A little reading material

I've set aside Barack Obama's book (fully intending to go back and finish!) to read the latest addition to our parenting bookshelf, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew. I've just started, so if anyone else out there is thinking of reading it and wants to play book club, let me know!

While we were at Border's, I also picked up a couple of new additions for Nora's library. I'm putting a greater emphasis on board books now, since those are the ones that she'll get to "read" first. I always liked dog books when I was little, so I'm hoping that Nora will like them too!

WOO HOO!!!!!

According to the CCAA's (China Center of Adoption Affairs) website, documents logged in during the month of January 2006 are now out of review --- this means that we have PASSED CHINA'S REVIEW and are one step closer to Nora! Hang on, baby, we'll be there as soon as we can!

Cold toes, warm heart

Cold Toes. We did keep our weekend camping appointment. It was sort of funny, we stopped at the park office to register on Friday and the young woman working there called me by name. I thought she either had telepathic powers or a really excellent memory, but in reality we were THE ONLY CAMPERS and we were IN A TENT. We must be crazy. It was actually fun as long as we kept active. Yesterday we hiked with our mountain goat dog, Maddie, most of the day, not because we wanted to walk that much, but because it was too cold to just sit and read or play cards. This morning when we woke up there was a frost and it was 24 degrees - yikes! My toes are just beginning to thaw.
Warm Heart. When we got home, there was a package from our new Dec DTC secret pal. This month's theme was children's books. Our pal sent three board books, which will be so great for little, paper-tearing hands. The first one is called My Peekaboo Fun, which is a lift-the-flap book about opposites and colors. It has a lot happening on every page, I think it will be really fun to read with Nora - she can learn shapes, colors, animals, opposites! The second is called You're My Little Love Bug which has not only a sweet poem, but music, lights and a place for Nora's picture! Last, but certainly not least, is Hippos Go Berserk!, a hilarious Boyton numbers book about a lonely hippo whose party gets a little out of hand. I can't even do it justice. It's very funny. My favorite is the little beast that arrives with 6 of the hippos. He shows up on several of the pages wearing a big grin and creating mischief.

Cutie Pie

This is Nora's new kitty cat doll, found on Etsy. Her name is Cutie Pie. I first saw her a week or so ago and have been back every day to make sure that no one else has bought her. Today I broke down and ordered her. I hope she's as soft and cuddly as she looks.

Here's the description from Etsy:

Oopsy ... this doll's ears are lopsided, her nose tilts to the right. As I tossed her aside, a little girl saw, she scooped up the doll and hugged her with awe. She said, "Her nose is crooked, but don't toss her away. She is not perfect, and I LOVE her that way!" That is how alli-oopsies were born. They may not be perfect, but never mind, that just lets you know it's one of a kind!

Aww...

East Meets West

Yesterday we attended GWCA's East Meets West adoption conference in Minneapolis. It was a very nicely organized event with a number of interesting sessions about such topics as cross cultural parenting, bonding & attachment, chinese culture, community support, travel, etc.

The best session we attended was "Cross Cultural Parenting", presented by Cheri Register, author of Are Those Kids Yours?: American Families With Children Adopted From Other Countries and Beyond Good Intentions: A Mother Reflects On Raising Internationally Adopted Children. She offered a number of insightful comments such as "Listen to what your child tells you about race and racism; do not assume color-blindness." and "Stay in touch with the internationally adopted community because this will probably be where your child finds her identity". She also recommended listening to and reading the writings of adult adoptees and being prepared not to like everything you hear, but acknowleding the validity of the comments. I've been doing this already and, she's right, theirs is not an easy meassage to hear, but it is so important I think for adoptive parents to listen and learn.

Rob went to a (similar? hard to tell since I wasn't there myself) session presented by an adult adoptee and adoptive parent representing the local FCC chapter. Rob said she talked about some of the uninformed and insensitive comments that people make in the presense of children - the example she gave was her mother in law saying something really horrifying like "aren't you glad her eyes aren't very slanty?" (this said to her Korean daughter-in-law and in front of her Chinese granddaughter!) - and the need to educate friends and family in advance of receiving the baby. What she didn't say was how precisely to do this, which would have been very helpful!

