Ni Hao Kailan

 Meilynn with Daddy at the show

Apparently I am out of picture storage space and these were the last two pictures that it would allow me to post.  It will be 24 hours before they allow me to post more pictures.  I am so glad this did not happen while we are in China!  Whew!  These are two pictures from the Storytime live show we went to.  We saw Dora, The Wonderpets, Backyardigans, and Kailan.  The girls loved it!

We are waiting now for our Letter of Acceptance or LOA.  There have not been any issued since October 1 which is highly unusual.  We are not expecting ours quite yet but we would like to see those in line before us get theres so that when it is time for us to get ours they are off the charts.  Our LID was September 30 just before the Holiday in China so we are either on day 24 of our wait for LOA or if you take away the week they did not work we are only on day 17 of the wait.  Last year we got ours on day 49 and that was an early LOA at that time.  In September there were a few that only took 20 days and we were hoping that things were speeding up, but then we have had this dry spell where we have not seen any for awhile.  We hope that those that have been waiting before us hear good news tomorrow!
I have more to post but without my pictures I am lost.  I did not even know that I could run out of picture space on blogger.

WE GOT LID!!!! and 100 Good Wishes Quilt

We got our LID while we were away on our couples retreat.  The LID (Log in Date) is September 30.  The LID is the date that the CCAA logs your dossier into their system.  The next step is the LOA or letter of acceptance.  Those are running about 4-8 weeks.  Some have been coming really fast lately.  Ours last year came at 49 days which was really fast then.  We are praying that ours will come fast.  When that happens another set of paper work for immigration has to be sent, and then we will wait on that.

Also, we need to get started on Jilliana's 100 Good Wishes Quilt.  If you would like to contribute, e-mail me and I will send you our address.  My e-mail is on this blog page to the right I think.  We have tapped out everyone on this so any of you that would love to help we would truly appreciate it.  It has meant so much to our girls.  Here is the letter

 Dear Family and Friends,

Our family is growing again.  We are adopting Qin JiHong we will be calling her Jilliana Elise Jihong Poma.  Jilliana will be three in November.  We would appreciate it if you would contribute again but understand if you are not able to. 

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a "Bai Jai Bei", or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. In China these quilts were originally made from garments of family and friends, which would surround the child with luck and good wishes. The custom is to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth and a cloth scrap of the same fabric. The 100 patches are then sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, prayers, and good wishes from all the family and friends that contribute a piece of fabric. Part of the cloth goes into the quilt, and the other part will go into a creative memory book with the wish made for Jilliana. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. I invite you to join in our "Bai Jia Bei" project by contributing one 7" square of fabric (100% cotton) and a wish, prayer, or Bible Verse for our precious daughter. In working to keep her culture and background very alive in her life and in her home, we felt that she would enjoy this special keepsake when she is older and can see how many people joined in the prayers to bring her home. We have a shorter time frame to work with here, so the sooner you can get the cloth to me the better.  I would like to have the fabric by November 15th if possible.  I know these are busy times.

1. Choose any 100% cotton fabric that is meaningful to you, represents your wish for Jilliana, or has ladybugs on it since they are a symbol of good luck in China.
2. Wash and Iron the fabric. This is a very important step.
3. Cut one piece into a 7-inch square.  This one will be used in the quilt.  Cut another piece smaller, about 2-inch square. This is the piece you will attach to the notecard.
4. On a 4x6 index card or notecard write out your wish, prayer, poem, Bible verse, etc. along with your name and address. Glue the fabric to the card. You might also write why you chose the particular fabric. Use only one side of the card since they will be put in a memory book.

Ideas for good wishes might be: What you wish for Lily i.e., good health, compassion, sense of humor etc. If there are several members in your family please feel free to send a favorite fabric from each one.

The cards will be placed in a memory book for her to read when she is older. Emma, Meilynn and Lily already enjoy looking at their books. Jilliana will be able to look at the book and then find the square that you sent on her quilt.

Thank you for participating and contributing to our quilt project. I know in the years to come she will treasure each and every one of you for being a part of her journey home!

Love Vicki 

                                                                  

A lot going on!

If you have followed my blog or you are family you will recall how excited I was to find this stocking for Emma while we were waiting for her.  It is the exact same pattern that my Grandmother made for me when I was a baby and then she made one for Mike when we got married and then for Kami and Meghan.  Knowing that they were handmade and so long ago I never thought it would be possible to find a hand knit Christmas stocking just like my Grandmother had made for me for Emma.  And now all 6 of my daughters have this very treasured Christmas Stocking thanks to the internet and ebay.

 While we are at it, the other girls have chairs similar to this so of course Jilliana needed one.  The girls go around telling me, "Oh, we will need one of these for Jilliana.  (A side note to those who are adopting your first, what you do for the first you will need to do for all that follow.  We thought we were just adopting one and during that wait I found a lot of special things that I am now "having" to duplicate.  Time to start another 100 good wishes quilt.  Anyone out there want to contribute?  I am wearing my family and friends out!)

 When a package comes at our house there is such excitement.  Lily received a package that she had been waiting for!

 Everyone wants to get in on the action

 It requires a lot of teamwork

 And a lot of coordination

 And there it is!  The 100 Good Wishes Quilt

 Lily was so excited and immediately wanted to know who each of the squares was from?

 She loved it!  It was quite a bit different from when Emma and Meilynn got their quilts.  Lily was able to understand what it was.

 We had snack this week at Kindergarten and the color was...........

 They were excited to share their snack

 I cannot believe that we had three different style of orange dresses

 Surprise! Lily will go to school with the girls M, W, and F.  I will continue to homeschool her on Tuesday and Thursdays!

 One very excited girl!

 Aunt Debbie is the best!  She always has time to give us pedicures!

 On the adoption front, we were able to walk in and get our fingerprints early!  It was such a relief!  Our fingerprints were scheduled for October 26th and I was not going to be able to make that appointment and it was so late!  So today we were able to get it done.

I found this picture of Jilliana.  I don't know how old she is here, but they are actually doing a craft project!  I feel lucky that she is being cared for in this way!  Thank you God for letting me see these things that give me some comfort in the wait for her.  In case you do not recognize her, she is the one with the cute little pony tails on the right.  Looks like they are making a map!