It's been 10 months...

...and we continue to dream of the time we will be back in China to bring our mei mei home.

If you look closely, you will see a double rainbow...the view we had from our front door on Sunday evening...that has to mean something right??

Am I Delusional?

A new frock to while away the wait...

I figure I will either have a well dressed child...or make a bundle on ebay. Yes...that's the smallest hint of doubt about the adoption creeping in little by little as the months go by with no speed up in sight....

A rug to build a room on (and 9 months!) !

Update: Uhhhh......yeah.....Wendy politely pointed out that we are celebrating our 9 month anniversary instead of the 10 month anniversary I loudly proclaimed yesterday. I have no excuse for my faulty arithmetic except for the fact that I am on vacation and blogging is challenging....and there was probably a little wishful thinking thrown in for good luck! I was intent on getting the post up and trying to watch Lia at the same time. So.....9 months down.....and so many more to go... :-)

As we mark the 9 month anniversary of our Log in Date in China, we remain excited and happy that we will someday welcome our second daughter from China! This week, I found the most precious rug while I was antique shopping with my sister. Although the colors didn't photograph very well, the main color is a peachy pink that will be perfect for our nursery! This was special for me as the first thing I bought for Lia's nursery was a rug as well. Rug....done! Next up...bedding!!

Happy Mail and Good Wishes!

At some point I plan to begin a formal collection of quilt squares for our mei mei's 100 Good Wishes Quilt. Since our wait continues to grow with each passing month, I have not been too worried about getting started just yet. But when Kim e-mailed and asked if I would like a quilt square, I was touched...and of course took her up on her offer!

We received her beautiful square and wish this week. It is the first official wish for our daughter to be. I had to cry just a little when I read the wish and saw the lovely fabric. This wait is difficult...but it's moments like these that help me hang on to our dream and have faith.Thanks so much Kim!

...and so we wait...Month 8!

Thank you all so much for taking part in my baby name poll! We had so much fun with it! I planned to take it down when we had 25 votes, but I think we were up to 76 when I composed this post. Of course my friend Laura admitted she voted several times for her favorite...which I am pretty sure is the case with my family as well (and you know who you are!). I had to resist the urge to jump in myself and vote a few times! We have not made any final decisions yet and I may just reconfigure the name poll at a later date and take votes again.

For now, we celebrate the passage of 8 months since our dossier has been registered in China. To put it into perspective...we received Lia's referral just a few days short of our 8 month LID anniversary. I think that fact has made this particular month a hard one for me. I recently entered our information into a referral date guesstimation program (based on mathematics and the current referral data) and if things continue as they are, we can expect to see our referral on August 10, 2015...give or take a few months. Thank goodness they add that little disclaimer at the end. (:-)) I do expect the referral rate to speed up at some point and I don't really think we will be waiting until 2015...but for now, the news is dire and really hard to fathom!

Despite the pessimism and sadness we sometimes experience, we realize what a precious opportunity we have been given. We are honored and humbled that Chinese officials will bestow upon us (pending review, of course!) the responsibility to raise another of their own daughters. We are thankful.

...and so we wait.

Names...just for fun!

Please take a minute to cast your vote in our name poll on the sidebar. We are all over the map (and really having lots of fun!). Each name has a bit of a story and I thought it would be helpful to let you know what they are! Lia's middle name is Nanette, after a dear friend, and consequently, I want the new baby to have a significant middle name too. It is one of the reasons I decided to change the name (again!). I would love to hear any comments you have, so feel free to leave a note in the comment section.

Jillian Snow: Jim's grandparents surname has snow (Snoe) as part of it. Also, we love Snow Wu, the founder of our adoption agency. It was the first name we settled on and I think it is still Jim's favorite. I was unsure of how it sounded with our last name.

Lauren Marie: My grandmothers name was Lenore Marie. The baby would have the same initials as my grandma and the same middle name.

Reese McKenna: My grandfather's name was Ken, so this name would honor him.

Jensen Mei (or Marie): My great-grandmother's name was Jenny. Jensen is a Scandinavian name to honor my Swedish roots and we could call her Jenny or Jen for short. Jim's mom's middle name is Mae... but we would spell ours Mei for obvious reasons.

Gettin' by with a little help...