We also bumped into a few people we knew at the event. Our friend Annette (hi, Annette!) introduced us to a new book called Adoption Parenting: Creating a Toolbox, Building Connections. I flipped through it a bit at breakfast and it looks like a fantastic reference. Its list price is $29.95, but Amazon has it for only $19.77 ... or you could use a Borders Rewards coupon, which is probably what I'll do since it's an excuse to go to Borders.

Pandamonium!

I had the day off today (which meant that I worked a half day from home) and decided to do a little shopping in the afternoon. I found some things I wanted - gifts for my Secret Pal, actually - and was standing in line to pay. The woman in front of me had a huge basket of stuff that she was buying, so I was standing there waiting for quite a while. I was just kind of looking around, up higher than where I normally look and I saw IT - a stuffed panda on a shelf labeled "Clearance"! He's 17" tall and was marked down to $5! He came home with us. He doesn't have a stain on his belly, by the way, that's just some weird shadow that showed up in the photo. He is perfect :)

I ran the bear up to Nora's room when I got home and on my way downstairs I noticed a box on the porch -- it was the first gift from our new Jan DTC secret pal. She sent Nora a t-shirt and socks from the San Diego zoo (home of the PandaCam), a bunny stroller toy and two packages of Halloween tissues.
Thank you very much, Secret Pal! I think you told me something about yourself with this gift. I've narrowed your identity down to someone who (1) lives in SanDeigo (2) has visited SanDiego (3) knows someone in SanDiego. Let's see, who can I cross of the list of possible Secret Pals... uhm, no one. Bummer. Well, maybe next month.

Worries... and some hope

I've been reading some of the blogs of adult Korean adoptees and growing more and more concerned about my ability to make the right choices for Nora. I want her to know and appreciate her Chinese heritage, but I'm not Chinese. How do I do this? We've joined the FCC. We have a few Chinese friends (not adoptees, people who either live in China or have moved here from China as adults). Reading some of these blogs, though, I feel like even observing someone to be Chinese makes me a racist.

I was just about at my wits end, when arrives - seemingly from nowhere - an email from a co-worker who tells me that she has heard (from another coworker) that we are adopting a child from China. She goes on to tell me that she was adopted from Korea. Even better, she is actively involved with one of the local adoption agencies and is a mentor to other Korean adoptees. She is willing to share her experiences. We are going to have lunch and talk. I feel really lucky to have met her!

January DTC Secret Pal Revealed!!

It was one of those happy, box-on-the-porch kind of days at our house! It was the October gift/reveal from our January DTC Secret Pal -- Cindy P! And what an incredible gift it was -- a jack-o-lantern cap, Halloween bib, Thanksgiving bib, soap leaves, stroller hooks and the cutest flower onesie (with pretty flutter sleeves that unfortunately don't show in the photo) and khaki skirt with a "Cutie" applique.

Thank you so much Cindy for being such a wonderful secret pal! I hope we have a chance to meet in China!

Back to Borders

It has been weeks since we've been to Borders. Seriously. WEEKS. At least three. I hadn't even seen the October issue of British Ideal Home¹.

So, today, armed with Nora's book list and the latest coupons from the Borders Rewards email, off we went. Rob missed the turn. Understandable, since we hadn't been there in so long. Finally we arrived and found it just as wonderful as we remembered. We drank coffee and read magazines. I bought Nora a book, The Story About Ping, and a cd, Sing Along With Putumayo. It was a lovely afternoon.

¹ Ideal Home is my absolute favorite decorating magazine. I never buy it, but I read it every time we go to Borders. The pictures are great, but it's a little frustrating that none of the products are available in the US. If I ever move to the UK, though, boy will I know where to shop.

First October Bibs!

Today we received the most incredible bibs and burb cloths from Dee -- she embroidered them herself with Nora's name! Aren't they adorable?! Thank you so much, Dee!

Thank you Cris!

