Glass Half Full

A few years ago a friend described me as a "glass half full" type of person. Then he said "but the problem with people like you is one day you are going to wake up and scream WHO DRANK ALL MY *BLEEPING* WATER!!!!!!! I think that is what happened last week. The fact that this last batch of referrals covered only a few days worth of dossiers really got to me. The impact that it had on me really took me by surprise. Yes, I was disappointed for those that were expecting to be included and weren't. However, it really felt personal.

While we were trying to conceive, I dealt with a monthly reminder that we weren't yet going to be parents. Once I started to meet people in the China Adoption Community, it was the opposite. Every month, a whole big batch of referrals came rolling in. It was wonderful. To me it was a monthly reminder that we were going to be parents. And we were going to become parents in an amazing way that I am so grateful to be able to experience. And then this month when only a few days worth of LIDs were covered, it all came back....the doubt that this is actually going to happen. That is when someone drank all my water. My glass was definitely half empty.

We have not even been assigned our LID yet so although the rumors are rampant, it is really too soon to tell the exact impact it will have on our wait. When we submitted all of our paperwork, I prepared myself for a 10-12 month wait. IF referrals continue at the current pace, it will be longer. But we didn't chose to build our family through adoption because we thought it was going to be quick and easy. (Please, we had to fill out an application just to get the real application. That doesn't exactly scream quick and easy. ) However, I believe that the China program continues to be one of the smoothest running programs. Just the fact that there is a defined process makes it more predictable than others. Right now that process is not moving as fast as we would like, but it is moving. I know people that have dealt with program shutdowns and birthmothers changing their mind - a slowdown is nothing in comparison. Although I am hoping it doesn't go longer than 12 months, I have to remind myself that 12+ months is not uncommon in adoption (domestic or otherwise). Just like everything else in life there are no guarantees. And so we shall wait.

So there is now water (OK, occasionally there is something besides water) in my glass and I am looking ahead. As hard as the wait may get, I know that it will be worth it. It took me 37 years to meet the man that I will spend the rest of my life with. I get "worth the wait".

Congratulations to those families that did receive referrals last week. I know some people also got their LIDs and travel approvals - congratulations to those families as well.

Saturday Morning Fun

Got this idea from Julie and R.I.H.O.T.
Wasn't thrilled about the results - probably because some of it is true. Come on - surely I am more fun than this says - man I sound like such a serious workaholic. I guess this test couldn't tell that I did this LATE Saturday morning still in my pajamas being completely LAZY. HA!! Click on the link below and give it a shot.

Your Birthdate: August 13

You're dominant and powerful. You always need to be in charge. While others respect your competence, you can be a bit of a dictator. Hard working and serious, you never let yourself down. You are exact and accurate - and you expect others to be the same way. Your strength: You always get the job done Your weakness: You're a perfectionist to a fault Your power color: Gray Your power symbol: Checkmark Your power month: April

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Mail Call

More fun mail today. My niece Ivy sent us these two masterpieces. Getting mail from Ivy is one of my most favorite things in the whole world. There were two envelopes - one addressed to Jon and one addressed to me. Not sure if you can tell in the picture but there was a little something extra on the back of the envelopes. Mine is on the left and had a small picture - Jon's is on the right and she wrote her name. I have a box of treasures that I have received from my nieces and nephew. I was going through some pictures recently and came across this one - probably my favorite picture of Ivy.

Nothing Like some Pink Presents to Cheer A Girl Up

Sorry, no pictures because our camera is not cooperating.

Tuesday evening we met up with Jon's work peeps for a send-off to his new job. I had been there for a few minutes when a couple showed up. Jon indirectly works with the guy - I met this couple once at a wedding a couple of months ago. They hand Jon a box which is obviously some type of going away present. I am half paying attention and half carrying on a conversation with someone else (typical). All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see pink, wait a minute.....I see little pink shoes!!!! Next thing I knew the box was in my lap. Now I don't think Jon handed it to me and I don't think it jumped into my lap so obviously I snatched it out of his hands. Hey - it was little pink shoes- I couldn't help myself!!!! Not only was it pink shoes but also a matching outfit. I was so touched - like I said, I've met this couple once. The woman is originally from China although she has been living here for quite some time - not sure how long. She is so genuinely excited and supportive about our adoption. It was such an unexpected gesture and it really meant a lot to both of us. She also let me practice my pathetic 5 words of Mandarin with her.

Then yesterday I check the mail and I got an adoption bracelet from my friend Andree' and her friend Michelle. I've never met Michelle but she knows about me through Andree' (hopefully she doesn't believe everything Andree' tells her.) Anyway, Michelle saw the bracelet, got it for me and Andree' sent it to me. It's pink and has a little charm on it that says:
Adopting a child
Shaping a life
Building a home
Creating a world
Again, a very nice gesture from someone that I really do not even personally know.

Andree' also sent me some other pink goodies for sponsoring her in the Breast Cancer 3 day. She is walking 60 miles in three days. She has been training really hard and I am so proud of her for doing this.

A New Chapter For Jon

Today is Jon's last day at his current job. He is taking the rest of the week off and then he starts a new job on Monday. He is very excited about the new opportunity but I think feeling somewhat nostalgic as well. He's been with this company for about 6 years and has lots of friends there that he will miss. However, it's just time to move on. He has been itching to make a move for months now. While we were in the middle of the paperchase, he let that itch go unscratched so that we would not have to re-do any of our paperwork. Ok, there was some scratching but he stuck it out until we were a month past our DTC date. (Of course, at this point, with the current time lines lots of things will likely expire and will need to be re-done.) A bridge to be crossed when we get there.

This job is also where Jon and I met. No, we didn't work together. He was/is actually a client of mine. Hey, you got to meet them somehow. I was a vendor trying to sell him some software. He bought. I remember my second meeting with him. I was a mess. I had been in Napa for a few days with some friends. I missed my flight home and ended up on the red-eye. Didn't sleep a wink on the plane (never do). I landed around 6am - got home, showered and re-packed since I had a flight to Denver that afternoon. Made it to his office by 9am for our meeting. It was pouring down rain - I never have an umbrella when I need one so I got soaking wet getting into his building. I was sleep deprived, my brain was mush and now a drowned rat. I can't imagine that I wowed him with my intelligence or looks that day.

The gang is taking him to the company's favorite watering hole for a send off. I am on my way now to meet up with him and probably take him to dinner to celebrate. Congratulations Jon!!!! I love you!!!!

Mandarin Monday - 4

First of all I have something to confess. Last week, I practiced the tones very little not at all.
I am not feeling very ambitious at the moment so it is going to be one short phrase this week and we already know one of the words (please) from a couple of weeks ago.

Words For The Week:
"Excuse me please" - qing rang yi xia (This is the phrase that would be used when someone is blocking your way and you are trying to get through - maybe a crowded elevator or something.)

Click here to hear the pronunciation. It's number one on the page.

P.S. I also seriously considered the following phrases:
1. "Please check your calendar,there are actually 31 days in May”.
2. "What the heck happened to June?"
3. "I will explode if I have to wait 18 months"
However, I am struggling to stay positive and that type of sarcasm has gotten me into trouble in the past.

Friday Night In The Big City

Friday afternoon I was quite bummed due to the news on the referral front. (It appears that my little ladybug was a poser.) I knew I had to step away from the computer. Jon had a work function to attend and I really didn't think I would be good company for anyone. I remembered how therapeutic my collaging date with Vicki proved to be. Somehow glueing pictures on something seemed to silence the voices inside my head. That combined with inspiration from Shannon's way cool IKEA mirrors gave me an idea. I have all these wedding photos in a box that are just sitting there. We purchased the digital images of our wedding photos so we could do "anything" we wanted with them and not have to worry about using a $300 5X7. Of course "anything" ended up being nothing.

I went to my local craft store in search of glue and something to glue on. I was on a mission. I'm not a regular at the craft store. I've been once with my niece and maybe once with my Mom and that is about it. I wandered around aimlessly for a while. I even ended up in the scrapbooking section. OH. MY. GOSH. I felt like a young girl that had not yet reached puberty that found herself in the bra section at the department store. I was fascinated by the enormous selection but totally not ready for that yet. Made a u-turn out of scrapbooking and found myself some glue and a wooden box. That would do.

Came home and started glueing (and poured myself a glass of wine just in case the glueing wasn't therapeutic enough.) Around 8:30 I called Vicki - I thought she would want to know about my "glue fest".

