Megan's Shower

Almost the entire gang...minus a few

Most everything...not neatly organized!
Megan also got a car seat and wagon not pictured here.

There was a Chinese theme...the food was SCRUMPTIOUS!
And this is pretty much only the sweets side, there was also
homemade wantons, fried rice, and chocolate fondue.

This is a beautiful little blanket my friend Vicki made
for Megan to use on the plane.

This cute little outfit...definitely going to China!
(Since we'll celebrate Easter in China this year.)

We have the sweetest and best-est friends ever! The shower this weekend was so absolutely overwhelming. Megan got so much stuff (as you noticed)! And I could only post a FEW of the photos! I took several!

Thanks everyone...God has certainly blessed us through each of you.

Megan Update

Well, I just received a short update on Megan...she's grown VERY LITTLE since they took her information in November. She's now 12.8 lbs (let's not put that .3lb on all in one day!) and 24.5 in (I think she grew a 1/2 inch). But they did say she is doing "good" (whatever that means). She's just waitin' for her momma and daddy to come now!

This little tyke...wow is she little...can't wait until we can hold and love on her! And hopefully she'll put some pounds on in no time when we get home!

Still waiting for our Travel Approval (TA) which I hope will arrive within the next couple of days as more and more families from other agencies are beginning to receive them today.

Completely Unreal

There have been so many moments since we received referral that I've thought "wow, this is real". (Like when we were going the paperwork with the agency.) But, then I get caught up in the normal routine and can (on some level) forget all about it. After all, we've been in the holding pattern for so long...it felt like we'd purchased a place there permanently (my sister agrees!). Of course, I'd walk past Megan EXTREMELY cluttered, messy, jam-packed room and be reminded, that we--in fact--have received referral! (Now, if only the translation of all our documents will arrive so we can know a little more about little Miss Megan MeiLin!)

This weekend, though...something about TAs beginning to arrive (and Feb coming to a close) has me overwhelmed that this is real. It's not been a wonderful dream. It's real. We know what Megan looks like...we are going to China in about a month! OH MY GOSH! My church family is having a baby shower this afternoon and I think it will be even more real both at the shower and afterwards. Boy, imagine how real it's going to be when we finally get our travel dates. Oh my! I swear, at that point, the stress level will be out the roof! Getting my students, work and home situated is already beginning to stress me out.

To reduce the stress (and shorten the "before we leave" to-do list), I did spend some time yesterday getting a list of easy-to-prepare meals on the fridge (meals that we have all the ingredients for already...or are already prepared in the freezer). If the list is prepared, it will require very little brain work as we are recovering from jet lag. I've reviewed my many "travel suggestions" I've accumulated over the past several years. I've reassessed my packing list...made changes. Oh, and I've determined this weekend what clothes I'm taking (we still need to work on DH--but I know what kinds of clothes, just need specifics). Having all these things done help reduce the stress...it's the "what are we going to forget" thing that's getting me.

SO MUCH TO DO!!! SO LITTLE TIME!!!! Just repeat: It will all get done....deep breath..it's going to be fine...it's all going to be fine.

Travel Approvals

While ours has NOT arrived, a few others who received their referrals with us have received theirs! So, they have begun arriving!

Up to this point, I'm cruising along...doing what I need to do for work, school, home, etc. Once we get TA, I just know I'm going to come to a dead stop once ours arrive. Not only will it be completely real at that point, but we'll have dates on when we will leave, meet Megan and (best of all) come home.

The agency had us send our passports yesterday, they should arrive on Monday. We must be getting close to ours arriving too...so there you have it travel approvals (TAs) are on the way! Lord willing, ours will arrive early next week! Gettin' closer!

Is It Possible???

I'm not even sure if I should blog this yet...but I think it is an awesome illustration of what God can do. So here goes...

Back last Spring, our church did a RCCares Ministry project for an orphanage my friend works with in China. They did not have running water, and we collected money for the China Well Project (to helped fund the orphanage to dig a well and, in fact, they were also able to get a purification system so they won't want to boil it any longer!). Anyways, the staff decided to also give us $1,500 for Megan's orphanage to use to meet needs at her orphanage. We were overwhelmed at the time. We had NO IDEA what doors it could open for us when it was time to find out WHAT orphanage she was at, or when we would bring her home.

I found out today. The director of our adoption agency is in China right now doing humanitarian work at the three Hunan orphanages the girls from our travel group are currently living. I emailed to find out if he could tell me how best to meet the needs as Shaoyang orphanage. He was so grateful that the church would donate money and offered either 1) to find out what needs they have for us to purchase the items when we arrived OR 2) to pool the money with funds he had already alloted to give to Shaoyang and purchase the items right now while he is there. I felt that giving him the funds to meet the needs NOW is the best option (for a number of reasons not excluding the positive impact it could have on our agency--and other China families with the agency--in future relations with China). He then...and here's the miracle...asked IF he could arrange for us to visit her orphanage to see the donated items, would we be interested?

