Our Precious Baby girl

Gotcha Day!!!

We were so excited today we could hardly stand it. After breakfast we met with our guide, Amy & she told us all of the paperwork & what toys, etc. to bring with us to meet Kai. That was at 10:30 a. m. then we had to wait until 2:00 to actually go to Civil Affairs to get her.




We went with 4 other families whose children were also from this Province, but she was the only one from Dongguan. The room was VERY crowded (one of the largest groups ever, we were told, 38 families getting their children). We had only been there a few minutes & they called our name & Kai's nanny (or a yi as she says) brought her out to us. She screamed bloody murder when I took her from her nanny, then about 30 seconds later she was fine. We then gave our donation, gifts for the nannies & gifts for the orphanage & we were finished. Her a yi came over to tell her bye & Kai wouldn't come back to either of us. Kendall pulled her away while she was throwing a kicking screaming fit! Thank goodness for banana puffs because in a few seconds she was calmed back down & eating as fast as she could!




She is MUCH smaller than we expected. They said they guessed her DOB...& we think they were definitely off a few months. She is tiny & much more baby than toddler.




She wanted to play so bad when we got to the room, but she had missed her afternoon nap & she was so tired. We decided to give her a bath, feed her a bottle & see if she would go to sleep...she was out cold by 7:30. Then we fed ourselves room service & were also in bed by 8:30.

Guangzhou

We arrived at our hotel in Guangzhou at 11:00 p.m. Saturday night (10:00 a.m. EST) and upon checking in immediately ordered room service...a hamburger for each of us. The flight was long, approximately 16 hours, but the bus ride from Hong Kong airport to Guangzhou seemed just as long, with 2 stops at border stations for immigration and customs checks it took almost 3 hours. Our room is nice and was already set up for Kai with a crib and a baby gift basket. We crashed around 1:00 a.m after unpacking and showering. We now completely understand why you aren't supposed to drink the water, it's yellow and almost looks muddy.

Today is Sunday & we actually woke up ready to explore & aren't that jet lagged. We got up this morning & went to breakfast...noodles, rice, spring rolls & bacon...great combination! After breakfast we went to Starbucks & I ordered my first Iced Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte, it was pretty close to home.

After Starbucks we headed in our first cab ride to a store that was supposed to be their Walmart. It was so strange not being able to read ANY labels & there was an entire aisle devoted to Cup Noodles...we did however recognize the red cans we were in search of & bought a case of Coca-Cola! We also found Kai some great DVD's & a toy phone that speaks Mandarin.

Tonight we went to Shamain Island & had dinner at an Italian restaurant & then took a cab back to the hotel. Cab rides are a bit more scary than in NYC...we were within inches of our life tonight & we were sure we were going to be in a wreck, thank goodness for good brakes!

We got back to the hotel & decided after that cab ride we needed a nightcap to calm our nerves. We went to the lobby lounge & guess what was on the menu...SOL...we had a drink closed our eyes and dreamed of being in Mexico! We are back in our room and just got a call from our guide, Amy. She told us what bank we needed to go to in the morning to exchange our money to 41,000 Yuan & then she will meet with us at 10:30 tomorrow (Monday) morning to give us all the details. Then Amy will go with us to get our sweet girl around 2:00!!!!!

We are SO EXCITED I don't know how we'll sleep at all tonight!

Kai, Here we come!!!

It's been a LONG time coming but we are finally going to get our sweet girl! We leave in 2 days...Friday morning, December 4th. We will fly RDU to JFK, JFK to Hong Kong and then find our way on the tain or bus for 3 more hours to Guangzhou. We will be back home on December 21st, just in time for Santa to come see Kai for the first time!

We Received Kai's Finding Ad

We received Kai's "finding ad" today from the Southern Farmer's Daily newspaper in China. A finding ad is an advertisement the orphanages in China are required to run in the provincial newspaper for each child that is found or brought to their orphanage. These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them. These ads also include photographs and are usually the earliest available pictures of the children. Below is a picture of Kai's "finding ad" as well as the translated description.

Published September 11th, 2008 in the Southern Farmer's Daily it was the 1043rd picture ad for 2008.

Translation--

Ad # 1043

Li Yun

A girl

On May 8, 2008 she was found by the roadside across the street from the Donghua Hospital in Dongcheng district, Dongguan City.