Me: Hey, well I hope you are happy.
Vicki: Why, what's up?
Me: It's 8:30 on a Friday night and I am glueing pictures on a "bleeping" wooden box.
Vicki: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Me: Well what are you doing?
Vicki: Eating a box of chocolate malted milk balls

I worked on my masterpiece off and on throughout the weekend and I must say that I am quite pleased at the way it turned out. It's far from perfect but I've not bad for my first try. I'm not sure if I used any of the correct materials so it may fall apart tomorrow. Better get a glimpse now:

Trying To Find My Happy Place

Ladybug For A Friend

I have to admit that I haven't really bought into the whole ladybug thing as of yet. In case you haven't memorized the China Adoption Handbook, Ladybugs are considered a good luck symbol for families adopting from China. Supposedly if you see one, that means that you are going to get some good news about your adoption soon. Don't get me wrong, I've always liked ladybugs. I just can't say that I felt any different about them after we started pursuing our adoption and I learned about the ladybug connection. Maybe I'm a bit cynical, maybe I don't like cliches', maybe a little bit of both. I love that other people want to smother themselves in all things ladybugs,I just haven't felt the need. However, today was a little different.

I went out to check the mail and something caught my eye as I was walking back towards the front door. Yep, a ladybug. Now, I am not the most observant person in the world and was busy enjoying my nice stack of junk mail so I can't believe that I even saw her. Also, it was quite chilly today - cooler than it has been in a long time. But there she was. Now tomorrow will be one month since our DTC so maybe we are going to hear something about our LID soon. However, I am going to dedicate this ladybug to a friend with an LID of 5/31. She's knows who she is. The last batch of referrals went through May 25 which quite frankly stunk. She held her head high and knew that she would be in the next group. Now there is the chance that this next batch will only cover up to 5/30. Everyone was of course hoping that part of June would be covered but to leave out a day in May....please don't let that be the case. Anyway, this ladybug is hers. I have no idea what her ladybug was doing in Texas but some things just can't be explained.

Mandarin Monday 3

There actually won't be any new words this week. I've decided that I need to pay more attention to the 4 tones of Mandarin. I briefly mentioned the tones the first week but that was about it.

This is typical for me - I tend to skip steps 1 and 2 then jump in head first around step 3. Somewhere around step 4 or 5 I realize that steps 1 and 2 actually were there for a reason. Jon is the opposite. He is definitely a steps 1 and 2 kind of guy. Sometimes we balance each other out. Sometimes we drive each other a little crazy. That's a different post.

Anyway, back to the Mandarin. Like I said, I've decided to practice the tones a little more before moving forward. Not just to say them correctly but to also recognize the differences when I hear them. (Remember the tone is what prevents you from referring to your Mother as a Horse.) Here is a link explaining the four tones and giving some decent examples. I found this site helpful as well. More new words next week!!

Weekend In Review

Well I finally got around to doing our taxes on Saturday. Unlike some over achievers (Julie) who had their taxes done by some insane date such as Jan. 2, I have been procrastinating. I knew we were going to be on the giving end instead of the receiving end so I let it go. It's done but I will not be filing before Monday, April 17th. So on Sunday, what did we do to celebrate our big tax bill? We went shopping of course. I finally went to the Ikea that opened several months ago just miles up the road. We need some bookshelves for the office so I thought that would be a good place to start. I even got Jon to go with me. Oh but it cost me dearly. Before Ikea, we had to make a stop at Jon's favorite electronic/computer store. OK, this place makes your typical Comp*USA look like Disney Land. This is not where you go to buy computers but where you go to buy the 50 million little pieces if you want to make your own computer. Hard core. They know Jon by name. They speak another language. They are not of this world. I will usually do anything to keep from going to this place. But it was standing between me and new bookshelves so I made the sacrifice. We got home with the bookshelves but only had 2/3 of what we need so we will be going back. Shannon, let me know if you need anything.

P.S. to Andree' - We had lunch at The Great Outdoors and yes I had a #21 with the works!!!!

Mama Dove Is Back

For the third spring in a row, we have a Dove that has made a nest on our back patio. There is a potters bench on the patio and the nest is built on the top shelf. In the exact same spot. It's right by our back kitchen window and right next to the back door. The first year, we had baby doves that hatched. Last year, she stayed forever but no eggs. I really wasn't that disappointed because it meant that I wasn't the only infertile one around here. Twisted but true. This year I am hoping for baby birds!!!! I have heard/read that it is either the same dove that returns or the babies that were hatched there. Personally I haven't caught and tagged any of these birds so I can't confirm. We just noticed her yesterday and the nest is under construction. She stays there and another bird (Daddy Dove I assume) keeps returning with building materials. I've been sitting here drinking coffee and watching them. When he shows up with something, she will move to the side, get the new addition situated, get back to her spot and off he goes. I would try to snap a picture but don't want to scare her away.

Baby Dreams

I've heard that pregnant women (paper pregnant and tummy pregnant) can start having baby dreams. I know some have blogged about their dreams while waiting for their referral. I had my first baby dream last night - well, sort of. It wasn't actually my baby, I was only babysitting. Apparently my subconscious hasn't completely wrapped itself around the fact that I may indeed someday be a Mother....only that I am worthy of watching someone else's child for a few hours. I have also been reading about signing as a way to communicate with babies. My friend Andree' did this with great success and Karen from Gwenblog has also made me a believer.

Anyway, this baby that I was babysitting was adorable. However, she could sign EVERYTHING and FAST. I had no idea what was going on. Her little fingers just kept moving faster and faster and she kept looking at me like I was an idiot. I was feverishly turning the pages of my one signing book and was googling like mad to try and figure out what she needed. Apparently she needed a diaper change. So I started changing the diaper and COULD NOT DO IT. (Yes, I have changed diapers before with no problem. Well, maybe a couple went on backwards but no major problems.) However, not this one. And this baby just kept looking at me like I was a complete moron. After 45 minutes (in my dream I kept looking at the clock) this little girl just pushed my hands aside and changed it herself!!!!!

I'm sure dream interpreters can have a field day with this.

Mandarin Monday II

Ok boys and girls, it's that time again. Hopefully everyone practiced their hellos and goodbyes last week. We should call this one Mandarin Monday Manners since that is the focus this week. Just a few words to help us be polite American visitors.

I have listed the English, Pinyin and then a pronunciation HINT in parentheses. Remember it is just a HINT since the tones are very important. I have a link below to hear two of the three this week.

Words For The Week:
Please - Qing (Ching)
Thank You - Xie Xie (Sh-eh Sh-eh)
You are welcome - Bu ke qi (boo kua che)

Click here to hear the pronunciation for "Thank You" and "You are Welcome" - look for number two on the page. I didn't have a chance to find an example of Qing but according to my CD's that I have been listening to, I think you will be ok if you pronounce it "Ching" (without any American accent of course). I'm using a different site than I used last week for the pronunciation since I am trying to find free sites for the examples.

Extra credit:
1. Notice the X is pronounced "sh" as in sheep.
2. Notice the Q is pronounced "ch" as in chore.
Yes, there are exceptions but we have to start somewhere.
It is helpful to learn these pronunciations because if you take a Chinese phrasebook with Pinyin representation with you to China, it isn't going to help much unless you know how to pronounce the sounds.

Remember to use these words at least once each day. Also, don't forget last weeks words. You know what will happen if you don't use them. As my Mom so nicely pointed out last week, I don't remember "jack" from high school/college French. How much do you remember from high-school language classes? Exactly.

Random Observations From My Trip

Here's some advice for the person that is designing the next major airport of the world. Look at your plans and count the number of electrical outlets. Multiply that by 100 and that is how many you need. Business travelers have been fighting for the few coveted electrical outlets in airports for years. I am guilty of once unplugging a vending machine in an airport to use my laptop. Don't worry, I plugged it in for anyone needing a Snickers. Now we have to also compete with every laptop carrying, Ipod toting civilian. If I had a couple of power strips with me at O'Hare I could have made some serious scratch.

Got into New York very late. Hotel was quite full so they upgraded me to a suite (which also had an amazing view.) This suite was larger than many apartments I have rented. I actually felt guilty. It was only me and I was not even going to be there for 7 hours, 5 of which I was asleep. If it had not been midnight, I would have gone looking for a family in a regular room and switched rooms with them.

The flight home was the longest 4 hours of my life. I have had several 15 hour flights that were shorter than this one. I guess I was just tired and cranky.

Here's some things I would like to say to my fellow passengers:

1. To the lady sitting two rows in front of me. Quit complaining about the fact that the overhead bin above your seat was full. It’s first come, first serve. You boarded in Group 6. Get over it.

2. To the teenager sitting across from me. I love my Ipod as much as the next person but you are singing very loud…..and horribly.

3. To Mr. Man sitting in front of me. See how little leg room you have? It’s the same for me back here. Your seat is already as far back as it will go. Quit using all of your body weight to try and recline some more. I am only 5’4” and you have busted both of my kneecaps.

