Hallelujah!!!!

This was the subject line of the most important e-mail that I've ever received. Yes! It's an adoption referral, received at 3:30am on Wednesday, May 21st! She's an itty bitty preemie in Taiwan, born at 28 weeks gestation weighing just 1180 grams at birth. Yes, that equals 2.6 pounds at birth. She's at St. Lucy's and she's four months old now, weighing in at 6.8 pounds a couple of weeks ago, and looks like she's doing really well... gaining weight, and developing like we hope and pray she will.

We're not posting photos or videos online right now because we're still waiting for approval from St. Lucy's. If you know me in real life, ask to see a photo and I'll have one on me, of course. (Duh!) But, I can't resist sharing with you here her non-identifying little double chin. I think it's just about the cutest thing there ever was, and I'm falling in love with that photo more and more every day. We joke, "Look... her chin looks like ours!" :) Kevin framed this photograph in a frame that says "believe." It's on my nightstand, and is the first thing that I see in the morning and the last thing I see what I go to bed at night. We truly believe that we're going to be the right adoptive parents for his child, and we pray that St. Lucy's will think so too. How long will St. Lucy's approval take? Well, we don't know. Days, weeks, maybe a month, or maybe even more? It varies. We're just so happy to get to this step that we (oh, well... we means I) haven't started obsessing about how long we've been waiting for approval.

Here's the back story behind the referral. On the Friday before we learned that the referral was coming. I had the weekend off, and I didn't want to go anywhere. I just wanted to stay by the phone and check the e-mail every 20 minutes. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday came and went, no referral. Tuesday night after work I couldn't sleep. I stayed up really really really late putzing around, and at 3:30am finally told Kevin that I was going to check my e-mail one last time, and then I'm going to bed.

Well, I checked my e-mail... and there it was. Our "Hallelujah!!!!" I gasped. I said, "Kevin... we have an e-mail from the agency... and it says Hallelujah!!!! What do you think that means?" Kevin's such a smart-ass sometimes. He replied, "I think (adoption agency representative name) wants us to go to church." I was starting to cry. I was so nervous, so scared. "I.... I can't open it." Kevin says, "Look, it's easy!" and takes the mouse from me and opens the message. We saw a PDF file and then lots of picture files. We decided to "read the card" (aka read the paperwork) before "opening the present" (looking at the photos).

We started reading about our preemie, and how many weeks gestation she was. We didn't have memorized the length of human pregnancies... and we so freaked out when we used Google to learn that it's supposed to be 40 weeks. Then we read her weight in grams and had to google to figure out how many pounds that was. I was stunned with how little she was at birth. In my head I was prepared for an older and MUCH BIGGER baby... and was just really surprised. We looked at the pictures, and oohed and ahhed at how great she's doing.

And I know you're asking, "So why did you wait so long to tell everyone?" Well, we like a good surprise! We had plans to be at my grandparents' home for the holiday weekend, and thought that would be a good time and place to tell my family. We didn't tell anyone... until we told my grandparents' Friday night. Saturday my mom and dad came over, and we were ready for the BIG REVEAL. I purchased a board book about Christmastime called "My Granny's Purse," and had been saving it for this occasion. We printed the baby's photos out and inserted them inside a cardboard envelope in the book. I didn't wrap the book because I didn't want to make it seem like too big of a deal and give away the surprise. Saturday morning I told my mom that I had a book for her, and handed her the purse. She seemed to like it and started reading the book, going through all of the little windows you can open and pieces you can play with. Then... she got to the part where the envelope was and saw the photos. Her face scrunched up like she'd eaten a sour pickle, turned red, and the tears came. It was beautiful. It was just the effect that I'd hoped for!!! Kevin got Dad to come over and look too. It was pretty neat. We had fun all weekend doing "the reveal" for other family members, having them find the photos while reading the purse book.

