No News

We're at a Starbucks for today's on the road post. Jie Jie wants to hit the road and go swimming at the hotel or go to another parking lot and collect rocks. poor kid. This trip has not been the most fun for her, although she did enjoy playing her grandmother's piano with her bottom.

Perhaps tomorrow will bring a rumor to get us excited.
Until then....

False Labor

Today we thought we might be hearing some referral news, and we tried hard to coordinate cell phones, missing chargers and faulty hotel Internet services with glitch after glitch -- and we're not even in China, just in Indiana! This is a good dress rehearsal. The rumors of a referral today did not pan out, alas.

I'm posting from the concierge desk at the hotel because the in-room wireless did not work in our room and the lobby wireless did not work on our laptop and the guest computer in the lobby did not work. What can I say, the rooms are nice and so is the pool.

We're here to visit Jie Jie's grandmother and aunts and uncle, then heading to the third reunion of our China travel group. The kids Jie Jie knew in China will all be four by the time we get there. It would be great to arrive with a new referral photo to share.

This afternoon Jie Jie and her grandmother Yiayia baked brownies together.

Tonight Jie Jie pointed out the evening star. We wished on it. I asked her wish. She said, "I wish a beautiful butterfly would land on my shoulder."
She asked my wish. I said, "I wish I could have happy moments like this one with my daughter forever."

Jie Jie siad, "Ask for some days off."

Waiting for Mei Mei

...At least we think it will be a mei mei, although we did not specify, saying in our letter to the China Center for Adoption Affairs that we would welcome a boy, girl or twins into our family.

Any day now we expect to hear the news we have been awaiting for nearly 2 years, our referral: the name and face and birthplace of Mei Mei, her age, her size, her health, her developmental milestones, whether she has been living with a foster family or in an orphanage.

We can't wait to see her little face. Will she be an 8-month old? A 2-year-old?
Does she live in Kunming (my guess) or Jie Jie's province, Guangxi?
Will the new addition to our family be a singleton or a twin? There have been reports of triplets.
Or perhaps 4-year-old JieJie was right when she drew a picture of herself between her mom and dad and hung it on the wall. The next day a fourth stick figure appeared." Who is that?" we asked her. "Mei Mei," she said.
A day later two more figures appeared. One small and one tall. "Didi and Gugu,'' she said,"big brother and little brother. (As far as we know, China does not refer sibling groups who are not multiples, but anything can happen.)