4. To the lady sitting behind me. When you need to get out of your seat, please use your armrests if you need help getting into the standing position. The back of my seat is not for this purpose.

5. To the lady with the crying baby. It’s ok, babies cry. Ignore the man who is sitting next to you and rolling his eyes. I would cry right now if I could get away with it.

6. To the person that attempts to finish the crossword puzzle that I started in the airline magazine. . Yes, I am complete moron and obviously have the vocabulary of a 5 year old.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Ni Hao from Chicago. I flew in tonight and then tomorrow night I’ll be flying to New York and then back home Friday night. I love the cities of Chicago and New York but won’t really see anything since I’ll be in each of them for barely 24 hours. I’ll be seeing two customers along the way and hopefully performing some magic for both of them. Friday should’t be more than the old “rabbit out of a hat" trick. I’m afraid Thursday may be more like sawing a lady in half. Oh, and trying to put her back together of course. There is always a catch. I do pre-sales and post-sales for a software company. What does that mean? I basically make lots of software presentations and convince people that the software is going to make their lives a million times better with all it’s fancy features. That is the pre-sales part. Then sometimes I get to go back and make it do all the things we promised. I’m not sure if it keeps me honest or I am developing a split personality.

I’ve only seen The Amazing Race a couple of times. However, from what I can tell, a group of software consultants could kick some serious butt on that show. It’s what we do every day. You find out at the last minute that you need to get to some random city. Maybe it’s Tulsa, Oklahoma and then again maybe it’s Mumbai, India. You figure out how to get there. You may have a vague idea of why you are going but that probably came from a sales guy (love ya Rick!) so you are pretty clueless until you get there. You arrive, try to figure out the best way to get to your assignment….train, taxi, rental car, rickshaw, donkey. Get to your assignment and then you are instructed to perform the impossible. Oh and there is a deadline because you have to be in another city by tomorrow. Things never go as planned so we always have a plan B in our back pocket. I have been stuck in traffic on the way to the airport and knew I was going to miss my flight. I ditched my Rental Car at a hotel, got on a train and still made my flight. Piece of cake.
You would not mind being on national TV screaming your fool head off at your teammates either. They are only co-workers, not your family. I’m telling you a group of software consultants could not be beat on that show. Of course the withdrawal symptoms of being without their Crackberrys could slow some of them down. There is always a catch.

Mandarin Monday

Welcome to the first edition of what I am calling Mandarin Monday. Jon and I want to learn some Mandarin before our trip. Our daughter will be placed with people that she doesn't know and who will sound completely different from what she has been exposed to. While we will not be fluent and will have an obvious accent, we are hoping that it will help with the transition during the first few days. Can't hurt, right? Of course there is the chance that she has been hearing Cantonese but we had to pick one.
Also, one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone travels to another country and doesn't even bother to learn a few words of the local language. Come on, everyone should at least be able to say Hello and Goodbye(which is what we will be learning this week). I have found that regardless of how bad you mispronounce something, making the effort is usually well received.

(This is probably a good time to disclose the fact that on a trip to Venice with two of my girlfriends we ended up spending $300.00 on lunch by pretending we knew what we were doing. Yes, $100.00 EACH on LUNCH!!! Oh, and there was the time I got kicked off a bus in Singapore. Obviously I am not an expert.)

To properly learn Mandarin, I am sure we should enroll in a structured class so that we can ensure that we are learning all of the nuances of the language. We are also checking out the online courses. However, right now our lives are not working like that so we are going to start with the DIY approach. I am going to learn a couple of words or phrases each week. If we do enroll in a class we will either be ahead of the game or the instructor will be horrified at what we have learned on our own. Either way, I'm jumping in.

I'm sure most of you adoptive parents may be way ahead of me on this but if you want to play along at home, I am starting out easy this week. The assignment is to use the words everyday - not just read them here.

I will present the English word, the pinyin spelling and attempt to show the pronunciation in parentheses. This will be the difficult part since Mandarin is a tonal language. There are four basic tones in modern Mandarin Chinese, and every syllable in the language is pronounced with one of those four tones (or with a neutral tone). In Mandarin, the tones are extremely important. In fact, the tones are as much a part of the syllable or word as the consonant and vowel sounds are. Chinese words that might appear identical when written in English letters, such as the word “ma,” in fact are very different depending on the tone used. “Ma” can mean “mother,” “horse,” or “scold,” depending on which tone is used. Sounds dangerous. Mom, I apologize in advance if I call you a horse.

Words For The Week
Hello - Ni Hao (Nee how)
Goodbye - Zia Jian (Tseye geean)

You can try this link to hear the pronunciation. (Depending on what you have on your computer, I can't guarantee that these links will not require you to install an application to play the file or a language pack.) It's the first and third word on the page that will come up. Click on the red rectangle.

Extra credit
1. Notice the combination of "ao" makes the "ow" sound as in the english words now or how.
2. The vowel "i" makes the long "e" sound as in the english word see. However, from what I have read this is only the case when the i comes after consanants other than z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, r.

Zia Jian for now!!

P.S. to Dad - You always have a clever way of answering the phone. I don't have to tell you what I expect to hear this week!!!

Our Favorite Season

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall? Nope - we're talking crawfish season, baby!!! (Yes, it's crawfish and not crayfish. I don't care what the spellcheck says. Please don't say crayfish.) I realize that not everyone appreciates this fine delicacy but in South Louisiana where I come from, crawfish are actually their own food group. And cooking them is nothing less than an art form. Needless to say, there is only one restaurant in our city that I trust with boiled crawfish. Lucky for me, I married a man that appreciates them as much as anyone (even if he is a Texan). We just got home from gorging ourselves. Mmmmm Mmmmm.

P.S. to Andree' - Don't worry I ate enough for you and me both!!!

Babys Got A New Pair Of Shoes

Well, technically they are booties. And these aren't just any old baby booties. These were knitted by Jon's great-grandmother. My MIL gave them to us recently. She has several pair that she used for her kids and she had the foresight to keep a pair for Jon, his sister and brother so that they would have them for their kids. Now that is thinking ahead!!! These were knitted by our daughter's great-great grandmother and they have never been worn. The picture can't do them justice. They are adorable and I am so touched that she gave them to us. Of course we don't know exactly what age/size our daughter will be when we finally get to meet her. However, they have quite a bit of stretch so I'm sure we will get to use them at least a bit. Thank You Mil!!!

Collaging with Vicki

Yesterday, I went to hang out with my friend Vicki. No definite plans, just hadn't seen her in a while. One thing led to another and the next thing we knew, we were creating collages. Yes, collages. As in pictures cut from a magazine and pasted on something, collages. Vicki does quite a bit of this. I on the other hand haven't done anything like this in oh, about 30 years.
I can not tell you how much I enjoyed it. Doesn't hurt that Vicki makes just about anything fun. Seriously I not only enjoyed it but actually found it..... dare I say......Therapeutic.
Vicki said it didn't have to have any particular theme but I am way too "logical" (my code word for artistically challenged) for that to occur. I just started tearing out pictures that appealed to me. One picture led to another and I ended up with a collage. Check it out - I think I need a vacation.

Pop The Cork, We Are Paper Pregnant!!!!

We are now officially DTC!!! I found out yesterday that our dossier was sent to China on 2/23/2006. So now we wait. I was also "gently" reminded by our agency that the official wait does not begin until your dossier is logged in China (LID). In case you haven't memorized the China Adoption Handbook, referrals are sent based on LID dates not DTC dates. Details. It typically takes 10-30 days for your dossier to be logged in China. The catch is that sometimes it can take a while to find out your LID. Therefore, we are considering ourselves Paper Pregnant. So far paper pregnancy is pretty good. You get to celebrate it with Champagne, don't have to pee on a stick and the rabbit doesn't have to die (yes I know that is just a saying).

How long will we be pregnant? Who knows. My guess is anywhere between 8-12 months. As time goes on, we will have a better idea. I'm sure I will have a Mary-Mia and NyQuil inspired spreadsheet, crystal ball, magic eight ball and a dart board in an effort to get a better prediction.

New Families, Waiting Families and Still Not DTC

This will be old news to any of my blogger friends. However, for family and other friends that stop by, I thought you would enjoy reading about a couple of families that are in China right now. Yes, there are tear inducing pictures and even some Oscar worthy video but you don't want to miss reading their amazing stories. If you are curious, this will give you a better idea of what our trip might be like. Remember, I'm figuring this out as I go so don't rely on me to answer all your questions. Check out Will and Susan and their beautiful daughter Olivia. Also, Stacey, Mark and the adorable Ryleigh.

