I'm pregnant!

Happy Holidays everyone! We have big news to share - I am pregnant! My due date is June 10th, 2009 so I am just over 16 weeks along. So far I've been feeling really good - not really any sickness, just occasional tiredness. I'm still not showing a whole lot, but I imagine I will be in the not-too-distant future! In a couple of weeks I will find out if the baby is a boy or girl, which is quite exciting. And no, this does not affect our Taiwanese adoption - we have planned all along to try to have a bio baby during the wait, and fortunately that has worked out for us. We're excited that our plans for our family are finally coming to fruition. I think I'm going to add another ticker to the bottom of my blog, so everyone can track my progress with me. :)

6 months

So it has been 6 months so far since we started our adoption journey (since signing our contract). I feel like we have made great progress moving up ASIA's wait list, and I'm excited to think about what the next 6 months will bring! Unfortunately we had to have our pet degu, Krillin, put to sleep over the weekend. He was old (7 or 8 years) and had suffered from strokes, so it was the only humane thing to do. We will miss him. We don't plan on replacing him any time soon. When we have kids old enough to appreciate a little guy like that we will think about getting another degu - I don't think I could ever get a hamster or gerbil after having had a great degu like Krillin.

Interesting Taiwan domestic adoption article

I came across this article and thought that it was quite interesting...it talks about the number of children who are abandoned, and how the number of domestic adoptions is decreasing due to financial woes.

http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_content.php?id=765857&lang=eng_news&cate_img=49.jpg&cate_rss=news_Society

Moved up in line! #3

Today we officially moved up from spot #4 to spot #3 on ASIA's NSN infant waiting list! I'm not 100% sure what happened, but it does appear that one of the 3 families actually waiting for a referral in Taiwan (the list AFTER our list) dropped out, for whatever reason. I hope it is because they found their child elsewhere.
We are progressing much quicker than we had expected - unfortunately it is not because of referrals so far. In other words, we are progressing because other families are quitting, not because babies are coming home. There still hasn't been a referral since December 2007. So when people stop dropping out of line (which seems like it'd have to happen eventually), we will still likely have quite a wait to actually get a referral.
Also, for any family and friends who may be getting excited about our progress, please remember that even if we reach the top of our wait list, we can't submit our homestudy to Taiwan until our future bio baby is 6 months old. So we have quite a wait, no matter what :) That being said, it is still quite exciting. I would be thrilled if we made it to the top of our waiting list before bio baby is 6 months old - that would really speed up our projected process!

Rumors..and Japan pic

Here are just a couple of photos from our Japan trip! The first one is me and Chris in front of Mt. Fuji, and the second is us in front of a beautiful Buddhist temple in Tokyo.

It was an awesome trip....

Anyways, we've heard rumor that we may be moving up another spot in line. Which is just amazing. Unfortunately it is not because of a NSN infant referral - but I'm not sure why. And we've heard no official notice about it either. But we may be #3 on ASIA's waiting list soon.....

Unfortunately even if we make it to the top of the list soon, we won't be able to submit our homestudy to Taiwan until our future bio baby is 6 months old...so we've got awhile :)

Back from Japan - and one spot closer!

We are back from a week in Japan - and we had an AWESOME time. Once I get sorted through my 600+ photos, I may try to post a few.
I was delighted to see today that we are one spot higher on ASIA's NSN infant waiting list! We are now number 4! That means there are only 3 other families between us and the top of the waiting list. Yay! Not sure what happened to put us there - I know there wasn't a NSN infant referral, so I'm guessing someone switched to a different waiting list or something. Any way, I'm happy :)

1 month waiting - and going to Japan soon!

Today is our official 1 month of waiting on ASIA's waiting list. Sounds silly, but it's nice to now be able to measure our wait in months. Feels like we're getting somewhere.

