New Year, New Business Model

Hey friends! I wanted to provide you all with what to expect from Mama Hess Painting in 2017 and a quick overview of 2016!

Looking back on 2016.... it was my best year yet! I sold a total of 376 signs (between Etsy, Facebook, and live sales)! Wow! You guys are amazing! Thank you for your support! There are still a few signs available at 50% off - those particular signs will be on sale until they either sell out or the end of January.

Stats through  Etsy

Looking ahead to 2017!!

Since we received the exciting news that we have been matched with our fifth daughter from China things are going to be a bit different for my sign painting business. (If you want to read more about our daughter you can read that blog post here!)

All orders in 2017 will be ready to ship or *almost* ready to ship (meaning a small personalization will be added before shipping or pick up). At this time I will be unable to take custom orders. If that changes I will be sure to make an announcement. If you have suggestions of what you'd like to see me paint feel free to comment on my Facebook and Instagram photos! I'm happy to take your suggestions though I can't make guarantees that I will paint everything suggested.

All signs will be available through my Etsy shop found here: Mama Hess Painting

I will likely add signs a certain day of the week to the shop. That day has yet to be determined but will be announced through my Facebook page and my Instagram.

We will likely be traveling to China to bring our daughter home in April or May. Based on that rough estimate I will probably stop painting in April. We will be in China for two weeks, then our daughter will need surgery soon after her arrival in the US. At this time I cannot say when I would reopen the shop.

Basically, if you want a sign from me in 2017 you will need to make your purchases between January and April. The profit I make is all going towards our adoption expenses so my family is continually grateful for your support.

Cheers to a delightful 2017!

xoxo,
Mama Hess

Caroline turns Three

It's so hard to believe that Caroline is now three years old. She arrived four weeks early, a scheduled C-Section, in all her tiny glory. Though we knew she would be small, we had hoped she would be healthy. She experienced significant fluid in her lungs at birth and was immediately taken to the NICU.

At two days old she developed a hole in her lung. I was immediately grateful that she WAS in the NICU. She was exactly where she needed to be so the nurses and doctors would be awake, monitoring her in the middle of the night, (2 am) when she would experience this distress. She was sedated, had surgery to insert a chest tube, and placed on a ventilator. It was so awful to see her in that condition.

Christmas day, three days after her lung collapsed, I was finally able to hold her.

12/25/13 : 5 days old

Every Christmas I put on that same flannel shirt and take another picture with Caroline, holding her to my chest. It serves as a visible reminder to me of how precious her life is, and how holding her in my arms that day was one of the greatest Christmas gifts I will ever receive.

12/25/14 : 1 year + 5 days old

12/25/15: 2 years + 5 days

12/25/16 : 3 years + 5 days

And now Carrie is three. She is so spunky and fun. She is such a chatterbox and says the most hilarious things. On her birthday we ate chili for dinner. She ate everything out of her bowl that she liked. Then she said, "I want some more cold." I had no idea what she was talking about. She repeatedly told us she wanted more cold and got angrier by the moment that we didn't know what she was referring to. It finally dawned on me that chili = cold. I was amazed that she was able to recognize chilly as a synonym for cold and replace the word was had been using to describe the meal with a word she was more familiar with. She was delighted when we finally understood what she meant and ate her "cold" with gusto.

birthday cookie

She is completely devoted to her sisters (usually it's a different sister each day), but most often it is Abbey. Caroline absolutely loves babies. Her current favorite little person is her cousin Matteo. She delights in him (it's hard not to, he is really sweet and cute!)

Her new baby "Olivia"

Caroline is so excited to be a big sister. Every time we get a new picture or video of her sister she loves to look at it and talk about her sister and be hopeful for when she will get to see her in real life.

Caroline is also excited to move into the same room with her older sisters. I feel very strongly about the bond created by sharing a bedroom. We (as in I) have decided that Caroline will move in with her big sisters sometime in the New Year. I hope to create a new post for that transition.

always drawing

Caroline still sucks her thumb when she sleeps. She will only suck her thumb when she has her special night time blanket. She never sucks her thumb during the day.

She is definitely, very much a three-year-old. She is starting to assert her own will more and more. She is very sensitive. Usually if I tell her "no" very sternly she will start crying.