The January DTC group is doing single month theme swaps in addition to the secret pals exchange, which is more of an on-going thing. There have been a few of them, but so far I've only participated in two - the hair bobber swap from a couple of months back and, most recently, a blanket/lovey swap.

It was a nice swap for me because I shopped for Karen (who I've known quite a while from the OHGWQ group) and my shopper was Cris who I've been co-hosting the December Secret Pals exchange with. Sort of fun to get matched with people you "know"!

Cris sent Nora the softest pink blankie with satin binding. It's just the sort of thing you know a baby would love. The textures are incredible. Thank you so much Cris, I know Nora will love it!

Family Fun

I've decided that tent camping would be a fun family activity. Since we aren't really campers, we're trying to find some good spots nearby and get in a little practice before attempting it with Nora. Rob and I have camped twice in the past month and have another reservation for late this month (I'm a little afraid that we might get a taste of winter camping with that one!) . Gradually we're figuring out what we need to make this work - for example, we now have a screen porch and better cookware and are looking for a bigger tent (our little 3-man dome barely fits the two of us and the dog).

Speaking of Maddie, this is working out great for her. Lots of walks in the woods and an endless supply of squirrels to chase. Doesn't she look at home in the wilderness??

December Secret Pal Revealed!!

For many months, I've been receiving the most wonderful, thoughtful gifts from our December Secret Pal and trying very hard not to do too much detective work based on postage that looks like this (and why is everybody else's postage so much more interesting than mine??).

Finally, today the reveal arrived and -- it's Nana in Denmark! Obviously I knew my pal was in Europe (although today's postage was the first with a really obvious country stamp), but luckily there are a few people on the list in Europe -even a couple in Denmark- so I really didn't know for sure who she was until today.

Oh -- and Nora's September gift is a gorgeous beaded barette (very sparkly and fancy!!) and sweet lady bug bracelet, just the right size for a little girl.


Thank you so much, Nana, for all the fun gifts and encouragement. You've been a terrific pal, I'm very lucky!

P.S. The card had ducks on it! I don't think I've mentioned this here, but when I was 3 or 4 we had a pet duck named TD ("The Duck"). I could swear that he lived in a box under the kitchen table, but I could be wrong about that. Steve or Mark, if you read this, could you click on the comment link below this message and give me the lowdown on why we had a duck under the table?

Update: Nana posted to the list that she bought the ladybug bracelet in Venice, Italy in a local shop specializing in children's jewelry. Isn't that a great story?? And how wonderful that there exists a place where there are shops specializing in children's jewelry! Somebody please remind me to make sure this gets in Nora's scrapbook so she knows the story behind her ladybug bracelet!

Spend much time on the computer?

After spending an embarrassing amount of time on the computer, I finally hit the wall. I don't know if it was life, work or general weariness with the "wait" - or some combination of all three - but I've had ZERO interest in any of my online China waiting family stuff for several weeks.

This is Gaily (aka Abigail) and my laptop. As you can see, she spends more time "on" the computer than I do!

Something to take to China

This month's theme for the January DTC Secret Pal exchange was "Something to Pack for the Trip". My very cool secret pal sent a pink tie dye shirt for Nora! I have a pink tie dye shirt. Could this be our first mother-daughter matching outfit??!!

As you can see, she also sent disposable burp pads, travel baby toiletries, formula bags, travel wipes, a compression bag for packing and the cutest little pink snap-on bottle of Purell! Thank you so much Secret Pal for all the really useful stuff and the so cute t-shirt!

December out of review!!

Woo hoo!!! I'm not sure when this happened because I've haven't been stalking monitoring the CCAA's website in the way that I have in the past, but DECEMBER IS OUT OF REVIEW!!! This means that our dossier is either in review or has already (knock on wood!) passed review! This feels almost like progress.

New Addition for Nora's Library

I was feeling pretty down today (long story, work stuff), so Rob and Maddie decided to cheer me up with a lunchtime trip to Borders. We love Borders. Of course I ventured into the children's area and browsed through some of the featured books ... and found this:

It is the sweetest story about a lion who loves the library - especially story hour - and learns that sometimes it's ok to break the rules. I had to buy it for Nora.

