Our friend Lora let Brian borrow this lovely hat! He thought it would look great on my Dad and I think Dad agreed! Of course Brian made sure we all got to try it on. Dale really liked it as well. I may look like I'm drunk but I wasn't. Just exhausted from watching the Patriots play the Bears!!! Anyone who watched the game will agree!

Ava's new things!

Andrea flew down for the weekend a few weeks ago. We decided to take a trip to Lancaster, PA to shop in Amish country. We went to tons of fabric stores and fell in love with their quilts. We stopped in a unfinished furniture store and found this bookcase. I thought it was so cute! I called Brian so he could convince me to buy it. We haven't decided how we are going to finish it yet. The princess sign is from EBay and the adorable ladybug dress is from Andrea.

New squares

I was asked to post all the fabrics I receive so everyone can get a peek. We have gotten 30 squares so far. We are on our way to 100!! These six are from my Dad and Marie. My Dad called me last week to tell me how much fun he had buying fabric. Never thought I'd get a call like that from my football loving Dad! I have to say the two of them shocked us. My Dad picked out the fabrics in the second picture. Each one of the fabrics coordinate with his wish. He picked out beautiful flower and butterfly prints. We thought he would buy Red Sox or Patriots!! We think he made great choices! Marie surprised us the most! She picked out the Patriots fabric (Marie what have we done to you???). The celestial fabric fits her perfectly and we love the Children of the world angel fabric. You can click on each picture twice to enlarge them for a better view.

Lots of squares!!

Our friends Tim & Lora had a great time shopping for fabric. They picked out 13 fabrics! I had so much fun looking through them. I told them to pick out their favorites so I can add swatches to their wishes. Tim picked out the fish and Lora picked out the yellow w/ flowers and butterflies. Lora's children Dale and Ava (yup, another Ava) picked out the sports and princess theme's as their favorites.

Our fabric

I had such a hard time picking out fabric. I guess it's because I'm trying to find the "perfect one". I really loved this one!! It's silk so Andrea may have to do some extra work with it to avoid fraying. It's washable so it should work. I'd still like to find a few more.

More squares

We received six more squares from our agency group. They have all made great choices! I love the little girl fabric at the bottom.

Wishes

Most of these wishes come from our agency group. They have all been really creative. Most people are using quotes or poems as their wishes. The bottom right wish is from my Dad. He put so much thought and feeling into it. Of course he made me cry! I'm sure Ava will love it just as much someday.

Ava's first squares

Our agency has a yahoo group that consists of families who had their Dossier's sent to China in September/2006. We will travel to China to get Ava with many of these families. Our yahoo group is a great way for us to get to know each other before we travel. Since many of us are doing 100 Good Wishes quilts we decided to swap squares. I was so excited when Brian brought the mail in today...we got 5 squares from our September/2006 DTC group. I added a picture so you could see her first squares.

We are also doing a secret buddy exchange. We each have one person that we send a gift to every month. It can be for the baby, parents or siblings. We are exchanging gifts until we receive our referrals for our babies at that point we will reveal who we have been sending gifts to. Our first gift was a National Geographic DVD called "China's lost girls". It is a very informative and emotional look at Chinese adoptions. It also tells the heartbreaking story of why these little girls are living in orphanages.

100 Good wishes quilt

We "borrowed" these pictures from another blog so everyone could see a finished quilt. We are very excited about Ava's quilt and hope everyone participates. Andrea has volunteered to make the quilt with some help from her Mother in-law. We have already received some questions regarding the quilt so I figured I'd address them here:

1) Can we send more than one square? Yes: We need 100 squares but only sent out 78 letters. We can definitely use some extras. We would really love it if those of you with children would send a separate square from them. Our friend Angel is planning on cutting a piece of a blanket that her Son and Daughter had used when they we're born for their square.

2) What should we write for our wish? You can write anything you like! What would you wish for your own child's life? We are using lyrics from a song for our wish. Here is a small excerpt from it: "My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to, your dreams stay big, your worries stay small, you never need to carry more than you can hold". It can be a prayer, poem or something that you write personally. It can be short or long! We will attach a piece of your fabric to your wish.

3) What kind of paper should my wish be written on? It can be on a note card, personal stationary, decorative paper or regular 8x11 paper. I also included a picture of some wish notes. Your wishes will be placed in a 12x12 album.

