Ava...Meiying

Nothing like a "Name Intervention" hosted by your girlfriends to get a name selected!

Homemade sangria, hummus & pita, oatmeal berry bars and lots of laughs...

They arrived with many books on names only to confuse me more...

their point was made and taken...

Fortunately, Derek and I had already decided...

(updated July 12, 2009...)BUT...YET AGAIN...

WE CHANGED THE NAME!
:( We're having an identity crisis...LOL

too many Anna/Anne variations already in our family...

so it's just not feeling right...

she deserves that individual name in our family...

Sorry Meiying; I hope this will be funny one day.

Though Ava has gained popularity in recent years,

in Meiying's birth year,

it wasn't that popular...

Ava means "like a bird"...

Next post will be on the significance of that!

June 8
Happy Birthday Meiying!!

Passing out candies, looks like she's counting out an exact amount for each friend...
Beautiful b-day cake; the chocolate piece on top says "Mei Ying, Happy Birthday".
Art supplies, stickers, colored pencils...candies.
7 candles...7 good wishes!
She feels special today and so big!
Look at her smile and that braid...I can't wait!!!!!!!
Can you imagine how curly and thick her hair must be; she's so pretty; such a sweet face.
Yummm....
Happy girl...no time to stop eating for a picture...
Enjoying that cake...that's our girl; she'll fit right in!!!

Name? Name? What does Meiying look like? An "A", "L", "M" or "K" name?



Name? Name? ....

Just to update you all...the naming of Meiying continues to evolve. As you know, Nina, has been a favorite of mine from the beginning; not so much the rest of the family. I've always considered the fact that Meiying is old enough to be speaking Mandarin and wanted to choose a name that I thought would flow with Meiying and also be easy enough for her to pronounce. What I didn't consider was how some of the names might sound and translate in Chinese. It has come to my attention by a 4-time China adoption mom that:

"NE NA (pronounced Nina) in Chinese means like: You too? Like you'd ask someone how are you? They would answer, good, and then say NE Na? Meaning and you? How are you? It is an inclusive word... it works for various phrases or questions anyone asks you..."

And so, she followed up that paragraph with: "Don't know if that is significant to you." Well, yes it is and of course, Allie has had a good laugh over this one since she's been objecting to Nina all along. She continues to remind me each day how Meiying will feel if we call her Nina Meiying during those early days over in China. Per Allie, "Do you know how confusing that will be for her? She'll keep thinking we're asking how are you Meiying, all day long!" Oy!!!...Name? Name?

Through a service, http://ladybugsnlove.com , I ordered Meiying's birthday cake to get delivered and also sent a care package of a few birthday presents, candies for the nannies, foster family and kids, a camera to take pictures with and a brief intro letter and SASE (hoping she'll write back or draw us a picture). I included 3 photos of us too.

I'm so excited for her to get it; I'm sure she hasn't gotten word about being adopted yet. I can only imagine her reaction (surprise, excitement, fear...).

I'm planning on sending another care package directly from us once we've established contact and I had already bought a few girly things to include (hair accessories, a necklace, an outfit and of course, a brand new box of crayons and coloring book...my favorite gift to get when I was a kid -- hey, I was the 9th of 10 kids -- my very own box of crayons and coloring book was a treat). The letter I wrote for the 2nd package is being translated and goes into a little more detail about us and where we live so she'll have a better idea of what's coming.

Anyway, here's the 3 photos we included in this intro/b-day package. I'm so excited!! Do you think she'll look at these pictures and see happiness and love in her future?...

More photos...

So, just 2 days after hearing the good news that we were LID, I found a bunch of pictures of Meiying in another family's photo album. These were taken on a camera they had sent in their care package. They just came home last month. Meiying is their daughter's best friend and they live in NC too!! More and more, it is appearing that Meiying is one of the oldest left in her Half the Sky class (ages 2 - 7 years old). She will be 7 in just a few weeks (June 8). I loved seeing these updated pictures tho it makes me sad and I wish we could leave for China today. She looks so tall, doesn't she? Love the yellow butterflies on her pants and her pretty black shoes. We've been seeing tons of yellow butterflies too so I thought that was pretty special. I have more photos, but I'm just posting a few for now. I can't stop looking at her. Oh and we also got the go ahead from our agency to send a care package so I'm pondering over what to send and what to say...

MAY 15 ... LID...LID...LID!!!!

tick...tock...tick...tock... yes, we're still waiting and no, no news.

Being that this is our second China adoption, I know there's life after red threads and ladybugs, but it doesn't mean that I can't enjoy it all the second time around. What does that mean? It means on May 5, while hitting golf balls out in the pasture, I was surrounded by ladybugs...literally everywhere I looked. It was amazing. I remember when that happened during my adoption-pregnancy with Eliza except then, they were all over the birch tree while I drove under it on the lawnmower...

On May 4, I had my first dream about Meiying. Clear as day, she was in a building and we weren't supposed to see her, but I snuck in. I gave her a big hug and told her that we'd be back for her. Hmmm, we'll see if May 4 or May 5 turns out to be a red thread in the journey to Meiying.

I also wanted to share a photo that I found on the web of a t-shirt. I thought it was pretty funny. Not that I would wear it, but it was funny to stumble across.

...Got a call from our adoption agency tonight...

Our Dossier left for China today!!!!

THE AMAZING (PAPERCHASE) RACE...

The dossier is done! Shipped off yesterday to our agency for final review and submittal to China... Timely, don't you think? Sunday night's The Amazing Race episode took place in Guilin and the following day, our last document arrived... I didn't waste any time, practically following the UPS driver down our driveway, to overnight the completed dossier to WACAP, our adoption agency.