Sunday February 27th - 31 sleeps to go!

Well we're down to a month before we travel and things are now coming together quickly. I am reminded this week of the many fortunes we are given. Not only have we been blessed with two daughters to light our lives, but we've also got some pretty special people who share places within our hearts. Without the support of our friends and family -- I am quite certain that our lives would be much less. Thank you God!

Last week I mentioned that I might be dreaming to get Naomi's room painted before we travel and this week I am happy to report that the dream came true. With the help of our dear friend Linda, Naomi's room is now a beautiful hue of purple. So a huge THANKS to Linda (and Sydney - who allowed us to duplicate her purple room)! Now we are ready to focus on Lilah's room, which will be an easy project for the upcoming couple of weeks. No major painting is required! Yahoo!

We've had two other major accomplishments this week in our task list. We finally chose a double stroller and it should arrive sometime next week. Papa is looking forward to seeing his new granddaughter's in his gift. We are so thankful to my dad, not only for the stroller, but also because he has offered to accompany us on this trip to China. His assistance is greatly appreciated for several reasons. Firstly, we would not be able to take Naomi with us to get her new baby sister without a spare set of hands. Secondly, we are so excited to share our daughters' birthplace with a member of our family and to have him in the "delivery room". Thanks Papa!

The final accomplishment is also a major one. In one of Lilah's referral pictures, there is a green striped block infront of her. Naomi still doesn't really get excited about much to do with Lilah, except that block gets her pretty jazzed. She seems to think it is a present for her from Lilah! Well . . . we have finally found the present and the wrapping paper to match!

The other really great thing that happened this week is that we've received a very generous donation from Robeez to take with us for Lilah's orphanage. Before we travelled to Naomi's orphanage, we contacted Robeez (a Canadian kid's shoe company) and they donated 20 pairs of my favorite shoes for us to take with us for the kids left behind. We contacted them again last month and they were even more generous with 50 pairs being forwarded this time. I can't say enough about how wonderful these shoes are, or about how wonderful this company is -- so I'm now shamelessly plugging ROBEEZ!

Sitting back, I often think about all the wonderful people in our lives who will soon share Lilah's life. Never before have I felt so loved -- and I can't wait for Lilah to feel that way as well!

Sunday February 20th - Five weeks to Departure, Six to GOTCHA!

Only six weeks to go until Gotcha day for Lilah!

I keep finding it hard to believe that it has already been three weeks since we got our referral. I’m not sure whether to be thankful or panicked that time is speeding along. On one hand I want to meet Lilah ASAP. On the other hand, there are so many preparations to make.

This week, we finally decided that we are not painting Lilah's room, so it will stay yellow with pink and green accents. We have also decided to paint Naomi's room purple (her favorite colour and matches her quilt). Not sure if the project will be complete by the time we leave, but a mum can always hope.

To update you on the rest of our week . . .

Yesterday was spent celebrating Chinese New Year with our local friends. We had a house full of kids and adults alike. The kids played in the playroom (which we are glad is now not an office) while the adults chatted, got caught up on news, reminisced about previous adoption trips and celebrated the new souls who are joining our expanding group. In 2005, we will be adding at least 5 new children to our "family" and we are all very excited!

In reference to our trip, we have been researching fun things to do in Shanghai. Our plan is to travel three days ahead of the rest of our group so that we can adjust to the jetlag and spend some time with Naomi. Having already decided that this trip will be less cultural, and more of a family focused experience has changed what we kinds of activities are looking for this time around. There are some interesting museums and tea houses in Shanghai, but somehow I doubt that either of these will be “fun” for Naomi. Instead, our plans will likely include visiting the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (2nd largest freestanding building in the world), the Shanghai Museum of Arts and Crafts, Aquaria 21 and the Shanghai Zoo.

On Tuesday of last week, we received our flight itinerary for the Air Canada portion of the trip. We’ll be departing Toronto Airport on March 29th at 8:30am. We have a 1.5 hr layover in Vancouver, leaving at 12:05pm for Shanghai. The flight to Shanghai is our longest at 12.5 hrs and we will arrive at 4:35pm on the 30th.

Our return home will begin on April 14th, as we depart Beijing at 4:20pm. One of the fun things about crossing the international date line is that we actually arrive in Vancouver before we left Beijing. Our flight time is 10.75hrs and Lilah will take her first steps onto Canadian soil around 12:05pm (BC Time). We’ll have just under three hours to clear Customs, then Immigration in order to catch our flight to Toronto at 3pm. Our arrival at Terminal one will be around 10:30pm, where we will finally be able to introduce Lilah to friends and family who are able to join us.

I've posted Lilah's pictures in large size so that Grandma and Grandpa Klassen (who are vacationing in Florida) are able to see the photos of Lilah. In doing so, it reminded me that this little person has no idea of what is about to happen. While we continue in excited anticipation, she also continues to live life. I'm sure she's sleeping right now, but I often wonder what did she do today and who tucked her into bed tonight??? I hope they gave her a kiss.

x0x0x0

Lilah holding Naomi's Present 

Lilah in Walker 

Lilah's Passport Photo 

Sunday February 13th - Update on Travel Dates

We've passed two milestones this week. The first is in completing a mountain of paperwork to accept our referral. The second is that we started the work to process our visa's and book our travel.

Our file left our home on Friday, and is scheduled to arrive at our agency tomorrow morning. It will then be translated, with one portion heading to the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social services (they still have to approve of the match) and the second portion heading to China to let them know to start processing Lilah's paperwork to join our family.

Rose at Tinbo Travel in Ottawa called yesterday to confirm that we will be leaving on Tuesday March 29th for Shanghai. We'll be returning to Toronto on Thursday April 14th. We are getting really excited that this is all becoming so real. It's hard to believe that in 7 short weeks, we'll be back in China and holding Lilah!

We are thrilled that we will be returning to Hunan to adopt Lilah. It means that we will be spending one week in Changsha while we process Lilah's paperwork. We loved Changsha when we were there two years ago, not only for the food and shopping but also because the people were so friendly. One added bonus is that Naomi's hometown is so close. We've also been in contact with Children's Bridge about setting up a trip to Zhuzhou to visit the orphanage, see some of the sights in the area and to tour the countryside so that we can get a feeling for what our daughters' alternate paths might have been. Our In-China travel agent (Swan) is working on getting the permission and setting us up with a driver and a translator for the day. We are particularily excited about this leg of our journey.

I've also posted a picture of Naomi to the website. It was taken at a Chinese New Year celebration we attended in Toronto, and one of my all time favorite pictures of her!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Naomi and Lilah's mommy!

Princess Naomi -- the Big Sister 

Thursday February 10th - Lilah's journey has begun

It's hard to describe the feeling you get when you give "birth" to a child on the other side of the world. But on Tuesday February 1st, 2005, that is exactly what happened to Joel and I as we saw our second daughter for the first time. Truthfully, the feeling was no less thrilling than the day we first saw Naomi's picture in 2003. Word cannot describe . . .

On Tuesday of this week, we received the translations of the documents that make up Lilah's "File". They describe a perfect little beauty who is also known as Chen Xi Yi. Chen stands for her birthplace, Chenzhou City, and Xi Yi conveys good wishes that she would live an eternally happy life in the future. We feel so blessed.

So here we are, excited to be embarking on this adventure called "parenthood" again. We welcome you to join us via this website as we attempt to keep all of our family and friends updated on our journey! Thanks for joining us.

Karen, Joel and Naomi