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[DISCLAIMER: This blog is not and will not be a forum for my specific political views except as a vehicle to encourage you to participate and vote!]

I went to my first presidential (or for that matter, political) campaign rally yesterday. I have always been interested in politics [read: disgusted], but lately, I find myself even more tuned in to the system. I suppose it is a manifestation of "nesting".

I am glad I went. It is one of those experiences I think everyone should have, in some form. So, Barack Obama breezed through LA yesterday, and I was there. Cool.

(My friend took some pics while we were there, but I don't have them yet - this was downloaded from www.latimes.com)

Even more COOL: My friend from work, brought her daughter and grandson (3 yrs. old). He learned how to say "Barack" and just kept chanting it. Today, she mentioned to me that they heard some clips on the radio on the way to work, and he started saying "Barack" - he remembered.

I am one of those "Every Vote Counts" kind of people. And, I want to teach my children this philosphy. I don't care who you are, what you believe in or why, (well, I sorta do, but that is irrelevant here). HOWEVER, I do care and EMPHASIZE that you should take the time to participate in our political system, take the time to decide what you believe in, and TAKE THE TIME to do something about it. So, I encourage you all to "Exercise Your Right" during the next year and a half (and beyond). . . if not for yourself, do it for my KID!

PS. Teach Peace :)

(sorry, couldn't help myself)

UPDATED: FYI, I haven't made my decision yet.

day off - woo hoo

I have the day off so I am making myself useful.

This post is especially for my little nieces, "Cinderella" (age almost 5), "Belle" (age 3 1/2), "Mulan" (age 3) and, of course, my sister (the teacher) and her 1st grade class:

Here are some cool websites I found with activities and crafts to learn about Chinese New Year - check them out!. Remember, CNY festivities last for 15 days - the 15th day is the Lantern Festival.

for the "year of the pig" - Origami Pig

make a lantern, some fireworks, a dragon or a puppet

make a egg carton dragon

make chinese lanterns, fans, dragons, snacks, sing songs, and have a lantern parade!

dragon dance coloring page

lion dance coloring page

dragon color-by-number page

lantern coloring page

PBS Kids - Chinese New Year online games

Did you know that Lunar New Year is celebrated by one-fifth of the world's population?

I had a great time finding these and there are A LOT more out there. I am bookmarking for my soon-to-be little one. Let me know how they turn out!

ps. Now you have no excuses, Aunt Mimi - get your "game on" now!

Tonight I'm gonna party like it's 4705!

Gung Hay Fat Choy! ("Wishing you Prosperity!" in Cantonese)

Gong Xi Fa Cai! ("Wishing you Prosperity!" in Mandarin)

We have had a great weekend and a Happy [Lunar] New Year! We spent the Eve of the new year at a CNY party given by our friends, Virginia and Sam. They are both from Hong Kong. It was a traditional celebration including all new year traditions. Their house was decorated with traditional chinese new year couplets, lanterns, dragons and, of course, FIRECRACKERS! They had made dumplings as well as fish, pork and lots of rice. The food was delicious and we had a great time visiting with the rest of their friends and family.

Chinese New Year is celebrated on a different day each year, unlike the standard Gregorian calendar that most of us are used to, traditional China follows a "Lunar calendar" that was developed during the 3rd Millenium BC and is considered by Scholars to be the oldest surviving calendar system in the world. You will notice at the right hand side of our blog, we posted the "Current Phase of the Moon". The chinese calendar is based on the phases of the moon, and Chinese New Year is the celebration of the first day of the first new moon of the year.

February 18th marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year, ringing in the Year of the Pig. However, 2007 is a special year in that it is the "Year of the Golden Pig", which falls once every 60 years and is considered to be a very auspicious year in which to have a child (hint hint).

According to Chinese folk customs, 2007 is the "Year of Gold" one of the five elements, and also is the "Year of the Pig", a sign on the Chinese zodiac. The pig is regarded as good luck for a good life. A Golden Pig baby has the benefit of being born under two lucky signs. If you don't know your sign, type in your birthdate on this site to find out!

Today, I went to get a manicure. The shop that I go to is run by some wonderful Vietnamese women. The Vietnamese "Tet" celebration for the New Year is celebrated in conjunction with Chinese Lunar New Year. I decided to take my friends at the shop some tangerines (with the leaves on) as a sign of abundance, happiness and friendship in the new year. They were very excited that I understood their celebration and traditions. I was honored to receive some tangerines as well as a "hong bao" or red envelope from them in return.

