Adventures with two...

Making words...

Can you guess what Emily wrote today? Granted, the letters are reversed, but still, can't you see?

Second fiddle?

I completely understand now how it happens that the second, third and any children thereafter have smaller photo albums, much less video of themselves and an even thinner baby book. Agh! It's hard to stick to the same fabulous things you did preparing for your first child, when you prepare for the second, because well, the first one is here and needs/wants your attention, time and creative juices! So I'm trying to be cognizant of this fact and am working hard to be sure that our son will have similar mementos as his sister.

Case in point:

*I finally bought a journal. By this time in Emily's adoption I had her journal decorated and filled in with the most uniform script and beautiful flourishes. I'm hoping that I can get something decorative on the new journal and at least write something, anything, in whatever script I can muster, for the second! I've already missed many milestones in our adoption process that I should have written about. I'll have to write them after the fact I guess.

*I already told you the WRONG birth date. He is just ONE year old, he was born on October 22nd, 2006. That would make him 14+ months today! I'm already acting like the mother of more than one child, I can't keep their birthdates/years straight. I'm sure their names will be next. Crazy mother.

*We still haven't agreed on a name for him. We call him by his Chinese name at the moment, but it's hard to say in English and would be mispronounced with every try. We have been trying to decide between a few names: Elijah (Eli), Quinn and possibly, Thomas. Any thoughts? I want his name to mean something agreeable in Chinese if possible. Emily has a really nice meaning in Chinese (Ai Mei Li), and she can go by her middle name too. I talked with Em's teachers about the names, but they didn't give any strong opinions. I would love to talk with someone who helps families name their children in China. This is traditionally the role of the grandparents in China and I'd love to know which names have a good ring to them in both Chinese and English. Of course we will put his current Chinese name as his middle name, so he can use that name later (or now!) if he prefers it.

*The "One Hundred Good Wishes Quilt"...ha! I haven't even thought about it for this one yet. Could be that Em's quilt top is done, but waiting to be finished at the quilter's even today, 18 months later! But how can I not do a similar quilt for our boy, there's such sentiment and love in that quilt, I'd feel terrible not doing it.

We already know that we will love this second child just as much as the first, any of those doubts were washed away as we prepare for him and think of him daily. It's not that we don't want to do these special things for him, it's just that I don't know where the time goes! Any pointers from those who have gone before me, how were you able to keep up with creating keepsakes for your second child?

Here He Is!! A Baby BROTHER!

We are thrilled to announce that we will soon have a son! I've been trying to hold back this exciting information until we received our Pre-Approval (PA) from China. At noon today we received our PA and will be able to move forward with his adoption!

He is living in Guangxi province, in southern China. He is living with a foster family thanks to the help of Grace & Hope, an amazing foundation that raises money to provide foster homes for the children in China's orphanages. He turned one on October 22nd, 2006. He looks happy and healthy and it says in a few places on his paperwork that he is "active" and "restless"...so we're trying to plan for a big lifestyle change!

The process for his adoption is different from Em's since he is on a waiting list.  Many people have asked if we still need to do all of the paperwork and yes, we do, every last shred of it. We need to gather every piece over again, even if we had extra copies, because they need to be very recent for the dossier. So that part is just the same.

We hope to travel this summer and will post information here as things progress. We first saw his paperwork and sweet face about mid-November and then sent our "Letter of Intent to Adopt" (LOI) to China on December 6th. Our homestudy has been updated and we are waiting to get our information in to the US government to get clearance. After we get our letter from them we will send everything to China and it should take a few more months. Things are progressing quickly and yet we can't seem to get there soon enough. We're dying to meet him and can't wait to get our arms around him!

We wish you a happy, happy New Year and know that 2008 will be a thrilling one for our family.