Dragonfiles and butterflies

I think I'll go with the butterfly/dragonfly theme. Here are some things I found...



I like the wall painting of the butterfly/dragonfly







This one is my favorite.

I also looked at co-sleepers today. I don't think that will work because she will be too old for one so maybe we can just put one side of the crib down and push it up against our bed. Or we could get a toddler bed and put in between our bed and the wall. I just don't know yet.

Over on APC they posted that the CCAA said the lid through April 25th were matched. Why am I telling you this? Because I'm trying to watch the trend. It's been said that it will now take 8 to 10 months to be matched with totally sucks!! If we get our dossier to China in March that means a referral in November/December and no travel until 2007!!! Hopefully CCAA will pick up some speed again next year and cut it back down to the 6 or 7 month time frame. That would been September/October referral and be back home with little one for Christmas - wouldn't that be wonderful?? Oh, I can only dream!!

Have a great weekend and Happy New Year!!!!

Corner Nursery

Our house has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. One of my goals before little one comes home was to enclose our carport and convert it into the 4th bedroom. Well, after talking with T about it we decided to wait until our oldest goes to college and then little one can have her own room. Young T has decided that he wants to go to an out of state college. :( No, I'm not happy about that one bit - but it is his decision....anyway I digress - back to the nursery. I had visions of decorating a little girls nursery, painting the walls, picking the theme, buying the decorations, and putting it all together but that plan was dashed. So I walked into our bedroom and looked around and figured, yes, it can be done. I can move the computer to my oldest's room (he will be absolutley thrilled with this!) and create a "corner nursery." It will have her crib and probably a rocker. I can still paint the corner and decorate the corner. Yes, this will definitely work!! I'll post a picture in the future (far future) of the finished "corner nursery". Hmmmmm......I'm thinking dragon flies and butter flies....rolling hill scene on the wall....flowers and trees, a cloud or two, birds, and of course a ladybug.....

Paper Chase Blues

So we got our bc's back from NY last week all pretty and certified but our mc has to go to the County to be certified and then back to the state. Jeez......give me a break. I'm also going to call our social worker today and make sure we are still on for tomorrow night. As I said earlier she had a death in the family and wasn't sure if she would be able to make it or not but I haven't heard from her at all. And I still don't have the references yet.....

We are getting closer - slowly - but we are getting closer!!

It's Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays!!

Yes, I know, this is supposed to be an adoption blog but I just had to remind people why we even have the "holiday season". We got a notice today about our "Holiday Breakfast". Huh?? It should have been about our Christmas breakfast. Mark Jacobson, a car dealer here in NC, was saying the poem "The night before Christmas" with a few changes to correspond to his dealership. At the end where it is suppose to say "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night" he says "Happy holidays to all..." Why are people doing this? So they won't "offend" anyone. OK people, here's something that might just shock you.....we wouldn't have this "Holiday season" if it weren't for Christmas and the birth of Jesus!! It just amazes me how people have forgotten the real reason for the season!!

Jesus is the reason for the Season!!!

Package received!

I sent our birth and marriage certificates to Albany NY on December 13 to be certified. The package was sent "delivery confirmation receipt" and it was delivered TODAY!!! YEAH!!

Your item was delivered at 5:14 am on December 16, 2005 in ALBANY, NY 12231

When they come back I can send them on to be authenticated. One small step forward.

T went to see the sw yesterday for his one-on-one interview. Took him a total of 15 minutes. She told him afterwards that she has had a death in the family and will not be able to keep our 28th appointment. Okay, now she told him on the 15th.....why wouldn't she be able to keep the 28th's appointment I just don't know. Doesn't make much sense to me but it really doesn't matter since we can't get our fingerprints done until January 28th anyway. I'll give her a call tonight and reschedule it..AGAIN!!

Fingerprint Appointment Woes

Finally!! We got our fingerprint appointment letter. But wait, our appointment isn't until January 28th!!!! Our filing date is 11/10/05 why is our fingerprint appointment months afterwards???? I've called them to see if we could get in sooner and of course we can't. Grrrr...so much for being DTC in January!! That's not gonna happen. It takes something like 3 months to get the elusive 171H back - 3 months from the filing date. That means we should get it sometime in February and hopefully we can be DTC in March. That, my dear friends, means we won't get our dd until 2007!! ugh!!!! T goes to see the social worker this Thursday and I've yet to get his physical straightened out. I've also got to get the our references to write those letters...come on people - lets get a move on please!!

