Notary

What is a notary?

A notary is a person with legal training who is licensed by the state to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems.

All our adoption documents for our dossier must be notarized by licensed Notaries, and lucky for us our dear friend and Lottie Lee’s fairy God-Momma Kim Chamness is a licensed notary in the great state of TX. 

She has been able to notarize most of our documents and her name will be a part of our dossier, which seems very appropriate as she will be such a special part of Lottie Lee’s life.  Kim has been there since day one when we announced our plans to adopt and has shed tears of joy with us as we move through the process.  She asked us to support CoupAIde when they first launched  in June, and was one of the reasons we found and met Firas and Matt, who have helped us raise our first phase of donations toward our adoption.  She is everything we would hope for Lottie to become strong, loving, and family oriented. She loves her friends like family and she has become a part of ours.  Kim, we are so blessed to have met you and to have you be part of our family, we love you so very much.

Now, again how special it is that her name and signature is part of our dossier, must have been written in the stars and part of God’s great plan. 

Adoption Classes

One of the many requirements for adoptive parents is parenting classes.  And since Scott and I are first timers, we were required to take a LOT of parenting classes.  China requires 12 hours of classes ( we completed 23.5hrs), and at least half must be face to face.  Our adoption agency Children's Hope International connected us with Adoption Learning Partners, and we took some of the required classes online.  Although at first we felt confident, we learned a ton from these classes.  Even though Winn has a lot of education about child development we were lacking information on development in orphanages and the best way to nurture and built attachment with Lottie Lee once we bring her home.  We highly recommend The Hague course package, which includes the following classes: Adopting the older Child, Becoming your Child's best Advocate, China her land her people, China: Language, Festivals and Traditions, Conspicitious Families, Finding the missing pieces, Helping adoptive children cope with grief and loss, Medical issues in international adoption, Journey of attachment, and We're home now what: for parents of newly adoptive toddlers/preschoolers.  All of these classes are online and available to retake them at any time--what a wonderful resource for adopting families.

In addition to the Adoption Learning Partners, we attended some face to face instruction and met a bunch of other adoptive families and discussed how to address adoption with your children, strangers and family members.  This class titled How to talk about adoption with young children, Talking about adoption issues with kids 7-17, and Helping kids move from their orphanage to your family.  Although the class was only 3 hours long, it was one of the best we had attended and we really enjoyed everything we gained from the class. The discussions were honest and heartfelt, and there was the support from other adopting parents to discuss concerns and personal struggles.

We also took infant CPR and SIDS classes, where we introduced ourselves as Scott and Winn waiting to bring our sweet Lottie Lee home from China--we learned so many others were touched by adoption including the instructor.  Our very last class was required by our agency, Children’s Hope International, for first time parents to take an infant care class.  We were the only non pregnant parents attending, and thought it was kind of  funny to announce we have been expecting for 12 months, most of the soon to be Mom’s didn’t take humor in the situation, but everyone was really intrigued about our adoption and of course wished the very best. We completed our last class on February 25, 2012.

Austin Kite Day

Today we celebrated 1 year waiting for Lottie Lee, and although our wait time has been longer due to the fact that China requires both parents to be 30 years old before submitting Dossier, this year has flown by and we are estatic that we are getting closer and closer to April 23rd, when we can finally submit our dossier to China.

We spent the special day in Zilker Park, watching Austinites fly their kites.  It was amazing and such a beautiful day!  Hard to believe next year we will have Lottie Lee with us and be pushing a stroller through the crowds.  We just cannot wait.

Coupaide Campaign

Celebrating Chinese New Year with Team Coupaide

What an amazing journey thus far, as each day passes we are one step closer and feeling overjoyed, anxious, and so in love with our baby! We have grown as a couple and feel so ready. As far as time-lines we have let them go, it is out of our hands and we will sit back and enjoy every step of this journey.  When we began, we were so naive and clueless and of course we do have so much to learn, I guess that is the journey of parenthood!

