New in my fundraising store

I have listed several great new items for this fall, my own design and all handknit. Here is a teaser. All the sales are helping us getting closer to our dream of adopting a baby girl from China. Today, I sent out our application and we have done the crim recs already, yay !!! Now we only have about million papers left. Happy Saturday, everyone !!!

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Day 2 and 3 of the seminar

We attended the last two day of the seminar. It was very interesting, we got an information overload !!!

Day 2

The most emotional event of the day was the birth grandfather. He spoke about his experience and he was very emotional, yet full of love and understanding of his daughter. During his speech, I thought I'd love to meet his daughter. Imagine my surprise that it was actually Christene, who was one of the main people in our seminar. She is so lovely and kind and nice, I really admire and adore her.

Day 3

I had a sleepless night (absolutely sleepless) Apparantly I pulled a muscle in the pool on Thursday. It didn't hurt but it caused me something I called unrest. It just wouldn't rest my left arm and my legs. I kept moving and trying to fall asleep, and nothing worked. How happy I was it was morning !!! I was going through crisis the whole day though !!

When we got to the seminar, the first thing I noticed is that there is a box of tissues on every table. I thought it's kind of cool, and that I didn't notice them yesterday. And the reason? We were watching the Reunion in Vietnam movie. That was absolutely incredible and very well done. I read a book a while ago, Message from Nam, and it actually ends with the days of chaos and evacuation. Even though that's a fiction, I still remember crying. And now we were watching someone else's story. In this movie, a father has to leave three children behind while he was moving other three children to safety. By the time he can get back, it was so late and the children were taking elsewhere. One of them got really sick so the decision was made she will be flown to the U.S. and other two siblings join and are eventually adopted. The father comes back and cannot find his children (I cried openly at that point) They are growing up in the U.S. and when they are adult, the oldest sister searched for the parents. She went there with her husband and younger brother, but she no longer speaks the language, and cannot communicate with her parents and sisters.

Another thing I recall is that her mother was absolutely beautiful. She did age, but so incredibly ... It was just amazing. She was just stunning. She had the most beautiful face I have ever seen in an elder woman even after decades of hard work and minimal nutrition.

Later in the day, another family came with their newly adopted girls from Haiti, Maddy and Olivia. They were just so adorable !!! Mom was holding the younger girl, and her other daughter was taking care of the older one, like a little mommy. Then she even lifted her up as her mommy did the other girl. It was just adorable.

So now the paperwork begins and then the wait for our own baby !!! B bought me today a book about China, as it's my Birthday. I was so glad to see that he actually thought of what to get me and got something so important for our journey !!!

Seminar, day 1

We attended the first day of the seminar. I met some nice people from the last time and some new ones. The seminar is held in a nice church in Abbotsford. There were lots of things we learnt, but I'd like to mention two.

The first one was that we played a small game, you all know it, just switch the tables (and meet others) With a twist. We left our things behind and yeah, I did feel that unease of leaving my things and not taking them with me. Only then I realized what's the point of the game. The unknown the baby will be facing, and all the familiarity she will be leaving behind.

I seriously thought that we'll just fly her home, put her into her pretty bedroom and she will immediately like it. I am so glad that I realized, that she will not and that she will miss her orphanage for probably quite some time !! I am so glad I know this and I can prepare and do some more research(and mind you, I am doing TONS of research) and m so they we will be ready to face it and help her transition.

The second was a presentation by a very lovely lady and her adopted son Cole. He was from Thailand, and he spoke so openly about being adopted (he was only ten) He was the cutest child ever and you could seriously see, what a great job his mom did, the love for him, the apprecitation for the adoption itself, and the admiration for the culture her child came from. He was so cute that I had tears in my eyes, it was very moving. She said that he came to her family very well behaved at a very young age, even bowing when he wanted something, and that's just adorable.

We got a task to see how we will be dealing with the cultural differences and denial. My response was: we will not be asking the child to totally adjust to us. We will want to take some of her rituals and customs she will come with (she will have spent quite some time in the orphanage by the time we will be able to take her home) and implement them into our own lifes !!! We are so excited and can't wait !!

Step 3 coming up !!!

This week, we are going to the adoption agency for a three day seminar. We are so excited !!! After this, we can submit our application, start the homestudy and then wait for our little baby. Now with the olympic games going on, there is lots of coverage of amazing and fascinating culture. I love to learn all about it, every new thing, every new song I hear, fascinates me. I see how little I know about the chinese culture (I know lots about Africa, cause I lived there, Europe and Americas, but not much about Asia) and I'm catching up fast !!!