Of course, Kevin's needed equal drama for his big reveal to his mother. We bought him a plane ticket to Florida, and he flew in Friday afternoon unannounced and rented a car. Kevin drove to his grandma's, told Grandma and then they went to his mom and dad's in the rental car. Kevin went and hid at the side of their house while Grandma went inside and got Kevin's parents to come outside to look at this car that she was thinking of buying (aka... Kevin's rental car). Kevin had the pictures of the baby framed in the trunk. Kevin's mom and dad took a look at the car... all the while Kevin was on his cell phone with his mom on her cell phone. Kevin's mom thought he was up here in Indiana. Kevin snuck through their house and waited. Grandma opened the trunk to show Kevin's mom and dad what someone had left in the truck of this car. Kevin's mom started looking at the framed photos of this baby, and remarked "What a cute baby." With the view of the house blocked by the trunk lid, Kevin stuck out the front door and came up behind his mother and surprised her with, "That's your grandbaby!" Obviously she was very startled and surprised and overjoyed and there was a bunch of screaming and crying outside of the house last night. They called me a few minutes later so I could share in on the excitement!

So, sorry there's no baby pictures to ooh and ahh over, and sorry that I had to wait 10 days to post about it... but it's been lots of fun surprising people! Everyone keeps asking... how long until you get to bring her home? Who knows... I'm telling people 4-10 months. I'd be thrilled if the adoption is finalized in Taiwan before the end of the year, but I'm not betting on it. Everything thus far has gone so much slower than anticipated, that I'm trying very hard not to place any more expectations on a timeline. It happens when it happens, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it except to complete my paperwork thoroughly and timely when prompted and do a lot of praying.

You can add our itty bitty girl to your prayer list as she needs to grow grow grow and learn all she can. Pray that she attaches to her caregivers and feels loved and secure. Pray for her caretakers as they help this preemie and many other babies through challenges. Pray for her birthfamily and their loss as they cope with not being able take care of their child. The baby is truly loved by them as evident by the meaning of her name... worthy of celebration.

And... I'm starting to cry again. She's so worthy of celebration, and we're been having a lot of fun celebrating her. We love you so much already, little one.

Memorial Day Weekend Photos

finding beauty in the weeds - Kevin's photos

While waiting for the new pontoon boat to be delivered this weekend, Kevin took some really great photos of dandelions.

laughed so hard my gut hurt

Tonight I get a message from my adoption bloggin' friend Rebecca. She tells me to check her post from today. I can't remember a time in recent history when I've laughed so hard that my gut hurt! (click for link)

For the record, I love eBay. I live 45 minutes away from a mall, and I can shop for anything I can dream up at 12:59am from the comfort of my own home. Pipe bombs and anthrax HAVE NOT been at the top of my eBay favorites list. I'm really looking at into custom made children's clothing right now. Imagine that! (Kevin, I'm just looking... I'm not buying... I swear.)

I'm busy trying to get life back together after being gone for a long weekend. I have wonderful photos from the lake this weekend that I hope to post soon.

loss of Cinderella

Steven Curtis Chapman's 5-year-old daughter Maria was struck and killed in a car accident in the driveway of their home today. The vehicle in the accident was driven by a teenage son. My heart goes out to the family tonight, especially for a hurting big brother that must feel pain that's more than I can imagine. This contemporary Christian music artist and his voice for international adoption has been inspirational to me during our adoption journey.

15 months

Yeah yeah yeah, all I have are babydog photos to put in my posts. She's pretty cute though!

It's hard being patient.

Romans 12:12 "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer."

It's hard being patient. It's hard not to stare at the phone, wishing it to ring. It's hard not to concentrate my eyes on the computer screen, wishing the in-box to "ding!" announcing new e-mail.

With a three day weekend just around the corner and plans to spend it at the lake with family, I'm looking forward to going away. So far it looks like the weather will be cooperating! I'll be bringing my sunscreen, as Grandpa and Grandma bought a new pontoon boat that arrives Thursday. They'll be lots of things to do and people to talk to. I volunteered Kevin to sand and paint my Grandpa's flag pole. Kevin's very respectful of the flag and quite handy, so he's the right person for this job. I hope to sneak in some snuggle time with my cousin's new baby boy too, of course!

More fun than eBay

I've discovered a blog called "One Child at a Time" that auctions pretty things off to raise money for a baby in China that needs a life saving surgery. The little girl is with the Starfish Foster home that cares for orphaned children with severe special needs. When I found a pink and brown taggie blanket for Hannah, I'm like, "WOO HOO!" Anyway, I won my auction! They have some beautiful custom white and pink toile crib bedding that's going to go really cheap if more don't start bidding. Cute, cute, cute clothes too. Yeah yeah, last thing I need is more baby clothes! I'm trying my best to refrain, and I've been good lately.

