The Olympics Don't Scare Me!

I am so thankful that we are not traveling during or too close to the Olymipcs! This was a
concern for so long. Below is our travel schedule.

June 19 - Leave for China (we are traveling ahead of our travel group by one week because we have to stay longer in Beijing than what is required of other provinces.)
June 20th - arrive in china
June 21st - FamilyDay!
June 22nd - Spend time at hotel or tour
June 23rd - Adoption Registration
June 24th - Travel on train to Xi'an to tour terra cotta soldiers
June 25th - Xi'an
June 26th - Return from Xi'an
June 27th - Beijing
June 28th - Great Wall
June 29th - Tour
June 30th - Tour
July 1st - Tara and Ming travel to Guanghzou, Mike stays in Beijing
July 2nd - Tara and Ming consulate appt. Mike picks up Ming's passport and flys to Guanghzou
July 3rd - Adoption Oath 3:45
July 4th - Pick up papers
July 5th or July 6th - fly home

The news gets better!!!!

We received our TA today!!!!! AND.....looks like we are leaving on June 19th instead of June 26th!!!!!! I'll post details this weekend :)

Updates Received!!!

I finally got around to checking my personal e-mail about 9:30 tonight and saw an e-mail from our agency. I asked a few general ?'s concerning the adoption yesterday so I didn't think too much of it. Yet, when I opened the e-mail Mike and I were smiling ear to ear because it contained Ming's updates!!!! We don't have photos yet, but here are a few things we learned....

She can read and understand Pinyin (this is really good news!!!)
She is taking English through a local college student
She knows she is being adopted and is happy about it :)
She likes to dance, listen to music and sports
She also goes by the name "Baobei" this means precious one! (we love this!)
The orphanage is looking for photos of Ming as a baby to give us
According to her updated measurements we think that Ming wears a size 9/10ish in clothing and size woman's 4 1/2 or 5 in shoes.

We are soooo thrilled for this good news today! What an adoption/parent high! We are totally on cloud 9.

Spring is here!

The above words are common words used in our blog. I got this idea from the Waiting for Pumpkin blog. Way cool!




Spring is finally here! Our Aspen leaves opened on Sunday and the temperature has been in the 40's - 60's the past few weeks kind of consistently. I also potted some wonderful plants (still bringing them in at night) and hope to produce some strawberries, peppers and tomatoes this year. One of our strawberry plants had fruit on it last week, but a squirrel (I think) ate them! Bad squirrel!

BTW - It feels really good to our travel ticker today! It says 30 days to travel!!! Woo hoo!

BEST NEWS!!!!

The Skubella journey is on its way back up the rollercoaster today! We received an e-mail from our agency stating that our travel group LOA's were FOUND! They have been at the CCAA all along. So it looks like this was Fed Ex's mistake. We are soooooooooooooo happy and couldn't have asked for any better news concerning this situation. The travel group is still on track for a possible JUne 26th travel date :)

bad news, good news....

Now that we've thought about the situation for 24 hours, it is becoming more difficult. At this point I just get angry. We have a travel group on yahoo which is really helping because so many of us are going through the same emotions. I like sharing thoughts, feelings, etc... Our agency, who is trying really hard to resolve this issue in a timely manner, e-mailed us again with not such good news today. Fed Ex and our agency must send an apology letter to the CCAA before they will re-issue new LOA's. Just another step before we can receive them. Fed Ex better get their letter out by tomorrow!!! This is just awful. In reality the real people that are affected by this are our children! As adults we will get over the bad news, but we think of all of our children in China and what the country is experiencing with the earthquake. We want to bring our children home ASAP. I also worry about Ming being in Beijing during the Olympics. From what I understand her institute isn't too far from the Olympic Village. If anything happens to her due to the extended wait, I will quickly turn into a very nasty person. Also, Fed Ex really needs to compensate all 14 families and our agency in resending the packages. If this holds us back to the Olympics...Fed Ex should also be responsible for all the increased flight, food, hotel and etc... costs that go along w/the extended wait...that is if we are even able to travel during the Olympics.

The good news is that we receive our 171H today. I was hoping to be more excited, but to be honest, our happy bubble has been deflated.

Sad News Today

Our agency called to inform us today that Fed Ex LOST our travel group's LOA's!!!! Can you believe it? Now we are set back at least another 2 - 3 weeks. If we travel by mid July, I'll consider our travel group LUCKY! This is really hard to take in and makes us so sad. We also had some pretty personal information in the there like copies of our passports. I hope the package didn't fall into sour hands. We might be traveling close to the Olympics...who knows what that will bring...hopefully just more $ (because all prices are expected to rise) and not an even longer waiting period. Our LOA's were tracked and were lost somewhere in Alaska. This is such a bummer. I've never heard of this happening before. We try to roll w/the punches, but the punches are wearing us down after 2 1/2 years wait. We are so ready to bring Ming home. At least she is safe - for that we are happy. Please keep our travel group (14 families) in your thoughts...maybe a miracle will happen and Fed Ex will find the package before we have to wait for China to resend the LOA's, complete them again and send them back to China. Our Reeses ice cream is ready to eat (slightly soft) so I must go indulge! Sorry for a jumpy posting...my thoughts are blurred.

Ming's Room

Here are some photos of Ming's room. I just love the photo with her painted name. The letters were made by her cousins. Aren't they fabulous! We are keeping her room plain at first. I would love to load up her room with items and paint the walls a bright color, but it's recommended not to over stimulate the room. Since Ming is older, it is also important that she makes the room her own - so this will happen after time. I just hope the room feels cozy and safe :) Mike made the dresser. Is is so pretty and is made out of Aspen. I'm so lucky to have such a talented hubby! The desk was my great grandmother's desk on my mother's side. I used this desk while in high school and think it is so cool that my daughter can use it too!

