Waiting for Lily

Ist Anniversary Gotcha Day

2006-12-04T17:29:00.000-04:00

Our Hula Girl

Lily decided she just HAD to wear her boots and her hat inside this day!

Lily loves to have her picture taken, but she hasn't learned how to smile on command yet!

It is the eve of our one year anniversary for Gotcha Day. For the past few weeks, I have been very reflective of the last year. This year has passed so quickly. Our house has been a buzz with squeels and laughter every day. It is so much livelier having two! Everyone in our family has adjusted seemlessly to our newest addition. We expected it to be hardest on Lily- it wasn't. She has been an unbelievably happy and content girl. We also anticipated an adjustment period for Kyra, having been an only child- receiving loads of undivided attention- for 9 years. That never happened either. Kyra has adored Lily since the day we brought her home. Daron and I were also prepared for an adjustment period. We were cautioned, by many experts who have walked this path of adoption before us, that bonding is not always instant and we should be prepared for that. Well for us, there was no period of adjustment. Lily was our little angel and we fell head-over-heels in love with her the moment she was placed in our arms, one year ago today. We realized instantly that blood has nothing to do with that parent/ child bond. The moment that Lily was placed in my arms was just as powerfully moving as the moment Kyra was placed in my arms a decade ago. That overflowing feeling of love fills your heart so full, that you think your heart will burst right out of your chest! I look at Lily everyday in awe and wonder and I realize how fortunate Daron and I are to have been so blessed twice in our lives. Both our girls are such happy souls; they just love life and are so inspiring. I learn something from each of them everyday.

Each day Lily makes us laugh with her shining personality. I think back to a year ago, of this tiny little baby who, at 9 months, couldn't roll over or sit up. I look at her now and see that love has made her blossom into this toddler that runs, jumps and dances. She talks, sings, and laughs right from her belly when she knows she is being funny! I watch her and Kyra play and see how strong the bond of sisterhood is. Hearing the two of them giggle with each other is my greatest joy.

Everyday I am astonished at how brilliant this little person is. I realize how much potential she has and I know that her options are limitless, and that she can be and do anything that she wants in this world. So, at night when I go in her room and watch this little angel sleep, I think about how she has enriched our family so much in one short year and for that we are so thankful and and grateful. Isn't that how every parent feels about their children? That's the marvel of parenthood.

It's almost summer!!!

2006-06-10T23:05:00.000-03:00

The girls in the hammock at the cottage

Lily's first time on the beach

Lily trying to sneek off with Kyra's Crocs

Cuddle -time with Papa

She was too quiet while I was packing up for the cottage!!

Lily's First Birthday

2006-02-24T22:21:00.000-04:00

Lily's 1st Birthday Party

Our picture perfect Angel

Look what I found!

I'm such a Ham!

We had a fun-filled day for Lily's first birthday. Our little girl is growing so fast! We have had so many parties since we got home in Dec, we kept it pretty low-key for the first birthday.
Lily put her whole hand right in the cake and when she finally decided to put the icing- laiden hand in her mouth, her reaction was pure shock. She has never tasted anything that sweet! It doesn't appear that she has acquired her mother's sweet tooth. Yet!

Lily's First Christmas

2005-12-25T14:22:00.000-04:00

This present opening is exhausting- I'm ready for a nap!

My first turkey dinner- YUMMMM!

Our newest little snow angel!

Cuddle-time with Dad

Big Sis giving Lily her bottle before bed

We had an unbelievably exciting Christmas this year. What a GREAT Christmas present we brought back from China. It was total excitement for everyone, especially Big Sister Kyra! We are truely blessed with two beautiful angels!

Arriving Home

2005-12-17T14:22:00.000-04:00

Swarmed at the gate

The excitement of seeing Kyra after 19 days!

Nana finally gets to hug her newest granddaughter

Lily's happy to be home too

Lily is shocked at all the excitement- all this for little 'ol me!

The proud Great- grandmother!

Lily meeting Auntie Andi

Home atlast!

A Day of Play( and shopping of course!)

2005-12-14T09:34:00.000-04:00

Lily and Daddy Wrestling Match

Lily takes a moment to stratagize, deciding on her opening move...

She opens with a lunge, she's going straight for the nose!

She comes back and preps her fingers for the dreaded Wet Willy...

