Merry Christmas?

I've been looking for this video for awhile and finally located it. (See the end of this post.) This song applies so aptly to our lives this Christmas. It was written by a member of the group Third Day who was, like us, waiting at Christmas to bring his little girl home from China. It makes me tear up every time I listen to it and even more so after news we received from our agency yesterday.

I got a phone call from CCAI about 2:00 on Friday and my first thought was, "wow are TA's here already?" Sadly, no. Instead they were calling to inform us that they'd received some updated information about Ailah from the orphanage. The upshot is that she has been diagnosed with a "severe calcium deficiency" which they are treating with Vitamin D and colloidal calcium injections. At this point, with the very limited information they've given us, the only symptom we know of is that she cannot stand on her own. Since we won't be able to talk to a doctor until Monday at the earliest, we're relying only on what we've been able to find on the internet. Our research tells us that such a deficiency, also known as rickets, causes soft bones and weak muscles. Further research indicates that some level of rickets is extremely common in Chinese orphans though it often goes undiagnosed. So we are trying to hold onto the good news that they have diagnosed it and are treating it rather than letting the situation cause us to be overly concerned. I think it is that word "severe" that is disheartening. It is very hard to know about this and still have to wait to get her home and to a doctor. We know God will take good care of her but it's hard to know our child has a health problem that we can't deal with as we would if she were home. We appreciate your prayers for Ailah and for all of us as we continue to anxiously wait for our trip in January.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Drum Roll, Please. . .

After a week of thought and debate, we have made a final decision on our new daughter's name. Since, in our opinion, the meaning behind her given Chinese name was not terribly beautiful or fitting (Ling means water chestnut,) we were sort of at a loss for how to incorporate some portion of her Chinese name into her American name. We had chosen an alternate middle name a long time ago, just in case, but we wanted a way to keep her original name alive. Since Ai means love in Chinese we realized it would be very fitting to add the "A" to Ilah, so that we can honor both her paternal grandmother and her Chinese origin. And because we wanted to honor both grandmothers her full name will be Ailah Marie Stoll. Yes, we know it will be either mispronounced or mispelled for her whole life, but we really like the meaning as well as how it looks.

As anticipated with getting our referral so close to Christmas, we are once again zipping around trying to get ready for the biggest holiday of the year AND for a trip to China all at once. And just to make it a smidgeon more complicated CCAI believes in the hurry up and wait, then really hurry up, then wait some more, then RUN, method of preparing for an adoption trip to China. After waiting two years with nothing to do, once that referral arrived CCAI suddenly found another giant stack of paperwork to complete and it all must be done ASAP!! (Many of these were not date sensitive so why we couldn't have been working on this the last few months is a mystery.) We downloaded a packet of forms that needed filling out, signing, and notarizing before returning them to the agency. Also in that packet were the visa applications which had to be filled out in a hurry and shipped off with our passports (that always scares me) and a hefty check for new Chinese visas. CCAI really has little to no interest in the client successfully completing these forms as the online visa application form they provided was absolutely useless. When we called for help they just palmed us off on a visa acquisition service. For those finding themselves in this position in the near future, we learned it is NOT necessary to type the answers into the applications despite 4, count 'em 4, emphatic statements to the contrary in the instructions. At least that's what we were told. I guess time will tell if and when we actually receive the visas. Okay, enough complaining.

We are close to being ready for Christmas. All the goodies are made, shopping is done, about one third of the gifts are wrapped and Jeff swears the Christmas cards will go out tomorrow. Maybe we'll have some time to watch a few Christmas movies, drink some eggnog and enjoy the season itself. Yeah, I don't think so either, but it is a nice dream. Nikki is almost done with finals and will come home either Wednesday or Thursday. Katy will join us on Friday evening for a two-week vacation. Can't wait!!

Thanks to Jeff, I've had the better part of the weekend to work in earnest on Mara's 100 Good Wishes quilt since it is my desire to have it completed before we travel. I'm happy to say the quilt squares are all sewed together at last !! Now I just have to put on the borders, actually make a quilt out of it and bind it. I'm hoping all of that will be easier than I think it will be. So far that has been the case, so I'm hopeful. I'll post a picture here when I'm done. Ailah's will have to wait until after we return home and settle in. I hope not 3 years after like Mara's but for awhile.

This coming Wednesday afternoon we have our Travel Orientation Conference Call with the rest of our travel group. We're anxious to find out how many families we'll be traveling with, (there are two travel groups going to the same orphanage which seems strange,) and, we HOPE, an idea of when they expect we might travel and for how long. Of course, our TA (Travel Approval from China saying it is okay for us to come) has not arrived so I'm sure they will have no solid dates yet. Our biggest concern continues to be care for Mara while we are gone, so itinerary information is crucial. I'll be so glad when we finally have this piece of the puzzle in place. We would appreciate your prayers in this regard.