In other news, Chris and I are going to Japan in a week and a half! We will be there for a week, and I'm super super excited!!! There are a lot of Taiwanese restaurants in Tokyo, which I think is really cool. I'm sure I'll have fun shopping, too. It may be hard to find food without fish (Chris and I AND my sister and her husband who are going, too, are all vegetarians), but I'm going to print out a lot of terms and sentences in Japanese that will be useful, which I can just show to the people at the restaurants. Can't wait!!!

Taiwan Fun Fact #3 - Chinese Taipei Medal Count

Just an update on the Olympics - Taiwan (aka Chinese Taipei) has won 4 medals so far! 2 bronze medals in Women's weightlifting, and 2 bronze medals in Men's Taekwondo (both of these sports have multiple weight classes of course). Unfortunately I haven't see any of these on TV.

ASIA puts hold on new applications

I just happened to be looking at ASIA's (our agency) website today, and noticed that they have the following notice up on their Taiwan page:

"NOTICE: It appears that the wait for healthy Taiwanese infants is growing longer and it is difficult to predict how it will change over the next months. The situation is very fluid and could slow down further or speed up, depending upon a number of circumstances. Effective August 3, 2008, ASIA has put a temporary hold to accept further applications for the Taiwan newborn to two year old program. This is due to an increasing list of families in line to submit their home studies to Taiwan. This does not impact families already in process. If you are interested in applying, I recommend you check in with the office on a regular basis to see when we will reopen this particular program. We will also post a notice on our website when we reopen. If you want to be notified by email, please email tonif@asiadopt.org . As of August 11th, the following Taiwan programs are still accepting applicants:Children 2-5 years old with minor special needs, Healthy children 5 years and older, Waiting Children of any age "


Interesting, no? Looks like we got in line just in time.......

Moving up the list!

We found out that we have advanced one place on our agency's list! Instead of being #6, where we started, we are now #5! This is because someone further up on the list has accepted the referral of an older child and is no longer in line. We are very happy for the family (whoever they are!) who will be getting their child in the near future, and very happy that we are one spot closer to our own child :)

Taiwan Fun Fact #2 - Taiwan in the Olympics

For those who don't know, Taiwan does indeed participate in the Olympics under a separate name from China. You will find them participating under "Chinese Taipei". I'm sure they would prefer to use "Republic of China" but that definitely wouldn't fly with the mainland. So keep an eye out for the Chinese Taipei teams! In 2004 Taiwan took home its first 2 gold medals - both in Taekwondo. I've heard that baseball and archery are also their strong suits.
Go Chinese Taipei!

Adoption Info #1 - Adoption Language

Adoption Language

Adoption is an interesting thing. Everyone knows a little bit about it, but relatively few know a great deal. I am definitely still learning. One thing that you learn early on in the game is that often the uninformed don't use the best terminology, and that can be taken as offensive or at least insensitive. To help out those who don't know much about the lingo, I'm posting a list of not-so-good terms and terms that could be used instead. I'll try to explain why when it is unclear.

Not-so-good Terms:

--"Real Parent/Mother/Family". This might come up in a question such as "Why couldn't her real mother keep her?" To suggest that the parents who adopt the child are not truly the child's parents can be really hurtful - not just to the parents, but to the child as well. A real parent isn't necessarily the person who gives birth to you or gives you genetic material - a real parent is the person who loves you and (ahem) parents you. The preferable term to use in this situation would be "Birth Parent/Mother/Family".

--"Natural Parent/Mother/Family". Very similar to the last term, this could come up in questions: "Are you her natural mother?" It does beg the question: what is an unnatural mother? Kind of creepy. In these cases, the term "Biological Parent/Mother/Family" would be preferable.

--"Adopted child" vs. "Own child". This could come up when you are being introduced to someone new: "This is Amber and Chris. They have an adopted daughter, and a daughter of their own." Or in the form of questions: "I know you want an adopted child, but don't you want one of your own, too?" To suggest that only one's biological children are one's "own" is a hurtful thing. One's children are one's children - how they came to join the family should be irrelevant. You may find this distinction in magazine articles about famous adoptive couples - the press is always quick to point out which children are adopted and which ones are "their own". To be polite, one should simply refer to them as "their children". If one really needs to differentiate, one could use the term "biological children" and "adopted children".

