{"id":123,"date":"2015-02-04T13:39:47","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T18:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/?p=123"},"modified":"2015-02-04T13:39:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T18:39:47","slug":"fitting-our-hearts-in-a-shoebox-is-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/2015\/02\/04\/fitting-our-hearts-in-a-shoebox-is-hard\/","title":{"rendered":"Fitting our hearts in a shoebox is hard…."},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the exciting things that happen when you get matched is that you get to send your child a care package! I am planning to send Jia\u2019s this week and thought you all might be interested in knowing what we sent.<\/p>\n

This care package will go to her orphanage before it goes to her foster family. \u00a0In the instruction guide they request that you keep the size of the package to shoe box size due to customs issues, so we\u2019re talking about cramming gifts for Jia, her foster family and the orphanage director and the nannies\u2026 in a shoe box. \u00a0It was a challenge for sure.<\/p>\n

So, first, the things we sent for Jia are a large blanket, a small fabric square blanket, a stuffed dog, a photo album with all of our family and a few friends in it, and a recordable story book with all of our voices. \u00a0I was going to send the Puffs, but totally ran out of space. \u00a0Thanks to the suggestions of people on Facebook, I ordered some vacuum seal bags which worked really well to get all the \u201cfluffy stuff\u201d down to a manageable size. \u00a0We also sent along several memory sticks because we\u2019ve heard that they often get returned with many, many pictures from the time kids were brought to the orphanage, and we\u2019re also hoping to get one back from her foster family. \u00a0It would be a gift to her and to us, to have those pictures.<\/p>\n

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We actually bought two sets of all of Jia\u2019s items, so we\u2019ll take those with us when we travel in hopes that if she did get the care package, she will recognize some of the items, as it\u2019s likely that many of the items won\u2019t be returned to us or brought with her. \u00a0Eden has been sleeping with the puppy every night since we got it, and we washed her blankets in our detergent so she might recognize that smell when we meet her. \u00a0They say smell is a powerful sense, so we\u2019re hoping they\u2019re right.<\/p>\n

For the nannies and director at her orphanage we sent Bath and Body Works lotion. \u00a0Apparently, that\u2019s a highly regarded gift, so hopefully they like it.<\/p>\n

For her foster family, I actually was able to talk to an expat American living currently in China and just sent whatever she suggested, so I sent Reese\u2019s cups, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Ranch dressing mix packets, and disposable razors, which we hear are hard to come by in China. I was going to include the lotion too (another hot commodity in China), but\u2026 shoe box. We also wrote them a letter introducing ourselves and telling them about our hopes for Jia. \u00a0This package is how they will likely find out Jia has been matched, and I\u2019m sure that will be a bittersweet moment for them.<\/p>\n

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The care package will be delivered to her orphanage and then forwarded on to her foster family from there. \u00a0While her orphanage has been pretty good in the past about getting the package out,\u00a0there is now a new director, so we\u2019ll see how it goes. \u00a0You can send all your prayers and good juju for our package to get to Jia. \u00a0In the long run, it probably won\u2019t be a huge deal, but for now it feels like all we can do for her, so we really want it to get there.<\/p>\n

In other news, just as a quick \u201cwhere we are in the process\u201d update, we sent our documents to the NY China Consulate expecting it to be about 10-12 days before we got them back, but due to a paperclip where there should have been a staple (nope, not even kidding\u2026), we had to resubmit a document which meant a whole mess of additional paperwork, money orders, copies and swear words. \u00a0As of this morning, all of our additional paperwork is on its way to New York, so hopefully this will do the trick. \u00a0If it doesn\u2019t, as I so calmly told my friends the day we found out about all this, I\u2019m going to drive to New York and staple my home study to someone’s forehead. \u00a0I kid, of course\u2026 but I really do hope this is it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the exciting things that happen when you get matched is that you get to send your child a care package! I am planning to send Jia\u2019s this week and thought you all might be interested in knowing what we sent. This care package will go to her orphanage before it goes to her Continue reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greatwalltogreatlakes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}