We are LOGGED-IN!

LID

In just 3 days we have been Logged-in with the CCCWA (China). Now the countdown really begins. We wait on China to invite us to come get our boy. What an exciting end of summer. Ty's 4th bday is three months from today!

The time line they give from here (could be sooner):

2-3 months for LOA (Letter of Acceptance)

9-12 weeks from then to TA (Travel Approval)

2-3 weeks from then before departure

CRAZY!

In other news we go back to Shriners this coming Wednesday to get our Lightning Baby a lower limb check up and hopefully molds taken for a new and larger set of "feet". She gained three inches and three pounds in the first 9 months with us. The ones she has, the first set, are already getting too small.

Baby girl became the long awaited "Dancing girl". She likes it...sometimes. So far for both classes she has fallen asleep on the way to class! Not great for a two year old to get a 20 minute nap. Anyhow looking to go with a different strategy this coming week. But she is DARLING!

C-dub hosted his baseball team for the end-of-the-year swim party. He had such a great year, with great kids, families and coaches!

Fashion-Faith (track) and C-dub (baseball) each enjoyed some camps so far this summer while Jumping Joy did some extra work in gymnastics.

Another package off to our boy! I feel like it is important this time around to send him packages more frequently because he is older. I really want him to know we are thinking about him, praying for him, anticipating him and COMING! I think we can still get in two more packages before we travel.

Happy summer y'all!

THANK YOU!!!

Thanks to all who shared, prayed and donated to our

$2 Tu's-Day fundraiser!

It was great success in that the word about orphan care was shared (over 1,000 visits to our blog in 10 days!) and we raised some money for Ty's orphanage.

Stay tuned. Our paperwork continues to be processed. We pray that it is off to China by the end of this week and that we are Logged-In (LID) in early July. That should put us 2-3 months until we travel.

blessings to you! erin and fam

In other news we have a busy summer with camps and visiting family for various celebrations.

$2 Tu's-day

We got an update a bit ago on our darling boy Tyler!

We were so excited to receive this update as we did not request it. What a fantastic surprise!

His orphanage seems very excited for his future with a forever family. Isn't he just sweet?!

We were so relieved to see these update pictures. He looks SO good...and he's even wearing blue. (Many times they put the kids, both boys and girls, in whatever they have and it's not uncommon that's it's pink.) He seems to really like the person behind or beside the camera. He looks relaxed and engaged. And look how clean he is and his surroundings. It's a funny thing getting attached to someone you've never met who is so far away.

As our adoption continues...and the paperwork continues...we find ourselves blessed by contributions from friends and family! THANK YOU!

A number of people have asked how they can join with us in bringing Tyler home. One of the last fees is the Orphanage Fee. This fee is $5,700-$5,900. Our hope is to raise enough money with this last fundraiser to pay the Orphanage Fee and bring extra supplies to Ty's orphanage. They have cared for him for almost 4 years. We are so thankful for the time they have spent with him and the care they have given him! Our prayer is that this money (and supplies) would care for children in his orphanage and that it would be a tangible expression of God's giving heart.

The reason we are naming this fundraiser $2 Tu's-day is that our boy's Chinese name is Tu Yan. I (Erin) came across his picture on a Tuesday (Dec. 2nd to be exact) and we said YES to our agency on a Tuesday the following week. Tu is also our 2nd adoption. Tuesday and the number 2 seem to be all over this process.

This is how it works:

1. Donate $2 or $22 and so on...Tuesday, June 2nd through Friday, June 12th! Click the red DONATE button on the top right corner of our blog page.

2. Snap a pic and spread the word. One of our hopes is to the spread the word about orphan care to as many people as will listen. Please snap a pic holding up two fingers (or a creative way of showing the number 2).

3. Share! Take your picture and send it to {us and} as many people as you can think of... We hope to make a book for Ty with all of your pictures. We can't wait to share our journey with him of how God placed him in our family.

{you can add this blurb to what you share}

The Obwald family is adopting for the 2nd time. Tyler (Tu Yan) is 3 years old and has lived in an orphanage in China his whole life. They are so excited to bring him home and make a donation to his orphanage. Read their story and help them reach their goal by donating here www.itsanobwaldlife.blogspot.com

4. Prayer. Please join us in prayer! So many children sit in orphanages and foster care around the world. They are vulnerable in that situation to all sorts of horrible. Please join us in praying for their safety, adoption into loving families and their adjustment into a family setting. They are just as precious as any other child!


We are so thankful for each and every one of you! We can already tell that he is a special boy with a life ahead of him full of joy, hope, overcoming obstacles, sorrows, difficulties and LOVE!

Video post...

I wanted to share these fun videos of our Lightening Baby getting her new feet!
How fun! We were a little nervous as to how it would go.

Would she like them?

Would she refuse them?

Would they rub?

How long would it take her to adjust to having a longer foot?

Here goes...

Here we are with the Orthotist. He is measuring them with her shoes. She's nervous but trying to be her helpful-self. Funny girl.

Baby girl's first moments trying out her "new feet" in the small room. She seems pretty excited. We all are!

The Orthotist asks us if we'd like to go into the hallway. He says that in the next day or two, at home in her comfortable environment, she will probably start to run...or now!

She's such a go-getter! #aintnothinstoppinthisgirl

Shriners: Getting her new FEET!

THIS HAS TAKEN FOREVER to post (sorry...life)

We set off for our third trip to Shriner's Hospital in northern California. This has been the most exciting trip thus far. (And I hope that with each trip our girl will get more comfortable with medical professionals)

It was Jumping Joy's turn to accompany her little sis. The hubs stayed home to work hard on finishing our back deck. Nonna also joined us to have some good conversations to keep me awake on the one day trip.

