Good cell phone reception is important to the modern marriage.

Kevin's away for a few days helping two guy friends move into a new house. Well, that's what he tells me they're doing, anyway. He called me on his cell phone this afternoon and the conversation went something like this above. I think he was a little hurt by what I *thought* he said. He'll get over it. I think it's terribly funny. Seriously, he really is such a good guy. I think my brain has been affected from eating those pink bunny Peeps. You may have to click on the image to view a larger size to get the gist of the conversation. Come home soon, honey! I love you.

Credits: Custom QTs from Scrapfastic Designs. Cardboard edge and speaking bubbles from Peppermint Creative. Everything else from Shabby Miss Jen. Fonts Century Gothic and Last Words.

Happy Easter

Credits: Everything from Peppermint Creative's Painted Season.

exhausted just thinking about parenting a toddler

We had a 26 month old and her mommy over for dinner tonight. Ohmygosh. I can't imagine being a new ***first time parent*** of a toddler! Running around after them, trying to prevent them from opening the door and running outside, trying to prevent them from sticking finger in a light socket, forgetting the sippy cup and trying to stop them from dumping a cup of milk over every time they drink, having the child eat orange slice after orange slice but wanting to spit out most of the pulpy part into my hand, and trying to break them of the paci for the first time today. It exhausts me just thinking of having to do all of that. Toddlers are so fast! There's a reason children aren't born running. Mom and Dad have to do marathon training as they grow to keep up with them.

13 months

Credits: Weeds and Wildflower's Breath of Fresh Air and Itty Bitty Alpha.

Peep Show

Sherry e-mailed this to me today. This cracks me up and has made my day! Grandma loves peeps. I wonder what she'd think of this? Heehee.

Updated 2/22 10am. Dad called and said that Grandma didn't understand the photo. Would I like to explain it to her? There was lots of laughing in the background. I have a feeling the others at Grandma's house got the joke. :)

A Song for Lucy

Sniff sniff. I just finished listening to a song written and recorded by Taiwan Lucy's dad. It's beautiful! Here's a link to go listen to it. Lucy's case is taking incredibly long to get her home. Her family misses her horribly.

sightings of spring

My parents came over today to give us our Easter basket and my birthday present. We've got chocolates, plastic eggs with jelly beans, snacks for Kevin, treats for the babydog, and a little something extra for me that was wrapped in a ladybug bag. They'll be away on spring break on my birthday, so I got to open up my present early. Yes, I shed a few tears. It's a beautiful mommy necklace stamped "Hannah Claire." I took this photo on a little embroidered Easter dress I bought last year. My mother is convinced that we'll get THE CALL when she's away on spring break.

The adoption agency did call this week. Still waiting for the next baby girl referral.

Last night we went out for pizza with another adoptive family with two little cuties from Kazakhstan and Taiwan. It's amazing how families that have never met before can have a great time and share so much in common!

It's been so nice to have some warm weather lately. We picked up the yard and went on a walk around the neighborhood on Thursday afternoon. We met some new neighbors that have two shih tzus. When it's a little warmer we'll have to have the neighbors over for a shih tzu doggy play date.

Credits: Everything from Weeds and Wildflowers Joyful Hearts except the swirl from Mandabean and Robin Carlton's Precious Child at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Font is Jayne Print by Font Garden.

Ms. Feva N. Chills has left the building

After three days at home with Ms. Feva N. Chills (aka the stinkin' flu), she's packed up her bags and left. Mr. Mucus is going to linger around, but I can deal with him. I get to go to work tomorrow! YAY! No more laying in bed shivering tucked under two blankets, obsessing about Taiwanese babies and crying, or eating ice cream out of the carton while watching Star Trek. I'm greatful to be able to go back to work so I don't have too much time to sit around thinking about what's going to happen with the rest of my life!!! Praise be to God for giving the widsom to the medicinal chemists that made this chemical compound that helped me get better:

Lyrics Contest Winners

Thank you, ladies and gent... er... more ladies... for your entries into the lyrics contest. If you want to review all the entries you can read them here. And now for the winners...

Second runner up goes to Rebecca with her humorous use of the word ferret. First runner up goes to Tish with the most useful lyrics used to soothe a fussy baby at 3am. For their participation, the first and second runners up have won custom digital cartoons of themselves by Lauren Grier available at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Oooooh. Ahhhhh.

And now... the grand prize winner is.... Kristy and her private lyrics submission! Woo hoo! She wins a scrapbook page or Blogger blog design made my me to her liking.

Thanks for playing everyone, and have a good night!

Mr. Mucus came by for a visit.

I'm sick. I could star in a Mucinex commercial. Hack hack.

No baby news... but when I do, oh it shall be a grand!

Hack hack some more. I'm going to bed.

Update 8:30am Sunday: This is no cold, this has turned into classic flu (never ending chills, 101F fever, body aches, and headache). A little mucus is the least of my worries now. I feel horrible calling my work partner just now and having him come in and work for me. The only other time I did that was when I tried to cut off my finger and had to go back to the ER because the superglue didn't hold. All of the blankets in the house don't stop the chills. Brrrrr....

what I've been up to this week...

