A glimmer of hope?

I emailed an adoption agency about China's new laws for adoption. This agency only does Chinese adoptions and so I thought I would ask them about the new regulations. I explained our situation to them and this is the response I got.

"The new changes are going into effect May 1, 2007. We will have a better understanding of exactly how China will be enacting the changes once they go into effect. However, our understanding of the new regulations is that affected families will not be forbidden to adopt, however preference will be given to families not affected by the changes. Therefore, there is the potential for much longer wait times for affected families such as your own. The current wait time after submitting the Dossier is 13-16 months. This number could increase for affected families. I hope this information helps. Again, we will have a better understanding in June of exactly how the changes will affect families, so please feel free to contact me again at that time and I will have definite answers for how you would be affected. Thank you!"

So for now we sit tight and wait. I think I am going to have to learn some patience through this whole thing! LOL I ain't gettin' no younger! We may need to consider taking an older child or one with special needs. I am not necessarily opposed to this, but it could mean attachment issues and that sort of thing. I just don't know if I am qualified to handle that, and I know J has some reservations, too. With foreign adopted children, there is always the unexpected anyway. Issues may surface that were not disclosed, there are usually minor developmental delays, that sort of thing. Most work themselves out fairly quickly once the child is at home and given one on one attention. For instance, I know of a little boy who was recently adopted from China. He went home at about 16 months and was not yet walking and could not hold his own sippy cup. He began walking within six weeks of coming to his new home and just started learning to feed himself and hold his sippy cup for himself within the last couple of weeks. He is now 19 months old. Those type of things. Sometimes the kids are small and underweight and have poor muscle tone. Things that, with proper care, resolve themselves over time. We will already have those types of issues to deal with, so we will just have to think hard on that one. Sometimes "special needs" can mean something as simple as a cleft lip or a large birthmark. It is just hard to predict what that means.

Anyway, I haven't been doing much crafting this week, mostly because I have been scouring the internet for adoption information. I think I will try to get some done this weekend. We are supposed to get a bunch of snow tomorrow and Friday, so we will see, maybe I'll get snowed in. LOL

SOOOOOO Bummed...

Anyone know a quick fix for this? This happened when I washed it. I just want to cry! This is the rail fence quilt for those friends of ours in Colorado. I just don't know if I could even get this binding off to put new on or not, I used a pretty small machine stitch for it. I must not have had that edge caught good at that point. I don't know if I could get it apart at that point and move it in or not either, probably not. I'm sooo frustrated!







A couple pix of the 13.5 inches of snow we got last night. J got out and blew out the driveway this morning and most of the roads were melted pretty quick as it wasn't all that cold really.

A little good news....

Dad made it through ok and his kidneys are functioning, so that is good news. They, however, did 6 bypasses instead of just 3. I've never even heard of anyone having that many bypasses in one surgery. Hopefully his healing process goes smoothly as he already had pneumonia going into this. Thanks for all the prayers.

Thanks...

Thanks for all your sweet comments and encouragements. My dad is having bypass surgery right now. They said at least 3 bypasses and possibly as many as 6. I have never even heard of anyone having 6. He has a lot of strikes against him. I sure hope he pulls through ok. I appreciate your prayers, please keep them coming.

When it rains...

Well... today has pretty much turned ugly. On Sunday I learned of some information regarding China's new adoption laws that go into effect on May 1st. I learned that some of the new regulations might restrict us from being able to adopt from there. I emailed an agency to ask them the specifics. Today when I got home for lunch there was an email waiting for me that confirmed what I already suspected. We will not be able to adopt from China. I don't understand why this is happening to us. It doesn't make sense. We really felt as though this was what we were supposed to do, but now there is this. It might sound crazy because we hadn't even begun the process, but both J and I are feeling such a sense of loss. We will still probably adopt from somewhere, but unless a miracle happens, it will probably not be China.

Then while we were just sitting down for dinner, my Mom called. My Dad is in the hospital. He has pneumonia, heart failure, kidney failure, and is having an angioplasty tomorrow. The angioplasty could cause his kidneys to shut down altogether. They already know that he has a blockage someplace as he has tissue damage. They said that he must have had a small heart attack at some point. He has been seeing doctors for chest pain off and on for a while. I feel so horribly guilty because I can't be there with them. They live in Illinois, about an 8 hour drive from where I live. My sister is there with them, which I am very grateful for, but she has a lot to deal with on her own. (She has a daughter with a serious illness, which is another post altogether.) On top of that, my Mom has a horrible cold and feels terrible. She isn't in the best of health herself, so this cold, and the stress of my Dad being sick is just more than she should have to deal with. It seems the last year or so both of my parents health has been declining, rather rapidly. I know they are older, my Dad is almost 82, and my Mom is 76, but I'm not sure that I am ready to carry on life after they are gone. It is a scary thought to think that these people that have always been there in your life will someday be gone.