More updates

We are sending off the Visa Applications tomorrow and starting to think about packing and other travel arrangements. It's weird that we don't have TONS of paperwork like we've had off and on over the past two years. To be honest the word "paperwork" gives us the chills to this day.

We are STILL waiting for our 171H, but it was expedited (thank you CAI!) so we should be getting it soon. We've been assured we'll have it in time for our agency to request a consulate date, but it will always be a concern until we have it in our hands.

Everyday I check my e-mail hoping to have updates on Ming. I'm sure it will come in the next week or two.

In other news...it snowed about 4 inches yesterday and still on the ground. More is expected tonight! I would rather have rain, but any precip is good because we haven't had much in the past few weeks. I hope our wildflowers will be beautiful again this year. Even though we have snow - it is finally spring. I saw three pasque flowers on our lot this weekend and the Aspen are pollin"mating" (hee, hee - I love that term!), which means they'll leaf in a couple of weeks....oh how nice to have leaves again!!!

Tentative Travel Dates and Package Photo

Pictured above is a care package we sent to Beijing Children's Welfare Institute for Ming, Caretakers, Director and other children. We really hope she got the package. I just love the stuffed moose. It was a gift from a secret buddy of the Oct 2006 DTC group. So cute! The red box in the photo didn't make it because it was too bulky for the UPS box. We also included two short letters translated in Chinese - one for the Director/Caretakers and one for Ming.

Today we had our pre-travel meeting w/the A Helping Hand travel group. The meeting lasted a little over 2 hours - whew!, but it was very informative. We are travel group #93. 14 other families are in our travel group. It looks like we'll be possibly traveling June 26th - July 12/16th. Wow! We have possible dates now! We won't actually know the confirmed dates until about 2 weeks before we travel. Because Ming is from Beijing we are required to stay 8 business days in Beijing instead of the typical 5.

Please take a minute to send positive thoughts to all those living near China's southwest earthquake today. We are very thankful Ming is in Beijing and wasn't directly effected by the quake. We hope her safety continues. We also think of all the people in Myanmar Cyclone as well - and hope that they can receive increased aid.

Package to China

A quick up date - we tracked Ming's package to day and it arrived 11:04am May 9th! Yippee! We sure hope she is able to receive her items......I can picture her carrying around the little small moose and photo book.

Updates

We sent our LOA paperwork on Monday, as well as a care package to Ming. I'll try to post a photo this weekend of what we sent - too tired now, as I have to download the photo from the cell phone. It was more expensive to send a package to China than I thought, but well worth it. It's so wonderful to think she'll open her package soon and see photos of us! Hopefully she won't be too scared! Ha!

Our first travel group meeting is this Monday at 5pm via phone. How exciting! Mike and I are looking forward to hearing the voices of the other families we might travel with from A Helping Hand. The group seems to be fun, nice and very supportive. Most of the group keeps connected through a yahoo group.

Also, we would like to say thank you to Mike's sister's family and my Mother, Rob & Luke. Ming received some more wonderful gifts yesterday and today. My Mom, Rob & Luke gave Ming a Rice Paddy Doll (Asian version of the Cabbage Patch - my sister got one when my parents visited Hong Kong in the 1980's). Too cute of a doll! Ming's cousins (Jessica, Cassidy and Kyle) picked out some pretty outfits and toys for Ming. We also received the letter's "MING" which already has a place in her bedroom! Which reminds me...I need to post photos of her room soon! More updates to come on Sunday

Adoption Shower!!!

Today my friend, Jamie, threw Ming an adoption shower. It was a lot of fun and is another reinforcement that the community is welcoming her into their arms. We thank everyone so much for their support and for wonderful gifts that will help Ming grow, learn, look fabulous and have fun! Also, a big thanks to Jamie for putting everything together!

We also received our travel and LOA packet on Friday. To be honest, I wasn't sure if we were going to get the package as expected because it arrived late. I was on the phone with our agency, letting them know it didn't arrive yet, when the Fed Ex truck arrived at work! It was so neat to finally see the official papers and complete our travel, visa and LOA paperwork. It gave me goosebumps to see the paperwork so many families before us have described. A Helping Hand Agency (the parent agency to our initial agency, Commonwealth) had also enclosed a travel preparation DVD. Watching this really makes everything feel so much more real and CLOSER!

Ming is constantly on our minds now. I don't think 60 minutes go by w/o thinking of her at least a couple of times. It is amazing at how much being LOA makes a difference in how you think about your child. Reality Rocks!

Today is a great day!

Introducing Ming!!!

This is our beautiful daughter. I'm so happy that we finally can share her photo.

Today we received our LOA. We have waited over the average wait (90 days) for this day to arrive. It is another huge step closer to bringing home our daughter! I was at work and our agency called a little after 11:30am MT to fill us in. I think 9 other families from A Helping Hand received LOA's today too. It seemed like this day would never come. It looks like there is a good chance we'll travel to China at the end of June/early July. We can't wait - that day can't come soon enough! It feels so good that everything is finally falling into place and Ming WILL be coming home soon. I think we'll be able to get updated information and updated photos in the next few - several weeks. The best part is that we can send Ming our care package we put together months ago and she'll know that she has a family waiting for her! I hope she is happy when she finds this out.

This is a such a cool week because my friend, Jamie, is hosting an adoption shower this Sunday for Ming. How fun! We also received Ming's first gifts from Ashley (another Chinese adoptive parent - link on right side) and Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa George. Ming received some really cute clothing, toys, hair accessories, jewelry and educational toys. Thank you so much. Ming will be the most stylish gal in South Park!

LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't posted 4EVER! I didn't realize how long it has been until just now. We got the call today and we are LOA!!!!! I'll post more tonight as well as some photos. It won't be long now Ming!