Chinese orphanage. Lisa and I held each other up through the long wait for our daughters. I will always love Lisa for her friendship and support! Love the glasses girls!

Abbie's Package is in Beijing!

The super-duper FedEx man flew his heart out and delivered our package safely to Beijing at 7:23PM on Sunday, April 22nd (China time). Hopefully, our package will be delivered safely to the Chinese Centre for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) by 6:00 PM today (Monday in China) too! I hope I said that all correctly! I'm so confused! Ha ha!

Come on Log In Date!

Yahoo!! (Or YABOOOOO for my dear Idaho friend Melanie, mom to Meili from Hunan! :)

About Our Family

While we wait, I would like to share stories with you about the six Linne-Laughlins. Our story starts when I met my husband Dan and fell in love nearly twelve years ago. We lived in Breckenridge, Colorado, where we both worked for Marriott. I still work for Marriott as a Director of Human Resources (just celebrated 20 years!) and Dan works as an Accountant at a local construction company. We are avid road cyclists and enjoy having fun with our kids! We currently reside in Sandy, Utah - a fabulous place at the base of the Wasatch Mountain range. Kyle (16) and Ericka (13 and my travel-mate to China to adopt Lucy in 2005) are from my first marriage to Ted. Ted and his wife Nancy, are blessed with two beautiful daughters of their own (Karli and McKenna.) Dan and I had Gracie (4) together in 2003 and we knew we did not want her to grow up an "only" child, since her siblings are so much older than her. I asked Dan what he thought of adoption and after some research, he said "How can we not do it?" Music to my ears! After 14 months, our beautiful Lucy Mae Ji Chun ("Lucky Spring" age 2.5) came home from Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province. When I first fell in love with a picture of Shan Le Qian (Abbie "Happy A Lot", also age 2.5), I emailed it to Dan and said "Guess what Honey? We have another daughter waiting for us in China." He never, ever questioned or second-guessed me. We both knew we would be blessed with another child in our hearts and arms! So our journey began...but really, it is just beginning! Thank you to all our special family and friends who love us for who we are, don't question the choices we make in life and support us in all we do: Grandma and Grandpa Coryell and Laughlin; Cathy and the boys; Mike and Tim and Families; the Stewart Family; The Hunsaker Family; The Glover Family; The Wing Family; the Hribal Family and all our "old" and our new friends we are just making! We love you all!

WE ARE OFFICIALLY DTC 4/20/07 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nimen Hao Pengyou!

We just returned home from the Utah Chinese School, where we have Gracie and Lucy enrolled in Saturday morning classes. They have fun learning Mandarin through singing, dancing and age appropriate activities. Mommy is in the pre-school class and is having fun learning too!

I spent a little time cleaning and vacuuming evidence of two toddlers from my Volvo and scrubbed the kitchen free of evidence of teenagers. After everything was satisfactorily sparkling and I managed to get my two teenagers and their friends to retreat to the basement, I logged on to the computer for some quiet reflection. What started out as quiet time, immediately turned into extreme excitement!

Imagine coming home to find this FABULOUS message from your adoption agency:

"We know how you have raced to get this dossier finished and out the door! We are so pleased to tell you that your dossier is now in Alaska awaiting its final flight to Beijing. You can track this wonderful journey at www.fedex.com tracking number 792329357542. A huge congratulations! We know just how much work has gone in to getting to this point. --

Stefani Ellison, China Program Coordinator

Children's House International"

The only thing that could be better, is if I was in Alaska awaiting a flight to Beijing with the dossier for our "Rascal" (new nickname bestowed upon Abbie from from our new friends on the Waiting Child Yahoo Group!) We put our dossier together in only eight weeks! Actually, everything was ready in five weeks, but we had to wait for our I-171H. :)

For those of you who are not familiar with Stefani and Children's House International, I have to tell you that she is truly an angel in disguise. When we were searching for our Abbie, Stefani just happened to remember us, and through her diligence, and the help of other wonderful people in the Chinese adoption/aide community, Abbie is becoming our daughter! We are FOREVER grateful and truly blessed to know Stefani and the other angels on Earth.

Feel free to go online to fedex.com and track Abbie's package along with us!!!

Love, the Linne-Laughlin Family (soon to be of seven!)

Fun While We Pass the Time!

Hi Everyone:

While we pass the time away, I thought it would be fun to share some pictures of our family and friends...and share some fun stories. This picture of Qian Qian is with a beloved individual from her orphanage. She has been so good to our Abbie and we hope to be able to keep in contact with her. I know each would like that very much!

Our DHL Package Arrived With the Wind!

Ha ha! Fortunately, our package was not held up by more wind today. It successfully made it to our agency representative in Cedar City, Utah. If I had known it was going to get stuck overnight in Ohio, I would have just drove it down to Cedar City myself! :)

We have been informed we should be DTC by the weekend. Blessed news for our ears!

Keep praying that everything will go smoothly from here, and Abbie will be home by summer's end.

(Love the picture of the baby "Mao Mao's!" This picture is for our sweet Lucy Mae who absolutely LOVES pandas!)

Love, Tracie

URGH!

Hi Everyone:

Just learned that DHL experienced a "service failure" due to high winds in one of their processing locations. So, what does that mean to us? It means that our package will be delivered to our agency tomorrow after 9:00 AM, rather than today. Bummer! So, that will probably result in our dossier being sent to China one day later. Double bummer!

With International adoption, if I have learned nothing else, I have learned that everything is in God's dear hands. For some reason, this delay was meant to be. Hopefully, it will bring something good in return (like being logged in to China's database one day earlier! :) Hopeful and wishful thinking!

Crossing our fingers and toes for DTC in Sandy, Utah

DTC!!!!! (Almost!)