Miso Pretty Giveaway benefitting Chinese orphanage damaged by earthquake

My friend Rebecca is having a good fun giveaway benefiting China's Hanzhong orphanage that was damaged in the recent earthquakes. The prize bag contains a Miso Pretty tote bag, beauty kit, and foaming bath sake. Suggested donation is $3 per entry. The children in this orphanage have moderate to severe special needs and are currently being cared for in tents until there is someplace safe for them to go. 100% of the donations raised will be donated to a fund to care for children in this orphanage.

I have a Miso pretty tote bag and I love it. :)

Simply Taiwan

I've been following Andrea's blog "Following an Unknown Path" for several months. She's an American living and working in Taiwan for the last five years, and we're about the same age. Andrea has started a series titled "Simply Taiwan" where she's doing a series of simple posts about everyday life in Taiwan. The first two posts are about squatty potties and shopping carts. She's also welcoming suggestions about what you'd like to see about life in Taiwan. Pretty cool eh? She has a nice blog header too... wonder who did that? (wink wink) Hopefully we'll be able to meet up when we'd travel to Taiwan, and I'd be ever so grateful for a little tour of Tainan.

Care package from Janalee: I have the best bloggy friends!

Today we had a special delivery. It wasn't brought by a stork or an adoption agency, but is was pretty special and brought happy tears to my eyes. (Read that Janalee, HAPPY TEARS! You didn't make me sad!) I opened it up to find all sorts of special things from Taiwan adoptive mom Janalee. She's been following our journey and our frustrations, and she sent a whole lot of little happy things in a box. There's a card with a touching note with a little "h" on the front. (I wanna little "H.") There's a Willow Tree figure and lotions for me, and books, sunglasses, and the softest most precious little doll for Miss Hannah. I love this doll. I'm a tactile person... always had a soft blankie as a kid, and the texture of this doll's dress is so comforting. I love it. Love it, love it. Did I forget to mention how sweet this doll is? Anyway... thank you, Janalee. This made my day. The support of adoptive mothers who have been there, done that, is reassuring.

And just for kicks... here are the outtakes from my photography session with the babydog.

What would have happened in my life if I hadn't waited?

Yep, I've been quiet. I haven't had anything to say. I'm used to being the boss. I'm the one who usually tells others about how long they'll have to wait. As much as I really don't like it, sometimes you just have to shut up and wait.

If I wasn't doing this (waiting for an adoption referral for our child in Taiwan), I have no clue what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. Not a clue! People ask me, "What about other programs?" I look at other adoption programs and shake my head no. This one's it. This is for us. It just isn't moving at the speed of my expectations. If God wants me to be doing something else with my life, I need a bigger sign... because I'm not seeing it.

Thought for the day: Kevin and I met face-to-face at a movie theater. For the Hoosiers in the audience, it was at the United Artists Galaxy 14 on 96th Street in Indianapolis on a very windy day in March 1998. I showed up about 15 minutes early. Had my hair all done, clothes and makeup just right... I was ready to meet this guy that I had talked to on the phone. I waited, and I waited, and I waited. I was so mad, so sad. I thought I had been stood up. I almost left the theater so many times, but I waited. And... he finally came... 45 minutes late! We missed our movie time for Jackie Chan's "Mr. Nice Guy" and went to McDonald's across the street until it was time for the next showing.

What would have happened in my life if I hadn't waited?

Guide to the BIG SALES on National Scrapbooking Day!

My digiscrappin' friend Melissa sent me this link to the BIG SALES for tomorrow's National Scrapbooking Day. Oh my! The credit card is gonna be sizzling with online sales tomorrow! Shabby Miss Jenn has several $1 kits that I have my eye on. If you digiscrap or you are wanting to start, go shop tomorrow!

something good to say

I did a blog design this morning for Michelle. Believe it or not, her blog's address is http://waitingisgood.blogspot.com. Waiting is good? (Scratching my head.) Well, maybe a little waiting is good, but a lot of waiting makes you (aka me) cry a lot and gain back the 35 pounds you just lost at the beginning of the adoption journey.

I'm getting off track. ANYWAY, Michelle writes, "Waiting is like a weed. We can try to get rid of it, complain about and hate "looking" at it. Or we can change our perspective and look for the joy in it. Maybe if we try hard enough, this field of waiting weeds will turn into a flower garden of good things."

