Travel Approval

We received an email today, that a week after our paper work was submitted, we received our travel approval from China. The next step is that our agency requests a consulate point for us at the US consulate in Guangzhou. Hopefully we will have our official travel dates by Monday or Tuesday of next week.

Article 5

I don't know what happened to this post but it disappeared. The post said something about our Article 5 being picked up and then was sent to Beijing to the CCCWA for Travel Approval.

NaHui when she was 4 yrs old.

The Final Push

Last week a couple of Dayna's friends from the neighborhood said they wanted to see the "Little Red Book" and we should show it as a fund raiser.  No this is not the Little Red Book made popular by Mao that has come a live on the screen in all it's splendor, but the one made popular by Lisle Hebert.  Lisle is a guy I used to work with who has been making movies for many years and when he asked if I wanted to be in his next picture I just could not resist. The movie played several weeks ago in town and was received very well. I believe it sold out every showing.  Many people have said they wanted to see it, but were out of town or forgot or what have you.  We spoke with Lisle and he was excited to be able to help us. 

The Little Red Book will be showing at the Gold Town Theatre downtown on Saturday, May 5th at Noon Thirty (12:30pm).  We will have the Candied Jalapenos for sale ($10.00 per pint) and a couple of my pieces of art available in a silent auction.  Admission is by ticket only ($20.00), so make sure you contact Dayna or myself if you are interested in coming to this event.    

We want to thank everyone who has helped in any way.  Some have helped monetarily, while others have helped with words of encouragement from their personal experiences.  We have such a wonderful family and extended family.  Dayna and I truly consider ourselves blessed.

Pepper Prep Pictures

Fred slicing peppers

We started making candied jalapenos at 9 am. This was after cutting the first few pounds. We prepped 71 pounds of peppers.

Cutting complete

Another look at all the peppers. It sure doesn't look like 71 pounds.

We have 191 pints of Candied Jalapenos that will be ready to sell in a couple of weeks.

Candied Jalapenos

Almost forget. We have Candied Jalapenos again so if you are interested in getting a jar, phone, email, or just come by. We made them in larger jars this time so they are $10. We will also be doing a fund raiser at the Goldtown Nickelodeon on April 28th. If you didn't know Fred was in a movie. The fund raiser will be the showing of the movie "Little Red Book"as well as including a silent auction. Candied Jalapenos will also be available. So anyway this is the "Little Red Fund Raiser" I will post more info as things become finalized. Hope to see many of you there.

They are wonderful!

Quick Update

Okay time for a quick update. We are waiting on our Article 5 which should be picked up from the US consulate in Guangzhou sometime next week. This is the last step before China will issue our travel approval. We also received our Chinese visas today, so we are ready to go on that end.

 We received an update on Na Hui last week. She has been receiving our letters and is happy about being adopted. We will get one more update on her before we travel. We are still hoping to be in the June 8th group, meaning we will be leaving Juneau on May 31st. We are planning on stopping in Portland on our way to Beijing. Believe it or not it is on the way. We are also hoping to fly back in to Portland so if you are in that area and want to meet Na Hui, we will allow enough time to come out of the secure area for folks to meet her before we continue on home.
The boys are starting to get excited about having a sister. They have been doing a little shopping.

Never fear, we didn't buy them, but it sure was fun playing with them in the store. Okay I will report more when we get our Article 5.

Sunshine and Day Dreams

This week was spring break and it has been beautiful. The sun has been shining and the sky is blue. This is not always the case here. Anyway we have been enjoying it. We received notice that our I-800 was approved and now we wait for the NVC (National Visa Center). Hopefully this will not take to long and we will be off to waiting for our Article 5. NaHui's room is complete and thanks to Aunt Suzi who went shopping at Ikea for us, Na Hui has a new down comforter  and duvet with beautiful flowers. I will take a picture soon and post it. My mom is also making a quilt for NaHui that will match great.

After this week school is going to get really busy. We have about 2 months until the end of the year and so it should be none stop from here on out. There is SBA testing, and Pillars of America, and all the other unexpected activities that pop up in the Spring. We have our play and all of the backstage groups, which will be performed May 10th & 11th, then a week later we leave on Odyssey (a week out of town with the class). We will come back with just two more days of school and then we, hopefully, will be leaving for China. It should go by very quickly and hopefully I don't send to much time worrying about the play. The kids pull it off every year, even when I think they won't. Although I generally don't start worrying until about two weeks before the performance so I am starting early this year. It will all be fine, I just have to keep telling myself that. (For those that don't know Zane and Quade are both in my class).

We have done most of the shopping for our trip and I have put together a packing list. So all in all I am ready. Fred and I still need to find all of the kids books that are in storage but I think we are good. I have however been thinking about things to entertain NaHui on the 13hr flight home. She still will not have very much English and that is a long time. I am hoping we will all sleep  most of it but I doubt that will be the case. I pray that NaHui will be comfortable with all of us and not just latched on to one. I hope that she will have started to attach to us and it won't be to traumatic for her. I hope that she can openly grieve and not bottle it up inside. I hope that she will let us comfort her and she will begin to understand that we will always be there for her, that she will never be alone again.

I wonder about NaHui's foster family. She is one of five kids in the house one of two girls. Does she think of her foster mother as her mama? and her foster father as her baba (Mandarin for father)? She has been living in a foster family since she was 3 yrs old. Has it been the same foster family? Were there always five kids? have some left and others added? There are just some many questions that I do not know the answers too. Maybe one day we will and maybe we won't but we will make do with what we do know and go from there. I pray that she is looking at our pictures and coming to the place where she can except us as her mama, baba and gege (times 2). NaHui we love you so much already.