By the way, it was only 55-degrees so Maddie really did get to go in the car, although we thought it best not to try to sneak her into Borders.

Congratulations Lun Lun!

Congratulations Lun Lun on the birth of your new baby!! You probably don't remember us, but my mom and I saw you when we were in Atlanta for Illinois' sweet sixteen game a couple of years ago.

For anyone interested, Lun Lun lives at the Atlanta Zoo -- she and her new baby are featured on a 24/7 panda-cam which you can access either from the zoo's website or from cnn.com. Right now the baby looks like a naked rat, but the zoo's website says he/she will begin to show panda markings sometime next week.

Great deal on great books

I read on another blog about a clearance sale at Little Treasure Books. They are (unfortunately) closing their store, but are (fortunately) having an incredible going-out-of-business sale. I ordered six books for Nora at incredible prices -- some of them were even books from our wishlist!

Check them out if you like kids' books!

P.S. On account of the holiday, I figure that today is Mega Mail Monday by proxy -- lived up to expectations with the big box 'o books!

Well, it's about time

FINALLY the CCAA's website is showing that November is out of review. This means that our January dossier is almost certainly in the review room.

August bib from Danielle

There really is something to this good mail on Monday thing. Today we received the cutest frog bib from Danielle. It is very fluffy, soft terry cloth and has a teether on the edge. We love it and can't wait to see it on Nora. Thank you so much, Danielle!

Success and failure

Today is both a good day and a bad day.

BAD -- Rob and I have decided to discontinue our Mandarin lessons, at least for a while. Neither of us has been committing enough time to study between lessons and aren't progressing as we should. It made for classes that were stressful and unproductive. We hope to try again someday, but this is not the right time for us.

GOOD -- Even though we weren't feeling super-motivated this morning we did both go to the gym and exercise. Rob is actually very good about going and exercise is a habit for him. That's not so much the case for me, but I'm working on it (going to need to keep up with the little one!). I've found that music does a LOT to motivate me. My current playlist is:

• Crazy - Gnarls Barkley - 2:58 (I use this for warm up b/c I like it, but it will probably come off the list since it's really not a great exercise song)
• Get the Party Started - Pink - 3:11
• Crazy in Love - Beyonce - 3:55
• Yeah! - Usher - 4:10
• In da Club - 50 Cent - 3:13
• Pump It - Black Eyed Peas - 3:35
• Lose Yourself - Eminem - 5:20 (Possibly the best motivational, hill-climb song EVER!)
• Hot in Herre - Nelly - 3:48
• Rock Your Body - Justin Timberlake - 4:27 (cool down)
• Sexy Love - Ne-Yo - 3:40 (cool WAY down)

Two others on this playlist are Work It by Missy Elliott and Dirty by Christina Aguilera, but I usually skip both of them. I haven't decided yet if they are bad choices or if I just don't have them in the right place in the list.

If you have a playlist that you love (or individual songs that work really well), please share!

Now I know exactly where China is

I am approaching my 5-year anniversary at my job and as a reward I got to choose a "gift" from the recognition catalog. Although this is far longer than I've ever worked anyplace, it isn't all that long in the eyes of my employer. I say this to set expectations around the items in the 5-year catalog. There were watches and crystal bowls and framed prints - all of which I assumed would somehow be branded with the company logo. So I searched looking for something useful that wouldn't look too creepy with a big 'ol logo on it, eventually I found this globe that I think will be a great addition for Nora's playroom.

It came in the mail today and the best part is that the logo is on a little plaque that I get to apply myself (or not). So Nora gets a globe and it doesn't even have to say G****** on it! To my company - I think you are the best; I admire your work and love my job. However, I really don't want your logo on my globe. Sorry about that. I'll stick it to a frame on my desk instead.

Some depressing math

The rumor boards are lighting up tonight with news that referrals are on the way and that they only include LIDs through 7/22/05. I did a little bit of Excel math, extending the timeline with the current average wait, and I'm very sorry I did. According to my spreadsheet we'll get our referral in October of 2007! Isn't that horrible?! I'm going to go pour myself a glass of wine.

