Official DTC Date!
Dear Families,
I received confirmation form CCAA That your official DTC is 8-8-03. You could not have a luckier date - 8 is the luckiest number in Chinese - double is also luck and you have double 8s! :-)
If any of you are interested in getting in touch with each other now, and during the wait, please send me the contact information you would like me to post to the others. :-)
All the best,
MZ
Client copy of dossier!
We got our client copy of our dossier on Thursday! We have to take it with us to China, but for right now, its going in the safety deposit box! :)
Enjoyable evening
We just spent a most enjoyable 2 hours with the company of about a dozen people we have never met before. We know this couple from work, mostly from my area. My team has a status meeting with the husband every couple of weeks. Anyway, their are rounding out the process to their adoption from Korea. They are waiting at the moment for the travel to go through so they can meet and pick up there new son from the Airport. The wife and a few of friends put together this support group for Adoptive Parents for the Central Iowa area. There didn't seem to be one at the time, and there was a need sooo.
Anyway, they invited us to attend the latest meeting. It was for us, kind of out in the middle of nowhere. I mean there is quite a bit of old housing, and nice areas but we just never have a need to go that direction very far in town.
They started out the meeting with customary introductions, and for this nights meeting had a small panel of parents that have grown adopted children both Domestically, and Internationally, that in turn also had adopted Internationally. Now being the way we are, we have did quite a bit of research on our own through books and online threads, but you never stop learning and talking face-to-face with people that have did it, and that are close or a little farther than us is just incredibly fun and interesting.
The running themes of the meetings we have been to lately, have included the common questions you get from people during the process of adopting as well as once you have become of family and are going about your daily lifes. Humor, short answers, and the turn-about of 'Why do you ask' has been the staple. We also talked about the reasons why we individual couple have chose to adopt or as in the case of some at the meeting, have existing children but are thinking about expanding their family through adoption. There were a few others like us that said that we have always known that there was a child out there, waiting, and we knew their sex, and their name, and even area that they would be from. Basically just natural is the only way i can put it, we just knew.
I guess for me, it was just to hear similar stories from couple close to our age and lifestyles doing it now with families, and those that are start out as we are. That we are a part of something bigger than us, that we can make a difference.
rad nursery decorating on a budget
Just because we're on a baby budget, it doesnt mean that we cant make Aubree's nursery awesome with a little bit of creative spending. I am way into recycle and reuse - if I can get it for a song and its gently used, I can turn it into something wonderful :)
Curtains - I made a beautiful set curtains that are better quality than I could buy in a store. They are yellow, pink, and blue stripes and brighten up the room considerably!
Chest of drawers - I had one really nice chest of drawers I got on a neighbor's garage sale many years ago, but we needed another set of drawers. A new chest would have cost between $200 and $300 and would have probably been poorly made. We found a beautiful antique solid oak chest of drawers at the Antique Jamboree for $100 - its got 5 really nice sized drawers that will hold tons of clothes.
Mirror - Every little girl needs either a dresser with a mirror in her room or a really nice wall mirror to do her hair in. Good quality dressers are too expensive and there isnt enough room in Aubree's room for one. New wall mirrors are also very costly for some reason so Ma has come up with an awesome alternative! Auntie Sis had a really neat old frame in her basement - kewl scroll work on the frame, solid wood, but nasty green. TQ and I took it home and painted it a beautiful purple - its going to be lovely when the 16 x 20 mirror insert I found comes in the mail! I'm going to hang it behind the oak chest of drawers we just got so when Aubree's a big girl, she can sit on her bed and fix her make-up/hair :)
Crib - Aubree's going to use MC's crib that we bought for Auntie Sis when MC was born. Its a lovely crib and will only be two years old in April. MC has lots of really nice bedding to go with it - some of it I made for TQ when he was born.
Big Girl Bed - Aubree's big girl bed is my antique white iron bed. I hope she likes it - it was the type of bed I always wanted when I was a little girl :) I'll leave my tie dyed purple bedding on it until Aubree is big enough to sleep in it and then we'll pick out something pretty together to replace it.
Wall Border - We're doing a 'blooms and bug' theme! The border has flowers, bees, lady bugs, and butterflies - I found it on the Internet for $20 a roll, but finally found it locally for half price - its going to be beautiful against the cream colored walls!
