Adoption Update

We have had a VERY busy week preparing for our trip to China. Monday we went to our County Health Department to get our CDC recommended vaccines. We ended up having to get Typhoid, Hep A, Hep B & the Flu Shot. Four days later and we both are experiencing a little redness/swelling/tenderness where we received our flu shots. Other wise we are doing just fine!

Wednesday we were fingerprinted for our I-797 update. And, this is the final piece of the puzzle that will get us to set our travel date stage! We are so excited and every day that passes gets us a little closer to our son!

Monday we are expecting our passports & visas to arrive. We will anxiously be waiting FedEX to ring our doorbell!

As stated above, we are very close to being able to schedule our travel dates. We are still unsure of the time line. However, we both are making uneducated guesses that March 24 or April 2 could very possibly be our travel dates. But, that is yet to be known and we will continue to keep everyone updated!

Today was a fun day for us both! We got up early in hopes of beating the inevitable crowds at Target. Our goal was to get an early start roaming the store. No I did not leave Matt at home. He got his first experience roaming the aisles holding a scanner gun to create our baby registry. And, we picked up a few items along the way. We couldn't resist this "Yeti" t.shirt. We thought it was quite appropriate!And, we picked up this cute little "Ready to Rumble" sweat suit set.
Later in the day we went to visit Zachary's Papi (Ed, Matt's Dad). We had a great time visiting with him. Ed gave us Matt's childhood toy chest to pass along to Zachary. Isn't that so sweet?! We are both excited to share it with our "Z-man". Thank you Papi!! Once we get it set up in Zach's room we will post a picture and share it with everyone. We have no doubt Zach will use it to hold his treasures!

When we arrived home we were pleased to find our fingerprint appointment letter arrived in the mail! Our appointment is set for a week from Wednesday. Also, much earlier today we mailed off our VISA applications. It is all falling together quite smoothly! PTL (Praise The Lord!)

I have been enjoying some relaxing moments in my "craft Lair" :)) scrap booking layouts for Zachary's baby album. My most recent layout highlights our Red Egg photo. Inside the pocket (on the second page) is a journal tag which explains the meaning behind the red egg and describes the making of the picture.

Also, today Matt created a baby registry on Amazon.com for Zachary. It can be found anytime by searching for our names at http://www.amazon.com/babyregistry we have been having fun browsing children books! It's amazing how many are out there! Guess we have been oblivious for a long time and now we are getting thrown right into the exciting world of nursery rhymes, potty training books, cookie monsters, etc.! We have quite a small collection of books for Zachary already. A few years ago Matt joined Zachary into a Dr. Seuss book club. Dr. Seuss is among Matt's all time favorite childhood book series.

Yesterday my parents visited to help assemble Zachary's room. Nonnie & Bop-bop worked hard & we very much appreciated everything they did for us! We certainly could not have accomplished everything as easily and with out arguments, lol. On with the room tour...

Step one. Assemble the crib. My sister has been saving her crib for us. Way back when my Father & brother in law assembled this crib for my parents first grand child Caroline & my Father said it was not nearly as difficult this time around.


Step two. Iron the curtains, Thanks Mom!

Step three. Hang the curtains.


Lots of hard work, a little perspiration & 3 hours later...

The fully assembled crib.

The dressed window & book shelf.

The Dresser in it's place. Hang picture.The dresser was mine as a child. And, the picture above it is of me and my Mother (taken by my Father). On top of the dresser are a few pictures of Matt & his Mother & a Miller Family portrait circa 1972

picture reenactment

We are very pleased with the finished room! It is a happy, sunny room! Four years ago we purchased the bedding accessories and had the room painted. In fact, my Mother-in-law Nancy, helped us pick out the yellow that we ultimately chose for the walls. It is a reminder that even though she is no longer with us, her spirit remains in the little details and her love surrounds us.

There are a few more things to hang up on the walls & a few organizational bins to buy but for the most part it is finished. And, it will be complete once our son Zachary is finally home!