--"Is Adopted". This one may seem subtle, but it makes sense. To say "My sister IS adopted" is to label her, to place a stigma on her for the rest of her life. To say she "WAS adopted" just tells the world about her past history.

--"Adoptive Parent". This is similar to the "Own child" discussion above. It is unnecessary (in most cases) to say "Amber and Chris are the adoptive parents of an infant girl". Although there is no shame at all in adopting (I don't want to suggest that there is or that we will in any way try to hide the fact our child was adopted), the world doesn't need to constantly be reminded that that's how our family was created. (The fact that she will look different from us will be enough for most people) Simply saying "parents" in this case would work quite nicely. Besides, does a child want "adoptive parents" or do they just want "parents"? All kids need plain old parents.

There are many more right/wrong terms that come up, but I'll stick to the above ones for now, as I feel they are the most important. As a general rule of thumb, it's best just to think sensitively, and pay attention to what connotations your words may have that you don't even intend. Between adults it may not be a big deal, but when you are talking to (or in the presence of) a little child it can hurt feelings and self-esteem.

As a side note, there are also some initials that are used in adoption which may be unfamiliar, so I'll touch on those as well:

SN = special needs. This would refer to any child with medical/emotional/cognitive issues which might require extra attention.

NSN = non-special needs. This would refer to any child who has no known issues.

AP = adoptive parent.

PAP = prospective adoptive parent.

CY = Chung Yi. This is the name of the orphanage our adoption agency works with for the placement of children.

ASIA = Associated Services for International Adoption. This is the name of our adoption agency.

Taiwan Fun Fact #1 - Where is Taiwan?

Where is Taiwan?

I knew very little about Taiwan before I started researching adopting there, so I would like to share with my family and friends little bits of fun, useful info about Taiwan while we're waiting. I'm starting with the basics - Where is Taiwan? Take a look at the map above, and you'll see Taiwan in the red box. It is often described as a leaf-shaped island approximately 100 miles off the coast of mainland China. The island (there are actually many smaller islands also apart of Taiwan but which are not usually discussed) itself is slightly larger than the combined land mass of Maryland and Delaware, to put things in perspective.

On ASIA's waiting list!!

We are pleased to announce that we are now on ASIA's waiting list! Our official date is yesterday (7/28/08), and we are #6 on the list I found out today. We are excited!! That means there are 5 people ahead of us on ASIA's waiting list, waiting for a spot to open up in Taiwan. There are 3 spots in Taiwan (those are people actively waiting for a referral), so in total there are 8 people ahead of us for our agency (I have NO CLUE how many people there are total). 8 is a lucky number. We are requesting a NSN (non-special needs) infant girl age 0-12 months. My best guess at this point is that it will be perhaps 3-4 years for a referral? I am basing that upon knowing that there has not been a referral since December 2007 (so 7 months and counting), and basically there is nothing to suggest a speed-up anytime soon. We will try to be patient :) So we are done with this portion of the process, so we can mostly kick back and wait now (except that we are still having to work on our adoption education classes). I'll still post occasionally, though. I'm thinking about providing useful information about Taiwan and about adoption issues to my family and friends who will hopefully watch our journey via this blog, so check back often!

