Adoption FAQs

So, what’s going on with the adoption? 

So much! We’ve been provisionally matched with a little girl (!!!) from China, so we’re working on assembling our Dossier to send off to China ASAP.

Wait, weren’t y’all adopting from Hong Kong? Is that the same program? 

Yes, we were and no, it isn’t. We decided to switch programs. After spending some time (about a year!) pursuing adopting a child from Hong Kong, it became apparent that there are many families who want to adopt from Hong Kong, and there just aren’t many children available in that program. This is partly because Hong Kong, unlike China, doesn’t place restrictions on how many children a family can have, and Hong Kong also has a robust domestic adoption program (people from Hong Kong adopting children locally), which is a wonderful thing but means that the Hong Kong international adoption program is by definition pretty small. It didn’t make sense to us to wait in line for a child while at the same time there are children in other programs who are waiting in line for families. This is the decision that was right for us and by no means should it reflect a criticism of anyone who chooses to adopt from Hong Kong.

Tell me more about this little girl! 

She is darling! She’s two and a half, about 4 and a half months younger than our youngest son. She is in an orphanage, but everything we read about her mentions how bright she is and how she’s right on track, developmentally speaking. This is pretty unusual for a child who has been raised in an orphanage, so we think that she must be getting really good care. We are praying that she is in a loving, safe environment, and that she has Christians who are shining God’s light and love into her life. Her special need is that she has a congenital giant nevus, which a large, black birthmark covering her neck and shoulders. Although she will need some medical care and monitoring, we feel like this is a very doable special need. You can read more about congenital nevus here.

So what is the process going to look like? 

Right now we’re collecting (a lot of) forms and certificates for our Dossier. When we finish that, which should take between 2  and 4 weeks, we send it off to China. China reviews this and then sends us a “Letter of Acceptance,” which is we sign and send back to confirm yes, we want to adopt this child. This process can take between a few weeks and a few months. Then we submit a I-800A form to Homeland Security. Once we get approval, we’ll be able to apply for her immigrant visa. Approval of her visa is called Article 5. After we get Article 5, we’ll be waiting for our Travel Invitation, which is the date that we actually go get her. When that happens, we will be in China for between 2 and 3 weeks. We will complete the adoption in China, so when we come back home, she’s ours forever! This whole process will take between 6 months and a year. Please pray that everything goes as efficiently as possible, that we are diligent in completing the work on our end quickly and that the wheels of bureaucracy would glide smoothly.

How much is all of this going to cost? 

Gulp. A lot. The cost for the adoption is approximately $36,000, with some flexibility on either side. There are several factors that affect the final number. Some of our fees are paid in China, so the strength of the US dollar vs the Chinese yuan will affect our costs. Also this number includes our travel expenses, so the time of year will affect how much flights and hotels cost. We have already paid $5,005 of this, leaving $30,995 left to raise. The exciting news is that we have a matching donor, who has promised to match what we raise up to $13,000! So every $1 you donate becomes $2!

How can I help? 

You can pray! Pray for us to be able to raise the funds we need, pray for the process to go swiftly, pray for the well-being of our little girl across the world. Pray for us as we prepare for her, and pray for our boys, that they would love her before she even comes home.

 You can give money! We need to raise about $31,000 overall, but our immediate goal is to raise $5,400 in the next month. We have to have this money to send off our Dossier, so if we don’t raise this in time, it will delay the whole process. Because of our matching donor, we actually just need $2,700! You can give money by sending a check to:

Bethany Christian Services

930 McCallie Avenue

Chattanooga, TN 37403

The check should be made out to Bethany Christian Services, with “Matthew and Libby Fenn’s adoption” on the memo line. We are still working on ways to donate online, and we’ll update this information as soon as we have good options. Another way to support our adoption is by buying a scarf. We are selling braided infinity scarves that I made. For more information, go here. Thank you for wanting to help! 

Adoption Fundraiser Sale

We are holding an adoption fundraiser sale! 

We're selling infinity scarves for $25 each. These are made of soft jersey knit material and feature two colors that are braided together on one side. They can be worn looped once or twice and add a stylish touch to any outfit, casual or professional. They're a great way to stay warm, look good, and support a wonderful cause this Christmas! Buy one for yourself or someone you love! Here are some examples of the scarves I've whipped up so far. 

Purple/brown stripe, looped once

Purple/brown stripe, looped twice

Dark blue/light blue, looped once

Dark blue/light blue, looped twice

Gray/purple stripe, looped once

Gray/purple stripe, looped twice

If you're interested in buying one, you can comment below, email me at derkihee@gmail.com or text me. 100% of the scarf price goes to support our adoption. If you live in the Chattanooga area, I can offer home delivery; if you need it to be mailed, it will be approximately $3 more. We can accept cash, checks or PayPal. 

