She is crazy!

That's right, you did not misread the title. Jia is nuts, wacko, animated! Her new nickname is crazy train. Who needs entertainment when you have Jia! I can't even begin to describe to you how hilarious she is. She is going to fit in just perfect when we get her home.

We took Miss crazy train on a little shopping trip to buy some porcelain today. She loved all the pretty colors, but as you probably already guessed I had to take her outside because she wanted to get down and play ! We found a beautiful tea set to give her for her wedding one of these days, and a set for us as well. I will post pictures of them when we get home. The nice lady in the shop wrapped them up so that we can transport them on the plane and I am not about to unwrap them!

Tomorrow we will fly to Guangzhou to have her medical appointment and finalize her travel documents with the US government. I have eyes and ears on the ground in Guangzhou that have already located a store where we can buy baby shoes! The store is appropriately named Sherry's! Thanks Jackie, see you soon! We have a lot of shopping to do on the last leg of our journey, silk pajamas for Hannah , fabric for Grandma etc...... We will begin our long journey home on the 29th when we leave for the Hong Kong airport at 5:30 am. I hope everyone on the plane to Detroit has a good sense of humor! Maybe will just do a live feed of Jia's antics on all of the movie screens!

We have a little more packing to do before bed so I will say goodbye for now.


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Meeting Jia

- On Sunday we started pacing the room about 2:00. Our guide had assured us that she would call us at 3:00 and bring Jia to our room. Right on time the phone rang! Within 2 minutes there was a knock at the door. When I opened it there stood this tiny little girl that was wondering what was going on. She shed a few tears and then that was the end of it. I carried her over to her toys and she has been happy ever since! She is very smart and quick to learn. Her palate is as bad as they come so she just makes a lot of sounds as apposed to words. Trust me she has no problem getting her point across! She has the biggest personality which we had expected by the funny pictures we had received of her. Right now as we speak she is literally climbing up my husband and making him flip her backwards onto the bed.




Jia likes to play the hairbow game. Ya know the one where i put a bow in her hair she pulls it out then gives it back to me only to point to her head and demands that I try again.




She loves her shoes. She does not want to take them off. If one of her shoes comes off she sits down and waits for someone to put it back on.




She is a mommy's girl most of the time until she is tired then only daddy will do. She pops her 2 fingers in her mouth and off to dream land she goes. She takes a nap and sleeps all night in her crib.




Jia is a human garbage disposal! She loves her snacks! When the orphanage reps brought her they said that she could drink from a straw but we had brought some sippy cups that she can bite and make the milk come out. She won't touch a straw.
Drum roll please!........ She is halfway potty trained! She woke up from her nap today and started fidgeting with her diaper so i sat her on the potty and presto!
She loves the mirror and giggles and smiles most of the time. She is very busy all the time and points at everything so that you will tell her what it is. Jia loves to take a bath! I think she would stay in there all day if she could.
All this and she has been with us for just over 24 hours! I am sure she has plenty more crazy where that came from!
Today all the paper work was completed and she is officially ours! Signed sealed and delivered. The rest of the week we will spend just hanging out and sightseeing here in Nanchang. On Friday we will fly to Guanzhou and her consulate appointment is on the 27th. We will fly out of Hong Kong on the 29th.
Lot's more to come............
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Great Wall

Today was a very long day! We gathered all of our things and replaced them very carefully in our suitcases so that we could meet the in country 44lb weight limit. Our guide and driver met us at the hotel at 9:40 am to begin our journey to the Great Wall. The vastness of it was unbelievable! We happened to be there at a time when the visibility was low but I think it made it even more mysterious and kept us wandering what was around the next watch tower. Our fatigue from traveling quickly got the best of us and we stopped a few times on the way back to the Cable car. We made our way down through the narrow pathway lined with vendors yelling T-shirt $1. Our guide, and driver joined us for the most delicious meal yet. We ordered several things and shared them all. After lunch we headed for the airport where we had about a 2 hour wait for our flight. We said goodbye to our guide, Alice to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude for all of the help navigating though Beijing. She was a wealth of knowledge and a joy to spend time with. Our airplane was stuck on the runway for over an hour waiting for our place in line. We finally arrived in Nanchang about 9:00. We grabbed our suitcases and met our guide for the week. Her name is Mary and she is kind and has a gentle way about her that I think will be a big help to us when Jia arrives at our hotel at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. (that is 3 am Sunday morning at home). Mary said that she had been to our orphanage and has met Jia! She said that Jia is very cute! We are sooo excited and can't wait for tomorrow to come. Goodnight all! Sweet dreams Braeton, Hannah, Conner, Casey and Jia! We love you!




