Happy (Chinese) Valentine's Day!

Chinese Valentine’s Day is on the Seventh Day of the Seventh Month on the Chinese calendar, which falls on July 30 in North America this year (July 31 in China). Legend has it that the seventh daughter of the Emperor of Heaven, a weaving maid, fell in love and married a cowherd. They were so much in love that they forgot everything else in their lives and didn't complete their farming and weaving duties, which angered the Jade Emperor.

He exiled them to opposite banks of the Silver River (Milky Way), and only allows them to meet each other once a year on the night of the seventh day of the seventh month.

This legend has been handed down for nearly two millennia. The Chinese people believe that the star, Vega, east of the Milky Way, is Zhi Nu, and that Altair, on the western side of the Milky Way is Niu Lang waiting for his wife.

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month is the only Chinese festival devoted to love in the lunar calendar.

Mandarin DVDs!

It was another great mail day at our house! Nora continues to get more (and better) mail than we do! Today she received the Mandarin/English Bear in the Big Blue House DVDs I ordered from yesasia.

I heard about these from Denise in the December 2005 DTC group. We were talking about the lovely name Luna which led to Bear and his friend the Sun (Luna). Denise mentioned these terrific multilingual DVDs. I'm not a big fan of tv for kids, but this is a show I like and it's available in a version that will help Nora learn Mandarin. How great is that?!

As you can see from the photo above, I also ordered a CD of children's music. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm really curious to hear what kind of Chinese children's music has a little Dutch girl on the package. Hmm.

More stuff from Nora's closet

Early in the wait I participated in a couple of postcard swaps. I wanted Nora to know how many people were thinking of her even before we knew her, probably even before she was born. I think it will also be fun to learn about all the places that the postcards are from (a geography lesson in disguise!)

I found the album at Exposures and got 4x6 pages so that all sizes of postcards would fit. It's nice because you can see both the front and back of the cards and it's a little more substantial than the postcard albums. Neat, huh?

Children's Culture Connection

Ok, so I'm not exactly sure how I heard about this. I think it might have been from the FCC-Midwest newsletter. In any case, there is a really great organization called Children's Culture Connection that is dedicated to helping children gain an appreciation for other cultures. They've just started a series of stories about the world travels of four internationally adopted sisters

The current (and I *think* first) episode is called The Adventures of Ming Yao in Destination: Hong Kong. Here's the description from the site:

Meet Ming Yao-- adopted from China as a toddler, she’s now an all-American teenager who never shies away from an adventure in her native land. Fearless, fun and very fashionable, this plucky heroine charms people wherever she goes. In this episode she accompanies her mom to Hong Kong--where East meets West in a high energy city filled with color & contrast. Whether she’s on a shopping spree in a designer boutique, practicing tai chi in the park, or joining in on a back-alley mahjong game, Ming Yao blazes her own trail, taking young readers off the beaten path to explore the real Hong Kong ---on an adventure they will never forget!

Our copy just came in the mail today and, although it will be a while before Nora is old enough to read it, I'm really happy to have it. The book is written diary style and is printed in a font that resembles a young girl's handwriting. It reads very much like a travel journal, including pictures, sketches and swatches of fabric.

Ordering information is available on their site at Children's Cultural Connection. You can also sign up to receive notification of future events.

An extra plus is that half of the US $15 purchase price is donated to charity! I chose to have mine donated to Half the Sky Foundation. This organization will be familiar to those of you who received our Christmas card last year or who have seen the poster in my office. They do great work, please consider them when you plan your giving!

Kudos to Heather Wilson (and boo hiss to my guy)!

Representative Heather Wilson from New Mexico has introduced legislation to extend the I-171H. You can read the press release here. It's great news, but it annoys me to read that this was in response to a letter received from a family in her district. I wrote to both our senators and our district's representative - all of whom I voted for, by the way - and NONE of them responded to me in any way. No phone call, no letter, no email and certainly no proposed legislation. You can be sure that I will be contacting them again and watching with interest as this comes up for discussion/vote.

Letter from the USCIS

Interestingly, although I have not yet received a response to the letter I sent to the USCIS, I did receive a response to the letter I sent to the White House and they forwarded to the USCIS.

This is another form letter response and has what looks like a rubber-stamp signature from Constance Carter who is apparently someone in the USCIS customer service department.

