June 7, 2004 (Monday)

Hello!

Last night it took a little while to get Lindsey to sleep and she was up at 12:30, again. Every night she wakes up at 12:30. We waited a minute to see if she would go back to sleep but she was screaming. We gave her a bottle and she gobbled that up, and was back to sleep after about 45 minutes. Then she cried out again several times during the night but I just had to pat her head. We all slept until about 7:45. We don't have to go anywhere until 2:20 when we leave for the consulate and then to do some shopping. We're going to a Thai restaurant for supper. Tomorrow more shopping then HOME. I am so ready.

I forgot to tell you the story about the "hairy toys". When we got Lindsey we were able to ask her nannies questions and our guide Lineker translated. We asked what were her favorite toys and Lineker said "toys that play music or make noise, she doesn't like hairy toys." Ben said "do you mean furry toys? Oh yeah yeah Lineker said. So we laugh about her not liking hairy toys. I am the stuffed animal queen so we will have to get her to like them. Mum brought her an adorable Care Bear and she is at least touching it some.

I'm afraid my posts are getting boring. I am running out of things to say but I like to write each day. I guess just one more post tomorrow and then not again until we get home. HOME. My favorite place to be.

Eileen

Yangchun Babies (Lindsey is second from left)

Room Service!

Always with the cloth

At the Thai restaurant (fun fun!)

June 6, 2004 (Sunday)

Hi everyone,

It hardly feels like Sunday. No day seems like any day. I'm getting very ready to come home! I am feeling pretty good yet though about being here. I sure am ready though to brush my teeth with tap water, eat a bowl of cereal, easily get water to drink, and get into a routine!

We just got back from going to a museum and a tea house. It's been raining all day so unfortunately we have to cancel our river cruise for tonight. It will be good to save some money but that would have been pretty cool. Instead we're going to get our kids together in the playroom. :-)

Jay, Ben, and Mum went to McDonalds for lunch. Lindsey is napping in her crib and I'm waiting for friends to call with lunch. I'm going to eat with them because I am hungry for pizza and fries from Danny's Bagels and the rest of my crew doesn't want to eat there anymore. They deliver to the hotel. So I'm going to share with the Arants. They have "western food". They don't call it American food here, they call it western.

I'm hoping to take a nap after lunch. Lindsey didn't get up last night but she cried out quite a few times and I just pat her head and she goes back to sleep. But I was asleep, awake, asleep, awake, all night. Yawn. :-) She slept from 9:30 - 6:00.

I miss everyone!

Eileen

P.S. Ginny or Kathy: tell mom I don't know if I'm going to find a can of chicken chow mein. Haven't seen it yet. If she wants squid or something, that I can probably find. Ha ha.

In the hotel playroom:

Sleeping beauty:

June 5, 2004 (Saturday)

Hi all,

Today Lindsey had her medical exam, and photos done for her visa. She cried for both of her visa photos. :-) Her exam went well, it was very interesting. Lindsey weighed in at 16.6 pounds. She may be the smallest baby in the group. She's so cutsie cutsie. :-)

Last night we rented a stroller here in the hotel. We put her in it and she screamed. We got moving and she was a little better. Today she liked it a little more. She also sat in a high chair for the first time for breakfast this morning. She did pretty well. It was so much easier to eat breakfast. The buffet here at the China Hotel is awesome. The other 2 hotels had good breakfast buffets too but I think this one is the best. They have syrup for the pancakes and french toast. :-) The other 2 just had honey.

Lindsey hardly napped at all today. I hope she sleeps good tonight! Last night was the first time she required a bottle in the middle of the night (3:30 am) to get back to sleep. She cries out once or twice but I pat her head and she goes back to sleep. The comforters on the beds are awesome. I sure would love an uninterrupted night's sleep (don't laugh Mary Jo!!! LOL).

Instead of napping Lindsey has been playing up a storm today. She keeps standing up. Twice she took 2 steps! She doesn't even use her hands or anything to get up, she just gets up. It's so cute.