If you remember in my previous post, since her orphanage is so far away and many orphanages do not allow families to visit, I figured there would be no way for us to visit on this trip. I figured maybe when we go back when Megan is older on a "homeland tour" we could visit, but I NEVER expected to be able to visit now! Look how good God is...that because of the kindness of our church family almost a year ago, we may be able to visit her orphanage because of the items that will be purchased.

Is that not amazing? I'm flying on cloud nine...and it's still only a possibility. It might not happen, but the possibility is simply exciting to me!!!

Happy 9 months old!

Today Megan is 9 months old!

How we wish we could mark it with you, baby girl!!!! Maybe we'll be together to mark your 10 month? Okay, maybe shortly after!

What do I love?

Being Valentines and all...I thought I'd post some of what I love...

Miss Megan MeiLin, of course! While knowing what she looks like brings me to a new kind of love for her, I've loved her for many, many years. I'm not sure if it started back in 1999 when I knew I had a daughter in China or in 2000 when I began praying for our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Or maybe it was when finally began the process to bring our Megan home. But at some point in there, I have loved her. Seeing her face last week makes me love her even more...to know who she is and where she is brings a new level of love.


Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my wonderful husband. (And maybe he should be posted in the #1 spot, but my new love took it!) While he's an "old" love, its gotten sweeter with age. I've been in love with him for more than 11 years. I often reflect how different my life would be if I had not met him. And I must say that I think it would not be as fulfilling as it is right now. I could come up with a laundry list of things I have right now that I would have without him, but they would be minor compared to the fact that I wouldn't have him in my life. He is such an amazing, wonderful man. Really most words fall far short of explaining and describing how much I love him and what he means to me.


Happy Valentine's Day, my loves!

Our Document In Transit

We just found out that our document we signed saying "Yes! This is our daughter!" was sent to China today!!!!!

And now we wait...again.

Now we are waiting for our Travel Approval (TA). This is our invitation to come to visit the country so we can apply for our travel visas. These come within 2-5 weeks of sending the document back to China. I'm thinking it will probably be about 3 weeks, but one never knows.

One step closer to bring our Megan MeiLin home!!!!

Where is Megan?

Shaoyang CWI

Megan is located in Hunan province, as I mentioned before. But we have found more information about her orphanage. First off, we found a photo of her orphanage! I don't know when it was taken, but I found the photo at Half The Sky (HTS) as they have program there. This is good news. HTS is a program that hires nannies to come and work with the children so they can be more developmentally on target. They nurture the babies and decrease the nanny-to-child ratio so each child can receive more one-on-one attention. HTS is a non-profit program which does not increase costs to the orphanage. We have sponsored various programs with HTS. In fact, this past Christmas, several family members received the present from us of sponsoring a nanny for a month (and who knows...it could have been Megan's nanny!).

It would also appear that this is a very small orphanage. According to here, there are only 68 children there. Of course, I don't know when that number was recorded as the program began there in 2003. There is also more information about the city of Shaoyang.

It looks like her city is likely 2 hours away from where we will be in Changsha. So, I would say it's safe to say that Megan will be hungry, cranky, tired and in a need of a diaper change when we meet her! And I don't think we will be given the opportunity to go to her orphanage since it is so far away. It would be neat to do so, but maybe we can do that when we got back to visit one day. It's been so neat to read more information about where she is right now.

More Information

Megan MeiLin
Here's one of the photos (my personal favorite is in the previous post)

No, I haven't fallen off the place of the earth...but my head has been the clouds! Does that count? God is so good. A little about getting "the call".

I was carrying BOTH phones with me everywhere I went around the house. I wanted to make sure that I had them on hand when the call came. I was very peaceful all morning as I busily worked on grading papers and getting caught up with my students. At about 11:30am, I couldn't help but wonder if the package had arrived, and then my mind began to wander, so I quit working. As I was making lunch, the doorbell rang (and the dogs went crazy, they HATE it when they miss someone at the door and the doorbell rings!). I noticed there was no one there, so I figured it must have been the mail carrier. So I looked out, and sure enough a package. I was not expecting anything...so I was pleasantly surprised by a beautiful Angelbear Lovie (with Megan's name on it!) from my friend Melissa. I was so blessed by the timing of this precious lovie. I sat holding the precious angel watching my soap opera, waiting for time to pass and the call to come. About 2pm, I began to wonder where-oh-where is my call! I figured it was 3pm NY time...surely the package had arrived! Then at about 2:10pm, my cell phone started ringing. I was expecting Keith to call, but I realized it was a little early for him...looked at caller id...and it was Rachael our social worker! I immediately got a lump in my throat...she said "kris"...immediately the tears started! I couldn't even speak! I think I did squeak out...just a minute, let me get my note sheet. She told me the basic information--asked me what questions I had--and I still couldn't speak as the tears just flowed! Hung up with her...immediately called Keith. I was able to remain somewhat composed to tell him the info. He acted so calm and cool...wrote it all down then immediately went to tell some of the ladies he works with (he works with almost all ladies, bless him!). He was supposed to be leaving work at 2:30, and Rachael had said it was going to probably be an hour before we get the photos. So I was glad I didn't have the temptation sitting there waiting for me! While I was waiting for Keith I called all the usual suspects: Nana, Grandpa, Auntie, and a couple of friends. Then I waited. The phone kept ringing as each of them called me back for more information...and I waited for the photos and for Keith to get home.