While is it a response, it doesn't say much and offers little encouragement. Basically a canned remark about protecting the best interest of the child. It's hard to argue with protecting the children, except to say that I don't see how re-filing the I-171H does that. If our family circumstances changed since our LID, we would need to get a homestudy update from our social worker anyway. We also have to be re-fingerprinted after 15 months. As far as I can tell the only "extra" added by re-filing the I-171H is needing to pay an additional processing fee.

Book Junkie

I think that I mentioned the December DTC group's children's book club once before. We are now on week 9. I'm a little behind... and buying out of order. I like to shop at Borders and our little downtown bookstore (mostly) because I like having them there and don't want Amazon to put them out of business. I do order board books from Amazon, though, because they have a buy 3 get the 4th free deal that includes most board books.

This afternoon we were wanting to go out for a bit, so I suggested a trip to (insert maniacal laugh here) Borders. Rob can always be convinced to go to Borders because he can get an espresso drink and a fancy pastry and read magazines for free. I think that's allowed, by the way, because they charge a fortune for coffee and put the magazines right next to the coffee bar. Besides, while Rob is reading their magazines, I'm off shopping!

Anyway, my intention today was to buy week one's book, The Kissing Hand. No, I'm not that far behind, like I said I'm out of order!

So, what I went in for was this:

What I came away with was this:

Of course I opened the Chinese music cd immediately and played it the whole way home (5 songs worth). Rob was not pleased, he doesn't like Chinese music and wanted to listen to NPR. I am pleased to say, though, that he does like Diary of a Wombat. I don't know if a child would like it or not, but we thought it was laugh-out-loud funny.

Jan DTC Secret Pal Gift - July

Continuing the great-mail Monday, we also received a package from our January DTC Secret Pal! It was all kinds of travel meal-time stuff -- sippy cups, bowls with lids, baby utensils -- a set of interlocking rings and a bunny wrist rattle.

The timing was sort of amazing, because just yesterday I stopped in BRU (Babies R Us) - my first visit ever - and of all the thousands of things in the store I was somehow drawn to the travel bowls. I sure hope Nora likes Cheerios, because every image I have of her eating involved Cheerios! Cheerios in a travel bowl, Cheerios falling into her bib pouch...

July Bib from Karen!

Mondays are becoming a really good mail day at our house! Today we received two nice bibs from Karen. One is a pretty pink fruit motif bib and the other is a very practical vinyl-coated bears-of-the-world bib with a cheerio-catcher.

Thank you Karen!

A Milestone!!

I just finished the previous post and and happened to notice our LID ticker (at the very bottom of the page, scroll all the way down). Today is our 6 month LID anniversary! If the current 12 month wait holds, we are half way there!

Some thoughts on surviving the wait

I think that the worst part about the wait is the lack of control. I felt this to some degree while waiting for our home study and then while waiting for the I-171H, but this is much worse. Probably because the wait is so much longer and real information is so scarce.

Wait time rumors abound, but we're trying hard not to get too caught up in that. I admit to checking the Rumor Queen at least once a day and to stalking CCAI's website waiting for the monthly newsletter (expected tomorrow!), but I also try to tell myself that the process takes however long it takes and in the end we will be matched with the child that we were meant to have.

It also helps to stay really busy. In addition to our Mandarin Chinese language classes, I am taking a sewing class and Rob is taking Aikido. We've connected with a couple of local Chinese adoption groups as well. This afternoon we went to a local FCC new members gathering and I am thinking of volunteering for some FCC committee work. It just doesn't feel right to participate in activities without putting something back in. I also feel strongly about being able to provide Nora with positive interactions with other Chinese people, both adopted and not. Anything that helps establish those connections is a good thing.

Letter from the President (well, sort of)

Back on June 6 I wrote a post about the need for a policy change regarding the I-171H. Well, I actually did write letters to our Representative, our Congressmen, the President and the USCIS. Today I received the first response -- from the White House. It was sort of a non-response, actually, the letter says:

On behalf of President George W. Bush, thank you for your letter.

The White House is sending your inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security. This agency has the expertise to address your concerns. They will respond directly to you, as promptly as possible.

The President sends his best wishes.

It was machine-signed as Darren K. Hipp, Acting Director of Presidential Correspondence.

At least I guess it's good to know that they opened my letter and read enough of it to direct it to the appropriate agency (the USCIS is housed under the Department of Homeland Security). I wonder if someone reads mail coming to the White House or if they use some sort of text-recognition software to respond and re-direct.