Inspired by Michelle, I'm going to try to find joy in my weeds tomorrow. If that doesn't work, I'm bringing out the Roundup sprayer and going to Zestos for ice cream.

"If you don't have anything good to say, then..."

baby bears, big south facing windows, and nap time

Kevin is big into light control. He's always made sure that we had "blackout" blinds for our bedroom so we can turn the room into a dark cave for sleeping bears any time of day. We're big fans of Bali midnight blinds after installing them in our last two homes. This time we chose the cordless option to prevent problems with kids vs. cords. Our nursery is a south facing room. Of course Papa Bear's next task for the nursery was to cover up this huge window up with blackout blinds. I hear that more sleep for Baby Bear equals more sleep for Papa Bear and Mama Bear. Mr. Sunshine will not be permitted to be the cause of keeping Baby Bear from any nap time.

14 months

I made this with my favorite digital scrapbooking kit. It's new from Weeds and Wildflowers and is called "Grandma's Pressed Flowers." This page was a labor of love and took well over an hour to carefully place over 80 little pressed flower bits just where I wanted them to fall. I made it this way so we could use it to announce the referral and use it as the cover of her baby book. Unfortunately, it's turned into a 14 months waiting page.

I found a poem this week that is a great description of what waiting on edge to be matched with a child feels like.

Daydreaming by Tom Fisher

I stepped into her room today
Knowing she’s not there
This waiting for referral
Is more than one can bear

But taking in the moment
I sit down on the floor
And dream of her here with me
When waiting is no more.

A little giggle fills the air
As I rub her feet
I place my hand upon her heart
To feel its every beat.

A song is sung so very soft
Her eyes begin to close
She’s meeting me in dream land
A place where love still grows.

My vision now is very blurred
The tears stream down my cheeks
I’ve dreamed of her quite often
Throughout these past few weeks.

Suddenly a sound is heard
The phone rings in the hall
Waking up I quickly pray
Please let it be “The Call”.

Therefore, I design blogs.

Things are rockin' at Blogovers with Love. We now have FIVE, yes five volunteer blog designers, that are ready to bling your blog in exchange for your donation to benefit orphans in Taiwan and China. Donations in April and May 2008 will be forwarded to Half the Sky. Half the sky has a number of programs that benefit children in orphanages in China, including training for nannies to prevent institutionalization disorders, preschool programs, and individualized programs for older children. We have several blog designs in the works right now, and there's room for lots more. I'm so excited that a little seed of an idea that I had, and that Rebecca helped me water and grow... has gotten so big!

I don't sew. I can't paint or draw. You wouldn't enjoy hearing me sing. I fall asleep when I read, and I certainly don't cook if it requires much more work than pressing buttons on a microwave. (That's why I married a man that was an Army cook.) Therefore, I design blogs.

P.S. Lisa, I've answered your question in the comments section. Thanks. :)

Easyclosets.com Gets Two Thumbs Up

As I posted earlier, we were horribly disappointed with the signature series ClosetMaid system that we bought at Lowes. The fiberboard was all gouged and wasn't very nice quality at all, so we returned every last piece and started from scratch, looking for online custom closet retailers.

Easyclosets.com is an excellent example of everything that an online retailer should be. We designed our closets online with their great web tools. We could design our closets using all available space, and could tell them how we wanted it laid out within fractions of an inch. We placed our order on Saturday night, the closet system was shipped on Monday from New Jersey, and UPS delivered it in seven boxes Wednesday afternoon. The most impressive part of the experience was checking out how securely that they packed the boards so that each piece would arrive without any dents or scratches. ClosetMaid could learn a thing or two from Easyclosets.com. It took about three hours to install the closet system with a very minimal amount of expletives. But, I guess I watched and handed Kevin screws, cams, and the drill and didn't do any actual installation work myself... so it was real easy for me!

counting the days until Mother's Day

There are only 25 days until Mother's Day 2008. (Head thumping against wall.)

gifts from Judy

Saturday we were treated to a very special package in the mail. Judy sent us a little package of genuine Taiwanese pineapple cakes that she brought home from Taiwan and a light yellow smog mask. We enjoyed two of the little cakes at home and brought the remaining two to my mom and dad as an after dinner treat at family lunch today. The little cakes are beautifully wrapped, heart shaped, crumbly, and filled with pineapple goodness. The smog mask has a little bunny embroidered on one side. Mask didn't fit me, certainly didn't fit Kevin, and was too big for the babydog. It must be for Hannah! I packed the smog mask away in Hannah Claire's accessory drawer with her sunglasses. Where do you all keep your smog masks? :) Thanks, Judy!

