MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!

OUR PLANE LEAVES DECEMBER 14TH!!! IN LESS THAN ONE WEEK, WE WILL BE HOLDING KATHERINE IN OUR ARMS!!!!!

Monday, December 4, 2006, our American Consulate Appointment was confirmed for December 26th!!!!! We are scheduled to fly out on December 14th to Beijing, China!!!!!!!!! I still can't believe this is really happening now. We have all been sick with whatever "bug" is going around, but hopefully we'll all be better and ready to travel next week. Tuesday morning, I had to fly into Houston, Texas to get our Visas at the Chinese Consulate. My sister was able to drive over and meet me for lunch and a brief visit while I waited for the Visas to be completed. It was a long day, but was a great experience and so good to have our Visas completed for travel. In less than 2 weeks, we will have Katherine and will be spending Christmas at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China! We never imagined such a wonderful Christmas Gift!!

Friday night, our dear friends, David and Ellen had a wonderful dinner for us in celebration of our travel to China. The dinner was wonderful with beautiful Chinese decorations, several delicious Chinese dishes, eggrolls, stuffed dumplings, soup, tea, dessert and the company of another family who have adopted from China and are waiting for their second. We had a great time sharing stories, eating with chopsticks and laughs with the kids. I wish I had brought my camera because everything was beautiful and the food was great. It was a great memory to add to this incredible journey to bring Katherine home. Thank you so much David and Ellen for touching our lives and sharing in this wonderful "journey of a lifetime".

China Here We Come!!!!!! We received our Travel Approval today at 4:43 p.m. We will be traveling around Dec. 14th and will have our baby before Christmas!! I am still shaking with excitement!!!! In 2 weeks, we will be in China!!!

WHAT A GREAT CHRISTMAS GIFT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We get our Visas next week and are waiting for our TA and CA confirmation. Soon, we'll have our baby Katherine in our arms.
We are about to take the most incredible journey of our lives!!

Today was the first day back at work after a wonderful long weekend break for Thanksgiving. We hope everyone had a Great Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with Joe's brother and his family. Unfortunately, their oldest daughter Kera, was not able to attend because of her journey to Japan. Maybe, next year she will be able to join us. She missed out on some great traditional turkey and ham fixings along with some wonderful Italian dishes and the best DESSERT at "Maggianos of Little Italy!! Mmmmmmmmm! ( I know our TURKEY was much better than yours, Kera :) ) Sorry! Anyway, it looked like you had fun from the pics we saw.

Nanning is the capital of the Guangxi Autonomous Region in southwest China. It is the center of the Zhuang culture, Chinas largest minority at well over 15 million people. The city has been closely involved in relationships with neighboring Vietnam, both positive and negative, and now has an open border with Vietnam. It has an area of 10 thousand square kilometers and a population of 2.6 million.
Nanning is situated in Nanning basin. In the southeast of the region are hills and plains. The rest are mountains. Nanning has a subtropical monsoon climate with an annual average temperature of 21.7ºC, and has 360 frost-free days. Annual rainfall averages 1,300 millimeters.
Nanning is rich in plant and water resources. The main mineral deposits are manganese, iron, copper, tungsten, and aluminum.
Food processing, machine building, and textile industries are the mainstay. The chief farm products of Nanning include rice, corn, sugarcane, cassava, fruit vegetables, pigs, and poultry. Nanning is noted for the export of duck down.
Rail, road, and air transportation facilities in Nanning are very convenient. Waterways link Nanning directly to Guangzhou.
With the Yong River flowing through and picturesque scenery, Nanning is known as a garden city. Guangxi Botanical Garden, the largest botanical garden in China, is located in Nanning.