We will have to see if the "Year of the Golden Pig" will be an auspicious and abundant year for us. But, for now, I am grateful for the opportunities we have had to learn, respect and celebrate the lovely and heartfelt traditions of the asian, and specifically chinese, culture.

. . . do I look different?

I was forced to switch the blog over to the "NEW and IMPROVED" version of Blogger today when I logged in. I say "forced" because I have heard some horror stories from those who have gone before me. Hopefully, all is intact and we will have no problems. Apparently, there are a lot of cool new features to play with. Since I haven't even mastered the old ones, I am not sure how useful the new features will be to me, but I am going to give them a try.

I am spending the day CLEANING.

1. The housecleaning chores have been neglected as of late due to house guests, work and general busy-ness - AND I hate house cleaning.

2. We are hosting our 2nd Annual Chinese New Year party next weekend for our friends.

3. I am trying to observe some of the longstanding traditions that mark the Chinese New Year holiday preparations.

Preparations for the New Year begin well in advance, marked by
traditions rich in symbolism and superstition. Families clean the house from top
to bottom to sweep out bad luck at the start of the holiday. People buy new
clothes and pay off debts. It’s customary to get a haircut before the holiday,
because the Chinese word for hair is similar to the word for prosperity, and you
don’t want to cut your prosperity as the year is starting.

Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year or Spring Festival) is tomorrow, February 18, 2007. Stay tuned for more detailed information about this most important and auspicious holiday in China.

ah, Valentine's Day

We (my husband and I) don't really make a fuss about Valentine's Day. It is a low-key "holiday" for us in which we just try to spend some quality time together and make sure we remind our family and friends that we appreciate them.

[FYI, there is a Chinese counterpart similar to Valentine's Day called "Qi Xi" or "The Night of Sevens", but it is celebrated later in the year.]

"Low-Key" has turned into "Long Distance" this Valentine's since C is working this week in Paris [France] while I am working in Park City, Utah.

So, in absence of my husband this Valentine's,
I am going to brag on him . . . again.

He just started work on a project in Paris for the tallest skyscraper in France. He was instrumental in the design of this building and this was his first competition "win".











"Ain't it Grand?"


And, just for fun, here is a pic of me on our visit to Paris a little less than a year ago in March of 2006. I love this photo taken in Belleville, one of the more colorful districts of Paris. Significant for me since I grew up in its namesake small town; Belleville, Illinois.












good times!

happy hearts day,
love, j

happy birthday to E.J.E

Happy Birthday to our little China homegirl! Born 3 years ago today.

You are the true good fortune of our family.

love,
your proud auntie and uncle waiting to bring home a "biao qin" for you . . .

how many people can say . . .

. . . "My husband has a billboard on Sunset Boulevard."

Check it out! C's architecture collaborative, OSA, got the opportunity to show some of their work on a not-for-profit billboard held by the City of West Hollywood reserved for advancement of the arts. It stands above the "House of Blues" in the heart of the entertainment district. Very cool and so proud . . .

"later"

so, it's later, right?

Thought I would try my question again . . .

First, here is a picture of the Smart Cookie:

Me: "Will we get our referral in 2007?"

Smart Cookie: "Try the Eggroll"

Me: "Whaaaat . . . ???"

magic 8-ball

Did you know that the number "8" is considered extremely auspicious in China? So much so, that the Beijing Olympics will begin on August 8, 2008 (08-08-08). Unfortunately, I don't think this number "8" is going to help us that much, but it does mark another month of waiting - we'll just have to see whether than actually means "one month less" waiting or "one month more" waiting.

But that is where the magic 8-ball comes in! I have had a magic 8-ball on my desk at work for a long time - comes in handy when I need to lighten the mood . . . or make a very important decision . . . However, this situation calls for something even more powerful.

I just got a very special version of the "magic 8-ball" from my awesome cousin and fellow adopter - a "Smart Cookie" (aka the all-knowing fortune cookie). . . Thank you A!

So, I decided to ask the Smart Cookie this question:

Me: "Will we get a little golden pig?" (2007 is the Year of the Golden Pig - more on that later)

Smart Cookie: "Search soul for reply"

Me: "Ooookaaayyy . . . ???"

Bewildered by Smart Cookie's reply, I decided to go with a simpler question:

Me: "Will we get our referral in 2007?"

Smart Cookie: "Honorable answer is No"

Me: "Hhhhmmmpph! Maybe it's confused? I will just ask again later."

eight is enough

new rules & current wait times

We just returned from an Informational Meeting for China Families to go over the new rules and the current wait times.