Hair bobber from Evelyn

Nora has received her second hair bobber - this one is a chopstick hair stick with red cord and jade. It is so pretty. She also receieved a gorgeous red silk jewelry case. Thank you so much, Evelyn, for the lovely gift!

Preparing the dog for baby

For those of you who don't already know her, this is Maddie.


Maddie is an almost 18-month-old golden retriever and the light of our lives. She is terrific with other dogs (a benefit of doggy "school") and we're hoping that she will be equally good with children. She's already got a fan club in the neighborhood kids, especially baby Avery next door. We also had some other waiting families over on Sunday night, giving Maddie the opportunity to experience the joys of little kids who drop food.

Even though everything about her disposition says "kid friendly", we still want to be sure that we properly prepare her for Nora's arrival. Some things we're working on:

1. sit to be petted
2. walk next to or behind people (and eventually stroller) on walks
3. wait at the top/bottom of stairs for people to go first and give the "ok"
4. lie down and be calm in Nora's room

For some good pet preparation tips, check out the following links:
American Kennel Club
The Humane Society of the United States

Hair bobber from Rhonda and Mike

The January DTC group is doing a hair accessory (or "hair bobber", as they are known at our house) swap. We each send hair accessories to two people, and receive hair accessories from two people. Today Nora's first one came from Rhonda and Mike -- it is a darling asian girl pony tail holder. Soooo cute! Thanks Rhonda and Mike!!

A Shopping Coup!

When shopping on the web, always always visit the clearance section. If you don't think it will pay off, check this out!

I found this at Land of Nod. It was originally $249 on sale for $39 and is just the right color for Nora's room! It even fits in with the other bug stuff. I ordered it on Sunday and it was waiting on the porch when we got home today.

To make the day even better, I stopped at Creative Kidstuff on my way home from work and they were having a big sale - I got this great doggy pull toy for 75% off, a musical flower for 60% off and gorgeous building blocks for 50% off!

Mostly, though, I'm thrilled about the rug. I don't think I've ever found such a bargain before!

January DTC Secret Pal - August

More great mail came today! Of course it was for Nora!

This package was our January DTC Secret Pal gift for August. The theme is "Something to Keep Baby Safe" and our secret pal sent lots of great safety stuff for Nora -- cabinet latches, outlet covers, toilet lock, security latches, band-aids -- and a pair of pretty dangly earrings that I think must be for ME!

Thank you very much, secret pal! I'm going to look for something blue to wear tomorrow so I can wear my new earrings!

Dec DTC Secret Pal Gift - July & August

Another mega mail Monday!! I never much liked Mondays, but these swaps and secret pals have changed my outlook! Today was a doubly-good day because we received July and August gifts from our Dec DTC Secret Pal. Thank you so much, Secret Pal, for all the terrific goodies!!

It is taking all my energy not to rip into the mega bloks package and claim the dog/cat as my own. I think that I am going to like this as much as Nora. I've never seen anything like it -- you push the nose on the cat side and it "sings" in meows and on the dog side it "sings" in barks. So much fun! That was July.

For August we got cool bath toys (floating fishes!!), a water thermometer and a sponge. In the note was also a pretty white shell which now has a new home in our summer sand-and-shell kitchen table centerpiece.

Thanks again Secret Pal, you made my Monday!!

Four (?!) sets of panda twins

For some reason panda news is harder to come by than you'd think. I've been hearing snippets of panda births on the news and am having trouble coming up with a good count. Piecing together the various news stories, I think that four sets of twin panda have been born in the last week -- on Sunday, Monday, Thursday and Saturday. That makes ten baby pandas born in Chinese breeding centers this year. Does that sound right? The latest news story is here. I also found some more panda information on China.org.

Mega Mail Monday

Continuing the tradition of great mail on Mondays, today I received the best box of scrapbook supplies from Jennifer B as part of the January DTC scrapbook swap. Look at all this great stuff!!

