Birthday Pics!

We received pictures of our sweet baby girl and her birthday cake! We sent her this cake through Ann at Red Thread and she was able to get pictures of her with her birthday candles all lit. (Ann is awesome for those of you adopting from China. We HIGHLY recommend her.) Even though we are so happy to see the pictures, our hearts are heavy when we see all the children gathered around. We hope and pray that all the children will be adopted by a loving family.

This is our favorite! It's almost like she is saying, "Give me my cake!"

New Pictures

I have been emailing with a group in Spain who sponsors Julianna's orphanage. They were able to provide us with 6 pictures of Julianna! We are thrilled to say the least and so thankful that this special adoptive group in Spain is making sure that the children in the orphanage are well cared for. (Thank you so much Elena & Mari!) These pictures are from September 2008 when she was only about 5 months old to March 2009 when she was about 11 months old. Here are the pictures of our sweet baby girl:


September 11, 2008

November 13, 2008

December 16, 2008 (Our 13th Wedding Anniversary!)

January 24, 2009

February 15, 2009

March 11, 2009

We also have BIRTHDAY PICTURES of our baby girl with her cake! I will be posting those later unless Ed beats me to it. :) God continues to amaze us with special blessings like all these pictures.

Happy 1st Birthday, Julianna

Julianna,

Happy 1st Birthday, Baby Girl! Your Daddy and I wish so much that we could be in China with you today on your special day. We hope you had a wonderful birthday full of love, hugs, and kisses. Our thoughts have been about you all day today. We hope that you enjoyed our care package we sent to you including your birthday cake. I can just imagine your little fingers covered in all that icing! Here is a picture of some of the things that we ordered for you through Ann's Red Thread:

We spent the day doing things that reminded us of you: buying gifts for you, eating Chinese food for dinner, and we even bought a cake to have here with "Happy Birthday, Julianna" on it. We can't wait to have a 1st birthday celebration with you when you get home! We also look forward to all the birthdays we will get to share with you in the future! The Lord has special plans for you that is for sure. We can't wait to see what He has in store for you!

We love you!

Mama & Daddy

More Info on Julianna!

First of all, thank you all for the sweet, encouraging comments that you have left for us. It means the world to us to know that so many of our family and friends love and care for us and our new baby. Also, thank you to our family and our friends who helped us celebrate the referral of Julianna last weekend and for your prayers and encouragement on this long road we have been on to get to our precious baby girl.

We officially decided on a middle name for our baby girl! Her name will be Julianna Marie Jernigan. (Ed actually got to pick out the middle name!) Of course, I had to ok it! :) Also, we received the translation of our referral and learned a lot more on our sweet baby:

-She is in foster care (This is a specific answer to prayer. We had been praying that she would be in a foster home in order to help with bonding and so she would get more one on one attention.)

-She gets up at 6:00 am, goes to bed at 8:00 pm, and takes a 2 hour nap (She should fit in just fine with us!)

-She eats 4-5 meals a day - she takes formula mixed with rice cereal, eats noodles, eggs, and congee.

-She has a ready smile and enjoys reading picture books.

-Her favorite activity is to play games and her favorite toy is a doll.

-At 5-6 months old, her facial expressions were like "colorful pictures".

-At 7-8 months old, she could sit alone freely, stand for a while with assistance, understand some simple words; can tell affirming or denying tones.

We also received a estimate of our travel dates - leaving June 11 and arrive back in the US on June 24. These dates are a very rough estimate, but it at least gives us some idea. We are praying that we get to go sooner though! We would go tomorrow if we could!

Referral!!!!!!

With thankfulness to our Heavenly Father, we announce the referral of our daughter - Ling Wan Zhan - soon to be Julianna Jernigan!!!! (We will probably use Wan-Zhan as her middle name, but still trying to decide.) We are overjoyed and still can't believe this is really happening!! We are thrilled and completely in love. Here is what we know so far:

Chinese Name: Ling Wan Zhan
Birth Date: April 17, 2008 (only 11 months old!)
Resides at: Shangrao Children's Welfare Center, Jiangxi Province
Weight: 14.9 lbs
Height: 26.3 inches

She is active and restless and is a deep sleeper (Sounds just like her Mama!). She can sit up and crawl. She is quick in reaction and is fond of playing with toys and of playing games. She is closest to her caregiver.

Here are the pictures: (We know that is what you really want!) :)

We are expected to travel in 10 weeks.

Ed & LeeAnne
(Julianna's Daddy & Mama!)