Sunday, December 31, 2006

Orphanage Pictures




I am soooooooo fortunate to get these pictures. There is a gal "Cathy" in the States who is in China at Olivia's orphanage getting her daughter. She was kind enough to bring Olivia's name with her and ask the orphanage director for pictures. The director actually brought Olivia out into the lobby with other babies in our travel group to get pictures of our babies. These pictures were only taken 24 hours ago. Looking at these and knowing it is her right now makes this all feel very very "real".

I think I'm more excited about these pictures than her actual referral pic.I'm sure you can figure out which one she is, but just in case she's the one in Pink with a buckle in her hair. Don't you just love those chunkie little cheeks. I could just squeeze the bajebers out of them.......

One happy Mama
Deb

--------------------oOo--------------------

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Gifts from Newfoundland

I just came from the mail and got some very special gifts from my friend Lisa in Newfoundland. She gave us the most adorable PJ's ever. There were 3 sets of PJ's, some long johns and a bib that says "Thank Heaven for little girls". I can't take a picture because I left my camera at families an hour away (better get that before China...) I can't believe that her heart was so big to do this. She was actually expecting referral the same day as me and found out 2 days before referral day that she wouldn't get her daughter picture til January. With her going through all that heartbreak, she still had it in her heart to think about Olivia. Thank you thank you thank you Lisa - I hope you, Brent and Gracie get Maggies picture real soon!

--------------------oOo--------------------

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Parcel Gone

Just came from the post office. I mailed off a blankie I made, a camera, a toy and candies for the nannies. I put a full note inside the package written in Chinese (thanks to Grace - Aunt Betty's friend). They said it will take 6-10 days via air mail so she should have it a couple weeks before we get there. I'm really hoping it makes it just so I can have pictures taken of her in the orphanage. I taped a picture of her to each item so they know who its for. Fingers crossed it makes it!

--------------------oOo--------------------

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Christmas - YIKES

O.k so somebody just woke me up and told me Christmas is next week. Between moving into our new house and getting Olivia's referral I forgot all about next week. So what do I do instead of shop - I blog about it....... We are going to Kirk's sisters for Christmas Eve and wake up in the morning with his nieces. I guess I better get my butt in gear and go buy those Christmas gifts. I guess telling the nieces that Olivia is coming just won't cut it Christmas morning!

--------------------oOo--------------------

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

BACK to life!

Honestly, being without my computer for a few days is like losing my lifeline. Well we're moved into our new house and man does it feel good. I thought it would feel weird for awhile but we are actually settled in and feeling homey already. We still have to put pictures on the wall but I want to take my time doing that to make sure we do it right. The main thing is my COMPUTER IS WORKING......

Went to Ikea last night and bought a new Kitchen table set. We thought we would go there to get something cheap - YA RIGHT! They did have cheap ones there but of coarse I just had to have the one that wasn't cheap. Well the house should keep us busy for the next month waiting for to go get our angel. It's been such a whirlwind between the adoption papers and the move that we don't know if we're coming or going. Let's hope things start to calm down again this week.

Off to stalk the net and catch up on all the chitter chatter.............

--------------------oOo--------------------

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Get out the BUBBLY!!!!


Here in Canada we all travel to China in herds...... We are all packed together in one group from the beginning of the adoption process. It is amazing because we got to know each other over the past year and a half. Well anyway, they originally told us that we can not travel until after CNY giving them ample time to get our paperwork for travel ready. Well with lots of chitter chatter between group members and our agency they decided to send us before CNY. There is only one condition - WE ALL get our documents in to the agency by this Friday. Because we travel as a group, if one person doesn't have it in then none of us get to go early. So as it stands right now, we leave January 30th and return Feb 17th. If the plan doesn't pan out, we don't get to travel until the end of Feb or beginning of March - NO JOKE!!!!!

So everyone keep all your finger, toes and whatever else your body allows crossed :-)

--------------------oOo--------------------

Children of our life!


| View Show | Create Your Own

--------------------oOo--------------------

Sleep what's that??


So here I am 3 in the morning and wide awake as can be. We are moving in less than 2 days and I am busy busy busy. You would think that all the packing would wipe me out but NOPE, my computer is still my best friend....tee,heee...... I was tossing and turning in bed so instead of keeping Kirk up, I decided to check out on line folk. So far cyberspace seems quiet but haven't dug too far yet. Maybe there are some European folk on RQ - "next stop"

Today, tomorrow or whatever I should call it is going to be crazy busy final packing day. I just am very anxious to get the move done and over with. I hope Olivia likes her new house cause its gonna be a keeper until she's at least 18. I HATE MOVING!!! The house is bigger though with a better layout so it will be nice for little pitter patters of feet running around.

Talk to ya all when you see daylight - hey maybe I'll actually get some zzzz's by then........

--------------------oOo--------------------

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Chinese writing


I was just looking at my friend Karen's blog and noticed that she had her daughter Samara's name in Chinese. I was going to email her and ask where she found it. Low and behold, there was an email from her with Olivia's name. I didn't even have to ask for it! What a gal. So folkes thanks to Karen, here is Olivia's name in Chinese.


