Lottie Lee's Crib

It's Friday night and all we want to do, (Okay, all Winn wants to do) is put together Lottie Lee's crib that just arrived.  After some persuasion, we decided crib assembly would be a fun Friday night activity.  At first Scott was skeptical of all the fun, eventually he realized how momentous of an occasion it was; we never had a crib before. 

 We had no idea what we were doing, I mean Scott is handy and we put it together in a few minutes, but we had no idea really how the completed project would effect us. It became real, that one day soon, there would be a baby sleeping in this room.  So long waiting...almost a year, and although there is no definite timeline when we will travel to China, this crib is up, it's beautiful and perfect and it's Lottie's crib.  Friday, January 27th, will be a night ingrained in our memories, and it was just another step closer.  One day soon Friday nights will be spent wishing Lottie Lee sweet dreams and reminiscing of that night in January when we assembled that  crib, knowing nothing but the love we have for this baby who is so far away, yet so close in our hearts.

Every night until she gets here, we will say goodnight to an empty crib, "goodnight baby, we love you more than you know and cannot wait until we meet you".

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. In China, it is known as "Spring Festival," the literal translation of the Chinese name 春節,  since the spring season in Chinese calendar starts with lichun, the first solar term in a Chinese calendar year. It marks the end of the winter season, analogous to the Western carnival. The festival begins on the first day of the first month  in the traditional Chinese calendar and ends with Lantern Festival which is on the 15th day. Chinese New Year's Eve, a day where Chinese families gather for their annual reunion dinner, is known as Chúxī (除夕) or "Eve of the Passing Year." Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Chinese New Year is often referred to as the "Lunar New Year".

Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Chinese populations, such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapor, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, and also in Chinatowns elsewhere. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the lunar new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors. These include Korean and Vietnamese cultures.

Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity". On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is to reconcile, forget all grudges and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1st Annual Chinese New Year Celebration

This year we decided to begin a new tradition in celebration of our sweet baby girl and embracing our soon to be multicultural family.  We planned a Chinese New Year celebration at a local restaurant called Ming's Cafe, located close to UT's campus. It was the perfect place to celebrate. 

Twenty-five of our closest friends whom have quickly become our Austin family joined us in the celebration.  These friends have been with us every step if the way, announcing our adoption, and following our journey over the past year. They have helped in our CoupAide fundraising project and are always there to lend an ear and share hugs when times were challenging. We don't know where we would be without their love and support.  Lottie Lee is one lucky little baby, and she already has so many people who love her and cannot wait to meet her.  

There was amazing cuisine, lots of laughter, dragons, balloons, love, and heartfelt wishes for Lottie Lee.  We ate, drank and we were merry.  To top it off, we lit sparklers and all sent our prayers to Lottie Lee that she is loved and for her safe arrival into our family.  Overall the evening was magical, we couldn't have planned it any better.  We look forward to the New Year celebrations to come.

2012 Year of the Dragon

 

"A brand new year to live, to believe, to give, to receive, to fall in love, to share a smile, to walk an inch, to run a mile, to dive into sunsets, to forgive, to forget, to love where you're going, to embrace where you've been, to take a deep breath, close your eyes and begin."

The Dragon  龙 龍, is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac and Mongolian zodiac related to the Chinese calendar and Mongolian calendar, and the only animal that is legendary. The Year of the Dragon is associated with the earthly branch symbol 辰 and is considered the luckiest year in the Chinese Zodiac.

Smile Train Donation

Some wonderful news form Beijing, China, Smile Train has reached an amazing milestone: the 250,000th cleft surgery was performed in China on January 6th, 2012.  This huge achievement was marked by 3 simultaneous surgeries: a primary cleft lip, a primary cleft palate, and a secondary surgery were all performed in General Coal Hospital in Beijing.

And we are so happy to announce with all the Coupaide gift certificates sold during November and December we were able to donate $150.00 towards smile train, which is over 50% of the cost for one cleft surgery. Thank you to all who helped make this possible.

December Thank yous

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thank you to everyone who was able to participate in our Coupaide fundraiser, we are completely overwhelmed by the numbers of people who are joining Lottie Lee's Red Thread and helping make our adoption possible. We continue to be more amazed every single day. Thank you