New colors coming soon!Stay tuned for orange/brown, orange/bright print, pink/gray, blue/neutral stripe. If you have your heart set on a particular color combo you don't see here, contact me and we'll chat! There will be at least 1 week delay on all custom orders. 

Doable/Not Doable?

It's December 1, that venerated day when all dedicated crafters/knitters/sewists review their to-do lists and have a wee moment of panic. Here's my list this year:

- one sweater
- one sock
- one pair felted clogs
- a bottle of raspberry liqueur
- 5 stuffed animals
- 6 pairs of pajama pants.

I'm knitting a Norwegian-style sweater for my sister. I have a picture and I've designed a pattern to be very similar though not identical. I don't know yet if my pattern is going to work in real life, that's the "fun"part about not buying patterns.
Status: I've knit the plain part of the body and sleeves and am about to embark on the colorwork section.
Priority: High. I'm pretty confident I'm going to finish on time, but last Christmas this sister got parts of a sweater for her gift, so I really want this to not be the Christmas project that falls through the cracks this year.

Several months ago, I knit a sock.It was a nice sock, I knit a little pattern of chevrons down the front and back to add some interest and keep me awake while I was knitting it. Unfortunately, after I finished it I lost the ball of yarn for the other sock, so the first sock has languished in the stash basket since then. Last night I finally caved and bought another ball of yarn, which means I'm due to find the lost ball in about 45 minutes.
Status: First sock is knit except for sewing the toe, the second is but a gleam in the eye.
Priority: Medium. These are worsted weight socks, so they'll knit up in a couple of evenings once I get the yarn and track down the right size knitting needles.

'Stache requested a pair of felted clogs for Christmas. I'm using this pattern, which I've knit for myself. These clogs were great. I loved them dearly and wore them to pieces, which took about 2 years which is not a bad lifespan for knit footwear.
Status: I have the yarn and I need to buy the pattern because I've forgotten the password to my pdf. Le sigh.
Priority: Low. 'Stache requested these pretty late in the game and I've already warned him he might be getting half an unfelted clog on Christmas Day.

I'm making raspberry liqueur using this recipe.
Status: The raspberry liqueur just needs to age for a while. I also need to buy some little bottles. Turns out its tricky to find bottles that won't break a stocking when they're full, but still hold a decent amount of liqueur.

I am making 5 stuffed animals from the Menagerie Pattern. These have been really fun and have come together pretty quickly. I've been mostly sewing them assembly-line style, with some slight hiccups for not having any pink fleece for the cat ears. Also for sewing the penguin's head completely wrong twice in a row.
Status: three stuffies are just waiting for their stuffing and pellets to arrive. The cat is a couple steps behind and the penguin needs to be seam-ripped again and the head resewn. Then it's just stuffing and finishing.
Priority: High. This is a major part of the kid's Christmas and kids are less understanding of receiving a half-finished gift.

I want to sew my kids and the kids in our small group pajama pants for Epiphany. Pajama pants are fun and quick to sew, and flannel patterns are just the cutest, although we'll be doing different patterns for boys and girls this year. Gender-neutral flannel patterns is a seriously under-served market.
Status: still need to buy fabric, have the pattern.
Priority: Medium. The due date for these is after Christmas, so there's a little more breathing room. I think this year I'll have some size duplicates, so I won't have to cut them all out separately, which will help.



Right now, this seems like a really doable list. The trouble is to keep myself from adding to it. There's a blanket for Munchkin, a little sweater, a scarf, and a much-needed hat for me that really want to be knit. Must! Resist!

Bow Tie Tutorial

Several weeks ago, 'Stache's cousin got married. If I had been possessed of two daughters instead of two sons, I doubtless would have labored over whipped up two lovely little frilly dresses for such a special occasion. Being possessed of two sons instead of two daughters, I refrained. But something special was needed, particularly since my sister-in-law was going to do a family photo shoot.

I settled on bow ties.

Photo by Maryellyn Hawbaker

I love bow ties on men and boys of all ages. They make a man look so dapper and well-coiffed. I had never made a bow tie before, though, so I decided that as I figured out what worked, I would write it down so that the next time this comes up I could do what worked instead of reinventing the wheel, as is my wont.

I used scraps of gray dupioni silk that I had left over from making the bridesmaid dresses for my sister's wedding several years ago. (Never throw away anything!) Using silky fabric, if not actual silk, is the key to getting a professional-looking bow tie. And sorry, your bow tie models will never be as cute as mine, because that's just not possible.


