Finding Ad

We received Xiu Gang's "finding ad" in the mail today. When I opened the package, the first thing I pulled out was a copy of the newspaper that the ad had been placed in...."The Chongqing Legal System Daily". I flipped through the paper and found the page that had the babies ad's, I scanned the pictures and found Xiu Gang right away!!! It made me so happy to know that I was able to pull her face out of the crowd. There were 21 other photos of children on the page.

The ad was published on December 12, 2008, when she was only 3 months old. I can't say for sure how old she is in this photo, but my guess is that she is pretty close to 3 months. This is earliest photo of her we will probably ever have. It's precious to me.

Included in the package, as well, was a map of the Qianjiang District, an enlarged photo of her ad and a translated version of the information that was placed next to her photo.

I'm trying to keep a calm, patient heart, but it's getting harder and harder. I want to kiss her sweet cheeks so bad I could cry....I'm not going to let myself cry though because we are going to Costco to get some "passport" type pictures taken for our visa application (I don't want to have puffy eyes)!

Still no travel approval....I'm hoping we'll hear something about that by tomorrow.

Tentative Travel Dates!!

We have TENTATIVE travel dates!!!! Although our travel approval has not yet arrived, our agency is hoping that the following dates will be our travel dates.

Thursday, July 30th - Leave the U.S.
Friday, July 31st - Arrive in Beijing
July 31st - August 13th - Our stay in China
Thursday, August 13th - Leave Guangzhou for the U.S.

Since our agency has not yet received our travel approval, they can not confirm an appointment for us at the American Consulate in Guangzhou, therefore, these dates can change. But, it's exciting to see none the less!!!

Although I still stare at her photos in amazement everyday, the excitement from her referral arriving has worn off, the anxiety over packing has begun and the ache in my heart to see Xiu Gang in person is getting harder and harder to ignore. Five more weeks, huh?! I can do that!

Our cruise!

 

We just returned from our cruise. We had such a great time. The boys thought they had died and gone to heaven. They had so much fun. Jacob loved driving the boat that we rented and hanging out at the kids club on the ship and Benjamin was all about the "all you can eat ice cream" (go figure). I could go on and on, but I won't. I'll let the pictures do the talking. The one thing I will say (since it can't be pictured) is that our baby girl turned 9 months old on the third day of our cruise (June 10th). The day before that, we were on the island of Catalina. Amongst other things, the four of us hopped into a little "surf shop" and bought XiuGang a pink tank top that says "Catalina Island".

After we debarked the ship, we headed down to Oceanside to visit my brother, Chris, and spend some time with our very good friends, the Pachesky's at the beach. Sarah, Norah, my Dad, Taylor, Max, Lincoln, Axl and Vienna all met us there. It was a great way to end our trip!
First day on board!

 

"Mom let me order lobster!"

 

This is not Macaulay Culkin..I swear, it's Jacob enjoying the robes in our stateroom.

 

Benji, chill'in off the shores of Catalina Island.

 

Benjamin took this picture..AT BREAKFAST (thank god I had makeup on)

 

Driving the boat...with one hand!

 

Driving the boat with two hands....but still, scary!!

 

Jacob loves these glasses...ALOT!

 

Benjamin and Doug modeling Doug's new "canoe trip" hats!

 

Doug on the beach at Oceanside...it was a "fun" cruise..I guess he's tired...what else can I say?!

 

There's nothing funnier than "pre-teens" at the the beach! Oh wait...Taylor is already 13...OMG!

 

Beach buddies!

 

Norah, my Dad, Sarah, Chris and myself on the beach in Carlsbad. For the record..I wasn't prepared for pictures..seriously, I had been at the beach all day and hadn't showered..there was sunscreen in my HAIR!!! Whatever!

Leaving on the "fun ship"

WE'RE OUT OF HERE!!! Doug and I booked a fun, little family cruise for ourselves and the boys! We set sail tomorrow evening! It's a four day jaunt in the Pacific on a Carnival ship. They call them "fun ships". And let me just say...if our ship isn't "fun" now, it will be when I get on it!!! The boys are so, so, so excited. We wanted to do a little something special with them before the baby comes home and this seemed to be just the thing.

We've been playing Jimmy Buffet music and dancing around the house to get in the mood while we pack. I'm actually the only one dancing (Benji too, a little). I tried to get Jacob to form a congo line with Benji and I when I sent them in to brush their teeth, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Figures!

I think we're going to have a blast on the trip!!! And, who knows, maybe we'll have some tentative China dates when we get home!!

Bon Voyage!!!

