Merry Christmas from the Beairds

Hope all our friends and family have a joyous Christmas season this year.

Please take a moment to watch this little video with photos from the last couple of years.

 

 

 

Paper Chase

We had a whole lot of fun trying to get a "Family Photo" for our adoption paperwork. It is so had getting kids to hold still and make a nice face. It is even harder with little kids like Lian.
So we are still deep in the paper chase trying to get all of our documents in order so we can be matched with another child from China. We are not going to specify sex (boy or girl), whatever the Lord provides. We are also going to look at the same list of special needs we looked at previously, so we really do not know what we will get yet. Just like having a birth child, only it takes a year, and the hospital is 14 hours away. Oh, yea, that's right, since we already have one special needs child, the waiting time for a second is relatively short. From start of paperwork to retuning home could be as little as a year.
If you would like to help us, please buy a T-shirt.  Later I will post a link to Lifesong for Orphans, where you can give a tax-deductable donation.

Yuntai Garden

The photo used as a background on our Blog is from the Yuntai Garden.  It lies at the north entry of Baiyun Mountain, with a total area of 120,000 sq. meters. Being the largest garden of its kind in China, Yuntai Garden is heralded as "the Pearl of the Flower City of Guangzhou". The structure and layout of the garden is unique and special, with the Colorful River, the Roman Column, and the Earth Stone Carving, as well as over 200 kinds of rare Chinese and foreign flowers there. Yuntai Garden is indeed a modern place of interest with beautiful scenery.

Dedication Photo

 Lian was dedicated at Olathe Bible Church on Feb 20, 2011.  We had planned several prior to that but the surgery schedule kept messing it up. We aer very lucky to have Lian in our lives, and look forward to brining him up with the help of our Lord and the church.
Photos taken by Joe Blincoe at Olathe Bible Church. He is a wonderful photographer and we really appreciate his work.
Thanks Joe

It has been an amazing journey thus far.

Here are some more photos from the dedication:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28844051@N05/sets/72157626336715381/

Lian

Wow, it has been a long time since we have posted to this blog. But thought I should give it a quick update. Not that most of you have not kept up on FaceBook but hey, some may not. We have been home with Lian 6 months this Sept 4th. Wow, only 6 months and my how he has changed. When we first met him in China, we were thinking some skills were 3months along and others 6 months. He could not walk, could not feed himself, had no fine motor skill to even pick up cheerios. Once he could pick them up, it took a couple of months for him to figure out how to get them in his mouth.

But now he is running, trying to jump, playing ball. He has one Thomas the Train ball that he loves. It is just the right size for him to pick up with one hand which he started doing this week.

We have two surgeries under our belts. Two should have been all he needed at this point but because his two front teeth stuck out so far the surgeon had to add a surgery just to correct that. But today he looks great. He is starting to explore his lips, and has been trying to blow, but not quite yet. By the way, our surgeon is fantastic. He cares so much about lian that he calls once in a while to check on him.

Next surgery is November 4 when he will repair the palate. Not too excited about that one but it has to be done. Some day, Lian will get to read al of this. Someday he will know just how much God loves him.
I will try to keep more regular updates on this but for now I will sign off.

You can see a ton of photos from China, home, and family stuff at our Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28844051@N05/sets/72157623350478471/

Jesse and Christina's Wedding

If you would like to see photos of the wedding, check them out here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28844051@N05/
The weather was great and we had a lot of family fun at a waterslide park and Boondocks. My favorite part was soaking Christina's parents in the powered intertubes with water squirting guns on them. There is just no way to better get to know the in-laws then when you are soaking them without mercy in a pool. Oh yea, it was a real nice wedding too. Martin had a lot of fun also, although his birthday (July 27th) was obscured by the rehearsal. But he got a cool gift, a radar gun for measuring the speed of a baseball. Interestingly, if you point it at cars with radar detectors they sure slow down a lot. So for fun we take it out at night and point it at cars we are following to see if they slow down.

Summer Vacation

This photo was the big secret from the vacation. We took it while in Keystone but wanted to save it for our Christmas cards. So here it is, in color. We had a lot of fun taking it. Funny, we ran into a lot of family while in Keystone, so it was a bit harder keeping it a secret. When we got back, someone said infront of my mom, "so how did the old time photos go?", and we had to quickly change the subject. If you click on the phtot you can see a larger photo. Then, notice the feet, since they don't have boots or shoes for everyone to wear, they just hide your feet with props. OOps, Jesse's foot is peeking out there, nice clean socks.

