babies babies everywhere!!

So why am I posting a picture of some baby feet? Because another person has told me that she is pregnant!! Oh my - that is the 3rd person that pregnant and I know of at least 2 other people who are trying. On top of that, if you figure it out, these chicks will have their babies before I do and I started before THEY did!! That just sucks big time.

She's Home!!

Update on Mom:

I called last night to check on mom and see if she was still in the hospital. Dad said that she ended up not being admitted and he had to go back in to bring her home. The EKG's looked fine and the blood work did not indicate she had a heartattack so that was very good news. She goes to her heart and kidney doctors this week and they will follow up with her. It was probably angina. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!!

Mom in Hospital

Dad called last night. Mom is once again in the hospital. She was having chest pains and 3 nitro pills later dad takes her in. They were going to keep her over night to rule another heart attack out.

So he calls and talks to me about what happened. He said that after they ran a few tests and decided to admit her he told the nurses that she needed to eat. They found her a sandwich, she ate half and he ate the other half. Then they bring in a tray of food for her and she eats it up! BUT - he complained about it because he was hungry!!!! OMG!! Ya know, I love my dad with all my heart but he can be such an a$$hole sometimes. Get this, when he called me I asked what room she was in, you know, figuring he would know and all. Nope - of course not. He left her there in ER!! Yep, that's right folks!! He LEFT.HER.THERE.ALONE!! Keep in mind that since her stroke in January she has a hard time getting the right words out which makes it difficult to communicate with her. He said he was tired and needed to eat. Huh?? Tired? Hungry? What about mom laying there scared and wondering what's going on?? She's being poked and proded and he's not there. Freaking unbelievable!! My dad just doesn't get it. Big T just shook his head when I told him.

There are so many stories I could tell you about my dad. I do love him, yes, really, I do. It's just that he is very old fashion and very stubborn and sometimes I'd just like to shake him and make him realize what he is doing!! grrrr.....

FotoFusion

I bought some new software called FotoFusion. I've been playing with it tonight and created some collages. This first one is of my neighbor's little boy. Big T and I took him and his sister to watch the boys perform in Goldsboro's National Night Out.





This next one is of his sister. Isn't she a beauty?




Here's a picture of the boys and their youth group perfoming.




The next picture is our dog. She loves to swim!!



And finally, we went to the ocean this past weekend. Here are some pictures of the trip.

Adopted Son

I bet you didn't know we had an adopted son!! Yep, that's right, we do! But not in the normal sense you are thinking of. R is a young man that grew up across the street from us. His mom is a good friend of mine and he started coming over to play with our boys. His dad is somewhere...anyway, he really took to my husband and there it started. He looks to him for help, encouragement, and laughter! R sends my husband father's day cards and birthday cards.

So why bring this up? Well he is visiting with us for a week!! He is now 20 and living on his own up in Indiana. We took him to the beach this past weekend, I'll post pictures later. What a blast we had. T and I forgot our bag of clothes at home so I had to go shopping for some shorts and tops. Oh..poor, poor me. I know you feel sorry for me!! We are really enjoying his stay with us. Thanks R for coming to visit!!

Before I go I gotta tell you about KaCee, our 3 yr old black lab. She has never been to the ocean before. She loves the lake so we thought she would enjoy the ocean, and she did. A little bit TOO much!! I noticed her "squatting" in the water and I totally freaked out. DH just laughed, called her over to him, and proceeded to give me the leash. I walked up on shore and turned to see her literally spraying water and poop out her butt!! Yes, she drank the water and it messed her up big time!! Gross!!!!! What do I do with her? Here she is wagging her tail, wanting to go back in the water and with every wag she does out comes more!! I decided to take her back to the condo we were using. I tied her up in the kitchen to the oven door and went shopping. When I got back dh told me that he found KaCee in the kitchen with the oven door torn off!! Poor puppy...poor us....thank goodness the spraying bit was over before we got back to the condo!!

2 Months Down!!

2 months down.

Just Hanging Around

New Night Light

Check out this night light!! Don't you just love it. I saw it on another blog and she gave me the website. Yep, you guessed it...I just ordered it! Thanks Steph!!

On the Cusp

One of the girls who is "on the cusp" with a LID of July 14th (rumor has the cut off at July 13th) has created this spin off the Homeland Security alert messages. You can read her blog "Do they have salsa in China" by clicking on the name here or in my side bar. I've just added her blog.

Neighbor's Rugrats

I've talked before about my neighbor and their kids. D is 14 months old and a little charmer. H is 3 going on 30! Big T and I love them both to death. Here is a picture of both...aren't they cuties?

ER Visit

T started his first job yesterday. All was going well until I got a call from the emergency room asking permission to treat him, huh?? Treat who? OMG!!! His first day on the job, his first job at that, and he ends up in the ER!!! I left work and when I got there he was in xray. I finally got to see him and looked at his face. I told him it didn't look that bad and he said "okay...watch this!". He then proceeded to lift his eyebrows and all of a sudden 2 little "mouths" opened up on his nose. I screamed and jumped back about two feet! He was laughing so hard at me he didn't even realize he was gushing blood again. Three nurses and a bunch of gauze later it finally stopped. He ended up with 6 stitches, 3 on each side. I'm very thankful that it wasn't his eyes. He's pretty lucky! He went to work this morning but came home early. He's pretty sore, he'll scar, but he's okay.