The fingers are primed, she makes her move for the ears...

Daddy surrenders, he's clearly no match for this pint-sized contender!

An afternoon of shopping at the Children's Department Store.

The escalator was a huge hit- we rode up and down them many times with squeels of delight!

Our Peking Duck Dinner. Lily is clearly ready to go home to Canada!

We all are! Only two more days....

The seals at the little aquarium in our hotel.

We had a fun, but busy day. We went to a pedestrian shopping street and spent a few hours going through the stores. I think we are really ready to head home now. It has been 16 days and were getting drained. On the way to shopping today, the sun was beating in the back of the cab and the three of us were sound asleep in the back seat! Good thing the cabbie was a trustworthy guy. He could have been driving around Beijing aimlessly and we would have been none- the- wiser!

Even in the department stores shopping is exhausting. Each saleswoman is responsible for their own liitle section of goods and each one is trying despiratly to get you to buy their products. It's impossible to browse here- there is someone continually coming at you with something to look at. It's constant sensory- overload! It's very similar to the markets, just without the bartering!

Tonight we had our final group dinner, a Peking BBQ Duck Dinner. Tomorrow, the first of the families from our group head out in the afternoon. The next morning the rest of us leave... we are so excited to bring our little angel home and just settle into a normal routine. It's been an amazing experience here, but were ready to head home!

HuTong Tour through Old Beijing

2005-12-13T09:32:00.000-04:00

Our HuTong Tour through Old Beijing- it was freezing!

Our little "Bundle Of Joy" enjoyed the tour

A Kindergarten school we visited on the HuTong

Marc knows a bit of Mandarin so the kids were swarming him

Mr. Leo, President of the Cricket (yes, the bug, not the British sport) Club and owner of the Cricket Champion. We toured his 300 year old home.

Mr. Leo has trained grasshoppers in addition to his crickets

Our final stop on the HuTong was a Traditional Chinese Tea House

Lily being swarmed by 5 girls at the restaurant where we had dinner tonight.

We had a very fun day today doing the Hutong Tour through Old Beijing. Only a few of these areas are left around Beijing, some dating around 800 years old. It was very interesting, one of the best things we have done on the trip. Our bicycle ricksha driver was so cute. Everytime we got on the back of the bike her would put my hood up, make sure Lily was all tucked in and put a big blanket across our laps to keep us warm. He was very sweet.

Our first stop was at a little Kindergarten. The kids were all so excited to see us. They sang 4 songs for us, we sang two for them and they loved to show us the English they knew. They only knew a few phrases, about equal to what we knew in Mandarin. They were so excited to see the pictures f them on our digital cameras and video cameras. Daron was turning the LCD screen around on the video camera so they could see themselves as he was filming them and they were all going crazy with excitement. It was adorable.

Next we went to Mr.Leo's house, which consisted of 1 bedroom that was barely bigger than the double bed in it, a livingroom and a tiny little kitchen and a bathroom. He had a family of 3 living there for 30 years and he loves it, ays he will never move. As you can see from the pictures he loves his crickets. He had Jasmine Tea for all of us and little snacks that his son made. His son is a chef at a large 5 star hotel in Beijing and Mr.Leo was very proud of him. He had a number of magazine with pictures and articles about his son. He was sweet. We had these amazing candied rose petals that his son made for us. Delicious! He has about 200 people through his house everyday with the tour! We gave him a Fredericton pin and he was very excited about that.

The last stop was a Traditional Chinese Tea House and we tried a couple of different teas and learned a number of things about how to drink Chinese tea properly. It was very interesting.

Lily was great, as usual on the whole tour. It lasted a couple of hours and she was awake through part and slept through part. She is such a little traveller already!

This afternoon we went as a group to the Silk Market. It was the third trip there for us, but the first for many others. Many of the women had seen what I had picked up on previous trips there, and what I paid for things, and they wanted me to do the bartering for them. Unfortunately, I had a list of things I wanted and only 2 hours to get them, so eveyone was on their own! I did give them tips on just naming their price and then walking away. It works almost everytime! Daron is too soft- he's murder on my bartering technique!

Tonight we went back to a CHinese restaurant close to our hotel that we loved from the first week we were here. As you can see from the pictures, Lily was quite a draw to a group of girls in the restaurant. She was just as engaged with them as they were with her. It was sweet.