She loves playing the game Sequence for kids, but only according to her own rules. She likes beans, and chips and salsa and sour cream. She loves coffee with cream. She hates to have her hair brushed and her teeth brushed, unless she is doing those things by herself. She likes to snuggle up to watch movies. She went to Sight and Sound Theater to see Samson and loved when he knocked all the walls down. She loves Sunday School and her teachers. She intentionally wriggles during church so she can go to nursery with her beloved cousin, Matteo. She likes painting her fingernails, and has unfortunately gone to great lengths to achieve this; going so far as to get a stool, put it in the closet to reach the nail polish , and paint her own nails while the rest of us were busy elsewhere in the house. When she was found out she immediately started crying and saying she was sorry. She loves sparkles and boots and sparkly boots from Mema. She loves her piggy bank and delights in demanding coins from her Grandpa every Wednesday night. She likes tea parties with Grandma and books in her bed.

All that to say, Caroline is a joy to our hearts. We are so glad she was born. While she still is just a peanut, she is quite healthy, with just a tiny white scar to show for her rough start. Happy third birthday little bird. We love you!

It's a Perfect Match!

If you haven't already heard and the title of this post hasn't given it away, we are so very pleased to announce that our family has been matched! For you non-adoption language people, this means our agency has identified OUR DAUGHTER. I know some of you will want bare bones information while others want the nitty gritty. So here goes:

Bare bones first: She is the most beautiful girl in all of China (duh). She is a year and 8 months old (she will turn 2 in April). She has cleft lip and palate and a blood condition called alpha-thalassemia or thalassemia minor. Her cleft lip was beautifully repaired two months ago (October, 2016). She just started walking well the beginning of December. She is a tiny poppet (just 14.5 pounds at 17 months) so fits right in with our tiny family of girls.

She will need her palate surgically repaired soon after arriving in the US. Her blood condition is very minor and should not cause her any issues. We do not have a travel date as of yet but Trent and I are hoping to travel to China sometime Spring 2017. Just Trent and I will be traveling, the four big sisters will be staying stateside.

As much as I would love to share her photograph and videos with you our agency understandably has a social media policy which restricts this practice. I'm happy to show you her picture whenever I see you in person!

Now, for those of you who like details, and just for my own record, here's how it all went down.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016, 4:55 pm. The day before Thanksgiving. Our agency called! Our matching coordinator said they received a file for a sweet little girl who fits the profile of what we were hoping for in a daughter. We were urged to check with a hematologist about her blood condition and a cleft doctor about her cleft lip and palate. Of course, doctors offices were closed Thanksgiving Day and the day after, not to reopen until Monday morning.

Irony number one. Thanksgiving 2015 Trent went hunting, spent time in the woods praying specifically about our family situation and whether adoption was the right thing at this time for our family. He felt that it was. Now the same weekend a year later Trent went hunting and prayed over this specific child.

 Irony number two. I imagine after a holiday weekend doctors offices are pretty busy places. However, I called a hematologist at Hershey Medical, left a message, and the doctor called back 15 minutes later. He spoke with me on the phone for at least 15 minutes, answered all my questions, and even sent a letter in the mail regarding our conversation. I also emailed our daughter's entire medical record and several photos of her lip before and after surgery to the Lancaster Cleft Clinic. The doctor got back to me in just a few hours with positive, helpful information.

Irony number three. I have been praying continually about what to do about my painting business. It felt like our referral at this exact time was such an answer to prayer. While I haven't made any official decision, I know I will be taking some time off in the New Year.

Irony number four. This sweet girl's file was supposed to have been completed over the summer. For some unknown reason the orphanage just completed it in November. But we know the reason her file wasn't ready just yet....

After much prayer and consideration we notified our agency on Friday, December 2, 2016 that YES, we agree, this is our daughter. On that date we are officially considered MATCHED. However, we now are entering the back and forth of paperwork between the US and China. We are waiting for her official release from the CCCWA (China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption) which we should get any day. Once we receive that our Letter of Intent (LOI) will be sent to China indicating that we want this little girl to be part of our family. Then we have to wait up to four weeks to have a Letter of Approval (LOA) sent back to us from China. Then we again go through more paperwork (immigration, visas, travel approval, etc). All of this back and forth from the time we receive our LOA can take up to 18 weeks until we actually travel to China. It is our hope that everything will come back sooner than expected and we will have smooth sailing through all the red tape so we can bring our daughter home as soon as possible.

We thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts. Don't stop praying for us and for our little girl. We know she is being well cared for and is in excellent hands. While our hearts are split between two continents we know that God's timing is perfect. We were not anticipating being matched until March so are humbled that God deemed it right for us to be matched sooner rather than later. And now we look forward eagerly to the day she will be in our arms. Forever ours.