January 20, 2003

     Referrals for the rest of the Novies are here!  Some agencies were closed today for Martin Luther King day, so it will be a busy day on the November list tomorrow too.  Our travel approval is STILL not here!  I think not knowing the process, not belonging to APC or to a DTC list last time might have been a blessing!  Of course, we traveled 5 weeks after our referral last time, so the wait this time is torture.

     Our weather the past two days has been super warm, but now winter is coming back.  I sent our check off for us to attend the Wichita CNY celebration February 1st.  That should be fun.

January 12, 2003

     Today was family day.  We went out to eat lunch, then off to Walgreen's for Visa photos.  Nicholas' Mom called about homework that he was supposed to have done.  Seems he failed to do a report.  We brought him home with strict orders to do his homework.  The rest of us went to Towne East for a while.  When we returned home, Nicholas was happy to report he had his report finished.  He is going to have to put his nose to the grind stone and get his grades up or he will not be making the trip to China.

     Tonight we received pictures via email of our travel mates, Scott and Donna's baby.  She was born 3/6/2002, just one day before KaeLynn.  She is adorable!  All the babies are beautiful!  I can't wait to meet them in person!  Her name will be Rinn Lian Schepman.

     Tomorrow is Janea's 25th birthday.  I have presents and a cake to wrap tomorrow.  I will also take Nicholas to Great Bend in the afternoon.  He doesn't have school, so he stayed an extra day with us.  I also have many appointments to call and make tomorrow.  It should be a busy day.  Maybe New Hope will call us with travel approvals!

January 11, 2003

     We were in touch with the other two families in our travel group today.  I visited with Candi Holloway this morning and Scott S. tonight.  They are all anxious to go to China too.  Candi's husband is military and may not be able to go, if not her sister will go.  There daughter was born 3/10/2002.  They emailed us a photo and she is a real cutie!  I didn't get a chance to ask Scott if they were taking anyone along.  They are going to email us a picture of their daughter who was born 3/6/2002.  We are looking forward to meeting all of them when we go to China.

                                                    This is Kayley Holloway :)


     I addressed all the announcements tonight.  The new "Year of the Ram" stamps go on sale Monday.  I will order some on-line to use on the announcements.  KaeLynn was born in the year of the horse, but those stamps were issued last year and are 34 cents.

     We found out that Wendy Schoof has received her acceptance from the CCAA to adopt a waiting child.  Her daughter was born 11/20/2001 and she hopes to get to travel in April to get her.  She will be named Keri Hope.  Kira Joy is excited to become a big sister.

January 10, 2003

     PopPop and I returned from our "fun" day away to find out Patty from New Hope had called last night with some updates on KaeLynn.  She is now 18 pounds!  I hope that they are just a little on the high side!  They said she now has 4 teeth.  No wonder she has gained from 16.7 pounds to 18!  I was sad that we weren't there for this milestone in her life.  I still hope New Hope can get us there very soon!

January 6, 2003

     A November DTC from Norway and two from Canada posted their referrals today.  Someone posted that their agency is speculating that the rest of the November referrals might not come in until the end of February!  I hope for the rest of the QBQer's that they are wrong.

     I tracked our FedEx package to New Hope today.  It was delivered at 9:41AM.  I found out tonight that all of our travel group has accepted their referrals and our acceptance letters will be sent back to the CCAA tomorrow.  Hopefully that means we will be receiving our travel approvals very soon.  I have been in contact with Lotus Travel to see if it would be better to fly through Guangzhou or Beijing.  They said it would all depend on how much advanced notice we have.  I wouldn't mind going to Beijing 2 days early if it wouldn't cost us an arm and a leg.  We will probably end up just going to Hefei one or two days early.

     PopPop and I have planned our last side trip to gamble this Thursday.  Once KaeLynn is home, there will not be any time for that!  Plus the trip will have me in debt for a very long time!