Tomorrow we are off to a 5 FLOOR- CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT STORE! Look out!

Playtime with Lily

2005-12-12T09:01:00.000-04:00

Our Picture-Perfect girl!

She LOVES having her picture taken!

Blinding flash- enough with the Paparazzi !

Taking a break from her photo shoot

She loves standing

Practice makes perfect!

Chinese Acrobatic Show- AMAZING!

Lily loved the show- she was mesmerized

Today we went for Lily's medical check up and everything was great. When the doctor took her from my lap and put her on the examination bed, she was crying ssssoooo hard. As soon as the doctor passed her back to me, she calmed right down. It was amazing. She said she was already showing strong signs of attachment. That was very obvious! She is just under 28" long and weighs 15 lbs. She's one of the smallest babies in the group, but she's also the second youngest. She is doing so well, we are just in awe. She is such a happy and content baby. She is able to sit up now and she is getting so close to rolling over. Tonight when she was playing on her tummy, she was trying so hard to bring her knees up under her, and her bum was high in the air. The progess she is making in such a short time is staggering.

We went to the Acrobatic Show tonight and it was fantastic. Lily just loved it; as you can see from the pictures.

Yesterday we did the Great Wall and Lily made it to the top, on my back, completely bundled and slept the whole way! What a trooper. It was ssssoooo cold.

Tomorrow we are going on the Hu Tong Tour (rickshaw) through Old Beijing. It should be fun. I imagine Lily will love that too. She loves everything!

FengCheng Orphanage Visit

2005-12-09T01:18:00.000-04:00

Nursery at FengCheng Orphanage

Lily's Founding Spot at the orphanage gates

Lily's Founding Note left with her at the orphanage gates

The new FengCheng orphanage- will be completed by the end of Dec.

Where's Lily?

Peek-a-boo!

Sleepy Baby- all tuckered out!

Nanchang Nightlife-Shopping!

We visited Lily's orphanage on Dec 7, but did not meet her foster mom. We did find out a bit more info and were able to see her founding spot at the gates of the orphanage (in photo). The red brick wall behind us in the photo was infront of where the orphanage used to be. It was torn down about a month ago. The nursery that we got to see is just in a temporary building until the new orphanage opens at the end of the month. Most of the children with this orphanage are in foster care because of that. We found out that Lily did not spend anytime at the orphanage. She was placed in foster care right away and was only brought back to the orphanage on the day that she was brought to us in Nanchang. The foster family that she was with also has another foster child with them, and she has not been adopted yet. They choose foster families where the couple is between the ages of 40 and 50, so that their children are grown, thereby ensuring that the foster children get more attention from the family. They can live no more than 30 min walk away from the orphnage because they have to bring the children back once a month for medical checkups and the orphanage staff will periodically visit the homes to see the children are being cared for.

Lily's founding note just had her birthdate written on it by her mother, and the orphanage added her name to the note. We are only allowed to take a picture of it. They keep the original in her file and they will keep all the baby files for approximately 80 years.

We are heading to the airport now. We picked up Lily's passport this morning and are flying back to Beijing this afternoon.

Outings in Nanchang - Dec 6

2005-12-07T09:40:00.000-04:00

Morning shopping trip in Nanchang

Fish tank at the restaurant we went to for lunch

Our Beauty!

Afternoon shopping trip in Nanchang

Playtime

Yesterday we went on some shopping trips around town. Of course, Lily was an angel! Everyday she is getting more and more settled. She is so content, but each day we see more of her personality and she is more and more responsive with us. She is always happy, no matter what we are doing. Could we be so lucky that this attitude stays? She is such a good girl- we are truly blessed!

More Pictures of Lily

2005-12-05T03:49:00.000-04:00

Breakfast this morning

The Baby Bus going to the Civil Affiars Building

Lily playing with Daddy
What a Cutie Pie

Lily likes her soother!

Sleeping Beauty

Having fun with Dad

GOTCHA DAY!!!!

2005-12-04T01:30:00.000-04:00

Here's our beautiful Sweetpea, Lily

Lily loves the bear as much as Kyra did

She did so well, no tears at all!

I can't say the same for me!

She loves chewing on the bear

Look at that Angel!

She slept right through the whole night 8 pm- 5:30 am

Our little China Doll!