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Location:Beijing

Forbidden city

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What a long but great day! We began our by riding the subway! Our guide promised to give us an adventure and she did not disappoint. We made our way through the crowds at tiananmen square while Alice began our "history lesson". We continued on to The Forbidden City and were completely blown away by the beauty and history. Many of the buildings had a fresh coat of paint for the Beijing Olympics so the colors were very vivid. She told us about the social structure during the Ming and Ting Dynasties, how only people of high social status could enter the Forbidden City. I could go on and on with all that we learned today, but I will save that for another time. Next we had lunch at a restaurant located next to a beautiful lake. This restaurant is famous for Peking Duck which my husband has been patiently waiting to try. The food was delicious and the service was fantastic. Then we hired a rickshaw and took a journey through the Hutongs. The Hutongs are narrow alleyways in the old portion of Beijing where many people still live today. Most of the homes are owned by the government but a few are privately owned by families. We were invited to tour one such home that had been owned by the same family for 100 years. The owner of the home ,who is a retired teacher of Physics, was very kind. Her father had been a famous Beijing artist and now her son in law was carrying on the tradition as an artist. We purchased a beautiful hand painted scroll to hang in Jia's room!


Our very long day ended with a ride home on the public bus, a nap and room service! Tomorrow morning we will pack our bags, tour the Great Wall and then fly to Nanchang City so that we can get a good night's sleep before we get to meet Miss Jia! More updates to follow. Good night or good morning depending on where you are in the world!

Location:Dongmencang Hutong,Beijing,China

Ready to start our sightseeing!

Good morning Beijing! We had a long journey! Our crazy day began with our flight from Louisville leaving 40 minutes late which led to running trough the Minneapolis airport to catch the flight to Tokyo with 10 minutes to spare! A little more running followed to catch the flight to Beijing. All that running was worth it when we were upgraded to first class on our flight to Beijing! We are now spoiled! Our guide,Alice was waiting for us after we came through customs. She is wonderful and I can't wait to introduce her! Today we will be traveling to the Forbidden City, Tiannimen Square, and the hutongs in the older part of Beijing. More updates and photos later!




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Location:Dongmencang Hutong,Beijing,China

The kids are off to school!

Have a great first day back!




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Location:S Goldenrod Ln,Hanover,United States

And we're off!

After all night packing, making detailed lists for my mother in law to reference while caring for Conner, Braeton, and Hannah, we are finally leaving for China!
We are dropping off the kids for their first day of school on the way. We will miss them. Thank God for Skype :-)
I am months away from a doctorate degree and had a number of issues putting the fancy car seat in the car. After hours of pain, a few choice words, and the assistance of my wife, I am happy to say that the car seat is in place and Jia will be safe on the ride home. I hope we never have to switch vehicles.
Here is an updated picture of Jia that we received a few weeks back! More to come!




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Location:S Goldenrod Ln,Hanover,United States

Making our LOA wait productive!

