Adoption Journey to our Daughter

Jaylynn's Birthday

2010-07-10T08:00:00.001-06:00

Celebrating Jaylynn's 1st Birthday! How big she's already gotten!

2010-07-10T07:56:00.001-06:00

Baptism Day! Jaylynn did great, though lots of water was poured on her head! :)

The FOUR kids together at home!

2010-04-11T10:28:00.002-06:00

We're doing well here. Catching up on sleep...getting used to the time here in the U.S.... Jaylynn is getting on a schedule and bonding to us little bit each day. Her smiles, talk and giggles always bring us joy! The three older kids are incredible with her...playing with her, helping me out, changing diapers, such good older siblings.

2010-03-27T18:16:00.001-06:00

2010-03-27T18:11:00.001-06:00

Our Arrival into Denver Airport

2010-03-27T18:07:00.002-06:00

We arrived into DIA at 12:30 p.m. on March 25th. We had quite the welcoming committee--my parents, our niece Carmen, my Aunt Vine, cousin Sara, Sara's two girls, John, Jared and Jillian and my faithful friend Jonette. Oh, how good it was to see everyone and have them meet Jaylynn!

Sight Seeing with Jaylynn

2010-03-17T08:44:00.004-06:00

Update From Jason:

Today was a sight seeing day. We first went to a temple (that we are standing in front of in the picture). It is the You Min Temple, it was built in the 7th century (amazing). They had some huge Buddhas in the temple, like three stories tall.

We also went to a park that was very large, like a zoo without animals. Jaylynn slept through the whole park as I (Jason) held her. We ate at another local restaurant after the park. One of the new babies in our group had her first birthday today so we had cake at the restaurant. Jaylynn took a nap again back at the hotel and we relaxed. We are going to another local restaurant tonight. Gina and I like trying the local food as long as it isn't too crazy and spicy. I hit a spicy pepper yesterday, WOW! That is all or now.

Jason, Gina, & Jaylynn

Jaylynn Mae Lian Smits

2010-03-16T09:56:00.003-06:00

Niece Carmen posting another update from the Smits:

Tuesday Morning: Today we left the hotel an walked to the adoption affairs office. We had our picture taken as a family and they did a short interview asking us some basic questions. What are our jobs? When were we married? Why we wanted to adopt? How many children we already have? We are the only ones in our group who have other children. After that visit we went right over to the notary office where we answered very similar questions and signed some papers. Our translator and facilitator, Echo is her name, has done an outstanding job making plans and taking us to the different offices. We are finished with paperwork in this city. The next two days we are able to sight see. Friday we travel to GuangZhou to do paperwork there before going home. In 20 minutes Echo is taking us to a local restaurant. Hope all is well with everyone in America. Love you,

Jason, Gina and Jaylynn

Gotcha Day

2010-03-16T09:35:00.004-06:00

Hello-Jason & Gina's niece, Carmen, here...posting for them (they are unable to access Facebook or the blog in China).

An Update:

Here are some pictures of the big day! We went to a conference room on the third floor of the hotel and the foster moms and the orphanage director brought the babies to us. Our translator sat with us and the foster mom to answer any questions we may have. We have pictures the foster mom brought us, one of the pictures is of when Jaylynn was dropped off in a box! It took about two hours. Jaylynn drank two small bottles and took a small nap. When they came she had 4 layers of clothes on. So far she has been a great baby. I know it has only been a short time. She is a little congested. She has two teeth that are coming through so she is drooling everywhere. We have some paperwork to do at 2 pm in the conference room and then we are off to Wal-Mart to get some supplies. I know, I would rather go to Target but Wal-Mart will have to do.

Jason

We have a date!

2010-03-01T14:52:00.001-07:00

We just got the email that we are leaving for China on Friday, March 12th! We don't have a set date yet as to when we are coming back but it will be the 24th, 25th or 26th. We're that much closer to getting Jaylynn. We'll be getting to China on Sunday and we get Jaylynn on Monday. We'll be in Nanchang for the first week and Guangzho for the second week.

We have our referral!

2010-02-01T11:33:00.004-07:00

You Lian (first name) Jin (last name)
May 27, 2009
Jiang Xi provence

Matching Has Begun

2010-01-28T10:43:00.003-07:00

A few rumors out there that Matching has begun (matching the child with the family)! I can't believe that in China right now in the next few days there are people looking at our family pictures and looking at pictures of little girls whom are waiting for a family, trying to figure out which little girl will be put into our family. I keep wondering what she will look like? I heard they try to have the father and the daughter have some resemblance to each other. Hmmm...a Chinese girl looking like Jason? Other questions going through my head...when is her birthday? What was I doing on that day? Where was she left? Who found her? What are the thoughts each day of her birth mom regarding her daughter?

Our journey...

2009-12-31T19:00:00.002-07:00

How did we begin this process of adopting? Well, I first felt the desire to add to our family and felt a call by God to adopt. Jason knew my heart, but didn't have the same desire, so we just started supporting the adoption funding ministry of Shaohannah's Hope. I prayed about it for months. Finally, Jason came to me and said he, also, now felt called by God to adopt a child. We, then, started the mass amount of paperwork, appointments, fingerprinting, phone calls, and home study in October of 2005.

China logged our paperwork in on April 4, 2006. This is our LID (Log In Date).

It has been an extremely long wait, a lot longer than we originally thought. There have been times of discouragement and wanting to give up, but we both just felt so called by God to do this. Plus, we felt like our daughter was in China and we couldn't give up on her. We had to bring her home and into our family!

Referalls usually come out once a month. This month referalls came out beginning of December and then, again, at the end of December. China has now gotten through LIDS April 3, 2006. When referalls come out next in January or February, WE WILL BE NEXT! We will, finally, get to see her precious face and know who she is! Once we get the referral we will leave for China 4-7 weeks later. We'll be in China for 16 days.