All in all, a pretty yucky day.

Didn't get as much done as I planned...

which is usually how it goes when I have a half day. LOL. I have all these grand plans and somehow, they never seem to happen. It took me longer than I wanted it to at the grocery store so I got home later than I wanted to. So, I skipped the house cleaning, which, I'm sure I'll pay for this evening as now I have a pile to do! I did manage to get the machine quilting done, but then my neck was bothering me (which it does a lot when I sew for long stretches), so I thought I'd take a break for a little bit. Well, I wound up taking a nap with "the Buggley" (aka Aeris). I woke up at 7. So I just watched a couple "Stargate SG1" reruns( this is one of our favorite shows), ordered a pizza and called it a night. Oh well, if I get my house cleaned up tonight maybe I'll get the binding started on Thursday.

Closed the place down this evening...

I had a shopping extravaganza this evening. I got off of work at 4 and since J was in Minneapolis today for Erbert & Gerbert's convention, I went shopping! First I had to stop by the other branch of the bank where I work to drop off something that a girl wanted to borrow and got caught talking to another girl there for a while. Then I had something to return to Bed, Bath and Beyond. I looked around in there for a while, then I went next door to World Market and fell in love with everything in there (as usual). I had a 30 dollar gift certificate for Kohls so I went there to see what I could find. I found a baby gift to replace the blanket that didn't turn out so well. Isn't this adorable? Carter's makes some darn cute stuff! I'm nuts about this turquoise fabric!

I also got three photo albums. They were having a great sale, 40% off!

After that I went to McDonald's for a quick bite to eat and then I hit Crafts Direct. I bought fabric to make my blocks for the block swap. I bought paints in the colors that I want for my living room to experiment with paint techniques. I bought flowers to make swag for J's Grandma. She did a lot to help us when J was sick, so I am going to make this for her as a thank you. She has been wanting me to make her one since she saw the arrangement I made for Lori (J's SIL). I closed the place down! LOL I didn't get home until around 9:20!

Tomorrow he is gone again and I only have to work until 12:30 since I worked Friday night until 7 and Saturday morning from 8-12. I am leaving work, running to the grocery store for a few things. Then I'm coming home, cleaning my house for an hour and a half, and setting to work on finishing the little rail fence quilt. I can't believe how fast it has gone together so far. I started about 1 on Saturday and worked on it until about 5:15 and then I worked on it on Sunday from about 2 til about 5 when I ran out of thread which was a real bummer because I would say that I am about 60 percent finished with the quilting. I got the top cut out and sewn up on Saturday and sandwiched it and started machine quilting it on Sunday. I am just doing sort of crazy free motion with lots of loops and stuff. It is a pink paisley print fabric, so the squiggles work well. Besides, my mark-b-gone pen is drying up and I couldn't mark my lines on it very well and I wanted to get it done, LOL. I meant to pick up another one today and totally forgot when I was at Crafts Direct. Oh well, another day...

Amanda, I have never made the continuous binding before, but it looks fairly simple. I also found a formula to figure out how much to use. Length=area of piece/width of binding Here are the instructions in case you are interested.

Quick Question....

as I only have about a minute or so before I need to head out the door for work. I have been working on the little rail fence baby quilt for our friends in Colorado. It is almost completely quilted, I ran out of thread last night, so I had to stop, otherwise it woud be done. I want to cut continuous binding for it, but I don't know how big of a square to cut for it. The blanket currently measures 37 inches square and made of flannel. I am also not sure how wide of binding would work best for it since the flannel is a little thicker I was thinking 2.5 inches? Hopefully someone will see this and point me in the direction of a caclulator, or give me some sort of formula to use to figure it out.

I'll post pictures later, I am really pleased with it so far.
Gotta Go!

Time for more pictures!

So I went a little nuts today. I went to Gruber's in St. Cloud and bought these to make my sister a quilt for her birthday.



And two of these charm packs because I am totally in love with these fabrics! Serenity by Moda



And here is the yellow and blue quilt top. Details of the blocks and the whole top.