She was about five months old when found

Claim unit: Dongguan City Children Welfare Institute

Preparing For Baby?

I guess Tucker is trying to prepare us for a 2-year old roaming the house with her toys. We walked into the bedroom tonight to find this. I'm not sure which toy he was looking for but I guess he found it. The toy basket is over in the right corner...virtually empty now.
Merry Christmas???

New Pictures and Information On Kai

This week we received some updated pictures and general information on Kai. After review of the current measurements the doctor says all seems well except her weight is approximately 5% lighter than average, sometimes typical of institutionalized children. We'll put some weight on her once she arrives.

We were able to send off some general questions to the orphanage to find out more about Kai. Her favorite foods are milk formula, soft rice and crackers. She sleeps alone in her crib with a small towel (seen in some previous pictures). She likes to be picked up and played with, which purportedly makes her laugh and smile. We hope this is true because we have yet to receive a picture where she doesn't look sad or frustrated, and I'm sure she is going to get picked up and played with more than she has ever before.

Her updated measurements are 30" tall and 18 pounds. She wears approximately a size 5 shoe and has 12 teeth.

(our favorite picture)

Showering Kai With Gifts

Sunday we had our first adoption celebration at Red Bowl Asian Bistro. Everything was so beautiful & the food was delicious. The only problem was that the time flew by & I didn't get to spend as much time with everyone as I had wished!

The cake was so thoughtful. It was lemon (my favorite) & had Kai's name written in Chinese lettering.

As you can see Kai was showered with so many gifts. This tiny little girl, so far away, has no idea what has been going on here to get ready for her & how loved she already is! We can't wait to get her home to use everything! She got so many books, so bedtime is all set now! And, her carseat & stroller have a cup holder (perfect for her iced DECAF skinny vanilla lates).

The gifts were all so sweet & thoughtful & if I weren't so medicated I would have cried. These two books were given to Kai by Scott & Sam Maillet. They picked out which books used to be their favorites & wrote a personal note to Kai along with their pictures. I think she will love reading these & one day realizing how much everyone loved her before she was ever here.

It Won't Be Long Now

We received our approved I-800 from the US Citizenship and Immigration today meaning it should be approximately 4-6 weeks until we receive our travel approval. The I-800 is a document that states that we are approved to specifically bring Kai into the country. This is the second to last major hurdle in the adoption paperwork process.

Care Package On The Way To Kai

We just sent a care package to Kai's orphanage with some items for both her and her caregivers. As part of the package we were able to ask some questions about Kai to get a better feel of what she is like and what we can expect, such as her current measurements, what she likes to eat and what she likes to play with. Below is a picture of the care package. We thought the dog would be a good representation of Tucker. The caregivers will use the camera to take an array of photos of Kai and when we pick her up in China they will return the camera so that we can have the pictures developed once back home. The nuts and candies are gifts for the nannies.

Follow us on Twitter While We're In China

A Couple More Pictures Of Kai

Here are a couple more pictures of Kai. Looks like she has already met Pooh.

So Exactly Where In China Is Kai?

As mentioned in an earlier post, Kai is in the Dongguan Children's Welfare Institute located in Guangdong Province. Dongguan is approximately an hour and a half train ride from Hong Kong in southern China. Although the official language of China is Mandarin, this province speaks Cantonese. When we travel to get her we will be staying in the capital of this province which is Guangzhou (pronounced Gwang - joe). I have attached a map so you can see the exact location. Lucky for us this is a subtropical climate which should provide some nice weather for our October travels.

View Larger Map

Pictures of Kai

More pictures of Kai taken near the end of July. We received these on July 29th.

Kai is at the Dongguan City Children's Welfare Institute in Guangdong Province. She was taken in by the orphanage in May of 2008 at the age of 5-months. Born on December 8th, found on May 8th and we applied for the waiting child program on December 8th, 2008, so "8" is now our lucky number, although Tabatha has always claimed it was hers. She is approximately 27-inches tall and a relative light weight, although I must say she looks to have quite a sizable foot.

In the documentation that we received from the Chinese officials they say she is obstinent, which could explain some of the attitude in these pictures.