What a peaceful sleeper, she barely moved an inch.

We are just in awe of what a good little girl Lily is. She didn't cry until we had her up to the room and changed her. She definitely doesn't like having her diaper changed! She has the most adorable cry- great big tears roll down her cheeks and and she mumbles aboobooboobooboo. It's just adorable. She is such an easy baby, she only cries when she wants to sleep or eat. She didn't want her bottle last night and fell asleep in my arms looking out the window at all the city lights. Then I laid her in the crib and she woke up, but she just quietly stroked her pillow and sheets, touched the rungs of the crib, cuddled the bear and watched us, cooing to herself. In a few minutes she fell off to sleep and she didn't wake up until 5:30. Daron and I woke to her quietly cooing to herself. She is just so content. Of course, we had to bring her into bed and cuddle before our 6 am wake up call. She was just quietly lying in bed with us and we were talking away to her and as I went to stroke her face I could feel two wet streaks down either side of her cheeks- she was silently crying. It just broke my heart- there is just so much change for her- it must be so scary. We definitely think she is in shock. I'm sure that I why she is so complacent.

Today we had all the paper work to do. We had to be t the Civil Affairs building by 8 am. That's why we needed the 6 am wake up call. Pretty early for the first day with the baby. She didn't like her bath at the beginning, but then she was quite calm and liked to stare at her feet in the water. The family with the twins started doing baths at 4 am. They don't have a routine down pat yet!! The paper work is all completed, so it is finally official today. Lily is ours!

Our Little Buddha

We were back at the hotel by noon and Lily fell asleep in her crib after just a couple of minutes. She is an amazing sleeper. She slept for 2 hrs and just woke up . When she woke, she was just cooing agian and staring at me at the computer beside her. I was leaning over the crib talking to her and she was looking at me with great big smiles. It was just adorable. We have her sitting on the bed with pillows propped around her and she is completely mesmerized with all her toys.

I'm trying to add more pictures, but the blog won't let me. I'll add some more later.

Beijing Update

2005-12-03T22:15:00.000-04:00

Dec 3-Lunch yesterday with the group- 17 families!

Dec 3-Tien An Men Square with the group- It was freezing!

We all bought the goofy Olympic hats for $1.

Lama Temple- Dec 2
Lama Temple- Dec2
Dec 3- The Summer Palace. I'm with Shannon (Ann's niece) and Ann.

FINALLY, we are about to head to the airport to leave for Nanchang. WE GET LILY TONIGHT @ 6 PM!!!!!!!!!!! We can't believe the day is here. There is a big group from Holland that arrived at the hotel last night from Guongdong Province with their babies. We spoke to some of them and found out the babies are all around the same age as our girls. Breakfast this morning was pretty funny, our heads were on switches looking at all the babies. We are suffering from major baby envy. All day yesterday Ann and I just kept saying- lets cut to the chase and get our babies!

As we headed down to the restaurant for breakfast this morning, Daron and I got on the elevator with a Dutch couple with the most adorable baby (besides Lily, of course). I told the mom that we were getting our daughter today and her face just lit up and she said she knows the feeling that we have and she is just so excited for us. Then I asked how old her daughter was and she said 9 months, and I then old her that's how old our daughter is. She quickly turned the baby around, held her up and said, "Look, this is how big she will be!" We laughed and then found out our girls' birthdays were just 3 days apart. I got sooo excited. I just can't wait.

The hotel is just crawling with babies! It's so funny to be meeting and talking to all these strangers from everywhere in the world and everybody bonds instantly because were are all going through the same experience. This is just so amazing.

Well, we have to pack up the computer to head to the airport. The next update will finally have pictures of LILY!!!! Can you believe it?

Exploring Beijing

2005-12-01T10:16:00.000-04:00

Biejing Zoo

The Ostriches are HUGE. They are all lined up for lunch.

Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil- all on the tire swing!

The Chinese White Crane- maybe she's the one bringing Lily to us!

Yesterday, two families in our group arrived. We had dinner together at a nearby restaurant; the food was great and the beer was even better-we paid $8 per couple! It's quite bizarre. Yesterday we went to a couple of markets- the bartering is funny but exhausting.

Today we headed to the zoo after breakfast. It was an hour cab ride and the fair amounted to $6. It's like living in Bizzarro World.
We loved the pandas and the monkeys.

