Happy New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! We hosted a great new year party at a local Chinese restaurant on Sunday and had a great time. It was so wonderful to see so many children and families come together to celebrate. Hannah was of course in her glory, being able to reconnect with so many of the families she met through her work in adoption.

The reality that we are going to be traveling to China in the next month to pick up Nina is finally starting to settle in. We're buying bottles and bibs and dusting off our suitcases, planning for how we will arrange a trip to Nina's orphanage, and preparing Hannah's mother and my sister (and ourselves!) for their time with Emelia, Chloe and Ella! Of course, at the same time, we're packing up our entire house to get ready to move.

For those of you who recall our Holiday Letter, you'll remember we said that 2007 would be a "year of becoming." For us, it certainly is.

We Just Got Our Referral!

We got our referral! We have been matched with a beautiful little girl named Bai Xiao Chen. (I'm still working on the translation of the Chen part, but Bai is 100 and Xiao is small.) She is 8 months old and is a peanut. About 2 months ago, she was 24.8 inches tall and 13.75 lbs - about the size of Chloe at birth! We are all in love and can't believe we have finally "met" her! The girls are excited and nervous at the same time. She is living in an orphanage in Dianbai in Guangdong Province, about 4 hours west of Guangzhou for those familiar with Chinese geography. We are going down to Boston tomorrow morning to get more information and start the next volume of paperwork so we can travel to get her. The usual time to travel is 6 to 8 weeks. Since Chinese New Year is staring in a couple of weeks and most of China is on vacation during the 2 week holiday, we will likely be closer to the 8 week mark. We will let you all know any other exciting news as things progress. For now, we are celebrating!