Happy 4th Birthday Lilly!

It's hard to believe that Lillian turned 4 on Sunday (January 13)! What a beautiful young lady she is and what an incredible sweet spirit she has! Lilly wanted a blue square cake with sprinkles ... and that is just what she got!

We love you dearly Lilly!

I'm 4!

Snuggles for Christmas

Here is a cute picture of the girls together before a nap. Snuggles are awesome!

On Christmas morning, Jess enjoyed watching Lilly open her presents. When Lilly opened her gifts she excitedly screamed, "Just what I always wanted!"

Family pictures

Our Family

"Happy Gotcha Day!"

"I'm growing bigger everyday!"

Happy Gotcha Day!

It is SO hard to believe that 3 years have gone by since we first kissed Lilly's beautiful face! I will never forget just staring at her referal pictures wondering how she will look in just a couple of years. What will she be like? Will she be shy or outgoing? Will she be passive or strongwilled? Time has proven that she is outgoing and strongwilled. We couldn't be prouder!

Lilly's referal picture

Lilly today!

My dearest Lillian Jeanette Zhan,

Three years ago our lives where changed forever! What was once an empty heart, was filled with joy and immediate love. The moment I held you, I knew you were my daughter and my life would never be the same. You add constant joy, happiness and laughter to our lives. We are blessed by you dear daughter! We can not praise our Heavenly Father enough for bringing you into our lives.

I love you forever!

Mom

Here comes Santa Claus!

We took the girls to see Santa last week and both "did a great job" as Lilly excitedly tells people. Santa asked Lilly to sing him a song and she sang him "Amazing Grace." I don't think it was the song he quite expected. It was a beautiful moment!

One Year Ago

Sisters! Jessica is 6 weeks old in this picture.

One year ago, 11-13-06, our paperwork for our second daughter born in China was logged into the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). It is hard to believe that a year has already passed since that time! Our latest report from our agency is that we have about another 13 months before we are matched with our daughter. Our best guess at this time (it is always a guess!) would be that we would receive her referral in December of 2008 and then travel in February of 2009. Seems like an eternity away, but we know God's timing is perfect to bring us to our 3rd daughter!

Playing dress-up!



Lilly and Jessica continue to bond. Lilly is always concerned when Jess cries and will excitedly give me any updates on her. "Mom ... Jess is crying ... Jess is smiling ... Jess is stinky (meaning a diaper change) ..." Jessica loves to smile and stare at Lilly. Their favorite game is "peekaboo" and playing dress-up.


We are SO blessed!

More pictures!

I'm the Big Sister!

Taking a nap with Daddy!

The Doctor is In

" Dr. Lilly" and Jessica had a fun Halloween. Between preschool and church activities, they have enough candy to last a year!

More pictures

Hello everyone,

Here are some recent pictures.:) Both girls are doing incredibly well. We are blessed!

SISTERS!

Our Reason for a lack of Posts:)

Hello dear friends and family,

Included are a couple of pictures to explain why we haven't posted in a long time. In February 2007, we once again discovered we were miraculously pregnant! On September 18, 2007, our family was blessed with a beautiful and healthy baby girl - Jessica Danielle! Lilly is very excited about her baby sister and is a wonderful helper!

China had a policy that if you became pregnant during the process of adoption, that the adoption would have to be suspended. We were saddened to hear this as we really wanted to continue with the adoption of our second daughter from China. So we prayed that the Lord would somehow change the policy and allow us to continue with our second adoption. Well, the Lord performed that miracle and on the day I went into labor, we received a call from our family coordinator just to touch base with us. Shortly thereafter, we found out that China has lifted the policy and we can continue with our adoption! Referrals continue to drastically slow down and we are at least 1-2 years away from traveling to China to bring home our third daughter. We greatly rejoice in the Lord's perfect timing!

Meet Our Beautiful Jessica Danielle!
Born: 9-18-07

6 pounds - 12 oz

20 inches

We are just thrilled to see how the Lord continues to provide for our family! We'll have 3 girls!! We would have never dreamed it possible! God is SO good!

Lilly turns 3!

Yes, I know it has been a long time since we have posted. Not much new to report on the adoption front. Rumor has it, that China is slowing down even more. At best, I would imgine that daughter #2's referral will come in the spring of 2008. We know the Lord's timing is perfect!!!

Below is a picture of Lilly on her 3rd birthday - January 13! She is quite a chatter box and loves to play with her "little people" and cook in the kitchen.

Lilly is such a huge joy! We feel very blessed!

Gotcha Day - How time flies!

December 6, 2004 ... an amazing day in the Hallgren family!!! It is hard to believe that 2 amazing years have passed since Lilly's "gotcha day" and we were able to kiss that adorable face for the first time!

To celebrate, Kirk, Lilly and I sat down to watch her "gotcha moment" on DVD. Lilly kept saying, "There's mommy, there's daddy, there's Maw Williams! Who's that baby?" She then said, "Lilly didn't cry, but those other babies are loud!" So true.:) Admittedly, both Kirk and I sat with tears in our eyes as we watch this once lifeless little one - she's so full of life now! Hard to believe that Lilly was once that expressionless baby! Boy are we blessed!!

Praising the Lord for our beautiful daughter and the gift she is to us!

