Nine Weeks Until We Go to China!

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So Close and Yet So Far...

I got an email today from Stephanie at Great Wall letting me know that she received our I800. Waahoo!! Though it was good to hear last Friday that we were approved, we need the actual document to file the next round of paperwork.

Now I don’t know why I do this to myself but I was reading a thread on Rumor Queen, (a China adoption forum), and it had this chart that showed the time it took other families from the point we are now until the time they got their Travel Approval. Most families fell between 60 and 70 days. BUT, there is this one family, just one, but one just recently, that traveled in only 45 days!

DID YOU HEAR ME?  45 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know I should not get my hopes up but I am asking you all to send me your prayers that we too can be that LUCKY family. Of course we already ARE that lucky family but lucky and fast is good too.

Also can you say that same prayer for speed for my fellow Great Wall AP Robyn who is adopting a beautiful little boy Charlie who was Macy's foster brother.   I am disappointed we won't travel together but I am thrilled she is close to meeting her son.

In the meantime we are sending a new care package to Macy. This time we sent a cake and candies to her foster family and for Macy we sent a traditional Chinese New Year's outfit and a necklace I had made with a photo of our family in it. As part of the service we get to send Macy a letter which is translated into Chinese and hopefully read to her by her foster mother. My goodness what do you say to a 3 year old. (sigh), I'm not sure I got this right. How do I express the depth of my feelings for her in a way that wont terrify her? I did my best and here is what I ended up sending...

"Dearest Daughter we miss you everyday and we wish we could be with you now. We have to complete a lot of paperwork to get permission to go to you. We are working hard to finish it as quickly as possible and we hope to come to China by April. Please be a good girl while you wait for us. We hope you will not be afraid of us and that you will let us hug you when we come for you. We love you so much but we know you might be a little scared of us. We promise to always take care of you and love you so you do not have to be afraid.


We are sending you a picture of us so you will know us when we meet in the spring. Do you know that you have three brothers and a sister? Your sister Nina is three years old just like you! She can't wait to play with you and take you to school with her. We are also sending you some gifts including new clothes for Chinese New Year and a very special necklace. It has a picture of us, your forever family. We hope you will wear it and think of us everyday. The red card is one we are sending to all of our friends and family to tell them about you. Everyone is so excited to meet you. We put you right in the middle because you are so beautiful and we are already so proud of you!


Sweet little Li Ping have a wonderful Chinese New Year's celebration. Know that we love you and we will be with you soon.


Hugs and kisses,


Mommy and Daddy"

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What's in a Name?

MACY LISABEL LI PING PRINTY

Macy: Gift of the Lord (female form of Matthew)

Lisabel: God's Promise (and honors my sister soul mate Lisa)

Li: Beautiful

Ping: Peaceful

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Making My Hubby the Social Studies Teacher Proud

I just found a Yahoo Group for parents who have children adopted from Guizhou, (that's where Macy is). It is so nice to connect with people who have traveled to Guizhou. Guizhou is a more remote part of China and there aren't  many children adopted from this region of China so this gathering of Guizhou adoptive parents is invaluable.  Already people have reached out to offer advice and share their experiences.

It got me thinking that I really should learn something about where my daughter is.  Here are some factoids about Macy's Province.

(In case you wondered the numbers on the map show our expected travel intinery.  We expect to 1) fly to Beijing where we tour the fobidden city and the Great Wall, 2) fly to Guizhou to pick up Macy ad hopefully meet her foster family 3) fly to Guangzhou to complete the formalities of th adoption and then probably take a train to Hong Kong for our long flight home... but more on that later)

• Guizhou is located in the remote southern part of China not far from Vietnam.  It is relatively poor and undeveloped compared to other areas of China (which is saying something). Most of the 39 million people who live here are considered to be extremely poor. The average GDP per person in Guizhou is about four hundred and seventy US dollars which is very low compared to other provinces in China.

• Guizhou has a subtropical humid climate. There are few seasonal changes. Its annual average temperature is roughly 50 to 68 °F.  When we travel in March/April the average high temps will be between 69 and  73 °F. Like home, spring is the rainy season so we will need to take our raincoats and umbrellas. (Hmmm can't you just imagine Macy in a little ladybug raincoat? *squeal*)

• Although the climate is "sub tropical" most homes do not have any heating source. This is why in her photos Macy is seen wearing a snow suit indoors.

• Mountains and plateaus make up some 65% of Guizhou's topography. The terrain is rugged, with karst formations, underground rivers, jagged peaks, dramatic valleys, and terraced rice fields.

• Guizhou is one of the provinces that contains a large number of minority groups. The minority groups account for more than 37% of the total population and they include Yao, Miao (including Gha-Mu and A-Hmao), Yi, Qiang, Dong, Zhuang, Buyei, Bai, Tujia, Gelao and Shui. 55.5% of the province area is designated as autonomous regions for them. Check out this site to see photos of the  Ethnic Groups in China .

