Our snowflakes

When Sarah from Journey to Hannah Claire heard about our referral, she sent us this beautiful piece of art. I love that it looks like Jia is cheering with excitement for her new sister!

People have said to us: "Jia will be a tough act to follow." We haven't quite known how to respond to this, and the quote below is a perfect expression of our thoughts: "Those we love are the snowflakes of life. None are the same, each is beautiful, and all bring something special to our world." We have been feeling these sentiments exactly.

The proclamation of Peace, Joy and Love is so fitting too. Our hearts are at peace, we feel great joy, and we are filled with love. Thanks again, Sarah!

The Referral Details

Here's a play-by-play of our referral moment.

Jia and I were eating lunch when my cell phone rang. I saw that the number was our adoption agency. I didn't think it was our referral because I'd been corresponding via e-mail with our case manager that morning, and I thought she was just calling to answer my question.

She said, "I have your referral! It just arrived this moment and I had to call you right away!"

I think she was as stunned as I was. She told me the basics about our little Hsin-Yen. I cried with joy. I then asked if I could call her back because I wanted to call Joe. She said that she e-mailed me the photos and all the information, and that she would be around only little bit longer before the holiday weekend.

I called Joe at work and he was equally surprised and overjoyed! We then stayed on the phone while I clicked on my Inbox for what seemed like twenty minutes. (In reality, it was probably five.) Nothing appeared. I was getting more and more impatient. We then decided to call our caseworker back but neither of us was sure how to do three-way calling. Joe wanted to research his phone system on the internet but I worried that we might not have time! I eventually figured it out and we called our caseworker together. After a while, she then resent the e-mail and sent it to Joe as well. This one reached us! (And the first one came in a lot later!)

We finally saw her photo. We oohed and aahed and cried enough that our caseworker politely excused herself! We delighted over her cheeks and hair, and laughed with amusement at her name.

Then we attempted to get the video to run. It ran right away on Joe's computer and I could hear him choking up while watching it. I couldn't get it to run on mine! (Keep in mind that Jia was constantly yelling "I need to go to the bathroom! Read me a book!" the entire time).

I took a break to help Jia. I then tried again to watch the video on our laptop. Couldn’t get it to run. I tried our desktop computer. Wouldn't run. I eventually started up my work computer and the video finally ran! It was really tiny, and sideways, and didn't have any sound, but such a treasure to see. I wanted to hear the sound because Joe said that she made a little squeak in the video, so I had to hear that! I called Joe and we started the videos at the same time so I could hear her little squeak over the phone. Adorable! The woman speaking to her was calling her name in the most sweet, gentle way and it touched my heart.

Then once we were all together - we celebrated!

Our new daughter!!!

We received our referral!!!! On the day before Thanksgiving! What timing! We are utterly overjoyed! We made ourselves wait to tell the entire world until we had formally accepted, we have and are beside ourselves with delight!

She was born on Nov. 11th! Her name is Hsin-Yen which means hearty, pretty girl. That she is! She's was over 8 pounds at birth! Just look at those cheeks!!

Jia is exactly two years and three months older than her sister. Perfect. I showed her photo to Jia. Jia looked at it intently. I waited anxiously for a response. Jia then thoughtfully said, “She has poopies!” She said that she would hold the wipes while I changed her diaper. Jia later spontaneously said “I love you” to her photo and then pretended to feed her with a spoon.

We celebrated by getting Chinese take out and they happened to give us four fortune cookies. We each took one and I told Jia that one was for her baby sister. We three ate our cookies and then I opened the last one. I read her fortune and then said to Jia that she could eat her sister's cookie if she wanted because she wasn't here yet. Now Jia isn’t one to turn down a cookie, but she burst into tears and said that “the cookie belongs to my baby sister!” She refused to eat it! She is protecting her already!!!!

To reiterate the process, her adoption is not final yet. We have to first complete the court process. This will take approximately 5-8 months. We will hopefully travel next spring!!!

Enjoy!!!!

We give thanks

We have so very many things for which to be thankful: family, friends, food, shelter and SO much else. It was a treasure of a day.

We spent the morning doing hair.

When my friend Khatra visited her family in Kenya, she returned home with gifts for us, including this outfit for Jia. It was hand-woven by the Masai people and has little shells adorning it.

Khatra joined us for Thanksgiving so we made sure Jia wore her special outfit. Jia loved to twirl around to hear the shells!


It was Khatra's first experience with Jello! She liked it enough to take some home for later!

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving!

Nicknames

Jia has given herself a nickname: JiaBaby. We have discovered that we call her this now and then. She has embraced it wholeheartedly. She called her friend "LilyBaby" today. It isn't just reserved for youngsters though, as she has now called me "MamaBaby" and Joe "BabaBaby" (when she isn't calling him "Bobby"). It makes her sound like she's doing a lot of wheelin' n' dealin'.

The nickname that we use more frequently for her is "peanut." This has presented some issues as of late. Joe came out of the shower the other day and I heard Jia say "peanut!" Having witnessed various diaper changes of her younger cousin, she has heard the names for various body parts. We've explained that the body part in question is not pronounced that way, but she persists. Herein lies the problem: she doesn't know what an actual peanut is. She's never seen one or eaten one. She doesn't even eat peanut butter, she eats soynut butter. She must therefore think that we are calling her a male organ. Maybe we'll stick with JiaBaby for now.

Nutcracker

Each year, Dayton's (now Macy's) has a downtown holiday exhibit on its 8th floor. This year it's the Nutcracker.

I wanted to know if Jia was interested in going. Here was my attempt to explain the Nutcracker exhibit (at which Joe laughed heartily):

So Jia, there's this exhibit or, umm, display thingy, or umm, something you look at, and it's downtown, you know where the big buildings are? It's the Dayton's 8th floor exhibit, well, it's not Dayton's anymore, now it's Macy's, and it is on the 8th floor. Well, I suppose that part doesn't matter. We would stand in some long lines and eventually get in and see stuff moving around. It's a Christmas story this year. But it's not THE Christmas story, just a popular one that people like around Christmas time. I think we would see a rat. And some fake snow. And glitter. And a guy who smooshes nuts with his mouth - but, of course, we wouldn't ever do that. So, there will be lots of stuff moving around and we'll have to wait in long lines and be patient. Do you want to go?

Ever enthusiastic, Jia agreed. Here are a slew of pics. (A mom once told me that whenever you'll be waiting in lines or at the airport, you should dress your kid as cute as possible so people are more forgiving if she throws a fit.) This was the result.


Ever the ham!

Jia was mesmerized by the exhibits...but often questioned why she couldn't just get up there and play with all the toys too? It WAS a good question.


Sometimes a girl's gotta have glitter.

This is fun, Mom, but please stop squishing me!

I like this fake snow!


What could be better than a cookie the size of your head? (Note: Shared with others.)

More fall fun

We had a great weekend for cleaning up the yard. I love raking and always have. I have fond childhood memories of being at our cabin, cranking Def Leppard and raking to my heart's content. (Yes, perhaps not tranquil cabin-music but so be it.) I actually sometimes enjoy shoveling too - a good thing as we live in Minnesota.

Jia likes fall too, and likes to be helpful, so yardwork works well for all of us. Leaf-sitting works even better for some of us.