Here's what I've been up to this week.

I've made all sorts of connections online lately. I've "met" three Indiana families that are or will be adopting from St. Lucy's Center in Taiwan. I'm thrilled to know that there will be other children relatively close by that will come from the same orphanage where our daughter will most likely start her life at. I think these connections will be important as our daughter grows up and develops her sense of identify.

I've been doing a lot reading about lifebooks. Lifebooks are scrapbooks that adoptive or foster parents create to sensitively and honestly help our children understand their beginnings. Lifebooks document what happened to a child and how they came into the family in story form, they make talking about adoption feel like everyday conversation, and help an adoptee make sense of their history. I've joined an online forum called China Digital Scrapbooks for adoptive parents, mostly with children from China, who are into digital scrapbooking and using this medium to create lifebooks for their children. The digiscrapping that these ladies share in the galleries are amazing and very touching. Does this sound like a forum for me, or what???

I had a hard weekend this past weekend thinking about wanting to be in Taiwan. It's hard to ignore the little voice inside that says, "Me too! Me too!" Luckily I have made friends with others that are going through similar feelings, and we can comfort each other.

And of course... to comfort myself I turn to retail therapy! Hannah Claire has way too many clothes, so it's about time for Mommy's turn. Come on, spring weather! I've found some things for myself to put some "spring" into my wardrobe and stocked up on replacing several pairs of work appropriate pants that really needed to retire from service. Today I went to the beauty salon and had a Nioxin microdermabrasion scalp treatment in addition to the usual services. I totally love scalp massages, but now my scalp feels so clear and my hair is squeaky clean and full of volume. Ahhh!

And if you're local, yes that was me in the newspaper today that called the police and had that woman arrested. I don't write about work on this blog to keep my identity a little hush hush and so my employer doesn't get grouchy with me... but oh man, I just hate it when unsavory characters think they can pull one over on me!

Credits: background paper by SMJ Bohemian Traveler, left paper, tag, and ribbon are Freebie 01 by Graziela Mendes Designs, messy stitch by Fernlili, "S" initial by SMJ signature alpha, and staple by Cottage Arts Growth Spurts.

wet doggie

Mel and Judy in Taiwan!!!

My blogging friends Mel and Judy are in Taiwan now and will meet their sons tomorrow at the St. Lucy's Center. I'm so excited for them!

Lyrics Contest

We went out to dinner Saturday night at the local Chinese buffet, and I tested out my "Two Tigers" song out on the very friendly restaurant owner. She was thrilled that I was trying so hard to learn the song, but I realized that I'm pronouncing half the words incorrectly. I think I would need a private Mandarin tutor to get the hang of this. Languages are not my forte. I had some of my worst grades when I took three years German in high school. The only thing I'm worse at than German is Physics. (Funny story: Before I traveled to Germany when I was 16, my dad quizzed me before I left... asking if I knew how to say, "Buy me a beer, big boy." Apparently I learned enough of the essentials and I could spat back the very useful phrase, "Kauf mir ein Bier, groß Junge!") At least I can greet our friend at the restaurant with "ni hao, ping yu" meaning "hello, friend."

After hearing us sing the "Liang zhi lao hu" song together one of the other employees at the restaurant remarked that he thought this was a French tune. Of course, it is set to the same tune as Frère Jacques. There are many many many lyrics to this song in multiple languages.
This gives me an idea. Let's have some fun. How about a little contest? I'll give you all 10 days to come up with your own words to the Frère Jacques song on any subject of your liking. Post your lyrics in the comments section of this post. Best lyrics (judged by me) win a digital scrapbook page or a blogger blog designed by me in any dimensions you want. I'll have the winner e-mail me your photos, and what dimensions you want. If you choose a digital scrapbook page I'll have it printed at Shutterfly for you and sent to your house. Sound good? Here's my song's lyrics below. Of course, my lyrics are adoption wait themed... because honestly there's not much else I'm thinking about these days.

Our adoption, our adoption.

Long long wait, long long wait.

Pour a glass of wine, I think I'll have another.

Send/receive, Send/receive.

Added 3:30pm 3/2/08:

I've been asked a couple of questions on the contest. Yes, you can give away the blog design or digital scrapbook page as a gift to someone else. Yes, you can have more than one entry. How about making it a family affair? Ask each of the kids to write lyrics to this tune. Extra cuteness points go out for submission by kiddos. It's not that hard. I whipped up my little diddy in about a minute.

It's time for a "Two Tigers" sing along!

Liang zhi lao hu, liang zhi lao hu

Pao de kuai, pao de kuai

Yi zhi mei you er duo, yi zhi mei you wei ba

Zhen qui guai! zhen qi guai!

Two tigers, two tigers

Run so fast, run so fast

One has no ears, one has no tail

So strange! So strange!

There are many versions of this song. Sometimes the tigers don't have eyes or a mouth.

