I forgot to do this...

Months ago we received a quilt square from Ashley and Christine Scofield and I forgot to put up a thank you for it. It is a beautiful square very sun shiny!! So thank you very much, and I apologize I forgot to do thsi earlier.

We haven't gotten it put up on her quilt blog yet but we're a little behind on that lately. I have some other squares I need to get done for Grandparents that have passed. I want all of them to be a part of her quilt, it's very important to me that they be represented. I need to talk to Gary's Mom still about putting in squares for her parents, and my Aunt Jennie needs a square, and Cindy is going to help with that.

We are at 100 squares probably, and will be over and I'm sending out a few more invitations to people who want to be involved, and we are still waiting on some family and friends to get theirs to us. We have time but this Spring we are going to start the assembling of the quilt...should be a lot of fun!!

Love to all!!
~Alli

Some random facts about China...

So as I start to do some research for Avery's lifebook, I came across some facts that I knew about and some I didn't. I thought I would share my findings with everyone that checks the blog:

China's official language- Mandarin
Capitol- Beijing
Currency- Yuan
Religion- Buddhist or Taoism
Population- Now over 1.3 Billion
Most populous City- Shanghai at about 15 million

China is the world's largest and most populous country, 20% of the world's population is China. That means that 1 out of every 5 people on the planet are from China.

Percentage of people over 65 years old- 6.96%
Average life span of Males- 69 years
Average life span of Females-73 years

In the past 25 years China has had the fastest growing economy in the world. With an annual growth of more than 10%.

They still have the one child policy. I didn't think they did but here's the deal. The one child poilcy has been in effect since 1979. Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping put it into effect to limit China's population (obviously). There are fines, and pressure to abort from the Government when the policy is not followed. Also, this is why you find babies in alleys, and in baskets on the side of the road etc., where parents have given up their children anonymously. But here's the catch to the one child policy, actually there are 2 catches to the policy:

1. They say the one child policy is only for families that live in urban areas. The families in rural areas are not subject to it, and can have 2 children. In one of the books I read, "The Lost Daughters of China", it told a lot about the history of China's "lost" daughters, and about what happened to the girls, and babies-very disturbing!!

2. The other exception to the rule is if the husband and wife are both sibling-less. Then they can have 2 children. I hadn't heard this one before.

Obviously there are many families that have more than 1 or 2 children. In my book there were tales of great fines, and torture if the rules were not followed. But with a population of over 1.3 billion how would you ever keep track...you can't.

So there's some trivia. I will have more as I study up on my China history and statistics, and start her book. Hope you follow the journey with us!!

Zai Jian-Goodbye!
~Alli

Colors for the nursery...

Gary and I actually went to Lowe's today and actually got the paint for Avery's room-so exciting!!! We've been talking about doing it for so long, and today we finally went and got the paint for her room. We are doing wainscoting on the bottom half of her walls and then above will do different width stripes of light pink, light green, an off white and a brown. I know it sounds busy but it will look really good and make the room look taller with the vertical stripes. Plus there's really only 2 walls that will have the stripe, the other wall isn't very tall, and the wainscoting will cover most of it, so the stripes will be less on that wall.

Avery's bedding is green and white with ladybugs, grasshoppers, and butterflies. Her window treatments have ladybugs and grasshoppers, and other things like snails etc. on it. We did some other looking in Lowe's today also for her room. We're going to put bamboo flooring in her room, and I already have the rug that will go in front of her crib, it's really pretty it's from Pottery Barn, so is her bedding.

We were looking at lighting. Plus we think we can makeshift the desk in her room into a changing table that will be built into a little cubby in her room already. There's shelves on the wall above and storage below, perfect for the things needed. We were looking for a dresser/bin to store other things on, and also closet organizers for her closet so we can make the best and most of the space for her closet.

WE are still looking for cribs. Haven't really found one yet. We still have plenty of time for that though. But I am excited about the paint and the thought of actually starting her room. I have to strip some wall paper in her room, and we have to mud some walls and the ceiling. Gary will have to put a register in her floor from the kitchen so she'll get some more heat in her room, and we've decided for now not to replace her window as of yet. We can do it later and really there's nothing wrong with the window that is there, it is just the old style, but livable.

So there's our update for this week. Wish us luck on starting the nursery. How nice is it to day the word, NURSERY in our household-GREAT!!!

Love to all
~ALli

Been seeing ladybugs around the house...

So in the past week I've seen about 6 ladybugs in our house at random times. I love that, I say, "there's Avery", and I can breathe a little sigh of relief again. We've been hearing from family and friends lately about the adoption and the little gain in dossiers in China, and really nice to know that people read the blog. I feel really good about the adoption lately the I stop myself and say, "Don't get too happy just yet", I don't want the disappointment.

I'm on vacation this week and had big plans to do a lot of stuff, but of course I'm not. Went shopping with my Mom on Monday, and we had lunch together, that was fun, we don't get to do it that often usually on vacations. Had some of the girls over on Tuesday for a showing of RENT, and laughed all day, and that was great too. Today I'm really just vegging out, needed a day to do that. I think I'm going to go get material this week to do a page for my Grandpa Leland, and Grandpa Floyd for Avery's quilt. Do a little research about life books and do an outline for that so I can get started soon with a plan in mind. Gary and I are supposed to go get paint for the nursery this week...we'll see, I hope so.