Weekend Baseball

We had a very busy weekend with both boys playing in baseball touraments. L played with the 13 yr old allstar team, but they didn't fair too well. They were knocked out of the tournament Saturday afternoon. Before we saw that game we went to T's first game, which they won 2 to 1. His next game was at 7 (mind you that we are traveling an hour away for these games). They won that game also in extra innings with a score of 3-2. So now his team will go on to the state tournament! Ugh....thought I was done with baseball.

Not much happening on the adoption front. The rumors are now flying that the wait time will be 18 months. 18 MONTHS!! Big T's mom wants to have her home by next July for our family reunion but I really don't think that is going to happen with these new time frames.

This makes me so sad...

First Movie

Ok, no no one laugh at this!! Here is my first attempt to do a quick movie. I did one of T hitting one of his 2 doubles in last nights baseball game. Oh....and I bought my camera!! A Cannon Rebel XT. I'm just loving it!!

Rumor Queen

This is a snapshot from the Rumor Queen site.







So....our LID is 5/30/06. If the current trend stays at an average of 10 or so referrals per month that means we won't see little T until February of 2009!! That is almost 3 years!! I don't think we can wait that long. Of course - this is just a guess at what the future holds. Like RQ says, either CCAA is going to have to speed up the process or just shut the doors. My gut feeling? They will speed up. IA brings too much money into China. Between the orphanage donation required for each child adopted and the monies generated from the tourism I just can't see them shutting their doors. Not only is there the money issue but the more important issue is of the children. Although domestic adoption in China is on the rise, the fact is there are still thousands upon thousands of children being abandoned.

What does this mean for us? We gotta be patient! Our little girl is over in China. I've spoken to our agency and they say not to worry, China is going to close any time soon and the wait from LID to referral is 10-12 months.

I told you I was going to drive myself crazy during the wait!!!

Fundraising

While we wait for the referral of our daughter we will be doing some fundraising. I've ordered some magnets that we will sell, we will have a few yardsales, and I've created a fundraising site with some links in it. One of them is for ART.COM - This will allow you to purchase art at great prices. The other one a magazine renewal fundraiser. You can save up to 85% on the prices and 40% of your online purchases will go to our adoption fund. The new link is on the sidebar.

Happy 4th of July!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

One Month Down!!

One month down....11 more to go. Little T, we are one month closer to you!!

20 Years

20 years.


20 years ago we said our marriage vows and started our lives together as man and wife. We have learned so much. How to love, fight, forgive. (making up is always the best part!). We've learned what makes each other tick, what makes us laugh and cry. There have been many moves, houses, and cars. We've been through hurricanes, tornados, floods, sick kids, sick parents, sick friends, and many deaths.

As I sit here and think back over the years I'm amazed by you. You are our children's hero, my hero, my rock. You give of yourself so freely, to your family and friends. I see the love you have for me in your eyes and in your actions. When I said I wanted another child, you weren't happy, but you said okay, albeit a year later! People said that we wouldn't last 5 years, but look at us - it's been 20 years. 20 of the best years of my life.

Memories are many with you. From meeting you over orange juice to moving to NC to getting married and having our boys. Remember our "cut off the jam" roll-a-thons on the waterbed? We had no money back then, but boy did we have fun! How about the "glowing eyes in the closet"? Too funny. The parties at the trailer, our first new house, "Banana T". I could list a million of them.

Thank you for the past 20 years. I know the next 20 will be even better!!

Postcard Swap

Big T was proud of me last night. I actually sat down and wrote out the postcards for the swap that I'm in. Between baseball and NY I just haven't had the time to get them out - but today is the day! I'll run to the post office on my lunch break and send them out.

Now you may wonder what I'm going to do with all these postcards I got. Scrap them of course!! K at work suggested I put them in a pocket - which is a great idea! I'll show the picture side and create a pocket with a copy of what is on the other side.

Tonight I'll run to the store and get some material for the quilt swap. I've already got one square so I've got to get ready for that too. I'm also going to sew a wrap or a Mei Tie wrap or both! I haven't decided yet. The wrap is the most comfortable and versatile but looks more confusing than the Mei Tie. The wrap doesn't put the shoulder strap on top but rather puts the fabric on the ball of the shoulder making it more comfortable. I've seen where the two have been combined and I think that is the road I'm going to take.

This is what the Mei Tie looks like.



See the top 2 shoulder straps? I'll make those wider so they will wrap my shoulder instead of just sitting on top.

Blog looks

I'm sure you noticed (who couldn't) that the blog has changed looks and has been renamed. I haven't decided to keep this or switch back to the other one. The title also changed from ChopSticks to Baseballs and Ballerina's. Some of you might wonder where baseball comes into the mix. I have 2 boys ages 13 and 16 who play baseball almost year round and when not playing baseball they are in some other sport. If I'm not at a ball field of some sort I'm in a gym watching wrestling. I think this title more accurately describes us as a family - or will describe us as a family as soon as little T gets here.


On the adoption front nothing new has happened. China just finished matching babies with their forever families up to the 28th of June. This seems to be in line with the one year wait we are being told by our agency. Stacy, whom I met through one of my groups, sent me my very first quilt square (Thanks Stacy!!(Our Journey to Grace) I'll get a picture of it soon and post it.