Also, the rumor is that the stork might be on it's way with another batch of referrals soon. Too many rumors to go into regarding who will be included in the next batch. Trust me when I tell you there are parents out there pacing the floor to find out if they are in the next batch. Hopefully we will know soon and it will include a large number of waiting families. I am going to be a total loon when we get to that point. Consider yourselves warned.

Speaking of me becoming a total loon, today is Wednesday and we are NOT DTC. Latest word from our agency is that the dossier will definitely be sent by the end of the week. How long does Champagne last???????

Oh My Gosh, I Grew Broccoli

Who knew? I'm embarrassed to say how long it has been since I actually checked on the garden in the backyard. From what I can see out the kitchen window, it looks pretty dead so I really didn't see the need to look any further. For the last few months around here, if it didn't need notarized, certified, authenticated, or over-nighted it went on the old "back burner". Exceptions were made for any notices threatening to turn off an essential utility (aka, internet and cable). Yeah, the "back burner" is buried at this point.
Anyway, check it out! I vaguely remember planting broccoli a few months ago but then forgot about it. So if you are in the mood for some broccoli, come on over. There isn't much more than what you see here so were are going to have to share.

No DTC yet or even DTB

I have no idea what DTB stands for (and right now my head hurts too bad to think of something clever.) But since reporting we are DTA and waiting for a DTC, seems like there should be a DTB somewhere in there. Anyway, on Monday the agency said they would be sending dossiers end of this week or beginning of next and they would let me know when they were sent. I told myself I would not call them, just wait until they notified me. HA!!!!! Called them today (held out until 3:30 pm) and they are planning on sending them Wednesday. I didn't mention that technically Wednesday is mid-week, not beginning of the week. That's fine, I can drink Champagne on a Wednesday.

On The Mend...

Well I must be getting better. It's 7pm and I haven't had a nap or ice cream all day. In fact, I would even say that I put in an honest day's work today. Sure, from home and most of it was done in my pajamas but a full day none the less.
Also, Jon says I am getting better because I have started "busting his chops" (giving him a hard time) about things again. Funny, I can remember my Mom saying that when I was growing up she always knew when I was getting well because I would start talking back, or "sassing" as we say in the South. Apparently I did that once or twice while growing up.

We are DTA!!!!

No, that isn't a typo. I did not mean to type DTC (Dossier to China). I am just making up acronyms at this point to show some progress. We are DTA - Dossier to Agency!!!! In spite of the Dead Man Walking diagnosis on Friday, we (Jon) managed to get our dossier out on Saturday. I received confirmation from our case worker that they did receive the dossier this morning and the best part is she checked it over and everything looks fine. I was a bit worried that I may have missed something since my head was throbbing when we got everything together on Saturday morning. Our agency will be sending the next batch of dossiers either late this week or early next week. So, we should be DTC very soon. Hopefully I'll be done with the
antibiotics by then since we have Champagne chilling!!! Until then, I'll settle for DTA.

Speaking of antibiotics, I am still under the weather. Spent the weekend on the couch, drinking gatorade, eating ice cream and watching winter sports that I know nothing about. That's not as easy as it might sound - as it turns out, the antibiotics are not to be taken within two hours of diary products!!! It's taken quite a bit of work to squeeze in my antibiotics between ice cream treats. I woke up this morning, determined that I had to be better. That lasted a couple of hours - my body had other plans. I better get well soon. With this ice cream habit I am developing, I am going to be the first person ever to gain weight while being sick.

Week In Review

Haven't posted a thing all week so here it is:

Sunday - Woke up with a fever and feeling awful. Cancelled my non-super bowl plans with my friend Vicki. Bummer, I was really looking forward to some Vicki time. She makes me laugh.
Monday - Woke with a fever blister and still had a little fever. Took some tylenol and felt well enough to make it to two client meetings. Cancelled my dinner plans with my friend Kimberley since I was still not feeling great. As I write this, I think I should have skipped the meetings and kept the dinner plans.
Tuesday - Woke up with two fever blisters (yes, getting prettier by the day). Actually didn't feel too bad, worked from home.
Wednesday - Felt pretty good, taught a class for a client. Got to have lunch with my friend Leigh. I love her - she pretended not to notice the fever blisters. Fever blister number three made an appearance by mid-afternoon.
Thursday - Apparently a bus came into our bedroom and hit me sometime during the night Wednesday. Fever back with a vengeance and I had ZERO energy. Worked wireless from bed (between naps). Still holding at three fever blisters. No, there will not be any pictures. Use your imagination - it's worse than that.
Friday - Finally admitted that I might be sick and called the Doctor. Apparently there is something called "walking pneumonia" and I am the lucky recipient. My apologies to anyone that I came in contact with this week (especially Kimberley, Rick, Larry, Chris, Leigh, Lillie and the 12 people in my class on Wednesday). Of course Jon also but he has no choice. I was supposed to be flying to New York on Sunday. Unless I feel a million times better tomorrow, that's not happening. Therefore, one of my peers found out late this afternoon that he gets to fly to New York on Sunday. I bet I'm not on his Christmas card list next year.
Currently - Feeling sorry for myself with a Haagen-Dazs Vanilla and Almonds Ice Cream Bar courtesy of Jon. Hey, the medicine says "take with food". He was very sweet to bring me ice cream. I am a nasty grouch when I am sick. And I just dribbled ice cream and chocolate on his tee shirt that I am wearing.

I see STUPID People.....

(Olivia, Jackson, and Ivy if you are reading this- yes stupid is a bad word and you should not call people stupid. Just because I'm doing it doesn't make it OK. Please don't use that word and then tell your Mom or Dad that it's OK because Karen said it.)

Yesterday I had to make a quick trip down to Austin. I took the 6:45 am flight out, the client presentation went well and I even got an earlier flight home than anticipated. An earlier flight home on a Friday afternoon is total Jackpot for me. So, life was good.

I'm the last person on the plane so I gladly take my middle seat between "Mr. Already Asleep" and "Ms. I'm going to stare at you over the top of my glasses". No problem, I'm on my way home, it's an extremely short flight, life is still good.

As the plane is landing, the woman strikes up a conversation. Don't remember how she started the conversation but something about her daughter. Then she asked me if I travel a lot. I tell her "some, but not nearly as much as I used to", trying to keep my answers short and simple.I used to be on a plane nearly every week.

When I was single, I think my Mom thought that I would meet my future husband on a plane - because that is where I spent a good portion of my time. Thanks goodness I didn't - I could write several posts on the crazies that I have met on an airplane.

Anyway, she asks me if I have any children. I reply "Not Yet". She gives me the once over (from over the top of those glasses) as if to say well you don't look that young, you better hurry up. For some reason I feel the need to answer that look. I tell her "actually we are in the process of adopting" The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Her: "Really"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Are you adopting from this country or somewhere else" (I could also write an entire post on this question alone but I am really trying to stay focused.)
Me: "From China"
Her: "China?"
Me: "Yes"
Her: "Hmmmm, interesting"

At this point people are exiting and I really just want to get off the plane. When it is almost time for our row to exit, she says, "I have to ask you, are you going to tell her that she is adopted?"OH. MY. GOODNESS. She did not just say that. She repeated the word China earlier in our conversation, so clearly she didn't think I said something else. She is going to be Chinese, you stupid moron!!!!! I am screaming this in my head (at least I think it was only in my head, can't be sure).

I have about 1.5 seconds to figure out how to handle this. I figured I had three choices:
1. answer back with something intelligent (I had nothing even remotely intelligent and I'm not sure there is an intelligent answer to that question)
2. smile and walk away
3. give her an answer just as insane as her question

Basically, the old do I take the high road or the low road decision. I'll take the low road for $100, please. Yes, there will come a day when I am the responsible parental unit/role model. Yes, I will teach my daughter how to handle comments and questions will intelligence, dignity and grace. However, not today. I look at her and say "actually I was just thinking how interesting it is that I told you, a complete stranger, since we aren't even going to tell our family and friends that she is adopted." And then I smiled and walked away.

Oh, about a year from now.......

That is what I have been saying since October when asked "WHEN" or "HOW MUCH LONGER" the adoption will take. It's February and I am still saying "Oh, about a year". We've made lots of progress on our end but I can't say for certain that it has brought us any closer to our daughter. Emotionally closer absolutely, but physically closer, not so much. Forms, notaries, doctors visits, fingerprints, financial statements, homestudys, certifications, authentications blah blah blah and still I'm saying "oh, about a year."