Learning about Xiu Gang

 

We received an email Tuesday morning (May 26th) with the translated version of Xiu Gang's narrative. It contained information regarding the events that transpired on her "finding day". Although it was a little tough to read, it's information that I am grateful to have. We learned that Xiu Gang was 6.6 lbs at birth and 19 inches long. That makes her our biggest baby, believe it or not. Benji was only 5 lbs 6 ozs and poor Jacob entered the world weighing only 2 lbs 3 oz. Xiu Gang's surname, Qian, comes from the name of a river in her district...the Qianjiang River. We also learned that she is very active, laughs loud and likes her bath.

After reading about Xiu Gang's "finding day", I got online and visited the website of a man who has helped many families obtain their child's finding ad. I called the number on his website and spoke with him for quite a while about Qianjiang. Both he and his wife traveled there in 2006. He described the city to me in great detail. I purchased a DVD that he made of the city....in fact, we've already received it and watched it. It has footage from inside the orphanage...including the newborn and baby rooms. It also shows footage of many of the finding locations throughout the district..including Xiu Gang's. I'm so very grateful to have this video. It is doubtful that Doug and I will be able to visit her orphanage. I don't even know if we will get to go to Qianjiang. It's highly possible that the babies will be brought to the nearest "large" city, Chongqing, to meet us. If that happens, and we don't get to visit Qianjiang, then this video may be the only images we will have of her birth town.

About an hour or so after I spoke with this man, I received an email letting me know that he had located her finding ad. He is sending it to us along with a copy of the newspaper it was published in. This will most likely be the earliest photo we will ever have of her. I can't wait to see it.

Later that afternoon, I headed off to Fed Ex to overnight our signed acceptance papers back to our agency. Two days later, May 28th, our agency emailed me letting us know that everything had been sent back to China for processing of our travel approvals!!! One step closer!!

The pictures in this post were taken by a family who toured the orphanage when they adopted their daughter. This is where Xiu Gang has been living while she waits for us.

 

 

 

Referral celebration!

 

Sydney and Jaime on referral day!

 

 

I hopped out of bed Saturday morning, the day after we received our referral and immediately sent Xiu Gang's pictures over to Costco for printing. I ordered 4X6's, 5X7's, wallets, black and whites...you name it. I felt like I hadn't slept in days (probably because I hadn't), but I didn't care. The excitement of finally being done with "the wait" was fueling me. I was buzzing around the house, calling people, emailing people...all kinds of "nervous energy" type of things. Doug, on the other hand, went golfing. Men can be so calm during the most uncalm moments in life...it's impressive.

That evening we celebrated with our family. Cody threw together a nice little BBQ at our house. He also mixed up some mean Flirtinis. The girls showed up with tee shirts that had Xiu Gang's referral photo on it. I just about died when I saw that. It was pretty stinking cute.

Sunday, the girls and I (including Vienna) went to Baby's R Us and I bought a glider rocker for the baby's room. It's the first big item thing I have purchase for our sugarplum. It was great because they actually had the chair I wanted in stock, so I was able to bring it home that same day.

It fits so nicely in her room. I have a feeling her and I will spend many, many hours in this chair together.

 

Then finally, Monday night...when things seemed calm...Doug and I sat down together, went through the referral packet (again) and signed our Seeking Confirmation Letter, officially accepting the referral of our beautiful QIAN XIU GANG!

Referral Day!

 

 

 

 

 

It's hard to believe that it's been over a week already since our referral day. It was such an exciting day! We had quite a little crowd of people here to meet the Fed Ex truck. Ann, our Fed Ex delivery gal, was a little taken back at first, but she got very excited when she realized what she was delivering. I was very much relieved to open the package and see that all of the information we had been given the night before about Xiu Gang was correct. Doug and I had agreed that I would open the package right away and not wait until he got home from work. That way, if there was any confusion or conflicting information, we would still have time to call our agency in St. Louis before they closed. Her referral photos were so sweet. We can hardly peel our eyes away from them.

Doug had asked me to email him her pictures right away. We were having technical difficulties getting that done, so Terri and I ran over to Kinko's to get them scanned. Doug got home from work just before we got back. It was all a little caotic and unplanned, but oh well.

That evening we went to a Colin Hay concert. I'm not sure what most people do after they receive their referral, but we had already bought tickets to the show and we knew our good friends would be there, so we decided to go ahead and go. It was actually kind of nice because the drive to the concert was about 40 minutes and it gave Doug and I some alone time to talk about our baby girl. I brought her pictures with us (I couldn't leave her home alone)....it was hard to believe we were really looking at our daughter.

 

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