After the Birthday party, we came home and Audrey finally sat down long enough to have some cake !
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Happy Birthday Audrey !!!!
Today we had Audrey's birthday party at our neighborhood pool with some of her best friends. Audrey turned 3 on June 16th but we had all been sick the week before so we planned her party for today. There was rain/thunderstorms in the forecast all weekend but amazingly we were spared any storms and just had alot of clouds with a few sprinkles until the end of the party. This was Audrey's first official birthday party and it was wonderful. She and her friends had a great time; They thoroughly enjoyed and wore themselves out ;-) Oh, and mommy wore herself and daddy out lol ! Thank you so much Faith for helping get everything ready and Virginia for the wonderful cake and cupcakes. The picture of the gang in the mini-van is one of my favorites and was taken when we were trying to get the kids loaded up to go home. They just did not want the fun to end !
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Travel Date Changed
Yesterday after I posted we were leaving July 6th, I spoke to our travel agent who proceeded to tell me that all flights were booked for July 6th so we would have to leave July 7th. The good news is that we have great flights and only one layover in Chicago so our travel time is going to be minimal compared to our travel time when we brought home Audrey. We have already purchased our tickets over the phone and should have them in hand in a day or two. We will be returning on 7/19/06 as far as I know right now.
Yesterday after I posted we were leaving July 6th, I spoke to our travel agent who proceeded to tell me that all flights were booked for July 6th so we would have to leave July 7th. The good news is that we have great flights and only one layover in Chicago so our travel time is going to be minimal compared to our travel time when we brought home Audrey. We have already purchased our tickets over the phone and should have them in hand in a day or two. We will be returning on 7/19/06 as far as I know right now.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
We are leaving for China July 6th !!!
We received an email from our agency this morning that our consulate appointment is 7/17/06 and that we are leaving 7/6/06. We are just waiting to hear from the travel agent who will reserve our airline tickets. After such a long and uncertain wait, it is still hard for us to believe that we will be holding our precious Rachel in a little over 2 weeks !!!
As soon as we have more information regarding our travel arrangements we will post. We don't expect to receive our in-country itinerary until next week.
We received an email from our agency this morning that our consulate appointment is 7/17/06 and that we are leaving 7/6/06. We are just waiting to hear from the travel agent who will reserve our airline tickets. After such a long and uncertain wait, it is still hard for us to believe that we will be holding our precious Rachel in a little over 2 weeks !!!
As soon as we have more information regarding our travel arrangements we will post. We don't expect to receive our in-country itinerary until next week.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Our TA is Here, Woohoo !!!!
About 10:30 am I received an email from our travel coordinator Brian and he says he has our TAs in hand and has faxed a request for Consulate appointments to China. He says if we get one of the appointments he requested which were July 17-20, we could leave for China anywhere between July 6-10. It usually takes a couple of days to get the actual consulate appointment so we are hoping to hear something by Wednesday. Once we have our consulate appointment, I'll post our travel dates. We are so excited that our trip to bring home Rachel is now fast approaching !!!
About 10:30 am I received an email from our travel coordinator Brian and he says he has our TAs in hand and has faxed a request for Consulate appointments to China. He says if we get one of the appointments he requested which were July 17-20, we could leave for China anywhere between July 6-10. It usually takes a couple of days to get the actual consulate appointment so we are hoping to hear something by Wednesday. Once we have our consulate appointment, I'll post our travel dates. We are so excited that our trip to bring home Rachel is now fast approaching !!!
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Latest update on Rachel
Yesterday we received an unexpected update on our new daughter Rachel. We knew from her referral information that she was going to be a big girl, but wow is she a big girl ;-) I am now thinking she must be related in some way to Yao Ming ! At just under 9 months, we are being told our daughter is 30 inches and 23 lbs. What does this mean? Well it means that I spent yesterday returning all the 12 months clothes I had already bought for her and replacing them with 18 months. She also has 2 bottom teeth and they are still feeding her every 4 hours including through the night, yikes. They are adding rice cereal for each feeding and 1/2 egg yolks to her bottle once a day but are not giving her anything else currently. It really is good to know all these things before we travel. I've heard from other families that have adopted from Xiushan SWI that the nannies will also show us how they are mixing her bottles so we can at least give her some consistency while in China.