Dolls

Magnolia




Check out the dolls I bought for little T. Magnolia is the first dolls name. Just click her name to go to the site. I saw it on Waiting for Baby Mia's site. Click the site name to check it out! The second doll I ordered from eBay. It is a butterfly cabbage patch doll which is Asian. I've been having a difficult time finding any Asian dolls, let alone cabbage patch ones. Isn't she adorable!!??

Thank You

Thank you

New Link

Check out the new link or just click here

Why China you ask??

CLICK HERE <------This is why

Another Adoption

WOW! I just finished talking to a friend who knows the saga of this adoption, how hubby was adament in saying no and how we finally got all of our paperwork together and sent off. She said some time ago that she would like to have another child but her husband did not want one. I mentioned adoption and she said her husband would have none of that! Keep talking to him I said. Guess what??!! I'm so excited!! They are going to adopt!! Yeah!! Not internationally, but through the foster system. They start classes in the fall.

Go Hurricanes!!!

Go Hurricanes!!!!!

100 Wishes Quilt

100 wishes quilt


You're probably wondering what this is!! Now that we are officially a "waiting family" we can start on the next project. Here is some information on the quilt:

To welcome and celebrate a new life, there is a tradition in the northern part of China to make a Bai Jia Bei, or "100 Good Wishes Quilt." It is a custom to invite 100 people to contribute a single square patch of cloth. The 100 patches are sewn together into a quilt that contains the luck, energy, and good wishes from all the family and friends who contributed a piece of fabric. The quilt is then passed down from generation to generation. We ask that you please participate in this project. We love the idea of welcoming our daughter into our home with a quilt that represents the good wishes for her from our family and friends.

Here Is What We Would Like You To Do:
1) Choose any 100% cotton fabric that you like. It can be from a piece of clothing or from a fabric store. It just needs to have a design and color that you like.
2) Cut one 8" x 8 square from the fabric.
3) On an acid free piece of paper (so it will last a long time), put a small piece of the fabric, include your "good wish note" and your name and address. The fabric will be used to make a quilt, and the notes will be placed in a life book which we will give to our daughter when she is older. She will be able to match the fabric and wish with the squares in her quilt.

Ideas For Selecting Fabric Squares - Select a fabric that is meaningful to you. 100% cotton fabric is best, as it washes and wears better. If there are several members in your family, please feel free to send more than one good wish note and pieces of fabric. We ask that the fabric is pre-washed (to prevent shrinkage) 8x8 fabric square and we will add it to the squares for little T's quilt. In China, these quilts were originally made from the garments of family and friends surrounding the child with luck and good wishes.

Ideas For A Good Wishes Note - Well, what would you wish for an infant to have in her life? Some ideas are good health, perseverance, compassion, love, and a sense of humor. Use that as a guide for your good wish note. Keep in mind that our daughter will not see your note until she is older. It would be great to get the fabric and notes by March 2007 so the quilt can be completed before we bring our baby home. Please take a few minutes from your busy schedules to help us create this very special keepsake. The miracle of this adoption has been helped and nurtured by so many of you and this will be so incredibly meaningful for us as well as our new arrival!

I will be sending out an email to our family. If you would like to participate please let me know by leaving a comment and I will email you our address. Once we start getting squares in I'll probably set up another blog for the pictures and wishes.

Home from the Hospital

Mom is doing well. She came home from the hospital on Sunday. The doctors are very pleased with her progress. She is able to carry on a conversation without being prompted and she has her appetite back!

Father's Day was great. I cooked T's favorite meal and invited our neighbors over. We swam and ate and enjoyed each other's company. Their little boy took a few steps at our house! Too cute! Their daughter was excited to see me after 2 weeks...she wouldn't leave my side!


While in NY I redid the room my mom will be staying in. My brother came in and put lamenated wood flooring in the room, I added an area run, dusted, cleaned everything up and it looked great. I also went and bought a sofa slipcover and new sofa pillows for the living room. My dad got a new phone for Father's day from me. This one has 2 handsets!! He thought you had to have 2 phone lines for this...too funny. I went through a ton of mail, dusted, vacumned, cleaned off the computer desk, swept and mopped floors. Mom said she was pleased with everything.

Not much happening in the adoption world. Just chillin'! We have 7 ballgames this week so we'll be very busy.

A Thousand Miles

I'm sitting at my mom's desk waiting to call the charge nurse and I saw this bookmark and smiled. Our journey to little T did begin with a single step. Not only will it be over a thousand miles but it will be for many, many months. The 12 month wait is very hard - we've only been a waiting family for a few weeks! I wonder at night if she has been born yet. Is she okay? Is she cold? hungry? scared? crying? So many questions are running through my mind. Are we just crazy starting all over with another child now that the boys are older and able to take care of themselves?

These questions may never be answered. Unless little T's mom leaves a note with her birthdate we won't even know that. That is scary - the "not knowing" part. We won't know her medical history, her family history - nothing. Of course, no one knows the future but at least we know our pasts. I can't imagine what it will be like for her when she gets older. I'm not prepared for the questions that I know she will ask - but that is something I can do while we wait to meet her. I can learn about China, read books, read blogs of other families that have adopted, and learn how they handled the questions.

Yes, our journey started with a single step - but it will continue for many many years.

Quick Note

Just a quick update. I am still in NY and mom is still in SICU. We are praying that she gets down to the floor today. She is finally responding to us!!!!

Adoption update - we received our LID (log in date). It is May 30th!! We made the May cutoff.