Bow Tie Tutorial 

You will need:
scraps of a silky fabric such as silk, satin, or polyester, or a 15"x5" rectangle of same
a small piece of felt
2 hook and eyes or pieces of Velcro

Sewing machine, needle and thread, scissors

From your tie fabric, cut one rectangle 15"x2", one rectangle 3.75"x2", and two rectangles 4.75"x3". (These last two rectangles are the body of your bow tie, so if your fabric has a print, you will want to position these carefully.)

From felt, cut a rectangle 4.75"x3".

Take your two large rectangles and layer them with their right sizes together. Put the piece of felt on top. Secure with pins if you wish.

Sew around the edge with a 3/8" seam allowance,* leaving a 1" space to turn the bow tie right side out. Trim the felt to very close to the seam. Turn bow tie inside out, using a pair of closed scissors or a knitting needle to make the corners neat and sharp. Iron flat. Sew the opening closed using mattress stitch

Before trimming the felt.

After trimming the felt.

 Fold the long rectangle in half lengthwise, with the right sides together. Sew the edges together lengthwise, with a 3/8" seam allowance. Do the same for the small rectangle. Turn them both right side out and iron flat.

Sew two large stitches down the middle of the bow tie piece, positioned like so:

This is the front side.

 Tighten your thread and tie off the end, so that the bow tie piece is now shaped like a bow tie.

This is the front side.

Sew the small rectangle around the middle of the bow tie, turning under the raw edge to make it neat.

This is the wrong side.

 Sew the middle of your long rectangle to the middle of the back of the bow tie.

Hem the ends of the bow tie strap. Sew on your hooks and eyes or your Velcro. The way I figured out the right spot to put these is I buttoned the top button on my sons' dress shirts and put the strap around the collar and positioned my hooks and eyes so that the strap would be snug against the collar. This seemed to be a good measurement, as the ties were neither too loose nor too tight.
.
You could sew one end of the bow tie strap to the middle of the bow tie, but I thought since I was putting these on two wriggly bows, they would behave better if I wasn't trying to fasten something right under their chin.

*This is the width on my machine from the needle to the edge of the sewing machine foot. If yours is 1/4", just use that.

Photo by Maryellyn Hawbaker

Works in Progress

So many projects going on! The number of WIP's (Works in Progress) around here is getting a little excessive.

1. The adoption! (Longest. WIP. Ever.) We're still waiting (waiting, waiting ...) to be matched with a child, but we have made a little progress recently. I sent off our I800-A packet today, which is a stack of forms and documentation that goes to U. S. Citizen and Immigration Services. The next thing on the to-do list is assembling the dossier. (DOSS-ee-ay) Many forms, much paperwork. Actually, there are 24 separate forms or documents that we have to fill out/acquire for the dossier. 2-4. 24. Some of which have to be notarized.

2.

These are 4 long-sleeve t-shirts for Munchkin and Twinkle that I've cut out but not sewn together yet. I cut these out from some hand-me-down t-shirts from my brother. I love making clothes out of clothes. Not only do I often get to reuse the hems (definitely not my favorite part of sewing), but it's an awesome way to recycle clothes that still have life in them. They are baseball style t-shirts, so all the shirts, so all the shirts except the white print t-shirt are two colors, with the sleeves and body cut from different t-shirts, so I'm actually reducing the number of t-shirts in the world!

3.

These are the fabrics for a project I'm super excited about. Ikat Bag, one of my favorite sewing blogs, has a fabulous stuffed animal pattern for sale. It's called Menagerie, and it is one pattern that lets you do many many different animals by switching out the ears, noses, tails, etc. The plan is to transform this little stack into a fox, a blue jay, a penguin, a cat, and a blue raccoon (Twinkle's request). I've cut out the many many paper pattern pieces, but that's as far as I've gotten.

4.

This is a sweater that I'm copy-catting. (I checked, there is a free pattern, but it's adult size and in Norwegian.) I'm aiming for a child's size 5. What's that? You in the back? Yes. Yes, the sleeves do not match. Let me explain. The vision for this sweater is that it is a dark gray sweater with a light blue round yoke that will be patterned in a way so that it seems to fade from blue to gray, even though you're only using two colors. I had 2 skeins of gray and one of blue, which seemed sufficient. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I knit the body and the first sleeve, and a wee prickle of concern began to make itself known. There was definitely not going to be enough gray. So, I went back to the drawing board, and designed a little cuff that would echo the idea of the yoke, and would take up some of the gray. A full cuff, plus several rows more. Surely that would be enough, yes? I would knit this sleeve, then I would take out a chunk of the bottom of the all-gray sleeve, and knit the blue pattern in reverse, (going top-down instead of cuff-up) and I would unravel the chunk and add it to my gray ball to knit the yoke.

