Happy Year of the Tiger!

Tigers in Chinese Culture

In China, 2010 is the Year of the Tiger. The tiger is associated with the earth, and there are five types of tiger signs, depending on year of birth: water, wood, fire, earth and metal. 2010 is a metal Tiger Year. Metal Tigers are assertive, competitive and sharp.

History 

Throughout history, tigers have held important associations in Chinese culture. The meaning of the tiger in Chinese culture is usually power, force, luck and strength.

Tigers within Chinese Myth 

Tigers were important figures in Chinese Myth. The tiger was often depicted as an agent of Chinese martial arts. Some branches of Chinese martial arts base many of their movements 

and poses on the tiger.

Tigers were also traditionally considered masters of the forest or protectors of the mountains. In ancient times, people thought that the pattern of stripes along the tiger's forehead resembled the Chinese character for 'king', so the tiger was known as the king of all animals. Tigers are still considered ancestral gods within Chinese culture today.


So, Happy Chinese New Year!! May your Year of the Tiger be full of luck, love and prosperity!!
~Alli  :)

3 years ago today...

Three years ago today was the day we had the meeting over the phone with our adoption agency. The meeting in Syracuse got canceled due to the weather so we did it over the phone that evening. So this is day we decide on China is where our daughter would come from.

Three years today Gary & decided to change our lives, and what a journey it has been...we are coming to the end of this waiting and Avery will be here soon!!

3 years-WOW!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!
I will post more about 2010, "The Year of the Tiger".

We meet with our pediatrician today at 4:30. I still need to write down questions for her.

Oh, my Mom and I started the quilt today. We have 106 squares right now and will probably end up with 112-116 total by the end of the week. It took 3 hours to cut all the squares to size and my Mom ironed all of them. We laid them out on the floor of nursery-photos to come. I have to fix some of the squares that are too small or weren't cut straight when they were given to us or...more to do later this week. It looks neat all spread out on her floor. It will be a queen/king size quilt for sure. A good one that Mommy & Daddy & Avery can all snuggle up with...can't wait!!

More to come later, just a quick update.

Love to all,
Allison

Third times the charm...

We are off today to go get our fingerprints re-done for the 3rd time today in Watertown. They say the 3rd times the charm...I hope so!! Plus our LID is the 3rd, and the number 3 seems to pop up a lot throughout this journey-hmm...a sign maybe?

I think she will be here soon, we just have to get all of the gobblety gook out of the way first. Gary was going through all the confusing paperwork last night. Ya know where the one paper says to do it this way, but another one totally contradicts it, so you sit there and wonder and try to remember how we did it last time, because this is the 3rd time we're doing all of this.



So, today we need to call Pat our adoption agent and get a few things cleared up, and more paperwork can go out this week-YAY!!!!

Getting there...

Wish us luck!!
~Love to all
~Alli & Gary

We have a pediatrician!!

Yes, that is correct we now have a pediatrician. After many friends mentioning us at their recent visits, and an email, and a letter we finally have a pediatrician.She called us last Thursday and I talked to her last Friday. This news made me so happy-us very happy!!

She is the pediatrician at this particular doctor's office that deals with all the International adoptions that come through their practice. She has helped with Korean, Ethiopia, and Russian adoptions before and is very familiar with reviewing the medical documents that come with International adoptions. We have heard absolute raves about her and was so happy to hear from her.

She will work with our time restraints, and we actually are meeting with her on the 15th to go through the special needs list from a doctor'a point of view, and give us her opinion of the list and what she has seen come through the office, and some that we may have reservations about etc.-very exciting! We are very anxious to meet her.

Other than that we get our first vaccinations on Wednesday. We should be sending out our requests for fingerprints again, and the possibility of the fee being waived. Also, the letter for the extension of our I-600A approval for the 2nd time too. Both of these letters should go out this week-hopefully!!

We are receiving more squares as the weeks go on, and next week is the week my Mom and I are going to start assembling the squares for her quilt.

So slowly but surely we are getting there. Seems like we need about 34 hours in a day and then we would probably have more done.

Anyone interested in helping to assemble the quilt just say so.
All help is appreciated and needed.

Love to all~

~Alli  :)

What's today's date?

Yes,
It is the 3rd of the month AGAIN!!!!! Happy LIDversary to us yet again. I'm not sure they are so happy anymore, but I think they are getting better. 31 months ago our dossier was entered into the big piles of dossiers in China-31 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-ARGH!!

I have no more updates right now except that we have received 2 more quilt squares from people we invited to take part last week. They got them done really fast. One is from a friend of ours, Robin Starling(Castleman) and her family. Gary went to school with her. The other is from my cousin Mark and his wife Lisa's family from Indiana. They look great and actually kinda have the same color schemes. They arrived in the mail on the same day too! You forget how exciting it is to get those in the mail when it has been so long.

Mom and I are going to start assembling the squares over February Break. I bet we get a lot done too!!

We are still waiting on our packet from New Life. We have our shots next week, and that's where we are...still all good though.

I want to get this going so we will have privileges to the lists!!!

The CCAA did have an update but they have only gotten through 2 more days in April 2006. I had heard in gossips, and online that April 2006 was a huge dossier month and it could take a full year to get through it...really?

Also, we did get an email from our adoption agent and finally you are hearing what's been whispered for so long. Anyone that puts in a dossier to China now will wait at LEAST 4 years, possibly longer. Finally they said it...we knew it and they finally said it.

Our new and exciting journey to Avery continues...although we knew this all along was going to be our path to her. We can go back and count the number of signs along the way, and now we know we are headed in the right direction.

Love to all~
~Alli :)

PS~
I know a lot of you read the blog because you tell me you do. Please leave a hello or something when you do. You have no idea when you're in this process how much a hello or small note to us makes a huge difference in our day!!  :)  Thanks!!