After the Zoo, we headed across the street to a Garment Wholesale building. A HUGE 5 story building packed with people and we were the only non-Chinese people in it. Definitely a shopping area for the locals. The pricing was a lot better than the market yesterday. It was a pretty funny experience of charades trying to communicate- no English spoken what-so-ever. It was lots of fun.

Tonight we went back to the same restaurant. We figured- why change a good thing? Dinner was great again, but we did agree to try a new place tomorrow night. Another 4 or 5 families arrived tonight. Tomorrow the last of the families arrive. How exciting- that means it's getting close! Two more days- I can't believe it! We had a group of Quebec families with their babies check out of the hotel today. Many were on our floor and we have been quite envious, anxious for it to be us.

We've had some blogger technical difficulties the last couple of days. We're keeping our fingers crossed that we don't have any trouble posting on Sunday! We can't wait. We are feeling quite rested and raring to meet our little angel.

HUGE hugs and kisses to our Angel back home! We love and miss you terribly Pumpkin.
Good night from Beijing...

We've Arrived in Beijing

2005-11-29T09:43:00.000-04:00

Well, we're here in Beijing and we have to say the journey has ruined us! Ruined us because we think it will be excruciating to have to travel at the back of the bus again. It was so comfortable traveling in Business class for the 5 hour flight from Montreal to Vancouver, but it was AMAZING traveling First Class for the Vancouver to Beijing. Definitely the "lap of luxury". It wasn't long before most of First Class knew that we were traveling to adopt our daughter- we were instantly the most popular people on the plan. Everyone was asking questions and telling us about friends that have adopted. We had great food, mimosas, wine, cocktails, etc. and we are convinced that the seats are so roomy in First class because you can actually see yourselves expanding mid-flight. The amount of food they offer you is on the verge of gluttony. It was absolutely laughable. We certainly didn't feel like we had been travelling for 22 hrs when we landed.
Our guide was there to meet us mintues after we came out. Krista and Frank, we have Mary too. She's great - we really like her. We talked about you guys and she was so excited to hear we live in the same town.
The drive from the airport to the hotel was quite humerous. The drivers here make Quebec drivers look timid. In 45 min we only saw our driver us his blinker once! There are tons of bicycles everywhere on the road with all the cars and no one in the cars seem to be caucious around the cyclists- it's dog-eat-dog for sure. We saw one cyclist carrying more cargo on the back of his bike than a pick-up could put in a cargo bed! Daron and I just looked at each other and said "Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore!"
After we checked in to our hotel we walked around to a local grocery store not too far from here and bought some water and drinks for the room. A bottle of water costs 12 cents Canadian. A bottle of Coke is 35 cents. It's rediculous.
Tomorrow we are heading out to SHOP. The flight attendant gave me all kinds of tips and business cards to all the great venders that she uses. I'm so excited about all the great stuff we're going to find tomorrow- she said the kids clothes are so cute and cheap, I'll be sick! Daron couldn't thank her enough for sharing all this info with me!!! He's keeping his fingers crossed that we don't get sick, because he's sure I'm going to spend our emergency medical money at the market. I told him not to worry- I know the hospitals take Visa!
Well were going to try and call home to Kyra, she should be up by now. We miss her already and couldn't stop saying how much she would have loved flying First class. We've got great little treats (travel kits, pillows and blankets, etc.) to bring home to her.
Well were off to bed- we'll update again tomorrow.
Good night from Beijing....
Deb and Daron

Trip Itinerary

2005-11-07T14:22:00.004-04:00

We finally have things planned. We thought it would be easiest to post our daily itinerary on the blog so anybody could find out where we are on any given day.

Nov 28 - Leave Fredericton @ 6:40 am (AC7661)
Arrive Montreal @7:30 am

- Leave Montreal @ 8:15 am (AC111)
Arrive Vancouver @ 10:40 am

- Leave Vancouver @ 12:40 pm (AC29)
Arrive in Beijing on Nov 29 @ 4:05pm (YIKES- that's 4:05 am back home!!!)

Hit this link if you want to track us while we're flying!http://www.flights.com/flight_tracker.html

NOV 29- We will be staying at the Beijing Chang An Hotel.

NOV 30-} Free days for us to tour around.

