• Hi There!

    Hi, my name is Jonni and I am Mommy to Sofia (5 years old) and Samantha (6 years old) and wife to John. We reside in upstate NY. Our daughters are 5 mos. apart in age and a whole lot of fun. Sofia is from Jinchang City, Gansu and she turned 11 mos. during our trip to bring her home from China in 2007. Samantha is 5 mos. older but was our 2nd adoption. She was 3 years, 4 mos. when we brought her home from China in 2009. She is from Yangzhou City, Jiangsu.

    I love blogging about our girls, photography, fonts, printables & crafts and I also have a slightly obsessive John Mayer addiction. Thank you for stopping by. :)

Monthly Archives: April 2008

WONDERFUL Referral News!

My dear friend Carla received her referral for her gorgeous daughter Tiana Claire. Just look at that adorable face and those sweet cheeks. I am so happy for my dear friend. Carla was logged in on 5/30/06, one day before we were. She’s a special lady and I can’t wait to see her and her…

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bbmomof2boys - Jonni!! We got LOA today!!! OMG!!

Hugs,
Carla

bbmomof2boys - Awww Jonni!! How sweet are you??!! Thank you so much for helping me share our joy!! We are STILL on cloud nine!!

hugs,
Carla

Jonni, John & Sofia - This picture is of my friend’s little girl, but thank you for the comment. I will be sure to let her know. :)

Hugs,
Jonni

Bonnie'n'Clyde - Thanks for your sweet words. I love your referral announcement! So pretty! And your daughters are adorable! Congratulations!!!!

*Overflowing* - Oh my, she is such a beauty! Please send along our congratulations!!! ~stacy

kerri - Congrats to your friend and her family on the referral of their beautiful daughter. ;)

nikki - That is so fun!
I’m so happy for your friends…their daughter is gorgeous!!

A Whole Bunch of Miscellaneous Stuff

I know I have said this before, but there are just not enough hours in the day. I have so much that I want to do and so little time lately. I gave Sofia’s Nursery Blog an updated look today since it was looking pretty stale and I hope to update her OHGWQ blog soon…

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Lili - I like Mountatin Filter!~ Great pics.

Way to go for getting the ball rolling again with Sofia’s sister’s adoption! Wishing you the best with that!

redmaryjanes - You are doing a great job with your camera! I’m glad to hear that your agency has let you know that they will be able to help with little sister. I also like how they do things.

*Overflowing* - I love the new filters..I’m going to check those out. Sophia is such a sweetie-pie. She is getting so big!! I hope you hear good news about a list at the end of the month! Blessings, stacy

Michele - The pics are great. Glad to hear things are going well and I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers I hope you can get the agency stuff worked out and begin your journey to Samantha :)
Love,
Michele

Shannon & Dan - Hi Jonni,
Thanks for thinking about me when you saw the African kit. They are so hard to find and it is especially great when they are free. I haven’t had time to check out the filters but I will be getting some of them as well. I love the different effects that you can do with them.

Good luck with your agency. I hope that you can start your next adoption soon. Sofia would love a sibling.
Shannon

Cheri H - Hi Jonni! Sounds like you’ve been super busy! I’m glad to hear your getting back in line! I’ll be praying that your agancy does get a list and soon! :) We need a play date!!!!

Carol - love the b/w..gotta do some with Em’s

Snowflowers Mum - that picture in the parking lot is da bomb…frame it!

T & R McGrath - Hi Jonni, love the pictures!! Sophia is getting so big.

Our agency worked SN the same way as you described, it works so much better that way in my opinion!

Good luck with your paperwork!!!

bbmomof2boys - Hey Chick!

Love the pictures and the filters. When I get home I’ll download them.

Good luck with the agency stuff! You’ll know its right in your heart!!

Hugs,
Carla

kerri - Fist Jonni, I love the photo of you and Sofia, the sephia is so pretty.
Thanks for the free link to the filters, how great is that, free!!!
I stopped by your other site, the new look is stunning, your such a talented lady. ;)

HuluMama - Great pictures Miss Jonni! So glad to see you in one!

Yes, Minister... - Wow – you have been busy! Thanks for the e-mail about the filters! I love camera fun!

You and in my thoughts and prayers about taking the next step – I felt a sense of dejevu reading this because sounds so similar – yet different – that made us not use our last agency again. I need you to send me your address, I am going to send you a copy of our thesis. For now – I can’t send electronic copies. Talk soon :D

ladybug hugs,
;D

Time to Regroup and Start Over on Our Adoption

I am hoping that one of you fellow blogging mommies might be able to refer us to a good adoption agency. We hope to start over on Samantha’s adoption process again since we had almost completed our dossier in January and then our small agency told us that they no longer had access to the…

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Carol - Jonni, great to hear you are looking into adoption again.

