Another Update!!!

I was pleasantly surprised, again, to have updated information for Kai on my e-mail when I got home from work yesterday! Here's a tidbit from the 2 pages of information:

Cheng Kai, male, is 94 cm tall and weighs 15.5 kg. His head circumference is 49 cm, chest circumference 54 cm, and foot length 16 cm. He has twenty teeth.

This converts to 37 inches tall and 34 pounds. It's definately an improvement from the measurements that were from August of last year. He's growing!!

Cheng Kai likes to eat eggs, milk, candy, and snacks, and he especially likes milk and eggs. He can eat several eggs and still want more. At night he still calls for milk (nai nai). He also likes to eat vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, tomatoes, tofu, taro, broccoli, greens, carrots, and white radishes, etc. He loves soup and meat, and he likes baked pork, soft, and he can eat several pieces. In terms of fruit, he likes bananas and apples.

Cheng Kai is a sweet boy, and he’s polite, hospitable, and enthusiastic about people. If a guest comes, he is very happy, and when it’s time to eat, he has to sit next to the guest. When the guest leaves, he will see them to the door, saying “zai jian, man man zou” (good-bye, go safely). When he sees other nannies, he will greet them on his own initiative.

Cheng Kai really likes to ride in a car, and when they leave, he runs to where the car is. He likes to go out, and he also likes to ride the escalator at the supermarket. He likes to play with other children.

Cheng Kai is in good physical condition. He has one habit when he sleeps, and that is to have his hands outside the covers, which means the top half of his body isn’t covered by the blanket. But he normally doesn’t catch cold. Cheng Kai is a sweet child and his family really likes him. Sometimes he is a somewhat insistent and after he quarrels with his foster big brother, he acts unreasonable.

The update also gave us some very specific information about his urination and bowel movements (I'll spare you the details). However, it did leave us wondering if he's familiar with using a regular toilet. Things that make you go hmmm.....

One (teeny-tiny) step closer

Just a quick update on the paper process. Our Home study update has been completed and notarized. It is being over-nighted (UPS-what a rip off they are now!) to our placing agency, CCAI in Colorado. After our Pre-Approval was issued on 1/30/08, they held our file until the home study update is attached. CCAI will have it tomorrow, they will send it to China. Now, we're waiting for the notice that our file has been moved into the "match room", where they will physically match our paperwork to Kai's paperwork. When this happens, we will get a notice from CCAI to download "travel packet #2" from their website. I'll keep you all posted....

Kai's Room is ready!!

We have been working on Kai's room since we started by painting it over the summer. Yes, I'm glad we didn't paint it pink. Yellow and green with panda bears will suit little Kai just fine. We had the furniture delivered last week. We went back and forth between: toddler bed and twin bed. Yes, I'm glad we hadn't already bought a crib. Here's a couple pics:

Care Package #2

I'm sure many of you have heard about the terrible, record-breaking snow storms all over China. I had been wondering what to send in my next care package. I wanted to send a little something for the foster parents and other 5 foster siblings. Then it came to me...scarves! I went to the fabric store and picked out some fleece fabric that reminded me of Chinese New Year. I cut it into scarves with fringe-no need to sew! I wrapped them up in red tissue for Kai, 3 older foster sisters, 2 older foster brothers, and the foster mother and father. I also included a package of oreo cookies and a small teddy bear.

I took pictures of me making the scarves and a pictures of Gary and I wearing the matching scarves I made for us. I will put these in the package--an excuse to send more pictures of us!

Quilter Needed!!!

I'm very close to having Kai's 100 good wishes for his 100 good wishes quilt. I'm currently at about 80 squares and the last 20 are trickling in. I had one prospect via the internet, but she is no longer doing quilts.

I had set aside a little money to pay someone to assemble the quilt. However, it is not nearly enough to pay the professional quilters that are being suggested to me. We are planning on traveling in about 3-5 months and I would REALLY like to have his quilt completed by the time we leave. There is not quite enough time to save more money for quilting. Although I appreciate the encouragement from others that I could do it myself, there is not enough time for me to learn to quilt AND put it all together, nor do I have the funds or space in my house for a sewing machine.

Sooooo.....If any of you quilts or knows someone who does, please contact me. I'm only hoping for a simple "sew all 100 pieces together" quilt. You can reach me via e-mail: Ninacesena@yahoo.com

Care package for Kai

Last week we sent Kai a care package. We included; 2 coloring books with a package of 8 crayola (fat) crayons, 2 matchbox cars, a small john deer tractor toy, fish crackers, Milano cookies (because they came in cute small packages), a small photo album with pictures of us and our dogs, a small stuffed rat (for Chinese New year-year of the rat), and a disposable camera for the foster family to take pictures with. Our agency gave us a generic letter translated into Chinese that asks the care givers to take some pictures of Kai and his environment and to return the camera to us when we come to get him. Our agency also told us that sending a care package right away is very important, because this is the first indication to the orphanage or foster family that Kai is going to be adopted. They don't get officially notified by the Chinese govornment until they approve us for travel, which is only 2-4 weeks before we actually go! We'll most likely send another care package in a couple weeks and include something nice for the foster parents and five foster siblings we just found out he has!

An update already!!!

Wow-things are moving kind of fast! On the 30th we received PA (Pre-approval). This comes from the Chinese Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) and it is their acknowledgement that they have received our Letter of Intent (LOI)and they are going to find our file (which has been in their office for a year) and move it into the match room with Kai's file.

I was surprised yesterday to see that there was a file titled "Cheng Kai" in my inbox from our agency. Usually, the orphanage doesn't give any updated information until 3 months after the LOI gets sent. There were new photos and developmental information dated for January 28th! This was quite unexpected!!

We are hoping and praying that this means the rest of the process will be going quickly, as I'm sure they want Kai to be adopted as soon as possible.

The next step: We are now waiting for the Letter of Acceptance (LOA) which comes from China and is one more document we need to sign and return to the agency. Then we will be awaiting Travel Approval (TA).

**So many abbreviations, so little time!!

And as you will notice, the blog is no longer pink, I updated it in honor of our little boy!!!