Yesterday I visited my local UPS Store to overnight our 171H to the courier who will take it to the Chinese consulate for authentication. We have used the UPS store for our overnight shipping as well as many of the notarys that we needed. Not that I have anything against any of the other overnight shippers. The UPS Store is just up the street so it is really just a matter of convenience. And let me say they have been GREAT. They know it's all for the adoption and they check and re-check everything they do for us. (Then they wait patiently while I check everything over three more times.) Everyone in the store is very excited and have made me promise to bring our daughter in to meet them. Yesterday, this is the conversation I had with the woman at the UPS store.

Her: "Hey Karen, how much longer?"
Me: "Oh, about a year"
Her: "What, how can that be? You are in our notary book a hundred times and you've spent a fortune on overnight fees." (I love someone who exaggerates for dramatic purposes like me - In reality, it's significantly less than a hundred and slightly less than a fortune.)
Me: "I know"
Her: "What happened?"
Me: "Nothing, the process has just slowed down a bit in the last few months"
Her: "That stinks."
Me: "Yeah, it does"

It's not so much the waiting that bothers me (yet). It's not knowing how long we will wait. Yes, I know this is common with adoption whether it be domestic or international. We did LOTS of research and we signed a contract with our agency that basically said anything can happen. I get that. And we will wait as long as we have to and will jump through as many hoops as we have to. Our paperwork is not even in China yet so LOTS can happen with the timelines between now and whenever.
We will just keep a close eye on the referrals and get more and more excited every time they come in. Eventually we will have a better guess on when it will be our turn. In the meantime, I'm going to find another answer for "WHEN?".

Another Small Step

Just a quick (not very exciting) dossier update. We had the 171H form from immigration certified by the Secretary of State last week. They turned it around in about 4 days which was great. It now needs to go to the Chinese Consulate in Houston to be authenticated. The Consulate is closed this week (until Friday) for Chinese New Year so we won't get that back until next week. That's ok - that is really the way the adoption process works. "Hurry up and wait." I am using a courier service which will help us to get the Consulate authentication done quickly. We should have that back by next Tuesday and then hopefully have our dossier to our agency by end of next week. I am hoping they will find it all in order. I have checked and double-checked everything so much that I will be crushed if there is anything wrong. And then I'll fix it. We are hoping to be DTC (Dossier to China) by end of February at the LATEST. We have Champagne chilling in the fridge for that!!!!

Babies, Babies, Babies

This was an exciting week in the China adoption community as many families received their referrals. (For my family and friends that haven't memorized all the adoption "lingo", this is when you receive the picture(s) and information about your child from your agency.) The referrals this week were for families whose paperwork was logged into China between April 26 to May 13 2005. Our agency notified us that they received 6 referrals. The six girls are in the Changsha First Social Welfare Institute in the Hunan Province. The younger girls range in age from 7-8.5 months old and one little girl just turned two!
Not necessarily from our agency, but here are some of the beautiful referrals coming in this week:
Savannah
Lizzie
Mia (be sure to scroll down just a bit to see all the pictures).


They are beautiful and I'm sure there are no words to describe how their parents feel at the moment. They will be travelling to China in probably 6-8 weeks to get their daughters.

Speaking of babies, we had dinner last night with some friends that have a 6 months old little girl. Oh my gosh, she is the cutest, sweetest little girl. She let me hold her almost the entire time at the restaurant.

Frog Guts

Disclaimer - If you love frogs and/or believe that they should not be dissected as a school project, don't read.

I talked to my niece last night and she was feeling very nervous about the fact that today she was going to have to dissect a frog. First of all, she is in Fifth grade. I don't think we dissected anything until high-school. Sure that was decades ago, but Fifth grade - I had no idea. My gosh, what are they going to be learning in high-school? How in the heck am I going to be smart enough to help our daughter with her homework!!!!

Forget worrying about the cost of diapers, I better start studying. Sure I have a college degree but today could I really answer one of those dreaded word problems? You know the ones, "If one train is traveling 50 miles an hour and another train is traveling 40 miles an hour....." (If my friend Madeline is reading this, she is laughing, we HATED those word problems in school.)

Ok, I'm getting away from the frog story. We found this cool website http://www.froguts.com/. You can do the demo and interactively dissect a frog. We did it together on the phone last night and I think she was feeling a little better about the whole ordeal.

She called me when she got home from school and "Freddy the Freaky Frog" (as she named him just before slicing him open) was successfully dissected today!!! She did say that one kid hurled in the classroom's trash can but she did great. She found 9 various frog organs including the stomach, kidney, small and large intestines, liver, etc. Speaking of liver, a frog's liver is huge!!!!
She even went the extra mile and cut open the stomach to see if he had eaten anything lately. Apparently Freddy died with an empty stomach.

Lemon Zest Anyone?

So I made a stop at Shannon's Online Pampered Chef Partay the other day and picked up a few things. One of the things I picked up was a Lemon Zester. Do I really NEED a lemon zester, probably not. I think I have made two or three things that called for lemon zest. Every time, I have had to Google "lemon zest" to see what it was. And right now I'm not exactly sure what it is. So I thought if I had an actual Zester, that would help. Go ahead and laugh - I can hear Brian and Andree' both laughing. They are both great cooks and can probably whip up zest without Google or a Lemon Zester.
It's actually a scorer as well so now when Jon mixes me up a yummy drink, he can put that fancy lime sliver on the edge of the glass.
Anyway, go check out Shannon's Partay - if you see something you can't live without, email her for her last name so she can get credit. They have something called Double Strength Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract. Oh my goodness. I wasn't sure I could be trusted with that. Maybe next time.

Happy Birthday Jackson

Today is my nephew Jackson's Birthday - he's nine years old today!!! Almost to the double digits dude. Hope you have a great Birthday and hope to see you soon. Here he is with his new electric guitar that he received for Christmas. Rock On!!!!

We Received the Golden Ticket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big news people - we received our 171-H from the Department of Homeland Security!!!!! It has been almost 8 weeks since we were fingerprinted which is about average for our local office and not bad considering it was over the holidays. For my family and friends that have not memorized every form number, this is the approval from the US Government stating that we are worthy to bring our child into the country. More importantly, this is the LAST document that we needed for our Dossier (which is the group of documents that will go to China.)

This document still needs to go through the same authentication process that the other 12 documents went through. Therefore it was notarized today and sent to the Secretary of State's office for their certification. They should receive it Monday morning and hopefully get it back to us within a few days. I will then expedite it (aka - pay extra) through the authentication process of the Chinese Consulate. Hopefully all of that will be done within the next week or so.

Then we send our entire dossier to our agency. They will look it over and then send it on to China. Probably just in time for the Chinese New Year Holiday. Figures. Once our dossier is received in China, the wait begins. How long do we wait? That's the $64,000 question. When we started the process, it was a very predictable 6 month wait. Things have slowed down a bit and the latest families to receive a referral have waited approximately 8 months. We'll be keeping a close eye on those referrals.

Since the documents from the Secretary of State and Chinese Consulate will come FedEx, the parking restriction in front of my mailbox has been temporarily eased. Notice I did not say permanently lifted.

10 Happy Thoughts

Yes, the trip to Uncle Doug's funeral was pretty sad. However, there were some happy moments about that trip also.

1. I saw many extended family members and friends that I had not seen in way too long.
2. I spent time with my cousins Kim and Faye. For most of my childhood, I lived either walking distance or biking distance to their house. Kim and I were the same age and went through 12 years of school together.
3. I walked my nephew Jackson to the bus stop 2 mornings in a row.
4. I read "I Love you like Crazy Cakes" to my niece Ivy.
5. I watched two episodes of TLC's "Adoption Story" with my sister, niece, nephew, and parents.
6. I shared tears and laughs with my sister.
7. I saw my brother Paul for the first time in a year.
8. I watched part of "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory" with Ivy and Jackson
9. I was reminded how EXTREMELY excited my family is about the adoption. My Mom is convinced that our daughter is born and she has been praying for her. My Dad is ready for a copy of our travel itinerary so he can meet us where we happen to touch US soil.
10. I saw my Great-Uncle Boogie. No, that is not a typo. I'm sure he has a "proper" name but that is irrelevant. He's Uncle Boogie. He is the last of my Grandfather's siblings. He is in his eighties and works full time just so he has something to do. He remembered that a few years ago I lived in Sydney, Australia. He said when I go back, he wants to carry my suitcase. I would love that. I got to hear him speak French. Sure it was "Uncle Boogie" south Louisiana french. My high-school french teacher Mr. White (or Monsieur Blanc as he preferred to be called ) might not have approved but it was music to my ears.

Spirit in the Sky

I flew to New Orleans Tuesday night for my Uncle Doug's funeral. The funeral was Wednesday. No funeral is really a pleasant experience but this was particularly difficult for a couple of reasons. One, just about everyone in attendance at this funeral has been impacted in one way or another by hurricane Katrina. As I scanned around the room, I saw many family and friends that lost quite a bit if not everything due to the storm. Two, the death of Aunts and Uncles is particularly tough for me because it forces me to consider the immortality of my own parents. I'm not ready for that.

