Happy Birthday Hope!

Guess who has the same birthday as Martin Luther King Jr.??
Yours truly, Hope Lee!

Hope turned 4 and the theme was "Princess" for her special day. There's not one day that's gone by that she has not put on a princess dress. She wore the dresses so many times, the laces were coming off and the little fake pearls were tangling off the edge. Thank goodness for the glue gun and Mommy knowing how to sew.


Now, where do you go to celebrate a 4 year old's birthday in the middle of Winter? You take her to Fairytale Town in Sacramento. Her two cousins joined us. She loved it.

After that, we had pizza and cake at her Uncle Marvin and Aunt Avelin's house.




Faith & Hope love having their face painted.




Owen's immediate family (Diana not pictured).

National Adoption Day

Funny, I don't post for 3 years and now I'm hyper-posting.

Back in April 2009, the minute Hope entered in the United States, she became an American citizen. We handed the documents to a customs agent and her visa was placed into affect.

But wait, there's more! In order for the State of California to recognize that Hope is ours, we have to go through a re-adoption process. Yes, as if the 4 years of adopting Hope wasn't enough. We PAY an additional fee and submit more papers and go through a hearing with a judge.

On November 18, 2011, which happened to be National Adoption Day, we had an hearing with the Honorable Mark H. Pierce, judge of the Superior Court of Calif., County of Santa Clara. The courthouse was full of adoption advocates and media. In one of the assembly rooms, they had refreshments, blankets for the adoptive child. A photographer for adoptive families and a picture framed craft for the kids.

Thank goodness we had a good friend whom we affectionately call "Aunt Joanne" help us take pictures and be there for moral support. We signed papers, we swore an oath and teared up (well, I teared up, Owen never does). Faith even missed school, so she can support her little sister in this "official" day.

Besides the fact that Hope had a little "pee" accident, everything went well. The security line was so long, poor Hope just couldn't hold it. Poor Owen too, she sat on his lap most of the time because the extra change of clothing was IN the car.

Happiest Place On Earth

In August, we were able to visit my mother and brother down in Southern California. We took the girls to Disneyland and it was Hope's very first time.

















Boy, talk about "delight" in her eyes. She never saw so many princesses and she LOVES princesses.




Hope is our "dress-up" girl and Faith is our "performance" girl.

Hope In Preschool

Happy 2012 New Years Everyone!

Wow, our last posting was in April of 2009. That would make it almost 3 years. Time sure flies.

When we brought Hope home, she was underweight, had nappy hair, barely spoke and smelled like a fish (Mentioned in"Rough Nights" Posting, 4/2/09)


We are proud to say, according to her last Kaiser check-up, she is just fine in her physical development (according to the Asian scale). Her hair is shiny. She's had 6 months of speech therapy and talks too much now. And she smells like whatever baby shampoo we use on her.

In Fall of 2011, she began preschool. We were a bit hesitant, because she just wasn't that confident with potty-training. When we brought her home from China, it seemed like they had tried to potty-train her. But, I think they made her sit in a potty for a very "extended" time. She would have lots of accidents and seemed traumatized when it came to sitting on the toilet. None of those "Have your kid trained in a day" books worked. We made "baby" steps each day. It was over a year of training.

Now, Hope loves preschool and is very sociable.



Hope's very 1st field trip.

Community Life

On behalf of our Lee family, we thank you all for being there for us. It was scary at times and really hard to sustain optimism throughout the years. Doubts of "can we really do this?" But what has stuck with us is your compassion for our family.


You know how they say it takes a "village." Well, in our case it takes a community. A community of family, friends, church members, neighbors and school folks.


Who are we? We're just a couple working for a church. We don't have a whole lot of money. But today, we sure feel like we won the lottery.

To those who have sacrificed financially to help us, we are indebted to you.












To everyone who have lent us baby stuff or got us clothes and gifts, we are very grateful.












And to all, thank you for cheering us on. Affirmation goes a long ways like in a race with spectators rooting you on.










As we try to get back to the routine of things, we look forward to having Hope meet you.











Besides, don't we all need a little grace, faith and hope in our lives?

Home Sweet Home

Can't believe that our last posting was about our "Hotel From Hell." Gotta give our readers a sense of redemption.
(I did add more pictures to some of the posts)

Hallelujah! WE ARE HOME!!!! Flew back right before tax day, we get a refund, yeah!!!Still trying to get our rhythm back and for me (Grace) trying to get well. I still have this nagging cough and my voice is raspy like Rod Stewart.

Top 10 Reasons-"Happy To Be Home"
10. Blue Skies as opposed to "pollution-gray" skies
9. Clean, safe drinking water from the tap (Thank you San Jose Water Co.)
8. Toilets with seats and TP, minus the stench
7. Sleeping in our own comfortable beds
6. Driving a car and not have to cram into subways with 100's of people.
5. Coming back to a 9.25% sales tax in Calif. NOT
4. Not have to wear a fanny pack (no offense to those who love them)
3. NO SMOKING areas REALLY mean no smoking
2. NO COCKROACHES looking at us and waiting to reincarnate to the next life
1. WE HAVE HOPE!!!!

Looking at the very first picture we received of Hope. She was an orphan girl in Jiangxi, China waiting for us to come get her.

Today, Hope Tirzah Jong-Ching Lee is our very own, deeply loved and fully accepted.







She loves to suck her toes.

Agonizing Last Leg of Our Trip

After a delicious and abundant buffet breakfast at the Novotel- Citygate Hotel, we were ready to see my relatives on the Hong Kong side. We managed to squeeze into one taxi, 3 adults, one child, one baby, a stroller and 6 pieces of luggage. And it wasn't a van taxi.
My cousin had called that morning and said that our accommodations had changed. Instead of staying at a place that my cousin owned, they had booked us "something else." So, we showed up at the King's Hotel in Wan Chai. When we arrived, we could bearly find the entrance. It was hidden in this back alley. Okay, this was the first sign of "BEWARE." The vestibule was black like you're entering into a lounge or night club. 2nd sign! The lobby was located on the 11th floor. When we asked for a baby bed, they had none. 3rd sign!! They had booked us, ONE room, with one queen and a twin. We have five people. You do the math. It was cramped, stuffy and overlooked a parking garage and businesses. When I say "overlooked", I mean they can totally "look over" into our room.
If Owen can see the two Lamborghini in the lot across from us, it's just too close to home. We could hardly fit all our luggage in.











The bathroom was the same size as an airplane's. And oops, forgot one major gigantic sign- COCKROACHES!Yes that is correct. These signs pretty much says, "Hotel from Hill." It's H-E- Double Hockey sticks! (Sorry photos unavailable, cockroaches move too fast)

We tried to opt out of these "accommodations." But my cousins via a friend, had paid in full. We tried to change our flight to leave early, it would cost us $350/person in US dollars to change our United Flights. Yes indeed, we are in "purgatory." If there were levels, this would be level 10.
My dear optimistic husband is trying to bring out the positive side in all this. I haven't been able to see it yet. He says, "at least we're still alive." Yes, but barely. I've been having coughing spasms. They're so bad that I haven't slept for 3 days now. The coughing is so bad that my back and chest muscles hurt or I have "kegel" problems.
That pretty much sums it up! You do not know how much I want to come home. Monday morning needs to come sooner. Please PRY 4 us!!!