will we travel in October???

Will we travel in October???
Here are two things that could make our travel more complicated.

One: National Holiday - the first week of October is the National Holiday - just about everything is closed in celebration, including government offices.

Two: Guangzhou Trade Fair with an influx of tens of thousands of additional people into the city, takes place the last two weeks of October so flights, hotels, ground transportation, etc. is next to impossible to secure during this time. Guangzhou is where the US Consulate is and we can't take Willem home without a stop there.

update on Willem

We have some updated stats on Willem. What a tiny peanut!

Height 30.0 inches
weight 17.6 pounds
head circumference 19.1 inches
chest circumference 19.7 inches
foot 4.5 inches
teeth 2

I800 & Alaska

We're still in a waiting period before we'll know anything more about traveling to get Willem. I dropped off some more immigration paperwork yesterday. One form is a petition to classify Willem as an immediate relative instead of an orphan - basically saying that he has parents now. The forms have to be reviewed by the US government, then sent to the U.S. consulate in China who will pre-adjudicate them (whatever that means). After that, a document is sent to the Chinese government telling them that we're all set. That's what they need in order to issue a travel invitation. Once that comes we can make our travel plans. It will likely be October before that all happens. But that's just our best guess. I'd love for the time to pass quickly - at the same time, I'm in no hurry for this summer to be over.

Henry and I recently returned from a cruise to Alaska to celebrate our 10th anniversary. It was an amazing trip. Here are a few pictures:

Our ship: the Sapphire Princess

sitting on the deck, eating french fries while cruising past Alaskan wilderness= a slice of heaven

A humpback whale: whale watching was the highlight of the trip for me. The weather was incredible and we saw about 16 whales. We observed a whale breaching, a group of whales using bubble net feeding and many whales diving.

There were also Orca feeding in this area. This group of Orca were about 50 feet from our boat. Amazing!

crusing along the glaciers of College Fjord


First formal night on the cruise
(We missed the second one because we both got motion sick.)

riding a camel

We went to the zoo yesterday with a group of people from church. This was Meili's favorite part:

dentist and paperwork

Our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) has arrived from China. This means that our paperwork has all been checked and officially cleared by the Chinese government. Now we have a few forms to mail back and then will need to wait for our TA (Travel Approval) to come. That's been taking about 6-9 weeks for most families. After that TA comes, we can get plane tickets etc. One step closer!!!

Meili had her first dentist appointment today. She was wonderful and especially loved the bag of goodies she got when she was done. The hygenist gave her sunglasses to wear when she was getting her teeth cleaned. Meili thought that was so funny!

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!!!