We just received this message from our agency today:

"We are still waiting for the DHL and if it gets here before tomorrow morning, we'll be able to wire the fees tomorrow and the dossier will go out tomorrow (4/19/07.)"

Just checked DHL and our package will be delivered today!! We hope to be DTC (Dossier to China) tomorrow. Hurray!!! Cross your fingers and pray for us!

Abbie, we are coming soon!

Mom, Dad, Kyle, Ericka, Gracie and Lucy Mae
XOXOXOXO

Paperwork is Done!!

Hi Everyone:

Great news! Our authenticated I-171H and dossier is complete and officially out of my hands, into the hands of our agency and the translator. Hopefully, she will get the documents translated quickly and get our dossier sent off to China (DTC) this week! Crossing our fingers! It just feels so good to be done with the paperchase and have the important documents in the capable hands of someone else!

More to come!!! Tracie

Still Waiting...

...Ever so patiently. Ha ha! Well, we have made some progress and have had a small set back. Just need a little more medical information for our dossier. However, The Assistant Stork emailed me and informed me that our I-171H has been authenticated by the US Department of State (Condoleezza Rice's office) and the Chinese Embassy. They are scheduled to pick it up and FEDEX it back to us tomorrow. We should receive it on Wednesday. Hurrah!! Then, we will take it and six photos of our family and a few other miscellaneous items I was missing (ugh), to a local woman who will translate our dossier to Mandarin. THEN...we will FINALLY have our paperwork sent off to China. Phew. I am really looking forward to having everything done and just sitting back to wait for the news that we are going to China! Paperwork can be so nerve wracking, but the end result is what is most important - our beautiful daughter Abbie!

Our good friends Scott and Marry are right there with us in the thick of the paperchase, for their handsome little boy from Gansu Province. (A date for Lucy or Abbie someday?) We hope that our paperwork will run the same course and that we will be able to meet up in Guangzhou at the US Consulate for the second time together! We love you Scott, Marry, Kaia and Beckett!

A Very Happy Girl!

I've got my mommy, a pink pig for the Chinese New Year and some delicious broth from my Ayi. Life is good!

But, guess what little one? It's going to get even better!!! :)

A New Photo Arrived!

This is so exciting! We just received this photo of Qian Qian (in the back crib sporting a lovely purple padded coat), with her "friend." This photo was sent by a special angel. Thank you for sending the photo of our precious daughter to us!

With Love, Tracie

Shantou Social Welfare Institute

This is a picture of the front of the Shantou Social Welfare Institute, where Abbie has resided since she was four days old. The Ayi's and SWI staff love her and take very good care of our special girl!

A Teeny Tiny Abbie!

Hi Everyone:

While we are waiting for our authenticated I-171H to return from Washington DC, I thought I would pass a little time by sharing a picture of a tiny baby "Qian Qian", as she is affectionately known by her Ayi (Chinese auntie) at the Shantou Social Welfare Institute. Le Qian means "Happy" and "Alot or Flourishing (like the grass and trees.)" I like "Happy Alot" the best - it fits Abbie to the tee! This is one of the youngest pictures we have of Abbie, sitting in her little wicker stroller with her Ayi, and looking at a little friend.

PA and I-171H Are Here!

The week of Friday, April 13th has been good luck for us!! We received news from our agency that our Pre-Approval (PA) from China has arrived and I went to the Immigration Office, where our I-171H (immigration approval) was hand signed and delivered to me!

Our dossier has been authenticated and is on it's way to our agency to send to China. Now, we wait some more! For those of you not familiar with the Waiting Child program, we are now waiting to be logged in to China's database. Then we will receive a Letter of Approval (LOA) to sign and return that we are excited to become Abbie's parents...then comes the Travel Approval (TA)! We are hoping that we will travel to Guangdong by the end of summer. Dan will stay home with Kyle, Gracie and Lucy, while Ericka and I make the trip to China for the second time together. Ericka is a GREAT travel companion!! It will be her job to chase the very active Abbie up and down the airplane aisles! :) Ericka thinks I'm kidding! Ha ha!

More to come in our fantastic journey!

Linne-Laughlin Family of Seven!

Our Journey to Abbie Le Qian Starts December 1, 2006

In december of 2006, we fell in love with a beautiful girl from Shantou, Guangdong Province of China, with eyes and a smile that light up the entire world! We first saw her picture on the Love Without Boundaries Foundation "Top Ten Photos of 2006" website and immediately knew...

I emailed Dan and said, "Can we adopt her? Please, please, please!" To my joy, he said "Yes!!!" My husband Dan and I did everything we could think of to get our names and personal information out to all the agencies that represent waiting children in China. I had no idea there were so many resources for families. Some of our favorite resources are posted on the "Our Favorite Sites" link, including our fabulous adoption agency.

Now, all we have to do is sit back and wait. Hah! For those who know me, waiting and patience are not my strongest virtues. :) I told Dan that if Abbie Le Qian is meant to be our daughter... then our Heavenly Father will find a way for her to find us! And so He did...

Lo and behold, in early February 2007, I received several emails and voicemails from many wonderful people, announcing Abbie had been listed with Children's House International Adoption Agency, on their Waiting Children List #17. Can you believe their China Waiting Child Program Coordinator resides in Utah - same as us?! Clearly, Abbie Le Qian (Shan Le Qian), born December 29, 2004, was meant to be our daughter, and soon to be sister to four loving siblings! We submitted our Letter of Intent (LOI) on Valentine's Day. What could be more perfect to show our love to Abbie?!

We have been blessed with many pictures of her before and after her surgery and look forward to the day she will be not only in our hearts, but in our arms! Enjoy our journey with us!

With Much Love and God's Blessings,

Tracie (Dan, Kyle, Ericka, Gracie and Lucy Mae Ji Chun)