DEC 1- } The rest of our group has staggered

DEC2- } arrivals over these three days.

DEC 3- Visit Tien An Men Square, the Forbidden City, and a HuTong Tour.

DEC4- !!!!!!!!!!GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Beijing to Nanchang @ 1:50 pm.

Transfer to the Gloria Plaza Hotel. MEET THE BABIES AT THE HOTEL!!

WE FINALLY GET OUR LILY!!!!!!!

DEC 5- Go to Civil Affairs building for adoption registration, notarization and
applying for babies' passports.

DEC 6- Guides take families to deptartment stores to buy daily necessities for
babies.

DEC 7- FengCheng Orphanage visit.

DEC 8- Nanchang Tour and Temple of Teng Wang Ge.

DEC 9- Pick up passport. Fly Nanchang to Beijing (HU7194) arrive @ 7pm. Back to Days Inn Chang An Grand Hotel.

DEC 10- Medical exam and take photos of the babies.

DEC 11- Great Wall

DEC 12- Canadian Embassy for visa appointment.

DEC 13- Summer Palace

DEC 14- Free day to rest. Beijnig Duck Dinner at night.

DEC15- Pick up visa. Some families from the group head home.

DEC 16- Beijing to T.O. flight (AC32) departs beijing @ 1:55 pm. Arrive in T.O.
@ 2 pm. Overnight in T.O.

DEC 17- T.O. to Fredericton (AC8740) ARRIVE @ 11 AM.

FINALLY WE ARE HOME WITH OUR TWO GIRLS!!! YEAH!!!

WE ARE SSSSSSOOOO EXCITED TO SEE KYRA AFTER BEING AWAY FOR 19 DAYS!

WE HAVE LILY'S PICTURE!!!!!!

2005-10-17T23:20:00.000-03:00

Lily Hannah Xue Zhou Thomas

How Could You Know?

As you lay sleeping far away
As still as you could be...
How could you know the joy today
This photo brings to me?

A few short weeks and you'll be mine,
And "I" will soon be "we".
How could you know the the love I feel?
It's something you can't see.

So have sweet dreams, my precious babe.
Sleep well and tenderly.
Some say that you're the lucky one.
How could you know it's me?

FINALLY Daron, Kyra and I have a picture and can introduce our beautiful and precious Sweetpea to the world!
We are completely and utterly in love!

BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!

2005-10-12T21:02:00.000-03:00

The Gift of Life

We didn't give you the gift of life,
But in our heart we know
The love we feel is deep and real,
As if it had been so.

For us to have each other
Is like a dream come true!
No, we didn't give you the gift of life,
Life gave us the gift of you.

~Author Unknown

Well it seems a little pointless to put this on the blog, since I can't imagine that there is someone on this planet that hasn't heard that we FINALLY got the call!!!
Here is the info we have so far:

Chinese Name: Feng Xue Zhou
Chosen Name: Lily Hannah Xue Zhou Thomas
DOB: Feb 24/05
Location: Fengcheng, Jiangxi
Lily is in foster care , but will be at the orphanage a couple of weeks before we get her.
She had a medical in July and her these are the results:
Length: 60 cm
Weight: 6.1 kg
She is a deep sleeper (that'll be atleast one in our house!), she doesn't suck anything in her sleep, she holds her head up when on her stomach, laughs outloud, responds to adults, knows the difference between strangers and aquaintences, is active, has a good relationship with her caregiver, likes music, and picks up beans with her fingers.

We got the call at 3:50pm on Tues, Oct 11. However, the Provincial Ministry didn't send through her first page in her file, so for about a hour we knew we had a baby, we just didn't know if we had a boy or a girl. Although we were fully expecting everyone in our group to get referrals for girls, there was actually one boy, and although our adoption agency didn't think it was our family that had the referral for the boy, she didn't want to confirm one way or the other without the document. It was a little nerve-racking for the hour until we got confirmation that we really did have a "Lily". Whew!!!!!

Keep checking the blog- we'll post her picture as soon as we get it. We are anticipating Monday, but we never know anything for sure until it actually arrives.

Lily's Room

2005-10-10T17:13:00.000-03:00

While we are not so patiently waiting for news on Lily, I thouhgt I would post pictures of Lily's room. We are all so ready for her, now the wait just seems agonizing. Dad is adament about having a rocking chair in the room to rock his girl to sleep before bed. So the only thing left to add is a rocking chair (and of course, our little girl!)

