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.