Wish #7

Kate can't wait for her to come home and play princess with her!

Wish #6

This wish has become the most surprising wish yet.  Brian's mother created a wish from his Grandma Nulph who passed away 10 years ago.  She was able to provide us with fabric Grandma Nulph purchased over forty years ago for a baby quilt she was never able to make.  We are looking forward to making our quilt with her precious fabric.  We miss her.

Wish #5

This wish comes from the Orme Family.  They will be her Great Aunt, Uncle, and cousins.  They included Legacy of Adopted Child Poem as their wish.  This is a perfect way to describe many of our thoughts and feelings.  She will have love from both her biologic family and her adopted family.  We are grateful for all the love she is already receiving.

Wish #4

Wish #4 is from Aunt and Uncle to be Michelle and Curtis. Their wish included sharing Galatians 5: 22-23. We absolutely love the fabric! Thanks Curt and Michelle!!

Wish #3

Wish #3 comes from Grandma and Grandpa Bolander, who are already Great Grandma and Great Grandpa to many others.  They shared the following quote, "Babies. . . are bits of stardust blown from heaven to fill our hearts with hope and love."  We love you Grandma and Grandpa!

First Wishes

The first wishes come from Brian's parents.  They wished for our baby to find joy and happiness as part of an eternal family.  They also shared a poem that has become dear to my heart, "A Red Thread to Asia".  I plan to hang this in her room.  I am so grateful for all of the support and love form those that are participating and we are planning on posting a wish a day until all of them have been shared.  We love you.

Bai Jia Bei

Below is the letter we want all of our family and friends to read and be a part of!

To Our Family and Friends,

As many of you know, Brian and I are adopting a baby (or two) from Taiwan. Recently we were informed that it may be another 6 months until we are matched with our new baby. In the meantime we are trying to keep ourselves busy and distracted as the waiting gets harder and harder. We would like all of you to become part of our wait and help us to develop a generational keepsake.

Many of the families adopting from China and Taiwan have a tradition to welcome the new addition home. This tradition started during the Qing Dynasty, when the Empress had a robe made for her son with the best silks of the 100 most powerful families to protect him. Today, this tradition has evolved into 100 different fabrics from family and friends to create a quilt of good wishes. We would love to do this for our little one. This is called a “Bai Jia Bei” (100 families quilt) or better known as “100 Good Wishes Quilt”. This quilt will decorate her wall, cover her bed, and eventually be passed down through her generations. We need your help to honor a tradition from her home land and welcome her to her new home from all those that love her.

If you would like to participate, below is the list of what to do:

1. Please select a fabric. We would love her quilt to match her room with prints/colors in the red, yellow, or brown shades. If you find the perfect fabric outside of this color scheme, then she will love it and we will make anything work. Pick something that is meaningful.

2. Please wash the fabric prior to cutting.

3. Cut 9” square to be used for the quilt and a smaller piece to be attached to your wish.

4. MAKE YOUR WISH: Be creative and send a decorated page or plain note (no bigger than an 8 x 8) containing your good wish, prayer, quote, lyric, poem, or other thought that you want to give her. Please attach a scrap of your chosen fabric to your wish. Use the great scrapbooking skills I know you all have. Please remember to include names with your wish and for family include your relationship to her (aunt, uncle, cousin, etc.). For families, the fabric can be from one member or individually. We need 100! These written wishes will be placed in a custom photo album so she will know how much she was loved before she ever came home to all of us.

5. Mail your fabric to our address. If you do not have this, leave a comment and I will email it to you.

I know we all have busy schedules, but we hope to get all the fabric pieces together as soon as possible so we can finish the quilt before she comes home. Please send them to us no later than Oct. 1. Rather you participate in this quilt with us or not, please include her in your prayers that she will come home soon.

Please continue to follow our adoption blog at bolanders.blogspot.com. We will post each of the fabrics and share all the good wishes. We will also keep you updated as the quilt comes together. Thank you so much for all of your love and support.

Waiting Update

Thats the problem with WAITING, not much in the ways of updates. We completed our I-600A forms and fingerprinting, which is for immigration. We were informed of a date, time, and location to be processed. This allows us to have advanced processing for our child when we are finally matched. It is was an eye opening experience. We were in a long line waiting outside a government office and I think we were the only ones there that were already US citizens. The process was quick and efficient. They told me they process over 250 applicants in a day.

Now we continue to wait. . .

