The Jansen Cottage

I just wanted to post a picture of our little cottage, which we hope to be the proud owners of by Friday. It is about 3/10 ths of a mile from Bob's parents lot on Wolf Lake, near Baldwin, Michigan. We go to the lake often, so this will make it so much more convenient. I am so glad that I won't have to worry about packing for day trips.

I am extending an open invitation to friends and family who'd like to visit- but bring a tent or come when we are not there, since it is SO tiny. We have 325 square feet of space- a living room, kitchen and bathroom. It is perfect for us, but not exactly for guests.

Oh, I just wanted to add that we will not be able to host tall guests. Bob's head nearly brushes against the ceiling as he walks.

Wish #2

Yeah! I got my second square. Dana is a good friend of my mom's. I love the bright tropical print!

Some pictures

I just wanted to post a few pictures. I am sorry there aren't many of Garrett- he has been closing his eyes in every picture.

First Wish

Thanks to the Willoghby Family for my first wish for our 100 Wishes Quilt. I love the sparkly fabric! One down, ninety-nine to go:)

Our travels

I found a cool site where you can create a map of the places that you have been. I will create one map for me and one for Bob.

Reading List

I am going to compile a list of adoption related books. No, I haven't read them all, but I saw the list on another site and would like to keep track of the books. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.

Books for Parents
• The Lost Daughters of China, Karin Evans
• When You Were Born in China, a memory book for children adopted from China, Sara Dorow (photographs)
• Emma's Story, Deborah Hodge
• Talking with Young Children About Adoption, Mary Watkins and Susan Fisher
• Making Sense of Adoption, Lois R. Melina
• Our Baby from China : an adoption story., Nancy D'Antonio. (photographs)
• Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to her Hometown in China, Emily Prager
• Shared Fate: A Theory and Method of Adoptive Relationships, H. David Kirk
• The Waiting Child : how the faith and love of one orphan saved the life of another, Champnella, Cindy.
• Inside Transracial Adoption, Gail Steinberg & Beth Hall
• Wanting a Daughter, Needing a Son: Abandonment, Adoption and Orphanage Care in China, Kay Ann Johnson
• Dim Sum, Bagels, And Grits: A Sourcebook For Multicultural Families, Myra Alperson Farrar
• Being Adopted - the Lifelong Search for Self, David M. Brodzinsky, Ph.D., Marshall D. Schechter, M.D., and Robin Marantz
• Half and Half: Writers on Growing Up Biracial and Bicultural, Claudine C. O’Hearn
• "Are Those Kids Yours?" , Cheri Register
• Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Parents Knew, Sherrie Eldridge
• Toddler Adoption: The Weaver's Craft, Mary Hopkins-Best
• Attaching in Adoption:Practica Tools for Today's Parents, Deborah D. Gray


Chinese Culture and History/Novels
• Language Mooncakes and Hungry Ghosts; Festivals of China, Carol Stepanchuck and Charles Wong (Illustrated )
• China Wakes, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
• The Search for Modern China, Johnathan D. Spence
• River Town: Two years on the Yangtze, Peter Hessler*
• Wild Swans; Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang
• The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, Eric Liu • Confucius Lives Next Door, T. R. Reid
• Katherine, Anchee Min (a novel) • Red Azalea, Anchee Min (a novel)
• The Genius of China, Robert Temple

Books for Children (books for children are either China-related, adoption-related, or multicultural in text or illustration.)