We have launched a new online adoption community!  There are so many helpful groups that we are a part of that provide so much valuable information to the adoption community.  One gap that we have found is that there isn't one group/site that serves as a central portal for all types of adoption information.  We found ourselves doing research about the paper chase on one site, looking up currency conversions on another, travel info on another, cleft specific info on another, and the list goes on.  We have put together a site that serves as a portal to all of this information and more!  The site isn't complete and there are a number of features on the roadmap that will be released later in the year but we feel it is a good start and provides a different experience for the adoption community.  Our site is www.Adoption-Community.com!  Here are a few features I think are particularly cool:

• ·       Single sign on.  Already have a Facebook, Yahoo, Google, or Twitter account?  You can sign on using those accounts.
• ·       There is an advocacy group to advocate for waiting children.
• ·       Want to calculate how long you have been waiting for LOA/TA/LID?  We have a “days passed calculator” to help you out.
• ·       There is a currency calculator on the site
• ·       Rumor Queen has a lot of great information!  In recognizing that, we have embedded a real-time Twitter stream showing all of Rumor Queens Tweets!  Simply click on the tab labeled “twitter stream” to see ChinaAdopt.com and Rumor Queen tweets!
• ·       Just like Facebook, you have your own page called “My Page” and it will highlight your existing word press or Blogger blog!  In addition, you can add photos, videos, and links. 
• ·       There are existing forums I have created with discussion topics such as fundraising, travel tips for Guangzhou, and a cleft lip/palate forum.  Would you like to see an additional group created or forum added?  Simply add your own by clicking “Add”
• ·       Adoption-Community is 100% integrated with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blogger, etc…  you have the option to post your adoption-community comments, likes, and topics to any of these social networks with one click.
• ·       Adoption-Community has live chat!  You will be very familiar with the interface.  The chat engine is just like Facebook.
• ·       There is a section for gotcha day videos so feel free to share your special moment with the group or add one that you have found elsewhere.

Again, we have only been live for a few days and there are a lot of additional features on the roadmap that will be released this year.  A few of the more notable ones are:

• ·       Interactive table that allows you to sort by agency, province, LOI before LID, LOI before PA, etc…  to see current wait times between stages
• ·       A featured section for adoption fundraisers
• ·       A featured writer section
• ·       A section with sample forms for LOI, I-800A, I-800, Visa form, etc…
• ·       Agency spotlight
• ·       And much more!

Have a look around, feel free to tell your friends and spread the word!  If you have any feedback or suggestions, feel free to send me a message through the site or click on the "idea" tab at the top of the page and submit your idea!  My goal is to make this a community that works for its members and has the content they need.

Thanks,

The Taylor family

PA and updated photos of Jia!

Wow!  We received update photos of Jia today.  We just requested the update on Friday and they were quick to send it!  She is progressing nicely, walking, loves to dance, and happy :-)  I will post more info as I receive it.  We also received our PA today! 

We have been matched!!!

It has been a number of months since the last post and a lot has changed!  As of our last post, our dossier was submitted to China and we were waiting to receive LID.  LID stands for Log In Date, this is the date that China logs our dossier into their system and the date that we were eligible to be matched.  We received LID on 2-2-2012!

China releases an update to the shared list monthly, most often the update is on the 3rd Monday of the month.  The list is expected to be updated this Monday, 2-27-2012, so last week we were excited and patiently waiting for the updated list!  When we set out to adopt, we filled out a matching form that asked questions such as the desired age of the child we wanted, sex, and which special needs we would consider.  The needs we listed are considered "low needs" and given the age range and the fact that we are looking to adopt a girl, the timeframe for being matched was very much up-in-the-air because of the number of adopting families that fit into the same bucket we do.  

While we were waiting for the shared list release date to be announced, we received an unexpected email from our adoption agency with the subject line "File???".  I had just emailed Kerry, our case worker, scanned copies of some documents that she requested so I assumed, based on the subject line, I forgot to attach the documents when I sent her an email.  This was Thursday, 2-23-2012!  I opened the email and there was a referral for a 14 month old little girl that stole our hearts!  It is very rare for an "LID required" child to be released to the shared list outside of the standard release or update date.  Just so happened her name popped up and our case worker locked her for 72 hours for us!  There are hundreds of agencies watching the list and trying to lock so we feel so blessed to be matched with her!