Thanksgiving in Rapid City

Thanksgiving was a great holiday this year. We went to RCSD and celebrated with the Seger clan. Quinlan and Marty got their first taste of Skiing at Dear Mountain, which is now called the Mystic Minor Ski Resort at Dear Mountain. It was a lot of fun, and we did not fall as much as we thought we would. Yes, I ski also, even though I have not done it in 20 years.
Mom and Alex spent some time building a Gingerbreat house (from a kit). Looks good enough to eat.

Beaird China Adoption Update

Decision to Adopt: December 2005

Started the Process: January 2006

Selecting Adoption Agency and Screening process: January – March 2006

Adoption Paper Chase: March 2006 – August 2006
There are many documents that you must collect, have notarized and then authenticated by their State of Origin and then again by either the Chinese Embassy or Chinese Consulate depending on their state of origin. This part takes the tenacity of a bull dog! Examples of the type of documents are our birth certificates, marriage license for South Dakota, our health records, criminal background checks, employee verifications, etc. We went ahead and got a FedEx account due to all the deliveries we had to make also this way we could track the packages. If we were to lose the originals of anything we would had to start over adding months to the process, luckily we have had very few issues.

Dossier or collections of authenticated documents sent to China: August 2006

Dossier logged into Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) called a LID or Log In Date: Sept. 19th, 2006

Motivation and why China: My interest in adoption began over seven or more years ago when I heard a radio program in which a Chinese lady spoke about her personal experience as an orphan living on the streets of China. This lady’s story made a lifelong impression on me and is the catalyst behind my interest in adoption, particularly China. I had mentioned my interest to Scot a few times in the past but never really did it seriously. Other things would happen that would remind me of that desire again, one reminder came as Alex nudged my ribs a few times during church as we watched a video on Chinese adoption; this was just another reminder that God was sending me – Alex at this time did not know that I had already considered adopting from China. In December I mentioned it to Scot again and he said “Let’s do it!” wow, now I was scared, because this could actually be a possibility for me. I had remembered that Scot had been interested in adopting but had always wanted to adopt domestically. I don’t know how to explain it but my heart is constantly being pulled toward China. Now as we continue to wait and it’s been almost two years since our Dossier has been logged into China I get a lot of comments about going somewhere else, I have to explain to them that at this point no other option feels right. I do have to check myself and make sure that I’m not so set on China that I’m not open to another avenue that God has opened up for us, please pray that in whatever happens that our utmost calling is to be obedient to whatever the Lord has for us to do.

Currently we are in the waiting process, the adoptions are first in first out and right now the parents with LID of January 25th, 2006 have just received their referrals. A referral is a picture of a child that you can accept or reject (everyone always accepts of course), once you accept your child it will take approximately 6-8 weeks before you can travel to pick up your child. During this time you are getting your Visa and preparing everything for travel, we will be in China for approximately 2 weeks. As of late China has been only processing approximately one week’s worth of Dossiers, when we started the process the CCAA would process one month’s Dossiers per month making it a 12 month wait. If the process stays as is we are looking at late 2009 or early 2010, because of this extended wait we have to continue to renew three different documents that are quite costly, we have renewed our home study performed by a social worker, which expires yearly twice already. The other two documents are renewed at the immigration office which we will have to renew again this fall and next spring for the second time. Needless to say this is costing us more then we originally thought. I plan to see this through even if I’m 50 years old by then! God give me the strength! Until next time….
Regards : )

2008 Seger Family Reunion

In July 2008 we got together in the Black Hills of South Dakota to hang out with the Seger clan.

It was primarily a celebration of my Grandmothers 80th birthday.

With over 60 people to connect with, it was difficult trying to talk with every one.

So everyone, please take some time here and let us know what you are up to.

We can have some fun with this. This is my first attempt at blogging, so I may be a little slow at it. If you have a blog, you can link to this one and you wont have to type it all over again.

Share you favorit stories of the reunion, ask all the questions that you did not get to ask. Chances are, if you want to know, so will everyone else.

Here are some of our photos on Flickr : http://flickr.com/photos/28844051@N05/

Getting to Know Us

It has been a long while since we have communicated with many of you. We will start posting photos and short videos of our family and our lives. Check back often and please post comments.