Ouch!

I'm not sure how I survived our previous trip to China without a zillion vaccinations, but I sure am making up for it this time! The CDC recommends that travelers to China be vaccinated for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, typhoid and tetanus. Depending on the region to which you are traveling, you might also need malaria (this one I think is an oral medication, not a vaccine) and rabies. I have a current tetanus vaccine, so I escaped that one, but made up for it by needing a MMR booster since my first dose was before 12 months of age.

The hepatitis A&B are combined in one series of three vaccinations. I had my first one about a month ago and the second one yesterday (#3 will be in about 5 months). Last night my arm was doing ok, but this afternoon it HURTS. Rob, the stinker, has already had hepatitis vaccinations at work so he only needed a MMR booster. We'll both go in for the typhoid shot closer to our travel date.

Because the hepatitis series takes 6 months to complete, you really need to plan in advance of travel. The requirements and recommendations for a variety of destinations can be found on the CDC's website.

What's Black and White...

and eats 42 lbs of bamboo per day?

Rob and I stopped at the healthy market on our way home from dinner tonight to pick up a treat (aka ginger soda) for this evening. There were a couple of people in front of us in line, so of course I looked at the magazines and this month's National Geographic caught my eye. How could it not with a cover like this??

The feature was timed for the National Zoo's panda cub Tai Shan's first birthday on July 9. Check it out if you have the time, it's very interesting and the pictures of Tai Shan are unbelievably cute. You can also see more of Tai Shan on the National Zoo's website. They even have a panda-cam!

New July Bib!

Yay - happy mail on a Monday!! It makes the day "bear"able!

This so-cute pink teddy bear bib came from Raine today. Thank you so much, Raine, it is adorable!

Dragon Festival

It is a beautiful summer day today. A perfect day for dragon boat races!

According to the Dragon Festival website, "Dragon Boat Racing originated in China in the third century, but is now a cross cultural sport with events throughout the world both at the local and international level. It's popularity merits its consideration as a demonstration sport at the Olympics and at the commonwealth Games. While Western dragons are fierce beasts to be slain by a hero like Saint George, Chinese dragons are entirely benevolent creatures with powers."

Mostly it was just a really nice day to spend outside at the park. It will be even more fun next year when Nora is here to go with us. I am so happy that we live in an area with an active Asian community. I think that will be very important for Nora as she grows up.

New Chinese Language Resource

This morning, I logged on to check email and instead of clicking past the Yahoo! homepage, I read the headlines and this one caught my eye. Apparently, China has launched a website with free Chinese lessons. The URL is www.linese.com. It looks like there might be a new lesson every day. Unfortunately the site seems to have some technical issues - I got a couple of errors trying to register and it is very slow to load, especially the audio which after 15 minutes I'm still waiting for. Still, I think this is a great idea and a really good way to promote the learning of Chinese. I'm so anxious to try it out!

Dec DTC - Secret Pal Gift for June

Nora gets the best mail! In addition to the pretty bibs from Kari, she also received a gift from our Dec DTC Secret Pal. This month's theme was "All About Asia" and our Secret Pal sent a red silk lantern and a ladybug case with the coolest wooden toys. There's a clown whistle, a ladybug top, a ladybug prizm and a mouse on a spring.

When I was little, my Mom had a wooden mouse with a broom. I used to put it in one of the cars of my brothers' model train and have it ride around the Christmas tree. Nora's mouse's face reminds me of our train-riding house mouse. Thank you, Secret Pal, today you brought a smile and a really nice memory!

July Bibs!

I love the first mail day after a holiday!! Today Nora received two new bibs from Kari - one is a fun jungle pattern with a pouch for catching wayward Cheerios and the other is a pretty floral fabric that says "Mommy's Girl". Thank you so much, Kari - it was really fun coming home to the mail today!

Happy 4th of July!

After a morning Chinese lesson (we are on an alternate schedule this week due to the holiday), we went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum with Nora's grandparents (my Mom and Dad) who are visiting for the weekend. We brought a picnic and made an afternoon of it.

As long as we've lived here, Rob and I have never been to the arboretum. It is a really lovely place. We agreed that we'll need to bring Nora here for some photos with the flowers next year. Good exercise for us too - the place is HUGE!

If you're interested in learning more about the arboretum or in planning a trip, you can get more information at: http://www.arboretum.umn.edu/.