Here is the Orthotist with the special made little shoe-fillers for our girl. She has done much more than we ever thought or imagined already but with these she should be on her way!

The outer white is a very thin leather material to cover the firm foam. He measures the fit and LOVES it. What a relief. We were worried about her little curvy toes that they might rub causing lot of problems. Nope, we're good. Now he says to come back in about an hour and a half while he shaves the toe area to fit in her shoe.

We try to get a quick bite and head to IKEA. This is a new store experience for both of these two. Baby girl went last time, of course and enjoyed her first soft serve cone bites.

We were called back right after that picture so in the car we went. The "feet" were ready!

While we waited we ran into these friends from Fresno, again! Crazy!

Back to IKEA for our, now it's a tradition" soft serve cone. What a great day!

The Orthotist wanted her to wear them just one hour the first day or so then work up to regular wear to make sure they don't rub.

After just one week we could tell such a difference. She loved them right away but it took some practice to get smooth.

She loves her "new feet" and brings them to me. She also definitely has shoe preference. She loves her Easter shoes. They are a light silver with rhinestones on the toes. Girls ;)

IG Auction for Ty

We are so excited to get our first fundraiser underway to bring our boy home.

It's a funny thing...adoption.

Whenever I look at his picture I smile and feel like he's mine. I can't wait to hold him, cuddle him, tickle him, dress him, stroke his hair, hear his voice & laugh...and so many more things.

He's our boy that's for sure!

please go to your Instagram {or get the app here} and follow our auction.

The auction will be held on

Jan 24th from noon-9pm PST

@tyorphannomore

Shriners: trip 2 (upper eval)

Hi all! Wow, it's been a whirlwind since our second trip to Shriners. The trips are hard on our little Lightening girl which lead right into Christmas. 

Here is a synopsis of her upper evaluation:

This trip we took one of our older kids...Fashion Faith. She was so excited to tag along. She is so interested in all things related to adoptions, babies and of course her littlest sister. We left early in the morning and arrived just in the nick of time.

Here we go:

This day went much much smoother than the first...

This is the upper limb doctor we were assigned. She was very nice and came in (again after a Residency doc took some initial info and back story). Little girlie did great! Hardly a whimper. 

We asked to see her X-rays this time. SO COOL! Last year C-dub read about Marie Currie and learned all about the discovery of radium. Amazing to see it in action. Great news! Both of her lower arm bones are there and the correct length and such. Awesome! They explained how sometimes in kids this young they can't quite see all of the bones that are forming or have yet to form. There was a bit of fogginess on her left "hand" area, what we affectionately call her ANH (arm no hand) and where her missing radias' are (fingers). I feel like the tips of her missing fingers have grown some since we got her. We will see I guess :) At this point there is nothing they will do. She has such good use of her hand with fingers and uses her ANH as an assist when she needs it. Their plan for her upper is to continue to check in and see what she wants to do.

"If she wants to ride her bike or play violin we'll make her something so she can do that."

 Two sisters...love!

 waiting, waiting...

After her upper evaluation we had an appointment to get fitted for her "new feet". Total freak out and thinking they are going to stick her with something sharp, hence the tears! She did better than I thought. This is the Orthotist. He was very nice and also said it went better than he expiated. I thought she was going to kick him in the face.

Here he is just looking at her feet and legs. She's not a fan. Great action shots by Daddy-O.

 He looked at her little baby toes and wondered if the orthotic he was going to make her would rub. That would NOT be good! I don't even want to think about the possibility of surgery at this point. She uses those little toes for so much balance. And since it's the only ones she has it would be super sad to lose them. But we want what is best for her long term so we will wait and see.

Now on to casting her feet and lower legs to get a mold. Really neat process. He put a little sock on her foot/leg to keep the plaster of paris off her skin, then a strip of what a zipper is connected to (kind of thick nylon), then a cord, then a few layers of plaster that is quick drying.

He continues to press on it and mold it to her foot as it dries. He said that if he continues to rub it it dries faster and that is good in this situation. This particular Orthotist has worked at Shriners for about 16 years. He will retire this coming May.

Once that's done he proceeds to cut along the cord that goes down the front of her shin to her toe with an open blade.

And there you have it...little Lightening Baby boots.

...and the smiles have returned! Yay! We made it through another appointment and to the play area.

I am hoping that after enough appointments of her not being "hurt" our little one will come to enjoy the visits.

When we were with the Orthotist we talked about what size her "new feet" would be once he had finished. His response,"What size do you want her feet to be?" We brought shoes that were size 3, 4 and 5. We chose size 5 so she can grow into them. I don't imagine we will get another pair of these "new feet" within a year. 

 Her new size 5 kicks!

After our appointments and a few rounds in the play area we headed to lunch. We let our big girl pick from the choices around IKEA. She had never been to IKEA before, and being the design-always-on-her-mind that she is we thought it would be a treat for her. It's only about 10 minutes from Shriners. Little sis was out in the car on the way to lunch and slept through.

Big girl enjoyed a hamburger and fries and Five Guys.

So fun!

She named the rooms for the different people in our family. :)

Ended the day with soft-serve and it was time to head home.

First bites and it was "more, more more!"

With the precision it requires to make the special little booties for our girl they will not be ready until late February-early March. There are two kids ahead of her and very time-consuming to make...and she needs two.

Stay tuned.

We're glad to have some longer time between visits!