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.