Word from Chung Yi

We FINALLY heard from our agency about what Chung Yi is saying in response to the various rumors floating around. Thankfully, there isn't any specifically bad news for us. Unfortunately, however, there really wasn't any good news either. In fact, there was very little news at all. Basically they are saying that the rumors are not true - nothing has changed in their policies or restrictions. So that means that nothing is likely to change anytime soon, either (i.e. referrals will likely continue to be either slow or non-existant). So while I'm glad nothing happened to immediately kick us out of the program, we are still concerned about the overall wait time.
Here is the email we received from our director, for those who are interested:

"As you may know, I returned from Taiwan on July 20th, after traveling with our first Taiwan family to meet their new child. Today I will write you a short note regarding the outcome of my meeting with orphanage Director, Ms. Kao; Assistant Director, Ms. Chuang; Supervisor of Social Work Section, Ms. Kuo; and Social Worker; Ms. Teng. First and foremost, Ms. Kao, the Director, indicated that they wish to continue working with ASIA as our contract stands – that is, working for the placement of both non special needs and special needs children. The wait for non special needs children, particularly infants, is very unpredictable. It is based upon how many infants become available and this greatly fluctuates. While they did not give exact numbers, they made it clear that at this time few non special needs infants are available – the length of wait to referral directly corresponds to the numbers of infants available. They did not share with me how many agencies they work with; however, they did state clearly that some agencies ONLY have contracts to place special needs children, while others, like ASIA, have contracts to place both special and non special needs children. The majority of the children available for adoption is older or are sibling groups. They did not understand why Chung Yi sibling groups were not easily adopted in our country. I explained that we have many sibling groups available in the U.S. for adoption; therefore, some families choose to adopt domestically rather than internationally. I also explained that many families prefer adopting a single, healthy infant. I raised the question again of the appearance that the U.S. is not receiving healthy infants from Chung Yi. Ms. Kao, explained, as she did previously (see ASIA’s May 26th email to Taiwan families) that the Foundation does not try to influence the choice a birth family or guardian makes. Families/guardians make the choice of adoptive family based upon their own desires or subjective assessment of which family will provide the child with the best opportunities and stability. I explained the adoptive families’ frame of reference to help the Foundation leadership understand the emotional and stressful position adoptive families experience during this wait. I told them that I will always communicate confirmed information from Chung Yi to all of ASIA’s Taiwan “families in waiting” via email letter and at the same time. I told them that I will neither rely on nor support rumors – that I will convey to families only what we know directly from the Foundation. ASIA will not support rumors, but we will inquire with Chung Yi to confirm or deny rumors or conflicting information. In my opinion, the Foundation’s leadership appears very devoted to all the children in their care, and they seek the best situation for those children. The Foundation has an obligation to place the children first domestically, then internationally – just as many other countries do. While Taiwan is not a signer on the Hague Convention, Chung Yi does follow most of the same guidelines and a priority to domestic placements is a Hague requirement. ASIA also follows the same Hague Convention requirements when working with Chung Yi. They did not provide me with any changes to current policy. As it stands, when they have changes to policy, they will inform all Foundation contracted agencies with a memorandum outlining those policies. ASIA will forward this information to waiting families as soon as possible. So for the moment, everything stands as it was two weeks ago:• ASIA contracts with Chung Yi Foundation for the placement of both special and non special needs children• The wait to referral for a healthy infant is completely unpredictable. If you choose this path with Chung Yi, I recommend you be prepared to wait several years or more; and if it happens sooner, that’s a beautiful surprise.• The referral wait for a healthy older child (two and older) is likely to be shorter, depending upon how many families are in the queue.• The referral wait for special needs and sibling groups will be the shortest.• The wait after referral to the final court date runs approximately the same for all children being adopted. That is completely dependent upon review of paperwork and availability of court dates.• Chung Yi and ASIA agree to keep the lines of communication open between us. While I wish I could tell you a precise timetable, I cannot. It would be unethical to promise something I know to be otherwise. The good news is that the children from Chung Yi appear very well cared for, loved and are as healthy as any medical condition allows them to be. Their environment is clean and cozy; it’s a lovely country with kind people – the children come from a strong heritage and tradition. And in my opinion, this counts for a lot."

Homestudy Rough Draft!

We just returned from our yearly Cousin Camp trip (i.e. family reunion), and found an email from our social worker Nancy waiting in my inbox. She sent us the rough draft of our homestudy to appove! Both Chris and I read it thoroughly and made a few minor suggestions. I just emailed the revision back to her, and the next step will be for ASIA to ok it as well. Then we will be able to send off the final draft to ASIA and officially get on their waiting list! Huzzah! I'd been hoping to get on the list before August, and it looks like that will be very doable :)

Final visit over!

