Yikes! I'm leaving in a week!

We got permission to travel. The call came while standing in the airport waiting to board our flight back to Phoenix. It's so cool that I have to read this to you, too. It's a form called Notice of Travelling to China for Adoption and it says:

In accorance with the Adoption law of the People's Republic of China and the Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, we agree that the child, HUA JUN LIANG (male, born on 2006/12/28), who is in the care of the Nanjing SWI for Children, Jiangsu Province, be placed with you for adoption. Please travel in person with this notice to the adoption registry office within the Civil Affairs Department of Jiangsu Province in China to proceed the registration formalities.

Sigh. What a precious little paragraph.

And so far we're getting details covered, so I'm leaving next Friday (2/29) for China! The schedule will be something like this.

Leave Friday night from LA
Arrive in Nanjing on Sunday afternoon
Get Cooper on Monday!!!
Adoption on Tuesday
Visit orphanage on Wednesday
Wait for paperwork to be completed Thursday
Fly to Guangzhou on Friday
Visa physical and other details over the weekend
Swearing in at the US Consulate in Guangzhou on Monday morning (this is very sweet. I have to raise my right hand for Cooper as he is sworn in as a US citizen).
Wait for his Visa on Tuesday
Fly home on Wednesday and hug the stuffing out of my girls!!

Oral Withrow April 12,1932 - February 12, 2008

Emily and Grandpa Oral going for a walk

Grandpa and Grace

China Snowstorms

Southern China has been having record breaking snow fall and crippling winter weather for days. You won't hear about the orphanages on the news, but Half the Sky Foundation has been desperately trying to help the government meet needs of children and the elderly in the social welfare institutions (orphanages) since the storms began.

Cooper's orphanage is one that is affected. Here is the most recent update from Nanjing.

Nanjing CWI, Jiangsu – continues to manage, despite the heavy snows. They would like 200 children’s blankets but insist that we look after others with greater needs first. UPDATE: HTS is sending extra funds for heating the family village apartments for the next month - 513 yuan per family = 3078 yuan as well as 12,000 yuan to purchase 90 quilts and 6 heaters for the Family Village apartments. They also request 20,000 yuan to purchase 100 blankets for the children in the institution.

Emily's and Grace's orphanages have also been very heavily hit. Grace's city, Changzhou had the heaviest snowfall in Jiangsu province and buildings have crumbled.

Wednesday evening is Lunar New Year's Eve and the Spring Festival is their biggest holiday of the year. Families are stranded and Half the Sky is doing their best to get holiday food, blankets, winter clothes, electric heaters, boilers, medicine, and other necessities to orphanages and foster families. If you would like to help and read more about the emergency efforts of Half the Sky please link to http://www.halfthesky.org/work/littlemouse.php.

Sharing stinks when your 3...

Yesterday I asked Grace if she is ready for her little brother. She thought a minute then said, "As soon as my heart gwows bigger like the Gwinch I'll be weady for my bwuder."

Awwhhhh.

I was beginning to feel like I was the only one talking here (I know...I was) so I added a little quiz on the side. Feel free to comment or take part. You can comment on the blog itself by clicking "comments" below. Although, I love getting your email, too!

By the way, I'm leaving for Minneapolis tonight for a conference. It's below zero there. BELOW ZERO. I need help. Tips. Reminders. It's been 11 years. There is a little plug hanging out the front of the car right? And that plugs into what at night? I've forgotten how to do the little shuffle dance across an icy parking lot. And forget about winter clothes. I dug out my 15 year old winter coat. You know the kind that was in style back then...fake fur around the hood, hangs down past your rear end and cinches in the middle. Yikes.

I'm toast.

I'm Going To China, Baby!!!

It came! It came! It came! A simple little piece of paper titled "Letter Seeking Confirmation from Adopter" (Some things just don't translate so well).

It's hard to believe how life-changing one little piece of paper can be. But I guess, most of our life-changing moments are marked with a piece of paper -- a marriage license, a birth certificate, a certificate of death...

Anyway, the one we've been waiting for came today. And I have to read it to you. :-) It says,

Based on your application and in accordance with the Adoption Law of the People's Republic of China, the China Center of Adoption Affairs matched a child with you. Herein, we sent the information about the child to you. You are kindly requested to make your decision, sign in the proper place below, and deliver this letter as soon as possible to the adoption organization which submitted your application file, HAND IN HAND INTERNATIONAL ADOPTION.

Obviously I checked the box that says We accept the adoptee mentioned above and delivered it "as soon as possible". :-) (Nah, I thought I'd sit on it for a week or two.) Actually, I signed it in the office and handed it right back over.

So...our agency is trying to get our appointment at the US Consulate as soon as possible after Chinese New Year. Everything closes for the holiday, but she's hoping we'll leave the end of February.