Tomorrow we are going to a tea house in the morning and on a Pearl River cruise in the evening. Monday is our consulate appointment and shopping, Tuesday we get the babies' visas and more shopping, then Wednesday we come HOME. I am finally getting to where I really want to come home. I'm not looking forward to the long flights though!

Oh I almost forgot, last night we went to a Japanese restaurant here in the hotel for dinner, with our group. I was pretty hesitant about it but we all really liked it! It was quite an experience. I just got some veggies and they had an excellent flavor. Mum had king prawn (like huge shrimp I guess) and loved it. Jay and Ben got some kind of ribs (nothing like American ribs Jay says). We all liked it. For dessert Ben and I had green tea ice cream! It was surprisingly good. I guess we like coffee ice cream so green tea ice cream isn't so odd. Jay had sesame ice cream. Weird. :-)

It's almost time to give Lindsey her bath (she hates it, screams). Then I have to clean up the room and get to bed. You are all just waking up on Saturday morning as I write this, and it is Saturday night for us.

Eileen

In the department store with the ever present "cloth"

Department store

Outside the medical clinic

June 4, 2004

Hi everyone!

We are now at the China Hotel. It is so nice. Each hotel has gotten nicer although our last one, Dong Fang, was very good too. They were working on the pool at that one so Ben hasn't been able to swim until now. He and Jay are swimming, Mum is sitting poolside. I was too but Lindsey was getting really hot and crabby. I brought her up to the room and she fell asleep taking her bottle (first time for that). She's sleeping now in a rather rickety crib for such a nice hotel! The one at our last hotel was nicer.

Lindsey is incredible! She is getting better and better. She laughs and giggles, smiles, talks, crawls, pulls up to a stand. We realized yesterday that sometimes when she is crabby she is just bored. We get out with the other kids and new scenery and she happily plays on the floor. This is a blast. The first part of the trip was so hard and now it is so much better. I am not even ready to go home yet. I will be so happy to get there next week though. It will be nice to understand what everyone is saying. :-)

We talked quite a bit with the Guest Relation Officer at our last hotel while we were waiting in the lobby to walk over to this hotel. Her name is Gigi Chen. She speaks English really well and is very beautiful. We got her email address. Well Jay did, he sure loves to talk to everyone.

This morning Lindsey woke up at 6 a.m. and reached out to me to take her out of the crib. That is another first. She also put a toy in her mouth by the pool, another first. She doesn't put anything in her mouth other than her "cloth" and her bottle of course. I brought Cheerios, prunes, rice cereal, baby cookies--all things I will just take right back home with me, she won't take them. That's fine though. One of her favorite "toys" is a Kleenex pack. :-)

Tomorrow Lindsey has her medical exam. We weighed her again and came up with 15-16 pounds which seems more like it. 13+ pounds is awfully tiny. But she is a peanut. She is beautiful.

The largest park in Guangzhou is across the street from our hotel. We're hoping to rent a stroller and walk over there after Lindsey gets up from her nap. We don't have any official business today again. Lindsey's passport is coming today though.

Hope all is well at home. I really miss everyone! We were talking about what we are looking forward to eating when we get home. One thing we all want is a bowl of cereal! You can't drink the milk here, except for one brand I think and I'm not sure what that is. I'm not taking any chances. So far I haven't been sick and other than what I've already mentioned everyone is feeling fine. Thankfully Lindsey hasn't needed any meds at all.

Zai jian! (Good bye!)

Eileen

With Gigi Chen, checking out of the Dong Fang


China Hotel

The view out our window at the China Hotel!

June 3, 2004

Hi again!

Things are getting better and better here. I thought I'd be dying to get home by now. Although I'd love to be home, I'm happy to be here yet. Tomorrow we move next door to the China Hotel. Otherwise we don't have anything going on tomorrow (I don't think). The families from the other provinces will arrive here tomorrow too. It will be fun to see all their babies.