An update regarding this weekend's closet remodel: The ClosetMaid system was badly damaged inside the boxes when we brought it home from Lowe's. Dear ClosetMaid, Huge gouges in MDF are not acceptable for my baby girl's closet. I painted the closet with two coats of a creamy color called "toast", and we ordered another manufacturer's closet system online that should arrive within three business days. Kevin says that he wants to go back to Lowe's and see if they have a slightly darker paint color called "crust" that we can paint around the edges of the "toast" colored closet. Yep. That's my husband!

false labor

Today I got a phone call from the adoption agency while at work. That's never happened before. When I heard who it was, I made this GIANT LOUD SHARP INHALING BREATHING ALMOST SUCKING SOUND. I thought it was THE CALL. My heart leaped and my mind raced. This is it?!?!?! Is this it?!?!?! Oh... it's not. Uh, I'm embarrassed. Sorry to freak out on you. After the call, I laughed really hard at myself and shed a few silly tears. Oh well. At least I know how I respond when I'm surprised thinking this is THE CALL. And our lives go on. Can't decide, white or beige for the inside of that closet? Beige might show less dirt, but white might be brighter. Trying to "think positive" happy thoughts blah blah blah.

My girl needs a closet

My girl needs a well organized closet. Her nursery isn't very big, so the closet needs to be able to contain a whole lotta clothes (cough cough... I just might enjoy buying her new clothes now and then), toys, and supplies. We visited Lowes tonight to do some research, and then went home to measure the closet and plan the layout with the help of the ClosetMaid website. Our plans this weekend involve painting the closet a fresh neutral coat of paint, then purchasing and installing the system. No nights out on the town, and no dim sum adventures this weekend. Just two wanna-be parents with paintbrushes, screwdrivers, saws, frustrated over confusing directions, and whole lotta hope for good things to come. I still can't bring myself to paint the nursery walls yet. If something went wrong, I couldn't stand painting over pretty walls meant for our daughter.

Chicago Part 1: The Hyatt

Kevin and I have been talking about needing to get outta town for the past month. We're hanging around home, not going anywhere, trying to save money for adoption expenses, and not being our usual adventurous selves. I was so excited when he came by work on Thursday afternoon and surprised me with a note book with our Chicago trip itinerary. Kevin used Priceline to book us a four star hotel in Chicago, and chance got us the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place which was within 6-7 blocks of Chicago's Chinatown. We arrived late on Friday night after a long drive, and ordered room service. We were on the 20th floor and had a great view of downtown. We left the curtains open at night so we could see all of the lights in the skyline.

Chicago Part 2: Ni Hao, Chinatown!

On Saturday morning we woke up early and headed out. The weathermen forcasted a beautiful sunny day in the low 60s, perfect April weather to wander around Chinatown. We thought it would only be a 6-7 block walk, but chose to take a taxi just to be sure. Better safe than sorry! Our cab driver dropped us off at the gates. There were lots of people in the streets, but no tourists like us. Neighborhood people were out and about, and going to the Chinese bakeries. The shops and groceries weren't open yet. We walked around peering into shop windows and checking out architecture. After walking by bakery after bakery, we decided to go in and get some of these Chinese biscuits that I've heard so much about. There were mostly older men inside sipping coffee, eating biscuits, and laughing with friends. I was one of the few females in the bakery, and we were the only non-Asians there for sure. My biscuits were an egg and bacon and then a biscuit that had a almond cookie top with red bean baste in the middle. They were heavenly! We'll show more bakery photos a little later. We walked around for a little longer, and Kevin went into another bakery. This time he bought us almond cookies and wintermelon cookies. Shops were starting to open up. We saw so much ginseng, dried mushrooms, and dried sea life for sale in little glass jars. There were lots of little grocery stories with sea life smells that weren't so pleasing to my nose. I think I'll stick to the bakeries.