And the sad little pink receiving blanket that didn't launder so well. When I washed it the edges all curled up and the two layers seem to have shrunk differently even though I washed them before I put it together. I'll keep it for myself, but I don't think it looks good enough for a gift. The poor little baby I was going to give it to is in the hospital with pneumonia right now. She is only about 2 weeks old. I feel so bad for the poor baby. :(

My Valeversary Present...

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, but it is also my 9th anniversary with my sweet hubby. Here is what he got me for a gift this year. He bought them because he read that lilies are symbolic of motherhood in Chinese art, something I didn't know. I'm blown away at how sweet of a gift that is! I am hoping to do my living room in sort of a travel theme if I ever get it painted. (which means I need to buy a ladder, hence the no painting so far, who wants to spend money on a stupid ladder?) I have lots of little fun things from my travels years ago just waiting in a box to come out and be seen. LOL. Someday I'll get it done. I am thinking in the spring or the summer. This will be good incentive.

I got the blue border put on the yellow and blue quilt. I'll try to get pictures of it posted this evening.
The pink blanket didn't launder the best, so I may be keeping it after all. Oh well.

I have to jet off to work right now, so I'll try and post more later.
Have a good Tuesday!

Something Finished!

I finished the receiving blanket. In answer to Amanda's question, I actually did the embroidery on this particular blanket by hand. Just three bullion roses and leaves in one corner. The blanket is two layers of flannel. What I did was do the embroidery in the corner of one layer, layered them together, marked my sewing line, pinned it all up, and then used the scallop stitch on my machine to go around the edges. Then I cut the excess fabric back to the edge of the scallop stitching. That way the two layers are combined and the back of the embroidery is enclosed between the two layers. Make sense? I'll show you a picture later, I promise. :) It took a long time to go around the blanket trimming the fabric back to the scalloping, but not quite as long as I thought it might. I started at about 10 am and was done about 2pm or so, with laundry and lunch interruptions, as well as kitties trying to help and such. I feel great about having finished something off of the list, though!

After all of the trimming and how sore my fingers were after that I decided to forego the yellow and blue quilt for the day. My fingers still feel a little tender this morning where the scissors pushed into the back of them, you know? I think I will try and work on it this afternoon. I want to at least get the blue border on so I can take a picure of it for you all!

Have a great Sunday!

Your Saturday Funny.....

Let me just say that I am glad that my little naughty furball hasn't figured this one out yet!
Naughty Kitty!

Happy Saturday!

A little bit of progress...

But not much, lol. I finished the embroidery on the receiving blanket for one of the new baby girls. I scallop stitched the edges, now I have to cut the excess fabric away from the scalloped edge. It is rather tedious, but it will be pretty when it is done. I want to give it to her next week. She said that she would be stopping in again then when she stopped in last week with the baby. Our office of the bank is right across the street from the doctor's office where she goes. It will be her two week check up. I hope I can finish it either tonight or tomorrow. It just depends on how fast the trimming goes. It is a looong way around it when you are doing that detailed of trimming! LOL I had originally planned to do another one in blue to sell, but I am rethinking that fabric usage. I have a solid blue flannel and a solid white flannel that I was going to use for it, but now I am thinking I might use it with a couple of prints that I have in my stash to make a quilt instead. I don't know, yet. I suppose we shall see. I have plenty of projects to keep me busy! :)

I'll try to get more done on the yellow and blue quilt this weekend, too. I can't decide whether to embroider on the yellow border or not. It seems a bit narrow, now that I have it on. I had thought about the characters' names, but they don't come out in a manner that is visually appealing to look at. All of the saying that I have seen are too long to embroider other than " oh bother" and "silly old bear". So I may not embroider anything on the yellow part after all. Any suggestions?

I'd like to get started on the pink flannel quilt, too, but that may be a bit ambitious for this weekend! I have a boatload of laundry to do, just like every weekend, so that will slow me down a bit. Sitting here typing slows me down too, LOL. Oh well, maybe by Monday or so I will have some progress pictures to show! Not guaranteeing it, but maybe!

Been reading a bit here lately...