Here are links of little ones singing the song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FurGAgzRNf8

http://www.56.com/u57/v_MTc3ODQxNDI.html

http://www.56.com/u33/v_MTg4MTk3OTA.html

My interest in this song started out with a post by Jane at "Love is a Place" where she talks about the song. Amanda in Taiwan was so nice to e-mail us translations and video clips of children singing the song that we'd heard YeYe sing on Ni Hao Kai-Lan. She writes that it is a very common children's song that every child in China and Taiwan knows.

Just be glad you aren't an adult living in our house. I've been playing these videos over and over learning this song and working on my pronunciation. I have a feeling Kevin's about had enough of listening to me sing this with Chinese children on the internet over and over and over and over.... It's a good thing that he has a pair of headphones that he will put on when he's on his computer!

Hawaii, the F word, and misc. grouching

I want to go to Hawaii and sit on the beach drinking pina coladas until the referral phone call. I've got some SPF 40 sunscreen and a hat, so I can sit awhile. I'm tried of snow and ice, grouchy sick people at work that use the F word (and that doesn't mean ferret) at me, and telling myself over and over "any day now" for so long.

When my sister and I were little, she once asked from the back of the car, "What's the F word?" My parents weren't quite sure how to respond. A little later my sister laughed and said, "Oh, now I remember! Ferret!"

Updated 8pm: I'm getting some e-mails asking when I'm leaving for Hawaii. I’m going to Hawaii right after I win the Powerball Lottery. I open a fortune cookie every day and buy a ticket with my “lucky numbers.” When I win, I’m buying tickets to Hawaii for any adoptive waiting mama that wants to come!

My heart jumps with joy for Rebecca and family!

Follow this link to share in Rebecca's excitement announcing Xu Bing.

12 months = 1 year

I'm blessed with wonderful bloggy friends. If I don't post for a couple of days I start getting e-mails asking if I'm okay... and did we get a referral and we're just not sharing with the world yet. :) I'm still here.

Today marks one year that we've been on our agency's waiting list to adopt an infant from Taiwan and become parents of a little girl we'll name Hannah Claire... but who's counting, right? (Oh... Uhhh, I am.) To celebrate we're going out to Ziffel's for ribs with another couple what we met during our adoption journey. Mmmm.

Today also is the Lantern Festival (15th day of the Chinese New Year) where children go out at night carrying bright lanterns. In ancient times this day was also kind of Chinese Valentine's Day where unmarried young people can go out chaperoned into the streets with hope that matchmakers would make them a match (cue music from "Fiddler on the Roof") but that doesn't happen in these modern times. People will also gather together to launch sky lanterns like I've blogged about previously. You write wishes on the lanterns and release them into the sky. It's a lot like a balloon launch. This newsarticle details how environmentalists in Taiwan have concerns over sky lantern launches. Uh... balloon launches aren't exactly environmentally friendly, either. The lanterns that I puchased say that they are biodegradable, but I'm sure that it takes a little while for the frame retardant paper lanterns to break down... kinda like the special little brown biodegradable frozen packages that Sedona has left in our backyard this winter.

Sorry. Visions of Sedona's special frozen packages are not the way I want to leave you with this post. Let's talk about something happy. How about some retail therapy? Yay, right? That's much better, isn't it? This little happy hearts dress is on the way to my house in celebration of one year waiting. Could any little dress say LOVE any more than this one? No, this is it. Once again, the people at Gymboree know my mind and make such beautiful little things that tug at my heart.

Dear Hannah Claire,
Your daddy and I love you so much, little one. We can't wait so see your picture, bring you home, read books (Grandma's got a little library started for you), go to the zoo and feed the goats (Daddy likes the goats at the zoo too!), make glorified messes in the high chair trying out new foods, and chase Sedona the babydog in circles around the living room until we're all dizzy.
Love,
Mommy

Meet my new little friend Ta

Meet my new little friend Ta. He lives with his mother and farmer who are farmers in Thailand. He likes playing with cars, telling stories, and going on walks. Ta turns five years old in April. I'm his new sponsor through Compassion International.

When I tell people that I'm adopting from Taiwan, I find that many confuse Thailand with Taiwan. I figured it was a good idea to know little people from both places. :)

Rebecca posts about our Chinese New Year party

Thank you, Rebecca, for sharing your photos that you took at the Chinese New Year party at our house! When we have parties, I'm always so busy trying to be a good hostess (making sure that everyone has someone interesting to talk to and something good to eat) that I never end up with any pictures. I think I need to start designiating a person at my parties as a photographer. Lucky for me, Rebecca had her camera out and snapped some great pics.

We invited some family and friends out for dinner at the local Chinese buffet. The owner Susan is originally from Hong Kong and she's so great to us. She tries to teach us a few words in Mandarin every time we see her. She's extra picky with pronounciation, and wants to make sure that we don't say "hair" when we're trying to say "cat." All sounds like *mow* to me. I asked a first grader what he liked best to eat at the restaurant, and he PULLED A CRAB CLAW OUT OF HIS POCKET! Oh my gosh! I was so surprised that he was going to take that home with him. He said, "Look at this. It pinches!" Visions of doing laundry and finding a crab claw in the bottom of the washing machine ran through my head.