We had a productive weekend! Saturday we went to my parents house & while I registered at Baby's-R-Us Matt went off with John and Dad to a range. I hope Matt released some tension which has begun to settle on top of his shoulders. ;)

Baby's-R-Us was a bit overwhelming for me. However, my Mother, Sister and two nieces helped me navigate through the isles. I could not have done it with out their help. I am amazed at all the options! There's nothing simple about a store that has hundreds of options for something as trite as a sippy cup!

As you have likely already surmised from the picture above, I've added one more page to Zachary's baby album. I've been enjoying a few spare minutes here and there to accomplish my ever growing pile of pictures (all waiting to be scrap booked). I'm not expecting that pile to do anything less than grow faster than my ability to scrapbook them.

Earlier today, Matt came up with an apt metaphor for the situation we find ourselves in. We are making the slow climb up the first hill on a giant roller coaster (with the accompanying click, click, click) Feeling all of the fear of the unknown as we approach the top waiting for the moment that gravity takes over, we throw our hands into the air and scream for mercy!

We do have an adoption update to share. We spoke with our agency today to get much needed help answering our visa application questions and we got a guestimate of travel to China! It is possible we could travel late March however it is more likely we will be traveling in April and home by May. And, we will be gone for 21 days.

In a few days my parents are coming over to help set up the crib and hang the curtain rods. We have brought the crib up from the basement in anticipation of their arrival. And, the nursery is beginning to get some much needed attention!

I've got some more scrapbook Layouts to share! In an attempt to stay on top of Zach's baby album I created a few more layouts.

Matt and I have been so touched by everyone's response to our joyous news! We have been compiling all the emails, posts, etc. and here is the layout where we put them all together!

Opposite the above layout is this one highlighting our matching announcement.


Adoption update:
This Monday we received pages and pages of information, applications & an enormous amount of details explaining our next phase- travel. We had thought we would get a little bit of a break- to allow everything to sink in. But, that was just not the case! After all these years of waiting we are now being pushed and pulled in all kinds of directions.

So, this week we have been busy putting together our Visa Application necessary for travel to China. There are still pages of things left for us to accomplish but at least these preparations are in process & China is likely just a few months ahead of us! How excited we are!

Happy Chinese New Year!
It's the Year of the Rabbit

February 3rd it's New Years Even in China! Tonight begins the Chinese New Years celebrations! Among the various celebrations and festivities for the Chinese, Chinese New Year is always deem the most important of all. Chinese families living in different part of the country or the world will make it a point to gather together for Chinese New Year (CNY). This is very similar to the Western concept of getting together during Christmas.

Chinese New Year is also known as Lunar New Year as well as The Spring Festival. The Chinese Year is also symbolized by an animal, very much like the Western Zodiac.

Myths of Chinese New Year
There are many myths as to how Chinese New year came about. The most common one is that in ancient China, every year, a big monster would come out during the beginning of the year and start devouring people and crops. One day, a villager suggested firing off fire crackers, bang loud gongs and fly red banner to try to frighten off the monster.

More About the Chinese New Year -http://www.birthday-horoscopes.net/chinese-new-year.htm

It is hard to believe January is already over! Time sure does fly by. At the beginning of the month my sister gave us blank calendar pages to document the next few months for Zachary's scrapbook. Looking back at the month at a glance I am in awe of all we have accomplished. And, even though we have been in the process for 6 long years this last month has been a rush to the finish!



Just last Friday our adoption agency mailed our final signatures on the approval document called a "Letter Seeking Confirmation" to China! Once received China will begin our travel approval documents. We were told that could take 2-5 weeks.

Last Thursday, we mailed in our complete update package to USA immigration officers. We now wait to receive fingerprint appointments. Then, we wait for an updated valid I-797 necessary for bringing Zachary home. When we receive this document & the travel approval from China we will be able to begin travel plans. We are not sure how long it will take our government to finalize our I-797 but we anticipate we should have it by the end of February.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers! As you can tell there are a few vital details necessary before we are on the literal road to China!