I have not been doing a whole lot of crafting lately because I am reading this book. It is really good, very sobering, but really good. It makes me glad I live in the US, I can tell you that much. It is one woman's story of her journey to adopt her daughter, Kelly, from China. In her struggle to try to give her daughter a past and a heritage she began to discover just how difficult it is for girls/women in China and to understand why there are so many baby girls that wind up homeless in orphanages. (And many others who never make it that far.) Some of the things she tells of are horrific. To me the government mandates that are inflicted upon the people, women in particular, are unfathomable. Forced abortions (even late term when the baby could survive outside the womb), forced sterilizations, government mandated (and monitored) IUD's and "family planning" personnel in factories whose job it is to report anyone they think might be hiding a pregnancy just to name a few. Many babies are killed immediately after birth, drown in a bucket or smothered in a box of ashes. Some families are able to hide their newborn girls, but if they are not registered at birth, technically they don't exist. They can never go to school or receive medical treatment. It is no wonder there are so many abandoned babies. These mothers risked everything in order to ensure that their babies remained alive. They abandon them in the hopes that a kindhearted person will care for them or that they will be adopted. Since it is techically illegal to kill a baby or abandon a baby, these babies are usually turned over to the police who then take them to the nearest orphanage. The social pressure to produce male children is so strong that often these women have no choice when the baby is a girl. They can literally be thrown out of their homes into the street for giving birth to a girl instead of a boy. Either the baby girl is killed at birth or abandoned. Those are the choices that so many women are faced with. What a heartwrenching predicament. How do you face that situation? Anyway, sorry for rambling, I am just dealing with a lot of emotion from reading these things and thinking about the little girl I hope to someday adopt from China. How do you communicate these sorts of things to her and help her to know that she is worth more than anything and that she wasn't just cast aside because no one wanted her because she was a girl? Anyway, a difficult but very good read.

Now on to more pleasant things, seems my blog has been a bit depressing lately....

The kitty from the humane society got adopted, so that made me happy. J and I had almost decided to go and get him when I checked the site back again and he was gone off of the site. He had only been there a week and a half and they were nowhere near their cat capacity, so I feel confident that he got a home. J even had him renamed! LOL I wanted to sleep on it for a night, then I was going to call the shelter and say if he didn't get a home by the time his time was up (the are NOT a no kill shelter) then to call me and I would take him. Glad he got a home.

I worked on the yellow and blue quilt just a little bit on Sunday. I got the yellow border on. I still have to cut the strips for the blue border and piece them together and put them on then I will be ready to sandwich the quilt and start quilting it.

I know two people who have had baby girls in the last two weeks. One I don't know really well, but I think I will finish one of the embroidered receiving blankets from my list of 33 (or so) and give it to her. The other people are friends of ours from Colorado that we traveled with about 10 years ago with Carpenter's Tools International. I had a couple pieces of pink flannel prints in my stash so I bought another one to coordinate with them and a solid pink for the back. I think I will do a quick, small railfence quilt for them. I wasn't sure what to bind a flannel quilt with, though. Any thoughts? I have never made a flannel quilt before, so this will be fun. I plan on washing it after I make it so that it gets that crinkly look to it.

I also am thinking about making this for Alexa, my almost 6 year old niece for her birthday in April. Alas she is not a girly girl, so much. She doesn't care for the dresses any more. She only wears them for a picture and that is it, they never get put on again and I have decided that they are way too much work to only be worn once or twice so I have quit making them for her. :(
Here is the last one I made for her.



That is about it for now. I think I'll head back to my book for a bit.
Have a great evening!

Having a sad day...

My parents-in-law's kitty died yesterday. He was about 18 years old and we have known it was coming for quite a while now, but it is still sad. He was old and blind and no longer had any whiskers and had pretty much stopped eating. He was a great cat who liked to be cuddled on your shoulder and loved to have his ears rubbed. Jason sort of grew up with this cat. J still lived at home for several years after they got him. He was a stray that they took in as a kitten. We will miss Buster a lot. To make matters worse, J was looking on line at cats at the humane society (which is bad enough for me anyway), but there was a cat on there that I'm sure was from the same litter as our Aeris. Not many cats have the same coloring as her. This one was almost identical to her. When we bought her there was another kitten in the cage that was almost identical to her and I have often wondered what happened to that kitten. This cat's age is right, and the personality description seems similar, too. I just have a feeling in my gut that this one is her littermate and is now homeless. I feel so awful. We can't get another cat, I just don't think I could handle it, and I'm not sure how well a male would take to two other cats in the house, not to mention how ours would take to him. I wish we could get him for Jason's parents, but I know that has to be their decision, not ours. All I can hope is that he finds a home soon. He is really pretty and young and has a good personality, so I hope that gets him a new home.

Not feeling very crafty today.