The bulk of the dossier documents (meaning documents originating from Maryland and NC) were sent off yesterday to Washington D.C. for authentication with The U.S. Dept of State and then the Chinese Embassy in D.C. So, we're almost there... The screw up with the employment letter for Derek has unfortunately, put that document lagging behind all the other documents though. So, right now, I'm waiting for that one to come back from the MN Secretary of State before being able to send it to IL to the Chinese Embassy for that region. Alright all you faithful adoption couriers that I've put my trust into, c'mon...the finish line is in site...what documents are going to finish first? NY, Los Angeles, D.C. or MN/IL??? I'll let you know.

Whoooo hoooo!!! We are almost there... today I'm sending documents off to the various Chinese Consulars for authenticating! For those still in the paperchase phase, if you want to know how just one document can throw off your entire timeline read this: Derek's employment letter, originates in Minneapolis, did not have a notary acknowledgement statement on the letter (only the seal and signature). I mailed it off to the SOS (secretary of state) and 2 weeks later, got it back "rejected" because of the missing wording. Ugh! See... watch all the little important things carefully, dot your "i's", cross your "t's". When they tell you to make sure the notary's expiration is valid for at least a year, they mean it. The smallest thing can throw everything off!

So, what else has been going on besides all the day-to-day happenings? Well, you could say that Meiying's American name has become our mealtime topic of discussion. Seems that I'm still getting pushback on the name Nina. We've narrowed our choices down to about 4 names. We'll see, Nina is on that list. I still see Nina when I look at her picture or talk about her, but I do like some of the other choices as well. I don't like being unsettled about her name though. I think we need to establish a deadline so as not to drag this on and on and also give room to toss in other name suggestions. Allie is having lots of fun with that! Who knew today's kids names could be so creative. She'll come up with a name that sounds so made up and then she'll show me Facebook or MySpace where she knows 10 kids with that name! Huh! Of course, one of the four choices is also the #1 name given the year of 2002 (Meiying's birth year) so chances are there would be a half dozen classmates with that name.

Immigration approval received TODAY, in record time...just 12 days after our Homestudy was filed!!!!

Haven't posted in a while. Some updates...We finished our Homestudy! Documents have all been collected and the dossier authenticating will begun. We're getting closer; though China still feels so far away!

A family did recently come home with their Guilin daughter (Dava's daughter who sent me the pictures I posted last month w/ the birthday cake for her daughter, XingJuan). Here's what she said in an e-mail to me: "XingJuan saw some photos of her birthday party and immediately pointed to Meiying and said her name all excited! ....I showed Hannah (XingJuan) your website, and the photos where you weren't sure if it was Meiying, and Hannah pointed to all of them and said her name. You've guessed right it seems for spotting her in all the photos!"

So, here's two of the photos, cropped...

More pictures, recent...

Another family is getting ready to leave for China in a few days to receive their daughter. They had sent a b-day cake to her last month and just received photos back. The mom (thanks, Dava) was kind enough to look thru the album and see if there was pictures of Nina Meiying. She and I both agreed that we think this little girl is Nina. What do you think?


In picture above, backside of Nina in the red/yellow/green striped sweater... Love the long, thick (doubled up) braid...how fun!
In this picture, above, that's Nina w/ the Mickey Mouse sweater next in line for cake!

Look how good everyone is being, patiently waiting for everyone to be served before touching their forks!

A fun site!

W is for winter? Doesn't feel like winter here...the weather has been up to 70, then down to 40...as low as the teens at night or as high as the 60's at night. It's been weird. One thing I do know that W is for.... is wren...beautiful wren's here around our farm. I love the winter birds that flitter around in the thickets along our property line and pond. The other morning after feeding the horses, I stood along the tree line, about 6 feet away from a thicket and watched them all.

A very cool site that I found: http://www.circletimekids.com/WorldLibrary/countries/China/coloringbooks/index.php#10

For anyone adopting from China or already home, this is an awesome site for printing out pages to color of objects (for example, "things to use in the kitchen") and under each picture is the Traditional Mandarin pinyin and the english word. (I believe they have Cantonese too.) I'm going to have lots of fun printing these out to bring to Nina Meiying for our downtime and the long plane ride home.