Infant & Toddler
• Say Goodnight, Helen Oxenbury
• We See the Moon, Carrie Kitze
• Mommy Far, Mommy Near: An Adoption Story, Carol Antoinette Peacock
• Corduroy's Party, and Corduroy's Day, Lydia Freeman
• Peek-A-Boo, I See You, Joan Phillips Toddler & preschool
• If I Could Be a Circus Clown, J. Ellen Dolce
• The Day We Met You, Phoebe Koehler
• Lon Po Po, translated and illustrated by Ed Young
• The Postman, Rosalinda Kightley
• Through Moon and Stars and Night Skies, Ann Turner
• Emma's Dragon Hunt, written and illustrated by Catherine Stock

Preschool & older
• The Mouse Bride: A Chinese Folktale, retold by Monica Chang and illustrated by Leslie Liu
• I Love You Like Crazy Cakes, Rose A. Lewis
• Dragon Kites and Dragonflies, adapted and illustrated by Demi, from Tze-Si Huang
• Red Eggs & Dragon Boats; Celebrating Chinese Festivals, Carol Stepanchuck. (Illustrated)
• Over the Moon : An Adoption Tale, Karen Katz
• A Sky Full of Dragons, Mildred Watley Wright (Illustrated)
• Roses Sing on New Snow, Paul Yee (Illustrated)
• Long is a Dragon: Chinese Writing for Children, Peggy Goldstein (Illustrated)
• Hu is a Tiger: An Introduction to Chinese Writing, Peggy Goldstein (Illustrated)
• Weighing the Elephant, retold by Jin Honggang
• The Empty Pot, Demi (Illustrated)
• The Dragon Prince, retold by Laurence Yep (Illustrated)
• Nina, Nina, Ballerina, Jane O'Connor (Illustrated)
• The Stonecutter, retold by Demi (Illustrated)
• Lord Bao Interrogates the Stone, retold by Yan Chun
• Tye May's Magic Brush, retold by Molly Bang Young Elem. & older
• When You Were Born in China, Sara Dorow
• Kids Like Me in China, Ying Ying Fry
• The Moon Lady, Amy Tan
• The Best Single Mom in the World: How I Was Adopted, Mary Zisk
• The White Swan Express: A Story About Adoption, Jean Davies Okimoto
• Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes, Nina Simonds, Leslie Swartz, and Meilo So (Illustrated)
• Red Thread, Ed Young
• Count Your Way Through China, Jim Haskins (Illustrated)
• Little Miss Ladybug & Her Magical Red Thread, Karen Acers

100 Wishes Quilt Project

June 2007

Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know, we are in the process of adopting a child from China. We are thrilled with this new journey. As “crazy” as the paperchase part of this process has been, I have been nothing short of amazed at the support we have received from so many – family, friends, even new friends made as a result of this process. Nothing about the last year has been easy, but all of it has been memorable, and in a way, magical.

As part of that wait, we are doing a few special things to prepare for our daughter. One item in particular I need your help with- I am creating what is called a Bai Jia Bei, or a 100 Good Wishes Quilt.

Where did this idea come from?

There are a few historical references as to where this tradition came from. In Pearl S. Buck’s book, Imperial Woman, she talks about the last Empress of the Qing dynasty who gave birth to the only male child of the Emperor. She desires somehow to ‘protect’ this child when she hands him over. She has a robe made of 100 pieces of cloth from the most important 100 hundred families in the Empire. Thus, this child belonged, by symbol, to 100 strong and noble families, and under their shelter the gods would not harm him.

Legend also has it that this tradition originated in northern China as a desire to surround all newborns with the luck, energy and good wishes from family and friends. As such, 100 scraps of fabric from different families were donated from old clothing to the new parents so that the mother could make a quilt.

The international adoption community, mainly those adopting from Asia, have embraced this idea fully. The tradition of creating a 100 Good Wishes Quilt is just one more facet of the adoption journey, and one I’ll treasure both creating and sharing.

Who do I want to participate?

I want as many of my friends and family as possible to help create this quilt. Your continued love, support, and friendship both for our family and our daughter will be woven symbolically into this quilt. In the spirit of the tradition, I can imagine this quilt and the stories behind it will be shared over and over with our child as I tell her about the people who took the time to join me in this effort. As such, I want you, the important people in our lives, to be a part of it.
Your thoughtfulness, time, and good wishes mean so much to me. I know it will mean just as much to our daughter one day as she enjoys both her quilt and the stories it will hold. I will also post pictures of all wishes received here.



