Care Package #1

We were going to wait and send a care package after Jin Pei's birthday (when we plan on having a service send a cake) but we could wait no longer; we needed a fun distraction from the stalled paperchase. So we mailed one off on Saturday and along with the stuff above, included some chocolate candy and a letter explaining why we were sending the package. We hope it gets there but likely we will not know for sure until we travel to China. Below are the pictures we put in the album (it held only 5 full size and the one wallet size pictures)...


Her first English words might just be "Grass not green" since our lawn has not looked this good in years; we used this same picture for Brynn's adoption paperwork and that was over 2 years ago. It was clearly taken at a time when we had fewer kids... more time to keep the grass green and pretty and less toys cluttering the lawn!

Kate

The Cure for Paperchasing Insanity...

Today we drove 2+ hours to spend 10 minutes total to be fingerprinted and then drove 2+ hours back home. We left the USCIS office at noon and our mail comes a little after 2pm. I was somewhat disappointed our resulting I-171H form wasn't in the mailbox when we got home. :) Okay, I know they say about 2 weeks and that is a pretty good time frame compared to most USCIS offices but I can always have hope.

Collecting all these documents when you know a child is waiting for you is just not healthy. I am obsessed with tracking packages on FedEx, predicting best and worst case scenarios, and fearing an overlooked notary error or worse, a document buried on someone's desk who isn't quite as concerned about our adoption as I am.

March. I know our paperwork will go to China in March. I have analyzed all the numbers over and over and could elaborate on the best, middle, and worst case scenarios but I won't go there. I just can't wait to be DTC (dossier to China) because while the wait then will still be excruciating, it is absolutely, positively out of my control and as long as I am not waiting longer than the average for the next step (about 90 days), I can relax just a little bit!

Meanwhile my FedEx envelopes for the next steps are waiting patiently on the dining room table and I have mapped the routes to the pickup boxes with the latest collection times. Come on I-171H!

Kate

Meaning of a Name

Wan (1st above; her last name; all children at her orphange have this name): means ten thousand, or a great number

Jin (2nd above; her first name): means tapestry, embroidery work or brocade; or brilliant and beautiful; or glorious

Pei (3rd above; her middle name): look of a flowing gown

Pei, at least the character used for the Pei in JinPei's name, required a lot of Internet searching compared to the Wan and Jin. Here is the website I found Wan and Jin at. I did find it interesting that PeiJin, explained in the Jin definition I found, means "an abundance of brillance and beauty" but again, I don't know if the Pei is the same Pei that is in JinPei's name since there are several characters for Pei.

So out of curiosity, I used this website, http://www.babynamesworld.com/, to see what the other kids' names meant (except for Brynn's Chinese name, which I looked up based on the Chinese characters on the site above).

Some names had more than one meaning so I picked the one I liked best but it is clear I did not use name meanings to name my children... maybe Price will become a geologist one day...

Nyah = Purpose

Kate = Pure

Caleb = Faithful/Loyal

Douglas = Black Water

Price = Prize

Allen = Rock

Evan = God is Gracious

Ronald = Ruler with Counsel

Brynn = Hill

Kellie = Bright-headed

Fu = Good Fortune

Man = Graceful

Lu = Road

Jin Pei's S Family Name

In our family, we have two naming “rules” that we have followed. First each child has been named after someone else in the family. So Caleb shares his dad’s middle name, Brynn’s legal first name is Brynn Kellie and Kellie is my mom’s name, the name Price and Price’s middle name come from Doug’s grandfather, and Evan’s middle name is both my father’s and my brother’s first name. So we looked through the family tree and Doug wanted to use one of my names.

The other “rule” is one that just happened and now that the kids realize it, they want to keep it up. Each one of us has a different first letter… makes for easy labeling because we never have to write out the entire name… just a P, E, B, K, D, or C! We were really considering a couple names that would have repeated a letter and when we mentioned this to the child who would have had to share, well, we got a firm head shake!

I also wanted to include JinPei’s Chinese name in her name as well. With Brynn, since all her names had meaning (we just liked the name Brynn but that counts), I didn’t want a name to get lost in the shuffle as a second middle name so that is why her first name is actually two (so she hears them on the first days of school before she can say differently) and then her middle initial will be the one for her Chinese name. So now JinPei will have two first names as well, even though we will likely call her by just the first one.

So… our new daughter’s name is…

Nyah Kate Jinpei

Nyah came from an original list of about 12 names that fit the "rules" that I made up from looking at lists on the web. Then Doug and I both ranked them separately and ended up tossing the top two around for a while. I was still waivering a bit but today on the way home from preschool Brynn was singing a song with just one line repeated over and over - "I call my sister Nyah" - so now, Nyah Kate Jinpei it is!

Kate

Finally...

After 48 days, we finally received are Pre-Approval from China and so here are the pictures of our new daughter and sister, Wan Jin Pei:

Gotta love that haircut!! Hopefully our final paperwork will be headed to China soon... just waiting on US immigration to give us the clearance to adopt.