We Received Our Referral Acceptace...Kai Is On The Way

Kai Coleman Walker - Born December 8th, 2007
Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China

It's been a while since my last post but I am coming to you with GREAT news! We received our referral acceptance from China this week. This is significant because it is one of the last major paperwork steps to bringing Kai home. It looks like we will be traveling to China sometime in mid to late October.

Since we have received the RA we can now post pictures of Kai for everyone to see.

Sign up to follow us on Twitter during our travels in China.

My new venture as a javis davis Design Partner!

Almost one year ago when we found out we were approved for our adoption my shopping kicked into overdrive. I started looking for the perfect crib bedding to start designing the nursery. A friend recommended javis davis for their custom nursery and big-kid bedding . This amazing website allows you to design your own crib sets and accessories from a collection of gorgeous and unusual fabric sets at really affordable prices. Their online crib configurator is great...you can get lost for hours designing crib sets because the choices are endless!

We ended up purchasing from the Babushka Dolls Collection & absolutely loved it. After I saw the quality and quick turnaround time (we received our custom crib set & accessories in 7 days) I started recommending javis davis to everyone I knew that was expecting.

Skip ahead a few months and I was showing a friend one of the collections on javis davis that I thought was exactly what she was looking for & I saw a new posting on their site...they were hiring Design Partners. I thought this would be so much fun & a great opportunity for me to make some extra money for the "China fund". I spent almost three hours one Friday night completing the application and designing nurseries. About two weeks later (I had given up hope that I was going to be a Design Partner) I got a call from the owner & she wanted to discuss my application & what I could offer javis davis. I am thrilled to say that out of over 400 applications they chose only 8 to represent javis davis & I was accepted as the Design Partner for the Raleigh/Chapel Hill area!

As a Design Partner with javis davis, I'm able to bring the website to life. I have swatches of all the fabrics on hand, along with samples of the different products for you to see the quality up close.

If you are a mom with a vision or have no idea where to begin, I can help you find the perfect mix of modern and traditional for your nursery or big kid bedding needs! Call or email me to get started today!

Red Thread, Ancient Chinese proverb

One Step Closer!

We are finally one step closer to actually beginning our "wait". We have finished the paper-chasing process (after almost 10 months). Our documents were sent to the US State Department and the Chinese Embassy in DC, then they were translated into Chinese. Our dossier arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, April 7th 2009! In about 6-8 weeks we will receive a log-in-date or LID. This is the actual date that the China Center of Adoption Affairs (or CCAA, everything is referenced in letters) logs our dossier into their system.

Your LID is THE most important date you can have. All referrals from the CCAA are based on LID's. The CCAA is averaging a processing time of around 5-10 LID's per month. This is why the wait is SO long. As of today the CCAA has only placed LID's through March 8, 2006! The photo below is of the matching room at the CCAA. As you can see the entire wall is thousands dossiers. This gives you a little perspective on just how many people are waiting for children.

You might be adopting from China if...

YOU MIGHT BE ADOPTING FROM CHINA IF...

1. You know that I-800 & I-171 aren't highways.
2. You've been expecting a baby for over 3 years.
3. You understand that it's 2006 in some parts of the world.
4. You've "paid for" 3 citizenships, but never brought anyone into the U.S.
5. You know that waiting for China has nothing to do with dishes at Macy's.
6. Your homestudy is followed by a number (i.e. #3 or #4).
7. You never know how many days next month will have.
8. You know that babies come in batches.
9. You've been fingerprinted four times, but never committed a crime.
10. You own new clothing in 3 little sizes for all 4 seasons (because you don't know when or how big).
11. You're more interested in what will happen in March 2006 than in March 2009.
12. You know people who understand when you talk about 2 day months & 5 day months.
13. Your due date hasn't changed by days, but by years.
14. You know who the Rumor Queen is ... AND...you don't know who she is.
15. You've waited so long, they re-checked your fingerprints to see if they changed.
16. When you speak of "that time of month" you're talking about CCAA updates & referrals.
17. You might be adopting from China if you love someone you've never met with all your heart.

And all we need is a baby...

We decided on the perfect crib bedding. Javisdavis.com has the most unusual fabric collection called "babushka dolls". I knew the second I saw it that it was what we were going to use in the nursery! It combines me & Kendall because the top is Russian dolls (joke between me & Brandon) & the skirt is woodgrain which Kendall loved!