Fun gifts and thank yous...

We have received some really cute gifts in the last week and would like to say thank you to everyone. The bibs are from Hayley and Dan, we love them. Do you see the Asian ballerinas on the top one-cute!! The others have ballet shoes, and ladybugs!! Thank you!!


The sign is from Steve and Beth. Very cute and love the lady bug on it. We plan to put it in her room! Thank you guys!!




The books are from Sarah. There is a Chinese feasts and festivals cookbook, and a cool NY board book, and 2 paper books that are great and colorful and will pack well for China! Thank you Sarah, so glad to see you yesterday!!


Thank you to you all! Your thoughtfulness is very much appreciated!

A conversation...

Here is a conversation I had with my niece Jodi the day before Easter. We were walking through Wal Mart just the two of us together hand in hand.
I think of this conversation all the time and it makes me giggle...

Me: "So what do you think about having a cousin from China?"

Jodi: "I like it, it's pretty cool!"

Jodi: "How old is Avery"

Me: (picking up an outfit the right size in the baby department and holding it up) "Avery will be this big when we get her."

Jodi: "Wow, she's gonna be that small?"

Me: "Yup"

(Jodi has a big smile on her face)

Jodi: "Where is she?"

Me: "She's in a special place where they are taking care of her until Uncle Gary and I can go get her."

Jodi: "Oh, so she'll probably be speaking Chinese when you get her!"

Me: "No, she'll be young enough that she won't be speaking Chinese"

Jodi: "Ah Man, I wanted her to teach me!!"

I giggled at that one. Jodi wanted Avery to teach her to speak Chinese and was disappointed to find out that she will be too young to teach her..."AH man!"

Enjoy your day!!

The crib quilt...

Lisa, Allison, Liz w/ the quilt completed on Easter!



Lisa and her 2 daughters, Tori and Taylor and Allison before we started...
The picture under is Allison & Liz tying the quilt, then Gary snipping all the ties, and a couple pictures of the quilt all done!!

We were in Indiana over Easter weekend visiting my brother Tom, and his wife Liz, and our nieces Jessica and Jodi. We go every other year usually for Easter.

 I had sewn all 130 squares of the crib quilt together before we left and we had planned to get some progress done on both quilts. But we ended up finishing Avery's crib quilt. The crib quilt is the smaller version of the 100 good wishes quilt. We had a lot of material left over, and so we decided to make a smaller version that we could pack and take to China to receive Avery with. Not everyone's fabric is in this quilt, and we repeated a lot of the fabric but it has  the same idea as the big quilt.

 Gary, and Liz, and another cousin of ours, Lisa Scofield (Mark's wife), and myself all got together and tied the quilt. We didn't really know what we were doing but figured it out and got it all tied. Lisa, who does quilting all the time actually took the quilt home with her overnight and put the binding on the quilt for us. She did it over night!! The quilt is so gorgeous!! Thank you to Lisa, and Liz for their help!!

Liz and I actually got the top sheet of the big quilt all sewn together on Easter Sunday before Gary and I had to leave. I had a lot of the squares already sewn together, but sections had to be put together, so Liz, who is a fantastic seamstress, did that for me. There are 132 squares in her big quilt. So we made a lot of progress while in Indiana.

More than I can tell you all right now, also!!  But we are so happy and pleased with both of the quilts!! We plan on tying the big one soon, and having a bunch of people help with that!!

Can't wait to see Avery wrapped up in both!!
Thank you to everyone who sent fabric for her quilt!!

Enjoy your day!!

The number 3...

Here are some 3's that have happened during this journey...

1. LID- 7/3/07
2. It's been 3 Years since we started this process from the start.
3. We are 33 months in and this is the month when something finally happened.
4. We were 3 weeks into special needs when we got our first file.
5. Paperwork to get into the special need program sent out on 3/3/10.
6. The two of us becoming 3 to start our family.
7. It took us 3 hours to lock in.
8. There are 3 characters to her name.
9. Our final confirmation from agency of lock in was on 4/3/10.
10. We've had 3 adoption agents.
11. There are 132 squares in her big quilt.
12. There are 130 squares in the crib quilt.
13. March was the month we switched to special needs (3rd month of year).
14. Last Tuesday on a very significant day, there were 3 lady bugs flying around my head in the kitchen at night.
15. We've had to re-do paperwork 3 times.
16. We have grouped certain things into groups of 3's without knowledge. For example on Christmas cards we have 3 fortune sticks, 3 lanterns, 3 fortune cookies etc.
17. She will be the 3rd Granddaughter for my family (Scofield side). It will be Jessica, Jodi and then Avery.


We also have a lot more. There are also other dates, or other numbers that have come up that are divisible by 3. Three seems to be a lucky number for us.

I'll post more about this when I can actually sit down and go through this entire journey...

Our dossier has moved from being processed, to being assessed-it's a good thing!!

Enjoy your day!!

33 months...this number 3 comes up a lot!

We are now 33 months in, I am a little late at posting this because a lot has happened in the past 2 weeks, plus we have been in Indiana and couldn't post while we were there. The number 3 has been lucky for us all the way through this journey...really weird how much it has shown up through the last 3 years (see...3 again).

I looked up to see if the number 3 was a lucky or an unlucky number in the Chinese culture. It is a lucky number. The way they figure it is whatever word the number sounds like, so the 2 words sound similar, then that determines if it is a lucky or unlucky number. It just happens to be that the number 3 sounds like the word for birth in Chinese-really!! How weird is that? Appropriate wouldn't you say?
Amazing how that number keeps coming up. I'm going to write it all down, and post all of the times 3 has come up, you'd be surprised!

So 3 years in, a total of 33 months since our LID, which is July 3, 2007.

More to come on the number 3!!

Enjoy your day!!