This morning we went to the Guangzhou Zoo. It was so hot that I didn't care about the animals too much. It wasn't as hot as yesterday but bad enough. They do have a panda there right now.

That's the only group activity we did today. Jay and Lindsey are both sleeping right now, it's 3:00 in the afternoon. I'm going to take a nap after I write this email.

Lindsey ate again this morning, a few ounces. She seems to only want an ounce or so at a time, and then want more 15 minutes later. Except on the bus on the way to the zoo, she ate 4 ounces at once, a record. Since we've been back to the hotel she only wants a micro amount at a time. But at least she's eating and she'll get better.

This morning Lindsey was still "serious baby". This afternoon she is a different baby! She is more active and has smiled and giggled and made many new sounds. Up to now she has only said "Ahh!" many times. This afternoon she said mamamamama and babababa, nananana, and made silly sounds with her mouth. She crawled across the room to daddy. She can pull herself up to a stand without holding on to anything. She doesn't really stand though. She is so wonderful.

I added some more pictures of Lindsey to the photo page. I realized we needed more pictures of her close up, with just her sweet face in the picture. Ben is taking tons of pictures yet. He is obsessed with taking pictures of one of our guides, Lineker. Lineker is one of those people who are funny without trying to be. He is always just moseying around while our other guide, Amy, does all the work. They are both so nice. I can't imagine being her without a guide. In Beijing at the jade shop, I couldn't understand something the clerk was trying to explain to me about my purchase. Lineker came up, said a bunch of Chinese, turned to me and said "they'll deliver it to our restaurant". It was just so funny. It would have taken me forever to figure that out.

I better go and get my own nap in before supper. I sure would love Pizza Hut again. I didn't care for the food in Beijing but found enough to keep me alive. :-) I can't wait to go to Schlotzskys, Papa Murphys, Chilis, oh all kinds of places when we get home. :-)

Eileen

Here we are staying in a beautiful 5 star hotel, they were redoing the whole pool area and it was going to be just gorgeous, but look at the primitive "tools" they used to work on this - these are just an example

The zoo

Sleeping beauty

Sweet girl

June 2, 2004

Hi all!

Much, much better day today! First of all we had no official business to do today. Second we didn't have to get on the bus until 10:00 (as opposed to 6, or 8, or 9). Third, Lindsey ate! And she pooped! :-) And I am more rested, even though I didn't sleep well last night, just nervous about would she eat today, I think. We fed her first thing this morning and she took the bottle right away, ate about 4 ounces but threw about 3.5 oz. of that right back up. But it was a start.

We had breakfast then the group went to a beautiful park in Guangzhou. It was HOT. It was hotter than hot, it was humid. But it was nice and then we went to Pizza Hut. It tasted *exactly* like here at home (I had heard differently). It was sooo good. When we got back to the hotel we fed Lindsey 2 ounces and she kept it all down. They say the babies here like their formula hot. But she likes it cold. Right after she finished her bottle, she pooped, first time. :-) I changed her then she pooped again. :-)

She is very happy and content but still no smile from her. I think she is the only baby in our group who hasn't smiled yet, but she is more content then some of the other babies. She seems very happy despite no smiling.

She loves to suck on a cloth diaper. She starts sucking and usually falls right to sleep. She's slept all night both nights, crying a little a few times in the night, but I just pat her head and say some soothing mommy words and she goes right back to sleep.

I forgot to post pictures last night, sorry. We went to another family in our group's room to visit and went straight to bed when we got back. I will hopefully remember to post some when I finish this email. Jay is here and Lindsey just fell asleep so he can help me.

We *think* Lindsey may only be 13 some pounds (note from the present: found out at her medical exam that she was 16 pounds). I weighed myself then weighed myself again holding her and subtracted the difference. The scale is in kg but we got an approximate conversion. She is tiny but I didn't think that tiny. So either the scale is wrong or her referral information was wrong. It said she was 14 pounds at 5 months. The 12 month clothes fit her well. She is so beautiful. I can't wait for you to meet her.