Anyway... after dinner we went back to our house for snacks, games, crafts for the kids, and a sky lantern launch. I had oranges on the tables to symbolize money, Chinese candies such as these pictured that contained red bean, and Chinese almond cookies.

My favorite craft at the party were the Chinese New Year street scene that one can decorate with stickers. Rebecca has great pictures of the kids decorating these on her blog. I also had magic scratch dragons where you scratch black off in a design to reveal multicolored paper below. Looks like Oriental Trading discontinued these, but they have lots of other fun CNY stuff if you search under keywords "Chinese" and "dragon."

I had purchased three dozen sky lanters on eBay with hopes to release these into the night sky. Unfortunately, the weather didn't coorporate as it was 6F and the wind gusted up to 25MPH. Here are two videos of sky lanters being released. Below are videos sky lanterns. Well, we'll have to host another party and hope for calm skies!

Our decorations came from different places. The dragons the stretch across the ceiling are from Oriental Trading. The red battery operated lanters are from World Market. The white lanterns with flowers are electric and have been hanging in our kitchen since last year's Chinese New Year party. We like them so much we decided to keep them up, at least until Hannah Claire comes home. You can find electric lanterns like this all over online. I bought these at Target last year. They had lanterns like this in stock this week at Target in the garden section with other kinds of ourdoor lighting strands. World Market has a lot of large lanterns in stock right now in lots of colors.

I was most excited about giving out red envelopes to children. I found Kello Kitty red envelopes on eBay that were printed in Taiwan, and had them shipped to us. Kevin went to to the bank and got $2 bills to put in the envelopes. We read that you were only supposed to give even numbered amounts, and not $4 because the number four sounds like the word death. Well, I'm embarrassed to write that we were so busy doing crafts, playing games on the Wii, and having a great time that WE FORGOT TO HAND OUT THE RED ENVELOPE GIFTS. I feel horrible! I'm mailing envelopes to the kids with thank you notes for coming to our party. They all made it such a fun time.

P.S. Rebecca has some of the most well behaved children I've never met.

Valentine's Day

Feeling kinda blue around all of these parents helping their kiddos get ready for Valentine's day at school with little "High School Musical" printed Valentines, making pink cupcakes with sprinkles, and dressing up in red and pink for the day. Hannah got three pink, brown, and white flannel bankets as a Valentine's Day present from me. I resisted the racks of cutie outfits with big red happy hearts. Man, oh man, did those happy hearts tug at my heart!

This is kinda funny. The adoption agency called with our update, except there was no update! No news, so we got a call just to check on us. How am I? Uh... tired of waiting... telling myself any day now for months and months... and a few more months. Maybe they'll be some referrals when people get back to work from vacationing over Chinese New Year. The last day of festival is next Thursday, February 21st. It's the 15th day of the holiday, and is called the the Lantern Festival. That day also marks one year since our homestudy draft went to our adoption agency and we officially went on the waiting list. I love paper lanterns, so I find it kind of funny that the day of the Lantern Festival marks one year waiting.

Feeling blue about waiting for a year, so I looked for something fun about waiting, and I found a song titled "Tired of Waiting" by the Kinks. Kinda a catchy little tune!

Writers strike = Empty TIVOs

Anyone else about ready for the end of the writers strike? Our TIVO is scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for things for us to watch. The only new show we're recording regularly is Ni Hao, Kai-lan on Nick Jr. Two thirtysomething wanna-be parents sitting at home together watching a show for pre-schoolers is pretty sad. Ki-lan is a lot better friend than Kevin and I are. We both would have kicked Tolee the koala out of the band for the music show because he couldn't rhyme when Hoho the monkey was laying down the beat for the music show. Follow all of that? I know, we're pitiful. I miss my shows... especially Saturday Night Live.

Valentines for 10 years

Kevin and I met 10 years ago and have been together ever since.

Happy Valentine's Day to you, sweetie!

(You've put up with me for THAT LONG?!?!?)

Credits: Everything from Love Struck by Design by Dani available at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Dixie Mandarin

I spent a lot of time last night with a YouTube video learning how to say "Happy New Year!" in Mandarin. I'm happy to report that I got my chance to use the phrase at the local Chinese restaurant tonight. I was pleasantly suprised that all of the Mandarin speakers understood what I was saying! YAY! Well, they giggled at me a little bit and each of the employees had to stop by our table to have me greet them with a "Ni Hao!" and "Xin Nein Kuai Le!" but it was all fun. Or... maybe they were giggling at us wearing our matching "Happy New Year" red t-shirts. Kevin has decided that we'll call the few phrases that we know are our "Dixie Mandarin" because our pronounciation has to sound really strange to native ears.