We have finished I believe…..hubby’s job is again talking layoffs…I’ll take that as a sign that our family is complete….sigh……….

bbmomof2boys - JONNI!!!! EMAIL ME!!!!

hehe

~Carla

kris - CCAI is THE BOMB. This is my second time with them, I was NSN and am now doing SN- they are China only, which works in your advantage if you want to go China. They do tons of out reach in China and are a not-for-profit agency, and their fees are much better than Great Wall (the other China only agency). I had a bad experience with GW when they offered my singles slot, by the way.

CCAI was AMAZING when I had to cancel the first adoption. SO supportive. They’re big but they operate like a smaller agency and you feel like the attention you get is very personalized.

Best of luck!

Sophie's Mom - We used Harrah’s in Texas, and they have a waiting child program. They were small, personal, and wonderful. We will certainly use them again!

http://www.hfsadopt.org

Snowflowers Mum - Jonni…I suggest you follow Yes, Ministers advice….research research research. While I like certain things about our very large agency, I was not as keen on how the wc program was handled.

contact Stef at NiHao Y’all, she has a very comprehensive list of agencies and has adopted FOUR sn children from China.

This new list situation is a bit freaky, but I suggest going with an agency that you dont have to be through review, just LID to be matched…and ASK ASK ASK what the current timelines are for matches…our agency is looking at 12 months + due to the amount of families in line. Our match was made at 10 months after our submission to enter the WC program.

things have changed but researching is the best!

H

redmaryjanes - I am with Bethany who does receive the SN lists, but you have to be through the review room to be able to see them, so you would be waiting quite a while.
We have been waiting almost 15 months and are just about to go through.

Marjorie - Jonni, I’m glad to see that all is well with Sofia. I just wanted to let you know that even though an agency isn’t part of the “30″, that they can still receive SN lists. My agency isn’t part of the “magical 30″, but received a list this week. It was wonderful to see as we really thought this was no longer an option for us.
Take care, Marjorie (mom3boys)

bbmomof2boys - Hi Jonni! We use CCAI and have nothing but praise for them. In fact…email me at wickscster@gmail.com!!! I’m no longer at ECU and I can’t get to your email addy on this computer ’cause it crashes – stupid thing. EMAIL ME!! SOON!!

hugs,
Carla

Yes, Minister... - Hey Jonni,
This is something that I happen to know first hand – my Master’s Degree Thesis is being published on Nonprofit Adoption Agency Choice by Prospective Parents after we conducted a national survey last February and March. I worked through the Joint Council in DC and with 32 US Agencies – and our case study was China (Wonder why :D ) We we began our research there were 154 agencies that facilitate Chinese adoption, and because of the accreditation process, the number has decreased, but there is still well over 100 agencies. I would suggest looking beyond the “we love our agency” and research, research, research. For every person who loves there agency there is someone who didn’t. We too are on adoption #2 and my research really changed who I would use and why.

If you want to e-mail me – I would love to talk with you as the US ratification of the Hague Convention on Inter-Country Adoption may play into which agency you decide to use too.

Good Luck with who ever you decided and Congratulations to Pick up where you left off :D My daughter is a SN child and when ever I see someone wanting a SN child my heart just swells – they are such a blessing!

Ladybug hugs,
;D

Anonymous - You guys are too funny!

Luv ya!!

~Ann~ :)

Mark, Rebecca and Sophia - We LOVE CCAI!

T & R McGrath - Hi Jonni, it is so funny that you posted this, last week we were at our agency and spoke with the coordinator for China. I asked her if our agency was one of the approved agencies for SN and she said yes. I told BOb that i was going to email you and give you there info.

I LOVE our agency!!! I have nothing but great things to say about our social worker and our coordinator for China. They do a great job with both NSN and SN.

When we were getting ready to pick an agency Bob had a patient that worked for the UN in the City and she told him that she works in China for the consultant processign adoptions. When BOb told her that we were planning on adopting from China and told her what agency we picked she had great things to say about them!

If you want there info please email me, the email is phooket@aol.com

Talk to you soon!
Tracy

The Do’s & Dont’s of Child Care

This one is an FYI for you future mommies out there (lol). I am still cracking up. Just a cute little funny from Amy Sumrall Designs blog. I have sworn Sofia to secrecy about the ones Mommy has done …

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redmaryjanes - My favorite is the one where the Mom is sitting and sharing a cup of coffee with her baby.
Those are cute!

Lisa - It looks like you are getting the hang of it! ROFL!

nikki - Yeah, you have to wait till they are at least 3 before you can start chatting over coffee…
don’t worry, I give Lily decaf!hehe

Look What the Stork Brought!

My dear friend Beth and her family received their TA on Thursday to go to China to get their beautiful daughter Chloe. I met Beth through our May Magpie group that is for families whose dossiers went to China in May 2006. I am thrilled that they finally received their referral and TA for their…

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Leslie - Aww she is adorable. I have to say her mommy’s blog is as well. I wonder who did it????? It looks like it has Jonni’s name all over it!!!!

kerri - Oh what a doll, I just love to hear of another little princess coming home to her forever family. Congrats to your friends!!

Michele - She is adorable :) Congrats to your friends!

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