Happy Christmas

Christmas came to our house and we now have a rocking horse. Phillip put it together. It is very cute and we hope Julianna loves it. We had a great Christmas dinner. Phillip's sister and her family and his parents came down. They did the cooking since I was rounding. We had tons of food and enjoyed the company. Julianna got lots of nice toys from everyone in our families. She is going to need more storage for her collection.











Santa left this is Phillips stocking. Do or do not. There is no try.

As part of our adoption journey we decided to go our for Chinese food each time we accomplished a step. We ate a lot of Chinese while we were paper-chasing, and less so during the five months we waited for INS to approve our I171. Somewhere along the way, we decided to start saving the fortunes and to use them in the baby's life book. This is one of our favorites.


Now, imagine yourself a jedi knight, stranded on the swamp planet of Dagobah, your jedi apprentice has just failed in raising his sunken X-wing fighter from the muck and say it again. May the force be with you.

It's hard to believe that an entire month has passed since I last smocked. I did finsih the dining room curtains and we decorated for Christmas. That was an adventure. We moved since last Christmas and had to first find where we stashed the decorations. Still have not found the stockings. Then we decided to get a nine foot tree to go with our 11 foot ceilings. You have to use a ladder to decorate a nine foot tree. We also did not have enough decorations, so for about two weeks it was decorated up to need-a-ladder point and only in the front. We never did figure out how to get the angel on top. I think next year she will have to go on before the top portion is assembled. We have spent a lot of time thinking how different our lives will be next year, with a two and a half year old. Phillip's sister sent us Third Day's Christmas CD yesterday. The last track on the CD is called "Merry Christmas" and is all about spending Christmas away from your child, who is waiting in China. Very fitting for us this year.

Phillip Adds to the Closet

I got a surprise this week--a box from home star runner. Phillip selected and ordered tee shirts for Julianna and my first clue was the box arriving. He got so excited and said he needed to wrap a Christmas gift for his baby. Turns out I wasn't the baby getting the gift. He loves home star runner. They are at www.homestarrunner.com

Not Quite Sunk In

The group I'm in has seven doctors and four locations. We share rooms with people who are on alternate days. The rooms have photos of the families--grandchildren, children. I've spent eleven months saying, no those are not my children. When we got the referral photos, I made four copies and framed them nicely so I could add to the collection. I was so set to finally say, this one is my daughter. I finally got asked yesterday by the last patient of the day, and, yep, I said no, no children.

Unexpected Surprise

We recieved an email from our agency today with a notice from the CCAA in China (they are the government agency that does adoptions) that they have processed and accepted our letter of intent to adopt Julianna. We did not expect to receive notice of approval of our LOI because we had already submitted our dossier and had only expected to receive travel approval. Still waiting for that and still have the generic 90 day range. But none the less, it was nice to have this approval.

I have a couple of dresses I need to photograph and post. I cannot find the digital camera right now. Hopefully later today.

Thanksgiving Traditions

For the past four thanksgivings, Phillip and I lived in Madison, Wisconsin. My job did not consider the day after thanksgiving a holiday, which prevented us from traveling home. One of our favorite dishes for thanksgiving has kumquats in it, thus began our holiday tradition called "Hunting the Kumquats". We would start the Saturday before thanksgiving driving to all the grocery stores in Madison in search of kumquats. The game often carried over to the Wednesday before. We would scour the produce section, quiz the workers, shrug our shoulders and move on. After our first year, we began each subsequent years by starting at the place that we actually found them the year before. They never had them (must be some ordinance against carrying kumquats two years in a row). One place clearly thought they were table decorations because they had them in a little basket lined with pretty green paper. One basket, about 20 kumquats and that was it. No more in the store, but I did get a funny look from the stocker when I emptied the basket. This year, life was different. One store, one cruise through the produce section, no funny looks from stockers.

The last of our paperwork went to China today. Now we just wait for China to issue us travel approval. We spent the weekend in Pensacola. I was on call for the group there. We got to stay at a condo on Pensacola Beach. It was quite beautiful, but way too cold for swimming. We spent Saturday driving around P-cola in search of a rocking horse. Still unsucessful. We did see a table and chairs set that we liked, but they were out of it. Hopefully the Toys R'Us here will have it.

It is back to more paperwork on the adoption front. We have to do a nurturing plan for a waiting child adoption. We will send it to the agency in the morning for their review. Hopefully it will go to China shortly thereafter. Then we can start decorating her room in earnest. I have a lovely quilt that my grandmother made for me. I want to make curtains to match it. We are also trying to find a rocking horse. Julianna's paperwork said she liked to sit in the rocking chair and rock herself, so we thougth she might like a rocking horse. Phillip wants one that looks realistic--no blue plastic ones. Thus far we have not found any. Maybe as Christmas approaches.

Life changes quickly. Our adoption agency approved us to pursue the adoption of a particular waiting child on Thursday. They always caveat everything with "the CCAA has final authority", but we are very excited to have a child identified and to have a picture to memorize. Our agency asks that we don't post her picture until we do have final approval from CCAA. I guess it is a privacy issue to protect her. We don't mind, though, we can look at her lovely face while we wait for approval.

This is yet another pattern from AS&E. Phillip picked out the fabric. It is blue and red stars. It is very patriotic and will be the "coming home" outfit for our little American.