We went to the "big city" tonight in search of goodies for Chinese New Year. The Asian grocery that we shop is very much Korean and had literally nothing for CNY except for some red envelopes at the checkout. It's so true you can find anything on eBay, as I had Kello Kitty red envelopes mailed to us from Taiwan for this year's CNY. Then we checked out World Market and found almond cookies and some Chinese candies. YAY! I don't have to try and bake some! As you know from my previous post on glutinous rice balls, my Chinese cooking isn't going so well... and I tried the special CNY cake and didn't like it. I'm anxious enough waiting for baby news, and the last thing I need right now is more dissapointment in the kitchen.

新年快樂 (Xīn nián kuài lè) aka Happy New Year!!!

新年快樂! Happy New Year!

Wishing you much luck and prosperity in the new year!

We've been doing a few things at home to get ready for a the new year. We've mop and glowed our floors to wash away bad luck (make them shine for when company comes over this weekend) and got hair cuts (the dog went to the "doggy day spa" yesterday for a trim and I'm nagging Kevin every day to get a hair cut before company comes over this weekend). We've put up some decorations near our front door and above doors in our house. We didn't buy any new clothes and you're supposed to do that, I guess. We're fine in the clothes department, but Hannah Claire could always use some new dresses (retail therapy), right? One is supposed to pay off debts before the new year. Humm... all of my money is in the savings account waiting to write a big check to the adoption agency. I'd love have an adoption agency bill to pay right now, as that means we'd have a referral!

I've been practicing how to say "Happy New Year" in Mandarin tonight with the help of some YouTube videos. Hopefully I can remember how to say this phrase tomorrow!

Just a little more stinky poo for the crap pile.

Arg! I didn't do the math right. Our adoption fees went up $1300 and not $800. Well, I'm just going to have to start buying toilet paper instead of using all of these $20 bills we just have lying around the house.

Dad, I didn't catch the "multiple fee fee" when doing my calculations. Gets ya every time.

Crap.

Adoption agency fees went up $800. Crap. Oh well, it's only money. I'll just have to wait a few months to refinish the woodwork on the yacht.

Partying with the Chinese Family and Friends Association

Kevin and I are now members of a Chinese Family and Friends Association. Woo hoo! We attended their Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) celebration tonight. We had a great time and I have loads of pictures. It's late and I have to get to bed, but I'll leave you with this.

Question for my Chinese and Taiwanese readers: is this Nian Gao, the traditional Chinese New Year dessert? I couldn't hear when they announced what this was. A Chinese gentleman at my table told us it was made of rice flower and the brown color is from brown sugar. I did eat a piece to be festive. I'm not a fan. It doesn't taste like much of anything, except goo. Reminds me of a more solid version of the Tang Yuan (glutinous rice balls) that I tried to make at home a couple of weeks ago. More sugar and rice flower goo. Sorry.

Here's a pic of Kevin tonight in his celebratory "Happy New Year!" shirt. We bought these matching shirts last year for our first annual Chinese New Year party. Kevin's so funny. He had two middle aged Chinese women asked him if he knew what his shirt said. Kevin played dumb, and replied, "No, what does it say?" They looked shocked, and replied that it was a very appropriate shirt because it said Happy New Year. Then Kevin would start laughing... and they grinned knowing that he was just teasing them. We noticed that we never saw any of the Chinese families giving this sign in their photos, but a middle aged Chinese man got a big kick out of seeing Kevin pose like this for this picture!

Tonight we saw enjoyed dragon dances, dances with bells on sticks, fan dances, singing, multiple musical numbers on the piano, cello, and even a whistling performance. There were many adoptive families there, with lots of beautiful little girls under the age of 12 running around in brightly colored silk dresses. I couldn't help myself, my eyes were drawn to them all night as they ran around giggling, whispering, and taking pictures with their parents' cell phones. I'll stop here and not go into details about getting teary eyed watching adoptive mother-daughter pairs.

I'm very excited to learn from another adoptive family that one of the teachers at the area Chinese school is Taiwanese! Woo hoo!

I'm really glad that we had a good time, because we passed up most of the Superbowl to go. Kevin grumbled about missing the greatest sporting event of the year a few times this week. We arrived at a Superbowl party with nine minutes left in the game. The crowd told us that it had been a boring game and that we didn't miss much. It got pretty exciting when the Patriots took the lead (boo hiss), and then that play where Eli Manning managed to run away from all of the Patriots linemen comming after him and had that great long pass to Plaxico Burress... oh that was great! This group of Colts fans likes to see Payton Manning up in the box cheering for his brother and really LOVES TO SEE THE PATRIOTS LOOSE.

Blizzards in China: Please donate to Half the Sky

Thanks to donations for blogovers, I donated $100 from Blogovers with Love to Half the Sky. This money will be spent to help take care of children in orphanges in China during this winter's blizzards that have left some orphanges without heat, running water, food, and warm clothing, and diapers. Please check out this link to Half the Sky and consider making a donation to this great organization that really makes a difference for so many orphaned children in China.

January update from the adoption agency

We received our January update from our adoption agency this morning. I'm not going to comment on the details and there's no ETA for a the referral... but things are moving along in the right direction. Yay!