However, I am very glad that I was there. My Mom spoke at the funeral about how Uncle Doug was the best birthday present she ever received. He was born on her 2nd birthday. A letter was read by a co-worker of Uncle Doug's about what a great teacher and mentor he had been to him. My mom read that letter to Uncle Doug just before he passed away last weekend. If he didn't hear it then, I hope he heard it the second time it was read.

It was your typical solemn, respectful service ending with the funeral home director telling everyone that they were welcome to pay their last respects and then we would be moving to the mausoleum for the committal part of the service. At that point, the song "Spirit in the Sky" started playing quite loudly. I gave my sister the "What the....." look and she said that Uncle Doug requested that it be played. Here are the first two verses of that song:

When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place that's the best.
Prepare yourself you know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He's gonna recommend youTo the spirit in the sky
Goin' up to the spirit in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place that's the best.

According to my Mom, not only did he request that it be played but he wanted it played with a LOT of Bass. That made me smile.

Spending the day with Liv

I've been MIA for a week or so and have some catching up to do. I'm "back dating" the next couple of posts to appear "real time".

Thanks to Hurricane Katrina my brother-in-law Brian (yes, the one with the green behemoth) now enjoys an 8 hour commute nearly every week. So, we get to see him quite a bit these days, but this week he brought a special guest. My niece Olivia had a couple of days off from school so she came along with him. What a treat. They arrived late Sunday night. I was working from home on Monday so she hung out with me in my office. I taught her the fine art of doing expense reports. She was quite helpful - I'm thinking of outsourcing!!! She occupied herself with Zoo Tycoon 2 while I got some work done. She's quite the zoo builder. Later in the day we went on a bike ride. (Jon wasn't with us so I don't have to call it "cycling".) That night, we went to target and did some shopping (including a huge bag of candy from the lovely candy bins at the Super Target.) It was a lot of fun. I had to fly out Tuesday evening for my Uncle's funeral. So for the next couple of days she was at my house while I was at her house.

UPDATE: I just spoke with Brian and he told me that Olivia constantly reminded him not to park too close to my mailbox. Way to go Liv!!!

Uncle Doug

I much prefer happy posts. However, the original reason for this blog was to document our lives as we go through the adoption process. As I've said before that means the happy, the sad, the good and the bad. My Uncle Doug passed away on Sunday, January 15th. He was diagnosed with lung cancer in December. I was planning on visiting him sometime in January before he got too sick. Unfortunately, I missed that chance. His funeral is on Wednesday. My Mom had three brothers. Doug was the youngest. While growing up, they all lived within a 10 minutes drive (or less) of our house. I have lots of fond childhood memories of frequent, often impromptu, get togethers with Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, lots of cousins and all. Uncle Doug, you will be missed.

Shameless Advertising for a blog friend

OK - one of my fellow adoption bloggers Mary- Mia is a finalist in the "best of blogs" contest. Her blog is great - go check it out if you don't believe me - just promise that you'll come back to me every once in a while. She has provided me with so many smiles, chuckles and total belly laughs that she deserves to win on that alone. Her blog is listed as "Do they have Salsa in China." Go here to vote. The adoption category is the last category so scroll down to find it. So go ahead, do it now. Don't wait. This means you too Dad - this is our chance to vote for the same "candidate"!!

Two Happy Couples

Our friend Bill was in town this week and Jon and I had dinner with him Tuesday night. Yes, the cycling has been traded for margaritas and mexican food. Bill was at the same wedding as we were on New Year's Eve night and he shared these pictures with us. One is obviously me and Jon - I am the one with the Happy New Year's tiara. The other is Jon and Bill. I think both couples look pretty happy. I don't know if these were taken just before or after we rang in the New Year. Bill also wore this tux to the Atlanta Falcons game the next day. I hope he doesn't mind me telling that but I think it's hilarious.

Tour de Neighborhood

Jon and I have been threatening to start cycling again for weeks, maybe months. Cycling is a very strong word for my performance but "bike riding" would not be fair to Jon's. So Cycling it is. We rode Saturday but I did not last very long. I don't think I realized just how out of shape I am now. (I've mentioned before that denial is sometimes my happy place.) Seriously, I almost puked - it was ridiculous.
We rode again yesterday and even rode to the store to pick up some milk that we needed. I waited outside with the bikes while Jon went in, bought the milk and put it in is his backpack for the ride home. I waited right under the sign that said no bicycles, skateboards, rollerblades, etc. One man with his kids saw me and said "look kids, they rode their bikes to the store". Like we were some sort of sideshow or something. Like our next trick was going to be walking a tight rope. You see, where we live, you get to the store one way and one way only - in your car like everyone else. Sad, very sad. So we've ridden two out of three days which isn't bad. However,I would be embarassed to tell you how many miles we covered in those two rides. Oh well, it's a start.

Hello, my name is Karen and my husband has a Chia Pet

I'm sure there are support groups that I could talk to about this. Yes, despite my pleading and shameless begging, Jon is actually growing the lovely creature that my dear Mom sent him for Christmas. I didn't want him to grow it for two reasons. One, I have to agree with my Mom on the "tackiness" factor. More importantly, I had BIG plans for this thing. My brother Paul was going to be the next lucky recipient of the prized Chia. With our family, this could have gone on for years!! No sooner had Jon opened it, I could picture Paul's face when he opened it next year for Christmas. Priceless. So Paul, you can go ahead and let out a big sigh of relief. It is Jon's Chia, not mine, so he gets to do what he wants. Within 24 hours, he began "Operation Chia". I was secretly hoping it wouldn't make it while we were gone a few days for our Atlanta New Year's trip. He is quite proud of his progress so far. Stay tuned.

Note: No Chias were actually harmed for this post. However, I can not promise the same for Jon should he continue this new hobby.

Double the mail

Yep, just as I thought I missed a whole day's worth of mail due to Brian's parking faux pas. No, I am not going to contact the city about placing a "No Parking Sign" near my mailbox but don't think the thought didn't cross my mind. Hey, you never know when that 171H might show up!!OK, sure, maybe it's possible that we didn't get any mail one day, lots of mail the next day and the green behemoth had nothing to do with it.
Of course the double dose of mail consisted of several credit card offers, random junk mail and several catalogues. Catalogues? Are you kidding me? Am I the only one broke after Christmas?

Don't Park Near My Mailbox

Now that I know my fingerprints are usable - I have officially started stalking the mailman in search of the 171H. As you can see, nothing today.
Whoa - wait just one minute, what is this green behemoth? The mailman can't even get to our mailbox!! My brother-in-law (soon to be Uncle) Brian had his truck parked in front of our house and way too close to the mailbox for my comfort. (Of course, this has NEVER been an issue until today - I'm sure I would not have even noticed prior to my current obsession.)
Well this situation had to be fixed. I interrupted his roast beef sandwich lunch to promptly get him to move the truck. Luckily he is very good natured, knows me well and even helped snap the photos. No, I did not get out the tape measure but I did supervise the whole truck moving operation. Now that's more like it....

I actually DO have fingerprints

Whoo Hoo!!!! I was just about to post that there were no adoption updates when I received a great email today. It seems that my fingerprints were actually clear enough to be used!!! I emailed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services about two weeks after the fingerprinting fiasco in an effort to find out if my fingerprints were clear enough to be used for the immigration clearance. The people that took my fingerprints felt that they would be rejected. Also, my Dad recently told me that when he was in the Navy, they had trouble getting clear prints on him. Great. Therefore, I was preparing myself for fingerprint rejection. Anyway, I really didn't know if I would get a response from the email but thought it wouldn't hurt to try. If I was going to have to be fingerprinted again, fine but I didn't want to wait 6-8 weeks to find out that I needed to be fingerprinted again. It's been a couple of weeks since I sent the email but today I received the following response:
Your fingerprints were accepted. Your case is currently pending. You should receive a decision shortly.
So the "net" is that we still have to wait for the elusive 171H document, aka "The Golden Ticket" (approval from the U.S. Government to bring an orphan into the country.) But at least my "poor" fingerprints were good enough for the FBI check that they will do. Now as long as my "poor" fingerprints don't happen to match those of some scary criminal, we just might see that 171H in a few weeks!!!
Also, I can go back to using hand lotion. A few people gave me advice to lay off the lotion in case I needed to be fingerprinted again. Until I stopped "using" I didn't realize that I might actually be addicted to the stuff. It was driving me crazy. I kid you not, the first thing I did after reading the email was hit the bottle (of lotion).

Happy 2006!!