First, I would like to say that I love our agency. From what I have seen, we are with one of the most personally involved, supportive and informative agencies available. The founder of our agency as well as our social workers are great advocates for us and try to get as much information as they can to keep us updated.

The following is a summary my notes from the meeting:

• Wait time is officially 16 months (no surprise) and going up on average about 2 weeks per month. They do expect it to get longer, but did not specify.
• Due to the longer wait times, we WILL have to redo some of our paperwork since it will most likely expire before we get our referral.
  1. CIS Fingerprint Clearance - Expires June 21, 2007
  2. I-171H - Expires October 20, 2007
• Reasons for Longer Wait
  (this is all educated speculation on the part of our agency based on their knowledge and experience in China adoption)
  1. Not as many babies eligible for International Adoption - this is actually a reason given officially by the CCAA - due to the influx of applications
  *Apparently, it used to be common practice that the larger IA approved** orphanages would go out to the smaller rural orphanages and bring back babies to put up for IA (not black market stuff - this was all legal). The chinese gov't. stopped this practice a few years ago for some reason, so even though there are still lots of children available in China, they are not necessarily available in IA sanctioned orphanages. This probably explains why some people report orphanages are deserted and others are full?
  **Not all orphanages are approved to be eligible for International Adoption.
  2. Since there are more applications than babies, China can be more particular
  3. OLYMPICS - this is the biggest reason our agency thinks things have "slowed down". Based on what Korea went through when they hosted the Olympics many years ago, it is widely assumed that China is concerned about how the world perceives the "export" of its children. Apparently, Korea was very ashamed at the coverage of adoption during the Olympics and ultimately closed the IA program for ten years. China is committed to the IA program, but many people believe that they are trying to minimize any backlash by slowing down the amount of children that are adopted internationally each year.
  4. They were very specific to mention that the Chinese DO NOT want to stop the IA program and they are extremely committed to continuiung the program.
• NEW RULES
  They did point out that in comparison to other programs, China is really just "catching up" on their regulations since most of the other programs out there (especially Asian) were already this strict or even more so. If you want to see the complete list of new regulations as published by the CCAA, click here and here. Since we are already logged in, we were ASSURED that the new rules will not affect us. These new regulations will take affect as of May 1, 2007.

*update: I apologize for the format, on my screen it is all nice and neat with little bullets and such, but for some reason they aren't translating correctly on the blog. And, I have no idea what to say about the link for the regulations - this is the best I can do for now. I need some tech help! . . . anyone?

somethin' to write home about

I just got home from work and sat down with what has become my "friday after work ritual", Zankou Hummus and a Fresca, just waiting for the TV to fire up (it is an old relic that needs about 20 minutes to warm up) so I decided to check and see if the CCAA had updated its website.

And, behold, FINALLY, somethin' to write home about! Although they only sent out referrals through October 13, 2005, they did manage to get dossiers through March 22, 2006 through the Review Room.

What is the Review Room, you ask? Well, just because we sent off our perfect little dossier with a complete history of our life here on earth, DOES NOT mean that they will just turn right around and hand us our child. First, we must get through the Review Room. This, of course, is where all of those "new rules" come into play. Even though we are pretty confident that we won't have any issues, we really need to get through the Review Room before we can really start thinking truly good thoughts about the possibility of bringing home our child. Of course, nothing is really official until you are holding your baby in your arms, but this is a huge milestone. In short, we are only about 2 1/2 months away from getting through the Review Room.

with this and the news that C got a big raise this week, we will have to celebrate tonight - forget the Fresca - time to open a bottle of wine!

ps. Our agency is having a china adoption meeting tomorrow morning to go over the new rules and answer any questions. I'll update later with any new information.

referral daze

Sadly, "Referral Day" doesn't hold the same excitement for me as it once did. We are getting a little closer , if only an inch at a time. Although I appreciate our family and friends' genuine interest in our adoption, it is definitely not easy to have to explain the ever increasing wait. Why do I constantly feel compelled to have some kind of "good news" or a "good report" about the adoption at the ready?

Today, the CCAA sent referrals for families that were logged in on the waiting list through October 13*, 2005. So, let's consult the tote board, shall we? - Current wait is stable around 16 months** and we have 236 days of Log-ins to get through before it is our turn (they completed 16 days during this month)

*unconfirmed
**still expected to increase

rumor has it that the CCAA has been known to send out a quick batch of referrals just before they leave on their Lunar New Year holiday break (starting February 18 this year). So, say it with me . . . BRING ON THE REFERRALS!