Developmentally, it sounds like Rachel is doing very well but still hasn't had the opportunity to crawl or walk. It does say she sits up by herself and can roll over. It also says she can hold toys in her hand.
She is described as quiet but with many facial expressions. Our first daughter Audrey is rarely ever quiet so I think their personalities will compliment each other ;-) It also says she looks for dropped toys and follows the sound they make. She is now sliding in her Go-kart, aka walker.
We haven't heard any word yet on when to expect TAs but we are hoping we might hear by the end of next week. Our hearts are really aching now to meet her and bring her home. Please keep us in your prayers.
Yesterday we received an unexpected update on our new daughter Rachel. We knew from her referral information that she was going to be a big girl, but wow is she a big girl ;-) I am now thinking she must be related in some way to Yao Ming ! At just under 9 months, we are being told our daughter is 30 inches and 23 lbs. What does this mean? Well it means that I spent yesterday returning all the 12 months clothes I had already bought for her and replacing them with 18 months. She also has 2 bottom teeth and they are still feeding her every 4 hours including through the night, yikes. They are adding rice cereal for each feeding and 1/2 egg yolks to her bottle once a day but are not giving her anything else currently. It really is good to know all these things before we travel. I've heard from other families that have adopted from Xiushan SWI that the nannies will also show us how they are mixing her bottles so we can at least give her some consistency while in China.
Developmentally, it sounds like Rachel is doing very well but still hasn't had the opportunity to crawl or walk. It does say she sits up by herself and can roll over. It also says she can hold toys in her hand.
She is described as quiet but with many facial expressions. Our first daughter Audrey is rarely ever quiet so I think their personalities will compliment each other ;-) It also says she looks for dropped toys and follows the sound they make. She is now sliding in her Go-kart, aka walker.
We haven't heard any word yet on when to expect TAs but we are hoping we might hear by the end of next week. Our hearts are really aching now to meet her and bring her home. Please keep us in your prayers.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Summer Colds, Yuck !
Starting Sunday, Alex told me he felt like he was coming down with a cold and by Monday it was obvious he had a bad one. I felt bad for him and thought it was really weird that he came down with such a nasty cold the first week of June. Because it is June I just assumed that I would be fine and probably not pick it up since I've had way more than my share already this year. Nope, I started coming down with it yesterday morning and have went downhill ever since. To make life even more interesting, Audrey also has it but so far has been a real trooper and in great spirits. Tomorrow our whole cold stricken crue is making the 2.5 hour trip up to Nashville to be refingerprinted. Alex had already asked off work to do it, so it would have been a real pain to reschedule. We will be so relieved to have that overwith !
Starting Sunday, Alex told me he felt like he was coming down with a cold and by Monday it was obvious he had a bad one. I felt bad for him and thought it was really weird that he came down with such a nasty cold the first week of June. Because it is June I just assumed that I would be fine and probably not pick it up since I've had way more than my share already this year. Nope, I started coming down with it yesterday morning and have went downhill ever since. To make life even more interesting, Audrey also has it but so far has been a real trooper and in great spirits. Tomorrow our whole cold stricken crue is making the 2.5 hour trip up to Nashville to be refingerprinted. Alex had already asked off work to do it, so it would have been a real pain to reschedule. We will be so relieved to have that overwith !
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Sisterly Love
I must tell you that we actually bought the blankie a couple days ago and Audrey was very positive about her mei mei and obsessed with carrying around her pictures and sleeping with them until today. Apparently, I made the mistake of stressing the fact to Audrey that Mei Mei was REAL and that she was coming to live with us and sleep in the crib in Audrey's room. Well, I can only say that "indignant" would be a good word to describe her reaction to this news. Audrey has now informed me that she doesn't need a sister and Rachel doesn't need to sleep in the crib in her room. But, as it is with most nearly 3 year olds, she was only indignant for a short while and then seemed to just forget about it. Until we were at Target today and I just had to buy a few bottles. Audrey immediately insisted that she must have a bottle too. So, I did what other moms advised which was I bought her one and let her have it. She sucked on it with some milk in it tonight for approximately 10 minutes and then left it and never touched it again ;-) I figure it is best to let her get this kind of thing out of her system before Rachel arrives lol.
