Thursday, June 28, 2007

Why are you named Malia?


Your mother & I decided on the name, Malia, after a vacation to Hawaii in October 2006. Malia is Hawaiian. It is typically pronounced Ma-LEE-a, but we prefer MAH-lia since your grandmother's real name is the very similar a-MAH-lia. We already have a middle name picked out for your too, Hudson. It's your other grandmother's maiden name and her chosen middle name since she married. That is why your daddy's middle name is Hudson too!

As importantly, Malia, a Hawaiian name is appropriate. Although politically a part of the United States, Hawaii lies halfway between L.A. & Beijing, and is cultural a mix of Asian & Anglo just like yourself. Hawaii can quite rightly call itself a little bit Chinese & a little bit American, just like you.

The popularity of Malia is growing! According to the SS database, jumped from #780 in 1996 to #410 in 2006.

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

Hope you like it. :)

Third interview with Amy Pruden, our social worker






Marc met today with Amy Pruden at Progress Cafe for his first solo interview and the family's third overall.

Amy checked off a number of necessary dossier forms........Dianne & Marc passports, Alex medical records, pet medical records, Dianne & Marc employment records, and Dianne & Marc criminal history (none :) ). They talked about Marc's childhood, hopes & concerns about the process, cultural differences, and plans for introducing Malia to her China heritage. It's safe to say that she thought Marc's ideal plan ("Let's all move to Beijing for a year!!!!") was more than sufficient. :)

Just one interview left with Amy. She just needs to meet with either Dianne or Marc (or both) and check off three remaining items.............Dianne & Marc medical records, a family financial statement, and Dianne & Marc birth certificates.

Making progress at Progress..............


Friday, June 15, 2007

More Paperwork..................

The paper chase continues......

Dianne, Marc, & Alex spent an hour at the Austin Police Department on Wednesday 6/13 obtaining fingerprinted & notarized criminal records. Fortunately, no felonies for either Mom or Dad (although both were a bit paranoid that they had forgotten some long ago transgression :) ). Alex played hide & seek with a station employee, and got to know others waiting in line.

Dianne met with Amy Pruden, our home study assignee, for her individual interview. Marc meets with Amy next week. Other completed documents include employment letters, Pet medical records, Alex medical records, and passports. Dianne is also reading a book on China.

Things are busy with Marc's busy season at work and Alex's difficulty adjusting to an open crib. But we are slowly squeezing in China progress where we can.

Introducing Malia to her grandparents, other relatives, and friends!

Malia - I can't wait to introduce your to your Grandparents: Bapa, Grandma, GDad, and Gema. Your Great Grandmother, GG, is also greatly anticipating your arrival. There's also Aunt Kate, Aunt Rocka, Uncle Nick and Uncle Gavin and a lot more relatives and friends! They are already dreaming of you and have your in their hearts. Here are some pictures of them. Love, Alex




































Thursday, June 7, 2007



I love this picture. It's one of many from the Great Wall China Adoption website.

We decided to upgrade our service plan with Great Wall China Adoption to the Premier Service Plan. This takes a lot of the paper work and the authentication, notarization, and certification of the paperwork out of our hands. We didn't realize how intensive the paper chase would be and now that we decided to upgrade, we are so relieved.

The Premier Plan provides families with all the benefits of the Classic Plan plus:

* Dragon Dossier Service (see explanation below)
* Adoption Moments Online Service
* Your Child’s Orphan Announcement
* Passport Name Bilingual
* Stork Goodies
* Baby Backpack
* Pre-Travel Prescriptions for your child
* Orphanage Donation Wire
* Travel Insurance
* Mobile Phone Service in China
* A refund option exclusive to the Premier Plan

And much, much more…

How it the Dragon Dossier Service works:
A Dragon Case Manager will help you gather the initial notarized documents and have you mail them to us. With Dragon, our experienced Dossier Consulting Team will then send all of your notarized documents to the appropriate Secretary of States and Chinese Consulates/Embassies for Certifying and Authenticating. They will use a retainer account of approximately $1,200 to pay for the mailing (always via Fed EX), certification and authentication fees. *Note: you would spend this amount on fees whether you choose to use the Dragon Service or do the paper chasing yourself. This is not an additional fee paid to Great Wall.

While you will be responsible for gathering the initial documents, (getting the physical exam, police clearance letter, employment letter etc.) Once the documents return to our headquarters the Dragon Case Manager will compile all of your official documents into the dossier for you. Dragon Dossier Service will take the worry that comes with paper chasing completely out of the process by handling the hairy details for you!

The Dragon Dossier Service is excellent for ensuring dossier completion will be a success.

Premier Plan Refund Policy
After a family sends in the Premiere Plan Adoption Agreement and payment, they are given a two-week grace period to withdraw from the program for any reason in writing less a processing fee. After the two-week grace period expires, refunds are available depending on where the family is in the adoption process.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007


Mama - when we get Malia, she can wear your bathrobe too.

Monday, June 4, 2007


So far we've gotten Alex's health letter and the dogs' immunization records together. We still have some work to do! This Wednesday we will go to the Austin Police Department to get our background checks done and get fingerprinted. What fun. :-)

We decided to register for this East Meets West China Adoption conference in Tampa, Florida in November:
https://www.emwconference.org/welcome

I copied this from the site:
The East Meets West China Adoption Conference is held twice a year and each time the conference is held in a different state. The conference provides insightful perspective from families, medical, legal and financial planning professionals, award winning authors, Chinese officials and many other experts in the field of adoption.

Upon completion of the conference, you will receive a certificate stating your completion of 8 hours of Hague-mandated training.

The picture of Alex shows Alex building two box towers. We'll call it the East Meets West Box Towers by Alex.