Finally, at 3:10 or so, I called Keith to see how close he was to home...we were nearing our hour since the call and I figured the photos could arrive at any moment. And what does he tell me? He is JUST LEAVING THE OFFICE???? I said: What? Get your butt home! We could be getting those photos any minute now! You better speed home! At about 4:30, still no pictures, so I called Rachael...she wasn't in the office! WHAT?! Finally at a few minutes after 5pm, the photos showed up and she called to tell us that she had a meeting at the corporate office and had gotten stuck in traffic on the way back to the office.

While it was so hard to wait until almost 5pm to see her precious face, I'm so glad Keith made it home and we were able to see them together. Our hearts were overflowing with love and joy at this precious girl that the Lord has given us to raise! She is certainly more than we expected. And I couldn't help but think of something Hannah said about Samuel recorded I Samuel 1. We have a figurine in Megan's room that has a paraphrased version on it: "I prayed for this child and the Lord answered my prayer and gave her to me. Now I dedicate her to the Lord. She will belong to the Lord all her life. " Boy does that say it all for us!

Some basic information we know about our precious Megan: she likes music, she laughs, she can locate the direction of a voice, she's fond of playing with toys, she is impatient sometimes, she's active and restless. She is close to a caretaker (who's name is written in Chinese on the documents). Her weight of 12.5lbs was taken in November when she was 6 months old. She really is a tiny baby girl. And one of the youngest in our travel group...and certainly the smallest of the ones I've seen thus far. We are blessed beyond words! Thank you for following our journey, which has now taken the turn we've been waiting for: raising a precious darling from China!

Introducing Our Daughter

Megan MeiLin

Birthdate: May 18, 2007

Age: 8.5 months

Weight: about 12.5 lbs

Province: Hunan (Known for "Spicy Girls"!)

We feel so blessed!
MeiLin (pronounced May-Lynn) is after Auntie Katie Mae & Nana Lin
We'll get more information tomorrow.

Surprisingly, she looks a lot like Ian! And her expression...just like many of the photos we have of him! God is so good!!!

Referrals Have Begun Arriving!!

Not ours...don't get your hopes up, yet! We're definitely Monday.

So...I'm getting to sit back and relax to see the ones that arrive before us!!! The person that I know of is on the West Coast...she still knows no details, they simply got the call they had arrived! Everything is being translated! She's logged in 6 days after us. Someone with the same date as got the call, very young little girl...another person on the 27th, also got the call, but I don't know any information. I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

See...Europe, West Coast, East Coast. Crazy, I know.

It's Official...We're Overdue

I feel like a pregnant woman a week past her due date.

While I didn't experience that with Ian, I CLEARLY remember my mom being 2 weeks overdue with my little sister (I was 10). She wouldn't leave the house...every time she did, people would say, "you haven't that baby yet?". Of course, my response would be: "No, I have, I'm just this fat! Obviously, I haven't! Thanks for pointing that out, I might not have known otherwise." (of course, I didn't get the snide remark skills from her, she would NEVER have thought--let alone say--such a thing!) Anyways, she got very sick of it. So we rode our bikes to the store for the small incidentals so people wouldn't ask the question. (I grew up in a small town, everyone was in everyone's business.)

No...the baby's not here yet. We're officially past our due date. In fact, as of last night, they hadn't even been mailed to our agency yet!? News is it will likely be the beginning of next week before they arrive. How in the world am I supposed to wait ANOTHER weekend? HOW? Do tell...

Maybe I should stay in the house...and not answer the phone.

Update: The agency called DHL...they were sent yesterday (or was that today, only yesterday our time? anyways....)they will arrive Monday!! I don't know what time...but MONDAY! For sure!

It's close!

Apparently referrals are arriving in Europe!!! WOOHOO!!! So, it's likely they will begin arriving in the US later today! Typically (for some reason), they arrive on the West Coast before they arrive on the East Coast. And as luck would have it, our China agency is in NY. Although I'm still holding out hope we'll receive it today, tomorrow is more likely.