On to better things - Christmas!! I love this time of year! Watching the boys open their gifts is something I look forward to. I've done some shopping but have not finished everything - gasp - I know, there are 12 days until Christmas....but I will finish!! The boys are so hard to buy for this year - they want ipods and 4 wheelers and bb guns and new tvs and an xbox 360 - guess I better get outside and chop down that tree that has all the money it it! haha!!

Merry Christmas!!

Telling people our plans

Ok, so I've told a few people here at work of our plans to adopt from China and I've received great responses. Now I've made the official announcement....fun fun!! Why China? Why not here? What does she look like - oh, you don't know yet? That's weird...How much will she cost? Why does it take so long? You have to go to China? If they have so many girls why don't they just send them here so you don't have to travel?

I was warned - I know I was but I didn't think people would actually ask these things!

Paperchase update - ha!! Nothing to update! DH's doctor still screwed up his physical form so he has to go back AGAIN!!! My doctor will sign mine today when I go get my bp checked one more time. No fingerprint appointment yet...grrrr. I talk with the sw today for our one on one interview and dh goes next week. This sw has cancelled on me twice now...hope that isn't a bad omen.

This is a picture of Hope, a little girl I used to watch. Her mom and dad gave her, yes gave her, to a friend of mine. This friend kept Hope for just a about a year, even when the mom and dad moved away. Finally they took her back - we were all heartbroken. I still think of Hope quite often!!

Jazzy is a Hit!!

I'm sure you are wondering who Jazzy is. She is our little 5 lb pom that our sw just fell in love with. It seemed she was much more interested in her than what we had to say. Then she met our 75 lb black lab KaCee. The visit went very well. She asked her questions about religion, our marriage, how we met, what we do for discipline, etc. Everyone told me not to worry about this visit and they were right. It was very easy and she hardly looked at the house. Just a quick walk through and that was that!! In our paperwork from CCAI it states that the sw can do 3 of the 4 interviews at one time but our sw wanted nothing to do with that. So now I go and see her this Thursday and then dh goes next week and our final meeting is the week after Christmas. Ugh!!! I wanted this done before Christmas but I guess that isn't going to happen. I expressed my wish to have the final draft in my hand by the middle of January but who knows. Oh well, I'm sure God has a plan for us it is just hard for us to see it right now. Oh by the way, she didn't even eat one of those cookies!!!

My son's baptism was wonderful. Yes, I cried and dh had tears in his eyes. He was one of 3 that got baptized. When he went in the baptismal the pastor had to motion him to squat down because he was taller that him!! Everyone in the church got a laugh out of that. We are going to go out this week and celebrate with him. DH is working at the Christmas tree lot tonight and Ty has a wrestling tournament tomorrow so we'll try to do that on Wednesday.

We also talked again about names this weekend. DH said he actually likes the name Tommi and he went and got me his family tree paperwork so we can look through it for a middle name. We have a year to decide so we have plenty of time. Hmmmmm Tommi Jeanne?? NOT!!

Sunday is a big day for our family

Sunday my oldest son gets baptized and the social worker comes for her first visit!! Last weekend I cleaned the rugs and this weekend I'll scrub and mop everything else. I'm going to ask my neighbor if she'll come over around 12:30 and start making some cookies so that the house smells "homey" because I'm not sure what time we'll get home from church. We'll get the Christmas tree tonight and decorate it tomorrow after if falls. DH will put the outside lights up and clean up the yard so we should be all set. I'm kind of nervous about this because she can stop us from getting our daughter with one word!! When I've spoken to her she seemed to be very nice and we got off on the right foot so I'm probably freaking out for nothing, but I'm scared and nervous!!

Oh and I forgot about our pool. I gotta get my neighbor to fix something up so that it has a gate to keep out "little" girls. Right now it is wide open! I don't think the sw will like that one bit!!

So much to do!