--------------------oOo--------------------

Monday, December 11, 2006

Shaking is going away!

The shaking is starting to fade again. We met with our doctor today to go over Olivia's medical. He said the medical is PERFECT! He said that she is "HUGE" for her age......lol...... and that's going by Canadian standards.

We had our fill in social worker visit and it went really smooth. We are starting to feel a bit more relieved tonight. Even though everything was fine, we still couldn't help that stress happening in the pit of our stomachs.

Thanks for all the cyber hugs and emails - they were much needed and appreciated.

--------------------oOo--------------------

Sunday, December 10, 2006

OVERWHELMED




For the most part, I have been pretty light hearted about everything. I mean I've been beyond excited and hyper about our adoption but the stress really hasn't got to me as much as I predicted....until now..... We are selling our house and buying a new one. We have our closing date for Dec 14 which we have known for awhile. Now with the referral coming last week I'm feeling very overwhelmed. I contacted our social worker to get the papers signed off and she's out of town. GREAT - isn't that just perfect timing. I contacted our agency and they said we have to find another social worker and give her a copy of our homestudy. So I found someone but she is going to charge us $300 - NO JOKE!! I just can't believe she is taking total advantage out of the tight situation we are in. So we got that straightened out but the doctors office didn't have a spot for us to get Olivia's medical signed off. ARRRRR!!! I told the nurse that the doc has known about this for 2 years and if we don't get in to see him, we don't get our baby. With lots of begging, we have our appointment.

The house overall is giving me a headache and causing stress. We have been up to eyeballs with boxes and boxes and packing and cleaning and throwing out things that have been stock piling for not so good use!

Overall, we have to have our referral appointment, doctors appointment, visa applications and all the other paperwork filled, completed and sent to our agency by Thursday. We then have to go for our inspection of the house, finish packing, firm up with movers, do finincial crap at bank, and legal stuff at Lawyers and yes that is all happening by Thursday too. Sorry if my post is more of a "vent" today but I'm just very overwhelmed and CANNOT wait for next week to come and pass.

Hopefully I'll be back to my light hearted posts by next week :-) For now - I'm off to Kirk's junk cupboard full of chips, chocolate cookies and vachon cakes........
Cyber Hug anyone????

--------------------oOo--------------------

Thursday, December 07, 2006

OLIVIA'S UP- DATE

Well I received a nice big package all about Olivia today. I was first going to post everything about her as I just want to share her with the world. I decided against posting her finding date, place and other details. I think that is something private that I want her to go through when she is older.

Now for bragging time!!!!! Here are a list of "some" of her developments:
- When she see's an aquantaince, she becomes happy waving her hand exitably
- She says "gu,gu" when someone is talking to her as though she is talking back to them
- When hungry she does a "zhaba zhaba" sound of sucking her lips together (now thats cute)
- Really enjoys playing outdoors
- Really enjoys being held from caregiver
- She easily gives smiles
- She is in good health and has only had common colds/fevers

There is a lady on my Nanhai yahoo group that is leaving for China on the 19th. I'm really hoping she brings back some updated pictures of Olivia. She is going to try and get pictures for all of us which would be the best gift EVER!!!

I also ordered her finding ad from Brian Stuy so hopefully that will come in the next week or so.

--------------------oOo--------------------

Post of the day!


--------------------oOo--------------------

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Olivia's China Home


Here's where Olivia is right now!!! It looks like a wonderful orphanage and brings great peace to us knowing she is being taken care of!


--------------------oOo--------------------

More Guangdong babies

Click here to see our other Guangdong babies from our group.

--------------------oOo--------------------

Monday, December 04, 2006

She has a FULL name!







We have been playing round with her name all weekend. We knew Olivia would be her first name all along, but wanted to see the middle names to decide which one to use. Rather than giving her 2 middle names we combined my grandmothers first name with Olivia's first name and made it one. We just thought it had a nice ring to it. So we officially have a name - Olivia Janeshan Hackett. Cute isn't it!!!

--------------------oOo--------------------

Saturday, December 02, 2006

The Ultrasound!

Here's our first glimpse at our little chunkie monkey. We are in love beyond our wildest dreams!!!!!!

--------------------oOo--------------------

Friday, December 01, 2006

IT"S A GIRL!!!!!!!!




O.K I guess peanut wasn't the right choice of words. Here's our little chunkie monkey.Just check out that smirk - she actually has dimples if you look hard enough. The serious picture she is just saying "hey look at me, I'm going to teach you how to use that computer in 5 years mommie"






We cannot explain the emotions that are going through us right now. Kirk is looking at the measurements and then measuring his arm to see the difference..........I'm laughing my ass off right now. His arm is an inch bigger than her head. Ohhhhh we can't wait to see the peanut.

Here's what we know
Chinese Name: Hai Xiao Shan
Hai Xiao Shan ( Little Mountain)
Orphanage: Nan Hai
City: Foshan
Province: Guangdong
D.O.B: Feb 28/06
August 31st: She was 14 pounds and 25 inches tall. Sounds like a peanut
Personality: Active, very restless and is attached to one caregiver

Can't wait to get the pictures. We should have them in the next hour!!!!!

--------------------oOo--------------------