Our first Halloween with Asia

Asia is walking just in time to be Winnie the Pooh for Halloween. I think we can say that's she's officially walking now; it's been a slow process. She pretty much walked around the mall on her own to trick or treat.



Riding on Daddy's shoulder and not scared at all since she's not hanging on for dear life!

Fun in October

A get-together of Families with Children from China in mid-October.

Happy 1st Birthday, Asia! -- another celebration

The second one was at home with family and some friends.

Sorry for the sideways photos....

Finally, an update!!

Asia was a lucky girl to have had two 1st birthday celebrations in the same week! The first one was with some of our camping friends.

More of our beautiful Asia

More of Asia

More Pictures

Pictures!!

Sunday, June 3 in Beijing

We read some of the comments but Chris said to hurry up because Asia won't sit still for so long....Thanks for the comments -- as always, it's great to know that people are thinking of us :-)

Sorry, cannot post pictures as we don't have the card reader to do it. We may get one; we'll see.

Today, the babies had their photo taken for immigration documentation. We had our group photo taken on the steps inside the lounge of the State Guest Hotel. Off to the Jade Factory to learn about jade and some shopping; then the Great Wall of China. We walked for four towers worth and took the trolley down. It was hard for those carrying the babies in the snuglis. The weather was cool and there was a breeze -- thank goodness it wasn't hot and sunny! Lunch above the Friendship Store and Cloisinne (spelling?) work rooms. Good food and then some shopping.

Life is good :-) It feels like Asia has been with us longer than she actually has. She is a happy girl and doesn't seem to have a problem with all the outings and unpredictable eating schedules. We pack so that we can make up bottles for her when we need to. She came to us with two bottom teeth and the upper left (hers) coming in. That one is still coming in and the other front one is working its way out too. She has her formula, rice cereal and fresh fruit and will eat some of what we have at meal times. You should see her eat a banana!

Okay, some tidbits of info to tide you all over until we can post pictures:

- Chris changed the first diaper then no more after that, except for a couple of poopy ones

- left home Thursday, May 24th - almost 900 photos taken by the time we left Beijing on Monday, May 28th!!

- she didn't have good eye to hand coodination when we got her but it's a whole lot better now

- doesn't seem to be able to crawl but she is now rolling over faster -- gotta watch her more closely now when she's on the bed

- she can blow bubbles with her mouth

- young children's sphincters are not mature enough yet so they will likely throw up formula if you lay them down for a diaper change soon after feeding :-(

- she can make a funny face by scrunching up her nose at you and then giggling; she also blinks both of her eyes at the same time at you

- she has a squeal that can be quite piercing

- has been mistaken for a boy (she's not the only one though) even when she's wearing pink clothes

- likes to sit quietly and watch what's going on around her

- knows Daddy and Mommy and hangs on for dear life if a stranger wants to take her in their arms

- Asia's first shower was with Mommy (May 31st)

- nickname at the orphanage is Fee Fee (beautiful)

- reaches out and grabs people as they walk by

Okay, gotta go....time for a bottle and then it's Asia's bed time....

Hugs to all,
Debbie, Chris and Asia

It's official - we're a family!!!

Today was Adoption Day - the paperwork was done to make it official.
Great to read all the comments; it's nice to 'hear' from people :-)
Let me tell you that it's stinkin' hot and humid here! So far, we like Nanning better than Beijing -- it's lush and green. Beautiful.

The Guiping girls got a gift from the orphanage director and we, the parents, recieved many photos of Guiping. There were a few photos of Asia also; one as late as April 2007.

The Gotcha part of Gotcha Day (yesterday) happened very fast. We were a bit late arriving at the place; we went there directly from the airport. Chris says we were in and out in half an hour. I didn't cry as much as I thought I would.

Gotta love Asia's hair! I haven't tried to do anything with it.
Tomorrow we're off to shop at Wal-mart. We need to get some things -- size 2 diapers for one. Oh, I sort of weighed Asia; she's about 16 lbs.

Hey, Val, we got a poopy diaper this morning!!! Yay!!!! We're the first ones. Of course, I cleaned up the poopy part and realized that she'd just peed in her new diaper and all over her outfit so of course, had to change clothes...LOL! For those of you that don't know....the babies usually get constipated and it's a contest to see whose baby pooped first.

Gotta go....more later.
Debbie, Chris and Asia

We're In China!!

Hello to everyone from us in China!! Very long flight - was great except it was turbulent enough that Debbie got sick. Hot here. Yesterday, we went to Forbidden City and Tianneman Square and walked around. Got funny looks due to our funny hats? Or big white guy with short Chinese girl? Or was it because we were holding hands? We went to the silk market and shopped - we were there for 6 hours! It was fun - Chris got into haggling after a while - lots of fun, but exhausting too. We had dinner with Cecile and Marty at Pizza Hut. Chris only slept for 6 hours the night after we got here. Last night I slept for a couple of hours before I kept waking up - Maybe it's due to the excitement that we'll have Asia with us tomorrow night!! We leave for Nanning tomorrow afternoon and receive the babies shortly after arriving.

