Chinese New Year!

Last night was my local FCC group's Chinese New Year celebration with almost 500 people - 150 of them kids! It was so much fun! Some of the highlights included JinMei signing a song to the whole group, ribbon dancers, fan dancers and the lion dance to finish the night. We had a silent auction, raffle prizes, kids crafts (which I was in charge of!), photographers and a sit down dinner.

I won a great raffle prize - the "waiting family" basket. It has a bunch of stuff for our travel to China including packing vacuum bags, diaper rash creme, bottle opener, a thermos, a flash light, a book light, a travel journal and it goes on and on.



I also got a beautiful gift from Matthew, the translator with JinMei. (The photo here is me, Matthew and JinMei). It's called a love ball and it's shown here. He says where he is from they do not do arranged marriages like most of China but allow the girl to choose a husband. At a certain festival at a certain time of the year everyone gets together and the girl throws the ball to the man she wants to marry. He can choose to catch it or not. It is so beautiful and a gift I will cherish forever!


I am so sad that JinMei, her mom and Matthew will be leaving on Tuesday but I know they are all ready to be home again. It has been an AMAZING experience. I am so blessed to have been a part of their trip here - I pray our paths will cross again! Have a good start! which is how Matthew says they say Happy New Year in China!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year and welcoming the Year of the Pig! If my calculations and expectations are right, Mia Jade should be born in the Year of the Pig and that's suppose to be very good luck! So here's to our pig baby! I hope this new year brings a turn around in referral times. I still think we will see an increase until they get through 2005 LID's which will probably be July but then I hope we will see a turn around at that point. I am very excited about our FCC group's celebration next Saturday where we have RSVP's for almost 500 people! I will be sure to post pictures of that! Until then, Happy New Year!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Mike and I both took the day off of work to spend Valentine's Day together. We went to the zoo and it was a beautiful day - sunny and in the 60's! A very nice way to spend the day with my husband. Hope everyone else had an equally nice day!

Isn't this a cool picture - this giraffe was right up at the observation deck!

5 months since LID - almost 1 year from start

Today marks 5 months from our LID - very exciting. If "the wait" can settle around 20 months, then we'd be 25% through. Pretty good. We are also approaching the 1 year mark from when we started this journey. We mailed our application on Feb. 20, 2006 and got our approval notice on Feb. 24th, 2006. What a year! I did think we would be much closer to our Mia Jade by now when we started but I have accepted reality and am okay with the longer wait. I think the main reason is because I still know we are on our path to our baby where as a year ago, before we agreed on the adoption, I was lost and sad. Everyday now I know Mia is in my heart and she grows everyday - she's just taking longer to cook than I originally planned! But I know she's coming! I love the journey we are on. The wonderful people I have met, the things I have learned and the culture I am experiencing. I love this journey.

JinMei's doing great!

JinMei is continuing to rebound like only a kid can! I visited her yesterday and I think I impressed her by asking her in Chinese how she was doing. (That's one of about four phases I've learned so far in my attempt to learn some Chinese before our trip next year!) What she said in response I'm not sure but she smiled and nodded so I guess that's good! She then showed me a toy she was playing with that asks "show me a B" and then you push the "B" and it goes on to other letters. She was doing it! This is a kid that did not know a word of English two weeks ago! She is so smart. I was amazed! We also had a tricycle race - she beat me. The translator said there was not way she could have done that kind of activity level before her surgery. Now she looks like a regular kid just one week after open heart surgery! This has been such a cool thing to be a part of!