Thanks to my adopting friend Erin, we knew to visit an outdoor mall. It had professional shops, lots of restaurants, groceries, cell phone depos, and bubble tea cafes. Erin recommended a little restaurant at the west end of the mall, and we decided to go in for some dim sum.

Chicago Part 3: Chinese Bakery Breakfasts

Here are our two days worth of photos from our Chinese bakery breakfasts. I think that we ate our way through Chinatown. Mmmmm. The top left one is a biscuit with an almond cookie on top with red bean baste in the middle. Top right is a "sausage biscuit" which was like a plain biscuit with several pieces of a Slim Jim beef stick cooked into it. Second from the top on the left had egg, carrott, and peas. Next down is Kevin eating egg and ham. Bottom photo is a shot of our box that biscuits came in, as well as some mini moon cakes that we brought home and have yet to try. The big photo in the center is my favorite, bacon and egg, next to the almond cookie topped biscuit.
Mmmmm. Kevin's a happy boy here with his biscuit. I wish somplace around here in the corn and soybean fields would make Chinese biscuits. I think I'd rather have these than doughnuts any day. The bread texture is soft, a lot like King's Hawaiian bread, but they're not as sweet.

Chicago Part 4: Dim Sum for Two

We had our first taste of dim sum for lunch on Saturday. Dim Sum is a kid of Chinese cuisine that involves a variety of small light dishes served with tea. A lot of the items are steamed, and served in steamer baskets. We placed our order at our table by checking off boxes on the menu of what we'd like. I've included photos above with what we ordered. We were served a large pot of tea with loose leaves, and then one by one dishes were brought out to us.

I was really excited to have congee, a kind of porridge, because I know that it is a first food of Chinese and Taiwanese children. I liked the congee, but was surprised that I found lots of bones in my soup, and would have to spit them back out into the spoon and then onto the plate. Guess I'm just not used to bones in my soup! The pan cake was really greasy and we didn't care for it. Kevin especially liked the fragrant chicken sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaf. It was beautiful, and smelled even better. The BBQ pork buns were so so. I'd like to have regular steamed buns next time. The coconut milk cake tasted like coconut milk jello and cut the grease taste out of my mouth after dinner. When we were ready to leave about noon, the restaurant was packed and people were lined out the door to get in. One of the most challenging parts of our dim sum dining experience is that we weren't provided forks. We ate our meal with chopsticks like everyone else! Again, we were the only non-Asians in the restaurant. Guess we picked a good place for lunch!

Chicago Part 5: Chinese Christian Bookstore, Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium

Another great stop in Chinatown included the Pui Tak Christian Bookstore. They have lots of great framed verses in Chinese calligraphy with beautiful artwork. We purchased a verse for our home, as well as several smaller pieces to give as gifts. They have a children's area that has several books that I've been admiring on Amazon. Most are Chinese folk tales written in English with lots of pictures. Put this shop on your to-do list if you're thinking of visiting the area. Kevin bought a book that has lots of illustrations showing how Chinese characters evolved from pictographs. We also bought a CD that's meant to help small children learn Mandarin. The Pui Tak building is just south of the Chinatown gate on the west side of the street.

Whew! You'd think Chicago's Chinatown is a huge place by all of those previous posts, but it's really not. We're obviously just super interested, and it's so new and fascinating to us that we treasured every minute. On Saturday afternoon we visited the Adler Planetarium and spent several hours at the Shedd Aquarium on Sunday. Kevin really enjoyed going inside of the Atwood Sphere. This is Chicago's oldest planetarium, constructed in 1913. It is made of metal and is only 15 feet in diameter. My favorite thing to see at the aquarium is always the electric eels. (I have pictures, but I'll spare you their scary green faces!) Both days were beautiful, and we spent some time in the park enjoying the sunshine.

Chicago Part 6: The Phoenix

Okay, this is the last in the series in posts about our trip. Last but not least... it's about more Chinese food! On Saturday night we selected The Phoenix. They have a snazzy website if you want to check it out. Kevin loves to compare and contrast hot and sour soup between restaurants. The Phoenix's version was extra hot and not too sour. He thinks that the hot and sour soup at our hometown's Chinese restaurant is the best there is. Kevin also ordered beef with X.O. sauce because we both had no idea what in the world X.O. sauce is. Whatever it is... it's great! After returning home we learned that X.O. sauce is a spicy seafood sauce developed in the 80s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine. I had a seafood soup that had bits of shrimp and other seafood in an egg drop soup base, as well as crispy orange chicken. Mmmmmm. Kevin once again was determined to only use chop sticks, while I'm quite content to use a fork. I've already planned on bringing wrapped Wendy's forks, spoons, and knives with me in my purse to Taiwan! Kevin can drop all of the food off his chopsticks and right on to his shirt that he wants to.