My good friend Karen, knowing of my (somewhat unnatural) love for all things Hanna Andersson, recently passed along some little Hannas for our mei mei. She threw in a cuter than cute Zutano panda dress and some beautiful little bibs. It gives me such pleasure to hang each item in the closet and know that one day there WILL be another baby girl in our house dressed to the nines in her Hanna Andersson finery!! Thank you so much for thinking of us Karen!

7 Months and still dreaming...

"Within you heart keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go, and shelter so, may thrive and grow ~ where doubt and fear are not. Oh, keep a place within your heart for little dreams to go." Louise Purcell

(Note: We announced our intention to adopt our second China miracle last Mother's Day weekend with this fun little Smilebox slide show. I chose "Over the Rainbow" as the music to accompany that slide show a year ago and it seemed fitting for this post as well. I can scarcely believe that a year has passed since those first exciting days of dreaming about our second daughter. We will continue to wait and dream no matter how long the journey takes.)

Name Craze(iness) (Again!)

I know it was only three posts ago that I debuted the name we had chosen for our mei mei. I was certain that we had finally found "the one". For some reason, however, the name is just not sitting well with me now. We are back at the drawing board. And my husband is seeking mental health help. For both of us.

6 Months

"May the love hidden deep inside your heart find the love hidden in your dreams. May the laughter that you find in your tomorrow wipe away the pain you find in your yesterdays."

Author Unknown

5 Months!!

5 months closer...

Logged In 4 Months!

For my daughter:

Today I said a prayer for you

My daughter of China, daughter of mine

Unknown, unborn and yet already so much of my heart

I dream of our life in flowers and light

and wonder when this life will start?

Who will you be? Who will you become?

A gentle wind or a beating drum?

A dreamer ? A dancer? A funny face maker?

A thinker? A twirler? A pretend cookie baker?

Whoever you are, whoever you'll be

I love you already ; I can't wait to see

Today we are but one day closer to knowing your spirit, to knowing your face

One day closer in this long long chase

Today I said a prayer for you

My daughter of China, daughter of mine

To keep you safe, to hold you close

Until we meet in His perfect time

klm

What Was That??

Our second and third month LID anniversaries flew by without the grand fanfare I am so fond of, but we celebrate being that much closer none the less. We spent the second month anniversary (December 10th) passing a stomach virus around. We are glad it's gone. We don't want it to come back. Ever. And that's enough about that!

Our 3 month anniversary was spent moving into our new house. We did the bulk of moving between Christmas and New Years. We were thrilled that my mom was able to help us out for a few days with both moving details and taking care of Lia.

We continue to get settled in, but our little house on the hill is starting to feel more and more like home everyday.

1 Month Down...

On November 10th, 2007, we celebrated the 1 month anniversary of our paperwork being registered in China. It also happened to be the day we completed paperwork to list our condo. We ended the busy day with a great dinner out with dear friends. It just doesn't get any better. One of the blessings of our first adoption was meeting several local families who were in the process as well. We were fortunate to travel for Lia with Jen and Dan as they met their daughter Katie Min Min . We paperchased together last spring and summer and were thrilled that they were logged in on the same day we were. We have big plans for our return trip together to China to meet the Mei Meis!!

The first picture is Lia in her princess finery (what could be better??)celebrating getting that first month under our belts. The second picture is Jim with Lia and Katie Min Min.

How much fun was that????

Here is the short Smilebox video we sent to our mothers on Mother's day to share our big news. What a great day!

Edited to add: There is something wrong with the Smilebox video. The last few slides are cut off. I am not sure why and I can't seem to fix it...but this is still the basic idea!

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

And so we wait......

Well....I am finally ready to dip my toe into the big deep blogger world! I am Kate, married to Jim, mom to the fabulous Lia and lucky mom-to-be of our second China daughter. When we began the process of our second adoption in May 2007, we had hope that we would be in China by May 2009. Our paperwork was logged in on October 10, 2007. Unfortunately, the wait continues to grow monthly for families waiting to adopt from China. We continue to watch and wait and pray that the time frame speeds up at some point. But in the end, I mostly just feel very fortunate to be able to adopt my second daughter and I know the wait will be well worth it in the end. This is a picture of Lia holding our application for her mei mei.