More Maya!

Our travel mates Laura and Paul hooked us up with some more pictures of Maya and we wanted to share our beautiful girl with you.

Look how big she has gotten! She is sitting up all by her self! Of course she is so stuffed with clothes she almost has a built in chair. I am breathless looking at these pictures of Maya! I love that girl.

These were taken 12/29/06. Look at all of the clothes she has on!

Happy Birthday Grandaddy

Today is your day Grandaddy! We hope you enjoy it!! Sorry we weren't able to make it for your party. We love you, Happy Birthday!!!

Maya Update

Yesterday, we received updated info about Maya. We loved getting the info but it sure isn't making it any easier to wait on her. Among lots of stuff that we loved learning about Maya, one of my favorites is " At five months, she would be very excited when she heard music. She would shake her body with the music." Now that's our girl! A music lover just like her Mama and Daddy!! Holy Moly, we love this little girl. We know she was created just for us. We can't stand much more of this!

First, the Good News

The good news is that we got our passports back today with our Chinese travel visas attached. Thank goodness! I have been holding my breath while these passports were out of our possession. Now for the bad news. We were told on match day that there was a slim chance that we could travel before CNY. Well, that slim chance disappeared today as we still do not have our TA (travel authorization). And there is still no word on when the TAs will be here. CCAI says now that they're hoping to get us out of here around 2/22. If anyone is counting that is 4 more weeks for Maya to be without her Mama and Daddy, and for her Mama and Daddy to be without her. On the flip side of this whole development, our travel should be a little cheaper since CNY will be over. And maybe Sandra will be back from New Zealand. We may get to meet our sweet girl's guardian angel. We have lots of hugs for her! I was feeling like I could stand this wait until today. Now, all of the sudden, I don't think I can wait one more day much less four more weeks. I guess I don't have much choice, huh?

Whiskey!

Who says dogs don't smile? This is Whiskey. She is our friends Matt and Aimee's little girl. She was barking her head of at me but it sure looks like she's smiling.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

We have had such a mild winter this year. This morning we awakened to a beautiful suprise. SNOW!!

All of the dogs in the neighborhood decided to come over and play with Fisher. He had a great time with Sasha and Ralph. Maggie is standing (or sitting) gaurd because Curly Sue wanted to come and play too. She finally let Curly come and then the barking began.

Gotta Love a Challenge

While lurking around today I ran across this challenge. So, here's my purse.

Last spring I bought my first Vera Bradley. I now understand the addiction. My niece got some of this Medallion print stuff for her wedding shower and I had to have some for myself. My Aunt Frances aways says "never set your purse on the floor or you'll be out of money before payday". I never set my purse on the floor but my checking account balance is $0 today so I didn't think it would matter. Payday is tomorrow!

Notice the matching wallet with the super cute picture of our tiny girl, Maya. I had to get a family calender this year because, after all, we are a family now. A little reading and music just in case. That is a heart and stethoscope on my check book. I had to have it because I am a nurse. Mike and I have the same phones so mine has that little hangie thing so I'll know which one is mine when they are just lying around together.


I usually have much more paper crap but I just put all of my receipts in my checkbook last night. That's how I know my balance is $0.


Anyone that has a Vera bag knows that they always have a million pockets. I feel the need to fill all of those pockets for some reason. This is the stuff that does that. Flash light, pocket knife, you name it. You never know when you might need a patchouli incense or want to flavor your H2O. Obviously, those patchouli incense have been around for a while. They have also come in handy on more than one occasion. Stinky hotel room. No corkscrew. I got you covered!

OK, OK!

These are for all of you who have given me so much flack for not putting these tiny, tiny pictures on here. This is our Maya. Isn't she just the cutest little peanut you have ever seen if you can see her. The younger girl is a volunteer at the House of Grace. She is leaving and they were celebrating with cake. She and Maya both have iceing all over them. So glad to see our girl is getting some yummy stuff. The other picture is of Maya and her guardian angel Sandra King. We love this woman. We love our Maya. I could squeeze them both. Sandra is going back to New Zealand the middle of January for a while. I think we will miss her if we get to visit the orphanage. I would love to tell this woman face to face, how very much we appreciate her. I think I could kiss her on the face. She is telling Maya everyday who we are and how much we love her. I hate that we'll miss the opportunity to meet her.

Enjoy the pics.

