Be careful with the Chinese language

I'm so lucky to have intelligent and fun coworkers. Another bonus is that two of them, Yung-Chen and Wei, speak Chinese, and they allow me to practice what I've learned in Chinese Mandarin language class on them. Sometimes I get blank stares after talking in Chinese to them, sometimes I am provided with corrections, and always there are smiles.

In class last night, when I was talking in Chinese about a young man in the room, instead of saying, "He eats sandwiches" I said, "He is a sandwich." Oh sure, the teacher and class roared with laughter. And I now am keen to the difference between the pronunciation and tone for the verb "eat" (chi1) and "to be" (shi4). What's in parantheses is a romanization of Chinese; it's called pinyin, and the numbers represent one of five tones.

To hear the difference between chi1 (eat) and shi4 (to be), click on the link below, type one of the words above -including the number which represents the tone- into the Search box, select Pinyin from the next drop-down box, and click on Look It Up! You'll be presented with a table that will link you to hearing the word pronounced.

http://www.mandarintools.com/worddict.html

Adoption Stories on Discovery Health channel

Time to fess up. We record and watch the TV show "Adoption Stories" on the Discovery Health channel (http://health.discovery.com/), and we watch it with tears in our eyes. Each 1/2 hour episode tells adoptive parents' journey through adoption. The show covers both international adoptions and domestic/U.S. foster care-to-adoptions. Wahhhhh, so sweet!

Are there, or are there not a lot of orphans in China?

Many of you have heard that China plans on using stricter guidelines in approving people who want to adopt from China. From what I've heard, the China Center of Adoption Affairs has so many dossiers and only a limited number of "available/paper-ready" children.

And then you may have also heard that there's been a decline in the number of children adopted from China in 2006. So, what gives?

Adoption from any country is a complicated process. In China today, it's a process that appears to be influenced by the number of orphans who are "available/paper-ready" (those in orphanages that have been approved for international adoption) as well as the number of people who are applying or have been approved to adopt and how fast CCAA staff can work through all the complicated pieces of the complicated process.

Check out this NY Times article link on the subject:
www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/opinion/23russell.html

Paperwork Update - 1 year (homestudy)

One year has passed since we started our adoption process "on paper", and we probably have another year's wait until we bring our baby home. In the meanwhile, we have to keep our paperwork updated. Right now we are working on updating our homestudy - it's required by Virginia state law and serves the purpose of saying, "The Ezzelles are fit to be adoptive parents in the eyes of the Commonwealth of Virginia."

In updating our homestudy, we have to do the following:

• get medicals,
• have VA state police criminal record checks run,
• have child abuse record checks run,
• request Department of Motor Vehicle checks,
• calculate our net worth,
• submit new tax forms, and
• have another interview with a social worker.

This is nothing compared to what was required for the original homestudy or the dossier. And like we've said before, OUR CHILD IS WORTH IT!

Learning the Chinese Language

Last night was our first night of a 12-week course in learning Mandarin, otherwise known as standard Chinese. We'll first learn to speak a little and then dabble in writing. After our first class we were exhausted from trying to get the basic tones and pronounciations correct. Between the course and our Rosetta Stone subscription (http://www.rosettastone.com), we hope to at least be able to speak several key phrases and read a few Chinese characters.

We've already been practicing saying:

1. Hello,
2. Goodbye,
3. Thank you,
4. I love you,
5. We're going to the bar, and
6. Where's the restroom?

Here's a link to a fun website that has Chinese words and phrases for adoptive parents.

http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/AudioChinese/parent.html

Baby's name

What will we name our little girl? (There's a 99% chance that we'll be matched with a baby girl.)

Helen

Helen is Chris' granny's name and I've always been a fan of names from the 1920s -- oops, sorry Granny for revealing your age! A picture of Granny and Chris from this Christmas is below.

We haven't decided on a middle name, but Elizabeth (my middle name) and whatever is her Chinese name is under consideration.

First-ever non-stop flight from DC to Beijing

United Airlines has been awarded the first-ever non-stop route from DC (Dulles, VA) to Beijing, China! I think that makes the flight only 13-14 hours!

Joined a gym and had pizza (at the gym)

Chris and I joined Planet Fitness gym this past weekend. When we went to the gym yesterday after work there were about 12 boxes of pizza there, their aroma wafting over the eliptical machines. Yeah, we had a slice on the way out. First Monday of every month is pizza night.

CCAA office pictures

The China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) has a new office and the website "Love without Boundaries" (http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/) has shared the following pictures of stacks of dossiers and the review room. Drats, I don't see our dossier in that stack!

Mangy Curs and X-rays

We have two dogs: Maxine and Samantha. They're both about 9 1/2 years old.

In mid-December, Samantha underwent TPLO surgery (http://vetsurgerycentral.com/tplo.htm) on her right knee; In May, she had TPLO surgery on her left knee. We've got 4 months of on-leash recovery ahead of us AGAIN. We're thankful for a warm winter so we don't have to trudge out in the snow with her. And Samantha is thankful that Chris has a soft spot in his heart and has given her this second chance at sticking around a little longer.

Now - check out her x-rays of the plate and screws!

Happy New Year!

We've returned from a wonderful holiday with Granny, Mama, Jeff (see picture), Dad, and Joyce in balmy North Carolina. We'll be sure to miss everyone (and every southern food) tons until we see (eat) them again!

No update on the adoption, but we hope that CCAA will update their website soon so we can see how close they are to reviewing our dossier.