We have our itinerary!! Our Gotcha Day will be 4/2/07. We will be visiting her orphanage on 4/6/07. Wow!

I realized today how little we know about parenting. We had received two tubes of toddler toothpaste as shower gifts. They had this very cute bear and duck on the box. Who knew toddlers needed their own toothpaste? But worse yet, the cute bear and duck are from a book series, one I have never heard of. Yikes. Our poor kid would have been using the fluoridated toothpaste with no cute bear...

We have not heard anything from our travel advisor in two days. It is strangely frightening. Somehow seeing an email about nothing made us feel like we are not forgotten.

We tried the new courts last night. Very nice. The tennis world has turned to Miami. I learned this morning that the Nasdaq-100 is now the Sony Ericson Open. Strange.

One more of Sarah. The blanket was a shower gift. I love the green and pink ladybugs.

Today our paper tickets for the international portion of our travel arrived. Not much else happened. Hopefully we will get an itinerary soon with our Gotcha Day on it. Right now the agency is saying 4/1 or 4/2.

In the tennis world, Raphael Nadal won the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells. Federer was knocked out in his first match. They now move to Miami for the Nasdaq-100. Our favorite courts have been completely refinished. They are now the blue/green combination the US Open has gone to. Should make it a lot easier to see the lines. Hopefully there will be an open court tonight and we can try the new surface.

This one pretty much speaks for itself.

I packed Julianna's stuff today. Sarah was kind enough to supervise my progress. It's a good thing that we are flying straight to Guangzhou. If we were going to Beijing, we would only be allowed one checked bag a peice and her stuff pretty much fills one suitcase. Yes, I do realize that I can buy stuff in China.

From the irony files, Julianna's information sheet said she liked to sleep with a towel. We have a photo of her in a Hello Kitty bib. We came upon a Hello Kitty towel and thought it would be perfect for her. For all you Douglas Adams fans, our child will now be traveling with a towel. Don't Panic.

Another slow day on the adoption front. It felt strange. Since we received our TA, the travel advisor at our agency has sent 4-8 emails a day with information or items needing responses. Today there was very little. Just waiting. For those of you concerned about my paltry packing list, it has now expanded to five type-written pages. Not an Excel file, but at least more extensive than the original. I can see how it will be helpful to mark things off as they are packed and not be rushing around at the last moment hoping the laptop cords are packed. I still may be a little freaked out on the day we fly out, but maybe less so.

Not a lot happened today. I officially let the office know I would be gone in April and called the Travel Medicine Clinic to set up appointments. Phillip's bosses signed off on his vacation time yesterday. It seems like we have flurries of activity followed by more waiting.

Here are two more photographs of the room. On the left is her rocking chair, with two stuffed animals and framed bugs. Notice the ladybug. On the right is her bookshelf with her ladybug purse.

Hello readers, this is Phil talking. I just wanted to say that we have our plane tickets and dates for travel to China to pick up Julianna. We'll be leaving on March 30th and the Airport Party will be April 14th at 9AM—so ya'll come on out!

Sheesh, I sound like I'm doing a radio remote broadcast from Palmer's Toyota don't I? Anyhoo, them's the dates. For the airline geeks out there, I'll be recording the Airlines, tail numbers and types of plane we'll be flying on. Probably won't blog about that, but you can email me. Crossing my fingers for a 747.

Now then, what else.... let's see....well I guess that's the problem with blogging, if you do it every day there isn't much to say. Don't forget to pray for us and especially for Julianna. Thanky!

The room is finally finished. Here are a couple of photographs. I have more, but I'm having trouble getting them loaded. The one on the left is the crib with the bedskirt that took way too long to make. The cross above the bed says "For this child I have prayed" 1 Sam 1:27. It is probably one of the most precious gifts we received. On the right is the quilt made by my grandmother and the dolls made by Phillip's mother. Sarah is there too. She is my first baby. When we went in the room this morning, she crawled out from under the crib. I think she has taken over the room.

Our consulate appointment has been confirmed. We should have final travel dates by the end of the day, or at least by the end of tomorrow. Let the countdown begin.

Still no final travel plans. Still haven't finished the room either. I'm beginning to feel like I'm painting the Sistine Chapel.

Now that we are almost to the end, it is much easier to reflect on the lessons we have learned over the last year. I think the most important lesson was the mercy of God. He has been merciful during our pity parties. He has been merciful during our expeditions down the wrong roads. He has been merciful to forgive us. We have received compassion, patience and mercy and are profoundly grateful.

We are still waiting for the consulate to confirm our appointment so that we can have definite travel dates. Our pastor gave a sermon yesterday about the sovereignty of God--how God in His infinite wisdom will have you where He wants you and when He wants you. The pastor talked about the perfect timing of God, how He had Esther become queen at the perfect time to save the displaced Jews from Haman and how He had Christ come at the right time to be the Savior. It was a great sermon and it makes the wait a little easier to think of it as the perfect timing of God. There is a link on the sidebar to our church, where you can find a link to the sermons. I highly recommend it.