There's tons more to say but I'll go and do the pictures. If I forget remind me to tell you about some of the funny ways our guides say some English words. Quick example: formular (formula) and breakferst. Our guides are AWESOME. Talk to you again soon!

Eileen

Happy Birthday Lindsey!!!!

Before I go back to the past again, I will stay in the present and wish my sweet girl Happy Birthday! Lindsey is 3 years old today! Today is also the 2 year anniversary of the day she legally became our daughter. She had her 3 year checkup at the doctor this morning, where she got her second HepA shot (sorry baby!). She weighs almost 27 pounds and is 1/4 inch shy of 3 feet tall. :-) (10% for weight, 21% for height) Saturday is her Dora themed birthday party with all her family.

We didn't really get to celebrate her first birthday even though she was with us. It was only our second day with her, she wasn't eating, we were busy and exhausted and we didn't do anything special. I thought we would just do something once we got home, but that first summer home was such a blur, a difficult adjustment for us, and we never did get around to throwing her a first birthday party. Sorry again pretty girl! Oh well the important thing is she was part of our family for her first birthday, and she wouldn't remember the party anyway.

A picture of the birthday girl this morning, then back to the past.....



************

June 1, 2004

Lindsey HuaWu Kunstman is one year old today!! She is also officially, legally our daughter and Ben's little sister. Ben has a sister, wow, I can't believe I can say that. It is as awesome as us having a daughter. He has been the light of my life for almost 14 years and it is hard to describe my feelings about adding another child to my heart. Ben is staying in a room with Grandma and last night I just missed him so much. He is going to sleep in our room a few nights on the rest of the trip.

Today we had 2 interviews with Chinese notaries and then went to the police station where they did whatever they do :-) while we sat there and then they took our picture. So Amy told us the Chinese part of our adoption is done and Lindsey is our daughter in the eyes of both governments, China and the US. When we were waiting for our turn at the police station I turned to Jay and said can you believe we're in China, in a police station??? This is so wild. :-)

I am sooooo tired and so overwhelmed. No one told me this trip would be so hard. I'm enjoying myself and loving the experience but it is very difficult on me physically and emotionally. The hardest thing at the moment is that Lindsey will not eat! Please pray that she eats soon, I am so worried about her. She did drink some water several times but after the first time threw it all up, all over me. I've been initiated. :-) That happened this morning at the Civil Affairs Office. She's kept it down since and is sleeping right now.

Jay, Ben, and Mum left about 15 minutes ago to walk over to the China Hotel. I just got up from a nap and have to clean up the hotel room, it is a disaster. I have either been too busy or too tired to keep up with it.

Other than Lindsey not eating she is doing great. She is very quiet and reserved, still taking it all in I suppose. She hasn't really smiled yet. I'm sure she will open up in the next few days. She just LOVES to scratch at things with her little fingers (and her LONG fingernails, we haven't had a chance to cut them yet). She scratches at every texture. She just sits quietly and scratches at her toys and books. She has started to suck on a cloth diaper to soothe herself. She is taking her nap with her diaper in her mouth.

She cried for her bath this morning. The nannies said she loves her bath so I don't know if that's not true or it's just that she is getting used to us. She sure smells good now. :-)

Since Jay is gone right now I can't upload any pictures right now. I'm not sure where they are on this computer. I will do that tonight for sure so check back soon. I am starting to recognize the little girl from the referral pictures but let me tell you she looks SO different. She is so so so so sweet and cute. You will love her little face.

I'll write more soon!

Eileen and family

Lindsey with her cloth diaper (she still loves these to this day!)

Lindsey and her big brother Ben

Our wonderful guides, Lineker and Amy

Gotcha Day!! (5/31/04)

(More from 2004)

Lindsey is sleeping in her crib behind me. We got her a few hours ago. She is precious, beautiful, and sweet.