Our final homestudy visit was this morning, and it went great! Nancy showed up right on time, and we did just a brief walk-through of our house (she didn't look in any closets or open any cupboards or anything). She didn't go into the backyard (viewed it out the windows), so she didn't actually interact with Ginkgo - she just SAW her, so that worked well :) Fortunately it was a nice cool morning so we just opened the windows, ran the attic fan for awhile, and then turned on some fans for while Nancy was here (in case you don't know, our central AC is broken). The topic of AC never came up, so we just didn't mention it and it didn't appear to be an issue. We then sat down in the living room and had a nice Q&A session for a couple hours, then she said she'd hopefully have the rough draft to us sometime next week! Once we approve it she'll send it to ASIA to approve, then she'll send us the final copies. I am definitely hoping we can get everything done this month, and it sure sounds like that'll be a possibility. Once ASIA receives the final draft, we'll get put on the waiting list. Now we just have to hope the waiting list will exist....(still waiting to hear news about Chung Yi and whatever changes they have made to their policies). At any rate, we're relieved that our portion of the homestudy is over! We may go out to eat tonight to celebrate. Probably somewhere Asian...

Big day tomorrow

So tomorrow morning at 8:30am, our social worker will be coming to our house for our final homestudy visit! The place is pretty clean, so I think we'll be good there. Ginkgo did pretty well with our recent house guests, so I'm hoping she won't be too hyper when she meets Nancy. We're hoping that she will be able to write up our homestudy report pretty quickly after our meeting - we're still rushing to get on ASIA's waiting list, even if we don't have any idea what is happening with Chung Yi's new rules/regulations yet. We just figure we have to keep pushing forward like normal and just hope everything works out OK.....Wish us luck! :)

Third meeting with Social Worker!

So today we had our third meeting with our social worker. It was actually pretty fun - we spent a lot of time looking at and talking about kids books that focus on adoption. This was our last visit at Nancy's house -the next (and final!) visit will be in our house. We are a bit nervous (and are cleaning every chance we get!) but Nancy has made us feel very comfortable, so I'm not too anxious.
I am anxious, however, about the overall status of healthy infant Taiwan adoption from Chung Yi (and other orphanages, too, I suppose). Rumors are flying that Taiwan will no longer send healthy infants to the US - that they are either keeping them for domestic adoption or they are sending them all to Sweden. It would seem that someone from ASIA is actually going to Taiwan this week to find out what is going on (hopefully). So we are crossing our fingers that everything will work out all right. We are researching other options, but we are really hoping everything will work out with ASIA and Chung Yi (for many reasons, one of which being the money we have already paid them and which we would likely lose forever if we had to walk away to apply elsewhere). So cross your fingers for us...and let me know if anyone hears more info on the subject! Thanks!

2nd Meeting/Blog additions

We had our second meeting with Nancy today, and I feel it went really well. This time there was a lot more Q&A, which was actually quite nice. I really felt like we had some good conversations. Only two more meetings to go! I'm nervous about the in-home meeting, but I don't feel TOO bad about it. We'll get our house nice and clean before then :)
I added a few features to this blog - just to jazz it up a bit. I've added a clock showing Taipei time (just because I think its neat) and a break-down of our timeline. I know I always love looking at other people's timelines, so I thought I'd get ours started - someone may appreciate it someday!
Tomorrow is my 27th birthday, so I get the day off work! I'm just going to bum around and go collect all the free birthday food I've been signing up for all year long. Probably have to do a bit of homework, too, unfortunately (I'm working on my Master of Liberal Arts degree). Mostly a fun day, though.