While I worked on curtains yesterday, Phillip started baby proofing the house. It is a little strange. We have cats and the only thing we worry about them getting into is the house plants. We have had baby gates up since we moved to this house, but their sole purpose was to keep the cats out of certain rooms. We have crystal vases on bottom shelves and cleaning liquids on top of the counter in the laundry room. Our entire storage plan has to be re-thought. Which is driving the cats crazy because we keep changing their house.

I'm still working on the room. It is almost done. I finished the curtains today and now only have the bedskirt for the crib left. I've started working on a packing list in earnest. I had started one, on a 4x6 notepad, small print, one and a half columns. Then I found one on the internet, Excel file, 3 and a quarter pages. Whoa. I seriously underestimated the potential meticulous detail of packing lists. Anyone know how to use Excel?

Today we worked on the paperwork for the next part of this adventure. Paperwork seems to define everything about adoption. We have a tentative travel date. Our agency stresses that it is tentative, with bold type and underlining, just in case we weren't paying attention. I think they have also said it about six times. Hopefully we will get confirmation of our consulate appointment early next week and can have a definite travel date.

Lamentations 3:31-33: For man is not cast off by the LORD forever, though he brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. For He does not willing bring grief or affliction to the sons of men.

I wore this sock to work today. Wore the pair, actually. Phillip says my sock looks dingy. Notice the ladybug, which is the symbol of good luck in China, and has been become the symbol of the China Adoption Community. One of the nurses pointed it out to me right after I got found out that our TA had arrived!! Yes, it has arrived and we can finally see the end of the road, we can start our preparations in earnest for going to China to adopt our precious Julianna Claire. To celebrate we ate Chinese and bought three new outfits.

This is my favorite photograph of Julianna.

I have been dragging my feet about posting again, hoping that I could post exciting news about our TA arriving and us frantically making arrangements to travel to China, but no, just more waiting. I may break the fabric moratorium and buy more. My favorite fabric store has new spring fabrics.

I am reading through Luke and read the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touches the hem of Jesus' cloak. I find that story amusing because the account in Matthew says "she suffered under the care of many doctors". Ouch.

Looking out the window.

Sometime in the last year our associate pastor gave a sermon on Genesis 22, which is the story of Abraham taking Isaac to offer him as a sacrifice. He pointed out a part of the story that I had not realized--the journey to the place of sacrifice was three days. So, for three days, Abraham walked on, with all his doubts and concerns. Three days to think, this can't be right, God cannot want me to sacrifice the child of promise, surely I misunderstood. Yet he walked on. When it seemed wrong, when hope seemed lost, he got up everyday and walked on.

Wednesday was the official one year anniversary of our adoption journey--one year since we did the first part of the paperchase. Looking back, I've spent more time on the side of the road whining and complaining than I have walking on, but I have never forgotten this sermon and it has given me great encouragement. Walking on.

We continue to wait for the TA. The room is almost complete and the clothes are all washed. We have diapers and sippy cups and pretty much everything else a toddler could need. I have put travel wipes into the diaper bag and have started a pile of "this needs to go with us to China". The wait, however, is exhausting. Every day we awaken with the hope that, maybe today, the TA will come and every day we are disappointed. I was reminded this morning of the father in the parable of the prodigal son, how every day he looked out his window for his son. And waited, and waited. Did he ever want to skip a day? Did he want to give up completely? Did he plan the party he eventually gave when his son did return? What amazing faith and perseverance. What amazing love.

We continue to wait for our TA. We had another shower and now are pretty much set for the baby. It was great fun and the hostess did a fantastic job. Her two year old helped me open my gifts and I think that may have been the best part. She was so excited about tearing into the packages. We could barely get the gifts out before she was pulling out the tissue paper of another one. She is very close in age to our little one and we hope they will be great friends. Her parents certainly are.

We had a guest preacher two weeks ago and part of his sermon was about the timing of God. He used Psalms 84 as his text "Blessed are those whose strength is in you; who have set their hearts on a pilgramage. As they pass through the valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs. The autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength til each appears before God in Zion". His sermon was about going through difficult times (Baca), yet finding water in the desert to get you through (springs, pools). It was a good reminder that God has not left us alone on this pilgramage, even though it seems like a barren desert.

Happy Chinese New Year. We went to a CNY parade today and this is some of our loot. Yes, it is a week late and yes the cups do say Mardi Gras on them. One of the intriguing things of the Gulf Coast is that every little town between Texas and Florida celebrates Mardi Gras. The public schools are out. There are parades. Thus, last week the dragons were for Carnival and today they were for CNY. And like every parade in this region, there were throws--beads, cups, candy and moon pies.

The parade is sponsored by a local adoption agency that does international adoption, including China. The "floats" are mostly strollers and wagons, with a few families making elaborate rides, including a very pretty pagoda. The children wear native dress and all of the countries this agency works in come, so there are children from Russia wishing you happy new year.

We are quickly approaching the end of the waiting journey. We received our LOA last week. The travel approval will be next. We are hoping that March will see us in China.

Yesterday my co-workers had a shower for us. It was lady-bugs everywhere. I had a great time.