Farewell Dear Friend

Best Friends!

Dressing up Summer

Nap Time!

After 12 years of life, dear Summer (our adopted retired racing Greyhound) needed to be put to sleep. What the vet originally thought was arthritis, was in all actuality cancer and it had consumed much of her back leg. Summer was in pain, so we had to make the difficult decision Friday night.

Summer was such a part of the family and took to Lilly very quickly. I will miss watching Lilly and Summer chase each other around the house! She had a very gentle spirit and tolerated a lot of "lovin'" from Lilly.:) One of my favorite memories is pictured above. One afternoon, Lilly crawled up on Summer when she was basking in the sun. Lilly fell sound asleep on her (snoring and everything) and Summer didn't move a muscle for fear of waking her up.

Lilly says Summer is with Jesus ... we agree!:)
Farewell dear Summer ... We miss you greatly!

Our Offical LID!

We recieved our official Log In Date today, Nov. 13, 2006! This is the date we were actually registered with China (it really is official now!) and what we use as our "wait" date. The time frame from LID to referral is getting longer - 14-16 months with the time frame possibly increasing. If we took our best guess, we would say that we would travel to China in April 2008. It seems like forever away, but the Lord's timing is always perfect. One step closer!:)

It's in China!

Just wanted to let you know that our dossier was received by China 10/16/06!!! We should receive our "Log In Date" (LID) in about a month. LID is actual the day that you use for the "countdown" to referral and the actual day we are formally logged into the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs. We hope to hear quickly of our formal log in.:)

"I can hardly wait to meet my little sister!"

It's a go!

Today we received a wonderful call from our family coordinator! She said our dossier, "looks beautiful and will be on its way to China on Friday!" The really cool part as well is that on Oct. 13, 2004 (just 2 short years ago!) we recieved Lilly's referral!! Doesn't the Lord have an amazing way of working everything out? Friday, we celebrate! Then we wait ... and wait ... and wait for daughter #2's referral.:) Most likely it will be 12-14 months before we hear anything. If we had to take a guess, she is most likely in the womb right now, just starting out on her wonderful journey of life as well. We can hardly wait to kiss her sweet face!

Thankful to the Lord,
Brenda

Final document in hand!

Today we received our I-171H back from Chicago! That's it ... the final document is in hand! Once Lilly went down for the night, I sat at the table and carefully assembled all the paperwork. It's all neatly packaged up and ready to be FedExed to our agency on Monday. From there our dossier is reviewed by our family coordinator and if all is in place, off to China it goes! We'll let you know when it is on its way! WOW!

Thought I would include a recent picture of Lilly. She was busy writing a letter to Poppy and Gramma, while "talking to daddy-o" on the phone. What a hoot!

One step closer!

Today my dear friend Heidi (who took the day off of work to go with me) and I drove the I-171H to Lansing for certification! This is the final document we need before sending our dossier to China. It was a wonderful day indeed and brought back so many memories of when my mom and I made the same trek over 2 years ago for Lillian. After having the document certified, we made a quick stop at the photo copy place and then to the FedEx box to send it to Chicago for authentication. Heidi and I then stopped for a quick bite to eat, toured the capital building (which is beautiful!) and then drove to the outlet mall for a little shopping.:)

Once our I-171H is returned from Chicago, Kirk and I will send our entire dossier to AWAA where they will review it and then FedEx it to China!!!! Then, the LONG wait begins. At this time, it is taking about 12-14 months from being logged into China to referral. Lord willing, China will speed up referrals. However, we know God's timing is perfect to bring us to our daughter!

Praying for a quick turn around from China!
Brenda (Kirk and Lilly too!)

The Sovereignty of God

Dear family and friends,

The last 6 weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster for us. We have gone to the top of the mountain and deep into the valley. But God's grace is amazing and we do feel blessed!

The day after our fingerprint appointments, I found out we were pregnant! We were suprised and thrilled. Two weeks later, the Lord amazingly brought us our approved I-171H! We thought this would take at least 3 months! Another miracle, but yet it was a little bittersweet for me. China requires that biological children have to be 1 year old before submitting our paperwork, so we had decided to put our adoption on hold.

Last week, we miscarried. I was 10 weeks along. Although we do not understand this, we trust in HIS almighty plan for our lives.

We are excited to continue with the adoption of our second daughter from China! Obviously she is ready for her forever family sooner than we thought. Our I-171H is in the process of certification and authentication. Once that is complete, our dossier (all the paperwork) goes to our agency and then on the China!! We hope to logged into China in early October.

We praise the Lord for our daughters and trust Him with all of our futures! We'll let you know when the paperwork is off to China!

With a thankful heart,
Brenda

Fingerprinting completed

Hello,

Today Kirk and I went to Downtown Detroit to get our fingerprints taken. Altogether it took about an hour, so it wasn't too bad. Thank you for your prayers as neither of us had any cuts, blisters or anything that would prohibit the printing! Now we just need to pray that they were taken correctly and won't require being redone. :) This is the final thing we needed to do so the I171H could be processed. We are still praying for a miracle and asking the Lord to turn it around in the next couple of weeks! HIS timing is perfect!

Thank you for your prayers! Hopefully, next time I post it will be because our I171H came back and our paperwork is soon off to China!

Brenda