Claire's loot

As usual, our families spoiled us but this time, they also spoiled Claire!

Everyone is so excited about meeting her, which made this Christmas especially wonderful. Thanks, everyone, for sharing in our excitement!

Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Day with Paul's mom, his dad, his brother Dorian, Dorian's wife Sylvie and Paul's Grandma Pauline.

It was absolutely beautiful outside so a few of us went for a long walk along the river.





Sylvie, Dorian and Paul's dad, Wally














Paul by the wier

39 sleeps to go!

Paul and I had a wonderful time in Saskatoon with our families. We spent Christmas Eve with my side of the family, where Mom outdid herself with an incredible meal. This was our first Christmas without Dad, so Mom made a special effort to create new traditions, such as saying a prayer she composed herself before the meal.

My brother, Lawrence and his wife, Betty-Ann, with their kids, Nikki and Matt.





My sister, Stephanie, with her husband Gerald, and their kids, Sonia and Liam.


Here's Liam, kicking my butt in an arm-wrestling contest.












Stu, nonchalantly indicating that he thinks the scrapbook I made him is okay.

My mom with some of her granchildren: Matt, Liam, Sonia and Nikki.

46 sleeps to go!

Well, it's only 4 sleeps till Christmas but this year we have a different countdown: the countdown to Claire!

We had a really nice visit with Mom and Stu. It was sad to see them go but knowing we'll see them at Christmas gives us another visit to look forward to.

One of the exciting things Mom brought with her when she came to visit us was the receiving blanket that Grandma Pauline gave her before Mom had children. Mom brought all seven of us home from the hospital in the blanket and my sister used it for each of her children as well. Now it's my chance! I can't wait to "receive" Claire with the same pretty white blanket. Considering that it's over 40 years old, it's still in pretty decent shape! Here's the blanket on our rocking chair.










Mom and Stu also brought
gifts from my sister Steph,
her husband Gerald and their kids, Sonia and Liam: a whoozit, a teething ring/toy and a cool book with famous pieces of art.








Stu gave us a Kit Cat Klock (pic to the right) which has eyes and a tail that go back and forth. It's virtually the same design the company has used since the 1930's.

Hopefully Claire doesn't think it's spooky! This picture is maybe a bit spooky but in real life it's really cute.

China bound!

We've just booked our flights to China! We've decided to go a couple of days early so that we can get over our jet lag, etc. before we get Claire.

We'll be leaving on the morning of Thursday, February 1st, arriving in Beijing on February 2nd. We'll then be returning to Canada on February 15th.

My mom and my brother Stu are visiting us right now from Saskatoon and we're getting totally spoiled: my mom is doing lots of cooking, Stu has shovelled snow for us, and Mom is even finishing a craft I began five years ago! Paul and I have really enjoyed their company this week so we'll miss them a lot when they go back to Saskatoon on Tuesday.

Travel plans so far

Our travel arrangements are getting finalized right now. Here's the proposed itinerary so far, assuming we travel on the latest possible date:

Sat, Feb 3 Depart from Canada; Air Canada flight Vancouver to Beijing
Sun, Feb 4 Arrive in Beijing
Mon, Feb 5 Fly to Nanchang; receive the children in the afternoon
Fri, Feb 9 Fly to Beijing
Thu Feb 15 Depart for Canada
Thu Feb 15 Arrive in Canada, Thu evening Feb 15

Paul and I are trying to decide right now whether we'll go a day or two earlier - we're leaning towards doing so.

A wee bit "obstinate"?

Today we received the translation of Claire's referral and found out many wonderful things. For starters, she has been with a foster family from about a week after her birth, which explains how well she appears to be doing developmentally. We know that having been with a foster mother for several months, she'll really grieve her loss; however, it does bode well for attaching with us in due course.

We also learned that she is active and has a ready smile. She can stand straight with the support of her foster mother, and she enjoys listening to music. In two paragraphs, it was noted three times that she cries a lot. It also says she is "obstinate sometimes". Oh - and it lists her favourite activity as crawling. Yikes! Sounds like trouble with a capital "T" but we couldn't be happier!

