China Adoptive Moms

I got this from a fellow adoptive mom in our JanFeb DTC group. I loved it and it is so true:

lilyspickle wrote:

No we don't have (our wives) belly's that get bigger by the minute.
No we don't have elbows, feet and little fists pounding our (wives) insides.
No we don't have ultrasound pictures showing us our child's development by the month.
But we are Moms (Dad's).
We are Moms (Dads) when we are getting to know our child in a country where no one speaks the same language as us.
We are Moms (Dads) the second they hand us our child in a hotel conference room.
We are Moms (Dads) when we are carefully packing medication, clothing and diapers for the child we haven't met yet.
We are Moms (Dads) when we receive the phone call that we have been matched with a baby and view the first picture of our little girl.
We are Moms (Dads) when we celebrate our LID.
We are Moms (Dads) when we are excited to FINALLY receive our I-171h or I-797c in the mail.
We are Moms (Dads) when we tirelessly collect, notarize, certify and authenticate every aspect of ourselves.
We are Moms (Dads) when a Social Worker inspects our home, and spends hours asking us about our personal lives.
We are Moms (Dads) when we make the decision to adopt.We are Moms (Dads) the first time we even have a thought about that child who will someday be ours.
We are Moms (Dads) even though most of our friends and family around us don't understand why a piece of paper or a Fed Ex package is as exciting to us as an ultrasound, or a positive pregnancy test.
We are Moms (Dads) who are madly in love with a baby we have not met.
We are Moms (Dads) who excitedly check email, Yahoo Groups and Blogs everyday to share this experience with other's around the country and world who are doing it too.
We are Moms (Dads) that cry in front of our computer screens when we hear that someone is DTC, LID, has gotten a referral, is leaving for China, or has experienced Gotcha Day!
We are Moms (Dads) to some baby out there who may be in a foster home, an orphanage, in her birth mother's belly growing, or that hasn't even been conceived yet.
WE ARE MOMS (Dads)!!!

Were are LID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At 10:48 this morning we received an email from Jack song:

To: Steven & Sheri McNally

Re: CCAI Log-In Date & Packet
Congratulations! Your dossier has been logged in by the China Center of Adoption Affairs.

Your official dossier log-in date (LID) is: 3/19/2007

I have been home all week because of Spring Break but I do not normally work Fridays anyway what a surprise to get this today. I had not check my email for probably an 1 1/2 hours because the lawn people were here discussion option with treatments so I was busy with them then off to the shower and the phone rings and it was Julie saying "how about 3/19/2007 for a log in date. I was thrilled. I went and checked and there was the confirmation.

Well we will be celebrating to night as a family at Macaroni Grill for dinner. Maddie is so excited she told the lady in the store I have a date for my sister now I just need to wait to go pick her up. I had to further explain because she gave Maddie a puzzling look.

HOORAY FOR LID!!!!! Now we just have the wait, review then match and finally GOTCHA!

We will be doing alot of waiting, hoping, praying and dreaming of baby Kinsey of the next 20 months (??).

Spring Break 2007

We took Maddie and Adurey to Walt Disney World and Sea World. They had a great time. Maddie loved Sea World, she got to meet "Shampoo" (Shamu). It was so cute we bought her a stuffed Shamu and she carried him around all day and still a few days after we got home she is still attached to "Shampoo".

The girls were troopers we were at Disney from 9:00am to 12:00am and Maddie never took a nap and she was GREAT :) She finally fell asleep 10 minutes before the park closed and I mean hard. We also went to see Mama (Steve's grandmother) she was diagnosed with cancer last year and we try to see her ever chance we get. Maddie loves her Mama.

For the rest of spring break Maddie and I will be hanging out at home doing cleaning and I will be working on scrapping and blogging. Audrey goes back home on the 21st till next month Maddie is going to miss her after having 5 days this month with her. It is always a treat to have an extended visit with her.

Referral Day 2005

Then
Now

On St Patricks day 2 years ago we received a phone call from our agency stating you have a daughter. I can remember the shriek I let out and then gasped for air as I was screaming into the phone tell us more. We celebrated her referral day by taking her to Disney. This has been set as a tradition Maddie has spent her first 2 referral dates (2006, 2007) with Mickey and Cinderella. As she would say it is awesome yipeeeee! It does not seem as if 2 years have gone by. She changes and grows so fast I cherish each moment with her and remember the first time I took her into my arms a feeling a mother can never forget.

Well now we are just as excited for Kinseys referral but this time we will not be waiting by the phone. During our first adoption our agency did not have a fully functional office in Florida. They were once in Tallahassee and have since moved to Orlando. We have decided as a family we will drive to the Florida office and pick up our referral and meet our daughter for the first time with the staff that has made this adoption possible. We will be there when referral deliveries begin.

100 Good Wishes Quilt

Many of you know by know Steve and I are adopting another baby girl from China. We have completed all of our paperwork and now we are in the waiting stage. To keep busy during this time I have decided to take on a project of making a quilt and I need your help. I would like to invite you to participate in creating a "100 wishes quilt".

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or 100 Good Wishes Quilt. It is a custom to invite friends and family to contribute a patch of cloth with a wish for the baby. Part of the patch of cloth goes into the quilt for the baby, and the other part of the cloth can go into a creative memory notebook with the wish for the child. The quilt contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the families and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation.

During the adoption for Maddie I did not make a quilt but I am now making a quilt for each of the girls. We are inviting all of our friends and family to take part in this project.

Here is what we would like you to do:

1) Choose any fabric 100% cotton that you like. Cut "2" 8 inch by 8 inch cotton fabric square.

2) Cut 1 to 2 inch fabric scrap piece of the same square material for the memory book. (this piece will go with the each wish

3) Write or type a wish/poem/ on acid free paper (preservation purposes) expressing your good wishes and heartfelt sentiments for the baby; The fabric will be used to make the quilt and the notes and the smaller pieces of fabric will be placed in a books for each of our daughters to be given when they are older.

Ideas for fabric: When selecting your fabric make sure it is 100% cotton and find something that is meaningful to you. If there are several members in your family, please fee free to send more than one good wish note and fabrics for each of the girls. In China, these quilts were originally made from the garments of family and friends surrounding the child with luck and good wishes.

Ideas for wishes: What would you wish for a little girl in her life? Happiness, faith, security, prosperity, fortune and courage. Make sure you sign your name on the wishes. The girls will not see there wish books containing the notes until they are older. It would be wonderful to receive all the fabric and wishes by June 30, 2007 so I can get busy making these quilts before we bring Kinsey home.


If you have more than one person in your family who would like to participate then please feel free to send more than one set of fabric square (one for each of the girls) and a wish (for each of the girls). Remember I need 100 blocks of fabric for each quilt. Children are welcome to contribute to this project:)

Thanks again for all the support. I know everyone has busy schedules, but I hope you will be able to take time to help me create this special keepsakes. This will hold allot of meaning to them when they get older especially since it incorporates part of her Chinese Heritage.

Once I get the fabric and wishes coming in I will start another blog showing all the fabrics and wishes.