It's a Girl...Lottie will have a little sister

 

Last week we found out the exciting news that Lottie will have a little sister! We had a small reveal to find out the gender, our local photographer Sarah from Sincerely, Sarah captured some great photos of us cutting into our cake to see pink or blue.  We saw PINK! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sesame Street Birthday Bash

 

Month Six

Six months has flown by and we are loving life with Lottie Lee.  Its hard to watch her grow so fast but honestly we feel we are enjoying every single moment.  Lottie continues to grow and change right before our eyes.  She loves her school/daycare and we couldn't be more pleased with her teacher, friends and setting, what an amazing blessing.  Lottie is now self-feeding- which is a huge milestone and so thankful for her teacher Tianna who was patient and kind helping teaching her this important skill.  Lottie is socializing with friends and will wave hello and goodbye.  She is even starting to bond with some of the younger girls in her class.  She is also participating in finger plays and circle time- she loves twinkle twinkle and singing if your happy and you know it.  She is also sleeping on her own cot with all the other "big" kids!  We LOVE Tianna, and feel 100% confident with our decision, she truly loves Lottie and we never need to worry about Lottie during our work days.  It is the most comforting feeling and has made this transition so easy for our little family.  We feel so blessed to have all these pieces fall into place.

 

This month we celebrated so many wonderful occasions. Lottie celebrated her first birthday with her family. We also celebrated our Referral-versary on September 20th, hard to belive it has been one year since we laid eyes on our beautiful daughter.   Lottie was the flower girl in her Aunt Anne and Uncle Nate's wedding ( we will post pictures soon).  Lottie did an excellent job, she walked slowly down the aisle, smiling and stopping along the way.  She had so much fun and sat through the entire dinner, even eating half of mommy's dinner.  She was too excited to sleep and stayed up until midnight.  We also celebrated Lottie's first Moon Festival at home.  We bought homemade mooncakes from our local Chinese bakery.  Scott enjoyed talking with owner, sharing stories about our adventures in China and of course sharing photos of our sweet baby girl.  Lottie brought mooncakes to school and wore her pretty purple Chinese silks.  Her amazing teacher spent the day making moon crafts , she even found some Chinese coloring pages for all the children to learn about this special Chinese holiday.  We are so proud that Lottie is already teaching others about her heritage.

 

This has definitely been our busiest month home so far and it has been a joy to have Lottie experience all these firsts!  Now we will find our if Lottie is having a baby brother or sister in the next couple days and will be sure to share the news!

 

Secret is out....Lottie Lee the BIG sister

Well the news is out...we can no longer hide it, our family is growing!  On May 31, we learned that we were expecting a baby & due February 1, 2014.  Although we planned this pregnancy it did come as a bit of surprise how fast it happened.  We are so blessed to have our Lottie & excited to watch our family grow (very quickly), it was always part of our plan!  But don't worry, we will be adopting again! We hope to start a family blog in the upcoming months and will be posting more often to there.  But of course we will be giving monthly updates on Love, Laughter, Lottie Lee.

 

Happy Referral-versary Lottie Lee

One year ago today, we received the best news in regards to our adoption.  We were matched with a baby girl in Weinan, China.  Today we are in awe of our darling daughter and how far she has come these past few months since we were united in March 2013.  We are taking some special Referral-versary photos this weekend and will post more details soon!

Here are some links to learn more about that special day 1 year ago!

http://lovelaughterlottielee.blogspot.com/2012/11/referral-video.html

http://www.lovelaughterlottielee.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-glimpse-of-all-joy.html

http://www.lovelaughterlottielee.blogspot.com/2012/11/september-20-2012.html

Month Five

 

Here we are five months later and still all smiles!  Life is great and Lottie continues to grow and blossom each day.  She loves her new school and we are so happy we found such a loving, supportive place to help her learn and grow.  She is making new friends and learning all sorts of news things like sleeping on a cot with the other kids, feeding herself, and participating in finger plays and circle time!  We are so lucky to have found Karebear Childcare we feel so confident Lottie is in the best of hands and its pretty evident they love her so very much.  I mean what's not to love right?!

 

Lottie has recovered from her surgery with flying colors, she is simply amazing.  We are so pleased with her scar and the reconstructive work to her nose and lip.  We always thought she was breathtakingly beautiful but seeing her new smile she just glows.  She is one beautiful little girl!  The surgery has drastically helped with feeding and now Lottie loves to eat solids foods!  She is eating so much we can barely keep up with her!  A few weeks ago we tried some Penne alla Vodka- she LOVED it we knew she was a Castagno and there will be more Italian food in her future!  Its so fun to watch her learn about food and enjoy eating- for the first four months she was home she essentially survived by milk- 3-4 bottles a day.  Now she is an eating machine and we are already seeing drastic changes in her tiny frame.  Lottie is a petite little girl and most likely will be her entire life but it was one exciting moment to see the scale climb over the 20lb mark and watch some of her 9-12 month clothing look too short and tight!  

 

The next month we have some big plans!  Lottie will celebrate her 2nd birthday, our first Referral-Versary,  celebrating her first Chinese holiday Moon Festival, her first walk down the aisle as Anne & Nate's flower girl, hosting her first party and celebrating 6 months in our arms!  We will have tons of photos and stories to share!

 

 

Re-Adoption in the Lone-Star State

Today was the FINAL step of our adoption!  Whew, feels so good to say that, if you are in TX  at 10:00 am you might have  heard our joyous celebration!  "Texas Administrative Code allows for a Texas court to authenticate the adoption papers of a child adopted from abroad. The adoptive parents can then submit a court order for the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics to issue a “Certificate of Foreign Birth” for their child."  Although our international adoption was finalized back in March, we decided to adopt Lottie in the Lone-Star State in order to make her life a little easier when it comes to legal documents.  Now she has a Texas birth certificate in place of her Chinese birth certificate-no need for extra adoption paperwork, or lugging around the several documents and translations that prove her adoption. The resulting document looks similar to a Texas birth certificate but will not indicate Texas as the place of birth. Many families feel that obtaining a Texas certificate of foreign birth will be helpful for local purposes (school and sports enrollments, etc.)  With her TX birth certificate, there are no questions, requests for more information, or hassles.  "It appears that the key to this process is locating a judge who is willing to find “that all of the prerequisites of the law have been fully complied with by petitioners and that said order of adoption was and is legally valid and of full force and effect under the laws of the United States of America and of the State of Texas." Today we met with our lawyer & Judge Andrews at the Georgetown Municipal Court, and Lottie shining in her burnt orange and white we finalized this very last step!  Tonight we plan on celebrating with some ice cream!