I'm Addicted

Being addicted to the RQ site I sent an email to our agency concerning the newest weight questions. Though I don't beleive that we have anything to worry about (rumors were for 300 or more pounds)I just felt better knowing something. Here is there response to me:

"The dossier department forwarded me your email and I am happy to try to reassure you. At this time, China does not have any restrictions for family’s adopting from China based on weight. If such a regulation should be put it in place, it does not affect people already in the process who are logged into the CCAA. I know it is a fear that many people are experiencing right now based on the rumors but we have not seen this to be an issue for anyone to date. We are a very cautious and conservative agency in making sure that we present dossiers to China that we believe are fully qualified based on China’s qualifications. I hope this helps! "

So I'm trying to stay off of RQ (sigh...like that will happen!) and being upbeat and positive about the whole thing. I'm in a postcard swap with one of the lists I'm on so that will keep me busy doing her scrap book. As soon as we get our LID (Log in date in China) I'll join a quilt square swap. (more on the 100 wishes quilt to come later!)

In other news - my mom is not doing well at all. Her heart valve is leaking to the point that it is breaking up her red blood cells causing her to get blood on a weekly basis now. On top of that she has a dissection of the arota. (<--click here to learn more about it!) She is taking tests today to see if she is strong enough to undergo surgery on June 7th. I'll be traveling to NY on the 5th if the surgery is a go and will probably not have access to the internet while I'm there. This surgery will be for the valve and not the arota. She will need to recover from this surgery and then go again for the other surgery. If she doesn't have this done she might live for another 6 months to a year. Please please keep her in your prayers. She is so important to me and has shared my dream of adopting even when big T wasn't on board. I so want her to meet little T next year!

In CCAA's Hands Now

More good news from our agency:

From: CCAI Dossier & China Departments



Congratulations! Your dossier has been delivered to the China Center of Adoption Affairs.



We will notify by email as soon as we receive your official log-in date (LID) from CCAA, and then you can go to the CCAI website to download Dossier Log-In Date Packet. This can take approximately up to 6 weeks from now.




Sincerely,

CCAI Dossier & China Departments

DTC!!!

Guess what??!!! I got the following email from my agency this morning:

CONGRATULATIONS, T & C,

Your dossier was sent to China yesterday afternoon (5/24/2006)!


WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! I can finally say we are PAPER PREGNANT!!!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!


Yeah!!!!!!

Hillbilly

My Hillbilly Name Is...

Lil' Dixie West

Hillbilly Name Generator

I saw this on another blog and thought it was cute. What's your hillbilly name?

Lazy Weekend

What a great weekend we had. Little T made Jr. Legion baseball again this year, it was homecoming at church, little J graduated from pre-school, and the weather was just beautiful!!



I pretty much was lazy all weekend. Same old thing - vacuum, dust, dishes, laundry. When does a girl ever rest? Big T cleaned the pool and reminded me for the millionth time that he hates the pool. L & Little T went to a church competition Friday night. T came home that same evening and L got back Saturday night. Big T and I had a night to ourselves Friday night. Did we go out to dinner? See a movie? Have some fun? Rent a movie? Go to a nightclub? NO!! We just sat around the house, made a pizza bake, and enjoyed each other's company. Aren't we romantic??!! Actually, it was very nice. We talked about baby T, the boys, the future, and then just zoned out.

Our dossier has been in translation since last Thursday. I am ever hopeful that it will be sent to China this week. How I would love to finally announce that we are DTC (dossier to China!!)



Big T's mom was asking if she will be home in time for the family reunion next year. That would be great if she is. With the current timeline we can expect a referral next May and then travel in July. Usually the reunion is at the beginning of July but T's mom said that they could move it to the end so everyone can meet her. That would be so exciting. Maybe CCAA will shorten the wait time again - who knows what their plan is!!!

Jump!!

JUMP!! JUMP!! JUMP!!

People are jumping ship. The wait times have crept up to 12-14 months so a bunch of people are switching countries. Our daughter is in China. I knew this over a year ago. Yes, a year is a long time to wait but think about this. It is already the 19th of May. Half the year is almost over already!!! Between baseball, football, wrestling, church, and work time will fly by!! JUMP PEOPLE JUMP!!!! 'cause the more people that jump off, the closer we get to our daughter!!

In the meantime we'll just relax and take the slow boat to China. We'll be patient and wait for our little munchkin. This will happen - all good things take time.

This is so funny!!!

check it out!!

The Evolution of Dance

Yes!! We are in translation folks!! That means we will be DTC this month. Can you tell I'm excited?

How should we celebrate?? Hmmm....both boys are going to Asheboro for a church youth competition and will be back Saturday. T and I should go out, maybe to dinner and a movie. That would be nice. We'll see. I'd like to see the Poseidon Adventure but I've heard it wasn't that good.

Dancing my way to China!!

Nothing...nothing in email, nothing left on my answering machine, nothing sent in the mail...I'm going nuts!!!! I think I might needs some more retail therapy!

I saw this on another blog and decided that since we are adopting from China we could also adopt a "lil'monster". Check out the egg under "China Weather". This will hatch on June first. Wonder what the monster will look like?

Mother's Day was wonderful. The boys surprised me with a card and a dozen red roses. Even Big T didn't know that they got those. How sweet. Big T cooked my favorite Tuscan chicken and I pretty much was lazy the entire day. I had hoped this would be my last mother's day without little T but I guess that is not meant to be. I love my boys and I'm so grateful to have all 3 of them in my life. Our boys are growing up into fine young men!!

