Mei-Li

Several have asked about Nora's middle name. Mei and Li are Chinese words that mean "beautiful" and "gift" respectively. We checked with a couple folks who are fluent in Mandarin to make sure that Mei-Li couldn't also mean "overgrown raccoon" or something weird like that. Receiving the OK from them, we decided that "Beautiful-Gift" was pretty appropriate. In case you're wondering, it's pronounced "may lee." Also coincidentally, Mei is part of the Chinese word for "America." America is "Meiguo"--literally "beautiful land." A fitting name for a little one coming to live in a beautiful land!

Ugly blog

Beth says that I'm the author of the world's ugliest blog. At least she did not say that I'm the world's ugliest blog author. So I made use of the templates to give the site a different look. Hope it's a little easier on the eyes! Now if we could just do something about the name. Ants on a Blog? Seriously?

Look out world!

As expected, we received a fedex package today with official paperwork, medical records and a couple of pictures of our new daughter, Nora Mei-Li Waldschmidt.

Just a few fun facts included in her report....

• She weighs about 15 lbs, with a good appetite. Her favorite foods are rice cereal, steamed eggs and meat cake soup. (Huh?)
• She was born on August 21, 2009 and arrived at Fuzhou SWI on September 8th.
  
• She does not sleep through the night yet.
  
• Her personality is described as active, fond of music and games, smiling readily.
  

You can definitely see that ready smile in at least one of the pictures. Looks like she's already cooking up some trouble! We can't wait.

It's a girl!

Giving glory to the Giver of every good and perfect gift, we're very pleased to tell you that we received our referral call this morning. We have a beautiful and healthy baby girl, born August 21, 2009. Her Chinese name is Fu Chu Li. (For those unfamiliar, Fu is the surname, Chu Li, the first and middle names respectively.) We anticipate traveling to China to meet her within 5-7 weeks. Rejoice with us! This is the day the Lord has made!

Confirmed!!

It has been confirmed that they have matched families through 4/26/06. Our LID is 4/25/06!!!
According to our agency we will be getting our call tomorrow! We will update as soon as we know anything official....

Referred through the 26th

The "Rumor Queen" website, which provides most of the unofficial info on China adoption, reports this morning that the LID cutoff date this month is April 26, 2006. Our LID is April 25, so it looks like we're included this month. Now the question is...how long does it usually take from the time these rumors start to show up to the time families receive their referral phone calls? The answer is, some times one day...some times a week. But let's just say that I'm keeping my cell phone near me at all times!

New blog

We created this blog to keep family and friends informed about the progress of our adoption. Lord-willing, we'll be traveling to China during the summer of 2010 to meet our new baby. We'll post info and pictures here as they become available. After several years of pregnancy, we can't wait to meet the newest member of the Waldschmidt clan! We'll be sure to keep you posted!