Lia Xiang Wan

I think that we have decided that Lia's official name will be Lia Xiang Wan. It is pronounced sort of like She- ang Wan. We aren't really sure what they call her at the SWI, but we think she is either called Xiang Wan or Wan Wan.

Our agency received our Letter of Intent to adopt her yesterday and it is already on its way to China. Our homestudy expired after one year, just a few weeks ago, so we have to get updated medical information, new fingerprints, and criminal background check. We also have another home visit scheduled for Friday. So hopefully this update wont push back our travel to China.

As of right now, our agency is quoting 3-5 months from LOI to travel. I suspect that we will go in around 4 months (end of May). I really hope that we will be there before her second birthday on June 6- but it could be well into June before we are able to leave. We just really want her home.

We sent out a care package on Saturday. In it were 2 disposible cameras, 2 adorable outfits, the blanket I made with the extra 100 wishes fabric, a small stuffed bear, a small album with our pictures labeled in Chinese, and a bag of candy for the nannies. I hope she gets it, but there are no guarantees. We were told that in her province it is not likely that they will use the camera and take any pictures, but I hope they do.

Introducing our Little Lia- Ji Xiang Wan

I have been planning and anticipating this day for months. I had 6 pages of questions to ask when we got "the call." I was in shock when our agency did call, and I think the only question I managed to mumble was, "When can we see her file?"

At 11:30 this morning, I got a call asking us if we'd like to take a look at the file of a 19 month old little girl. Her name is Ji Xiang Wan and she is currently living at Huazhou City Social Welfare Institute in Guangdong Province. I called Bob and he and Caelan came home. I managed to print and read her reports while I was waiting for them, and then we opened her pictures together. She is adorable, and oddly enough has the same hair that both Caelan and I had as babies!

Her report says that "Ji Xiang Wan is a quiet and gentle little girl. She is social and not afraid of strangers. If you offer her a toy she likes, she will happily crawl toward you. She often plays with other children in the playroom, and she likes all kinds of toys." According to the reports, it seems that she is walking, has 4 teeth and her favorite toy is a cloth doll.

The next step is that we will write a letter of intent to adopt Ji Xiang Wan. We will likely travel in 3-5 months to bring her home.

We are all so excited. Caelan shared the pictures with her class this afternoon and then has taped them to the crib. Garrett said "Let's go to China." And I said, yes we will. He then said "No, right now!" Sorry Garrett!

Well, here she is!!!

Nine matches so far

We still have not heard anything. It takes a while to translate the files and call families, so I have not lost any hope. I still think we have a good chance to see our Lia soon! So far there are 9 families that have accepted children from this current list of children, there are likely 35-45 children on this list. We have heard announcements for three families in our yahoo group. I am trying to stay busy. I have been exercising like a madwoman. Garrett and I spent the morning yesterday at Chuck E. Cheese. But I have permanantly attached my cell phone to my body. Those of you who know me well, know that I resisted the cell phone for as long as I could. I just got one in March- right after we turned in our checklist:)

Here are two matches we know of so far:
Gigi & Myk
and Jen's niece

THE LIST IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hold on tight!!! CCAI just received a new list of waiting children. Hopefully we will hear something about our little Lia within the next few weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Adoption Fundraising

I was hoping that we wouldn't have to do anything like this, but we are still scrambling to make sure we have the money to cover our adoption expenses. With the addition of our two little travelers, we are adding quite a bit of expense that we weren't originally planning on. I have added some web storefronts on the right hand side. If you need to do any shopping with these vendors, please consider linking through our blog. We will earn money on any purchases made by using these links. Thanks!! And I hope to add a few more soon.