Sam and his baby sister

I usually write posts about the process or what the latest hoop is that we had to jump though was. This time, it is about Sam. He is one of the main reasons we are adopting. He desperately wants to be a big brother and has been asking for a sibling for several years now. Sam is very social and loves to be with other kids, he would do well in a house with several other kids. That won't happen, but he will have one younger sister. He is so excited about his baby sister and talks about her all the time. He has her whole life planned out for her. Her favorite color will be purple, she will like pandas, she will go swimming with him and she will dresses. I hope she does not mind he has already decided these things for her.

Yesterday while at Grandpa School, my dad asked him if his baby sister was going to attend Grandpa School. Sam said no. Grandpa asked why. Sam told him that his baby sister was going to be "more normal" like mommy and not weird. He said it was OK for him and Baby Jenna to be weird and go to Grandpa School, but not his baby sister. That kid is so funny.

In case you are wondering, Grandpa School is where Sam goes in the morning before real school. He loves Grandpa School and learns so much there. My dad is the teacher at Grandpa School since it is at his house.

Must See YouTube clip

The author of the song played on this clip sent this link to everyone on in the FCC. It is an amazing clip. It really gives you an idea of what we are headed for. It shows the parents being handed their babies for the first time. It really is a tear jerker. It helped to make the whole process seem a little more real for us (and those around us).

The other thing this clip has done is added another passenger to our trip. My Dad is going to come now. It has always been the one thing about the trip that has weighed heavily on our hearts; the thought of my dad not traveling with us. He was so moved by this video and was urged by my mom. He checked it out with his doctors and they all said, "If you are feeling well enough, by all means, go and have a great time!" We are all so excited. He has been so influential in this whole process. He started us thinking about adoption in the first place, did a ton of research before we started and has continued to research things along the way. He has been emotionally and financhially supportive, so the thought of him not coming with us, was really hard for us. We always knew my mom would come and were so thankful for that. She has the organization skills David and I sometimes lack. Plus we wanted an extra adult to help with Sam. Now, we will have two adults. My friends have joked that they are not sure if China is ready for us all to be there. They also think it should be funny and interesting to see us all in China. We will see. I know it will be a great trip and if it ever comes time, we will be ready.

Please watch this clip and envision us standing there being handed our daughter.

More waiting?

As if we had not waited long enough already, we are facing even more waiting. China is so backlogged with adoption applications and can not process them in a timely manor. That means the time between log in date and referal is stretching out. So we started the process in the fall of 2005. At that time we were being told referal times were under a year. When we sent our paperwork to CHina and got our Log In Date (November 16, 2006) we were told that referals were taking 12-14 months. Now in the spring of 2007, we are being told two to three years, but you never know. Hopefully things will start moving and we will have our baby soon. Soon in terms of the adoption world mean sometime in 2008. We are still hoping to travel sometime next spring or summer, but who knows. Hopefully it will be before the olympics. We will keep you all posted on the timing. Continue to pray for our patience. I keep saying the drawn out time is ok since we still need to raise a lot of money.

Yard Sale

To help raise funds for our adoption we will be having a yard sale June 21,22, and 23. You can help in three ways.
1. Donate items to us. We will even pick them up.
2. Shop at our sale.
3. Help us run the sale.

Last year it was very successful and we are hoping for the same success this year. We will be having it at our house this year. Maybe we will get new and different crowd!

Call or email us if you have items to donate, want to shop or want to help work at the sale.
414-403-0860 or Stolpeadoption@yahoo.com

Thanks for your support.

The other big news is that David's parents are also having a yard sale at the same time in Dallas. We were thinking about putting a friendly wager on the sales totals. We will post both results.