It's funny how these things work out. Some friends we knew 4 years ago celebrated with us when we came home with Emily. We lost touch with them for a couple of years, but one day they called and asked if they could talk to us about adoption. We met with them, showed them all our pictures, and told them everything we knew about adoption from China. They ended up working with our agency and have been waiting for over a year now on the non-special needs list for a daughter.

When they learned of the new special needs program Hand in Hand has with the Nanjing orphanage they switch over and were matched with a beautiful 2 year old girl. In the meantime, we decided to adopt Cooper through the same special needs program. All this time we've been talking about how cool it would be if we travelled together, but knew it wouldn't happen because they were so far ahead of us.

They received their "Seeking Confirmation" letter on Thursday and we thought we were still a month or more from getting ours. I couldn't believe it when our agency called today. Doug and I were in a group of 5 families who were expected to get our letters about the end of February at the earliest. We were the ONLY one of those 5 who got it today. So I get to travel with our friends. How cool is that?

And just for the heck of it...cute kid pictures.

Happy Birthday Cooper!!!

Or maybe not so much. The wonderful couple who squeezed Cooper's birthday present into their suitcase sent us this picture. They got to see him when they adopted their son a few weeks ago. Their exact words were, "Cooper is a chunky monkey with a strong set of pipes." Great. :-)

So I dug out the medical report they sent us when he was about 4 months old. If he stays in the same percentile on the growth chart by the time he's 15 months (desperately hope to be there by then) he'll be too tall for 18 month clothes. Move over Yao Ming!

Still no word on when we can travel. Our agency assures us we've not been forgotten. Our file is in "room 2" at the China Center for Adoption Affairs in Beijing which means we're simply waiting on the last precious piece of paper. Meanwhile, Cooper is quickly outgrowing every item of clothing in his closet.

When your family is biracial and you've become a family through adoption you have to pick and choose when to educate people, and when to "let it go." I've never given much thought to our blog address getting Cooper until last week. We were in Ikea when a woman stopped us (in the plant section if you want to picture the scene), looked at the girls and bellowed, "Where'd ja get em?"

First, I looked around to make sure she was really talking to me. Then I looked at the candles in my cart and said, "Over there in the candle aisle." (I know, I know. Sarcasm. But it's so fun sometimes.) She said, "No, I mean your beautiful China dolls. It's horrible how they just throw girls away over there."

Not fun anymore.

Of course, I knew she was talking about the girls and I am usually very patient and more than happy to help people understand adoption -- that Emily and Grace are my own ("Can't you have kids of your own?"). That I'm a mom just like you and that adopting my children wasn't noble or selfless. ("You have such a big heart. They are so lucky.") When you think of me as noble, you make me a different kind of a mom than you. And I'm not. I'm just their mom, just like you are your kids' mom. And no, they are not really that lucky. They lost their birth family, their culture, their language, their home.

I have to admit. That day, I wasn't very patient. I snapped at her, actually. "They're not dolls, they're children. And they can hear you." Nothing like teaching your kids how to deal with racism with grace and composure.

But it made me think of our blog address and I desperately hope getting Cooper doesn't offend other adoptive families. I didn't mean it like, "Where'd ja get em?" More like, "Tutor Time called. Emily is sick and I have to go get her."

Every day is an education. For me and those close to us. A woman we met at Chinese school, who has become a dear friend, just asked me last night if I was going to tell Emily and Grace they were adopted. (Head tilt) Huh?

The ongoing picture drama...

Grace cut her bangs. Actually, she cut big chunks out all over her head, but it mostly only shows at her bangs. And yes, I was standing right there. She kept saying, "Hey, Mommy. Look. Look Mommy. Hey, Mommy. Watch." I kept saying, "Just a minute, honey. Hang on. Just a minute, Mommy can't look right now." Nice.

It reminded me of something that happened just after we got home with Grace. Emily was pushing her in this little child-sized rocking chair and I said, "Careful Emily. You've got to watch her. It will tip. Remember when baby Angel (former foster baby) tipped over and the chair landed on his head?" And Emily said to me very seriously, "Weren't you watching him?"

Of course I was. I was sitting right there. Watching him. And I watched him tip right over and the chair land on his head.

Anyway, back to the bang trim. It was just in time for the big Christmas Eve program at church...and my final opportunity in 2007 for "the perfect" Christmas picture of the girls. :-) These are 2 of my favorites.

Dustin and Brianna, my step-kids were here for Christmas. Emily and Grace absolutely adore them. Several time last week I watched Dustin and Brianna play with the girls and realized how lucky we are that they have these awesome "big kids" in their lives. But, there is this one thing...

Grace, when I dress her. (Notice what's left of the bangs glued back with hairspray.)

And when Dustin and Brianna dress her. Thanks, guys. My precious little "gangsta".

Still no news from China. Happy New Year, everyone.