"Welcome to Asia" papers, Asian mini tags, fortune cookie rub ons, Chinese character and letter rub ons, Chinese stickers

First five year stickers (year 2 was on top, but there are five pages, one for each year), adoption stickers, Mom embellishments, 3-D baby stickers

Summer fun stickers (4 pages) and a whole box of eyelets, brads and fancy paperclips.

Thank you so much Jennifer, you have outdone yourself!

Holy Arachnids!

I was out pulling some weeds today and looked up to see the biggest spider I've ever seen outside of the zoo. Its body is at least an inch long! I came in and "googled" for spiders and found Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider - Argiope aurantia which looks very much like it. For now I've decided that it is harmless and welcome to live in my garden. I hope that I'm right about that. If anyone out there is an arachnologist, or is otherwise spider-savvy, could you please let me know if this is something that I should be concerned about?

I know that most spiders are harmless and, if anything, it is probably beneficial to the garden. However, it is also HUGE and freaky and right next to my house. I can't decide whether I want to sit there and watch it or run screaming.

This one is in context - in a very large daylily

A closeup of the spider itself

(but still smaller than the actual spider!)

Pinned!

Normally there isn't any good mail on Saturday. Today, however, was an exception -- the December DTC pins that I ordered were waiting on the front porch when I came down from painting! The idea is to have these pins on our bags when we go to China to help find all our cyberpals from the DTC group.

The pins say 小 朋友 (Xiao Pengyou) which means, literally, "Little Friends". We selected that as the name for our group. Wendy, of Children's Book Club fame, worked with Rochelle at Celebrate Adoption to come up with the design and to produce the pins. They came out great - thank you so much Wendy and Rochelle for all your work on this. I am going to be sure to set one of our pins aside as a memento for Nora, they really are incredibly cute.

Finally - a place to put all those books!

Today we finished painting and installing the shelves Rob made for the niche in Nora's room. The paint is still drying and I have a bit of touch up to do on the wall, so they are sitting empty for now. But I said I'd update on Saturday and update I will!

We color-matched the paint on the trim, but chose an enamel for durability (probably needed if a wee one will be pulling her toys and books off them every day). I got satin which was the lowest sheen available in enamel and they still seem very shiny, especially in comparison to the very flat walls and trim. I hoping that I'm just sensitive to it because I've been looking at them so closely and that the difference will be less obvious once we get some of her stuff on the shelves.

Don't just sit there ... PAINT something!

For several months I've been admiring those pretty painted letters at places like Posh Tots and Pretty Personal Gifts, thinking about ordering, but never quite taking the plunge. Then the other day I went to JoAnn fabrics to get thread, and some plain wooden letters caught my eye. On a whim I decided to paint my own.

I wanted them to coordinate with the bug prints that I got a while back at Target. Remember the bug prints? That post is here. I'm no artist, but I think I got pretty close. I'm still trying to decide if I want to put bows on top of them like they do at Posh Tots. I like the look, but Rob won't let me put holes in the wall, so I'd have to figure out a way to hang them with Command adhesive and still have them look right.

While I've been making letters, Rob has been working on his own construction and painting project - shelves for Nora's room and our bathroom. We hope to have them finished and installed on Saturday, so stay tuned!

Happy Birthday Su Lin!

Su Lin, a panda cub at the San Diego Zoo, celebrated her first birthday today! Her name means "A little bit of something very cute" - how appropriate! Please support conservation efforts, it would be horrible to lose these gorgeous animals.

Even better than a free lunch!

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, but there is, apparently, such a thing as FREE ROBEEZ!! Really. Look!! Somehow I signed up for USA Baby's eMom Rewards (which I think is just an email notification list) and wound up with a coupon for a free pair of Robeez in my email. Today I trekked over to USA Baby - which is sort of a long haul for me - and sure enough, free Robeez! They even had one of my two favorite styles (Red Wildflowers) in the size I wanted (12-18 months, because I want to be absolutely certain that Nora will get to wear them).

I'm off to get my Powerball ticket now, because I think this must be my lucky day!

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.