Getting practice for when Asia's home ??

Good early morning! Not only did Charlie throw up his dinner before we went to bed, he also threw up while we were sleeping. I woke up about 4:30 a.m. when I realized that the duvet/cover was feeling wet -- EW, yuck! Yes, Charlie sleeps on my side of the bed. Of course, I couldn't just put a new comforter on the bed -- it'd been stored long enough that it needed to be freshened up in the dryer first. Chris slept through most of it. When I went back to change comforters, the night table lamp was no longer on -- he'd rolled over and turned it off. He woke up briefly as I was changing the comforter. I'm going back to bed now; it's been an hour....

We leave in a month!

34 more sleeps until Gotcha Day! That's May 28th in case you couldn't count...LOL!

Life is busy -- lots of things for me to do before the end of April (bookkeeping, GST, income taxes, getting a care package for Asia sent off, etc.) and my Avon order is going in tonight (I'm still working on it). We received a letter package today from FOI, with forms to complete. Okay, I have to admit that today was just a wee bit stressful (well maybe it was a lot) with me feeling overwhelmed -- took a deep breath, many times! Tomorrow will be better.

We had an appointment at the travel clinic tonight since we know when and where we are going in China. The receptionist's comment was "your first visit was in late 2005 and you're just back now to finish up your trip stuff, it's taken awhile to figure out what you're doing?!" We filled her in about us adopting from China and the waiting time being out of our hands...LOL!

About 8 pm, Chris went to Danny's to help lay sod while I hunkered down to work on the Avon orders and purchase order. When he got home, I knew he was puttering around upstairs but I didn't know that sweet husband of mine was washing the dishes from a couple of days ago and making us a bit of dinner -- I love you, Asia's daddy! Just so you know, Chris doesn't usually do the dishes...

Another purchase for Asia

I couldn't resist!! We'll take this to China with us so she can wear it there.

Another celebration

Lesia (Lusha) brought most of dinner over - a traditional Ukrainian dinner (veggy borscht, perogies, lazy cabbage rolls, bread, ukrainian sausage and kolbassa), which was very yummy! Chris made a pink and white cake for dessert in honour of our baby girl, Asia. We also had store-bought cake too as Chris thought he'd run out of time to make a cake but Lesia harassed him enough that he made the cake before we ate
dinner...LOL!

Shona popped over for a short visit but had to leave before we brought out the champagne and had dessert.

Post-referral shopping by Mommy & Daddy

To celebrate getting Asia's referral, we bought ourselves a couple of presents -- a Chinese lantern-style pagoda and an Oriental Foo Dog; both for the garden. Our first post-referral baby item purchase was Hair & Body Wash and Body Lotion.

We've chosen a name!

Yesterday, I had an appointment with my doctor. She looked over Jin Yu Fei's medical information -- all looks good :-)

I couldn't sleep last night so got up for a couple of hours or so (1 to 3 am) and I put the wall decals up on all four walls, built the second toy rack, and wrote out names that we'd shortlisted with her Chinese name and our surname.

This morning, we said each of the names as we looked at her picture.....we've chosen Asia for our little one's name.

Her name is Asia Jin Yu Fei Bowden.

I've put colour copies of Asia's pictures in each room of the house...which I may not need because I think her face will become imprinted in my memory!

Here she is!!!

Here's the news we've been waiting to hear:

We have a beautiful daughter! Her Chinese name is Jin, Yu Fei. She was born on August 11, 2006, so was 8 months old yesterday (April 11). She is living at the Guiping Social Welfare Institute, Guiping city, Guangxi province, China.

At Jan 24, 2007, she was 61 cm in height (24 inches) and 6.7 kg in weight (14.74 lbs).

After getting colour copies at our agency, Chris went back to work (with her pictures folded up in his back pocket) and I ran around town and dropped off pics to my two sisters, my Dad and step mom, and a close friend. We went to our Waiting Parents meeting and a couple we hadn't been in touch with for awhile were speaking about their adoption for their daughter, Lauren. Another friend, who is adopting from Nepal, brought a cake so we could celebrate with our Waiting Parents family. Late dinner/visit with three others from the meeting. It was a very good day :-) I did my share of crying (tears of happiness, of course!).

Our stork has arrived!!

It's the Happy Dance Day!!! WooHoo!

We received "the call" today at 10:10 am - of course, I was out (Chris at work) until 11:30 am (did I do that on purpose?) and then the China program social worker was busy so we didn't connect by phone until about 12:30 pm. Chris and I were at the adoption agency to meet with Joan for 1:00 pm.

