Avery has a Star!

When we were in Cape Cod a couple weeks ago, we bought a stuffed panda for Avery. It was one of the "Shining Stars" stuffed animals that allow you to name a star that gets logged in the International Star Registry. Her star is in the Cassiopia constellation, which is the large "W" shaped formation to the right of the big dipper. her star is above and slightly to the left of the center peak of the "W". We picked the dedication date of 7/3/07 because that was the day we officially started our wait for her- it was our LID. Above is a screen shot from the Shining Stars site. Click on the image for a larger view.

Wishes 29 thru 34 added!

6 more wishes have been added to Avery's Quilt blog. Go give them a look! It has been great getting all the wishes for Avery- we've been getting a few every day for the last week.

A few people have been asking if it is too late to send in squares and wishes. By all means, NO! It's not too late!! Please keep them coming! We set the first date for the end of August so we would have some material to start the quilt with. We are hoping to start work on it in the next few weeks, and we would love all the help we can get. If you can sew (or not) and would like to help in making this special gift for Avery, just let us know. We'll be posting more details soon. Keep checking the blogs!

Thank you all again for the wishes and words of encouragement through this long wait. It was a real nice surprise to find out the other day that we are already officially 2 months into our wait to get Avery!

We are LID!!!!!!

We are finally LID. This is our date that we are in the pile and our dossier is waiting to be matched up with a child. How exciting!!!!! Our official LID date was July 3rd. But we just found out today.

The adoption agency actually sent us an email back on August 16th but for some reason we didn't receive it. As I was emailing people about lessons today I sent an email to our adoption agent wondering about our log in date. It was supposed to take 4-6 weeks from our DTC(6/29/07) and we were coming up on 8 weeks, it didn't seem right. But in actuality it only took 4 days to log us in because our official date from China was 7/3/07. But as I said we didn't get the email until today about it. We are very excited and now we wait for the brown envelope. It takes about 3-6 months to get the brown envelope, and we have to guard this with our lives!!!

The quilt wishes are coming in everyday. Some days we get 5-8 or more. We are over 30 wishes and are anxious to get the rest. So please keep working on them and send them in. It's a lot of fun to see what everyone has picked and what their wishes for Avery are.

Please keep us in your prayers and Avery and that we may meet her sooner than later.

Love to everyone and BIG THANK YOUS!!!

~Alli & Gary

5 more wishes! Wahoo!!

Five more wishes posted on Avery's Quilt blog! Go check 'em out! We have 4 more "in progress" that should be posted in the next day or so. Keep 'em comin'!!

Thank you all!

Wishes 18 thru 23 now posted!

Over on Avery's Quilt blog wishes 18 thru 23 were posted. Go check them out! A little birdie told us we will have 4 more show up on our doorstep from Arkansas any day now. We can't wait to see them!

Thanks to all for your support and wishes. Keep 'em coming!

We are STILL waiting... AAAHG!!!!

Well we are still waiting for our LID date from China. It's been 6 weeks and 3 days (not that I'm counting) and they said about 4-6 weeks. We are very anxious for this date, it's the next thing to check off the list. We are hoping it will be this week.

We would like to say thank you to everyone who have sent their wishes and pages and fabric, we love getting them in the mail and it does help with the waiting. We've received books (thank you Sarah and Dan & Kami & Kaeden!), and clothing (thank you Beth & Steve & boys) for Avery and many other things and we just can't wait until she is here and we get to use all of this stuff. We are constantly getting things with lady bugs and Asian influences for her room and the house.

It appears that I will be teaching a little 4 year old Asian girl at the studio this year. Her parents have gone through what we are doing. A sign? I think so... yet again!! Maybe to tell us that the wait will be okay and not seem as long as it looks right now. It seems funny how many signs we seem to have in our life that we are doing the right thing!!!

So, thank you to everyone, and keep the wishes coming because it keeps our spirits up!!

Love to everyone~
Alli & Gary

10 more wishes for Avery!

We've received and bunch of wishes the past 2 weeks for Avery's quilt. We didn't have time to get them posted before we went on vacation in Cape Cod last week, so we did one huge update tonight. 10 wishes were added to the blog. Go check 'em out on Avery's Quilt blog (there's a link on the right side of this page under the 'links' section)

Keep them coming and thank you all for your support and encouragement!

Four more wishes for Avery!

Check out Avery's Quilt blog- 4 new wishes added!!

Keep 'em comin'!

Waiting is hard...this we know

Hello all,

We are are still awaiting our LID (log in date) from China. Truthfully we expect it any day now. Our DTC date was June 29, and according to the CCAA they have processed all dossiers through June 30. So, hopefully any day now we will have our second big important date ...the LID.

We are starting to feel how long the wait is going to be though. Maybe because it's Summer and we have more free time right now, so we notice the wait more...I don't know. We knew that when we decided to do this it would take a long time. We just want to get our first daughter and start our lives over in a whole new way. We have already decided that we will do this all over again to get Avery a sister from China. That wait will probably seem not as long because we will have Avery to occupy us. We are just excited!! Some days are worse than others. I can't wait to start the nursery this Fall!!!

Just wanted to say thank you to those of you who have sent in your quilt squares and your wishes. It really does help Gary and I to receive those in the mail. It gives us hope and reassurance. It gives us something right now to hold on to. People forget to be excited for us sometimes because I don't have a pregnant belly. But we do have an image of a beautiful black haired little girl with pigtails that will dance around our house and sing and say Mommy and Daddy and make us giggle and smile and bring a lot of joy into our lives.

So waiting is hard...this we know far too well. But it's worth it and we can't wait!!!

Love to all
~Alli

PS~

Don't be afraid to leave us comments on our blogs. We love questions and to hear from everyone!!! Also, keep working on your wishes and squares we are looking forward to the next batch!!!!