• The local dialect of Guizhou is similar to that of Sichuan. Few can understand English. Standard Mandarin can be understood by most although in the countryside and smaller cities most people may only be able to reply in their local dialect.

Photo outside the orphanage in Xingyi

View from the bedroom window of Macy's first foster home

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Wow They Didn't Have THIS in Kazakhstan!

We stayed at the Shiney River in Ust Kamenogorsk for 6 weeks.  Our second trip we had the largest suite in the joint plus a second room. But did we get anything special like say an uber fabulous Barbie with adopted Asian baby doll?  No we did not.

But when we go to China and stay just a week at the infamous White Swan Hotel we will get just that!

Something about that (correction EVERYTHING about that) just feels wrong.  Especially since I am not a blonde.

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I800a Approval!!!

Today marks three months since we found our sweet Macy. It is hard to believe we have been waiting that long and its even harder to think we are still 8-10 weeks away from traveling to China. We did get a ray of hope yesterday when Nina called us from the National Benefits Center. (That is where our I800a was being processed.) Nina needed a couple of additional pieces of documentation to approve our application. She gave me a fax number and said if you get it to me within the next hour I will approve you before I go home. Hoo Rah, you bet we got her everything she needed. She called right before 5 to let us know we were approved!!!

Now we are waiting for her to send the approval in the mail (or by email-not sure). Once we have it we can then file yet another form, the I800 (notice no "a" at the end). The I800 is the document that really gets the ball rolling in terms of calculating time. Before now we have been in a major holding pattern with no way of even guessing when we would travel. (Sadly if we hadn't had the social worker mishaps we did, we should have been able to file the I 800 the day we received our LOA, way back on November 27th. I don't know when I will get over those lost two months, arrgh!!!)

So anyway finally back on track we are looking at a departure window of the last week of March to the first week of April. So today I am going to start the friday count down from 10 weeks.  It's a worst case senario but if we go early I promise not to complain!

Here we go COUNT IT DOWN....

TEN WEEKS UNTIL WE GO TO CHINA!

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Side by Side

I know you have been dying to know which way we would go in the whole stroller debate. Well we decided that with all the travel we do (and all the shopping for pretty little girls clothes I do) we really needed wheels for the girls. Thanks to my OL friend and fellow kaz mama Leslie I found the perfect solution, the Baby Jogger City Micro DOUBLE! It only weighs 23 pounds but can haul up to 100 pounds. I figure with my two Asian birds that should get them to at least middle school. The best part is how this thing folds up. This is my eighth stroller and the first that folds as easily as advertised.

I took Nina for a whirl in it last night and the reality that I have another one on the way washed over me, more vivid than ever.  Oh my gosh I can not wait for Macy to get her.  Waiting is getting harder now that the distractions of the holidays and vacation are behind me.  I need my Macy.

(LONG SIGH)

So anyway, now that you know which stroller we decided on you can all go back to sleeping at night, stop worrying and return to your normal lives. The Printy girls will be cruising side by side sometime very very soon!

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Ding Dong, Stroller Man

My mother told me the other day that she bought my stroller from a door-to-door salesman. Wow people earned a living selling strollers door to door? Am I THAT old? (Answer-YES, and spellchecker just tried to correct the out of date term “salesman” to “salesperson”.) Apparently my delivered to the door stroller weighed 50 pounds had white wall tires, a metal feeding tray and converted from a pram to a stroller to a highchair and then to a table and chair!!!! Seriously a table and chairs?  But hey gotta dig the white walls right?

I am not looking for anything quite that fantastical but I am in the market for a basic double stroller. Well at least I think I am. By the time Macy gets home she will be 3 ¾ years old and her near twin Nina will be almost 3 ½ .  Ordinarily I would think our stroller days were behind us but they are both small girls (they are each just shy of 36 inches tall) and I think they may still need to hitch a ride every now and again. What do you all think stroller or no stroller?

And oh yeah did anyone else’s mother buy a stroller/table and chair set from a door to door saleman?

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Oh No Blogger Won't Go...the Great Fire Wall of China

Say it isn’t so!!!! I just found out that I won’t be able to update this blog while we are in China. Apparently the vast majority of all Blogger blogs are blocked by the government. (Say that three times fast, “Blogger blog blocked by the government…”) Anyway, I was able to check using an online tool and sure enough “Boys and Curls” must be on the subversive list because access was definitely denied. I trust you agree that this is neither acceptable to you, my loyal voyeuristic readers nor to me, boundary less exhibitionist obsessed with documenting every mundane detail of my suburban life that I am.