4) Can I pick any fabric that I like? Please pick anything that you like or something that you think is special. It can be new or something sentimental that you already have. Our friend Andrea has picked a sunflower pattern. She loves sunflowers so I always think of her when I see them. We would love it if you picked a fabric that reflects your personality, hobbies or interest's.

When I purchased fabric they would not cut it to 10 x10. Joanne's fabric will not cut into smaller pieces. If you let them know that you need a piece of fabric that can be cut into a 10x10 square we will cut it to size when we receive it.

If you have any questions please feel free to call!! If you would like to receive emails whenever our blog is updated send your email address on a separate piece of paper with your square and wish.

On October 9, 2006 we FINALLY recieved information regarding our dossier's status. Here's the e-mail we recieved from our agency!



Dear GWCA Family,

We are happy to report that your dossier was registered in China on September 18, 2006. You are a member of the September 2006 LID Group. If we receive any additional information we will contact you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, if you need assistance or support, please feel free to give us a call.

Congratulations


We are offically one month into our estimated 14 month wait for Ava. Unfortunately the wait could get longer...we are keeping our fingers crossed that it doesnt get to much longer. The China Center of Adoption Affairs updates their site monthly which allows us to keep track of how long our wait will be. In the month of September they referred children to families with a log in date up to August 9, 2005. We are excited that we are finally at this stage in our adoption. Our next phase is to endure the long wait and finally bring Ava home!

On August 23, 2006 we received the call that we have been waiting for since April. Our Dossier (paperwork) was complete and was ready to be picked up. We we're so excited that we both left work and drove to Columbia, Maryland to pick it up. We took pictures of our Dossier and went to Kinko's to make copies, one for our agency in Texas and one for us. We spent over an hour in Kinko's making 177 copies. We could not unstaple any packet so it was very time consuming. When we we're done we went straight to Fed Ex to have it overnighted to Texas. Great Wall surprised us with a phone call to let us know that our Dossier was being sent to China on August 25, 2006. We we're extremely happy because we did not think it would be sent until September 1, 2006. With the wait times as long as it is right now even a week is a big deal. We went to The Cheesecake Factory to celebrate the end of our paperchase and the start of our official wait for Ava. We are now waiting for the China Center of Adoption Affairs to inform our agency of the date our Dossier was logged in (this is known as our LID). Today the CCAA posted to their website that they have matched children with families with log in dates up to August 9, 2005. This basically means that we will have about a 13-14 month wait before we will receive our referral for Ava. There is always the possibility though that the CCAA can speed up or slow down.

We are trying to document our entire adoption process for Ava. We wanted to take pictures of the original copy of our Dossier because it is the copy that is sent to China. Brian thought I was crazy as I was taking pictures of the Kinko's where we made copies. Like I said I'm documenting everything. He drew the line though when I tried to take pictures of the Fed Ex we sent it from. I think he was afraid all the drivers would think we we're nuts!!

We are trying to learn as much about Ava's culture as we can. October 6Th is a major holiday in Chinese culture, it is called the Moon Festival. We are planning to celebrate all Chinese holidays with Ava so we decided we would start this year. We are planning on going to Chinatown in Washington D.C. on 10/06/06 to celebrate. If our wait for Ava is about 13 months her birth mother is probably pregnant with her right now. It's comforting to us just knowing that Ava and her birth mother will most likely be celebrating also that day. Here is a bit of info about the Moon Festival if you are interested. We hope you will all look at the moon on 10/06/06 and think of Ava!!!


In China and throughout many Asian countries people celebrate the Harvest Moon on the 15Th day of the eighth month of their lunar calendar. The date in the Western calendar changes yearly. This year, it falls on October 6.

The Harvest Moon or Mid-Autumn Festival (Zhong Qiu Jie) is a day of family reunions much like a Western Thanksgiving. Chinese people believe that on that day, the moon is the roundest and brightest signaling a time of completeness and abundance. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, children are delighted to stay up past midnight, parading multi-colored lanterns into the wee hours as families take to the streets or city parks to moon-gaze.
It is also a romantic night for lovers, who sit holding hands on hilltops, riverbanks and park benches, captivated by the brightest moon of the year.