Pictures - Grammy is making several awesome cross-stitch pictures for her walls! I'm hoping to make a quilted wall hanging for above the bed. I've also got a really nice picture TQ made, a growth chart, some water colors I picked up several years ago, and hopefully I'll be able to put together a shadow box of China memories for her.
Toys - We've bought some new toys/books for Aubree, but we will have some really nice toys/books also from MC and from the Once Upon a Child store. Its a shame that babies dont wear out toys like other kids do, but its wonderful for those of us with new babies to buy for! Sharing from my niece is like passing down toys from an older daughter - there's nothing wrong with the toys and they dont even look like they've been played with.
Clothes - Aubree has the good fortune of having two girl cousins that just over 1 year old with Mamas with great taste in children's clothes. Hush to all of you that think hand-me downs are wrong - MC has grown out of clothes so quickly that some of her things have hardly been worn.
Rocking Chair - we have two for Aubree's rocking pleasure! The one in her room is my Ma's - its an extremely comfy antique that Ma bought when I was a little girl. The other is a glider in the Teddy Bear Room - also very comfy!
Thats it for now - I'll have Dana post pictures when its all finished :)
It made it!!
Our dossier has been delivered to the Mail Room at CCAA and was sign for by LiJuan - how cool is that! :) Here is the complete journey of our paperwork courtesy of UPS online tracking! It turned out better when I posted it, but the tabs went away - I'll have Dana fix it when he has time, but its at least readable!
Status: Delivered
Delivered on: Aug 7, 2003 9:20 A.M.
--
Signed by: LIJUAN
Location: MAIL ROOM
Delivered to: BEIJING, CN
Shipped or Billed on: Aug 4, 2003
--Service Type: EXPRESS
Weight: 5.00 Lbs
--
Package Progress:Date Time Location Activity
Aug 7, 2003 9:20 A.M. BEIJING, CN DELIVERY
2:14 A.M. BEIJING, CN IMPORT SCAN
2:02 A.M. BEIJING, CN OUT FOR DELIVERY
Aug 6, 2003 8:22 A.M. SHANGHAI, CN UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY CODE;
RELEASED BY CUSTOMS.
NOW IN-TRANSIT
8:22 A.M. UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY CODE;
RELEASED BY CUSTOMS.
NOW IN-TRANSIT
Aug 5, 2003 7:50 A.M. ANCHORAGE, AK, US EXPORT SCAN
7:48 A.M. ANCHORAGE, AK, US OUT FOR DELIVERY
6:16 A.M. ANCHORAGE, AK, US ARRIVAL SCAN
12:08 A.M. LOUISVILLE, KY, US DEPARTURE SCAN
12:48 A.M. LOUISVILLE, KY, US ARRIVAL SCAN
Aug 4, 2003 10:42 P.M. US BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
10:30 P.M. DES MOINES, IA, US DEPARTURE SCAN
9:45 P.M. DES MOINES, IA, US ARRIVAL SCAN
9:15 P.M. DES MOINES, IA, US DEPARTURE SCAN
9:13 P.M. DES MOINES, IA, US ORIGIN SCAN
8:40 P.M. DES MOINES, IA, US UPS INTERNAL ACTIVITY CODE;
FORWARDED TO DESTINATION
6:46 P.M. DES MOINES, IA, US PICKUP SCANTracking results provided by UPS: Aug 7, 2003 7:06 A.M. Eastern Time (USA)
OMG!! Its in Beijing!!!!!!
It hasnt been delivered yet but its in transit in that wonderfully exotic city called Beijing! Come on! Do the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance with me people!!!! :)
Shanghai baby!
Our dossier has made it to Shanghai and through Customs as of 8:22am Aug 6 Shanghai time!! WooWoo!!
When it makes it to its final destination, I will see if I can copy and paste all the places its been - got to save these things for posterity you know! :D
its now in Anchorage!
At 6:16am Alaska time this morning, our dossier hit Anchorage! HooHaw - look at that baby go! :D
UPS Update
As of 4:08am this morning, our dossier is in Louisville Kentucky! Fly birdy fly!
we are paper pregnant as of today!
I've got a UPS tracking number in my sweaty widdle hand that says I'm paper pregnant! WooWoo!! Our dossier was sent off to China TODAY! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Bring on the ice cream and the pickles cuz Aubree's Mama is a happy girl! :D