October 20

There is a certain satisfaction from painting the nursery…

The last couple of weekends have seen painting activity in the nursery; the yellow walls are now a beautiful shade of Disney Fairytale pink, the wooden window frame now white to match the rest of the trim in the room.

Taney paid a visit to Home Depot and with the help from the man in the decorating aisle purchased everything the novice decorator with a mission needs to decorate his daughters nursery.

From sheeting to masking tape (the best stuff in the world) the room was prepared and on the following day aided by our brother in law Chris completed all the walls with two coats of paint. The following day and for some days thereafter… having used muscles rarely used, I ached from the painting, yet had great satisfaction that I had done a “dad” thing!

Last weekend was more of top and tailing, Taney had applied a second coat of paint to the window frame mid week and on coming home one evening found the crib assembled. To walk into a pink nursery to see our crib was a moment but not as big as the one last Sunday. The same day Taney completed the crib we spent time together putting a changing table together, a task easier said than done with 6 screws left over at least the table is solid as all get-out.

We have put wall lights in the nursery, as the room had no overhead lighting. Taney found some wire plastic trunking for the walls to hide the cables and the lampshades with a “Waverly” design of a carousel, bears, rabbits and people fit the room perfectly. The week before we found the lampshades we were caught up with a “theme” and had discussed carousels before looking for lighting and shades.

Last Sunday, all but the closet door was put into place, the curtain rail was put back with new white curtains from the windows and the toys and books we have collected have been put into the room. Taney took care of the detailing and when I walked back into the room all neatly set out it truly took my breath away.

There are two little jobs to complete the nursery, one involving a door the other a chair and these will be taken care of soon.

Despite so much already bought or given to us, there is so much more needed. A mattress for the crib, a pad for the changing table, clothes we are still holding off on until the referral.

We are aware that couples who had their dossier to China in April have recently received their referrals, the best Christmas gift we could get this year is a photo and our referral, time will tell if our wishes come true.

September Update.

Hi folks sorry for the lull of information of the redthread blog.

What has been happening? We Malcolm and I are DTC August and we have been logged in (LID) CCAA. Now we know we will be in the August batch so now we wait. Hmmmm let me translate that for you all who are not in on the China Adoption lingo.

Translation: Malcolm and I sent our dossier to the Agency CCAI in early August and they went over it then translated it into Mandarin which took about two weeks then it was hand delivered from the agency in Colorado with other dossiers to the government offices of CCAA in Beijing then we waited.

CCAA notified CCAI the agency that they have logged in our dossier in their system which was on August 30th! This Date is known as DTC (Dossier to China). Our log in Date is also August 30 (LID). This date is important because we will travel with other folks who are also August. So until further notice we wait to get our referral.

In the mean time we are decorating the nursery. We will let you know if any news comes up:)


Postscript:
I do thank Taney for writing the update, the paint on my hands confirms the fun I had with Chris painting the nursey a delightful fairtale pink colour. As I write this the work is about 95$% complete, with just a little topping and tailing to finish off.

Meanwhile each day that passes, is another day closer to the completion of the adoption and bringing our daughter home.