The festival dates back to the Tang dynasty in 618 A.D., and as with many celebrations in China there are ancient legends closely associated with it.
In Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, it's sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival, (not to be confused with a similar celebration during the Chinese New Year), but whatever name it goes by, the centuries-old festival remains a beloved annual ritual celebrating an abundance of food and family.

Traditional foods for a Chinese Mid-Autumn feast are red — for good luck. Lobster and salmon are particular favorites along with apples, pomegranates, roasted peanuts, pomelo, chestnuts, fatt koh (sponge cakes) and moon cakes.

One of the stories told to children during Moon Festival is of the fairy living in a crystal palace. She comes out to dance on the shadowed surface of the moon. Legend says the "lady living in the moon" dates back to ancient times when ten suns appeared in the sky. The Emperor ordered a famous but mean archer to shoot down the nine extra suns. Once the task was accomplished, Goddess of Western Heaven rewarded the archer with a pill of immortality. But his wife, wishing to save people from his bad disposition, took the pill herself. She has been banished to the moon ever since. They say her beauty is greatest on the day of the Moon Festival.

A woman in my Mom and Eddy's neighborhood makes beautiful quilts. Eddie was so nice and had one made for us. It came out so adorable! We can't wait until Ava can use it someday!

How could I not buy a pair of sandals named Baby Ava??!!

For the past 5 or 6 years I have been emailing a wonderful friend that I met online. We met while we we're both going thru Infertility treatments. Jen and her husband Chris we're blessed with a beautiful set of twins, Connor and Emily. Even though Jen lives in California and we have never met we have remained close. She always sends pictures of her kids and cards. Jen has been so excited and supportive since she found out about Ava. She has sent us so many outfits for Ava and toys. We plan to meet someday hopefully after we bring Ava home. Here is a pictures of just a few of the cute things she has sent us!

Last week our friend Derek offered us free second row tickets to an O's/ Red sox game. We had a great time and a great view. Our friend Lora and I we're pulled up on the dugout to dance with the O's bird. We spent the night talking to the people behind us. When the game was over one man gave us his business card and told us to look him up next time we we're in Boston. He owns the bar Cheers from the t.v. show. Definitely a good night!!

More pictures from Virginia Beach

Last Thursday we received Brian's fingerprints. I sent them by Fed-ex to our agency. The next day I received a phone call from them letting us know that they had sent all of our paperwork to Immigration in Baltimore. We figured it would be a couple of weeks before we received our last form from Immigration. Yesterday I checked the mail and there was our I-171H form from Immigration!! It took them 6 days to process our paperwork!!! This form allows us to bring Ava into the U.S. Now our paperwork will be Authenticated and sent to China!! Hopefully we will have our paperwork in China within the next couple of weeks. Then the long wait to be matched with Ava will begin.

Laura and her friend Melissa are visiting us this week. It's to bad that the picked such a miserable week. It's been about 114 degrees most of the week so they haven't been able to do to much. We did visit Virginia Beach for 2 days. While we we're there we decided to go para sailing. Here's some pics!

On Friday I decided to call CJIS to see if they could give me any information on Brian' s prints. I figured the worst they could say is no. I was so happy to hear that they received Brian's prints from the FBI and that they are good! We should receive our copy in about 2 weeks. When we receive that document we will be able to send our completed home study to USCIS in Baltimore. When it is approved they will send us our I-171H (this gives us approval to bring Ava into the U.S.) I have been told that USCIS turn-around time is about 2 weeks. All of our paperwork will then be authenticated, sent to our agency, translated and sent to China. We are hoping that our dossier will be sent to China in September. Keep your fingers crossed!