She didn't cry at all when they gave her to me or since. She was very inquisitive, looking all around and banging the toy keys I gave her. She loves to scratch at things including Jay's neck. :-) Her fingernails are long and dirty but otherwise she is very clean and smells good, although very sweaty. It is HOT here! She has on a really cute outfit. I can't tell you much more about her right now because she has been sleeping so long.

The hotel we're in here in Guangzhou, Dong Fang, is awesome. We're staying here until Friday and then moving to the China Hotel which is supposed to be even nicer.

It's hard to write everything I want to say but I just don't have time. I'm so tired. :-) I will try to write every day.

Eileen (and Jay, Ben, Lindsey, and Mum)

Ben getting ready to video the big moment

"Gotcha" moment

Oh sooo sweet!

With Lindsey's nannies

May 30, 2004

(Still reliving trip 2 years ago - post from 2nd full day, a Sunday)

Our last day in Beijing! Tomorrow morning we fly to Guangzhou at 8:00 a.m. That means we have to be out of our rooms by 6:00 a.m. I didn't sleep very good last night. I woke up several times, the last time at 4:30 and that's when I got up for the day. Very unlike me. :-)

We started the day again with the breakfast buffet. Then we went to a church service-Beijing International Christian Fellowship. It was so awesome. Only foreigners can attend the service. You must show your passport proving you are a foreigner. We didn't have to do this, however, it is obvious from our appearance that we are not Chinese. :-) The service was in both English and Chinese. They would sing a song through in English then in Mandarin. The sermon was by a preacher from Hong Kong, and he had an interpreter. The interpreter was so good! She did such a good job reflecting the tone of what the preacher was saying.

From there we went to the jade factory. I had chops made for Ben and Lindsey. It's like a stamp, with the animal from the year of their birth on top (Ben was born in the year of the horse, and Lindsey the sheep). Then their name is carved on the bottom and that's the stamp. The salespeople are soooo pushy. You cannot "just look". They hover over you and tell you things about the merchandise. I don't like that at all. Then we went to lunch, another lazy susan on the table type of meal. I found enough to eat but I didn't exactly stuff myself. :-) The restaurant was attached to a Friendship Store, a government run shop that sells all sorts of things.

After lunch we went to the Great Wall. It was pretty incredible. We didn't climb very far though because it is very steep and we are all very tired. Jay wasn't feeling good by the end and hasn't felt good all night. I've been pretty queasy all day myself. Next we went for a Peking Duck dinner. Of course I didn't eat any duck but Ben did. He really likes the food and has become a pro at using chopsticks. There wasn't much there I liked but I wasn't really hungry anyway.

When we got back I had to repack all of our things and have our checked luggage outside our door by 10 p.m. They are going to pick it all up tonight so that is taken care of since we have such an early flight. I'm not so sure I'm ready to fly again but I have to if I want to get Lindsey! I can't believe that our lives are going to change so much tomorrow. It's still really hard to believe. I am feeling soooo nervous about tomorrow-about another flight and getting Lindsey. Very excited of course but very nervous. They just came to pick up our luggage. I need to get to bed. I'll write again after Lindsey is with us. Good night!

Pictures at the Great Wall:

May 29, 2004

(Reliving our first trip, 2nd day in China, Saturday 5/29/04)

Hello from China!!! We are in Beijing! We are TIRED but enjoying ourselves very much. We flew and flew and flew to get here:

(Local airport) to Chicago: 55 minutes
Chicago to Los Angeles: 4 hours, 12 minutes
Los Angeles to Shanghai: 13 hours
Shanghai to Beijing: 1 hour, 40 minutes

The flights were pretty good although the last 5 hours of our flight to Shanghai was mostly turbulence. I felt pretty sick the last 2 hours or so, and was starting to feel very warm. That made me very nervous as they take your temperature in Shanghai and I didn't want to think about what would happen if mine was too high. I took 4 Motrin and I started to cool off and passed through Shanghai with no problems. I guess I could go on and on about our flights but I'll spare you that. I'll just say that my first time flying went fine and I can say I do like to fly. Ben did great too. It was so awesome to get through customs in Beijing and see our AWAA guides, Sherry and Lineker, holding up the AWAA sign.

