Communicating with Kristi

Today I went to Jazzercise class and was so excited when I had the opportunity to try out the little bit of Mandarin I have learned with one of the students. I was thrilled that she could actually understand my pronunciation and after a brief one sided conversation of "Hello, my name is..., take my hand, come with me, I love you" - I was inspired to resume studying with the Mandarin for Adopting from China CD. Kristi may speak a dialect of Nanjing but just in case.

On Tuesday night I took a baby sign language class that was wonderful and will hopefully also be very helpful. We learned 60 signs in one night! I've been practicing with Keira and she is already picking up so many. It's really fun! Not to worry, we'll start out with one or two signs besides the minimal very broken Mandarin. Poor Kristi! It helps the time go by as we wait though:)

Another exciting thing-Hilary from Cooking Group's brother is going to China at the end of this month with his wife who is Chinese. The wife's brother lives in Nanjing and they are going there to visit and have agreed to bring a little photo album and tag blanket to the orphanage to give to Kristi. Isn't that incredible? God keeps encouraging us that we will see her soon and in the meantime to get ready for Kristi's arrival. It appears that travel during the Olympics (which runs August 8-24) will be possible. We will stay clear of Beijing just traveling to Guangzhou (in the south) and Nanjing. The travel authorization from China for Kristi expires August 20 but we are told that due to the Olympics they are extending them an additional 2 months (we have requested that in writing, English and Chinese of course) just in case.

It's a very exciting time and we doing lots of special family outings, Mommy-Keira days (we did yoga class on Wed. and went to our first play on Friday) and especially - Keira's favorite thing to do - "STAY HOME!" She is, however, very excited to go get her little sister. Today she must have overheard Roger and I talking about China and she ran upstairs and we heard all this commotion (chair moving, all kinds of rustling, chair moving back) and she came back down with her little China Fund jar and said she's "got her money and she's ready to go!" She is just so sweet and full of surprises. She will be a wonderful, wonderful big sister.