On the 11th I wrote that it had been almost a week since I sent in my dossier to my agency. In reality it was over a week!! They received it on May 2nd. Today is May 15th!! I haven't heard anything and I'm going nuts!! I so want to be DTC and LID this month...it's so hard to not have control over this.

Ok...it's been almost a week and I haven't heard ANYTHING about how the dossier looks yet from my agency. I'm going crazy wondering what in the world is going on..is it acceptable? is something wrong? is it all there? do I need to redo some paperwork? ugh!!

I brought KaCee to the vet yesterday for her annual heartworm check. We noticed a bump on the inside of her ear so I had the vet look at it. He said it was a hematoma. She is 3 1/2 years old, weighs 85 pounds and has never spent the night away from us! We take her and Jasmine everywhere - the lake, NY, the mountains. KaCee is even afraid of the dark! Anyway, the vet said that she would have to spend the night so he could drain out the blood and then bandage it up for 12 to 14 hours. Poor puppy - had to sleep in a cage...no one there to love on her and give her treats or play with her. I think that we, as a family, are more traumatized that she is!! I'll go pick her up tonight after work and I'm sure she will be even more spoiled when she gets home than she usually is.

My youngest son is driving me crazy - he is into playing this game on-line - which is fine. But, when you ask him to get off it will take him 30 minutes! He said he needs to finish a deal, say good-bye, etc. I've started to ground him from it and he's done better - except for yesterday. It was time to get off and get ready for Church, well he got mad and started running his mouth. I cut him short and said he was grounded from it for a week - that made him madder and he started slamming around his room. I ignored the little punk and told him to meet me in the car. When he came in I looked at his shorts and they were FILTHY!! I asked him to go change and he slammed the car door, kicked the pool table, slammed the screen door, slammed the kitchen door and stomped into the house - so I just left!! He enjoys the youth group at church so he didn't get to go. I was so mad at him! I went to Wally world for some retail therapy and found this:

Yes, I know - I already have 4 blankets for little T - but I just couldn't resist. I called J and went to her house to borrow her sewing maching. I'll post pictures when I'm done.

***UPDATE*** - I've finished sewing the blanket and now I'm cutting it. Ugh!!!! What a PITA!!!

Back to L - when I returned home from J's he was in his room and didn't say boo to me the rest of the night. He is only 13 and he needs to control his anger so no internet for 2 full weeks and no going to Bean's house either.

That's pretty much the happenings around this place for the past few days. Not too much excitment in hicktown USA!!

Guess what a fruitcake I am!! Yesterday I went to the post office to send in our 6 passport photos. I was so proud of myself getting those out right away. So I'm home in bed - it's a sleepless night and I'm starring at the ceiling thinking. I bolt up and say OH MY GOD!!! What a dumb arse!!! I sent the pictures with NOTHING ELSE!! No explanation of what they were let alone who they were of. And if their mail department is anything like ours, they'll open the package and throw away the envelope. I quick like email my agency first thing this morning and they said not to worry - they'll match them up!!

Whew....not only was I thinking I would have to shell out another 32 bucks but then I would be wasting another day when our dossier could be sent to China.

OMG...my oldest son is growing up so fast! This is his girlfriends Junior prom - his will be next year. Doesn't he look handsome??

Here's a picture of T & T ready to go to the prom. Aren't they a great looking couple??!!

Yes, I'm bored. On one of the forums I'm on it was suggested that while we wait we write down what we have done everyday. This way we will know what we were doing when our daughter was born, etc. So, even though we are not even DTC yet (should happen next week)I'm going to go ahead and start this. Since we would like a girl who is around 15 months there is a very good chance that she is already born! Wow...our daughter could already be born, sitting in China just waiting for us to come get her.

So this last week went by very quickly:
Monday I had to take L to the doctors for his eye. The school made him leave because they though he had pink eye. We tried to tell him he didn't, that his eye was just irritated from his contact but for safety reasons they said he had to leave. Well of course he didn't have pink eye but the nurse gave us a script for antibiotic for a sty he has on his other eye.

Tuesday T had a ball game and his team did not do well at all. He went 2 for 3 with a nice double but they still got beat by the mercy rule (10 run lead).

Wednesday I took L to the eye doctor for his yearly eye examine. What a fiasco that was!! They had a problem with big T's insurance and it took me forever to get it straightened out. Once we got back to see the doctor she examined him. She asked how long he kept his contacts in and I said too long. Well, sure enough, his corneas are swollen so she couldn't get a good read for his new contacts. He is out of contact for at least 2 weeks. Oh, and the sty...it's not a sty at all. She said it is a pore that is blocked, sort of like a pimple - but it's something else. Anyway, she tried to excise it but couldn't. He has to put hotpacks on his eye 3 times a day and if it doen't go away he will have to have it surgically removed! Oh joy!! We went out to dinner after that because big T and little T were in Wilmington for another ball game.

Thursday was a run around day. When I got home I had to take L to get his new glasses and little T to get his Tux for prom this weekend. OMG!! He looked so good in that tux! I can't wait to get pictures today!! We also went to our neighbors house for D's 1 yr old birthday.