We got to our hotel at about 12:30 p.m. last night, China time. We got to bed around 2:30 and slept until 6:30. At 9:00 we left for a full day of touring, and didn't get back until after 8:00 p.m. We went to Tianenman Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, a pearl factory/shop, a silk factory/shop, and a restaurant for lunch and again for supper. I found a little to eat at the lunch buffet but didn't eat much for supper.

Supper was an interesting experience. :-) The restaurant was pretty fancy and very large. The waiters and waitresses were on roller skates. Jay got up to take a picture of something and almost ran into one speeding by. The guy had to brake a little. :-) They put the food on a large lazy susan in the middle of the table. There was nothing there that I liked, it was all meat including squid. (side note: I'm a vegetarian.) I took a little rice and put a few vegetables from one of the meat dishes on top. I couldn't master the chopsticks so I used a little fork. Ben and Jay used the chopsticks. They had entertainment, girls doing different dances in different costumes. It was interesting.

We take a bus to and from each place and while we are driving along Sherry stands at the front with a microphone and tells us about the city and China, and some about herself. She is so nice and very funny. She's very interesting to listen to. She said she talks Chinglish. :-) Lineker is the same, very nice and funny. I don't think we could ask for 2 better guides.

Driving in Beijing is just as people tell you it is -- crazy! Our bus driver is always honking as he maneuvers around people or tells people to get out of the way. Lineker said he is the best bus driver in Beijing.

Now we're back at the hotel and ready for bed! Good night!!!!

Can you read the name of the restaurant? :-)

Outside our hotel

Me and MIL at pearl shop

More from 2 years ago...

Since our second trip to China is taking longer to happen than we hoped, I am reliving our first trip, 2 years ago, and will be posting the emails that I wrote to the Yahoo group I started to document the experience.

May 28, 2004

I wasn't able to write from China right away - there was no internet in our room and we got in much too late. We got in to the Beijing airport at 11:30 pm China time Friday night so by the time we got to our hotel it was bedtime! I wrote my first post the next day. Watch for it tomorrow. Here is the view from our hotel that first night (Yu Yang, our guide said that was the first and last time AWAA would ever use that hotel! The one AWAA normally uses, the Radisson, was booked.)



And again, back to the present, here is Lindsey in an adorable outfit I got from the Children's Place outlet. I took the picture this morning after church.



And finally a scripture read by our pastor this morning that really spoke to me about the wait:

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Colossians 3:15

2 years ago....

May 27, 2004 - Got up about 3:30 am and got ready to go to the airport, going to China! The night before we watched Fantasia win American Idol as we packed our bags. We left for the aiport about 5:00 am and I felt like I was going to throw up the whole way there. My sister took us (she's coming with us this time, I can't wait!) and she and Ben were talking on the way there, to my ears all I heard was "wahh waaahhh, wahh waaahhhh" like on Charlie Brown. :-) I had never flown on a jet before and here I was going halfway around the world! I'm getting that feeling in the pit of my stomach as I remember it. Now even though I've done it before, I know I'm going to have that same "I'm going to throw up" feeling on the way to the airport again.

So for my first flights, we flew from our local airport to O'Hare, then to LAX, then to Shanghai, then to Beijing! I think it took about 28 hours start to finish, something like that.

We only have a few pictures of the trip over (have to change that next time!) but here's one of me and my mother-in-law at O'Hare, then a view out our plane window somewhere between Chicago and LAX.





And back to the present day, here's a picture of Lindsey I took yesterday:

Getting on with it

Okay, pity party over, time to get back to life. From the start I've been committed to enjoying the journey - but sometimes it feels like there is no journey! We are just spinning in circles it seems. But we ARE moving forward, inch by inch, and I'm going to try to enjoy things again.

