God Bless Our Friends!

We are so blessed with such good friends! When I arrived at what I thought was just a lunch gathering with my friends, they were really surprising me with a little baby shower and treated me to lunch. THANK YOU to Cindy, Kathy, Chris, Cathy and Jean for the wonderful baby gifts and for being so thoughtful. This whole adoption experience has been very exciting and the fact that you are excited for us makes it even better. I am so very grateful to have such wonderful friends and can't thank you enough for always being there to share the good and the bad. I am thrilled with all the gifts and cannot wait to wrap Olivia up in that soft blanket!!

Thank you again!!

Updated Medical

I was excited to see a new e-mail from Lynn Tool. Hoping there were updated pictures but just a one line medical update was all I got. I'm not even exactly sure when these measurements were taken but the latest update I can post is this...Olivia's weight is now 18.7 lbs., height is 28.86", chest is 16.77" and her head is 16.77". She has no teeth.

At least we know she has grown since November when she was 15.4 lbs. We also have to remember that they weigh the babies fully clothed and they always have layers of clothing on.

Still waiting to hear the travel assignments.

Finally An Official Name!

It is 9:00 pm on Sunday, March 18th and the four of us have finally decided what Olivia's full name will be....Olivia Elizabeth BaoXing Pitz. We have gone back and forth on different names and even asked for suggestions. We had to make a decision so we sat down Sunday evening to do just that. Thank you to everyone that gave us the many great suggestions but for different reasons we narrowed it down to these three that we all liked. They were Olivia Jade (thanks Mom!), Olivia Katherine (thanks Kathy!) and Olivia Elizabeth (Dawn's middle name). We just couldn't decide so we finally wrote each of them on a piece of paper and threw them into a hat. Then, of course, we had to draw straws to to see who would pick the name that would be with Olivia the rest of her life. Jenny picked the longest straw so she got to do the picking and we all decided whatever she picked, that would be the middle name. She picked Elizabeth and we all decided to incorporate her Chinese name also so we are keeping the BaoXing in her name. Finally, we could all agree on Olivia Elizabeth BaoXing Pitz. Dawn is happy since she is named after her now!! Although she would have been happy with any of the beautiful names...

The next step is to wait for the official travel assignments which should come soon so we can make flight arrangements. How exciting as the weeks fly by getting us all closer to meeting this little girl who has no idea that four people, half a world away, spent an hour and a half pondering what her name would be. We cannot wait to meet her!!

Visa's

This morning I got the e-mail from our agency with the instructions for getting our travel Visa's and filling out a family profile which means we have to decide on a middle name. Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions! It will be my mission to narrow it down and decide this weekend.

Thankfully the agency also gives the option of wiring the orphanage donation and government fees to China for us so we don't have to carry all that cash with us. One less thing to think about.

We'll be waiting to receive our travel assignments next so we know the exact dates and we can begin to plan around them.

This is so much fun!

Exploring on the Internet I found a lot of information on Olivia's orphanage. And, if you go to this website.....http://www.fulingkids.org it will take you to a main page. Then, scroll down to where it says "New Referrals!". When you click on that it will show photos of the most recent referral babies that have parents waiting to travel. I thought I would follow the directions they give and put our referral picture out there too. Within a couple hours Olivia showed up on this page! Check it out as there are a couple other babies with the same referral and they are all wearing the same outfit with the same teddy bear behind them. We will most likely be travelling with the parents of these babies!!

Official Paperwork

Our agency finally received our packet of information on Friday afternoon. Instead of trying to trust the mail system again I made the hour drive to Portage to pick up the package myself. No new pictures other than the small one on the medical exam page. Here are a few details about Olivia....Her Chinese name is FU BAO XING (Foo-Bow-Jing). It means "treasure and excitement". Her date of birth was estimated to be June 20, 2006. She is living in the "Fuling Social Welfare Institute" which to my surprise, when looked up on the Internet, has a lot of websites about this orphanage. This town is about in the middle of China. It was very interesting to see actual pictures on the internet of where she is living right now. Her medical exam seems to be normal. Her "development" only goes up through her 5th month which says she could sit by holding hands, support her head upright, respond to her name, choose bigger toys and stare at things she wants. "Daily habits"....she lives in a group environment, has her own bed, is now drinking milk with rice cereal and some vitamins. She also likes veggie soup, eggs, and tofu. "Personality"....She is social, likes to play with adults, likes music the most, concentrates on the TV screen when she hears music.

Not a lot to tell right now. We should get updated information as the weeks go by. I need to take some time to go through all the information they have included in this packet about our trip over there and what we need to do before that. It is a little overwhelming but I'm sure everything will fall into place.

One problem we have encountered is we have not decided on a middle name for her. We were waiting to see what her Chinese name would be but now that we know, we want to use an American name. Anybody have any suggestions??? Let us know by posting in the comments.

Meanwhile, I have a lot of work to do......I'll keep you posted!

Eight Weeks and Counting....

After talking to the adoption agency today at 11:00 am, they have not received our packet of information yet.......since it was delivered to Minnesota rather than Wisconsin. They are tracking it and expect to get it today. Keep your fingers crossed that it arrives soon. They will send it right out to us via. FedEx and they think it will have at least one more picture in it. It will have all the Chinese documents, lots of information like what part of China she is living and and where we will be going and the "Acceptance Sheet". We sign the acceptance sheet and send it out and the ball really starts rolling. Pauquette tells me it is very routine that people travel 8 weeks after receiving the referral, which was March 6, so that puts us at the beginning of May for our two week trip to China!! After waiting for so long we will now be very busy during the next 8 weeks. We will need to send for our travel Visa's, wait for the travel approval and itinerary, pack, shop, have a baby shower.....hopefully in April, and prepare to be gone for a full two weeks and have things ready here for when we get home with a new member of our family. Hopefully we can get back home in time for Kyle's confirmation which is May 20th. Many things to think about but it is all very exciting and I am enjoying every minute of it!
I'll add more details when we get the long awaited FedEx package.

Dawn

Another Picture

Here is the second picture we have of Olivia. She looks teeny tiny but I have no idea how old she is in these pictures. Hopefully when all the official paperwork comes there will be more pictures and more recent updates on her information.

SHE'S HERE!!

We have finally gotten our referral! After posting the last information this morning I went out to get some groceries. Halfway through Piggly Wiggly my cell phone rang at exactly 8:50 am with a 608 number. I couldn't believe it! Lynn Tool from Pauquette Agency was calling to say she was e-mailing information and pictures of our new daughter to us. The rest of my shopping was a blurr. I immediately called Steve and my parents. When I got home it took another long 3 minutes to bring in the e-mail before I was able to see Olivia for the very first time. I am still in shock. She is absolutely perfect. Her birthday is June 20, 2006, so hopefully we will be able to get her home to celebrate her first birthday! She was found on July 25, 2006 at the front gate of the orphanage. We have some other information with the e-mail but the actual package with ALL the details and information (and hopefully more pictures) will be coming in a few days. We are all very excited!

Getting Close!?!

We have not heard anything yet but I have been exploring on other websites and found other people with LID dates around ours and we are all expecting "the call" to come at any time now. Meanwhile, I've been told by a few viewers that the family picture is too outdated. Well, that's because it was taken two years ago for our homestudy when we started this whole process. Since Steve and I don't age, I'm just including an updated picture of Kyle and Jenny, and of course, the adoption that did go through last summer, named Misty.....the abandoned kitten we found while on a walk and she decided she would adopt us and has been a fun distration during this very long wait. Hopefully I can post referral pictures very soon! Stay tuned.....