New Blog

Now that our paperwork is off to China, we are switching blogs. You can find us here:

Love In Asia

Some of our entries will require a password for you to read them. We are doing this in order to protect our adoption and our daughter. Once she is home and our adoption is finalized, we may remove the password requirements.

I would love to give you our password. Just leave a comment here or on the other blog, including your email so we can give it to you privately. Or, send an email to MRDucksOSARCMWings@gmail.com, and we'll send you the password.

Lucky You!

The first FIVE people to respond to this post will get something made by me (or my child)! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.It may be a story. It may be poetry, shoes, bags, or a little invention of my own! I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. Believe me... it may blow your mind!

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it! Sounds like fun, right? So, let's play!

*DTC!!!!!

Alleluia, we are DTC today! Translated: Our big bundle of paperwork (Dossier) went To China today!

Our paperwork before sent to our agency.

Today is my late Grandma's birthday and I took Koen out to her grave site to honor her. She passed away year and a half ago. I hadn't been there before and decided a couple months ago that I would go on her birthday. It was a beautiful day and the cemetery is on a hill overlooking the city. It was such a perfect day to go. Afterward we visited a park nearby that is also a farm. Koen had fun getting to see the horses, goats, chickens, bunnies, and a very muddy pig.

When we got home there was a message from our agency saying she was putting our dossier in the mail to China. Yay! Once it is there it will be "logged in." China will send our agency our LID (Log In Date) but we likely won't know about it until well after in happens.

Our agency also received our special needs checklist today, and sent us an email asking for confirmation that we would like them to try to match us with a child from the list the CCAA puts out about every month. I quickly replied with a yes, and now we wait to hear from them.

I hope, hope, hope that we will see her face soon.

Announcement

Keith + Kelly=Love

My Sick Kiddo

It's been forever since I've posted photos. Here are some of Koen watching his "China movie" this morning. This is another Sing and Learn Chinese with Mei Mei video - volume 2. He's already watched it twice today (am I a bad mother?)

Dancing to the songs.

Papa built this "elevator" for Koen out of his blocks. He enjoys dropping his shiny rocks in the top. They end up in the blue bowl.

Now here he is actually looking sick - with his monkeys Mortimer and Milton.

*A Few Decisions Made

We sent our special needs checklist in to the agency today. I just pray that the Lord will continue to guide us and either confirm what we checked, or clearly guide us to changing the form. There were a couple we were hesitant to mark, and a couple that I was hesitant not to mark. Keith and I didn't agree on as many as I thought we would - which added to the difficulty of the process.

I also talked with my agency today. They said we should be DTC around the end of the week. I told them that we are ready for them to look for a child for us when the next list from the CCAA comes out. They expect it in about a week.

Maybe I will see my daughters face in a week? I don't want to get too excited, because it may take several months to find a match.

On a family note, Koen has been sick for a week. My little boy always seems to avoid the illness that I catch, so I've been surprised that this one actually got him and has been hanging around so long. He's had a few nights of fevers and I finally took him in to the dr today. They think he has a sinus infection and put him on antibiotics for 5 days. I hope it helps. I've been house bound for some time now.

I had 3 good friends of mine have babies in the last two weeks. Welcome to Sydney, Josiah and Ethan! Now I'm ready for my own baby boom!

Getting Cultural

We have started learning Chinese! I checked out Play and Learn Chinese with Mei Mei from our library. It is a DVD, 45 minutes long. I put it on while I'm doing house work, and listen as the children count, learn body parts, play games and sing songs. It's really quite easy and fun! I can say hi, bye, count to ten, I love you, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and I know the word for bottom (not sure why that's the only body part I've caught onto). I didn't know Chinese was so tonal - it's kind of hard to catch.
Koen loves watching the video and begs for it. He's watched it at least twice a day for the last three days. I know that's a lot of time in front of the TV, but it's hard to say no when it's so educational! I'm not sure why he likes it so much. He can say hi in Chinese, and every now and then will copy something they say. Yesterday he pointed to his neck and said the Chinese word for it. He's brilliant!

