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....

Families, Families, Families

For thoses of you who have been wondering what has been going on with the babies in this post, they now have a family!! These families got thier girls early this week.

Check out Alexandra! She is a big beautiful girl. I think she looks exactaly like her referral pic only happier now that she has a family. It has been great to see some smiles out of her.


Maisie has hair! What a sweet little girl. She is so bright and beautiful.




Tess is just a tiny litte baby girl. Oh! I could just kiss that little face!!





I have not been able to get a new picture of Abby. I will try to get one soon.

These families traveled about 5 weeks after thier referral. We'll keep our fingers crossed that we can travel as quickly so that we can get home before Chinese New Year which is February 18. That is really soon. After waiting all this time, I can't believe we're really going to be next but WE ARE NEXT!
 

WE ARE NEXT!!!!!!!

The CCAA has updated their site to say that the new batch of referrals include LIDs up to 9/8/05. Congratulations to those families!
What this means to us is that we will, beyond a shadow of a doubt, know our daughter with the next batch of referrals. That could be by the end of December or very early in January. Let's all take a moment wish hard that we will know that girl before the end of 2006.
 

Babies, Babies, Babies

Just thought I would share some of these beautiful girlie's pictures with our friends and family. This is what we have to look forward to. It's not looking real good for the end of November but maybe by the end of December.

First is Alexandra. This is our Secret Pals Anne and Gunther's first baby girl. Isn't she a cutie? I could just kiss those cheeks!

Second is this sweet, sweet girl Miss Maisie. She is Lisa and Eammon's first baby girl also. Those eyes could melt your heart. And they have mine. We've all been waiting to find out Maisie's name. It's perfect for this beautiful girl.

Sara and David received the referral of this beauty, Abby. She is a tiny peanut with all of the hair that Maisie is missing. Too cute. We've been waiting to know Abbys name also.

Last but certainly not least is Tess. Tess is Julie's first daughter also. This cutie is full of personality in this picture. We have known Tess' name but just for a little while.

This is just a small sampling of the 61 babies that were referred to CCAI parents. These are folks that I keep up with on their web pages or blogs. Or in the case of Alexandra, a special girl in our hearts. We can't wait to proudly place our own sweet girls face on this blog and give her a name.

We're Home and Oct/Nov Referrals

We returned home from the Clemson football game to see our yahoo group lit up with referrals. How wonderful for those families who now know their children and may actually have them in their arms before Xmas. Congrats to all. This group included our great secret pals Anne and Gunther. Their beautiful daughter Alexandra is just perfect. This group included LIDs August 10-August 25. CCAI received 61 babies, 5 boys. One of these boys went to a family who specifically requested a girl and they could not be happier.
Could we be next? The CCAA covered 15 days of LIDs this time. That means there are only 18 days left to refer for us to be included the next time. Come on CCAA!! Bring on 20 days next time!

September Referrals

September referrals are out. They include LIDs July 23-August 9, 2005. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's August! Referrals have finally gone into August. First, let me send a congratulations to all of those who have been waiting forever to see their children's faces and now have. That includes 38 families using CCAI as their agency. How exciting!!!
Second, let me just say that with a LID of September 12, we are a mere 34 days away from the cut off date for this month! Now that seems like progress to me. If the CCAA continues to refer 18 days, that would give us our referral in November. That said, I'm not holding my breath. August 24 is a really big LID. Meaning that there are a lot of people logged in on that day. We all know that there has been as little as 5 days referred recently. It really is anybody's guess. But I'm very happy to know that we're finally into August. Congrats again you lucky families.!!
 

The Low-Down

CCAI received 56 matches with this batch of referrals. 6 boys...yeah, 6...and one set of twins. That's actually a pretty big bunch of kiddos with families now. How wonderful for those families and kids!!
No, I didn't find my camera. This is a picture from a few weeks ago. Notice the leaves are already changing in this tree. How bitter-sweet. No news on the camera actually except that it may have been stolen instead of just misplaced. Now I'm pissed if that is indeed the case. Who steals a camera at a friends wedding shower in a church of all places?
 

August Referrals

Well, August referrals are here. They are kinda skimpy...July 14-July 22, 2005...9 days, and not even all of July. There are still 9 days left in July, maybe they're saving those for September. Yeah, come on, drag this out a little longer. Oh well, at this point does it really matter? Congrats to those who have also been waiting forever and now know their children!
We did go on Friday and get our fingerprints updated. Both at the USCIS and the WV State Police Department. I had my physical today and now we have everything we need for our updated homestudy. I will put that stuff in the mail tomorrow. We're still holding out for a minute before we renew our I171H. That's a chunk of dough I'm having a hard time spending again.
Notice the lack of a picture to go along with this post. We had Emily's bridal shower on Sunday and it was fun and she got lots of good gifts. I took lots of great pictures and then I lost my camera, in the church, before the shower was even over. We dug through the trash. We searched high and low. And we could not come up with the camera. If anyone out there has any idea where my camera might be please let me in on that little secret.

It's Official

CCAA has updated their site to officially state that referrals are through July 13, 2005. CCAI has not updated their site to let us know how many kiddos. I guess I'll excuse them as they're probably pretty busy with the referrals:) One family who received their referral says that there were 22 CCAI families that recieved their referrals. Don't know if that includes any twins. If not that would be 22 kids for 22 CCAI families. Congrats to everyone who has now seen their childrens faces!! We are getting closer...very slowly, but we are getting closer.
I had dinner tonight with some friends from work. I have been putting them off and putting them off about a shower. Tonight, we decided that we would plan the baby's shower when we work on our next schedule. That will be a little later this month. I can't believe that we will get to have a baby shower for our baby. They have always been for someone elses baby. It has been so long since I have thought about this as being real. Is it real? Will we really be parents?
 

The Sun Has Set on the Next Batch of Referrals

July referrals are unofficially out. We still don't know how many children or families dreams have come true. They cover LIDs June 29-July 13, 2005. 15 days, and nearly half way through July. We were really were hoping that July would be fully referred this month but as with most wishes related to this wait, they are empty. Dad used to say, wish in one hand and shit in the other, see which one fills up first. Oh how true. We'll see what next month has in store before we bite the bullet and renew our I171H.

June Referrals

Congrats to the 62 families from CCAI and others who have seen their children's faces. Referrals came out on June 27 and include LIDs June 16 Through June 28, 2005. That is more days referred than we've seen for a while. I'm going to take that as an actual step forward and try to stop being so down in the dumps. Maybe we will kiss our girl's face before the end of the year. I have not been looking forward to traveling in the winter but what a great Xmas present that would be. At this point, we would travel to the moon if it meant we could hold our baby girl and bring her home to her family.