Did you see that fortune from Kevin's fortune cookie? It says, "You will soon be receiving some good written news." Soon? How soon? Tonight? This week? This month? I'm still here, hitting the send/receive button, praying for some of that good news to come our way.

Preview: Ni Hao, Chinatown!

We've been talking about getting out of town for a couple of weeks. It's no fun just sitting at home boo hooing just waiting for something to happen. Kevin took the initiative today and made us reservations at a four star hotel in Chicago, and we're going to Chinatown, baby! There's no dim sum and Chinese bakeries to be found around here in the corn and soybeans of rural Indiana, so we'll head to Chicago for some action on Friday night. If any midwesterners have been to Chicago's Chinatown and have some suggestions, leave us a comment before mid-day Friday and we'll try to check them out.

Blogovers with Love - now with a team of four!

I'm very pleased that Blogovers with Love has grown! We've added a third, and now a fourth blog designer. Blogovers with Love creates blog designs for Blogger blogs in exchange for your donation benefiting orphaned children in Taiwan and China. With a crew of four, we're really looking for some more blogs to bling. Blogovers completed in April and May 2008 will benefit Half the Sky, an organization that enriches the lives of thousands of China's orphaned children. Feel free to use the above graphic that I've created as an ad on your blog to spread the word. Thanks!

Patience.

Song for Lucy - the video

Jackie and family at Taiwan Lucy have made a Youtube video of their "Song for Lucy." It's beautiful. I cry every time I watch it. If it touches your heart too, stop by their blog and leave them a message. It's been six months since their referral of lil' Lucy. It took a long time to get logged into court, so things are taking awhile. I think they could use some uplifting words of encouragement.

My 31st Birthday

Happy birthday to me! I'll be at work. Guess that means I'm a grown-up. I was out with girls on birthday eve. Had such a good time I can't even blog about it!

Kevin came home on Wednesday night, and we went out for Chinese. I think our friends at the Chinese restaurant feel really bad for us. We're welcomed with, "Ni Hao, Sarah... Kevin. When you get baby?" Heehee. That's pretty straight and to the point, isn't it? My reply, "No baby. More wait. More love for baby with more wait." Then we get big hugs.

I mentioned to Kevin that I might like an external hard drive to store my digital scrapbooking files, then I could transport them around between computers and travel with them. Kevin gets excited when I give the green light to anything electronic. My birthday present was a little pink external hard drive that's about the size of my hand. I need a faster USB port though. It's pretty slow. I backed up my 10 gigs of scrapbooking files onto the external, and it took over 200 minutes to copy. Woah!

Okay, enough geek talk for tonight. This birthday girl has got to get to bed. I'm feeling old now.

Life is precious.

Please say a prayer for Kristy, an Australian newlywed, who's husband died in a boating accident on Easter. I'd met her online recently while creating a blog design for her. She just married in January and started her blog titled "My Life as a South-East Country Wife." Here is a link to a news article, published before they found him. Life is precious.

I called Kevin today and asked when he's coming home. I miss him. It's really lonely here without him, and half the town is in FL on spring break. Sedona misses him too. She becomes "velcro dog" when he's away, wanting all of my attention.

Retail Therapy: After Easter Sale

As soon as I saw this dress a month or two ago, I knew that it belonged in the closet of Hannah Claire's pink and brown nursery. It hit 40% off TODAY. I expect a little Gymboree package to be on my doorstep later this week. Yippie!

Blogging fashion report: Rose, one of my favorite little blogees, wore this dress for Easter too. M3's salsa twins were both sugary sweet in pink and brown Easter dresses this year.

26 and 1/2 months

Jennifer and family got the referral call for their son in Taiwan! Party time!!! They waited 26 and 1/2 months for the referral in another program. (Gulp.) Man, I've only waited half that amount of time... and it's torture.

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.