This has been a hard week on me with adoption anxiety and work stresses. I just worked seven days in a row and have had to get all of that homestudy update togehter at the same time. Sorry I've been a little freaked out grump with people in real life. This update makes it all so much better. Hugs all around today.

Announcements and Invitations WITH LOVE

I'm now creating designs for adoption and birth announcements as well as invitations at Blogovers with Love. I make the design, e-mail you the graphic, you order 4" x 6" prints from a photo printer, you order the envelopes, and you'll have yourself some very personalized announcements! Through May 1, 2008, funds raised by Blogovers with Love will go towards furnishing and decorating a new group home for teenagers with Chung Yi in Taiwan, a project organized by my adoption agency Families for Children. Thanks for your support!

Adoption Physicals - Take 2

Well, we had our second set of adoption physicals this morning. Thankfully they didn't test us for cooties as our adoption physical forms didn't ask for the results. According to Kevin's sister, Kevin is likely to be a carrier of cooties. I'm fortunate, as I was vaccinated at a young age to prevent catching this horrible disease. We'll go back later this week to have the TB test results read, then we'll be all done with our part of the previously grumbled about newly required adoption homestudy update. (Sigh of relief.)

A Public Service Announcement

Please, don't let your family be victims!

Peiling and the Chicken-Fried Christmas

I just finished read a novel written for 8-12 year old children called Peiling and the Chicken-fried Christmas. The story is about an eleven-year-old Taiwanese American girl that desperately wants to celebrate a "real American Christmas" but is met with resistance from her parents. It is a nice little book that focuses on a struggle for identity as a young Asian American. It's can be enjoyed by adults too, and I read it in one sitting in about the time it takes to watch a movie.

Today's post was brought to you by the number 2.

FBI fingerprinting at state police post. Check, check.
Local background check from former town. Check, check.
Local background check from current town. Check, check.
Appointments scheduled for annual physicals for next week. Check, check.

And... the washing machine broke. The appliance repair guy that was supposed to come to fix it while we were visiting 3 police stations (not 2) didn't come. He left a message at 4:55pm on our answering machine that he was too busy today and would have to come Monday. Darn it.

HOMESTUDY MEGA UPDATE DUE 3/7/08: And I thought I had the day off tomorrow!

I'm sooooooo not happy. We got a letter today from our homestudy agency.

"The state of Indiana has mandated new requirements for adoption. They are asking the following information be updated every 12 months until the adoption finalization. Because of this new requirement, we need to ask you to update the following information to keep your file current for your adoption. We realize this is an inconvenience but unfortunately it is necessary in order to keep your home study valid. Per Indiana regulations, your homestudy will be suspended on 3-7-08 if this update is not completed. For international adoptions, this means your home study will be revoked from CIS. (Not only will your child not be able to enter the United States, but also you will be required to start the CIS process over including the application fee.) In order for your Indiana Review to be completed, we must have received all the documents as well as the background checks back from the state-these can take up to a month to process to start working on the immediately."

Here's a list of what we'll have to RE-DO:

• FBI National Criminal Check (includes fingerprinting once again on blue FBI fingerprint cards at $28.25 each
• Indiana State Limited Criminal Check at $7 each
• Local criminal checks – going back to two police departments... and the town that we used to live in charges for local criminal checks!
• Child Protective Services – National Criminal Check
• Physician Update Letter – Great! We get to pay for physicals again!
• Updated tax record copies and pay stubs
• Pet vaccination records. Got shots, Sedona???
• Complete a questionnaire and pay the homestudy agency another $150 to update our file.

Well, I guess I know what I’m going to be doing on my day off tomorrow. I'll be getting fingerprinted by the state police, and going back to the city we used to live in for background checks AGAIN. ARG!!! I had no idea that we'd have to go through this all over again so quickly. We jump through hoop after hoop to be able to adopt, but we see total losers that are so-called parents to kids every day.

11 months

Ack! I really don't want to even think about making one of these to mark 12 months...

Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)

It's cold today... really cold. We stayed inside, took down the Christmas tree (don't laugh!), and did a little cleaning and laundry. I decided to try and be a little creative in the kitchen tonight.

I started off looking for traditional things people would eat to celebrate the Lantern Festival, the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. I found that some will make Tang Tuan (glutinous rice balls) for Winter Solstice and the Lantern Festival, so I searched online for a recipe that I could make. I had the ingredients: glutinous rice flower leftover from a previous shopping trip to an Asian grocery, brown sugar, water, and red food coloring. Here's a link to the recipe that I used.

I used the glutinous rice flower and water to make a dough. Sometimes people color their balls pink, so I used food coloring to color half of my dough pink.

I made a syrup with brown sugar and water, and cooked marble sized dough balls until they floated to the top of the syrup.

And here they are. My recipe said that you can serve them in the syrup hot or cold. Of course, I had to try one right away (drum roll please).... Tastes like goo with a little brown sugar flavor. The smaller balls taste better because they had more of the sugary syrup go into them. Still, not good. Not bad, but definitely not good. You can fill the balls with pastes like black sesame seeds and red beans... but I give up. I can't imagine making these things taste really good.

