Our Dossier is Finished!

After a 9 month long"paper pregnancy" I just FedExed our dossier documents to our courier in New York City, who will deliver them to the Chinese consulate tomorrow!

We hope to be DTC, or "Dossier to China" by the end of next week!

Hang on Bella. We will be there soon!

Having Fun in PT

Here is our strong girl having fun with her amazing physical therapist. Strengthening those stomach muscles in hopes of sitting independently someday!

That's her wheelchair in the background. So thankful she is still spending lots of time in it, sitting near the other children at her orphanage and being a part of the action!

Doesn't she just make you want to smile?

Moving Along!

I haven't updated recently because, well..... I have been shuffling mountains of paperwork, spring cleaning and organizing, and of course living life with our five kids!

We received an update on Bella a little over a month ago. She is healthy and happy and we hear she is getting some amazing physical therapy since her move back to the orphanage. While we certainly wish she never had to move, we will thank God for this blessing in the midst of her loss of all that was familiar to her.














Isn't she beautiful?

We are currently waiting for one last piece of our paperwork puzzle, and then we will hopefully be DTC in a few weeks. We are so excited to begin the official wait to bring Bella home!

T-Shirt Fundraiser!

We are teaming up with my friend Kelly and her company, Minus 1 Project, to sell these awesome t-shirts and help Bring Home Bella!

The shirts come in three colors, grey, orange and pink, as seen below. The available sizes are Youth XS-L, and Adult Small- 3X.

The cost is $20 per shirt, and $10 of the cost goes directly towards Bringing Bella Home!!!! If you need your shirt shipped, it will cost $2.50 extra for mailing costs.

You get an awesome shirt to wear, AND you help bring home our precious Starfish, Bella! It's a win-win situation!

We would like to have the orders in by January 15th. Please send me a Facebook message with your order, or you can email me at bellasmommy2013@gmail.com

Thank you for your continued support, and for helping us in this journey! God bless you all!

For as long as I can remember, I have had this dream to adopt a little girl from China. I married a wonderful man who shared my dream.

For the past five years, we have had it on our hearts to some day adopt a little one with lifelong special needs. We have prayed and waited and now, finally, this is the year! We could not be more excited to be looking forward to Bella's arrival this year.

We are not saints for "doing this." She is not "lucky" that we are adopting her. We don't "have" to adopt a child who is paralyzed from the waist down because we have "so many kids. " We CHOSE her!!!!!!!! Exactly as she is! Perfectly and wonderfully and beautifully made by God himself!

She is our long awaited answer to prayer; she is a dream come true. In her daddy's words, "I feel like I won the lottery, I am so lucky to get to be her dad."

Little girl, you are so very LOVED!!!!! I just wanted to shout that from the rooftops today!

Kindle Fire Drawing!!!!!!!

First of all, how can we ever thank you all for your amazing support? You donated, you shared our story with your friends, you cheered us on and you prayed for us. You love Bella and you did whatever you could to help bring her home to us. We can not possibly put our gratitude into words. We love you all.

Old friends, new friends, and even complete strangers came together and we raised over $1,400 to help bring our beautiful daughter, Bella Elise, home from China!

And now, without further ado, what you all really want to know.....

Who won?!?!?!?!?!?

Well, to keep things fair, I had a non-reading, fairy tale princess draw the winning name from the basket.

Please excuse her morning hairdo.





After a good mixing and shaking, we were ready to draw.





Hmmmm..... Whoever will it be?

Drumroll, please......






And.... Here is the winner..... It is.........




Upside down!!!!!! Oopsies!!!!!!!






There, that's better!

CONGRATULATIONS, LORI INGBER!!!!!!!!!!!




Hooray!!!!!

Congratulations Lori, and many thanks to you and everyone else who entered this drawing!

Watch for more fun ways to help Bring Home Bella in early 2013. And don't forget our Origami Owl Fundraiser, happening right now!

Origami Owl Fundraiser!

Now through December 31, shop for beautiful lockets, charms and other jewelry at http://shannonschoon.origamiowl.com/index.cfm and then forward your completed order, AND MENTION IT IS FOR "REIMER ADOPTION", otherwise we will not get credit for it, to owl@peaceofmindjewelry.com

Thank you for your help in bringing Bella home! ♥

****Please order by December 10th for Christmas delivery!****