     I set up a Yahoo email account for Nicholas tonight.  Then he and his Mom can email each other while we are in China.  He is Scoobydodude@yahoo.com

January 5, 2003

     It has been a very busy time.  We sent our acceptance letter via FedEx to New Hope Friday and I mailed a package off to KaeLynn at the orphanage.  I put a photo album with KaeLynn's photo, pictures of the kids, us and one of the house.  They are in a "sassy" photo album.  We also put in a pink blanket with white stars on it, a stuffed turtle with a bell noise, a disposable camera with the instructions in English and Chinese and Dove chocolates and Hersey's Kisses.  We hope to get the camera back with pictures of KaeLynn in her present home.  Several families have done this and received some really good photos back.

     I joined the Huainan egroup and we have been very impressed to hear how well the babies are cared for there.  I have also offered to hand carry photos to the orphanage for families who have adopted from there.  I have read how the nannies love to see current photos of their "babies."  I think it will be so neat to see their faces when they see the photos.

     Janea, RaeAnne and I went shopping at Towne East yesterday.  Rae and Kae will be very well dressed!  Today I started gathering things to pack.  The weather in Hefei has been  in the 30's and 40's during the day.  The 20's at night.  Guangzhou has been in the 70's so we are going to need a wide variety of clothes.  I want to make sure we keep KaeLynn covered well so the "clothing police" won't scold us!  Because of the weather changes we will be in, I am making sure I pack cold/sinus meds for all of us.

December 30, 2002

     We all slept in very late this morning.  I woke up at 8:38 and jumped out of bed to get RaeAnne up and off to day care.  I then came home, took a quick look at the November list and then I vacuumed the whole house!  I was trying to burn off nervous energy.  I kept thinking there could be a good possibility we would get our referral today.

     I did a good job of staying away from the computer.  I only took the time to check the sites every one to one and a half hours.  I had just checked it and made a post congratulating the new parents plus a statement that IF we received our referral today, it would be late afternoon before we knew.

2:10PM
     The phone rang soon after that and when the person on the other end asked for Mark or Anna...I said "This is Anna."  "Is this THE CALL?"  She said "This is Patty and YES, this is the call!"  I headed up  the stairs to get the list of questions I needed to ask.  I started shaking a little as she started telling me the stats, but I held it together pretty well.

     Huai Feng He was born on 3/7/2002 and entered the Huainan Children's Welfare Institute on 3/10/2002.  This is in the Anhui province.  We will more than likely stay in the capital city of Hefei about 2 hours from Huainan.  Much of the rest of the info is being translated still.  Patty said our packet would be sent FedEx tomorrow morning.  Unfortunately, since New Year's Eve is Wednesday we will probably not receive it until Thursday.  So my plans of the family all being here and present for the first glimpse sort of disappeared.  I asked Patty if she could email us a photo and she did about one hour later.  In the meantime, Daddy and I decided that as long as the translation was the same, we would name her---KaeLynn FengHe VanCamp.  I think my feet were off the ground!

     I started sending our referral news to all the egroups, family and friends.  I was checking my email every few minutes it seemed, waiting for the picture.  Then when it came, we hesitated only briefly deciding if we should get out the camcorder.  I don't think Daddy or I could wait that long!

     As soon as I opened the email and gazed at her photo I said "She's beautiful!"   Daddy said, "She looks like a keeper!"  Then I started crying like a baby!  It was such a relief after waiting 405 days to see that precious face.  But now the real wait begins.  New Hope does not think we will travel until March!  That's a long time to wait!  Nicholas' first comment was her shirt was too big!



     I barely left the computer the rest of the day.  Lots of our fellow Novembers' received their referrals too.  Unfortunately, many are going to have to wait longer.  I joined the Huainan egroup to find out about the orphanage.  It sounds like the babies get real good care there.  I also want to find out a lot about Hefei where we will be staying.  Everyone so far has had only good things to say about the area.

     Tonight I pried myself away from the computer long enough for us to go eat Chinese.  RaeAnne loves her "noodles".  We also confirmed with Patty that Lin would be our facilitator.

     I talked to our travel mate Shari this afternoon.  Her new daughter was born 3/4/2002---Her name is Huai Feng Xin.  She will be named Hayley.

     What a day!  I hope I can sleep tonight!  Wow!  We have another beautiful daughter from China!  Life is great!