While I was visiting some adoption blogs the other day I found a link to a video clip of an orphanage in China. It broke my heart to see these poor babies (47 in one room) in cribs without a mattress or soft place to sleep. Instead of mattresses their cribs are lined with wooden boards. It just made me so sad to think of Ava living in such a place someday. I know they give the best care that they can in orphanages but it's heartbreaking. Hopefully she will be lucky enough to get a foster Mom and live in someones home while she is waiting for us. Since we started this process we have been supported by our family and friends. But we have learned that not everyone understands or accepts why we are adopting internationally. I told a patient at work that we we're adopting a baby girl from China...his reply was "why would you want one of those babies". He's lucky I was at work and couldn't say what I wanted to. Another patient felt the need to make sure that I knew she will be "Chinese". Like that would have just slipped past us!! I think the worst was a conversation I had with a new employee at work. When she found out that we we're adopting from China she decided to give me her opinion. She cant understand why we would adopt internationally when there are plenty of children who need homes in the U.S. I explained to her that adopting internationally is our personal decision. That the wait for a infant in the U.S. is long and that you must compete with many other couples to be selected. She then suggested the foster care system. This may sound selfish but we do not want to get attached to a child and then have DCYF give him/her back to their drug addicted parent. She did not accept our reasons and continued to plead her case as if she was determined to change my mind. At this point I became angry and explained how these poor children are abandoned in the streets, sent to live in orphanages with little chances of being adopted by a Chinese family. If it wasn't for international adoption these poor girls would live in an orphanage until they are of age with very little love or education. I understand that many people agree with her point of view because she is not the first person that we have heard it from. I'd like to show all of them this clip and ask them why these poor little girls don't deserve a good home just as much as an American child does?

http://www.dropshots.com/day.php?userid=97713&cdate=20060517&ctime=002610

On the fourth of July we had a small cookout with our neighbor Lora, my friend Michelle, her baby Bryce and her stepdaughter Amber. We have decided that Ava and Bryce will be playmates and will eventually marry someday. We enjoy teasing Brian with our little arranged marriage because he insists Ava will not date...EVER! We spent the day eating, playing baseball, swimming and watching fireworks.

In June I had to go to Virginia for 3 days for a business trip/training. I was thrilled when I found out that my hotel was literally across the street from our friend Lauren's house. She lives in this adorable historic farmhouse. She cooked my friend Nancy and I a great dinner on the night we arrived. The following night Lauren and I met at a restaurant and drank Frozen Margarita's until the manager threw us out at closing. I had a great time Lauren, Miss you!! We stayed at the Hyatt while we we're there. They had these great shops attached to our Hotel. I have become obsessed with anything that has a ladybug on it so I had to have this Hooded towel/washcloth set. As far as the business meeting is concerned I learned that one of my company's core values is fun. So after they filled us up with alcohol one night they got me up on stage (along with 20 other people) with a purple feather boa and made me sing and dance to Bon Jovi's "you give love a bad name".

Since we have lived in Maryland we have wanted to take a trip to Ocean City, MD. So 4Th of July weekend we decided to take a day trip. It was nice but not for us. It kinda reminded us of Atlantic City without Casino's. We spent the day walking the boardwalk checking out tons of shops. When we walked into one store I found 2 bibs every baby girl should have in her collection!! You all know we could not pass these up!

A couple of weeks ago we decided to take a trip to the Zoo in Washington D.C. It was really nice but really hot. We bought Ava a stuffed Panda and a sippy cup while we we're there. Here's a few pics!

We haven't left a message in awhile due to the fact that we are at a stand still. The last month has just dragged along. We have all of our paperwork completed and ready to go. My FBI fingerprints and clearance arrived on June 28Th. We have checked the mailbox everyday for Brian's and they still have not come in. We cannot move forward with anything until we receive this piece of paper. If his fingerprints are rejected again it will take another 12 weeks for this one document. I received an email today from our Social worker regarding the hold up:

Hi Nichole:

I’m not sure if this will make you feel better or worse, but all of the other dossier docs HAVE been certified up to the state level. CJIS (the folks sending us the FBI prints) are really, really backed up at the moment. They owe me all kinds of clearances that should have come in weeks ago. They are switching computer systems, they tell me, and are quite backlogged.

If you would like to do something, you may call the FBI and ask about the status of the clearance through CJIS. However, this will only tell you if FBI sent it back to CJIS. It still may be stuck between CJIS and us. Again, it is not necessary for you to call. I have spoken with CJIS several times about Brian’s prints. However, I recognize that sometimes it feels better to do something rather than just wait.

Cara


So that's our not so great new's. Things we're going really smoothly up until this point so I guess we should consider ourselves lucky. We we're hoping to have our dossier sent to China in September but if things dont speed up that might not happen. If we are able to get a log in date in September we still wont get Ava home until November 2007. So please keep your fingers crossed that CJIS gets moving!