Look Out China

We had dinner last night with some local folks who received their referrals also. (See thier beautiful girls below, Emma and Klaire) We came in and out of Rio Grande in a blaze of excitement and joy. We would love to be traveling with all of them but the two other families are traveling together and Mike and I are on our own. Hopefully we can meet up in Guangzhou. We are looking forward to many more meetings like this one last night. These are great families with wonderful, smart and energetic children. We all can't wait to have three more kiddos to add in the mix.

It's in the Mail

These are the items that we included in our care package for Maya. We are almost sure that if the package makes it to China then Maya will get these things. We are hopeful that we will get some pictures on the disposable camera too. But we already know that we will get other pictures of her and we are so excited about that. Yesterday, we got two more pictures of her from the lady at the orphanage. They are about the size of a postage stamp so I'm not going to post them. Our girl is a mini little thing. I don't believe that she weighs 7 kg like the medical report says and after speaking with this lady, I'm almost sure she doesn't. She is also not eating the formula that it says on the report. Maybe her Ayi's can share some of their Hershey Kisses with her and help to fatten her up!

Lucky Mommy!!

Lucky Mommy is absolutely right!! I received an email today from a lady who has taken care of our sweet Maya at the orphanage. I cannot even begin to express how exciting it is to know that we may get to know more about Maya than we expected. We emailed her a picture of us and she says she will show it to Maya everyday and tell her who we are. It's simply unbelievable! I don't know how we got so lucky.
I sent our sweet girl a care package today. I am almost sure that she will get the items we sent and that makes us so happy. We have been sleeping with the blanket we sent. Hopefully she can snuggle right into it and smell how much we love her!

Emma

Here is Emma. She is the daughter of some more local folks. She and Klaire are obviously from the same orphanage. The cute little shirts they are wearing gave that away. Emma is such a doll baby! So tiny and round, too cute. We can't wait to meet both of these sweet girls. I'm sure that Maya, Emma and Klaire will be the best of friends. There is only 6 days difference in the age of all of our daughters.

We're looking forward to dinner tomorrow night with both of these families.

Klaire

Meet Klaire. She is the new daughter of some friends of ours, Don and Kelly. Isn't she a cutie?! Such a pretty peanut!

Maya

We have finally named our sweet girl. Maya HuaMei will be our beautiful girl's name. We found it very difficult to come up with something fitting for our princess. We think Maya is just right! I had to get some direction from a Chinese friend of mine regarding the middle name. Hua means "China" and Mei means "beautiful" or "little girl". We really wanted to keep part of her Chinese name as that is who she is. Zheng means "politics" and is a very masculine name if even a name at all. Those of you who know us well know that we are not very political people. And, look at that dainty, delicate, very very feminine little girl. There is no way she could have a masculine name.
So, there it is. Maya HuaMei!

What You've All Been Waiting For

Yang Chun Hua Zheng

On Friday we recieved two additional pictures of the most beautiful girl in the world. We also received the correct spelling of her name. I had it wrong on my first post. I can't beleive that was all that was wrong. I simply couldn't string two thoughts together when CCAI called with the news of our girl.
We are still undecided on her name. That is kind of a long story so I'll save it for some other time. So, her she is in all her glory.
We are soooo in love with this baby girl, so in love...

OUR GIRL!!!

It is with overwhelming joy and excitement that we introduce to you our BEAUTIFUL daughter

Yang Chun Hua Heng (4 names is unusual)

Birthday 4/28/06
Residing in Yang Chun City Comprehensive Welfare Institute
Guangdong Province

More to come. We're out of our minds with love and gratitude to the PRC for giving us this wonderful gift!
 

CONFIRMATION!!!!

CCAI has posted!! They have received matches through 9/12. That's us!!!!! We will be getting the call tomorrow!! Holy Cow...now what do I do for the next 24 hrs?

Condolences to the big group of 9/29 LID folks like my friend Carrie who are gonna have to continue to wait. In just a few days you'll be able to do the we're next dance and mean it!!

Deep Breaths

I'm on the verge of a total meltdown.
Still no word from CCAI.
Still haven't decided on a pediatrician.
Still don't know our daughter.
Still waiting....

Happy New Year!

We are back from nearly a week away from home just when we thought we may need to be home to see our daughter. But, lo and behold, we are still waiting. Here is the good news however...Referrals came out in Europe today. Now that probably means we may see our sweet girly on Thursday or Friday. I don't know if I will be able to contain myself until then. I will be working and sleeping for the next three nights and days. Wonder if I'll be sleeping at all? WE ARE NEXT!