JJJ Radloff, first grader

here she is...first day of 1st grade!

This is horrific

below is the story of a mother who was arrested for the death of her daughter who was adopted from China. I remember this adoption b/c the mother was african american and the chinese government did not want to let her adopt. Her agency and many many people in the adoptive community rallied for her and she was able to take the child home. The sad thing is that she dropped off of the adoption community yahoo groups once she was home from China. These yahoo groups are a great resource and if the mother was having difficulties there could have been other families willing to help her. This story was the second time today my heart was heavy to hear the death of a child adopted from China. The 7 year old girl who was swept into the water iny heavy waves due to the huriccan off the coast of Maine last week was also adopted from China. Anytime a child dies it is horrific and sad but for those of us in the adoptive community when an adopted child dies it tugs at our hearts a bit more.

Police have arrested a former Elk Grove resident and charged her with murder in the death last year of her 3-year-old adoptive daughter.
Sabrina Banks, 42, called 911 on May 2, 2008, and reported that her daughter Lavender was "unresponsive," said Officer Christopher Trim of the Elk Grove Police Department.
Medical personnel were unable to revive the girl, and pronounced her dead at the scene. Lavender had visible injuries that "were not consistent with an accidental death," said Trim.
An autopsy report lists the probable cause of death as "asphyxiation by smothering" and "multiple blunt force injuries," according to the Sacramento County Coroner's Office.
Trim said it took detectives more than a year to gather the evidence necessary to charge Banks with murder, assault resulting in the death of a child under 8 years of age and endangering the life or health of a child.
"It was a very long process of interviewing the mother, her friends, checking her history, working with the coroner's office," he said.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office issued an arrest warrant for Banks, and she was located in Visalia on Wednesday and taken into custody, said Trim.
She will be transported to Sacramento County within the next few days, he said.
Banks had one other child in her Elk Grove home when Lavender died, and that youngster has been in protective custody since then, Trim said.
The family had previous involvement with Child Protective Services in Kern County, Sacramento County CPS Director Laura Coulthard previously told The Bee. She did not provide details.
Trim said he was unaware of any further CPS involvement with Banks

a great surprise

There are two Hand in Hand (our agency) families in China to get their children and they were able to visit the orphanage and see the children who have families waiting for them. They took many pictures and this is one of my favorites of S with one of her nannies.

This weekend was spent getting things ready. We finally ordered beds on Saturday and they will be delivered on Thursday. The garage is finally cleaned out and I can park a car in there once again. We still had left over garage sale items sitting in the from our sale over two months ago.

Justin turned 27 this past week, so hard to believe my baby boy is SO old! The house they are having built is moving along and hopefully will be finished in a few months and they can get the tax credit. He has been on his procrastinator mother for the past two months to get the wedding guest list to him. He is a much better planner/implementer than I am!

travel dates

leaving 9/4/09 and returning 9/17/09. hoping to possibly meet up with families in HK on their way home and Adam's way there-might be there on his first night and their last night. found out friends of friends will be in China at the same time...we met the couple before and they have a 6 year old daughter who will be traveling with them to get their son.

received tons of new pics today but no time right now to upload. j had a great first day at school.

Last day at LaPetite

Tuesday is J's last day at LaPetite ...sha has been there for over 3.5 years...this is a picture that was taken on her first day at LPA, you can see she was NOT a happy camper-she had previously been with a babysitter for a year and a half and loved her Titi (and still does)...

We went to the open house at the elementary school tonight and met her teacher...she seems fantastic-J is thrilled that she knows a girl from her soccer team and they will share a locker. The school had a picnic along with the open house and when Adam and I were in the food line we could hear little bossy J on the playground. The school is old-very similar to what I went to eons ago-three floors-cafeteria and gym in the basement, shiny hardwood floors, very high ceilings in the classrooms.

Oh by the way...as a side note...we received TRAVEL APPROVAL today!!!! We received the email late in the afternoon and with having to rush home for the open house we haven't really had a chance to let it all digest. We should know in a couple of days what Adam's travel plans will be.

by the way

I hit the half-century mark last Saturday....I don't feel any older...it's that stigma of "50"...when my parents were 50 they were old!!! We went to dinner with Justin and Jill and saw their house -it is in the process of being built-and then all of us went to see "As you like it"....the one who liked it the most was our little theater buff little J....the rest of us were ready to leave at intermission but she wanted to stay and she loved it...performing and watching Shakespeare at age 6!!

another week gone by

and no travel approval...I'm about to have a hissy fit...as are many other families who have been waiting so long. We had been on the same time line as two other families who left for China today...they are on their way to get their children and we don't even have travel approval yet. I did talk with our agency earlier in the week and there is ONE PERSON at the CCAA who signs off on the travel approvals...this person has been on a business trip!! If we don't get travel approval soon Adam may have to wait until the end of October to travel!!!

Little J has 2 more days at the daycare where she has gone for the past 3.5 years. Next Wednesday she will begin 1st grade at a new school. School supplies are purchased along with a "beautiful dress" that twirls for the first day of school. We found out that one of the girls from her spring soccer team is in her class so at least she will know one person.We had hoped she would be in the same class as our neighbor but sadly they are not. I think she is excited to begin 1st grade.

I hope my next post is to announce travel approval. In the meantime we will follow the journeys of the Dini and Corkern families and hope that they have safe travels. We are hoping that they are allowed into the orphanage and will get a chance to see Yan Qi Xuan...we sent a package to the Corkern family to deliver to her.

Keep your fingers crossed that we hear something next week!

Still waiting

Well this is the week we should receive travel approval so keep your fingers crossed. At this point we still do not have the girls room ready but the bed selection should be finalized in the next week and I have an idea on the comforters I'd like to get for the girls room.

I have the clothes, books, backpack all ready for S for Adam to take to China. I'd still like to find a small stuffed animal that would scrunch up and travel well.

It's been wonderful not having anything planned the last few weekends. J had the neighbor girls over for a play date on Sunday afternoon. Adam took her for her chickenbox vaccination booster last Saturday and that is how the previous weekends have gone-nice and relaxing. First grade starts in two weeks and she will be riding on the school bus. I will miss having her in the car with me every day.

We have two families from our agency who are leaving for China on August 21st. I am going to send a disposable camera, photo book and hairclips for S. I look forward to following their journeys. Their children are also at the Nanjing SWI. Due to the restrictions from the H1N1 virus they will be unable to go to the orphanage and actually see S.

The next time I post it will be to announce we have travel approval!!

going to head outside now to watch the meteor shower!