I'm Throwing you a Bone

Progress in Meili's room:

Here are two pictures, me taping and me doing some touch-up painting. So now you can see the paint color change. From drab white to a warm color called "Oat Cake". By the way did you notice the nice derriere? Believe it or not it may just be my nicer side in these pictures as I was wearing no make-up and just looked lovely. Vaavaavooom

Well the room is actually almost totally done, but but but I just cannot reveal it until we have everything in place, sorry. You will just have to be patient and wait.

I'm getting really good (not really) at waiting. The CCAA (CHINA government agency) just matched babies with people whose paperwork (LID) was dated June 16 - 28, 2005.

Reminder: ours is dated 11/18/05. Yeah we're in for a long haul. Pray for us and everyone still waiting. Congratulations to those who just got matched!

Go to http://www.junejitterbugs2005.homestead.com/index.html (takes awhile to load because of all the cute pictures) to see some of the sweet babies matched with families recently.

Thanks for following along.

Dana

Meili's Room

Thanks to the help and work of an incredible designer Lissette, I am making progress (in fact its almost done) towards completing Meili's room. I am not going to post any pictures until it is completely done, however I will post a before picture and maybe some of the in progress pictures. This way you will be waiting with baited breath and checking back often to see if I have posted the "reveal" pictures.

We kind of pulled a "WHILE YOU WERE OUT" (show on TLC) on Burt (DH) and all but finished the room last Friday. I was hoping for more of a recation like a few tears or even a big WOW, or Ho Wa, (inside joke) but Lissette warned me not to expect much. After all, men just flat out don't really care that much about decor. He did say that he had never lived in a house with a room like that and now we need to do the rest of the house and if we did it would sell really fast if we had to sell. Lissette told me this was very complimentary and so I am glad he likes it. Really I guess what matters is that I like it and that I think Meili will like it.

• Do I like it? It has a lot of pink and green my favorite colors. ( I have been forbidden by Lissette to buy anything else in these colors)
• Do I like it? I too have never had a room in any house I've ever lived in like this.
• Do I like it? I have to keep going in there to see if its really there.
• Do I like it? I had a hard time controlling my emotions all day while we were painting and decorating.
• Do I like it? I love it and can't wait to bring home our sweet baby girl to a room as beautiful as this.
• Do I think she will like it? I hope she will, and someday she will see the pictures and read the story of how I was so excited for her to come that I decorated a room just for her that is more beautiful and unlike any room that either her father or her mother ever had in any house they ever lived in.

Thank you Lissette for helping to make this part of my dreams come true.

Here is a before picture, hope you will come back to see the progress and finished work.

Dana

June Secret Pal Gift

I received a package this week from my DTC November 2005 Group Secret Pal. A selection of very cute baby board books and of course a wonderful card.

Thanks Secret Pal!!

Hair Bow Swap

I joined the DTC NOV 2005 Hair bow swap to exchange hair accessories with some other waiting Moms. This is the awsome package I recieved from my Swap buddy Brandi upon our return from San Diego. I love it all and getting packages with little reminders of who is on the way makes this wait a little more tolerable. Thanks for your great hair gifts Brandi.

San Diego

We just returned from San Diego on Monday 5/29. Our Nephew Lashley got married last Thursday and we went to the wedding and then stayed for the rest of the weekend and took the kids to Sea World and Lego Land. Overall it was a nice time. A few very wet moments and unhappy moments but overall we had a good time. Coming home was a long day and we took one of "Burt's Great Adventures" and went the back way through Ajo and Sells. They are about as exciting as their names and about as big as their names are long. Yawn.

The Famous, Mysterious "Brown Envelope"

We received our "Brown Envelope" two days ago. It is dated 11/22/05. Where has it been for six months? Nobody knows. It is nice to have it, at least we know that our paperwork went through the Consulate's office. What will everyone call this if they run out of brown envelopes and change to say manilla, just won't be the same. Manilla is too common.

Also, click this link www.meili100wishes.blogspot.com or the one to the right for 100 Good Wishes Quilt to see the first few quilt squares we have recieved. Thanks everyone. Have a great weekend.

100 Good Wishes Quilt

We would like to invite you to participate in helping us make a 100 Good Wishes Quilt for our daughter.

A tradition exists in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei (a.k.a. 100 Good Wishes Quilt). The family invites friends and family to contribute a square of cloth along with their wish for the baby. Part of the square goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part goes into a scrapbook with the wish for the child. It is said that the quilt contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from everyone who contributed a piece of fabric.

We would be honored if you would contribute a quilt square and a wish for our daughter to be. This tradition will show our daughter just how much she was loved before she arrived home, and it will become a special heirloom for her.

To participate please give or send to us one 7 x 7 in. square of fabric of your choice. The fabric can be new or something you already have. It could be fabric that has special meaning or just something you like. The fabric should be 100% cotton or a high quality cotton blend so it can be sewn, washed and will fit together nicely. To see some examples go to: http://www.originalquilts.com/100_good_wishes_quilts.htm

Along with the square, please send a 3 x 5 or 4 x 6 card with a small square of the material on it and your wish. The wish can be just a heartfelt thought you dream up, a famous or not-so-famous quote, song lyrics, scripture passages, a family recipe, …whatever you would like to say. It can be as plain or as fancy as you want to make it. You can hand write it, computer print it, use scrapbook supplies, scan the fabric and color print it on the paper, use cardstock, use stickers, use stamps.... it is completely up to you. (See example above)

If you will be mailing the square and wish, just fold the fabric in half and put them both in a business envelope and it will only cost you a 39 cent stamp to mail them. To get my address to send to, press the link to view complete profile on the right. On the profile page click the email link on the left hand side to send me an email requesting our address to mail a quilt square.