I think I'll stick to making reservations from now on and leave the cooking up to the professionals! I really want to find someplace relatively local that serves Dim Sum. If anyone local reading this knows of a restaurant in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where one can order Dim Sum, please let me know. I'd like to try some closer to home rather than driving all of the way to Indianapolis. Maybe I'll meet some people at the Fort Wayne Chinese Families and Friends Association's Spring Festival (aka New Year) Party that can point me in the direction of some local Dim Sum.

Okay, time to clean up the kitchen, throw out my glutinous rice flower dough, and have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk. I'm hungry after kneading all of that dough!

Ack!

Had to share... just for laughs! Click on the graphic and you can view a larger image... if it doesn't frighten you too much.

No News

Kevin talked to our adoption agency yesterday. There was no news. Sigh. I think I'll go back to bed and pull the covers over my head.

Back to Blogovers

I'm back to doing blog designs now that Christmas and our travels are over. I finished a design for Amy and family last night that I'm really pleased with, the Blogovers with Love site has a fresh look, I have one client finalizing her design, and one shopping for her digital scrapbooking kit for her design. Let me know if you'd like a new look for your blog to celebrate a new year.

Taiwan's nationalist KMT party wins control of legislature

I've been reading a little about the results in Taiwan's elections yesterday. I'm no global political guru, but this is how I understand it.

Voters went to the poles yesterday in Taiwan, and they changed control of their legislature from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to the KMT, Taiwan's nationalist party. The Nationalists won 81 seats of the 113 seat Legislature, where the DPP won only 27. President Chen Shui-bian with the DPP has been pushing for policies finalize independence from China, and has planned a referendum to help Taiwan gain membership into the United Nations. Some say that Taiwan has lost economic competitiveness because of recent tensions with China. The KMT nationalist party favors more active engagement with China and doesn't rule out reunification in the future. Taiwan's presidential election is coming up on March 22nd to choose a successor to President Chen who is stepping down after 8 years in office. Opinion polls give the KMT's candidate Ma Ying-jeou a 20-point lead over the DDP's Frank Hsieh.

finger update - 6 days later

I took my own stitches out tonight. I called my sister, an intensive care nurse, before I took them out to make sure that all I needed to do was snip them and pull out the thread. I only had two stitches, and they weren't holding anything together anymore as the Dermabond superglue had all flaked off today the stitches hung loose.

Well folks, I think I have nerve damage. I was hoping that the loss of sensation was due to the Dermabond over the area, but the glue is gone and it doesn't feel right. I know it's still healing, so we'll see what happens and how permanent this will be. Luckily I still have all of the sensation on the very end of my finger to help me type, pick things up off the ground, etc. It's a dime sized area on the side of my finger that feels numb.

Sigh. Let this be a lesson. Always use a cutting board in the kitchen, no matter how small the job. Or just eat out or let your husband do all of the cooking and food preparation. That sounds like an even better idea. I haven't cooked a thing this week that didn't involve opening a box and putting it in a microwave!

Oh my gosh! I'm looking at my finger and just realized that I'm most likely going to have a scar and this changes my fingerprint. My brain frantically searches... does this mean that I need to be fingerprinted again by immigration for the adoption? Surely not. I'll have to ask my adoption agency representative next time we talk, but surely not. That would be craziness, but there's a whole bunch of things that you have to do to adopt that are just crazy.

Get ready to TIVO! Here comes "Ni Hao, Kai-Lan!"

"Ni Hao, Kai-Lan" premiers on Nick Jr. on Thursday, February 7th at 11am. I've been especially excited about this. If this show is popular like Dora the Explorer, my child's peers will grow up watching a cartoon child as an Asian American role model and it may influence them to be more accepting of Asian Americans and Chinese culture.

The show's web site describes the curriculum: Ni Hao, Kai-lan is the next generation of preschool television programming that introduces the psychology of biculturalism. If Dora and Diego popularized bilingualism, Kai-lan will weave together being bilingual and bicultural. Ni Hao, Kai-lan reinforces the idea that being bicultural and bilingual is being American.

The show will familiarize the viewing audience with elements of Chinese and Chinese American cultures to promote multicultural understanding in the next generation and goes beyond featuring "culture" as only ethnic food and festivals. Instead, it celebrates growing up in an intergenerational family, having friends from diverse backgrounds, and "habits of the heart" that are Chinese American. These values include:

Mind-body connection Typically, television portrays excitement as the good emotion to feel. In many Chinese-American communities, the good thing to feel is often calmness and contentment. Feeling excited and feeling calm can both be happy feelings, but they differ in how aroused the body is.

Perspective-taking In many Chinese and other East Asian families, children are encouraged to take the perspective of others to maintain harmony in relationships with other people.

Being a good member of the group Ni Hao, Kai-lan also emphasizes the Chinese and Chinese American value of being a good member of a group.