Friday I relaxed - well almost. My neighbor called and asked if I could watch her youngest. No problem!! He is such a cutie patootie!! He hadn't had a nap so he was pretty tired and just a little bit fussy. At 8:30 I gave him a bottle and he was out like a light. Around 9:30 or 10 I brought him home. His sister was in bed already watching Buzz Lightyear and his grandma was drinking coffee and watching tv.

And you all know what I am doing today - Saturday. Working!! yuck...

It's 10:40 on a Saturday morning. I should be at home, just getting up from a restful sleep...but nooo.....I'm at work and have been since 9 this morning!! What am I doing blogging? Well, we are doing an upgrade and waiting for our vendor to finish it. They should have been done first thing this morning but of course they aren't. That means we sit here and twiddle our thumbs - not much else we can do. I've filed some, moved some files around...was a little bit productive but I've decided to take a break.

The bad thing about this whole deal is that today my oldest goes to his first prom. (Let me hear it...awwwwwww....)He goes for pictures at 5, has a dinner reservation at 6:30 and then off to the prom. I want to be there but it will take four hours or more to do testing and I'm almost an hour away from home. We won't be able to test until 11:30 at the earliest. You do the math. If I make it home it will be just in time. This makes me sooooo mad!!!

So it goes in the Saturday morning rut for C!! Oh well...I'll talk to my boss and see if I can't skate out early - we'll see what he says.

I received a comment from a reader about how she and her husband have talked about adoption. We too have talked about adoption in the past in fleeting moments. I even called to talk to a social worker about foster care but never followed up with it. The seed for adoption was planted years ago in both of us - it just bloomed quicker for me. For me the decision to adopt was easy, but for my husband it was another story. He wanted nothing to do with it for an entire year!! I cried, begged, pleaded, and prayed and still he said no. I don't know what turned him around - I asked one day on the phone and he just said "Fine - call my company - find out what they give as benefits - lets do it." I just about fainted!! We talked some more that evening about this life changing decision, about how it would affect the boys, us, our marriage and especially how it would affect her, our daughter, to come into this family, to America, away from everything she has known her short life. We of course went forward with it and we are looking forward to seeing her beautiful face next year.

If the seed of adoption has been planted in your heart, let it grow. It's a journey you'll never forget nor regret.

Tracking number 8XX4055XX34X
Signed for by T.KRIER
Ship date May 1, 2006
Delivery date May 2, 2006 10:22 AM

Delivered to Receptionist/Front Desk
Service type Priority Pak
Weight 2.0 lbs.

Status Delivered


That's right folks....our package has arrived. Now the agency does their critical review and then it flys off to China.

Tracking number 8XX40XX78XXX
Ship date May 1, 2006
Estimated delivery May 2, 2006 10:30 AM
Service type Priority Pak
Weight 2.0 lbs.

Status On FedEx vehicle for delivery

Tracking number 8X74XX578X47
Ship date May 1, 2006
Estimated delivery May 2, 2006 10:30 AM
Service type Priority Pak
Weight 2.0 lbs.
Status In transit

Details

May 1, 2006 7:38 PM

Left origin GREENVILLE, NC 8:44 AM
Picked up GREENVILLE, NC

My little brother is starting his own business cleaning up the debris after natural disasters like wild fires and hurricanes. His company is called Leve1dmc. I've put a link to his website on the side bar. He has also put some of the pictures he took of the California wild fires up on the site. I've included a picture here but you gotta go check out his site and look at all the other pictures.



Firestorm

DONE!!!! We are finally done with the paperchase. What you are looking at is the FEDEX shipping document. CCAI will receive our dossier tomorrow morning by 10:30. It then goes into critical review where they make sure everything is correct, mount the pictures and bind the whole thing together. Then they will send it to China which will be our DTC (Dossier To China) date. When China receives it and logs it into their system we will get our LID (Log In Date). Yeah!!! This is a huge step closer to our daughter. Now the real wait begins.

Shenzhen, China.

What was a tiny fishing village on the border of Hong Kong in 1970 is now a buzzing metropolis of over four million people. With 13 buildings at over 200 meters tall, including the Shun Hing Square (the 8th tallest building in the world), Shenzen is a marvel of lights after sunset. You can’t help but ask yourself if you are in a video game or in a real city.
Metro/Urban Population: 4.2 million

Guangzhou, China


Guangzhou

Guangzhou is a very modern city, yet it is called "the City of Flowers,” as each of its spectacular skyscrapers is surrounded by grand green spaces and flower beds. Although it only has six structures at over 200 metres tall, there are plenty of other high-rises, each displaying a design that stands out in its own respect. This includes the 391 metre, 80-floor, CITIC Plaza which appears transparent against the (usually) clear blue sky!
Metro/Urban Population: 4.1 million

Shanghai, China




Not to be mistaken for a space station, Shanghai is a real city! China's biggest and most advanced city, Shanghai was said to be the most cosmopolitan city in the beginning of the 20th century, but lost its glory during the “Mao era”. It is now quickly regaining its position as one of the biggest economic powerhouses in the world as well as a showcase of modern architecture. In Shanghai you’ll find 25 structures that are over 200 metres tall, one of which is the insanely tall, the 468m downtown Oriental Pearl TV Tower.
Metro/Urban Population: 13.1 million

And finally Hong Kong




Hong Kong is number one on my list for many reasons: Hong Kong has a whopping 43 buildings over 200 metres tall, 30 of which were built in the year 2000 or later!!! It also boasts four of the 15 tallest buildings in the world… that's all in one city! Hong Kong’s skyline shows a large selection of distinct sky-reaching towers, with beautiful night lighting and reflection. This city exemplifies the post-modern skyscraper and skyline. Finally, the mountain backdrop makes this skyline (as you can clearly see) the greatest on the planet!
Metro/Urban Population: 6.9 million

I got the first picture from My Chinese Dream. Her daughter Mali is beautiful. Check her out and while you're out surfing around check out the other skylines at Top 15 Skylines.