Adoption Time Line Begins

Our adoption process has been going on for a very long time, although we only official started in Jan. 2011. This is when the paperwork insanity began. We have gone through multiple hurdles and accomplished some very big goals and now are in the "Waiting" mode. This is the hardest. Up until now it has been go go go and now all we can do is wait. We have also started our fundraising which will become critical soon enough. Below is a list of where we have come from:

1. Hope Study Application completed, reviewed, approved, and court certified

2. Built a fence around our pool in order to get home study approved.

3. Agency Application completed, reviewed, and approved

4. Trip to Taiwan to see the country, meet some amazing people, and visit an orphanage (this was turning the Japan earthquake!)

5. Sent in I 600-A, awaiting approval

6. Received our bracelets for fundraising in the mail today!!

7. Ongoing prayers that we will be able to add to our family soon.

Now that we have something exciting to Blog about and since we have had multiple request to start, I will try to make this at least a weekly occurrence. Thank you for all the support! I think the next few months are going to be some of the most difficult in our lives.

Random Phone Photos

These are a few photos I saved off my old phone before my recent upgrade!

Kya is Snow White for Halloween last year and the kids loved her!!

Tyson and the puppy at the pet store are fascinated with each other. Angie and I couldn't stop laughing. Nothing more adorable then kids and puppies. . .

Suprised Bo with a trip to Utah just to see Pearl Jam. (He is still owing me BIG)!

Our Jacks checking out the pantry during our kitchen remodel!

Reno with grass stains and feeling guilty about it. I keep trying to tell everyone we really do have kids.

Europe Part 2

So this blog is going to become a multiple part series! I don't have enough time to cover everything going on recently and trust me...ALOT has been going on!!!! Part 2 of this series to to cover more of visiting the Jacksons in Switzerland. This is our Top 10:


10. Bee Attack in Appenzell


9. Falling down the stairs on my first night in Switzerland.


8. Seafood dinner in Como, Italy that almost made Sarah lose her dinner at the table!!!!



7. Pumpkins and gelato at Jukar Farms

6. Brian finding Sage fly in Appenzell, Switzerland. He is like a kid in a candy store!


5. The morbid shocker game that Matt intentionally attacked us ALL. (No pics of the shocker game so instead I picked shocking pictures!)


4. Brian bouncing on the log that Sarah specifically said not to and breaking the log. Then he acted suprised when he fell in the stream?!?!


3. Brian whippin' both Matt and Erin at a rock skipping contest on the Rhine River.


2. Danny getting pink eye and ending a planned trip to Italy!! ( Good thing we love those kids and instead we were able to spend more time with them!!!)


1. Trying to break my ankle on a scooter ride in the Alps. (Shhhhhh: Don't tell my patients I was injured on a scooter)

We were so blessed to spend this time with the Jacksons and look forward to their return to the states soon. Watch for more to come!

Europe Part 1

Switzerland with the Jacksons

Brian and I are in Switzerland taking a much needed break and spending quality time with the Jackson family.  We were thrilled to see Daniel again since he was an infant the last time we were all together.  We also were able to meet Rachel who is a delight and constantly reminds me she has "stinky cheese feet"!  We have been relaxing and visiting some of the Jackson's favorite spots.  Our trip will continue and eventually end in Rome!  I promise to update more once we get home!   I have to remind my self that YES we have to go home!

Finally an Update

I am sure all of you are thinking exactly what I am. . . "Finally an Update"! For those of you still checkin' in, Thanks. Since we don't have kids yet, it is rare to update with anything interesting. Last week Brian and I went to WI and MN.

In WI we spent time with my brother and the fam. We went to a Brewers game and hung out with the kids. It was a great week. If only it hadn't rained ALL week.

Then we went to MN for Ed and Nicole's Wedding. Both Ed and Nicole went to PA school with me and the wedding was perfect! Congrats!!! We also were able to enjoy a mini reunion with a lot of my friends from school! (Go IgG)!!! I have really missed everyone and Brian was such a good sport sitting through a lot of medical talk. Thanks Babe. We are now glad to be home and looking forward to going to Idaho in July.

Vegas!

Just had a conference in Vegas for Academy of Orthopaedics. I was busy all day long with the conference but was lucky to have Brian come and hang out with me all night. We stayed in the Bellagio, which was beautiful. We met up with some of my friends from PA school and went to "O". We had a great time. Oh and did I mention my favorite. . . there is a chocolate fountain in the Bellagio!!!!