When I phoned Chris to tell him a bit about our daughter, I could hardly speak as I was crying so much. "Is it good or bad?" he said. I finally got enough of it out so he could understand...LOL!

The wait is almost over.....

We know that our referral arrived (Victoria) but it's out for translation (in Ottawa). We hope to get "the call" tomorrow -- if we don't hear by 11 am, I'm phoning them, like I have since Thursday (except for the holiday days)!

You think we're abit antsy about this?! I think Chris is more stressed than I am...LOL!

The other families (AB x 2, and SK) have gotten "the call" already. Two families have photos, name and birthdate and the other family will have theirs tomorrow. I feel like an "aunty" already.

2 days of matching for this batch of referrals

Yes, you read that right - the CCAA only accomplished two days of matching this past month - that must mean there were lots of dossiers for those two days. I'm feeling a little giddy as it's sinking in that our LID has been matched. Now to hear from our agency that our referral has arrived in Canada would be a great thing! And receiving our referrral would be even better!!

Happy Easter/Dylan's birthday

Family dinner at our house for Easter and to celebrate Dylan's birthday - turkey and stuffing, my favourite! Stef made and decorated the cake -- she always does an awesome job. I think this was the first family dinner held IN our new kitchen.

We're still waiting....

We're still waiting to hear about our referral. At mid-afternoon today, our adoption agency had still not received any China referrals -- maybe Tuesday? After the adoption agency receives it from the Province, the file goes to FOI for translation and comes back. A social worker looks over the proposal before it's presented to us. Life is still busy but our referral is in the back of our minds. I don't know about Chris, but the last month, like all the others (for the most part) have gone by kind of fast. Happy Easter!

Bye Bye Little Trailer!

I sold the trailer today!! While we're sad to see it go, we're happy that it's now out of our driveway. On another topic - referrals are due any time now. We had a bit of a scare today. I sent an email to FOI to ask about sending a care package and the reply indicated that we would be getting our referral at the start of May. I almost cried. I sent another email off and got a quick reply -- Bob misread our LID and said yes, we should be getting our referral this week. Whew! I started to think it was an April Fool's joke as it is April 1st.

First camping trip this year

March 9 to 11th was spent camping on the Cowichan River. Chris got out fishing three times on Saturday -- no bites at all so no fish for dinner -- he lost a bunch of fishing tackle on the rock fish though. I got a lot of x-stitch done. There was a lot of dead fish high on the shore. It was a great weekend away, despite all the rain.

We missed this batch of referrals!!!!

"The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with our office before March 31, 2006.

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before October 24, 2005."

*********************************************************************************

Yep, the CCAA website was updated this morning. Today is Wednesday and we've known since Monday that the referral cut off date was Oct 24/05. Rumours were flying around on the chat groups and I emailed our facilitator to ask. Yulin was kind enough to call the same day and confirm the rumour was true.

We missed getting our referral by ONE day -- can you believe it?!

The CCAA did 9 days of Review and 11 days of Referrals this month - less than what they've done in the past four months or so. I suppose that Chinese New Year was a factor in that.

Sad news - I've had moments on/off of tears; not sure about Chris but I know he is really disappointed too. Chris saw the CCAA website this morning so it's official. We were really hoping it was our turn now. Our initial travel group has split up because about half of them have a LID of Oct 24/05. The rest of the group is either Oct 25 or 26th.

On the bright side, it wasn't meant to be....yet and we've got a bit more time to get stuff done around here. It should be our turn at the end of this month; I mean the CCAA has to do at least one day of referrals, right?????

Check out the photo albums -- I'll add the baby's room reno pics soon.

We're going camping this weekend -- yahoo! Maybe we'll have fish to eat for dinner. I'm still working on her baby quilt.

It's the Year of the Pig!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! which is what we grew up saying. It means "Congratulations, may you have an explosion of wealth." I guess what we should be saying is "Sun Nin Fi Lok - Happy New Year!"
We started our Chinese New Year at a Families With Children from China (FCC) gathering. It started in the middle of the afternoon and ended with a potluck dinner. We saw families we already know and met many others.

Here we go again.....and Exciting News!

This blog site could be the one....finally. Some of you know that we've been playing around with creating blogs to see which one will work best or is the most user-friendly. We've added photo albums and you may see yourself there. In order to keep as much privacy as possible, without having you set up an account to access our blog site, we have not included last names or where we are physically located.

As of Feb 1st, late afternoon, the CCAA website was updated to (see to the left)....

The CCAA is twelve days, yup - count 'em, away from our LID of Oct 25, 2005!!!!! It's highly probable that we will get our referral at the end of February/beginning of March. We, and some other people we know, (you know who you are) are doing a pre-Happy Dance :-)