Meeting results

So I think our first meeting went really well! We went to Nancy's house (nice place, not far from my work) and she gave me iced tea, and she did most of the talking! She gave us tons of hand-outs (articles, lists of adoption resources, etc), talked to us a lot about various adoption issues, etc. Chris and I actually did very little talking! She made us feel very comfortable, I'd say. It lasted a little over 2 hours, and we are going back next Tuesday for our second visit. Then our third visit will be on Monday the 30th, and our final visit (in OUR house) will be on Wednesday July 9th! We told Nancy we are hoping to finish as soon as possible, and she said she'd go ahead and start writing up her portion so it will be done not long after our final visit. So it looks like we're doing pretty well time-wise. We are just so anxious to finally get on the waiting list and be able to kick back and relax for awhile....

First meeting with Nancy

So tomorrow we have our first face-to-face meeting with our social worker, Nancy. I've really been looking forward to this day, because I feel like we've really gotten something underway now! We are hoping that we may get two meetings in next week, in which case our final meeting (in our house!) would be done before the 4th of July. It would be nice to have it out of the way before the holiday, we have relatives staying with us, etc. Plus we are anxious to get on the waiting list. We just got the username/password combo to log-in to the "ASIA families only" section of the ASIA website, which is neat. They let you really follow how many families are logged in to the waiting list, when people get referrals, etc. It is nice to see, but frustrating because we feel the wait will be very very long for us. We are anxious to get on the waiting list, because I know there are other families pushing to finish homestudies, too, and the sooner we get on the better. So wish us luck...I'm not really worried about the meeting going poorly or anything, but it's just an important meeting so I want it to go well!

5th Anniversary

Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary! I spent the morning doing a heart-walk with my mom, sister Kachina, and her kids Theo and Ellie. It was pretty fun! Then we went to our favorite windery (Pirtle winery: www. pirtlewinery.com) where we drank mead and fruit wine and ate a tasty cheese/bread/apple basket under the grape arbor. We also visited Daddy's house for a bit since we were in the area, ate some ice cream cake, and went to see the second Narnia movie - Prince Caspian. It was a fun day!!

We have been working hard on our homestudy documents - the autobiography is tough. Mine is probably going to end up being 10 pages long or something. We have to fill out a lot of forms for different clearances and request a lot of letters from people (reference letters from friends, verification of employment from our workplaces, etc). It is a lot of work (and takes a long time!) but we are anxious to get it all done so we can get on the first waiting list (the one with our agency to wait for the privilege of sending our homestudy to Taiwan - we are guessing it will be at least 1 1/2 to 2 years and possibly even more). It will all be worth it eventually :)

Ready...set...go!

Well, we've done it! For several reasons (primarily because of reports that Taiwan adoption wait times are growing rapidly), we decided to just go ahead and start our Taiwan adoption! I emailed Marci with ASIA, and she sent us the application form. The first big step.....!!

First we went out to dinner at Dragon Inn, a local Chinese restaurant, to celebrate. Then Chris painted in the first eye of our Daruma doll. Then we filled out the application! We are officially on our way!! I just got done emailing Nancy Bean, who is a local social worker I've communicated with before regarding doing a home study. I am a bit worried about the home study portion, just because it is going to be rather indepth (and means we will have to do a LOT of house cleaning soon!). So we will start working on that portion, as well.

Wish us luck!!

Getting closer....

We are now only 20 days from starting the adoption process! During a recent trip to Epcot we purchased a Daruma doll for our bio baby and one for our Taiwan baby. Daruma are Japanese wishing dolls--they have blank eyes, and one is supposed to fill in one of the eyes when one makes a wish (in our case, when we start paperwork for our Taiwan baby) and then fill in the second eye when the wish comes true (when we bring her home!). It is something I have wanted to do for a long time :) I'm glad they still had the Daruma dolls at the Japanese pavillion!
On a side note, I have been hearing rumors that some Taiwan agencies are switching to SN only. I am going to email ASIA to make sure we are still cool to move forward in just a couple of weeks!