I have painted 291 daisies on the walls; one for each day that we have waited for our Lily. Of course, if our "Gotcha Day" is not on Dec 1, I'll have to add a few or paint out a few daisies!
Hopefully the next post I add to the site is info about Lily...

No Referral Yet!!!

2005-10-07T18:08:00.000-03:00

Well, no good news so far...only frustration. All the Ontario families on our group have recieved their referrals and still nothing for us. And, it looks like there won't be anything for a while yet. Our files should have landed here in Fredericton at the Provincial Ministry late this afternoon. Once they receive the file from China, they fax it to our agency in Ottawa for translation. Since it is Fri afternoon berfore a long weekend, I'm willing to be nobody would have sent the fax before they left for holidays. That means Tuesday will probably be when the file is faxed to Ottawa. Our agency informed us that it will take a few days longer to get all the translations done because there are many families in this batch of referrals that are from provinces other than Ont. They are anticipating 3-4 days to translate. That means it probably won't be translated until next Fri, the 14th. Then it has to be faxed/e-mailed back to the Province and then sent to our regional office of Family and Community Services. They are the ones we meet with to receive the Lily's picture and file of info. So, I'm anticipating we will get everything on Mon, Oct 17. At this point, that seems like and eternity.... I am suffering through MAJOR "Baby Envy" with the Ont. families having received their referrals. It was very anti- climactic to receive our Friday update email from our agency today with congratulations to everyonre in our group for having received referrals, and we have yet to receive anything!!!ARGHHH... We'll just have to keep very busy for the next 10 days.

First Referral Annoucement From Our Group

2005-10-05T08:58:00.000-03:00

An Ontario couple in our group sent us an email late last night with the annoucement of the referral of their daughter. I didn't realize how hard it would be to see someone in our group get a referral and a PICTURE!!! of their daughter, and we still have no info whatsoever!! This is killing me!!
I hope, hope, hope we get some info today...

Referrals for Fellow Group Members Arrive!!

2005-10-04T22:07:00.000-03:00

We got an email late this afternoon that the Referral files for the Ontario members in our group landed at Children's Bridge today. Ours are sent directly to the NB Gov't, so I have a call into them, but they were gone for the day. Hopefully I'll hear back from them first thing in the morning.
We're getting closer.......

The Stork Has Taken Fight!!!

2005-09-30T15:03:00.000-03:00

A Red Thread To China

A red thread to China was cast today
From us to a child so far away.
This thread symbolizes an attachments of hearts
That distance alone can't keep us apart.

Her father and I are caught in a chase
That time alone will bring us to face
This loving young child we want so much to greet
With love in our hearts before we did meet.

This tiny, thin thread may stretch, tangle or fray
But our love for her grows stronger each day.
Through the test of time it won't break or sever
She'll be part of us for ever and ever.

With oceans between us, the distance is spanned
By a love that is greater than man could have planned.
For God in His mercy loved her and us
And decided our family would be a great plus.

So for now we'll just love her and pray everyday
That God keeps her and loves her for us till we may
Travel to China, that land of great past,
To the side of our daughter to hold her at last.

~Author Unknown

For those of you whom I haven't talked to in the past 24 hrs, Referral Files were sent from China yesterday!!!! We are SSSSSOOOOO excited. We should receive our baby girls' picture by the end of next week. Keep checking in- we'll be posting a lot in the next week.
YIPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...

Nana's visit

2005-09-28T20:47:00.000-03:00

Nana arrived last Thursday for a week-long visit. Kyra was so excited! We had a lot of fun in the past week. Since the referral time is getting so close, we couldn't resist doing a little (OK, a lot) of clothes shopping for the newest little princess in our family. We had a ball! Lily will definitely make a very fashionable arrival home.
We have had great fall weather, so we were able to do a lot of fun things during Nana's visit. We hit the market on Saturday morning and aside from our usual samosa purchases, Nana bought a sinful amount of delicious German pastries! I'll soon be the BLOB writing the BLOG. Yummy!
Kyra had a great time riding her bike across the walking bridge down by the river. We also went apple picking and had a great time. Nana would have stayed in the orchard picking until sundown if she had had her way. She went home today with a HUGE box of apples, so our entire family in Montreal now has fresh picked New Brunswick apples. I'm sure Gran will be making her infamous apple dumplings for Thanksgiving. Since we won't be there with all of you, you can think of us while you're eating your apples!
Word on the web is "the stork will fly Friday"! YEAH- it's getting so close we can almost taste it!

