local "Families with Chinese Children" party

I found this invitation design on Smilebox. It was sooooo beautiful, I had to use it. I know Cindy thought I was being crazy but I got lots of positive feedback from the club.

Make a Smilebox invite

Jan 26th - I didn't take my camera to the party. Too busy running around and I knew the other parents would all have theirs ;0) Someone did post a bunch on photos online but the website has figured out how to block me unless I buy them !! :0(

Anyway, My niece Lily ended up going with us and was a great playmate for the tots. The boys had a fabulous time doing who knows what but they were happy, exspecially during the "Lion dance".

2009 Countdown

How many referrals am I away from my daughter???? Will this be my year????

Referrals came out on New Years Eve, that's twice in the same month !!! 3 weeks apart !! .....Please be a sign of a speed-up in turn around time !!

A few of them were for 6 month old babies...the youngest you can get. I worry alittle about the age gap with the boys if I received a 18 month old....Then I remember how cute, cuddly and fun that age is.

China has a policy of waiting 6 month after a babies is "found" to give time for family members to claim them, then they are considered adoptable. In the US, it is 12 months minimum in foster care before becoming adoptable. Many times that stretches and stretches for a variety of reasons !!!!

2 families had to decline their referrals (that always scares the hell out of me). 2 babies were from JiangXi province and were both named Yi Xiao with different middle names.

Happy 2009

I spent some time Friday playing around with my blog and all the design elements fell in place. !!!!!!!yea I'm not the ugly duckling any more. Maybe it means my time has come ? I changed my tag line on my email for 2009. It reads my favorite adoption quote.... "To the World, you may be one person..... but to one Person you may be the world" I found a website called Smilebox while reading another adoption Blog. It has lots of designs to work with and is so easy even I can use it. I spent some time over the holidays editing my photos into albums and then email or posting them. Here is a fall one I did of the boys. I love shooting them from the back....I wonder how old they'll be before they stop holding hands :0)

Make a Smilebox slideshow