Another dossier photo. We have to have 8 family photos and 3 couple photos. I also have a family reunion photo from last year we are going to send. So, that's 3 family so far. I have another picture of just the 2 of us from a friends wedding a month ago. That will be 2 couple photos. Jeez...who would have thought getting pictures could be this difficult??

Hmmm...maybe....the picture is off balance but it might just do. Everyone has a nice smile on. I had to crop the picture because you can see all the stuff on the deck by the back door and it looked kind of messy.

Waiting...waiting....waiting....we are waiting on the Assistant Stork to finish up with authenticating our documents so we can send everything to the agency. That should happen next week. So that is about all that has been happening around here. The boys are on Spring Break so there isn't any baseball (yeah!!). Work is still work and will always be work!
Here's a great picture that J sent to T of his parent's wedding day. Wow!! We've never seen this one before. Thanks J!!

I've been reading other blogs and noticed a trend. Quite a few of them have names without the word "Journey" in the title! I can be creative when I need to be (come on folks, I'm a programmer....Creativity is not needed, just logic!) "T for Two...Double Happiness...Grouchy LadyBug....little hugs...The Cady Chase...Wandering Child"...and so on are different blogs that I read. Ok, lets see. I have 3 wonderful guys in my life, 2 dogs, and a cat. We are a sports (ugh!) oriented family who is adopting a daughter and sister from China. What about "3 Guys and a girl" - nah...too corny. "Baseball and Ballet"..."Cleats or Pointes"..."Chopsticks vs Forks"..."Puppydog tails"...."To the Moon and Back"..."Jump Rope"..."hopSCOTCH"..."T For Me and You"..."The Maddening Chase"..."Chopstick Dreaming"

Tell me what you think!!

Well we have seen another snafu in the great paperchase of 2006! Our marriage certificate is FAKE!!!!!!!!!! Haha...just kidding. I did have to send it back to the county clerk for them to certify though. Here's the scoop. Sent the mc to Albany to be certified, they send it back and say it needs to be done at the county level. Ok, sure...sent it to the county clerk in Wampsville. They send it back and said it needs to be done at the town level. Um....ok. Sent it to Chittenango...guess what? They called and said it was already certified but they would go ahead and get me another copy with a notary stating it was a true copy. Sounds fine. WRONG!!! When I got it back I got nervous because all of the other documents that have been certified had the certificate attached to the original document. This one did not. So, I email my agency and they confirmed my fears. Sh......!!! So I called the Department of State and spoke to a very nice woman. She said that yes - the marriage certificate needs to be "County Certified". I explained to her what happened and she laughed and said they have no clue. Now look lady - this is no laughing matter - this is our daughter!! I next called the county clerk...she had NO CLUE what I was talking about!! She said "You need to send it to the town". Oh Lord...here we go, I opened up my can of whoop a$$!! I then said the magic words of "County Certified". Aha!!! The light bulb goes on and she says "Oh..yeah, we do those. Send it with $3.00" OMG!! So, I sent that off and should get it back next week, then it has to go back to the DOS so they can certifiy that the county clerk that certified it is certifiable....I don't know about that, but I sure am!!!

We are headed to NY for Easter this year. We will leave on the14th and return on the 18th. Quick trip. I think if I get that mc back before we leave I will hand carry it to Albany, even though it is a 3 hr drive from the house. Then - if T will let me....we could hand carry the documents to be authenticated in DC since we go right by it on our way home.

Latest rumor - China only referred PART of May 31st and not the whole day...I'm not listening anymore to rumors!! *LALALALALALALALALA**

All we have left to do now is to authenticate our home study, marriage certificate, I171H, and adoption petition. I'm going to send them to the Assistant Stork who did our other documentation. She hand delivers them to the State Department and Chinese Consulate in Washington DC. We are going to pay the extra $20 per document to have a 24 hr turnaround. That means that we should get everything back by Tuesday at the latest and then we can send everything to our agency CCAI.

Check out this video!!


Faith - the dog with 2 legs

IT CAME!!!!! IT CAME!!!


I'm am running around this office doing the happy dance!! Our 171 came today. This means WE ARE DONE!!!!!!! Wow - finally - we are done!! I have to get this notarized, certified, then authenticated, take some pictures, and fed ex everything to CCAI. OMG!! I'm soooo excited. The wait for our daughter will be long - but it will be so worth it! We are one major step closer to getting her.

No news...no news...no 171...this is sooooo frustrating!!! When is that little piece of paper going to come? We want to be DTC as soon as possible. With the wait times now pushing to 12 - 14 months, the sooner our paperwork gets to China, the better.