We received a 3 page document outlining her growth statistics, medical needs, blood work results, measurements, and 2 photos!  We had to accept the referral within 72 hours or she would go back onto the shared list and be matched with another family.  Our international adoption doctor was on stand by and reviewed her file the same day.  After speaking with the doctor we felt comfortable moving forward and submitted our LOI (letter of intent) to adopt Taoying Hong!  We will call her Jia.  We are still debating over her middle name but we will update you once we decide!

We are proud to welcome Jia to the Taylor family!!!  Here is a picture of Jia (@ 7 months old) and an outline of what we know about her so far.  Jia has a cleft lip and palate, it is likely that her lip has been repaired already given that she is in a city orphanage.  My brother was born with the same need!

Welcome Jia Taylor!!!

- Jia was born on December 11, 2010.  It is rare to ever know the actual birth date of most orphaned children in China but she was found with a note pinned to her shirt!  The note contained only her birth date.

- Jia lives in the Nanchang Social Welfare Institute today.  Nanchang SWI is one of the better orphanages in China.  It is one of the few orphanages that has a school, consistent medical care, and rehab programs for children with special needs.  A sign that Jia is being well cared for is that her growth stats are within the spectrum of normal.  Even more unusual for a child with CL/CP in a chinese orphanage.  Here are couple of photos of the Nanchang SWI:

- Jia was found by the department of public security in Nanchang.  Like most orphans, she was found in a high traffic public place.

- Jia was put in intensive care 12 days after she was born because she couldn't feed and was very ill.

- At 3 months old, Jia loved to smile and babble.  She is a very happy girl and follows bright objects.

- At 4 months old she likes staying in caretaker’s arms and listens to them, she often joins two hands together and play them, sometimes she sucks her fingers after meals, giggles blissfully when she’s happy.

- At 5 months old she lifts her head up high and observes her surroundings while she lies on her stomach, call her name and she can turn around, she waves her arms and expects to be picked up, can sit alone and lean forward, sometimes she catches toys at hand and shakes the bell, when she hears the sound of the bells and she jumps for joy!

- At 7 months old her bight eyes are searching around the kids who are playing games and caretakers all the time, she can sit alone with hands support and hold bottle to drink milk, roll over to get the toys. Taoying can recognize the strangers and likes being held in arms, interested in playing the game “hide-and-seek”, communicates with adults with “ah-ah” when she’s excited, also likes whispering some words lowly on her own. Taoying is a happy lovely baby.

- Jia's favorite toys are musical toys.

This is all we know about Jia so far.  We hope to receive an update on what her life has been like for the most recent 7 months.  Our family is so excited and can't wait to bring Jia home.  While the wait is going to be difficult, we need the time to gather funds to bring Jia home.  We will start fundraising heavily within the next few weeks!  We are going to be raffling off some great items!  We have an IPAD 2, Kindle Fire, Jewelry and more!

 

DTC!!!

Our dossier is officially in China!   We are so happy to be done with the paper chase.  Now the toughest part of the waiting game begins.  We will be eligible to be matched in about a week so the call could come at any time after that.  We will see if Jia is on the shared list in February!  

Here is an overview of how the process works from now until matching:

- In one week we will have an LID (log in date) which is simply the date that we are logged in to the CCCWA's system in China.  You can't be matched off of the shared list until you have an LID

- The shared list is posted for all hague accredited agencies to see and match children from every month.  The date that the list is updated varies from month to month.  Sometimes it is on the 13th or it could be the last day of the month or any day in between.

- We are first in line with our agency because we are the only family with an LID that hasn't been matched.  This is great for us and increases our odds of being matched off of the February list substantially. 

- The agency will be made aware of the list release date and time, 24 hours before it is released.  Our caseworker waits for the list to be released, which is usually very early in the morning, and searches for a child that matches our criteria.  If one is found, she will be "locked" for 72 hours and we will be sent her file for review and approval.

There have been a lot of people who have given their time and been so supportive through this process.  We appreciate you all and couldn't have done it without you.