Rumours Are Flying

2005-09-21T22:17:00.000-03:00

So, just to give a bit of background on how this whole adoption process works...
When our dossier is sent to China we get a DTC (Dossier to China) date. Ours was Feb 14/05. It was definitely a HAPPY Valentines Day around here. After 9 months of paperwork, things feel like they finally start moving at this point.
The next date we wait for is our LID (Logged in Date). This is the important one that eveything revolves around from this point on. Our LID is Mar 3/05. CCAA (China Council of Adoption Affairs) sends referrals only once a month, but it's never an entire calendar month, and it's never the same cut off date from month to month. That makes it difficult when you are trying to figure out when to expect a referral. What is neat about the LID date is that everyone around the world with similar LID have their referrals sent out from China to them on the same day. So right now everyone around the world with LID between Feb 28 and probably Mar 25 will have their files in the "matching room" and all these files will be sent from CCAA on the same day.
We are members of 2 Yahoo Group sites- February Lovebugs and March Moonbeams. These sites are comprised of anyone from anywhere in the world with LID's or DTC's in these months.
Well the rumours are flying on the February Lovebugs site. Most of Feb got their referrals on Sept 1, but the poor people logged in on Feb 28 didn't make the last batch and had to wait another month. The Americans on this site have these "Birdies" that give them insider information on what's going on in the CCAA. It's all very clandestine- nobody names names!! So, we have less than 10 days till the end of the months and the "birdies" are starting to chirp up a storm.
So, the rumours at this point are that referrals for this next batch will be sent out from CCAA on Monday, Sept 26. The American families always get their files first, so they are anticipating that they will start to arrive on Fri Sept 30. Ontario always get their files before us, b/c our Provincial Gov't handles it far too many times before we get it and this slows down our whole process by about a week. However, our adoption agency gets a faxed copy of our referral and "unofficially" faxes us a copy right away. So, all this to say, we expect to get info on Lily before the Thanksgiving weekend. Probably Oct 7. What a Thanksgiving that will be for us!!!

There is an Ancient Chinese Proverb that says:

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet,
regardless of time, place, or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break.

Our red thread seemed so long for such a long time, and finally we are feeling that thread start to shorten. This is just getting so exciting. What an incredible jouney it's been for us so far, and it's only just begining...

Dragonboat Races

2005-09-11T19:07:00.000-03:00

Yesterday afternoon we went down to the river to watch the Dragonboat Races. We only caught the tail end of the event, but rumour has it that the CCANB (Chinese Cultural Association of NB) came in third. Their first time ever in a Dragonboat! Way to go John and Dave!
Today Kyra and I were painting on artists canvas to hang on the walls in Lily's room. We'll post pictures of the finished product once Lily's room is finished. Stay tuned!

The Infamous Springwater Yard Sale

2005-09-10T12:46:00.000-03:00

Kyra is selling a lot of her toys at our "infamous" Springwater yard sale. She will send the money she makes from the sale of her toys to the girls in the orphanages in China. Although she was great at putting many toys up for sale, she did have some "Sale Day Remorse" and decided she just couldn't part with the blue bug she is holding. She made a grand total of $50! Yeah Kyra!!
The rumour on the adoption website is that our referral will be here before the Thanksgiving holiday. Yeah, 4 more weeks and counting!!!!!

The Dynamic Duo

2005-09-08T23:22:00.000-03:00

Kyra and Erin were both so excited to be taking the bus together, FINALLY! Erin has been watching Kyra catch the bus every morning for the past year, wanting to take the bus with Kyra. That day finally came and the two couldn't have been more excited!

First Day of School

2005-09-06T12:18:00.000-03:00

Today was a very exciting day in the Thomas household. Kyra started her first day in Grade 3, she lost another loose tooth while she was getting ready this morning (she'd been working so hard to get that out!),... And we realized tonight, as the Children's Bridge posts were coming through, that referrals arrived today for February LID groups. So, that means our group is next. Finally, we begin the countdown to bringing Lily home!