Here are the latest 2 bibs I've received in the October DTC group bib swap. One more month to go with that. Next month we are starting a sock swap in the September group. That will run for 4 months and should be fun, easy, and inexpensive.





Tomorrow is the 2 year anniversary of the day we left for China to adopt Lindsey. I had a Yahoo group for our trip (will do that again for this one when it gets closer, whenever that might be!). I'm going to post the messages I sent to that group each day along with a picture or two from our trip. If I can't go on this journey yet, I might as well relive the first one. Hope you enjoy!

Sigh

NO COMMENT

Another week

So I woke up this morning thinking "It's Monday, let the rumors begin!" LOL Then I go read RQ's blog (yes I read it, every day, but never post) and read the clarification of the "June 15" rumor - the CCAA thinks they will get to the 15th this month, maybe the 18th or 20th, but that would be difficult. So at this point this is still a RUMOR but it certainly isn't out of line with the way things have been going. So I am SO DISCOURAGED and wonder when this is ever going to end. Are they ever going to start referring full months again? 3/4 months? 1/2 months for pete's sake? We're going to have to reapply for our I-171H, I just know it (it expires 2/17/06). So any financial benefit from waiting longer than we planned is totally OUT the window. Not to mention the hassle of doing that all again. Did I ever mention how much I hated paperchasing????? I don't enjoy the thought of reliving any of that over again.

BOY AM I CRABBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Half the Sky

http://www.halfthesky.org

We've been giving to Half the Sky for almost 3 years now - to their Baby Sisters Infant Nurture Program. Our sponsored baby has a nanny assigned to her, to help her grow and develop and give her love. We get an initial photo and report about our baby, and then quarterly reports and a picture after that. We are sponsoring our 4th baby! The first one was adopted, the second one went into foster care, and the third one was also recently adopted so we just received information on our newest sponsored child. She's only about 6 months old and she is quite young in the picture we just got. All 4 children are adorable! It's not quite the same as getting a referral, but it is so special to get the updates and pictures. I love it!

Half the Sky is just one of several wonderful programs helping children in China. Love Without Boundaries is another great one http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com.

It has been so rewarding knowing we are helping these children. If you are looking for a way to help, check out these wonderful organizations!

DTC Pins

I belong to both the September and October DTC groups. We were DTC 9/9 so I joined the September group, never dreaming we wouldn't get logged in until 10/12! With Lindsey's adoption we were logged in in 7 days. Anyway, I love both groups, and both groups have pins. I bought 2 of each - September Moongazers and October Autumn Dreams.

At the farm

7 months!

We've been logged in for 7 months today. A milestone - yes, but who would have thought that at this point we wouldn't have our referral yet. The worst part is that there is no end in sight. I'm trying not to be too pessimistic but who knows if we will even go to China by the end of the year.

It's cold and rainy and we're off to a field trip to a farm! We'll be wearing hats, mittens, and our winter coats! Not what I envisioned when I signed up for this field trip. Oh well, I think Lindsey will love it no matter what the weather.

Have a good day!

CCAA Website

Hope I'm not being too snarky here, but I need to say something:

JUST BECAUSE THE CCAA WEBSITE IS DOWN DOES NOT MEAN THEY ARE UPDATING IT! IT DOES NOT MEAN REFERRALS ARE COMING! IT'S JUST DOWN, THAT'S ALL!

There, I feel better now. If I had a dollar for every time I've read someone say the website is down, must mean something, I could fully fund this adoption (okay not quite!) You do not need to take a website down in order to update it. Besides, referrals just came out not quite 2 weeks ago, and the CCAA was off last week - I doubt more are coming this week. (I know it's happened before, in June 2004 a batch came out just one week after the previous batch, but that scenario seems unlikely to be repeated with the way things have been going.)

Sunday Encouragement

It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the Lord
Than to put confidence in princes.

This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:8-9, 24

**********************************

My 5 year old Westie, Chester

He just got a really short haircut and looks nothing like this right now! He's so cute and sweet, he's the best dog!