One thing we learned from the video too, is that we've been saying our daughter's nickname, Mei Mei, wrong. We've been pronouncing it "My My", but it is actually pronounced "May May." Oh well, it's too stuck to change the way we say it now!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Today is Chinese New Year, and the first time that Chinese New Year has felt significant to me. The nannies at my daughter's orphanage are likely celebrating. I pray the children get to be a part of the festivities and are not forgotten on a day like this. Welcome to the Year of the Ox - prayerfully, the year we will bring our little girl home.

Our paperwork should head to China in the next two weeks, as it is currently being authenticated in San Fransisco. Then we will be DTC, and can decide when we want to start looking for a "match" on the CCAA's lists. I hate having so much control, and just pray the Lord guides us in the decisions we need to make. We've been researching many different medical issues and trying to decide what we are ready for, and not really feeling adequate for anything.

Koen's Dancing Debut!

Due to the snow storm last month, our church Christmas program was postponed until last night. Here is a video of the preschoolers (2-5s) performing last night. Koen didn't sing (although he knows the songs) but he sure did dance! He is the brown horse front and center. His buddy Isaac is the gray donkey just to the right. The thing in Koen's hand is a car that ends up being a distraction for Isaac who loves cars.

*Premature Excitement

So, my post last week was a little premature. We thought it was the last of our paperwork, but we had a couple issues with our medical forms. We had to get them resigned, and add some letter explaining the medications we take, which put us back a couple days. On Thursday we dropped the last piece of mail at the post office, and on Friday our agency sent our last pieces of paperwork to the state to get authenticated. I believe that we should be DTC (Dossier to China) in the next couple weeks, but I'm not totally sure what all needs to be done.

I joined two yahoo groups about adopting from China - one for the special needs program, and one for adopting toddlers. We are still unsure what special needs we are open to, and are finding this is a good way to learn more about them from adoptive parents who have experience.

We went to the zoo with friends yesterday, and as we were walking through the tropical rainforest, and cute family with two young Asian girls and two very white parents walked next to us. I was unsure of how to ask, but really wanted to know, so I blurted out "Did you adopt?" The mom graciously answered, and was excited to hear we were adopting from China too. It went well, but my friends couldn't believe I had asked. The children could have been their grandchildren, or from a previous marriage, or foster kids.... Do you have any advice about how to ask without offending?

My other concern was that their girls were old enough to understand our conversation, and I didn't know how comfortable they were with talking about their adoption, or feeling like their family looks different enough to get these questions. The mother didn't seem to be concerned, but having not been through it, I'm not sure how to approach the subject with them listening. I probably shouldn't in the future, but I love, love, love to see adoptive families!

*Done with Phase 1!

Today I dropped our last pieces of paperwork in the mail. We were waiting for my medical appointment, which was on Wednesday. Today we got our medical forms signed and notarized, and we are done! It's good to be done, but it only means the rest is out of our hands.

I talked with our agency this week and was discouraged to learn more about the process. We really did enter this blindly. The most discouraging news is that we will likely wait 6-9 months to travel once we are matched with a child. Can I just say TORTURE!!! My little girl will be that much longer without me. I had my mind prepared for 3-4 months like with Vietnam, but this is double that wait. I'm not sure why it takes so long - is it just because the CCAA is understaffed? Or is there some kind of paperwork happening during that time?

Our agency also said that it is up to us as to when we want to start looking for a match. They recommended we wait a couple months after our paperwork goes to China, as this will likely decrease the time that we have to wait to travel (the torturous part of the wait), but still keep out total wait about the same. I'm not sure I understood, but I will research and trust their judgment.

In the meantime, we pray hard for Mei Mei, and trust the Lord to watch over her and bring us together. We also trust the Lord to provide the funds we will need to pay in the next couple weeks when our dossier goes to China.