We met with the founders of Coupaide over 6 months ago and our journey in fund raising could not have been better if we planned it. We successfully raised the funds needed for Phase I, this included paperwork fees, home study, social worker and the cost of our parenting courses. We will begin Phase II of our fund raising campaign, which will help raise the funds for our hefty dossier payments, and we hope to file by the end of April. We will be asking the help of friends and family to help spread the word about our campaign and how they can help by becoming a part of Lottie Lee's Red Thread - this is done by helping invite others to participate in the Lottie Lee fund by purchasing a restaurant.com gift card.

We are celebrating tonight and thinking of the 300 plus people who joined Lottie Lee's Red Thread, this is simply amazing! But tonight we have even more to celebrate. We are so happy to share that Coupaide has designed an entire portion of their company towards adopting families and currently are helping 6 other families. Just seeing all the families who are gaining from Coupaide makes us realize sometimes life's path takes you in a direction you never expected! This alone is just so amazing! And if our fund raising was to end here we feel pretty happy where it has gone in these short months. Coupaide is making it easier for us and other families who choose adoption to afford the costs.

Thank you to all who has joined this cause, we feel proud that this can be a very successful way to fund raise, and are eagerly awaiting the next step.

Smile Pinki

With the Academy Awards on tonight we wanted to share the documentary, Smile Pinki, that won the Oscar for best documentary short back in 2008.  This film can be ordered free at smiletrain.org.  We laughed and cried, and the true story warmed our hearts.  Here is a description of the film.

When she was born with a severe cleft, everyone in her village thought it was a curse from God.  With no education and unable to read  or write, Pinki's parents had no idea that her cleft could be fixed.  Even if they did, with a household income of less than a dollar a day, they could never afford the surgery their daughter so desperately needed.

Not allowed to attend school, tormented by other children who threw rocks at her and called her Cut Lip, Pinki faced a long and difficult life filled with pain and heartache.  There were times her father thought she would be better off dead.

But one day, a social workers told them about the free cleft surgery program for the poor.  Pinki and her father set off on foot, to find the Smile Train partner hospital in Benares, India, that would give Pinki not just a new smile, but a second chance at life.

http://smilepinki.com/

http://smiletrain.org/

Lottie Lee's Tree

Several months ago while researching books about Chinese adoption, I stumbled across this children's book, called Motherbridge of Love and immediately feel in love with the poem and drawings.  The story talks about the  bond between a parent and a child. The tree in the story symbolizes the two different lives that helped create one. I found a wonderful Austin artist Paula Torres who came to make my vision a reality.  Amazingly enough she grew up and attended high school with my cousin Janine.  This huge world can be so small at times!  We absolutely LOVE the mural, and it adds such beauty to Lottie's nursery.

Motherbridge of Love

Once there were to women who never knew each other

One you do not know. The other you call Mother.

Two different lives shaped to make you one.

Once became your guiding star; the other became your sun.

The first one gave you life; the second taught you to live it.

The first gave you a need for love; the second was there to give it.

One gave you a body, the other taught you games.

One gave you talent. The other taught you aims.

One gave you emotions; the other calmed your fears.

One saw your first sweet smile; the other dried your tears.

One found a home for you that she could not provide.

The other prayed for a child, her hope was not denied.

And now you ask, of course you do, The question others ask me too.

This place or your birthplace-which are you a daughter of?

Both of them, my darling- and two different kinds of love.



If you are in Austin and looking for a talented artist Contact Paula Torres
paulaliztorres@gmail.com

Be Mine

This year we spent Valentine's Day different than our usual, we cooked a nice meal at home, nothing too extravagant, just enjoying some much needed time together.  The process of adoption can be so crazy and stressful at times it seems like you can't afford to take a break and when the to-do list seems to get shorter, another long list of to-do's is added.

So we enjoyed the break and a quiet night at home was wonderful, but it didn't take long for us to start talking about Lottie Lee and how next year our Valentine's celebration will be different, but so much better. After the dinner and some champaign, we settled on the couch and watched YouTube videos of other families Gotcha days.  For those who are not familiar the term "Gotcha day" is when adoptive parents meet their child for the first time.  This is our birth and what we daydream about.  Most of the time the child is terrified and it can be a bit hectic and trying few moments as the new parents are just as scared, but honestly the sweetest moment.  I just would love to personally thank all those who posted their intimate first moments meeting their child and sharing it with families like us.  We live through these short clips, and it makes this experience so much more real for us.

We are getting closer to these moments each day,