This week's Chinese lesson

Well here we are yet another week closer to meeting our daughter. If you have visited our journal before you will know that I have decided to teach everyone some Chinese words and phrases that we can share with Katie, or at your local Chinese restaurant!
One of the first things you need to know to start a conversation is

Ni Hao Ma?- How are you (Ni= you Hao=how Ma= question particle )
Hen Hao- I am fine
Ni Ne? - And you?

Now you can greet your waiter and maybe they will give you an extra fortune cookie!
PS- if they do you should say "Xie Xie" which means Thank you!

Chinese words of the week

Hi it's Marc and this is my first post on this beautiful journal. As we officially begin our paper pregnancy and begin our wait to go to China, I wanted to begin teaching everyone some Chinese words and phrases that we can use to know Katie and her heritage a little better. I have studied the Chinese language in High School and in College. I was about to go to Taiwan to continue my studies but unfortunately the US and Taiwan relations broke down and I never received my visa to study abroad, so I became an entertainer and the rest is history.
So hopefully my experience with the language and culture of the people of China can help you in understanding a little something about out daughter.

The first phrase I wanted to teach you is a very important one that we can use not only to say to Katie, but you might want to try this on someone special in your life.

"Wo Ai Ni" - I Love You

In the next few weeks and months as we learn more about our travel and the regions of China we will be traveling to, I will pass along some interesting words and information about these areas and customs of China.

So keep in touch and come back soon..

It was a very nice day

Today was very cool. Pam Eidson, the woman who compiled our dossier came to South Florida to do an adoption workshop for our adoption agency. We wanted to finally get a chance to meet her; so we attended the workshop and made plans to have lunch with her afterwards. It turned out to be such a nice day because in addition to getting to meet Pam we also got to meet some other waiting families in our area. We decided with the help of our social worker, Donna Bradley, who was also at lunch that we would start a waiting families support group in South Florida. Donna will send us info on how to start one. If today was any indication; then having such a group to belong to will be awesome. When you are in the process of adopting internationally it is so great to meet people who truly understand what you are feeling. It will be great to come home from China and have a group of friends that have children that are from the same place as Katie.

No, you may not date until you are 35

Well, I must give credit where credit is due. Last night I was was viewing another adoption blog, www.babyshanahan.blogspot.com and I found this audio link in mandarin which translated means - No, you may not date until you are 35. Here it is: http://www.wku.edu/~yuanh/AudioChinese/AuChSnd/parent/35date.mp3
The website itself is awesome and gives many useful phrases that will be useful once we get to China. We will also share some more with you along the way.