Update and New Picture

Yesterday we received an update and a new picture of Na Hui. Yay! She is living in a foster home with an older brother, 11, two younger brothers who are about 5, and a younger sister 3. These are not her biological siblings. It is called a foster home, but I am told that in the US we would call it a group home. The home has a foster mother and father and is located on the grounds of the institution. I am told that the father generally works outside of the home and the mother stays home and takes care of the kids. I am part of a forum for parents who have or are adopting from Na Hui's orphanages and have met (online) a few families that are adopting from Hefei and may be traveling at the same time we are. I have also met some folks that have already adopted from Hefei. They have mostly good things to say about the institution and that their children really seemed to be loved by the "Aunties". This was very nice to hear as we wait to bring our daughter home. One individual even sent me pictures that she took when she was in Hefei to pick up her son. The photos may contain pictures of Na Hui when she was younger. It is challenging to identify a 1 year from her picture when she is 6. On Na Hui's "Gotcha Day", we are supposed to receive a book of pictures and milestone for Na Hui from while she has been at the institution. I am hoping that there will be at least one picture from when she was 1 or 2 years old that I can use to compare to the picture I received from the other parent. I just have to wait and be patient.”Patients” is rather the theme these days.

We didn't get much new information, but the little we did is comforting. We know that she likes to sing and dance, recite Tang poetry, and play with building blocks. We know that she has grown 3 cm and gained 2.5 kg since her paper work was done in Sept 10, 2011 and we know she wears size 10/10.5 shoes. It is funny how much it pleases me to know what size shoes she wears. She is getting bigger everyday and we are missing it! Remember patients.

To help pass the time while we wait, as well as trying to learn everything we can, Fred and I have been following a blog of some folks that are on a forum that I am a part of. We have never talked to these people but really love reading their blog and keeping up with their adoption. They are in China right now adopting two boys, one 11 and the other 10. If you are interested in reading a long the blog is at http://www.andyweiwright.blogspot.com . It is fun to read about their experiences in China.

No new news on the LOA, not that we were expecting any, but we are still hoping to be traveling in the early part of June.

On the fund raising front, we have sold more than half of the mittens we made and are planning to make more soon. I just love my pair; they are just so warm and soft on the inside. I have been thinking about making a little jumper for Na Hui out of the larger scraps of wool (the scraps that are too small for mittens but can still be sewn together to make a fun patchwork).

Okay, I guess that is all I know for now.
Cheers

Etta's Essentials

So, for the past year, I have been collecting old wool sweaters and 3 days ago I finally became inspired to make something out of them. Fred and I have been making mittens. The outside is old felted wool sweats and then they are lined with polar fleece. The mittens are absolutely fabulous. We have made 21 pairs so far and are hoping that people will want to make a donation to our "Sponsor A Weiler" in exchange for their chosen pair of mittens. Anyway their is a link to the blog where the mittens are displayed on the upper left hand corner of this blog or you can cut and paste ettasessentials.blogspot.com in to the address bar.  Please check out Etta's Essentials and share the blog with your friends.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

We have had a wonderful Christmas! It has been filled with family and friends, lots of good food and relaxation. It was a simple Christmas and I do believe that is exactly how it should be. We made candy and delivered it to our neighbors (if you are our neighbor and you didn't get anything, you were not home when we can by), we listened to Christmas music and just spent time together. In a year where we are saving every penny we can, we really realized that we had everything we needed this year. We thought about all the Christmas traditions that we want to share with NaHui. We hope she had a good weekend. I am not sure if they do anything for Christmas in China, in her foster home, so I will say we thought about her for Christmas and she will share it with us next year. She had a Christmas present under the tree, we just couldn't resist. We all agree, it is the most huggable bear we have every meet. We hope NaHui will be hugging it soon. Merry Christmas everyone. We hope you had a wonderful holiday!

First Day of Winter Break

Today was an interesting for the first day of winter break. Zane had a chain attached to a canine tooth today. The tooth was still in the bone of his jaw so a chain was attached to pull it up into place. He also had the baby tooth pulled out that was taking up the space. He had an IV and everything so now he is spending the evening laying on the couch watching Monty Python.

Quade had his first eye appointment and is now getting reading glasses. He has very healthy eyes that angle out just a little so he has to spend a little extra energy holding them together when reading. He is also a little far sighted.  Quade had a great time picking out his glasses. He had been wanting a pair of Oakley's, although I think he was thinking sunglasses, but now he has his Oakley's in reading form.

I had the eye doctor look at Na Hui's picture and she is ready to see NaHui when she gets to town. The doctor didn't think that there was really any major worry about getting Nahui to the eye doctor before she comes home, but was encouraging that there maybe something that can be done to help her vision. I guess things really  do work out because come to find out the doctor that Quade saw today was the closest thing we have to a pediatric opthamologist in town. I had know idea when we went to see her today.

Fred and I got a Christmas tree yesterday after we dropped Quade off at Eaglecrest to go skiing. It is a cute little Charlie Brown tree. Those are Fred's favorite. I think we will be decorating tomorrow. The boys and I are thinking about making Gingerbread people sometime this week as well. I think we are going to try to make Grandma Sherry's Almond Roca too and always Cardamon Muffins Christmas morning.
Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!
Merry Christmas to All!

Our First Weiler Sponsor

Last week we had our first Weiler sponsor. We would like to thank our sponsor very much. This sponsor will be receiving a Weiler Family photo as well as a post card from China. Thanks again for your support in helping make this happen for Na Hui and for our family.

Good Friday

Today we received the news that our dossier was sent to China.  For those of you who are up to speed on the adoption lingo, this is know as our DTC (Dossier to China).   Our next milestone will be our LID (Log in Date).  This should be in about 1 week.   Then the wait will begin as the next step will be our LOA(Letter of Approval). We should here back from China in 2-5 months for this.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Pictures

We have pictures to share!