I've been without my laptop the last few days so catching up on posts. Jon and I spent a GREAT New Year's in Atlanta this year. We left last Friday afternoon (very tired from the celebration with Jon's sister and brother-in-law Thursday night.)
My parents also happened to be in Atlanta for the Peach Bowl. My parents are huge LSU fans (as in fanatics). We were able to catch up with them for lunch on Saturday which was an added bonus.
The original reason for traveling to Atlanta for New Year's is that our good friends Kimberley and Jason got married New Year's Eve!!!! Congratulations Kimberley and Jason!!!!
It was a great evening for a wedding. I've always thought that New Year's Eve was a very over-rated Holiday. It always seemed that I should have something fancy and fabulous to do but honestly rarely did. How nice of Kimberley and Jason to give me something to do this New Year's Eve!! It was a beautiful ceremony and we wouldn't have missed it for the world. The reception was a blast. We got to see lots of friends that we don't see nearly enough. We danced until our feet hurt and then took our shoes off and danced some more. The reception went until 1:00am so we all rang in the New Year's together.

Welcome Home Paul and Jennifer!!!!

This post is several days overdue but so are most of my posts. Anyway, last week my brother Paul and his girlfriend packed up and traded L.A. for La. They moved to the Los Angeles area a couple of years ago. Earlier this year they decided that for them, there is no place like home. They actually made the decision before that winch Katrina visited but didn't let that stop them. They left Los Angeles the day after Christmas and arrived in the New Orleans area last Thursday.

Another Excited Aunt and Uncle

We had Jon's sister and brother-in-law over last night to celebrate the holidays with them since we did not see them on Christmas day. We also told them about the adoption. Yeah, I have a blog and some family members had not been officially told. We never intended it to go that way but it did. We just really wanted to tell them in person and due to logistics it didn't happen until now. We also told other members of Jon's side of the family on Christmas Day. Anyway, they were super excited for us and Jon's sister asked permission to spoil her rotten. Permission granted. I stayed up way past my bedtime but we had a great time with lots to celebrate last night.

Christmas Lemons

Last Christmas, my MIL gave me a really cool Christmas present - a lemon tree. It's one of the "patio size" Meyer's lemon trees. Although I was thrilled with it, I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about keeping the thing alive much less producing any fruit. My first goal, keep it alive. Second, I would figure out how to get it to grow some lemons. I am a wanna-be gardener but really have no clue. It stayed inside until last spring and then moved onto our patio. Recently, we brought it back it for the winter. I present to you, my lemon crop of 2005. I picked the biggest lemon on Christmas morning and gave it to my MIL that day. We intended to enjoy it together but with all the festivities of the day never got around to it. I'm going to try one tonight.

Christmas Play

My nieces and nephew all had starring roles in the Christmas Eve service at Church this year. Mary, a shephard and an angel. Unfortunately we weren't there in person since we typically alternate Christmas between my family and Jon's. However, my brother-in-law was kind enough to capture it for us. I spoke to the kids Christmas Eve night after their performance. The angel told me (and I quote) that she "wishes they would have put a wire on her and let her fly into the Church - that would be cool." Considering this angel was already sporting a cast on her right arm under that sweet angel costume (she broke her wrist about a month ago), that is quite the statement.

Paybacks

Actually this story begins last year when Jon bought my mom a Chia pet for Christmas. This was hilarious because since the beginning of the Chia pet, that commercial has driven my mom absolutely NUTS. "Cha Cha Cha Chia!!!!" Not to mention that she thinks they are the tackiest thing ever. My apologies to any Chia pet fans out there - you can take that up with my mom. Anyway, my siblings and I have threatened for years to get my mom a Chia pet for Christmas. None of us had the nerve to pull it off. Jon comes along and last year actually gave my mom the prized Chia.

So Christmas morning, Jon opens the first present from my parents and you guessed it. He got the Chia - the same exact one. Still in the plastic - untouched. I wish I could have caught his initial reaction - it was hilarious. However, since his body was convulsing with laughter, it made the shot impossible. My mom gave him some sob story about not being able to give the Chia a proper home. I have a feeling this is not the end of the Chia.

Her first NEW dress

Once again, my parents went way overboard on Christmas. However, there was one present that literally took my breath away. My mom MADE this beautiful dress for our daughter. Just click on the picture to see the details. Oh my gosh, it caught me totally of guard. (Which I'm sure makes my parents extra happy since they are BIG on no one knowing what they are getting for Christmas.) I wasn't expecting this at all. I have watched my mom sew dozens of beautiful dresses for my nieces over the years. (Some of which my sister has recently shared with me - another post I haven't gotten around to yet but will soon.) And I admit that for some time now, I hoped that one day I would have a daughter that she would sew for.
To say that I am touched would be the understatement of the year. Finally, we have something to represent our daughter besides missing fingerprints and a huge stack of documents authenticated by everyone under the sun. The moment I saw that dress, it just seemed "real". Not sure I can explain it any other way. Also, for your viewing pleasure, Jon caught my reaction on camera. Yeah, I cried. Big time. I'm sure I'll cry again the first she wears this dress. I'm just that way.

Thank you Jon

Luckily, Jon didn't listen to a word of my bah humbug, no Christmas spirit, "we don't need to bother with a tree" attitude this year. He knows me well enough to know that I would have regretted it on Christmas morning. He made sure we put up an awesome tree and even put lights outside. Sure, I helped decorate the tree and enjoyed every minute of it. I just did not have the motivation to get it all going this year. He made sure it happened. He also did most of the shopping this year which I will try hard not to get used to. Thanks Babe, I Love You.

"Father" Christmas

Yep, here he is - The REAL Santa and yes, I personally know him . I've known him all my life in fact. If you are curious how I know him, click here. That's right, the rest of the year he is disguised as my Dad. Then each fall, he begins his transformation. Come to think of it, I guess when Dad stops shaving it is actually the first sign of the coming Holiday Season. I think at first, "Mrs. Claus" wasn't a big fan of the extra beard. However, over the years, she's been converted. He even has elves, there's one elf named "Leo" that kept an eye on us as kids and now keeps a close eye on the grandkids. Some of us have even gotten personal phone calls from "Leo" - usually not a good sign.

Here's a picture from a school party with another of his elves Jackson.
He has been the Santa for many school parties for his kids and now grandkids. And, sometimes he's done it without being recognized. Just goes to show you, all you have to do is believe. Now don't bother writing me to tell me to put in a good word for you. He already knows if you've have been Naughty or Nice.

One Step Closer

Yeah, I said the next post would be about Christmas but it's my blog and I get to change my mind. I got home last night around 8:30 dead tired from a "day trip" to Houston. "Day trip" is the term that is used by your boss to try and disguise an out of town business trip as no big deal. You get up at 4:00am and get home by 8:00pm - yeah, that's a day. Actually I like my boss, it's not his fault, I get to do quite a few of these. Anyway, back to the story -I got home to find that my new best friend (the fed ex man) had delivered our dossier documents authenticated by the Chinese Consulate!!!! I was surprised because of course I had been obsessively tracking the return mailer that I included and didn't realize it was on it's way. I really wasn't expecting to get it back until after Christmas. Come to think of it, I guess it was a little like Christmas so there you go - this is a Christmas post after all. Of course we still don't know if I have fingerprints and still have to wait on the elusive 171H from immigration but at least I can put more X's in my oh so beautiful spreadsheet!!!

Trying to get it out of my system

Note - this is not a happy post so if you are looking for happy - don't read.

I have to admit - I haven't been into the "swing of Christmas" this year. Not for reasons that you might expect. It has nothing to do w/ the adoption. Ever since we returned from visiting my family for Thanksgiving, I've just been sad. I don't want to be a "Christmas downer" but it really threw me for a loop. Other than that one post, I haven't said much about Katrina and I don't really know why. This blog was intended to capture our lives as we move through the adoption process. Believe me, Katrina has been part of this. Much of my immediate family evacuated here and were here when we were working on the initial adoption application. For a couple of weeks, we didn't know if many family members and friends were even ok or not. My sister put her kids in school here and they were here for about 6 weeks until schools opened again in their town. I haven't had a conversation with a family member for the last 4 months where "it" didn't come up. It's interesting to me that as I go back and read through my entries on this blog, it doesn't show up more. It's been such a part of our everyday. Unfortunately, I've decided to talk about it a few days before Christmas. Oh well, timing never was my strong point.

I knew it was bad. However, seeing the town you grew up in reduced to scraps of lumber, seeing your Grandmother's house destroyed by 3 feet of water and an oak tree through the middle, seeing your Aunt that lost EVERYTHING stinks. It's four months now after the storm and people are still living in tents. My sister is friends with many school teachers and they have students that are still in tents. My Aunt that lost everything hasn't heard a thing about getting a FEMA trailer. Yet, my sister's next door neighbor whose house is FINE, gets offered one. It's a mess.

