Chinese New Year Party!

Welcome to our home and our Chinese New Year celebration!  We decorated...

 

 

 And cooked....

 

And the party was ready!

We were excited that another child adopted from Jen and Abigail's orphanage was going to join us this day, but he unfortunately began running a fever the night before the party.  We missed you so much, Bobby!

One other family joined in our festivities.

 

 Traditionally, the children receive red envelopes called hung bao for Chinese New Year. Inside is "lucky money."  The way I figured it, with adoption travel expenses on the near horizon, they were "lucky" to get it!  (smile)  Asian candy was also a huge hit with the Little Princesses, though it wasn't what the rest of us were used to!  Some was made of sesame, some with chia seeds,  or candied ginger, and not very sweet as one might expect with candy.

 Following dinner we had several activities for the kids.  Chinese New Year is a festival that is celebrated for fifteen days, but we attempted to condense it into one big day!  First we read a book about Chinese New Year.

Then the kids got to choose what they wanted to do.  We had a coloring page, word search, paper lanterns, and since it is the "year of the horse" a horse mask.  Only one little girl wanted to make the mask, but she was a VERY cute, little horse, indeed!

  

 

 Then we made a type of Chinese drum called "Boland Gu."

Our final craft was to figure out how to put battery operated lights in paper Chinese lanterns since there was no way in the world I was going to put FIRE in them!  

 

 

 

We suggested to the children that day fifteen of Chinese New Year would be appropriate for a parade with their lanterns, but they just couldn't wait.  By this time a couple of the neighborhood children even joined in!

We ended our evening with poppers (NOISE!) and sparklers.

The Little Princesses were VERY excited to celebrate Chinese New Year, and it was our very first time!  I'm certain we didn't get everything "right," but it gave them a taste of their native country and culture, and we had a blast doing it!  We cannot wait for Isaac to join our family picture next time!

The Lanz family wishes you a Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year - Friday, January 31

Our first day of CNY was pretty relaxed, with just our immediate household.  We ate simple noodles and steamed buns for dinner.

 It is the year of the horse, and this year's element is wood, so the girls colored wooden horses with markers to use for decorations at the big party planned for Saturday.

There were a couple little gifts - a tiny play horse, and the best surprise of all - Chinese Barbies!

 Happy Chinese New Year, everyone!

I800 Approval and Final Steps!

We are getting down to the last steps before travel!  Our I800 immigrations form was approved yesterday, January 28.  In legal-eze what this does, from the USCIS website;  "USCIS will provisionally approve the Form I-800 if the child qualifies for classification as a Convention adoptee and the proposed adoption or grant of custody will meet Convention requirements."

Next up is the Article 5 from the National Visa Center.  Again, from the website, " submit a visa application to a Consular Officer at the appropriate U.S. embassy or consulate in the Convention country. The Consular Officer will review the Form I-800 and the visa application for possible visa ineligibilities and will advise you if there are options to waive any noted grounds of inadmissibility.  If the Consular Officer determines that the child appears eligible to immigrate to the United States and that the information provided indicates that the adoption process thus far has complied with the Convention and IAA, he or she will notify the Convention country's central authority by issuing an Article 5/17 letter. The Article 5/17 letter will inform the foreign central authority that U.S. competent authorities have determined the prospective adoptive parents are eligible and suited to adopt, that the child may enter and reside permanently in the United States, and that the U.S. Central Authority agrees that the adoption may proceed."  

The NVC should have our paperwork by this time next week, and they are generally quick to issue the Article 5.  Due to the Chinese Consulate being closed for Chinese New Year our Article 5 will not be able to be submitted to them until February 10.  Typically the Article 5 approval takes two weeks then we wait on our invitation to travel!!!

So there you have it!  Article 5 and Travel Approval.  We are that close!

We completed our applications last night for Chinese Visas so we will be ready when our travel invitation arrives.  It is looking like traveling at the end of March is a real possibility!

How much fun?

How much fun can three little girls have with an after Christmas clearance sale?

We found these giant gingerbreads at the grocery store DEEPLY discounted.  The girls had a LOT of fun decorating them.  Believe it or not, Abigail (the littlest one) was the only one who actually ate her entire cookie!  She happily munched it down over several days. 

Our New Organizing Wall

One of the best things I ever had in my home was an oversize bulletin board.  I'm talking a MAJOR bulletin board that we'd gotten at a school auction.  It was maybe six feet across and four feet tall.  It held four of those poster board size dry erase calendars that are used in a classroom.  I really miss it!  We left it behind when we moved because we just don't have room for it here.