New start date

So we were thinking about our timeline, and realized there really isn't any reason for us to wait any longer to start the adoption process than our 5th anniversary (May 31). Once we reach that milestone, nothing else is really going to change for awhile. We figure we'll have saved enough money for the initial costs, we're already starting way before we need to, we kinda want to get the initial homestudy out of the way anyways, etc, so why not? So we're going to get things rolling earlier than we had previously anticipated. We will still have to wait until our future bio baby is at least 6 months old before the homestudy can go to Taiwan, so our overall timeline isn't changing any - we just get to start earlier :) I updated our ticker, which was quite satisfying - what with jumping forward in time considerably!

Taiwan presidential election

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/presidential%20election/2008/03/23/148413/Jubilation-over.htm

So it looks like the KMT party won the presidential election....I don't know how this will affect things in Taiwan, but I know that KMT is somewhat more "pro China" than the opposition party--so there probably will not be any huge disputes between the mainland and Taiwan anytime soon, so that is good.

ASIA?

So now we are considering an agency called ASIA (Associated Services for International Adoption). I'll post their website link under the 'agencies we are considering' area. I think they may work out really well...they work with the orphanage Chung Yi, and the process is a little bit different. I'm still learning, but as I find out more I'll post about it! Marci, the woman with ASIA that I've been talking with, is really nice and responds really quickly to my emails - that is always a good sign :)

No more FHSA for us :(

So I got an email from the Florida Home Studies and Adoptions agency (who I have been in contact with several times so far in 2008), telling me that since January of this year they are only working with residents of Florida. WTF? They tell me this in March?? So I'm disappointed, as they were our front runner. Right now we're down to one option now (Commonwealth), and that makes me uncomfortable. I am off to research other agencies so we can hopefully have two options once again..........

Confucius Institute

For anyone local to the Kansas City area, the KU Confucius Institute sounds really awesome! They have Chinese New Year and Dragon Boat celebrations, summer school culture and language classes for kids, language classes for adults, etc. In the month of March they are having a Chinese film festival on Saturday mornings which is just a couple blocks from our house! Check out their website, I'm excited to have found it (I heard about it on NPR):
http://www.confucius.ku.edu/index.shtml

I also found a link about the Chinese garden that is being planned for Kansas City! http://www.chinagardensociety-kc.org/ChineseGarden_KC.htm
I don't know where it will be located exactly, but it definitely sounds like it's going to happen! I'm really excited about that.

And I also found a website for the Kansas City Chinese Association which sounds really neat: they are hosting the film festival http://www.kcca-ks.org/main/home.html
I am very happy to have so many Chinese cultural things here in town that my family can go to and experience :)

Chinese New Year!

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. The house is decorated, but we won't be doing any serious celebrating today. I'm sure I'll wear red today, but our family party is tomorrow night. My sister Kachina and her two kids plus my dad and step-mom will be coming over for a big dinner. I'm going to make tea eggs (first attempt!), fried rice (new recipe!), egg drop soup (slightly altered!) and blooming tea (first attempt!). Should be fun! I intend on taking a number of photos tomorrow with the intent of eventually using some of them in our adoption photo book. That is exciting for me :)

Waiting, and Passports!

We are now officially less than 6 months away from starting the adoption process! This is very exciting to me. For many years we thought we would be adopting from mainland China, and thought we would have to wait until I was 30 (i.e. 2011?) to even begin. So to now be so "close" to starting.....it makes everything seem so much more real. We are leaning heavily toward the Florida Home Studies and Adoption agency, because a) they don't have any problem with PAP getting pregnant during their wait, and b) their upfront costs are lower - so the fees are more spread out over the almost 3 year period. That is very helpful for us, since we will have to be saving/raising/borrowing the money along the way.
Another piece of cool news - we got our passports yesterday! It took less than 3 weeks to get them, which surprised me. We didn't have them expedited or anything. Passports are one of the few documents/items we can collect ahead of time - unfortunately most docs are time-sensitive and we'll need to wait until the last minute to collect them.
Anyways, that's all for now!