A link is provided on the right for these instructions once this post is old and no longer in view.

Thank you so much for helping us with this quilt. I will post pictures of it when we are done.

Trying to try not to try to obsess about the wait

This is a computer image (am I an artist or what) of me trying not to go "choco loco" as the wait seems to be extending beyond my lifetime. I think this might be another one of those "you need to learn to be more patient" lessons in my life. Just when I think I am making strides towards more control and patience with my kids and those around me, things happen to make me feel like I really have made no progress at all.

I honestly have to say that I am one of those little girls who has always wanted and dreamt about having my own little girl. With that in mind, I absolutely adore my boys, think they are the coolest most wonderful males on the earth, (next to my husband) and cannot imagine life without them. So now having waited around 37 years to have this dream come true I am losing patience. My dreams of pink and ponytails, my hopes of dolls and dressups and lip-gloss are oh so near and yet seem to be getting farther away as I write.

I am trying to be optimistic, but for those of you who know me well this is not easy. The wait for those who put in their paperwork in May of 2005 (ours is Nov 2005) is now at 11 months. SOOOOO unless things miraculously speed up who knows when we will be holding our bundle in pink. Please pray for things to speed up or at least for me to have the patience to make it through the wait. Thanks for listening to me rant..........

The Long Wait

I spoke with the Director over the China program at our adoption agency last Friday. She told me that she was predicting a 10 month wait from the time we were logged in at the CCAA in China. She also said that she was optimistic that things would start to go faster soon. So with this in mind we are hoping to get our referral by September or October. I am preparing myself for a 12 month wait just in case. Thanks for keeping in touch.

Dana

Making Hemp Necklaces

The boys are on Spring Break right now. Since we are trying to save money, (wonder why), we are not going anywhere. We bought $1.00 kits at BIG LOTS (a favorite haunt of mine), and made Hemp necklaces and bracelets. Yes, I was born in the 60's. No I am not a hippie. However, I hope my boys think I am sort of hip and not an old fart (even though I am sort of). Anyway they had fun and I did most of the complicated work of knot tying which amazed me as I am not in that state of mind. Now I know why some people give up real life and just make and sell necklaces and stuff. It was kind of relaxing. Don't worry I will stay in reality, for now anyway. If this China adoption wait gets any worse like the rumors predict, well, I can't make any promises. Anyone looking for some cool Hemp jewelry?

Secret Pal Gift

Look what I received in the mail today from my secret pal. I belong to the DTC November 2005 Yahoo group of people adopting from China who turned in their paperwork at the same time as us. I have a secret pal from my group who sent me these cute toys. What a fun surprise. Thanks Secret Pal!

Snow at our house

It is snowing today at our house. It started snowing while we were in church and then stopped. By the time we got home it was snowing at our house. We had huge flakes and it even stuck for a few minutes. The boys were thrilled!

Dana, Burt, Andrew (10) & Zach (6) Christmas Day 

Welcome to our Blog

This blog was created by Dana, to share with you, our family and friends, our journey to China for our daughter Meili Renee. (this is the name we have chosen).

Mei is the phonetic spelling for the word beauty or plum blossom in Chinese, Li means beautiful or jasmine.

We first started thinking about adopting from China when we visited there in 1999 as part of Burt's BYU MBA program international business trip. So we have had a daughter from China in our minds for a long time. Finally we decided we are in a position to do the international adoption. This is a very long and expensive process.

We started researching in in April 2005 and chose CASI Foundation for Children in Boise, Idaho as our Agency. We had to re-do our home study as the one from LDS Family services can not be used for International adoption. We got that done and then started the additional paper work needed which included fingerprinting with the CIS, medical exams, financial statements and employer letters, and a local police background check. We also had to get certified original copies of our birth certificates and marriage licence. All of the documents then had to be noterized and certified with the state seal. Needless to say, this put us out a few thousand dollars and we finally got everything finished and sent to the agency in October 2005.

The agency then sent our paperwork to DC where it received the US seal to verify the state seals and then on to the Chinese embassy to certifiy the US seal. This whole package of paperwork is our dossier. Then it was finally sent to China on November 2, 2005. This is our "DTC" (dossier to China )date. Then a few weeks later on November 18, 2005 our dossier was logged in at the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). This is our "LID" (log in date) and is the date we go by to see how soon we might receive our referral.

Our referral will be pictures and information regarding the child that has been matched with our family. Currently the wait time from LID to referral is 10 - 12 months. When we first applied, the wait time was 6 - 8 months. Unfortunately we happend to be applying just after a few months where the number of applicants was double the normal number and so there are delays trying to match the families who applied during these months. If we are lucky, they will be able to catch up somewhat in the coming months as some of the later months have fewer than normal applicants. Right now the families who have LID's in May and June 2005 are being matched. If the time frame stays as is, we are expecting a referral in September or October. We will be thrilled if it comes sooner.

Once we receive our referral, we will then send back an acceptance letter and then wait 4 to 6 weeks for travel authorization. Part of waiting to travel is getting an appointment with the US consulate in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. We are planning on taking Andrew and Zach with us as we feel it is important for them to be part of the whole process and be able to meet and bond with their new little sister (mei mei) right away. We will be in China for 10 to 14 days. We will either post our daily journal here or on another web site specific to adoption journeys.

We will be having some kind of fundraising event to help us earn some of the money we need for all of us to travel to China. We will let you know what that will be so that you can contribute if you want to. Our deepest thanks to those of you who have already made contributions. We cannot thank you enough.

I will post any updates or news as received and I will post things of interest. Thanks for visiting and please return often to follow our journey.

Please feel free to leave comments here or to email me. As you can tell, this is my obsession right now.

Dana