After some major scares whereby I lost some important adoption paperwork, I decided organization HAD to be given priority around here.  We live in an average home that doesn't have a lot of extra wall space, so I have to take advantage of smaller spaces, using them to their best advantage. 

I already knew the back of the door leading into the laundry room was a haven for the Little Princesses' hair stuff.  It has saved me thousands of steps and hours of looking for brushes and bands.

So why not utilize the other side of that door?  Sure it faces the family room, but why not?

 

I haven't totally used these pockets to their full advantage yet, but there is a lot of potential, and it has helped a bunch already.  I love having file pockets to drop important papers into.  It is so much better than putting them down in a random spot until I get them into a file cabinet!

Since the pockets were a success I decided to take it one step further to organize the family calendar and the children's chore charts.  I used a small wall that is slightly inset which allowed for hanging clipboards without disturbing the normal traffic flow through the hallway.

I painted with magnetic primer first.  Hint number one: it is an awful, oil based substance (translated a nightmare to clean up) that my husband stirred for an hour before it was of a useable consistency.  I finished with a chalkboard paint. 

 

  Hint number two:  My magnetic boxes, etc. will not stick.  Magnets with NOTHING under them stick, but that is about it.  If I were to do this again I would skip the magnetic primer.

This wall has been so handy!  The dry erase calendar allows for easily adding - and in these bad weather days moving - activities.  The dry erase board serves as a great place to highlight reminders.  The Little Princesses have their "chores" on magnet boards.  They move the squares to the bottom when they have completed the tasks - and I will add that they LOVE having little things to do.  They really enjoy helping.

When I added Isaac's chart, Tikvah wondered out loud why I had given him a pink one, then she looked  a little closer.  We don't have a LOT of photos of Isaac, but in three of the photos (obviously taken on different days) he is eating ice cream.  His chart has a scoop of green and a scoop of pink ice cream!

Tikvah and Isaac have laminated charts so I can easily add things with a dry erase marker.  Hmmmmmm.... do you suppose if I put "Come home soon" on Isaac's chart that it would help?

Linked

http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net/2014/02/one-project-at-a-time-21114.html

Our Classroom has a New Addition

Most of you know that we are home educators.  It has been that way since the dawn of time... ok not really, its only been the past twenty-seven years.  Here is a view of our modest little classroom.

And a new addition just barely showing from the other doorway.

 

So it is still hard to tell what it is?  Let me move again...

Want a clue?

 

Isaac has his very own desk in the classroom now!

 

I've kept things down low so he can reach them.  Now all we need is for him to show up for class!

A Sneak Peek at Isaac's Room

Getting the Little Princesses' room set up was easy.  Canopy beds and princess decals set the stage very well.  Isaac's room required quite a bit more thought.  How does one choose decor for an eleven year old BOY?  We still don't have an actual bed or table to go beside it, so this is still a work in progress.  Some of you have been asking about it though, so here is a sneak peek.

Getting details about the child you are waiting to adopt is difficult.  I had to pretty much rely on reports and updates.  These few details weighed in heavily in the design of the room.   So here are the few facts we were told and how I worked them in.

1.  Isaac likes to draw, especially nature themes such a birds and trees.
2.  Isaac's favorite color is red.

To incorporate the nature theme, his room is painted a greenish/brown color with a dark blue horizontal stripe going around it.  The curtains have trees and birds on them. 

The bedspread has a nature theme.  I expect the bed and nightstand that we purchase will be black.  Above the bed are pictures that contain crowns to bring in that "Prince" theme also.

I combined a large tree/bird decal with a Bible verse from Psalm 1:3. 

Moving on around the room I've hung a couple of baskets to hold his shoes so they are up and out of the way as he moves his wheelchair around.

 

His clothes are hung low in the closet so as to be easily reachable from a sitting down position.  The boxes on the floor (one on each side of the closet) hold folded clothing and additional bedding.  

 

I included a table so he can pursue his hobby of drawing.  Nature and prince type things are on the shelf above.  The life verse we chose for him is to the right of his bulletin board.

 

And finally, a large shelving unit.  I've included a variety of baskets and drawers to hold whatever makes him happy.  The large leaf hanging above the shelves kinda makes me happy with its pop of color!

The girls jumped and clapped today as I worked on his room.  We are all pretty excited about Isaac's homecoming.