I must tell you that we actually bought the blankie a couple days ago and Audrey was very positive about her mei mei and obsessed with carrying around her pictures and sleeping with them until today. Apparently, I made the mistake of stressing the fact to Audrey that Mei Mei was REAL and that she was coming to live with us and sleep in the crib in Audrey's room. Well, I can only say that "indignant" would be a good word to describe her reaction to this news. Audrey has now informed me that she doesn't need a sister and Rachel doesn't need to sleep in the crib in her room. But, as it is with most nearly 3 year olds, she was only indignant for a short while and then seemed to just forget about it. Until we were at Target today and I just had to buy a few bottles. Audrey immediately insisted that she must have a bottle too. So, I did what other moms advised which was I bought her one and let her have it. She sucked on it with some milk in it tonight for approximately 10 minutes and then left it and never touched it again ;-) I figure it is best to let her get this kind of thing out of her system before Rachel arrives lol.
Rachel's First Blankie picked out by proud Jie Jie Audrey
Once we received Rachel's referral we just had to go out and pick something special out for her so Audrey and I (Mama) went to babiesrus and Audrey picked out this very cute pink blankie that has a little bunny and says "love me". I couldn't have picked out a better one myself ;-)
Saturday, May 27, 2006
SWI of Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous report for Xiu Fu Hao
Today we received alot of useful information about our new daughter. Based on her medical report she appears to be in very good health with a healthy weight and height as well. We will have a pediatrician look at her medical just to be sure there are no concerns we need to address. What I loved most about reading this report though was that it told a little bit about our daughters personality and also had a brief message from her orphanage to us.
Here is what it says:
Personality
Xiu Fu Hao is extroverted, easygoing and even-tempered. She is somewhat afraid of strangers. She is always well behaved and does not make trouble for her caretakers. She always plays alone. She sometimes murmurs in her own language. She has a fair complexion and has a ready smile. When you approach her, she shows you a sweet smile, which is her way to welcome your love.
Remarks from the institute
Mother's sincere love as well as a warm and complete family will be a great fortune for children who have lost their mother and family. We sincerely wish Fu Hao may become your daughter. We believe her sweet smile will bring you endless happiness. We wish you may provide her with a real home full of love.
Needless to say, after reading and learning a little more about our beautiful new daughter, our hearts are aching and we are more than ready to bring her home !!!
Today we received alot of useful information about our new daughter. Based on her medical report she appears to be in very good health with a healthy weight and height as well. We will have a pediatrician look at her medical just to be sure there are no concerns we need to address. What I loved most about reading this report though was that it told a little bit about our daughters personality and also had a brief message from her orphanage to us.
Here is what it says:
Personality
Xiu Fu Hao is extroverted, easygoing and even-tempered. She is somewhat afraid of strangers. She is always well behaved and does not make trouble for her caretakers. She always plays alone. She sometimes murmurs in her own language. She has a fair complexion and has a ready smile. When you approach her, she shows you a sweet smile, which is her way to welcome your love.
Remarks from the institute
Mother's sincere love as well as a warm and complete family will be a great fortune for children who have lost their mother and family. We sincerely wish Fu Hao may become your daughter. We believe her sweet smile will bring you endless happiness. We wish you may provide her with a real home full of love.
Needless to say, after reading and learning a little more about our beautiful new daughter, our hearts are aching and we are more than ready to bring her home !!!
Excellent Slide show of Chongqing, Beautiful Chinese Music too !
I came across this link on the Xiushan SWI yahoo group and this slide show from an adoptive family that adopted from Xiushan SWI was kind of enough to share the link to their site.
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2499360&alb=0
It will prompt you to download an add-on for photo-dex in order to view the slideshow but it takes about 10 seconds to do this and it's very much worth it.
I came across this link on the Xiushan SWI yahoo group and this slide show from an adoptive family that adopted from Xiushan SWI was kind of enough to share the link to their site.
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.html?fl=2499360&alb=0
It will prompt you to download an add-on for photo-dex in order to view the slideshow but it takes about 10 seconds to do this and it's very much worth it.
