One giant leap in our Journey to Amelie

Welcome. We are the Valentine family. My wife Maile and I began this journey well over a year ago, to adopt our daughter Amelie form China. It was quite an adventure to bring her home and she is a joy and treasure to us every day. We still cannot believe how lucky we are. We have received tremendous support from our family and friends, and everyone has been so great to little Amelie!

We welcome you to our site, and hope that you will check in from time to time on our little adventures.

One giant leap...

It is tough to describe the emotions that Maile and I have experienced today. We have been waiting so long for this moment, and now it is finally here. The words joy, blessing, elation, all come to mind. We finally have a picture of our baby girl, and we feel closer to her than ever. She is as beautiful as I could have imagined, and Maile mentioned that she looks like Amelie in her dreams.

On to the good stuff. Today we learned that our daughter:

- Was born on October 28th, 2005. She is about 9 months old.

- Her chinese name is Yong Xiao Ping, and she is from the Hunan province.

- She weighs about 13.64lbs, and she is a deep sleeper.

- She is a very active and restless baby, and she loves games and music!

- She can roll over and hold her head up by herself. Quite the independent girl already! She will fit into our family quite nicely!

- She is very close with her care giver, which we are told is good news in terms of bonding with us.

This girl is adorable, and we can't wait to have her in our arms. The wait has been a long one, and waiting further until we can travel and be with her will be all the harder. But we will try and stay busy with all of the things we need to get done, and she will be with us in no time.

Update - Our Referral is on its way!

This just in from our adoption agency -

"Good Morning and Happy Wednesday!

We have wonderful news! The stork is on its way to GWCA! We have received notice from GWCA Beijing that the CCAA has mailed the referrals. We can expect forty-four referrals this month, based on this number we are expecting referrals for our July 8th and July 13th LID Families. "

It is a wonderful thought that we will have Amelie's picture and orphanage information as soon as this Friday! Maile and I cannot wait, and we are pretty much useless as human beings for the remainder of the week. More updates (and hopefully a picture!) soon!

Amelie's Garden - A Story from Gin Gin

Gin Gin wrote a story for Amelie that both Maile and I thought was wonderful. Thanks Gin Gin!!

Amelie's Garden
Once upon a time, a little girl with big shining eyes and a smile that made the sunshine brighter, woke up early on Saturday morning. This was her day to do something special with Mama. Amelie could not guess what Mama had planned, but she knew it would be so much fun.

Amelie hurried to get dressed, and opened her door to go find Mama. "I'm ready for our special day Mama"! Amelie saw Mama outside and she had a big box. "Mama, wait for me! What are we doing on our special day?"

Amelie's Mama had a nice pair of rubber boots, a hat, and a bucket and shovel.

"What are we doing Mama?"

"Well Amelie , we are going to plant you a beautiful Garden of your very own."

Amelie and Mama worked very hard to get the dirt all smooth and then Mama gave Amelie two little bags of seeds to lay on the smooth dirt. Amelie did as Mama said and then she covered them up with a little dirt. Next came the water so they could start to grow in Amelies Garden.

Days and weeks passed and Amelie went out to check her Garden to see if the beautiful flowers had come out, but every day she only saw an ugly weed and she pulled it up. Then one day she went out to check her Garden and a beautiful rose was standing tall in her garden.

"Mama! Mama! Come see my garden, I have a beautiful flower!"

Mama came out to look at Amelie's flower and indeed it was a beauty. It was then that Amelie saw a little bug crawling on her flower and was afraid the bug would eat her flower.

"Amelie this is a special bug that has come to live in your garden, it is a Lady Bug and she will take good care of your rose," Mama said. "Look. I see a little yellow flower over there."

"No Mama it's a weed and I have been pulling it up," said Amelie.

Then the little lady bug said "Oh Amelie, it's not a weed, just a different kind of flower, and having different kinds adds to the beauty and color of your garden!"

I like my special garden, Amelie thought, and I will never throw away a weed if it wants to live in my garden. Maybe the weed has a little bug that takes care of it too.