Happy Hallowe'en!

Our little Lady Bug! 

 

It was a wonderful evening with the Rowan's this year for Hallowe'en. We invited Sylvie's little friends over for a make your own pizza dinner before heading out trick or treating. Afterward filling up on pizza and candy, we headed down to our local park for a bonfire and fireworks put on by the local fire department. Sylvie was much better about watching the fireworks this year and clapped when they were over. However, I think the highlight for her was getting a chance to sit in the fire truck and play with the steering wheel. 

Here's a few pictures of our night...

Making pizzas with Sugar & Spice's Mom...

 Building up our strength before venturing out to trick or treat!

What's Hallowe'en without a little face paint?

The three little munchkins. 

Do you have any idea how hard it is to try to get three little kids to look at you at the same time?

Hope you had a spooktacular, safe Hallowe'en!

Final Travel Document has Arrived!

We received the final travel document last Thursday. This important piece of paper is called the "Notice of Coming" (also known as the Travel Approval) , essentially it is a formal invitation to travel to China to adopt Mary. I've included a picture of the top portion of our document above. 

We've been busy these past couple of weeks organizing our paperwork, lugging out the suitcases and pondering what to pack and what to leave behind. It will be a bit different this time as we are traveling in fall/winter weather this time, so we are trying to pack clothes that we can layer. We're a bit lucky in that locally we are experiencing the same temperatures, so it should be easy to decide which jackets and sweaters to bring with us.

Only 10 more days before we leave!

Second Care Package off to Mary

Last week we put together another care package to send to Mary with help from Angela at Lady Bugs N' Love From Above. We decided that we wanted to send a picture album to Mary with photos of her new family in hopes that she might not be so frightened of us when we first meet her. 

So we emailed Angela ten photos of Mary's new Mama, Baba and Jie Jie (Big Sister). Angela prints off the photos and attaches labels in Chinese on the back of each photograph identifying each person. She then places the pictures into a photo album - the one she selected for Mary is bright pink and furry with a toy on top!

We wrote another letter to the Director of Mary's Social Welfare Institute requesting that the nannies take some time each day to go over the photos with Mary to explain who were are. In the photo album we included two photos of Mary in this group of ten, hoping that when Mary sees herself in this set of photos she can start to connect herself these new people. We are also going to be bringing copies of these photographs in a small album to bring to China with us.  

We added another disposable camera in this care package. We asked that the staff take some more pictures of Mary and her daily life. We hope to receive this camera, as well as the previous two when we meet Mary in just over three weeks time.  

To round off the package we asked Angela to purchase some kids books for Mary and the other children to look at during their playtime, and she included five books. And of course, what is a care package without sending a little candy and nuts for everyone to enjoy!

Here is the picture Angela took of the care package before sending it off to Mary. You can see the pink photo album in the top left corner, the purple disposable camera, our translated letter in an envelope underneath, five children's books, and then some bags of candies and nuts. I hope Mary, the other children, and her nannies enjoy this care package!