Fed-Ex Came this morning with Rachels Official referral!
"Wow", is all I can say right now. It is such a wonderful feeling to have Rachel's medical and social reports along with her original pictures. I will tell you a little about what we have learned about Rachel through the information we received today. I feel it would be best to make that a separate post though.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Introducing Xiu Fu Hao
Soon to be
Rachel Victoria CN Hanna
Born 9.21.05
Xiushan SWI, Chongqing
The Call" , Yes, The Stork Finally Landed !!!
At approximately 12:20 today we received the call and I knew it was coming because I had just checked our AHH June DTC yahoo group a few minutes before and there was a referral posted from someone receiving referrals with us. By the time I actually received "The Call" I had already had a good cry, the shakes, heart palpitations and you know, all those referral day jitters. I actually worried that our coordinator would think I was insensitive since I had run out of emotions by the time he finally called ! It was nice to be halfway calm and collected during the call though so I could think to ask alot of questions. I had a very nice well organized referral question list in front of me with blanks under each question and ended up writing everything down on post-its and hardly looked at the list, go figure lol .... I actually videotaped the moment I realized we were about to receive the call and knew where Rachel was from and the actual call, but I will have to do some serious editing before I can share any of those moments ;-) The most amazing fact that we learned from the referral call is that our 2nd daughters orphanage is probably not more than 50 miles south of our first daughters and they are both in the Chongqing Municipality ! God has been so good to us, much better than we deserve. When we were in Chongqing in 2004 adopting Audrey I traveled to Qianjiang which is where Audrey's orphanage is so I have been very close to where our Rachel is now and it's a comfort to know what it is like so close to her. It's such beautiful country there with very large mountains, huge Gorges, and rivers that seem to go on forever. Every since we adopted our Audrey, I have yearned to return to Chongqing and especially to where Audrey is from (210 miles east of Chongqing city in rural china). It may be impossible but myself and one of my travelmates are going to try to coerce our agency into letting us visit the orphanage. This may not happen though because Rachels orphanage is probably 10-12 hours from Chongqing City where we will be staying. I will post more on this subject as we find out if we will be able to go. Lastly, and definitely least, I just want to say that Rachel's referral day will unfortunately be remembered as "the day after the air conditioning died". Actually the airconditioning died yesterday but the repairman showed up approximately 30 minutes after I received " The Call". It was pretty humorous though because here I am trying to make calls and getting calls about our referral, I'm sweating like crazy, trying to communicate with our very sweet repairman who sports a rather heavy hispanic accent and learning about the ins and outs of our heating and air system. Anyway, it turns out that we need a whole new unit which will be 2500.00 thank you very much ! Yikes. The fact that all this occurred on referral day definitely took a little of the sting out of it though.
We should receive Rachel's referral package via Fed-ex sometime tomorrow morning so I'll be sharing more then.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
The Stork is on its Way !!!
This morning we pleasantly awoke to find that the CCAA (chinese center for adoption affairs) had updated their website to reflect that matches have been completed for LIDs through 6/15/05. If the same timeframe applies as last month between this update and our agency receiving its referrals, we should have Rachel's pictures and information on Thursday !!!, I will be posting pictures and referral info at http://audreyandrachel.com . Please check back Thursday, we are soooo soooo excited and so grateful to God that we will soon lay eyes on our 2nd princess from China......
Friday, May 19, 2006
Possibly Good News on Our referral !
Today a couple Spain agencies began reporting that the next referrals which are expected at the end of May/early June will at least go through June 15th LID which means we should receive Rachel's referral ! I will post more information as I hear it but we are very optimistic now because the first Spanish agency that reported this news is usually right when they report what they believe the cut-off will be. They apparently have contacts close to CCAA.
