Update

Yea, we received an update for Paige today. She is so darn cute. This video and pictures were taken on 12/30/08. She weighed 7.2 lbs and was 19 inches long.

An Ox and 4 families

Lunar New Year was a big success. We all had a blast! The food was yummy, and the company was the best. It means so much to have such good friends to share the customs of our daughter's culture with. Here are some fun picts from the day. My Taiwanese dessert was pretty yummy after all. Here is the link to the recipe for the Red Bean Trifle.

All the kids hanging out.
John and Brian
Next week is Mia's birthday, so we celebrated with her yesterday.
Meaghan taking a picture
All the mommies and Ken ( Michelle's exchange student from China)
Taiwanese Red Bean Trifle

Chinese New Year

Tomorrow starts Chinese New Year. This starts the year of the Ox. It is a very big holiday in China and Taiwan. We are celebrating it with our dear neighborhood friends today. This will be our 2nd annual celebration. Last year it was at Michelle's, this year at Joanne's. We all make a main course dish and bring it. I am making the same as last year. Bokchoy with shrimp.. my family loves this and I make it during the year. I am also trying a new recipe. It is a Taiwanese dessert that has been modified by a Taiwanese American.If it comes out good, I will post the recipe and the source. It stems from shaved ice desserts served in Taiwan. In the American version it is made more like a Trifle.

This is a special CHINESE NEW YEAR... Our friends Melissa and Brian will be traveling in 2 weeks to go get Owen from China. We have our referral of beautiful Min Shan from Taiwan..... It is exactly one year ago today, that we were officially waiting with our Taiwan agency (JOH) for our daughter. Back then I could not imagine that this moment would finally arrive, one in which we would see her face. Next year, we will all have our children and it will be an especially joyous occasion.

I will post picts later this week.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

NO UPDATES, NO HEARING DATES ........UGGHHH!!!

A little more...

Here is the room before the rug
Here it is with the new gorgeous rug...


,

A little more

Ok I know you have bee waiting to see the rest of the room. Well here is another peak at our progress. John painting the top color.... I know you love the suspense.

Showers of Happiness

Melissa with her daughters Ella, and Brianna
More fun gifts
Michelle, Melissa, Me, Joanne(from right to left)
We all stand outside waiting for Melissa to arrive


Yesterday, a few of us in our neighborhood hosted a shower for our friends Melissa and Brian. They are bringing home their son Owen from China in a few short weeks. We had it at my house and we all cooked and decorated and planned for this great event. The day went off without a hitch. Melissa was very suprised!!! She recieved wonderful gifts and celebrated this joyous occasion with her close friends and family. Congratulations Melissa and Brian. We can't wait to meet Owen. You can read more about their journey by clicking on the link WEN located on the right side of my blog.

The beginning of a master piece.

Hubby cleared out the room today to start the painting. (Most of the stuff is in my hallway upstairs). He did the ceiling today. You can see the different paint colors I tried before deciding on a color. Tomorrow pink and green. We ordered a pink carpet too. Stay posted...

Some more of my favorite things.

I ordered this bow holder from this etsy site:




Look at these beautiful embroidered items that my dear friend Jules sent to us... She is waiting for Hayden from Taiwan. She has a her own store here.





There are so many girl things to buy, I really have to control myself. I love all the bows that coordinate with the clothes. I hope she is a bow girl....

The day of our referral

I want to document here how we got our referral for Min Shan. It was a Tuesday, December 16th. It was one of those crazy busy weeks due to the holidays approaching. It was also the night of our annual neighborhood cookie exchange. I came home from work and had several phone calls. It was snowing lightly that evening. I wasn't feeling so hot, and I almost didn't go to the cookie exchange except that my friend Michelle had said to me that she would pick me up at 7:30. I had already spent the weekend before baking and I didn't want to disapoint my friend Joanne whose house it was at. I was running around trying to pack up my cookies, and get the rest of the recipes to print out. I had to clean up dinner, and get dressed yet by 7:30. The phone rang at 6:45 pm. It said JOH..WA. so I knew that it was Tien calling witht the good news. I remember looking at John and saying I can't answer that and he is says "answer that". Of course it was Tien with the great news that we had a referral of a beautiful baby girl Min Shan. So then I called Michelle to tell her that I wasn't going to drive with her... and of course the good news, and then Joanne, that I would be late to the cookie party... and the good news.