Katherine is in Nanning,China

Nanning is an ancient city in China's remote southwest, and is the regional capital of Guangxi. It has a laid back atmosphere and many fruit and vegetable markets. The Provincial Museum on Minzu Dadao has a display of over 50 antique bronze "Dongson" drums in many different styles, some of which are about 2,000 years old. The ethnic minority communities include Miao, Dong, and Zhuang. It is among China's least developed regions. The Guangxi cuisine includes cantonese -style sweet and sour dishes, zongzi, and sticky rice. The city of Guilin in eastern Guangxi, is famous for the Li River cruise through astonishing karst landscape of limestone peaks. Approximately 93 miles west of Nanning, is the popular Detian Falls. There is a beautiful Renmin Park that is planted with a variety of tropical plants including giant taro, heliconias, birdnest ferns, and philodendrons .( This is probably where the pictures of Katherine were made for her "referral" photos. ) To the East of the city on Chahua Yuan Lu, Jinhua Cha Gardnes exhibits the rare Golden Camellia only found in the mountains of Guangxi and is quite possibly now extinct in the wild. Guangxi is ranked among the top 3 Provinces in China for it's beauty and rainforest type environment.

Friday, we received the translation of Katherine's growth chart which described her finding place outside of the orphanage gates on September 23, 2005 by a Security Guard. There was a note with her stating her D.O.B. as September 19th. She was taken to the hospital and examined and determined to be a very healthy newborn infant. She was placed with a foster family around 1 month of age and is still with the family. She is very healthy, loves to go to the vegetable market and play with the green vegetables. She can stand and walk around holding onto furniture and can crawl and sit up just fine. She is described as a very beautiful little girl with fair skin and bright eyes, very happy and loves to play with toys and games. She watches television and laughs out loud at commercials, sucks her fingers or a towel when sleepy. We are so blessed and happy that she is thriving and seems to be very happy. We know the transition for her will be difficult when she is handed over to us and she will grieve the loss of her foster family but this will be a good sign that she is able to attach and bond and hopefully she will soon adjust and accept us as her forever family. I can't imagine the sadness her mother must have felt in having to abandon her and I will always keep her in my prayers.

This past weekend, I traveled to Louisiana and had a great visit with family and friends and lots of fun shopping for Katherine. The weather was beautiful and LSU won the game against ALABAMA! GO TIGERS!!!!!!! This afternoon we received confirmation that our Acceptance Forms were hand delivered to the CCAA today and Friday we will move into the travel phase with our agency. Not long now!!!!!

Beautiful Fall Colors at a nearby neighborhood lake. We enjoy all 4 seasons here and this had to be the most beautiful color we have ever had.

 

 

Linda's Beautiful baby girl!!

Fan, Zhi Han
DOB: 10/23/05
Province: Hunan
Orphanage: Changsha, The First SWI

Allison's Beautiful baby girl!

Lilah Grace

Fan, Ya Xuan
Province: Hunan
Orphanage: Changsha, The First Social Welfare Institute
DOB: 10/28/05

This is a picture of 2 ladies we met at the GWCA Conference earlier this year. They both had LIDs of August 24th and just received pictures of their beautiful baby girls. We can't wait to travel with them and meet their beautiful babies. Pictured here with President Sno Wu, Linda is on the left, and Allison is on the Right . See pictures of their BEAUTIFUL BABIES above.

Yesterday, we drove to the mountains to see the Fall colors. The trees were beautiful! We stopped and did some shopping in a small town and Joe bought Katherine the cuttest little teddy bear for Christmas. It is animated and "reads" the story of "The Night Before Christmas". While reading the story, the bear's head and mouth moves. It is one of the cuttest toys I have ever seen. We can't wait to see her face when she sees it.

DO I LOOK HAPPY? YOU BET!!! This is the FedEx Package delivered on Monday, November 6, 2006 containing the original pictures of Katherine, translation of Medical Exam, Chinese description of her finding and growth chart with a description of her personality,progress, sleep and feeding times,etc., and our Acceptance forms for adopting her. We signed them and immediately sent them overnight to our agency.

Katherine MeiLia

This is a picture of me at the same age as Katherine. I thought it was funny that we almost have the same hair do and nose.

Look at those cute little feet!! We love her from the top of her cute little head to the tips of her tiny little toes!! Some of her little toes fell through the slats in the bench, but she still seems to balance herself really well.

I REALLY love this picture of Katherine!! I can just imagine her little giggles and check out the dimples. I can't wait to kiss those chubby little cheeks.

I can't stop looking at her pictures.
The hair is too cute!!

