handsful

Tonight, the girls and I attended our first Chinese New Year celebration. Our local FCC chapter (Families with Children from China) puts this on every year and we were excited to be able to go. There was a craft time, great dinner, silent auctions (I won a cute panda print for Lainey’s room!), and a wonderful program of singers, ribbon dancers, fan dancers, and the grand finale…the lion dance! The girls loved that, although Abbey was hoping for a dragon dance!

The guys weren’t able to come with us because they had prior plans. Randy surprised the boys at Christmas time with tickets to the Monster Truck Rally. So, tonight was “Guys night” and “Girls night” with the Clarks :)

I was just thinking…a year ago we were almost ready to turn in our application for adoption with our agency. Now, we’re anticipating meeting Lainey THIS year and will be able to take her to the next Chinese New Year celebration!

TWO posts in ONE day! Whew…

I had to post again because today I received my second Chinese New Year present! I participated in two CNY gift exchanges this month, in honor of the holiday. For those who need some explanation, CNY is celebrated in the month of January or February, but the dates are different each year because it’s set around the moon’s rotation. This year, it began on 2/18. Each New Year is named after an animal and 2007 is the Year of the Pig!

These wonderful presents came from Marney, from my June-July CCAI group. She sent chocolate coins for the kids (most of which are already eaten!), REAL Chinese yuan money for each of our kids (how cool!), CNY picture book, CNY activity book, and she photocopied some pages from another book that goes into even more detail on CNY and how to celebrate. Given that we’re studying China this year in our homeschool, this couldn’t have been more appropriate! She also sent 10 red envelopes (hongbao) that we can use to give all FIVE of our children money for the next 2 CNYs! I loved that. Thank you, Marney!

These fabulous gifts came from Chris from my July Fireflies group. The first thing I found was the Little Tikes pig flashlight. You know how “lol” can be over-used sometimes online? Well, not this time. I literally LOL when I turned that guy on and he oinked at me! My kids even heard me and asked what was up! Love it!! She also sent a beautiful red paper lantern (that my daughter Abbey BEGGED me for), fancy blowers to make lots of noise (to scare away the bad spirits, as they would do in China…bad spirits hate noise apparently), instructions on how to make a origami pig, and a cute origami kit complete with cut papers! I love everything, thanks so much, Chris!

I can’t wait to share these things with Lainey one day, and tell her about all the online friends, who I’ll probably never meet face-to-face, who made our wait for her so much sweeter.

My June-July CCAI Secret Pal sent us 2 wonderful books! A board book called ”I Love You Like Crazy Cakes” which is about a family adopting a baby from China! We also received “When You Were Born in China”, which is also about adopting children from China and has photos of real adoption journeys! My secret pal, obviously knowing my sweet tooth, included Jelly Bellys and chocolate Chinese New Year coins! She said they were for the kids, but I’m sure she won’t mind if I take just a few…Thanks again, Secret Pal!

Randy and I paid a visit to our local travel clinic tonight, to begin our immunizations needed for our trip to China. I spoke to the nurse on the phone a couple of weeks ago and she was so nice and willing to discuss what she thought we would need. There are no requirements for vaccinations for travel to China, only recommendations. So, Randy had his first Hep A/B, I had the Hep A (had the B series years ago), and we both got Tetanus shots. The kids were with us, cheering us on! The girls even presented us with tiny glass bottles, filled with notes that said things like “way to be brave” and “you’re the dad”. How sweet. So, tonight we have sore shoulders and the satisfaction that we’re slowly, but surely taking care of our “things to do before our China trip” list!

100 quilt squares and wishes, I mean! We actually got #100 yesterday, a pretty panda print. Today we received #101 and the one above is #102. Randy will be so psyched to see this one. He’s loved N.C. State since he was a kid and went to college there. As a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, I’m supposed to rant and rave and refuse to allow this square to be used in Lainey’s quilt (ahem…NC State and UNC-CH are rivals). But, I’m not THAT kind of wife!

Thanks to everyone who has given us a square/wish! We are hoping to receive more, so that we can make the actual quilt and a wall-hanging quilt for her room. Or, we might just put them all into the quilt. We have time to figure that out!

Lainey now has her first, real dishes thanks to my July Fireflies Secret Pal! It’s a Wedgewood set in the Peter Rabbit pattern. So cute, I just love it! Thank you, Secret Pal!