I made this dress for my friend Mary's daughter (don't tell Mary). I love it for three reasons. First, it is pink with butterfiles and what could be better than that? Second, the pattern is one I made myself. I saw a dress with similar pleats in a magazine and I translated that photograph into finished dress. Third, I did it literally between the morning and evening church services, but it looks like it took much longer. I am very proud.

The 2007 Australian Open is over. Roger Federer beat Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets. Federer has now won 10 Grand Slams and currently holds 3 of the 4 titles. Only the French eludes him.

This fabric came from one of our nurses. I think it is beautiful fabric and, as always, am pleased with the outcome.

Federer is into the semi-finals. Nadal is playing his quarterfinal match today. Still hoping for a Federer-Nadal final.

We got exciting thngs in the mail today—tax forms, a medical journal and new pictures of Julianna. They were taking in June and August of 2006 by a very nice lady in the Gaoming Yahoo Group. Phillip is firing up the scanner right now so we can send them out. We are very excited about them because it gives us a look at her every day life in the orphanage. Hooray for Beth.

The Australian Open is heading in to week two with Federer and Nadal still on course to meet in the finals. Lots of tough matches ahead for Nadal, though.

Yesterday we selected paint colors for the room. Not sure which ones we will use from this selection or how we will use them, but at least getting chips we agree on is progress. I have not yet been motivated to do the room because most days it still does not seem real. It is not completely empty. It has a crib (with one crib sheet), a big girl bed, a rocking chair, a rocking horse, enough toys for two kids and, of course, a closet full of clothes. But it does not have a cohesive style. At this rate, I may end up scrambling to finish it while packing my bags for China.

From the closet today is something different. This blanket was started when my sister was pregnant with her second child. The bears are all cross stiched, then the blanket is quilted. I love the colors and am very proud of the finished project, even if it did take seven years to complete.

As I pointed out yesterday, five set matches can change quickly. In the time it took me to get ready for work, the two aussies had taken two sets from the americans. By the time I left for work, both matches had entered a fifth set, and by the time I settled in at the office, one match had gone to the American qualifer Kuznetsov and one to the Australian favorite Hewitt. The other exciting news from the open was the departure of last years surprise finalist Baghdatis via a four-set loss to Monfils.

I have finally finished a dress. This one has been a long time in progress, but well worth the effort. It was an adventure in adaptation. The smocking plate is from AS&E. It was meant to be a boys bubble, but I made it into a girls dress. I thought the white border at the bottom would make it more interesting, as well as the white sleeve cuff and white around the collar. It even has white covered buttons. The borders have hemstiching, which allowed me to use the heirloom dress stiches on my machine.

I suppose the only thing I dislike about the Australian Open is the time difference. It's 10:30 at night there and fourteen matches are in progress, of course, none on the telly. At least we have radio Australia. There are two Americans on court, both up a set and a break on Australians, but in five set matches, that can reverse quickly. Nadal and Federer are both through the first round, so there is still hope for a Nadal-Federer final. Nalbandian squeaked through a five-setter in the 105 degree heat.

Yesterday I decided to sort and wash the baby clothes and found this tucked away in the closet. I made it for my friend's baby, who is now four. I don't even remember what size it is. It has cute buttons on the back.


Well, in the time I sat here blogging, the Aussie favorite Hewitt gained and lost a break on the American Russell, who now serves for a two set lead. All from a qualifier. I love tennis.

11 pm in Australia

The first day is almost complete in Australia. The men's number 30, number 27 and number 4 seeds went down to Americans. The American women took out the 27 seed. Tennis has become a worldwide sport. While there are 43 participants from the United States, there are also 7 participants from Isreal, one from Tunisia, one from Cyprus, one from Puerto Rico and ten from China. There are an additional six participants from Chinese Tiapei. During last years season, Zi Yan and Jie Zheng captured the Women's Doubles title at both the Australian Open and the Championships at Wimbledon. As for successful Chinese-Americans, there is Micheal Te Pei Chang, who was the youngest man to win a Grand Slam title when he won the French Open in 1989. We've got to find Julianna a racquet.

It is late Sunday afternoon here on the sunny gulf coast and early Monday Morning in Melbourne, Australia. In a couple of hours, the first ball will be tossed and the 2007 open season will begin. I love tennis. I love playing it. I love watching it. I love talking about it. I've gotten up at 4 am to watch live finals and I've stayed up to 2 am to watch captivating matches. For the Wimbledon final last year, my best friend came over and we ate fish and chips, followed by a desert of strawberries and cream. One of the fantastic things about the gulf coast is we can play tennis essentially year round. There are courts about four blocks from our house that are currently being resurfaced, promising a great summer of tennis. And of course, Julianna's closet already has a tennis outfit. Now she just needs a racquet.

It's hard to believe I still have not finished a new outfit. I am plodding along on a bishop dress and also a basic square yoke dress. I went to the fabric store to get narrow elastic for the bishop sleeves and found these cute buttons. I'm going to incorporate them into a dress somehow. I love that they are Americana ladybugs. What could be better?

Monday will be eight weeks since our final paperwork went to China. Monday is also the start of the 2007 Australian Open (tennis). At least the next two weeks will have lots to keep my mind occupied. Hoping for a Federer-Nadal final!!

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.