Love,


Meghan


Here are the guidelines:
How to help: Fabric guidelines:
1. Please send one 8" x 8" square of 100% cotton, washable fabric.
2. The fabric can be from anywhere: an old favorite t-shirt, a piece you saw in the fabric store and just loved... anything really.
3. The fabric must be pre-washed BEFORE it is cut.

Wish guidelines:
1. Along with your square of fabric, send a 3"x5" or 4" x6" (or some size similar!!!) card with a good wish for Lia.
2. Please attach (glue, staple, tie on, etc) a scrap of the fabric to the card.
3. Your wish card can be simple or elaborate; it can be deep and though-provoking or something funny! If you feel creative and want to decorate it, that's great too. It can be “original” or “borrowed.” Poems, quotes, prayers, scripture verses, song lyrics, or anything else are great too.
4. Wishes will be placed in a scrapbook so she will be able to look at her quilt and know who sent each square with its wish. Children as young as 2 use the quilt as part of a bedtime ritual and know by sight the people/fabric connections! Hopefully, though, she will continue to treasure both her quilt and the wishes of those who cared about her before she was even born into adulthood.
5. Please remember to sign your wish and include your city, state, and anything else you’d like to add!


Mailing Address:
The Jansen Family, 947 Knodt Road, Essexville, MI 48732

Email:
meghanjansen@yahoo.com

Phone:
(989) 894-0534

If you would like to see a few examples, take a look at these pages:
http://www.spareasquare.blogspot.com/
http://3ds100wishesquilt.blogspot.com/
http://www.geocities.com/crwycoff1@sbcglobal.net/100wishes.html

Beautiful Ballerina

I just have to say that Caelan's dance recital was perfect. She was great- she smiled, looked at the audience, remembered her moves. Adorable. I am going to try to post the video. But here are some pictures.

Update on our adoption

More dates:

1/3/07: Mailed homestudy to USCIS
2/7/07: Fingerprints completed at USCIS office in Grand Rapids
3/18/07: Received I-171H (Immigration approval)
3/27/07: Dossier to China
4/13/07: Log in Date

As of right now, it is taking around 20 months from log in date to referral. This time is expected to increase.

Bob's home!

Bob had a wonderful experience in Africa. I will post a few of my favorite pictures. He ended up spending three weeks in Dakar, Senegal and one week in Cape Verde. He stayed with a French family.

Bob's Going to Africa

During the entire month of April, Bob is going to West Africa with the Rotary Club. He isn't sure what countries he will be visiting, but here are the possibilities:

Benin, BuninoFaso, Cape Verde, Cote d'ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia,Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo

I will post more information about the specific places once we know more.

Getting Started with Adoption

We are the Jansen Family from Michigan. Bob and I have been married since November, 2000. We both are originally from Michigan, we lived in Alaska for four years, and are now back in Michigan. We have two wonderful children, Caelan is five and was born in November, 2001 and Garrett is two, born in July 2004. We are planning to adopt our daughter from China.

We are going to keep this blog as a record of our adoption journey. I want to be sure to keep track of all of our dates and events.

So far, here are our accomplishments:
9/1/06: We were approved by our agency.
9/11/06: We began working on our homestudy. Thanks to Julie, David, Maura, and Karin who must have said some good things about us in the reference letters!
10/12/06 :USCIS mailed a receipt for our submitted documents (minus the homestudy).
11/16/06: Homestudy visits were completed.
12/15/06: Submitted 11 dossier documents to MI Secretary of State.We are still waiting for the Homestudy report and the I-171 approval from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration department. I wanted to get the documents that were ready mailed and then I will express process the remaining two.
12/28/06: Received the certified documents from SOS and mailed them to the Chinese Consulate for authentication.