A great holiday in Jasper

From December 1 - 3, Paul and I stayed at Jasper Park Lodge to celebrate his birthday. Coincidentally, that same weekend we also ended up receiving the adoption news we had been waiting two years for: we had been matched with a little girl!



Here we are, seconds before we saw Claire's face for the first time.

Proud papa

Out for a walk










Our little cabin, #338

Introducing Claire ...

We are thrilled to introduce our daughter, Claire Cai Wen Pauline. Her Chinese name is Yu Cai Wen, so we kept all but her surname as her middle names, and added Pauline as a middle name for our grandmothers (both Paulines!). We chose the name Claire before we even began the paperchase, and as it turns out, we think it suits her perfectly.

She was born on April 11, 2006 and is currently residing in the Xinyu Social Welfare Institute in Jiangxi Province.

We got the news about Claire over the phone on our way to Jasper Friday afternoon. We then had to wait a full two hours or so before we got to see her sweet face. It was Paul's birthday that day and he keeps saying it was the best birthday ever!

I'll post more details once the translation of her referral is done (probably on Monday).

We're so happy!

Our referral is on its way!

When I checked the Chinese Centre of Adoption Affairs Web site this morning, I found great news: they've placed children with people who were registered with their office before September 8, 2005. That includes us! Yippee!

Hopefully Alberta Children's Services receives the referrals soon and is able to get them translated quickly. We may see our daughter's face on Monday or Tuesday!

In the meantime, Paul and I are going to be celebrating Paul's birthday and this great news in Jasper. We're staying at Jasper Park Lodge for two nights and I'm so excited. I'm sure it'll be beautifully decorated for Christmas, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Gotta love great friends

On Saturday, Christa and I went to a craft fair where I saw and fell in love with this sweater (for Claire, not me!). Without hesitation, Christa bought it for Claire. Isn't it adorable? I love the long pointy hood.

Thanks Christa!!!

Anxiously waiting ...

Any day now, we'll hear whether September 5th, our LID, is part of this month's batch of referrals. If it is, we could have our referral in the first week of December! Paul and I are so excited. I think I have more of a one-track mind than Paul, though. He seems able to concentrate on other things.

When the referral comes in, we'll get the call from Alberta Children's Services. They make referrals their first priority, and although we'll have to wait for it to be translated, it should only take a couple of days or so. Once we have the referral, we'll try to get in to see a pediatrician in town here who is well-known in the chinese adoption community. She's adopted two children from China herself and apparently is able to tell a lot about a child's health from her referral picture and the scant health information the chinese government can provide. Once we get a bit more information from her about the proposed child's health, we formally accept the proposal (as if we wouldn't!). From there, it should be about a seven-week wait until we travel to China. Bob at FOI (our coordinator) thinks that if we are part of this batch of referrals, we'd likely travel on February 3, returning on February 15th.

It's finally happening!!!

Great Web sites

I'm trying to figure out a way to create a "links" section. Until I do, here are some links to the Web pages I frequent.

Our coordinator's Web site:

http://www.familyoutreach.com/

The Chinese government's Web site:

http://www.china-ccaa.org/frames/index_unlogin_en.jsp

The Rumour Queen's Web site:

http://chinaadopttalk.com/

A Web site dedicated to those who were DTC (Dossier-to-China) in August of 2005 (we're listed here):

http://www.augustchinablossoms.com/

Ni hao!

In the fall of 2005, Paul and I took mandarin lessons. We don't know whether Claire will be from a Mandarin-speaking area or not, but regardless, we think that Mandarin would be a good second language to learn.

Although very difficult to learn, we find Mandarin fascinating. I enjoy learning the spoken language but Paul also enjoys learning the characters for reading and writing.

Here's our group at the Blue Willow restaurant after our last class.

A weekend with the girls

For the long weekend in November (2006), my friends and I gathered in Calgary for our annual get-together. Some of us have known each other since Kindergarten (me, Kelley, Carla, Daria and Lesley), while others became friends in high school (Alisha and Kelsey). I consider myself very fortunate to have such wonderful friends with whom I share a long history.