 

The Rooster is the strutting peacock of the Chinese Zodiac! These quick thinkers are practical and resourceful, preferring to stick to what is tried and true rather than taking messy, unnecessary risks. Roosters are keenly observant. It's hard to slip anything past a Rooster, since they seem to have eyes in the backs of their heads! This quality can lead others to think the Rooster is psychic, but that's not generally the case; instead this Sign enjoys a keen attention to detail that makes it a whiz at anything requiring close analysis. Roosters make good lawyers, brain surgeons and accountants, to name a few of this Sign's possible occupations. Above all else, the Rooster is very straightforward and rewards others honesty' in kind. Roosters are not shifty or cagy and have no interest in hiding behind a facade. They are the proverbial open book, telling the truth and keeping their word. If you show your hand, the Rooster will respect you for it. This kind of trusting behavior can tempt ticksters to pull a fast one on the Rooster, but that would be a bad move! Remember, this sign doesn't indulge in flights of fancy and keeps those eyes wide open at all times. They tend to be perfectionists and expect to be in control, especially over their appearance. The Rooster will be the best dressed one of the bunch.

Roosters also expect to be in control of their surroundings, including whoever happens to be in those surroundings. They keep and impeccably neat house and expect others in their home to do the same. The Rooster, with the right person, can be the most loyal, trusting and supportive mate around, one who bends over backward to please its loved ones. Their excellent people skills and sharp minds are qualities that others will appreciate as much as a pretty face. The most compatible match for a Rooster is the Ox or the Snake.

Guess What??? Her mother is The Sign of the Snake!! Rumor has it that the children are matched with families according to their facial bone stucture similarities and compatible astological signs. We can already tell that Katherine is the perfect child for our family.
Katherine was born in "The Year of the Rooster" according to the Chinese Calendar.

The Stork has Officially arrived!!!!

We are proud to introduce the newest member of The Perello Family, Katherine MeiLia Perello

Chinese Name: Xia, Wen Qian (pronounced "Wenchan") (Xia is her last name given for the orphanage she is from)
Date of Birth: September 19, 2005
Province: Guangxi
Orphanage: Nanning Social Welfare Institute

Height: 69 cm 27 inches
Weight: 7.4 kg 16 lbs. 3 ounces
Medical Exam dated: July 7, 2006

Wen Qian is currently being fostered through a foster program. She is described as an active and restless girl that can sometimes be impatient! She is also fond of music, toys and games.

Celebrating Katherine!!!!

Celebrating Katherine!!!!
Video sent by janetlynnperello

Celebrating news of Katherine!!!

STORK ALERT!!! THE STORK WILL BE ARRIVING AT THE AGENCIES TOMORROW WITH REFERRALS FOR FAMILIES WITH LIDS THROUGH AUGUST 25, 2005!!!!
THAT'S US!!!!! KATHERINE NOW HAS A FOREVER FAMILY!!!!! WE ARE SOSOSOSOSOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!
WE WILL RECEIVE HER PICTURE AND INFORMATION TOMORROW.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Today several of us at work dressed up for Halloween and had some great laughs and lots of fun. Last week, all of the labs had a pumpkin carving competition. All of the entries were great and I'm so glad I didn't have to judge and choose the winner. To enter, each lab had to donate a bag of candy and the lab with the winning entry won the entire pot of candy.

 

Well, tonight there will be another Cyber Slumber Party to see if CCAA updates their website with the new cut-off date. I join in along with everyone waiting in saying "I BELIEVE"!!!! We have been told by our agency that all of the matches have been completed and we will know very, very soon. I haven't started drinking yet, but this is how I feel after this long wait. (LOL)

Just announcing that Cannolli won 2nd Place in a Halloween Costume Contest yesterday. He was dressed as a No. 1 Fire Dog and was too adorable!!! All of the dogs costumes' were great and we all had a great time.

Tonight I will be joining the "Cyber Slumber Party" along with the Rumor Queen and many other August LIDers who are anxiously waiting to hear news of the status of referrals and CCAA updates. Today we celebrate the 14th month wait since our LID.

Trying hard to be Patient!