Even the "lucky ones" that still have a roof over their head have it pretty hard. Jobs are gone or seriously affected, they watch their friends and family try to rebuild their lives from scratch. Nothing is easy there, going to the bank, going to the grocery store, to the Doctor, ordering Pizza, nothing. There was even an unfortunate incident with my sister in Walmart over a frozen chicken which I will not go into out of respect for her.

Anyway, if this blog is really going to document our lives as we move through this process it had to be said. I promise the next post will be about Christmas.

Bees and Chickens for Christmas

For the past few years, my niece Olivia and I have made a contribution to The Heifer Project each Christmas. If you are not familiar with Heifer, their mission is "To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth." There approach is simple yet unique. Through donations, they are able to provide a community with a source of income through the gift of an animal such as a goat, pig, chickens and of course a heifer. The livestock brings with it the benefits of milk, wool, draft power, eggs and offspring Here's the really cool part, every family and community that receives assistance promises to repay their living loan by donating one or more of their animal's offspring to another family in need. This practice of passing on a gift ensures project sustainability, develops community and enhances self-esteem by allowing project partners to become donors.
Here is an awesome story about someone who has benefitted by The Heifer Project.

It was actually Olivia that started the tradition. One year she saved her birthday money and bought a flock of chickens. She was probably seven at the time. I was so inspired by her, I decided to join her in the effort. Since then we have done two goats, chickens, geese, ducks. Over the years, she has given much of her birthday Christmas, and allowance money for this cause. This year we decided in January to both save our spare change all year and go for something bigger like the water buffalo. We were doing pretty good and had over $100 in Sept. Then came hurricane Katrina and we decided to give what we had so far to help the Katrina effort.

We continued to save our pennies and were able to contribute chickens and bees this year. I had no idea bees could be so helpful.

Speaking of Paperwork

My youngest niece Ivy (just turned 4) is very excited about the adoption. Although what is a long wait for adults, can translate to an eternity for a 4 year old, we have talked to her about it almost from the beginning. They had to evacuate from Katrina so she was here quite a bit while Jon and I were working on our initial agency application. She heard me say I was doing "paperwork", saw the stacks of "paperwork" on my desk. She even kept me company in the office while I was working on "paperwork". She knew that it was all related to the adopotion.
Recently, she asked my sister to play with her. My sister replied "Mommie can't right now, I have some paperwork to do (probably meaning bills, mail, etc.) Ivy's eyes got wide and said "are we adopting a baby from China!!!"

Paperwork update

No word yet on if the fingerprints passed or not. In case you haven't been following along, "passed" means my fingerprints were clear enough to be read and NOT that they uncovered my extensive "rap sheet". Actually that's the irony of it all. Once they do get clear fingerprints, they will probably fall asleep while checking me out. BOOOORING!!! Anyway, other than the immigration form of course, everything else has been notarized, authenticated by any necessary county clerks, authenticated by the Secretary of State of either Texas, Georgia orMississippi!!! YAY! Yep, I've been putting X's in my spreadsheet and sadly enough that is what makes me happy these days. This week, it all went to the Chinese Consulate in Houston for the LAST level of authentication. Hopefully that will all be ok and will come back authenticated within a couple of weeks. Once the immigration form comes through, we will expedite that one final piece of paper through the same authentication process.

Fall Cleanup

After being out of town the previous two weekends, this was our weekend to start thinking about Christmas. Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of clean up to do before getting out the Christmas bling. As I mentioned before, we still had pumpkins gracing the front door and were also buried in leaves. I guess you could say that we were becoming "that house" on the street. So, we raked a massive pile of leaves. When I say "we" I mean Jon and my brother-in-law Brian who was nice enough to lend a hand. This pile of leaves may not seem that big but keep in mind that our front yard isn't much larger than the pile itself. Yeah, the leaves were deep.

Here is my contribution to the raking effort.

What fingerprints?

Of course I have been obsessing over my lack of fingerprints. In fact, my hands are sliding off the keyboard as I type this since I have been using so much hand lotion. Not sure why I'm trying this - I always use hand lotion so I really don't think that is going to make a difference. I called our case worker to see if she has ever come across this. I'm expecting to hear something like "Oh, yes this happens from time to time - it's no big deal, all you have to do is blah blah blah." That's not quite what she said. It went more like "What, I've never heard of such a thing happening, let me ask the other case workers". Nope none of them have ever heard of it either. I guess maybe that's better than saying they have seen it once with someone's great great great great grandmother.
I still have my fingers (gently) crossed . The very patient woman that took the fingerprints said that there is a chance they will pass and that it depends on who reviews them. Is it wrong to hope for an untrained, apathetic, overworked FBI employee?

Winter Wonderland - Texas Style

We were treated to a small dose of sleet and ice yesterday. We don't get much actual snow here - what we do get is typically in the form of ice. And since we only get it once, maybe twice, a year the place really shuts down. Schools dismissed early yesterday and were closed today. Lots of businesses were even closed today as well. Of course, I work from home quite a bit so that doesn't do a thing for me. I'm sure our friends up north would get a chuckle out of the chaos that a little ice can cause here. However, I don't care where you are from, it's not easy to drive on a sheet of ice. I certainly didn't get out in it. I did however, get Jon to stop at the store on his way home last night. Depending on how bad the ice got, I didn't know how long we could survive on the gallon of milk and microwave popcorn that we had on hand.

We've been fingerprinted - sort of

Yesterday we went for our fingerprinting appt. This is the last step before we can get our immigration clearance and the immigration clearance is the last thing we need for our dossier. I was very excited because we got our fingerprinting appt. quicker that I anticipated. I heard from other local adoptive parents that it's no big deal, best to show up at 8:00 when they open and you can get in and out pretty quick. About what you would expect - fill out a form, take a number, wait to be called. Didn't take us too long to be called, so far so good. When they do the fingerprints, they do it digitally (no ink) and do all ten fingers. Jon's fingerprints were done in a matter of minutes. Mine on the other hand, totally different story. Apparently I have no fingerprints. Well, I guess it isn't that bad, but they could not get a good print from over half of my fingers!!!! I did not see this one coming. They tried washing, drying, lotion and some super secret eraser type substance from the back room that they got from the police station. She even called her supervisor over to see if she could get my prints. No luck. The women were VERY patient and tried for over an hour. They understood that this was for an adoption and that I will not be approved without an FBI check which is what these fingerprints are for. I asked her if this happens a lot. Note to self - never ask a question that you don't want an answer to. She tells me that this happened with a kid that had a habit of chewing his fingers (never done that) and can often happen with the elderly. Did she say elderly??? If I want to feel old, I can just make an appointment with the fertility doctor thank you very much. She also said that lots of washing dishes and working on the computer can wear out your fingerprints. Well who doesn't do that???? How come mine are so messed up? See there Dad, all those times you made me help Mom out with the dishes - it really did scar me for life.

They warned me that there is a good chance that the prints will be rejected by the FBI and we will need to try again. That of course means a delay which makes me very cranky. I did all sorts of reading on the adoption forums last night to see if anything can help with this. Several posts from people that have older people living in their house and had trouble. Great, again with the elderly reference. One person suggested lotion which doesn't make any sense because I use hand lotion constantly and I don't think Jon has ever touched the stuff. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know - I'll try anything at this point.

What a week

This past week has been quite a blur. We returned from our Thanksiving trip the Sunday following Thanksgiving. I had crazy days at work on Monday and Tuesday. Went to the Rolling Stones concert on Tuesday night with some friends. The concert was really good, better than I expected. Those guys still have it.
Wednesday, I flew to Atlanta for company meetings on Thursday and Friday. Jon joined me in Atlanta on Friday evening as our company Holiday Party was Saturday evening. We went to dinner in Atlanta with some friends Friday night and then the party on Saturday night.
You know those boring company partys where everyone sits around making small talk, trying to impress the management and not doing anything to embarrass themselves? Well, imagine the complete opposite and that is our Holiday Party. We had a great time. Names will not be mentioned in order to protect the guilty. I am lucky enough to work with a great group of people that are very passionate about everything they do and that includes company parties. I haven't had three big nights out in the same week in quite some time. Not as easy as it used to be. Then Sunday afternoon I had a wedding shower to attend in Atlanta for my good friend Kimberley who is getting married soon. I got to see lots of girlfriends that I had not seen in quite so time so that was great. We flew back home around 9pm Sunday night.
We've been gone much of the past two weeks. We really need to get ready for Christmas. I guess the first step should be removing the Halloween pumpkin decorations by the front door.