The girls, rubbing my "pregnant" belly (from left: Kelley, me, Carla, Lesley and Alisha)





Daria and Kelsey
















Lesley and Carla

Grandma and Grandpa's 40th Wedding Anniversary

On October 8th, 2006, Paul's mom and dad reached a major milestone: 40 years of marriage. For the big “40”, we (being Dorian, Sylvie, Paul and Monica) arranged for a night out on the town with Mom and Dad. We booked a limousine to take us out to the Hole in the Wall Restaurant at Blackstrap, and had ourselves a great evening!

Our kitty-baby

Kitsya in the catmint, June 2006

Keeping ourselves busy

At times, it's been tough being patient. In March when we learned of more delays in the adoption process, I was pretty bummed. To give ourselves something to look forward to, we started thinking about a trip.

We talked about just going away for a long weekend or something and had started to look into a trip to San Francisco, but then we asked ourselves, "Where would we really like to go?". The answer was Prague. We got on the phone with Aeroplan thinking it would be impossible to book a spring trip with our miles on such short notice but we soon had a trip booked to Prague and Vienna!

We were in Prague from May 26 until May 31, and then in Vienna from May 31 until June 6. We had an amazing time!

Most of our photos were taken with my 35 mm camera and I don't have them in electronic format yet. Here are a couple of photos from Paul's digital camera.




The Charles Bridge in Prague, from the bell tower in the castle.








The Palmhouse at Schonnbrun, the summer residence of the Habsburgs.

Claire's room

In March of 2006, we began to get Claire's
room ready.





Here's Paul and Kitsya setting up the crib.















Mom stitched the pretty kitty picture. Check out the toddler-sized Roughrider hat on the dresser! It was a gift from fellow Saskatchewan rider fans, Rod and Marianne.

Paul's 36th birthday

For Paul's 36th birthday, we celebrated with both our families in Saskatoon. Here's Paul being a ham, blowing out his candle at his parent's house. The other pics are from the birthday party at my parent's house.











Mom presenting the cake to Paul












Liam supervises while Dad cuts the cake













The birthday boy!

More quilts

In August of 2005, Paul and I visited Mom and Dad at Greenwater Lake and Mom showed us several quilts she had made since we last saw her. Two are for Claire!

One is for Claire's "big-girl bed" and is of SunBonnet Sue through the seasons. It's so cute! The other is a jean quilt that will be great for picnics and hanging out on the lawn.

Presents

Shortly after we found out we were paper-pregnant (August 2005), Paul and I visited our friends Kelley and Paul in Regina.

They were so excited for us and greeted us with wonderful presents for Claire. This was the start of Claire's great wardrobe (you should see it now!)

Butterfly quilt

My mom is an amazing quilter, so I asked if she'd make a baby quilt for us. She happily agreed.

Well, she's also a very dedicated quilter (quilts all day sometimes!), so in no time at all, she was done. This is me happily displaying the quilt.

Early in the paperchase

Paul and me in the Spring of 2005

Timeline

Here's an idea of how long we've been waiting for Claire!

• February 9, 2005 - applied for international adoption
• February - April 2005 - the paperchase
• April 11, 18 and 25, 2005 - homestudy visits with the Social Worker
• July 9, 2005 - received Provincial Letter of Approval for international adoption
• August 11, 2005 - DTC (Dossier to China, the day our dossier arrived in China) We're paper-pregnant!!
• September 5, 2005 - LID (Log-in-Date, the date from which our wait officially begins)
• November 22, 2005 - found out our LID and about delays in receiving referrals
• March 2006 - found out about more delays
• April 25, 2006 - Chinese government (CCAA) Web site updated to say that they've finished their review of adoptional applications registered with their office before September 30, 2005. That means us! Now we just have to wait to get into the matching room.
• November 30, 2006 - CCAA Web site updated to say they've placed children with people registered with their office before September 8, 2005. That includes us!
• December 1, 2006 - Received the referral and saw Claire's sweet face for the first time.

Sonogram

We're anticipating a referral anytime from China so at long last, it looks like this paper-pregnancy is coming to an end. Here's our sonogram!

Starting up (November 25, 2006)

We decided to finally start a blog to mark our journey to Claire. So many families adopting internationally have one and I enjoy reading them so much that I thought our friends and family might enjoy this as well. This is my first entry so I'll keep it short and we'll see how it goes!