In the photo above, I think Nina Meiying is the girl across the table from the birthday cake extending her peace sign high above the others... what do you think? This was in June 08.

I don't have a date for this picture, but I think Nina Meiying is in the bottom row, red jacket, red/pink pants... What do you think? Either way, I enjoy looking at these photos and seeing all the beautiful children that spend their days, and some, their nights, together...

I know her by her curls!

Here's some new "old" photos of Meiying found in other albums from families who have traveled and were able to visit the Half the Sky school. I have also been getting some neat e-mails from other moms whose sons or daughter new Meiying. In celebration of closing out year 2008, I can now proclaim, "We are officially done with our Hague Certification so our Homestudy should be complete! Yeah!!"

April 2007 - almost 5 - Nina Meiying, in the middle in picture above;
and on the right in the picture below...

Again, almost 5, April 2007, Nina Meiying in the red and white crocheted smock below...

This is a close up Nina Meiying from a group (classroom) photo that I have, dated August 2008, can you find Nina Meiying? She's at the bottom of the photo, in the center, a hand blocking her face...

Merry Christmas Dad and Nina Meiying!

Since this was the first Christmas without my father, last summer, Mom gave some of us her treasured Christmas ornaments; she knew she wouldn't be putting up a tree this year. So, I took her ornaments and did what she did with them when I was a child: I put up a small kitchen Christmas tree adorned with her ornaments and lots of birds, fruits and pinecones. I have to say this tree faired much better than our large family Christmas tree did. I loved seeing it in my kitchen. All of the ornaments that I have from mom date back to the 1960's and 1970's... You see, when I was a child, my mother would begin making ornaments out of wood, cornhusks, felt...as early as September each year. She was always busy working on some craft project. Come Christmas, she would decorate a small tree in our country kitchen (a kitchen complete with exposed wood beams that we would string fresh garland on). She would place all the neighbors' and postman's, newspaper carrier's and meatman's presents under this tree. Then we would decorate the large family tree (w/ store bought ornaments) in the family room. I loved being a child and had the most wonderful, loving and giving parents. They were the best role models. Too see these ornaments (dated and initialed by her) now hanging on "my kitchen tree" made Dad feel closer and made Christmas feel complete in a way that I hadn't felt since childhood. Thank you, Mother; you know I will cherish these.

Meiying has been on all of our minds and in our conversations daily here in this house. We've been around and around on names. I've had many favorites over the years only to see them "go" to friends, nieces and even pets! We were leaning towards Julia, but one day when I was looking at Meiying's photos, the name Nina hit me. It's never been a name that I've thought about, but she looks like a Nina to me. In spanish, Nina, of course mean "little girl". I thought it was perfect. When we visited Eliza's orphanage 2 years ago, as I've said before, I left there that day and told myself that I'd be back..."to bring home a little girl". So, Nina it is. Nina Meiying Ray. I think that's pretty. Derek says it's growing on him. Allie fought me hard (she wanted Julia...), Julia Meiying Ray is pretty too. For now, she's Nina Meiying to me. We shall see as the months continue and the dossier gets logged in...

So, Nina Meiying, I thought so much about you during Christmas. I said a special prayer for you. I wondered what your Christmas was like. I wondered what your favorite gift would've been. I thought about next Christmas and that you'd be home... Merry Christmas my little girl.

Officially consumed...

Here's 2 photos of Meiying that I found on the Guilin Family yahoo site. These were taken in the HSF (Half the Sky Foundation) classroom, July 2008. Meiying is in the pink, next to the banana's, and the only little girl w/out bangs. I spotted her right away -- the same wispy curls framing her face and her elegant-slender hands. DTC countdown is on...I am so excited to meet Meiying. Isn't this adoption journey so amazing? Such a small world too; I saw two other families on the Guilin yahoo group that I was originally DTC 2005 for Eliza with.

PA received from the CCAA