Social & Emotional Goals Highlight cause-and-effect thinking about social and emotional issues germane to preschoolers and to support preschooler's social and emotional development.

prayer request

Dear blog readers,

I don't ask many favors for you, but I'm asking one tonight. I'm asking for prayers for an online friend and her family. Today they learned that the infant they hoped to adopt passed away unexpectedly. God answered their prayers to heal the child by bringing the baby home to him, but obviously this is not what they expected and they are devastated. Please pray for this adopting family as well as the birth family as their hearts need healing, and they'll need guidance as they search for direction of how to go on from here. The family reads this blog. If you'd like to leave them a message... you can do so in the comments of this post.

I’m just been sobbing tonight for this little one and the two families, birth family and another family that loved the baby so very much... even though they never had the opportunity to physically hold their child of their hearts.

Thank you.
Sarah


Updated Sunday, January 13th:

Rebecca and I have chosen to send $100 of our Blogovers with Love donations to help cover the cost of a funeral for an infant that unexpectedly passed away at an orphanage in Taiwan. The birth family does not have the funds to pay for a proper funeral. Please e-mail me if you would like to have an address where you can send funds to help with the funeral expenses.

ladybug, ladybug retail therapy

Hey, it's retail therapy or Xanax... and baby clothes are a lot cuter than anti-anxiety medications! I have socks and pink and navy striped pants to match. This was enough to last me until at least Valentine's Day, I think.

buy a little girl a dress, and help make a family!

Here's a link to buy some beautiful handmade dresses to help bring little Faith home from China. These little dresses are sooo cute, and very reasonable. I loooooove that Kimberly dress!

Fort Wayne Chinese New Year Party

I just leaned that the Fort Wayne Chinese Friends and Family Association is having a Chinese New Year Party at IPFW on Sunday, February 3rd. We're going! What fun! Thanks to Lisa for the invite! If anyone else wants to come too, they "kindly request" to return your reservation by TOMORROW, January 10th for catering and seating arrangements.

long waits for precious blessings

My inspirational thought for the week!

what not to do with new Cutco knives

Kevin and I didn't buy eachother Christmas presents... and purchased a new small set of Cutco knives instead. I used one for the first time last night to slice an apple, and apparently tried to take off a piece of my left pointer finger too. My kitchen floor had blood drops all over it. I kept calm, applied pressure and put my hand over my head, and when it didn't stop after five minutes I called my dad to take me to the ER. Kevin's still in FL so he missed out on the action. The ER doctor and a nurse (sweet sorority sister of mine... thank you!) Dermabonded (superglued) my finger. I went home with a pain level of 2 but embarrassment level of 11. Those new knives just got $100 more expensive, too. But... when I woke up this morning I was bleeding through the Dermabond, and got to go BACK TO THE ER for stitches in the part that didn't hold. I've never had to call a coworker before today and wake them up at 6:30am before to say, "Uh... I'm going to the ER and won't be able to open up work at 8am... can you help me out?" Now I've gotta get ready to go into work, as I swapped shifts with my coworker to go back to the ER. I can still kinda type. Thank goodness for spell check!

New Year's Family Vacation in Florida

I returned home today from a week in Florida with Kevin's family. It's back to work for me, but Kevin's still down there enjoying some more time with his mom and dad. Sedona the babydog was well taken care of by our terriffic neighbors, but she's really missed her mommy and daddy. When I walked in the door tonight and sat on the couch she jumped up and loved all over me for nearly ten minutes. I've never seen her so excited to see me before!

No adopton news, so all I have to share is a few of the 220 pictures I took on our trip this past week. There's so many that I'm not sure where to begin with the scrapbooking! Here are just a handful of my favorites that help tell a story.

We started off our family vacation with a trip to St. Augustine, Florida. Founded by the Spanish in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European established city in the United States. We toured the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, admired the Spanish styled architecture while wandering the streets, ate al fresco, and took in a "ghost tour." Pictured above are Kevin and his brother and sister at Castillo de San Marcos.

While in St. Augustine, we were approached by a fierce looking pirate captain carrying a fascinating glowing sword.

Here's the pirate captain and her crew. Kevin's brother-in-law, his brother, and Kevin are in the background.

Feeding ice cream to pirate captains makes them less likely to make you walk the plank. I love this picture. I think it's my favorite from the week.

Happiness is being an aunt!

Kevin makes a pretty cool uncle. He brought our Rock Band gear to Florida, of course. There was a lot of rockin' going on at grandma's house this week.

Kevin's newest "toy" is a PSP (Portable PlayStation). He's been playing a lot of Loco Roco lately, and I have too. It's a pretty cute game, especially for kids. I love the music to the game!

We ate entirely too much really good food.

We ate entirely too many amazing desserts as well. These photos are from Boma, my favorite Disney restaurant. It is an African themed buffet at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It's back to Lean Cuisine meals, salads, and yogurt for me next week!

Of course, we visited the happiest place on earth... Disney World!

For Florida, it was really cold! If it reached 50 degrees yesterday, I'd be really surprised.

Kevin's a much better photographer than I am.

I'm a lucky girl, aren't I?

But I still look at the fairy tale castle and wish for Hannah Claire to make our family complete.

Still waiting! Still smiling!