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