baptism

Meili was baptized on Sunday. We were blessed to have beautiful weather, friends, and family to help us celebrate. Here are a few pictures:

at our church: First United Methodist Church of Grand Rapids

with Pastor Jennie Browne

Meili's friends: one of the reasons we love our new church!!!

The Potoka clan

Oma & Pake Kingma

camping

Happy Canada Day and 4th of July!

playing at the beach

riding her "new" bike... Thanks Katie!

so what's he like?

Here's some of the info. we have about Willem from a March 2009 document. We're hoping to get an update sometime before we go!

Fang Rong is extroverted in character. He is active and lovely. He has received touching training from the time when he was admitted. Presently Fang Rong is learning sitting. Though he cannot sit steadily or for a long time, he likes to do it. Now, under the excellent care of the caretakers, Fang Rong can have operation as soon as possible. That would make him grow up healthily like other kids. Usually he likes to listen to music. He can shake his body at happy while listening to music. He looks very cute. Fang Rong likes to burble with the caretaker and other kids he is familiar with. He would clap his hands at happy. He brings lots of joy to this institute, and is adored by all of the caretakers and other kids. He is called “Rongrong” tenderly by the caretakers.

waiting and dancing

We're waiting now to find out that our paperwork in China has been reviewed. After that, we hope to get an idea of when we'll be traveling to get Willem. Looks like most families adopting from Beijing are there for about two weeks and then in Guangzhou for one more week. We're looking forward to finding out our travel dates!

In the meantime, it's summer vacation! Meili is taking a ballet and tap dance class this month. She loves her teacher and loves all of the fun things she is learning. Meili is a good listener and a great mimic. It's so fun to watch her!

introducing...

We'd like to introduce
Willem Maas FangRong Kingma

Willem is for Henry's Opa (grandpa)
Maas is for Liz's grandpa (Maas is a Dutch version of Thomas)

It's a boy!

We received a referral yesterday for a little boy from China. He's 16 months old and his Chinese name is Fang Rong. We're still deciding what his name will be when he joins our family. Meili is pretty excited. She wants to help buy baby clothes and get everything ready. She wondered why we were not getting the crib out first thing this morning. Travel arrangements take about 4-5 months so we hope to travel this fall.

preschool is done

Tonight we went to an ice cream social at school to celebrate the end of the preschool school year. Meili's last day was Friday. Tonight she enjoyed the chance to eat ice cream and see her friends again. Here she is with one of her teachers, Miss Jessie, and then playing with her friends Katie and Morgan on the playground.

Log in date

We received word today that our paperwork was logged in at CCAA on May 13. Now we keep waiting for our referral!

timeframe

Adoption update: We're still waiting for our paperwork to be "logged in" at the China Center for Adoption Affairs. After that, we'll be available for matching with a waiting child. Some things have changed a bit since we we through this with Meili. One major change is the amount of time it takes to get paperwork ready and appointments set up in China once we are matched with a child. It was about 2 months after being matched with Meili until we went to get her. Now, it sounds like the travel will be later - something like 4-5 months after we have our referral/match.

It's spring! Last weekend Meili helped me put mulch in the yard, pull the camper out, and clean out the garage. She loves helping out! After we were done working, it was time to open the sandbox again. She played in there for over an hour making cakes and pies. What fun!


We also took our annual trip to see the Tulip Time Festivities in Holland, Michigan. Meili liked seeing the pretty tulips and daffodils and eating the good food but her favorite part was playing at her new friend Ruby's house.

Meili and her new friend Ruby

Go Cubs!

Meili's first Cubs game!

do you take time at the zoo?

It was interesting to go to the zoo with Meili this week. We did a lot of animal watching and even more people watching. I came to the conclusion that there are different ways to "go to the zoo."

Some of the things I noticed...
- people pushing children in strollers while talking on cell phones
- people dragging kids quickly from one animal to another in an attempt to "see everything"
- kids crying because they weren't done looking
- people talking at their kids in loud, high-pitched voices saying things like "Oh honey, LOOK! Did you see it move?"
- kids crying for many other reasons

Does a visit to the zoo have to be like this? Could a visit to the zoo be better? Less stress? Less harried? What if people put their cell phones away, picked a spot and just sat for a while with their children? Are we missing opportunities to talk to and listen to our children because we're always trying to do too much? I think so.

This week at the zoo, Meili and I just sat and watched. I think it was one of my favorite trips to the zoo with her. We mostly watched the bears this week. I loved listening to the comments and questions she shared. Things like - "Mama, why does the bear only have claws on his front feet?" or "Do you think the bear is lonely?" and "I never want to go into THAT cage. Those bears have big teeth." When we were done watching the bears we walked around for a little while and ended up watching the lions for a while. Then we were ready to go. We didn't see everything but that was ok. We took time to sit and appreciate a few amazing creatures and left wanting more. Now we can't wait to go back!

Palm Sunday

Meili has been asking about Palm Sunday for almost two weeks. First thing she asks me in the morning is if we're going to church to do palm branches. She learned about Palm Sunday at preschool and has been telling the story. This week, we celebrate Palm Sunday and Holy Week. Meili waved her palm branch on Sunday and said, "Hosanna, Hosanna. Blessed is the King!"

earrings

Check out this happy kid who just got her ears pierced! No tears - just BIG smiles!

it came and went

My birth certificate came - state sealed and everything. We dropped our dossier (large package of papers) off at Bethany yesterday. They will take care of sending it off to be authenticated and then will mail it to China. Best guess is maybe one-two weeks for authentication and then two-three weeks before our paperwork is "logged in" at CCAA (Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs). We'll be given a LID (log-in date) that means the Chinese officials have officially noticed that it got there. Now we have some waiting to do... better get that second bedroom ready!!!

looks like it's coming

The package tracker on the FedEx site says that my birth certificate will be in our mailbox by 10:30 tomorrow. That means we'll be dropping all of our paperwork off at Bethany after work tomorrow. They'll send it to the Chinese consulate in Chicago to have it authenticated and then it will be sent right to China. Then we just have to wait!

it came

My birth certificate arrived so I mailed it off to get it state sealed. I paid lots of money to have it get there tomorrow by 10AM and lots of money for them to send it back fast. Tomorrow I will make copies of everything so it's all ready. As soon as my certificate is back with the MN state seal we can drop our stuff off at Bethany where it will be checked and sent off for authentication. Sweet!

the park

We're still waiting for a copy of my birth certificate to arrive. It's the last piece of paper we need before we can send everything to China. It's taking a LONG time.

Today was a beautiful day. Meili and I went to the park for the first time this year. It's fun to see her climbing up ladders and trying all of the slides by herself. It's quite a change from last year when she wanted us to do everthing with her. Here are a few pictures...

paperwork almost ready...

Our fingerprinting approval letter arrived last week! Now we're gathering the final pieces together for our dossier (bundle of paperwork) that will be sent to China. On Tuesday we have a meeting with our case worker to check everthing over. If it's all ok, we'll get it state sealed and into the mail! We're getting closer!

Happy Valentine's Day