I have located a few photos of Ailah's orphanage. It is VERY far away from Guanzhou, where we assume we'll be headquartered for our trip, so we don't know if we'll get to see it in person or not. I'm glad to at least get an idea of what it looks like. From what I've been able to read about her current home, it is a modern, clean facility and the children are generally well-cared for, developmentally fairly on track. We can't wait to find out for ourselves.

We're Back. . . with Photos!

Okay, we're finally home. Wow, a long and happy day. Our daughter is beautiful! (You knew we'd think that didn't you?) But really, she is. Jeff says she's adorable. Yep, that too! Her name is Lian Ai Ling, she is in the Lianjiang City Welfare Institute in Guangdong Province and her birthday is August 29, 2006, 15 months old. On October 18 she weighed almost 19 pounds and was 28 inches tall. We will still name her Ilah though we are considering a change in spelling and haven't decided for sure on her middle name yet. I'll get back to you on that. But I know that you are really just here to see her pictures so here they are! See, I told you she is beautiful!





Looking a little irritated with the world. Well, wouldn't you be if they dressed you in a Star Trek uniform?

We finally all managed to get to the CCAI office about 1:15 p.m. Friday. It takes awhile to organize 4 adults in 3 different cities and get them all to the same place at the same time. After checking out all the info we HAD to go shopping, now that we finally know how big she is! (We don't need a lot, she is very close to Mara's age and size on her Gotcha Day.) Then we celebrated with dinner at The Spaghetti Factory--one of our favorite haunts when we want to celebrate. The "balloon guy" made fun balloon creations for each of us which thrilled Mara to no end. (A good thing since she wasn't very happy to not be the center of attention for the first time since she joined our family.) With the snowy, messy roads it was a long trip home and we finally walked in at 11:30 p.m. Whew! Worth every minute but now that I've kept my promise to post her picture before bed I'm going to go get some sleep.

Here are a few more pictures of the day:

Kathi says big sisters get the first peek.

Even Josh couldn't get Mara to smile. She just isn't sure we need this new kid around here.

Our Referral Has Arrived!!!!

Not much time to write, we're off to Denver!!! Our referral is here and we can't wait to see her picture. So far we know that she is 16 months old and that she is in Guangdong province. I'll post more when I know it. Well, actually when we get back from our celebration!

It's Official!

I just got this e-mail from another waiting CCAI parent who has been calling CCAI every hour on the hour this morning to make sure that the package came and that we're all in.

CCAI has verified that ALL of their 12/9 and ALL of their 12/14 matches are in!!!! Calls to start tomorrow!!! Now......what can you do for the next 22 hours????? Oh, and remember...they open at 9, have their match meeting until 10 and then start calls at 11am mst!!!!!"

Man, I don't know how I'm going to accomplish anything else today. Oh heck, why try?? It's time to celebrate and I'm just going to be happy for the rest of the day. I feel like I used to on Christmas Eve when I was a kid. Wahoo!!!

China Shares State Secret

For whatever reason, the CCAA doesn't like to post the cutoff date until nobody is really interested anymore. So, true to form, since everyone figured out the cutoff with referrals flowing in today, they have now finally posted it on their website. Here it is for posterity. With an LID of 12/9/2005, we are officially in. Now, we just need our referral.

AAUUGGHH!!!!

One person has received a referral today. Not a CCAI person. How can it be only one?? Nobody else has gotten a call, or at least they haven't reported it on RQ. (Wow, are there adoptive parents out there that still don't check in daily?)

From CCAI we hear:

No packages today, however we continue to think tomorrow may be the day we receive packages. We then take the day to translate all match information and then verify with our staff in China that all children matched continue to be healthy and available for adoption. With the time changes, we will not have verification from China until Friday am. We will have a match meeting with staff Friday morning if matches come Thursday and hope to be starting to call just around 10 am MST. Feel free to check with us again tomorrow mid-morning to see if packages are here!!! Hope you get some sleep tonight!

I have always appreciated that CCAI is so responsible and wants to translate and check for problems before they call but right now I'm finding their responsible attitude frustrating indeed! I knew this would make it really hard when it came time for referrals, but it is even harder than I thought. Lord, give me patience and please make that package get to CCAI tomorrow cause I just don't think I can wait through the weekend. So close, so close and yet so far away. (I always hated that song.)