Bai Jie Ya soon to be Gemma Jie Ya

Where to start??? First of all I have to tell a funny little story from tonight. I was showing the boys the new blog makeover and my 10 year old Gavin read the title. He said, "Mom why are we the Mayhem?" ha No words for that one. {{WINK}}

We have not decided on a middle name for Gemma, we will definitely keep her Chinese name as part of her middle name. I hope she will want to be called Gemma but if not we are totally fine calling her by her Chinese name. As you can see by the name she to is YaYa. They call her little Ya. We will have to let her know that in our family she will have to be "Big Ya" because we already have a little Ya. ha

This all started back in August. We were not really looking at starting another adoption this soon, we had gone back and forth about whether we would even adopt again. It has been quite a change having a baby in the house again and honestly it has been a really hard year home. Ava has attached beautifully and she can be so sweet but she can throw the punches too! She holds her own with her brothers. The most difficult adjustment has been sleep and Ava does not do it!! Night time is so hard for her and it is our biggest struggle. Even 15 months later she wakes multiple times a night and she will not sleep in her bed without my husband or I. I have had sleep issues for almost 8 years now. My wonderful amazing hubby has taken over night duty since we have been home. He puts her down every night, comes back upstairs to go to bed and within a couple hours when she wakes up he goes back downstairs to sleep with her the rest of the night. My sweet boys have all offered to sleep with her but she will not have it and wants us. When my hubby travels for work my oldest Preston steps in and does the night duty, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. She deals with lots of nightmares and just constant restlessness. Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated!!

Towards the end of August I happened to be on Holt's Waiting Child List just looking like I always do. To my surprise they had just stared a new program called "Journey of Hope". This program was started to help find homes for kids between 7-13 that are mostly healthy but will be aging out of the process. As a scanned the pictures I came across hers!! I read her little bio and just fell in love. I ask my hubby to take a peak and together we decided to call Holt and ask to see her file. We had discussed that if we ever did adopt again that it would be an older child between 4 and 9.

About Bai Jie Ya:

DOB: February 07, 2001
Date of entry into care: February 12, 2001
Diagnosis: Normal
Bai Jinya is currently living in a foster family and is a 1st grade student. She is conscious of her studies and can basically progress along with her class. Her math scores are excellent and her language scores are good. She likes music and dancing and energetically joins her school’s activities. In terms of daily life, she is basically independent and volunteers to help “Mom” with household duties such as sweeping the floors, cleaning the tables, and making the beds. Her favorite food is chocolate, but because it is bad for your teeth, she pays attention to how much she eats. Bai Jie Ya is a young woman who certainly understands what is going on around her. This healthy, pretty little girl has been in care since February 2001 and has been living with a foster family since 2004. She is described as a lively, warm and smart little girl. She enjoys literature and also memorizes and recites classic poems. She has won awards for her jump roping abilities and also enjoys drawing, dancing and paper cutting. Her goals in life are to be a good person and possibly an artist. When asked about adoption she states that she would like a home that will last forever.

We feel she will fit into our family nicely and we were officially matched with her October 1st. We are currently working on our dossier and starting our Homestudy this coming Monday the 16th. We hope to have our dossier done in the next month. I have been reading and talking to many families that have adopted older children. We know there will be many challenges with an older child and we are trying to prepare as much as we can. Im blessed to have a wonderful Adoption Attachment group that I attend once a month and these ladies have been amazing. Once Gemma is ready to start school we also have a public Chinese Immersion school not too far down the street that she will attend. I think it will be a great transition for her. We are so excited to add her to our family and look forward to our return to China. We are happy that both Ava and Gemma are from Guangdong province and will have so much to share as they grow up together. We hope that Gemma will be able to keep her language so she came stay in touch with her foster family and friends from school.

It is so different to start our this adoption with a picture in hand but also with no money!! We know by choosing this plan God has laid out for us that the funds will come. We have decided to do a fundraiser. Please continue to follow our journey to Gemma. Thanks for all the wonderful comments about our new blog and adoption. :-) Blessings.