Moving Ahead

We are moving ahead with getting everything done for our trip to China.  One of the things we do is buy gifts for various people that will help us with our adoption once we get to China.  It is a custom to bring a gift just like it is in many other countries.  When we visit Italy the family there always gives us gifts and we bring gifts.  Choosing the gifts for China is one of the hardest things that I have found to do.  You cannot bring something that is made in China.  Do you know how difficult that is to find.?  Here are some of the things that I have found to bring.  Another thing is that they have to take up very little room and be lightweight, since you don't want to go over the weight limit for the airlines.

We are also making progress on Lily's quilt.  The girls today helped me lay out all the squares and matched them with the cards we have received.  This has given me great opportunities to talk to them about how I did this for each of their quilts.  They have their quilts on their beds and love being surrounded by 100 good wishes.  I often hear them talking about fabric squares, good wishes, and ladybugs.  Today they wrote their good wish for Lily.  Emma chose Tinkerbell fabric and her good wish was, "Lily, I like you!  I am waiting for you so, so, long."  Meilynn's was a very soft rainbow heart fabric and she said, "Lily, I hope you like it here." 

 They are so excited to go to China and bring Lily home.  They take a Chinese Mandarin  class one day a week and when I tell them that it may be hard for Lily because she won't be able to understand us, the say, "We will talk to her Mommy,  we take Chinese class."  It is so cute I have a hard time telling them that she speaks a dialect of Cantonese and wouldn't understand them if they could speak to her more words than color and numbers.  

We are waiting on our TA. The average wait after article 5 is three weeks, but I have seen two weeks and I have seen four and even five weeks.  We got ours January 6 so two weeks won't be until next Wednesday.  We will be getting Lily just after Chinese New Year if we get our TA before Chinese New Year.  We even made an attempt to travel and do the provincial work the week before Chinese New Year and then complete the consulate portion after the Chinese New Year, but our agency did not recommend that we do that.  At least we now have a better idea of when we will travel.  It just would be nice to get the TA so we could make arrangements.

I have to tell you a cute thing that Emma said the other night before I forget.  

The girls have started this annoying question when they are eating.  They ask, "Did I eat enough?"  What they really mean is, "Can I have dessert?"  I want them to recognize when they are full and not base the decision on if they get dessert by how much they eat.  So Emma says, "Did I eat enough?"  So I said, "Is your tummy saying you are full?"  She looks at me really funny and then looks at her tummy and pauses.  Then she looks up at me and says so innocently, "I don't know, I can't hear it."  I guess you ask a silly question and you get an honest answer.

Tonight, as I do every night I gave the girls their baths, then they both pick out one story.  They realize if they bring me a long story then it takes longer to read and then they get to stay up longer.  So tonight they both brought really long stories.  They were both really tired and not interested in hearing each other's story since they chose them based on length and not necessarily content.  I read Emma's and then half way through Meilynn's story, Meilynn tells me to stop she doesn't want to hear the rest.  I am fine with that because this is not my favorite story at all.  So I say get into your beds for song and prayers.  I start to put Emma in her bed and Meilynn decides that now she wants to hear the story.  I of course tell her that she already made her decision and it was time for bed.  Meilynn has the strongest stubborn streak that I have ever seen.  She kept crying and saying over and over, I want you to read me a story!  I did Emma's prayers and song while Meilynn repeated this over and over.  Then I put Meilynn to bed and did her prayer and song while she continued her chant.  I went downstairs and she got louder and louder.  She was crying and I do not like putting my children to bed crying.  Then Emma started crying.(She cannot stand to hear her sister cry)  I went upstairs to see what I could do.  I carried Emma into Meilynn's bed so she could see that she was ok and then I told them they could stay together a little while.  I expected Meilynn to continue, but she actually stopped.  Emma is more affectionate with Meilynn than Meilynn is with Emma, so I thought that Meilynn would want her out.  I walked downstairs expecting to hear crying or calling me to move them.  It was quiet.  So I went back upstairs and they were both asleep.  I had to take a picture.

 Sleeping angels!