I'll take Thursday...that's only 24 hours away!!!!

We are finally down to HOURS!

We're almost there!!!

So...I wake up this morning...after a weekend of realizing Monday is not going to be "the" day either since we've heard NOTHING...to see that a couple of large agencies are telling their families that matching have begun. What's matching? It's where they match babies with families. What's this mean? Well, typically it means that referrals will begin arriving within the next couple of days! For some reason, by the time we hear about matching, they are likely done or almost done matching and the referrals are getting ready to be mailed...oh my gosh we've almost reached the summit!!!

I've been waiting for this news...and now it's here!!! WOOHOO!!! Only a couple days of waiting left! What's your best guess? Tuesday? Wednesday? or Thursday? I'm guessing Wednesday...I'm hoping Wednesday...I'm praying Tuesday! (But, I'll take Wednesday!)

Well, It's Not Today!

Referrals are not going to arrive on Friday, the 25th. Darn it. In fact, there has pretty much been not a stitch of rumor news. Since China is 12 hrs ahead of us...it's already the weekend. So, lookin' like Sunday night/Monday morning before we'll hear anything. Bummer. It's going to be a busy weekend anyways...and...

Hopefully, our LAST weekend without our referral!

What a week!

And it's only Wednesday!!!! So, let's see...


1. WE BOUGHT A NEW CAR! Our Explorer has been giving us problems for a few months and we pretty much knew it's days were numbered. So, we've spent the past couple of weeks researching and went looking (aka shopping for us, we never just look!) on Monday. We test drove this one...and realized it was THE car (even though we had planned on buying a used one)! The new model has quite a few more safety features the previous models do not--it was a huge factor in our decision, and the price was not really all that much different. So, there you have it. We are the new owners of a 2008 Ford Escape. The color is interesting, officially called "Light Sage", but looks a little gray or cream with a hint of green. Interior is a light tan (they call it camel). Can I just say: LOVE IT!

2. The Spring semester started yesterday...figured out yesterday there were things that were screwed up in the class, so I frantically worked on fixing them before the students figured it out! Man, I swear I can do all the planning in the world...and it STILL does not go right! And I really need to figure out a routine for checking 2 classes...tracking it all, etc. I'm trying not to get stressed, yet anyways!

3. We are just days away from referral...I'm hoping they will be mailed on Friday so we'll get them the beginning of next week. I'm thinking though, with not one rumor, they'll likely not be mailed this week. As long as we get it next week, I'll be happy! (Of course, if I had a choice, I'd prefer it be toward the beginning of the week! haha)

So there you have it...a crazy, exciting week! And next week...well, it will top them all!

One week left...

(Well, and maybe a few days)...but it's so exciting!!!! It just doesn't seem possible! The day is finally arriving!!!! It brings back memories when I was pregnant with Ian and they told me I was having him that weekend (over a month early). I remember thinking, "you have GOT to be kidding me! The day has arrived"...and I didn't really even get to think about it..until I was in labor for 36 hours...had lots of thinking time then! haha.

So...we are in the final days of this pregnancy with a gestation period longer than an elephant....25 months not counting the time of gathering the documents, etc. which would bring it up to 32 months. geesh.

No rumors...which why would THIS month be any different than the previous few!? I'm just hoping they are mailed THIS week...so we'll have our referral the beginning of next week...please let it be so!

It is Finished...Kinda

I am finished with the doctorate from the standpoint of the coursework. I passed my oral exams on Thursday morning (although technically I think it was around noon). At any rate, that part is finished. Now, I have the part most people falter at--the dissertation. See at this point you don't have regularly scheduled classes or a syllabus schedule created by someone else to follow. It's simply you. All up to your dedication, focus and discipline. My discipline says a year...we'll see if I can get it done in that time frame. I sure hope so! I want to be able to strictly focus on Megan as soon as possible! Yes, I will do that for a few months, but beginning this summer, research and writing is going to have to move up on the to-do list so I can ultimately get it off the list!

So there you have it...I'm officially a "Doctoral Candidate"...whatever that means!

And then there were 2...

Two weeks to go...I am truly in shock.

It seems unbelievable. I sure wish I knew WHEN exactly we'll get the THE call. And I sure wish Keith & I could be together when we did get the call...but doesn't look like that will happen, unfortunately. Oh yes, I could (aka maybe should) wait to open the email with her photo until he comes home. But seeing as how I cannot wait to give him his birthday presents once I buy them....I'm thinking I couldn't wait to open the email until he gets home. Unless, of course, he is on his way home...but even then, I honestly don't think I could wait!

Will it be Friday the 25th??? Monday the 28th???? (Or Tuesday or Wednesday?) Or not until Thursday the 31st???

Matter how to you look at it...very soon!!!

TWO WEEKS!