Today a couple Spain agencies began reporting that the next referrals which are expected at the end of May/early June will at least go through June 15th LID which means we should receive Rachel's referral ! I will post more information as I hear it but we are very optimistic now because the first Spanish agency that reported this news is usually right when they report what they believe the cut-off will be. They apparently have contacts close to CCAA.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Framed Picture from ChongqingI just received back a Sign I was having framed that I had made in Chongqing with Audrey's name painted on it with chinese pictures. On my video of our time in China with Audrey you can actually see the gentleman painting it while we watched. It was amazing because it only took him about 7 minutes and it's beautiful. This is one of my favorite keepsakes we brought back from China when we adopted Audrey.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Confusing Referral Rumors
We are LID 6/14/05 and the past couple months have been extremely painstaking. Currently, one person says they are LID 6/15/05 and have been told by their In-China travel agency they won't get their referral until next month. Another person LID 6/13/05 was told by BLAS they would get their referral this month. So my question is what about 6/14/05 ! ! ! ;-) Basically we have no idea if we will receive Rachel's referral the end of May or end of June. I have been really optimistic that it would be end of May but lately with many different rumors floating around, I am completely confused..... Oh, I left out one rumor that the referral cutoff should be around June 20th. I really hope the last rumor is true.
We are LID 6/14/05 and the past couple months have been extremely painstaking. Currently, one person says they are LID 6/15/05 and have been told by their In-China travel agency they won't get their referral until next month. Another person LID 6/13/05 was told by BLAS they would get their referral this month. So my question is what about 6/14/05 ! ! ! ;-) Basically we have no idea if we will receive Rachel's referral the end of May or end of June. I have been really optimistic that it would be end of May but lately with many different rumors floating around, I am completely confused..... Oh, I left out one rumor that the referral cutoff should be around June 20th. I really hope the last rumor is true.
The First Bee Sting
On Saturday Audrey was playing on the deck while I was working in the garden and Alex was in the house. Suddenly, I heard one of those blood curdling screams that just makes your heart stop. I ran up on the deck immediately and Audrey was screaming and crying. It didn't take Alex and I long to figure out what was going on since she promptly lifted her foot to show us a bumble bee beneath it. At first it was difficult to figure out exactly where she was stung but after we calmed down and she did as well, we saw the stinger and removed it. After I pulled it out, I read on the internet that you're supposed to scrape it off with something like a credit card instead of pulling it out because you can squeeze the venom sac and increase the reaction by pulling it out. Fortunately Audrey didn't have much of a reaction to the sting and she was acting like nothing happened within 30 minutes of being stung. (gotta love kids hehe). We did put a mixture of baking soda and water paste on it for about 15 minutes and an ice pack off and on which seemed to help the pain. What is weird is that we have lots of bees around due to our garden but in the 6.5 years we've lived here, neither Alex nor I have ever been stung by any type of bee. What we finally figured out is that Audrey had picked up a vase of Peonis that I had sitting out on the deck and apparently there was a bumblebee on one of the flowers which fell on the deck and then Audrey stepped on it and it of course stung her. I hate to say it but it is actually a blessing that she had this minor bee sting because now we know she isn't allergic to bee stings and can breath a little easier if it ever happens again.
On Saturday Audrey was playing on the deck while I was working in the garden and Alex was in the house. Suddenly, I heard one of those blood curdling screams that just makes your heart stop. I ran up on the deck immediately and Audrey was screaming and crying. It didn't take Alex and I long to figure out what was going on since she promptly lifted her foot to show us a bumble bee beneath it. At first it was difficult to figure out exactly where she was stung but after we calmed down and she did as well, we saw the stinger and removed it. After I pulled it out, I read on the internet that you're supposed to scrape it off with something like a credit card instead of pulling it out because you can squeeze the venom sac and increase the reaction by pulling it out. Fortunately Audrey didn't have much of a reaction to the sting and she was acting like nothing happened within 30 minutes of being stung. (gotta love kids hehe). We did put a mixture of baking soda and water paste on it for about 15 minutes and an ice pack off and on which seemed to help the pain. What is weird is that we have lots of bees around due to our garden but in the 6.5 years we've lived here, neither Alex nor I have ever been stung by any type of bee. What we finally figured out is that Audrey had picked up a vase of Peonis that I had sitting out on the deck and apparently there was a bumblebee on one of the flowers which fell on the deck and then Audrey stepped on it and it of course stung her. I hate to say it but it is actually a blessing that she had this minor bee sting because now we know she isn't allergic to bee stings and can breath a little easier if it ever happens again.
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