I had been planning out a post for when we were finally DTC, but in my excitement to finally hear from the agency, I posted something quick. My planned comment was this: After eight months of paper chasing, fifteen months since our first adoption seminar, twenty-two months since the last of the "baby work-up" and fifty-four months since deciding to have children, our paperwork is in China (at last). We bought the duck in Chicago after attending an adoption seminar about China adoption.

Happy Dance

I just heard from our adoption agency, we are finally and officially DTC 11/3/06!!!

Inching slowly closer

We received a confirmation email from our agency that the dossier was received. Our dossier consultant will review it and contact us by Friday about the review. Barring issues, it will be mailed at 5 pm on Friday.

This is another dress from AS&E issue 71. It is called "My Little Hen" and is a size 5.

Chinese food at our house tonight

Our dossier is finally on its way to our agency. Unless there are problems with the paperwork, it will be mailed to China on Friday. Happy dance!!!!!!

Because little girls grow

One of the cool things about adopting a little girl is I can make dresses for years to come. This one is a size 4. It is from AS&E (like pretty much everything else), issue 71. It was a simple pattern of geometric shapes done in bright colors. I like the way it turned out.

On the dossier front, our documents were authenticated at the Houston Consulate on Friday and are currently sitting at the sorting facility for delivery on Monday (according to the fedex tracker). Once I copy the authentication page, the whole packet will get sent to our agency and then to China on Friday, barring any huge document issues. It will feel great to finally say we are DTC. It will feel better to say we are finally LID. (DTC=dossier to china, LID=log-in date)

Next project

Today I am patiently waiting for the Fedex driver to bring our certified documents from the Secretary of State. Then they go off to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for authentication. We are hoping to have all the paperwork to our agency on Monday so it can be sent to China on Friday, November 3.

From the closet today we have another pattern from Australian Smocking and Embroidery. It is called "Little Extras" and appeared in issue 43. I adapted the pattern from a short romper to a long legged one. I also did the top portion as an inset rather than having all the fullness in the pants. I think it makes it look sharper and less clown-like.

One Step Closer

Our INS clearance came today. We are one step closer. Now it has to be notarized, certified and authenticated and we will finally be able to send all our paperwork to china. Then we wait some more.

Extravagance, or people without children

One of the earliest dresses I made was an Australian Smocking and Embroidery pattern called "The First Step" (AS&E #41). It is a bishop with lots and lots of bullion roses. Lots of them. I decided to make it out of linen rather than batiste. White linen. Size 12 months. Obviously I was living in a dream world where children don't spit up and are always conscientious about keeping their clothes clean. It turned out as lovely as the one in the magazine and I'm sure Julianna will look lovely in it for the five minutes it takes the photographer to record my extravagance.

Written in Floss

My husband and I have had a running joke about the baby name. We have always said that it was subject to change until it was embroidered on something, but once in floss, it could not be changed. This weekend, I used my embroidery machine for the first time and the result was "Juliann". I could not get the machine to add another "a" despite having programmed it into the original design. Guess I'll have to change the blog to Juliann's closet...

The Waiting

Haven't managed to blog very well. Have to send out kudo's to the dedicated daily bloggers in the world. We are still (im)patiently waiting for the little I171/797C. Still passing the time with sewing. Did manage to photograph all the completed outfits, which should give me blogger material for about a week. Then I'll need to sew faster. These outfits are from a pattern called "Franny Baby" from Childrens Corner. They are both cotton prints with contrasting bloomers. The piping at the neck and arm matches the bloomers.

Angel Babies

Yesterday I went to a workshop for a group called Angel Babies. It is a group of ladies who make premie gowns and hankerchiefs for the families of little babies who die. We spent most of our time yesterday working on the hankerchiefs. They are embroidered with "Forever in Our Hearts". The nurses put the baby's footprint on them and then give them to the parents and both sets of grandparents as a memento. It was a somewhat bittersweet experience. Many of the ladies who help out are either nurses in the NICU or parents who have lost a child.

Finally to the Closet

Since I named this Julianna's closet, it is probably about time to take a peek at the contents. This is the very first dress that I made specifically for our future daughter. It is a Vogue Pattern, number 7504. The fabric is a yellow print cotton. The smocking is done in red using the plate included with the pattern. It is also the last dress I made without my serger. I was so pleased with the dress and the ease of the pattern that I made a second dress using lady-bug fabric. The second dress is not smocked. It was the first dress I made with my serger. It has lady bug buttons and red piping. If you squint, you can see the tag in the lady bug dress. It says "Made with love by Mommy".



























We've been working on the lady bug collection. In addition to the dress, we have a lady bug purse, lady bug shoes, lady buy socks, lady bug pajamas and a lady bug jumper.

Airport Party

Last night our adoption group had an airport party to welcome the newest member home from China. She was welcomed by adopted children from many places including China, Haiti, Florida and Alabama. There is nothing quite as encouraging during this long process as seeing the happiness at the end of the road.

The Journey Begins

My husband and I are in the process of adopting a child from China. We are still "paperchasing", which is the stage of the journey where you collect up all the pieces of paper for your dossier. What we have learned so far is that adoption is a lesson in patience. So why Julianna's Closet? I've been passing the time by making clothes for our daughter and I need an outlet besides my patient husband.