Hope all is well with everyone.
Much love!!
~Alli

"Qi Qiao Jie"

Happy Valentine's Day!!

"Qi
Qiao
Jie"






Hope your day is great and spent with the ones you love!!

~Love to all
~Alli

Re-reading some older posts and comments...

I'm kinda in relaxed mode today. I haven't gotten ready for work yet and I'm tired and just waiting for my week off to start. I wish Gary had this coming week off also, it would be nice to spend some time together when both of us aren't working.

I was going back through the blog and re-reading some older posts and re-reading some comments that were made and thanking God that we have such supportive family and friends. I do get really frustrated somedays when I check the blog and there are no comments or a "hey" or anything. I think that has a lot to do with I'm home every day by myself, even though most days I'm really busy with the business, and choreography. It was nice to re-read the supportive comments and there were quite a few. You forget sometimes the support you have. We, or rather I, have blogged a lot in the last almost 20 months. When I have good days or bad days or just so so days.

So just wanted to say thanks to everyone that supports us!!
We love you all!!

~Alli

Valentine's Day in China, and other things...

So, Valentine's Day in China is actually in August. It's The 7th day of the 7th Lunar month of the Chinese calendar. This year Chinese Valentine's Day will be on August 26th.

Valentine's Day is- "Qi Qiao Jie" in Chinese it's also know as the The Daughter's Festival.

The Story of Valentine's Day in China:
A love story for this day is about the 7th daughter of the Emperor of Heaven and an orphaned cowherd. They were separated by the Emperor. The 7th daughter was forced to move to the star Vega and the cowherd moved to the star Altair. They are allowed to meet only once a year on the day of 7th day of 7th lunar month. This is the condensed version of the story.

Gary and I are saving money for the adoption so for Valentine's Day we are going to the movies and having dinner at one of our favorite places in Syracuse-Moe's. Nothing big, but we need a date lately. I have next week off because it is Winter break for the kids at school, and I don't work on the vacation weeks because it's not worth it to have classes when people don't show up.

Although it seems like the process has sped up a little or at the least has made a little progress with the amount of dossiers that have been put through in the last 2 months, I am trying to tell myself, "don't get excited because it's still another 12-16 months to go. But soon we'll be saying we've been in 2 years, and hopefully a light will shine brighter at the end of this very long twisting dark tunnel. I'm trying not to get our families and friends hopes up. We forget that any little progress for us sometimes means big progress for other people. But we need to celebrate any and all little piece of progress we can, but still keep it in perspective. But anything that can make us smile a little more about the adoption process and make the process of receiving our little girl at the end of this process is so precious to us at this point. So, "Yay"!!!

If you read the blog please just leave your name like a guest book. It is nice to know that people are reading our process and keeping up with us.

Much love to all, and Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!! "Qi Qiao Jie"

~Alli

Have you seen this commercial?

So we usually record everything and watch it later and fast forward over all the commercials. But have you seen the new Windows Live Photo Gallery commercial. With the little Asian girl that is 4 years old and just as cute as can be. She's adorable!!!!!!!! A little Avery!!!

We are die hard Mac users in this household and would never use any kind of Windows product...but the little girl in the commercial is great!!

Can't you see that our Avery will be as computer savvy anyways, especially with a Daddy like Gary. I can so see her when she's that old saying what she's doing on the computer and how to do stuff on the computer.

I watch the commercial every time it is on and will stop the fast forwarding to watch it when we have recorded something.

So cute...

Have a good day!!
~Alli

CCAA...

It does seem to be that the China Center for Adoption Affairs is a full month ahead of where they were. They are now through the end of March 2007, not February...so that is a little good news. Gary mentioned it to me over the weekend, and it made me feel great that he had noticed it also. So, maybe in 3 months our dossier will get into the review room, and we still have a long wait after that but it makes us feel like there is "progress" being made.

The Chinese New Year celebration at our adoption agency was this past weekend, we didn't go this year. I really didn't want to go through that again. It's tough to be in room full of "Avery's". All ages of "Avery's" too. So we opted out this year.

Keep us in your prayers and we'll keep everyone updated on our progress. Thank you to everyone that reads this blog. Thank you to everyone that leaves a comment, they do help us!!

~Love to all
~Alli

19 Months...

Today is the 3rd again. So another month down...many more to go . Now I want to get to 20, then 24, and then I'll be confident we are almost there!! Get me to 2 years!!!

Happy 19 months to us!!

~Alli

Tomorrow...

Tomorrow will be 19 months in...bring on 20.

Nineteen in Chinese is, "shi-jiu".

Chinese New Year is almost over...my house looks festive though!!

~Alli

PS~ Thank you to my cousin Greg, who sent in his quilt square and wish for Avery. We loved it. Give us a little bit to get it uploaded though!! Thanks again!!