Maps of China provinces (showing orphanages)

Hendrika at Red Thread Maps is a talented artist who just happens to have twin daughters from China!. She has produced beautiful hand-drawn maps of the Chinese provinces that "are intended to show the general locations of orphanages that participate in international adoptions."

These maps are perfect for wall hangings, scrapbooks, keepsakes, or just general information.

Check out the maps here. (Click on any map to see a larger version.) Thanks to Gyll for sending me this great link.

Orphanage addresses - Chinese & English mailing labels

Adele over at Blessed Kids (a translation, child history, and care package company) has assembled a wonderful list of orphanage names and addresses in Chinese and English. You can use these for mailing labels, photo albums, etc.

Click here to go to the orphanage names and addresses page. what a great resource!

Medical recommendations from Dr. Jane

Dr. Jane Liedtke (the famous "orphan doctor" and founder and CEO of Our Chinese Daughters Foundation) has written a very helpful letter that you can print out and take to your pre-travel medical consultation. It clearly explains to your doctor what you need and why. To print the full 3-page letter, click on each of the 3 images below and choose "File" then "Print" from the top of your browser window.



Thanks to Christi for sending me this great letter!

Pediatrician interview questions

This is a list of questions that you can use to grill (uh, I mean interview, haha) potential pediatricians, including questions focused on international adoption. To print the full 4-page questionaire, click on each of the 4 images below and choose "File" then "Print" from the top of your browser window.

Camera instructions in Chinese (for care package)

These instuctions are written in Chinese and English. To print a copy, just click on the image at left, then choose "File" and "Print" from the top of your browser window. Include this printout along with a disposable camera in the care package you send to the orphanage so they can take pictures of your angel for you. Thanks to Donna and Doris for sending me these instructions.

Stacey Teague had 2 more great suggestions for the disposable camera that I wouldn't have thought of:
1. Take the camera out of its packaging and tape a photocopy of your child's name right onto the back of the camera.
2. Use the first shot of the disposable camera to take a picture of a sheet of paper with your name and address. Just in case your camera is sent back to the wrong family, they'll mail it to you.

Customizing your sidebar links in Blogger

When you start a new Blogger blog, one of the first things you'll want to do is to customize your links in the sidebar. Log into Blogger, go into the Template section, and scroll until you see this:







That's the code you'll need to change. Now you can copy and paste your own web sites over top of their Google News, Edit-Me, and Edit-Me bullets.

When you're done, you should have something like this instead (changes in red):






You can click "Preview" at the bottom of the little code box to see if everything looks alright. Then click "Save" then "Publish".

Here's a link to a really basic html code explanation if you want to know more.

Photo album labels in Chinese

For photo albums or orphanage care packages, here are some handy translated labels that Rhonda sent me. (I added a bunch of "custom" labels to the second page.) To print the 2 pages of labels, click on each image below and choose "File" then "Print" from the top of your browser window. Cut them up and tape your favorite ones to photos, cards, or letters.

Packing list for China

Our China packing list is now a masterpiece (haha). To print out a copy just click on each of the 4 pages below and print them (file/print from the top of your browser window).

Who's talking about you in their blog

To find out who's linking to you in their blog posts, go to http://blogsearch.google.com. Then type your url into the box and click "search blogs." You'll see a search page that lists all recent blog posts that link to you.

If you want regular updates/notifications on who's linking to you, you can subscribe to the RSS feed of this search page just like you would subscribe to any other web page. I use Bloglines, so I just right-click anywhere in the page and choose "subscribe," but if you use another type of RSS reader you can get the url of the RSS feed in the left margin of the search page.

One tip for blogspot users, you should actually do 2 subscriptions, one with "www" and one without, because people frequently use the unnecessary "www" when linking to you. For example, I search for people linking to http://www.salsainchina.blogspot.com as well as http://salsainchina.blogspot.com.