We had to download all of Min Shan's informatiion, pictures, video, make calls and finish wrapping the cookies to go. I did arrive at the cookie exchange around 8:30. My great friends were all there to great me with applause as I walked in. I felt like a rock star!! Thanks girls... then of course my peeps Joanne, Michelle, and Melissa had more referral gifts for Miss Paige.. they truly made her referral very, very special. And the cookie exchange, what I can remember of it because I am in a perpetual fog..., was excellent as usual.

Here are all the gals that baked...



This is the ornament that Joanne had made for us..


This is the beautiful tea set "Tea for Three" that Mia and Meaghan gave to Paige so that all 3 girls can enjoy tea parties..



This is the adorable little baby Tinkerbell from Melissa...



Thank to all my girls who keep me smiling......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGHAN

Today our friends Michelle and Mike celebrated their beautiful daughter Meaghan's birthday. She turned 3 today and came home from China just a little over a year and half ago. It feels like Meaghan has been with them forever. It is a lot of fun to watch her growning up and Oh what a personality she has. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEAGHAN...WE LOVE YOU....

Heighho heighho

...It's off to work I go...
Yup today I go back to work after being off for 1 1/2 weeks. Ughh. Hubby will be home painting the office and the baby's room. Cole goes back, and Kyle is still on break. The worst part is definately getting up this early. It is going to be a busy week already according to my calendar. Maybe just maybe we will hear of a hearing date for Paige Min Shan. but I would guess we wont hear anything until the earliest next week.
It is 6:21 pm in Taiwan right now, I wonder what she is doing??

Also if anyone has a great Taiwanese recipe they have tried and you like, please let me know because Chinese New Year is approaching and my peeps and our families will gather again to celebrate. I have a nice dessert I want to make but not a main course yet.... so let me know either by posting in the comments section or sending me an email.

Happy Monday to everyone.

A New Year

After being off of work for almost 2 weeks, I am not sure I am ready to return on Monday. It has not been so hectic this past week, and I have been able to hang around and accomplish a bit. Here are some of the things that I have been doing:

1. I read all four of the Twilight books.. well almost.. I have a few chapters to go on book 4. I will be very sad to leave behind the Cullen family. However I now own all the books to the Sookie Stackhouse vampire books....

2. I now have a television in my master bath. I know you think I will be sitting on the toilet watching, or lazing in the big tub (that I have used 2 times) in the past 6 years.. no!... hubby installed so we could watch the news in the a.m. as we both get ready for work. It was pretty nice to watch as I put on makeup yesterday.

3. Our office/video room is being worked on. Hubby has put the wires in the wall and is ready to put the flat screen TV up after he paints. I of course take my supervising duties very seriously.

4. We picked out carpet for Paige's room. We purchased all the closet components to organize her closet. Hubby is going to start on it this week... of course picts to come.

5. I bought a couple of outfits from gy**boree this week: some on sale, some not: mainly the line from the new lady bug line they have.... the jumper, the sweater, the headband, the socks the onesie... ohhhh so cute. I even bought the little fairy outfit they had as one of her Halloween costumes next year.

6. I ate wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to much. Back to trying to lose weight.

7. We took down the holiday decorations.... it feels like I just put them up.

8. I slept in most every day... love that.

9. I got to hang out with my favorite little person.. my little guy is soooo easy and loves to hang and watch videos with me and read, and very content to just play with all his legos and video games.

10. We saw the movie Marl**y and me. Don't know why the critics hated it perhaps because they never had a dog. We balled our eyes out...me because of the scene with the sonogram... it was so real... that is exactly what happens.. the face of the sonographer, the leaving the room... the dr......very accurate; then of course the whole thing with the dog... we have a yellow lab.. crazy.. and had a golden that ate through drywall, and other things.. wire etc.and he got sick and died way too soon.



As for the progress of Paige Min Shan process; our paperwork was sent to Taiwan from our agency on Monday December 29th. We are now waiting for them to give us a court date for her hearing. Pray that this all works out and that she will be home in the spring with us.