Since I probably don’t have time to change the Chinese government’s policy as it relates to the unfair censorship of family friendly blogs, I am going to have to jump to a more communist friendly format. I am still trying to figure out what will work best for us. Someone recommend Shutterfly and I know there are services out there that cater to China adoptive families (duh now I know why). If anyone has a suggestion please let me know. I am already breaking out in a cold sweat thinking about having to learn a new software.

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Nina Bea Turns Three!

This is a little late in coming but I am sure you will forgive me once you see the cute as can be pictures of Miss Bea. They were taken on Christmas night, Nina's 3rd birthday by the cruise ship photographer. Nina still doesn't have a pretty posed smile (its more of a hard and determined "cheeeeeese") but oh my gosh her expressions in these few photos just melts me.

Christmas time also marked one year that Nina has been home forever. I am told you never really get over that "look how far she's come" feeling. We certainly aren't anywhere close. Every day we continue to be amazed by how smart and funny and beautiful and altogether wonderful this child is. Moreover we can't believe how entirely perfect she is for and with our family. We still feel like the luckiest family in the world.

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New Pictures of Our Sweet Macy

My best Christmas present this year came on December 19th when I received new photos of Macy.  We were in Barcelona at the time and I was checking emails at the hotel when I found an email from Ann at Red Thread.  We have been working with Ann to send a package of Christmas gifts to Macy.  As part of the service she was able to get the updated photos for us.  

It has been more than two and a half months since we were matched with Macy and it looks like we still have another three and a half months to wait.  Hopefully we will be able to send some other packages and get another set or two of photos to help us make it through the next few months.  To me Macy already looks older and it makes me sad that we are losing so much time with her, we've already missed so much.  The photos at least give us some contact with our beautiful baby girl and as we have learned through our experience adopting Nina, we just have to focus on getting to Gotcha Day when Macy will be part of our family forever more.

As far as adoption processing goes, we are making slow and steady progress.  Our homestudy is complete and our application was received by USCIS on December 10th.  We have our fingerprint appointments this week (January 15th) and we should get our approval shortly after that.  I hope.

Once we get our immigration approval we then file with the US Consulate.  This takes about 10 days.  Then we wait for our Article 5 to be delivered to the CCAA.  This can take as long as 6 weeks (but I am hoping this might be quicker since all of the other steps with China have been way ahead of schedule (fingers crossed...the only hitch is we are getting close to Chinese New Year and all prosessing is sure to slow down). Anyway about 2 weeks after the Article 5 comes Travel Approval and then finally about 3 weeks later we depart for China!  So all together it looks like we are still 14 weeks away from travel (sigh), which puts us back to about April 25. Well at least the weather will be warmer.

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Is it 2010 already????

There should be a limit to the length of any family vacation …I’m thinking 3 days… a day shy of 3weeks, for sure that is way too long!!! I don’t want to be a complainer because it really was an amazing experience but seriously what was I thinking bringing a barely 3 year old to Europe???? Don’t let the pictures fool you the truth is there were times when I thought The Nanny would appear to perform an emergency family intervention. I am hoping it is like childbirth and overtime I will forget the pain and just remember the good stuff. It’s gonna take A LOT of time.

There were plenty good even great moments but they were MOMENTS not hours or days or weeks. That’s life though imperfect and messy. I loved watching Nolan marvel at the Coliseum in Rome and collect soccer jerseys in each city we visited. Nina was like our family ambassador to the world. She charmed everyone she met (except us of course) and everyone seemed to think she looked; Spanish, Italian, Egyptian, Greek, Turkish and claimed her as their own. Kiefer was thrilled to get to play poker in the casino and even walked away the big winner on the last night. I had to laugh at Aidan who made me go to every show on the ship with him. Dart was a kid in a candy shop with all the history around him. In Rome and Pompeii, he was positively giddy. That was the good stuff.

Then of course there were the not so good moments. The best (worst) was in the St Peter’s Basilica in Rome where Nina pitched a fit for the record books. She screamed and kicked, she hit herself and me, she arched her back and I’m not sure but her head might have spun 360 degrees. I about ran out of the church. In the midst of this toddler exorcism, she managed to kick off her shoe and I heard a man running behind me “signora, signora”. Mortified, I got the shoe back from him and escaped outside only to learn she had also kicked off a sock. I am sure it is still in there, our generous donation to the Popa.

So we traveled the Med and celebrated; Christmas and New Years and Nina’s Birthday and our Anniversary and Gotcha day at sea. We rode camels at the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Climbed the top of the Acropolis in Athens. We saw the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican , did a six person wave in the Coliseum, tossed coins in the Trevi Fountain. We cheered for football (soccer) in Barcelona and stood at the gate to Asia Minor in Ephesus. But best of all we spent 20 long wonderfully imperfect days together (and lived to blog about it!)

Christmas Morning at Sea

Great Pyramids of Egypt

Atop the Acropolis in Athens

The ruins of Pompeii

The Colosseum in Rome

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