Awesome plan. Except. I ran out of gray before I even finished the second sleeve. Which meant that one chunk of a sleeve was definitely not going to be long enough to finish the other sleeve and do the yoke. Which means I now have to find another ball of Cascade 220 Superwash 900 Charcoal dye lot 150158. Should be a walk in the park.

Blue Hair

This year, I spaced a bit on the whole "Halloween costume" issue. Which is a tad embarrassing for a costumer. But this morning, I bought some blue hairspray, probably for the first time since junior high, and dug out bright red sweatshirts. Boom! It's Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

After some anxiety over the hairspray, the boys were pretty excited .. 

Does Twinkle have the best faces, or what?

And Munchkin's laugh is just infectious.

There was a small mishap when we were spraying their hair ... hopefully that will come off with some soap and water.

Munchkin told me to "Take a pichure of da treats!"

Once we got to the Fall Festival, I pinned on their labels.

And we were off to the races!

"Look at me! Look at me! Look at me NOW! It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how!"

A Cup of Tea ... and Rather a Bit More

Today, I held a Celebratory Tea. This is a particular tea party that I throw for the cast and crew at Covenant College after the show's all done and everyone has pried themselves up off the floor where they collapsed after strike.

I've done this for a few shows now, and have a bit of a framework for the menu, which is mostly different each time but there are a few favorites that always show up. However, despite the framework and the favorites, I feel like I'm always scrambling to remember what I did last time - did I double that recipe or triple it? How much food is enough food? So I had the happy thought of just recording everything here, to be inspiration to you, gentle reader, in planning your own celebratory teas, for aiding me in planning the next one, and to serve as a simple way of getting recipes to all those who requested them.

Such an inelegant, non-magazine-worthy photo, but I barely remembered to take one at all, so there you go

Clockwise from bottom:

- Various paraphernalia for making tea. With this particular crowd, black tea, preferably Earl Gray, was universally preferred.
- Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread Cake, by smitten kitchen. I baked it in 2 loaf pans instead of a bundt pan. Completely delicious, very dark and spicy. Though only one pan is pictured, we consumed both.
- Easy Devonshire Cream, by allrecipes.com. I made a triple recipe.
- Simple Scones (recipe to follow). I made a triple recipe, minus 6 or 8 scones that we had for breakfast
- jar of lemon curd. The combination of scone, Devonshire Cream and lemon curd is sublime. (Devonshire cream is also called clotted cream.)
- ham, Brie, and mustard sandwiches. I used only a little mustard because I wanted the Brie to really stand out. I did 8 sandwiches, cut off the crusts, and cut them into triangles.
- [on the same plate as the ham and Brie] cucumber sandwiches. I used 1 large cucumber, peeled and sliced, and spread the bread with a mixture of 8 oz cream cheese, 1 clove garlic, 2 tbsp dill and 1 tbsp mayonnaise. This made 7 sandwiches and I cut off the crusts and cut them into squares. (Pro tip: use the smaller ends of the cucumber, and 4 slices will fit perfectly onto a piece of bread, so when you cut them into squares, each square has one perfect slice of cucumber.)
- plain slices of bread with the crusts cut off, for use with:
- butter mixed with sugar and cinnamon
- Bittersweet Chocolate and Pear Cake, by smitten kitchen. Amazing. Also, I was very fearful that I had over mixed, but it turned out fine.
- Twice-Baked Shortbread, by smitten kitchen. Just lovely.

I realize that there are three smitten kitchen recipes here, which seems a bit excessive even to me, but smitten kitchen has never not once steered me wrong. Wonderful recipes.

This menu more than adequately fed a medium-sized crew and a cast of 4. I made the gingerbread the night before, because it's better the second day, apparently, and I made the dough for the twice-baked shortbread the night before because that's what the recipe told me to do.



Simple Scones

1 cup heavy cream
2 cups self-rising flour

Mix thoroughly and knead several times, adding flour if necessary to keep it from being sticky. Roll it out to half an inch. Cut as you desire. Bake for 10 minutes (or until turning golden at the edges) at 450 degrees.



Incidentally, the next Covenant show is Waiting for Godot, directed by Cacey Williams. The preview is November 12th at 8, and performances are Nov 13, 14, and 20 at 8pm, with a matinee performance on November 21st at 2:30. Waiting for Godot is absurdist and thought-provoking. More information here.