China closing it's doors to international adoption? Wait times of up to 14 months? Ok, wait just a minute here. I don't mind reading rumors, because, hey, they are just rumors - but when they start saying that China is going to close the doors to adoption and the wait times are going up and could reach 14 months, I start to get nervous!! Most of the time I don't pay any attention to them but these 2....jeez...I dunno!! So, I did some research, emailed some people, and was reassured that China is NOT going to close their doors anytime soon. Whew!! Now the wait time, who knows. It has taken them (CCAA) 3 months, yes 3 months, to get through the month of May. If this keeps up we might see our daughter some time in 2008!! I don't think that will happen. What I'm praying will happen is that people will start jumping the ship, switch countries, and then the wait time will go back down to where it was last year - 6 months. If you want to see some rumors check out the Rumor Queen blog under Fortunes Can Be Funny.

We still haven't received the I-171 yet. But today is another day!!

APC is stilling raging over the Washington Post article and some of them are reminding us "newbies" that our daughters will be just miserable here in the US because we ripped them out of their home country. They will be sad and hard to bond with. Good God people!! Of course she'll be sad - jeez we are taking her from the only thing she has ever known. Then we are going to fly her half way around the world to a place that looks and smells completely different. We expect her to experience some grief over this. And yes, our daughter will have to put up with some bullies at school, she'll have to put up with stupid remarks by strangers, she'll have to put up with sideway glances....but guess what? Don't we all put up with this in one form or another? At some point in our lives have we not all been made fun of, bullied, looked at strangely, ignored, etc? How did we handle this? Are we "Unhappy Adults" because of this? Don't think so. Our parents helped us through those times and taught us how to handle these situations. We are now teaching our kids - this is called parenting folks...seems to be a big word for a bunch of peeps.

-sigh-

Ok - off the soap box now - sorry folks. Adoption news - the homestudy agency has received THE letter and will mail the new homestudy to BCIS this week. That means we should have our 171 within a few weeks. Once we get that then we can send the homestudy and a copy of the 171 to be certified and authenticated. The last step will be to send the paperwork to our agency, CCAI. They will review it and send it to China (DTC - Dossier To China). After that...the long, long, long wait. 10 - 12 months from the LID (Long In Date). All this paperwork and the longer wait times are worth it though. Our reward at the end will be Tiana.

Pretty neat - this is a word cloud. You can create one too...just go here


Thanks for the neat site Karen!!

My neighbor has a 10 month old cutie pie little boy named Jason Jr. and a 3 year old little girl named Hope - which is one of my "red threads". Last night I was visiting and she gave me a bag of clothes that Hope can't wear anymore. It contained some 3T's, 2T's, 18 month and 12 month clothes and a pink pair of sneakers. Yeah!! All of them are in great condition so I'm going to keep them. I've got to get to Target and buy some containers so I can store them until T can wear them.

Here's an update on our paperchase. We finally got the letter from NY - jeez, what took a month to get should have only taken a week. I've sent that to our home study agency and need to send one more item which will get done today. Once they receive that then they will send our new homestudy to BCIS and we should get our 171H within the next week or two. Ok...so goodbye March DTC...hello April DTC!! We will get there eventually!!

By the way, there was an article in the Washington Post titled "Stealing Babies for Adoption". If you would like to read more about this article and some of the issues behind this report go here. Scott has an adorable little boy he and Tina adopted in September of last year. Or you can go to Brian Stuy's blog (which is also linked from Scotts blog) here.

Why adopt from China?

Watch this video and you will understand. This is just a taste of the lives of these young children. The young man in the video has started China Care and is making great strides in the poorer orphanages. Get some tissue ready and enjoy! This is just one of the many many reasons we have decided to adopt our daughter from China

http://www.chinacare.org/ChinaCareVideo-HiRes.html

Totally weird and proud of it!!

You Are Austin

A little bit country, a little bit rock and roll. You're totally weird and very proud of it. Artistic and freaky, you still seem to fit in... in your own strange way. Famous Austin residents: Lance Armstrong, Sandra Bullock, Andy Roddick

What American City Are You?

Shopping

Big T and I were talking this weekend about taxes and what we were going to do with the refunds. Guess what he wants to do? PAY BILLS!!! Imagine that!! I asked about a new vacuum cleaner and he said I could spend up to 500 on one. That should get me a nice one - at last!! I think that we have spent over that now by buying the cheap ones that just don't last over the years. Anyway, while we were talking I mentioned that I haven't bought anything yet for our daughter. He asked what she needed and I said I didn't know, maybe some clothes, shoes, toys, etc. He mentioned the thrift shop and my neighbor for hand me downs, then chuckled and said I could buy our daughter what she needs just to not go overboard! Yeah!!! I've been given the okay to shop! So, while I was at Wally world (listening to commercials/music in spanish - but that is a different post!) I found this cute hooded towel - and it was a ladybug!! Now, don't get me wrong here folks, I don't really buy into this "ladybug" thing that a lot of people believe in, but it was so darn cute I just had to have it!! That towel was the only thing I bought for her, but I was excited just the same. I also got a plastic tub to start storing her items in. I've put the gifts from the cyber shower, the ladybug towel, the 3 hats I've made, and the blanket I've crocheted in it. This way I can keep everything together. My neighbor is going through her daughter's clothes and the ones that don't fit her she is going to give to me. I'll probably buy more tubs as I gather different size clothing. I'm not sure how old she'll be or what size but I feel I can buy 16 month on up clothes and be pretty safe. Time to keep my eyes open for sales!

I was surfing around the net today at lunch reading up on some of the other blogs I follow. One of them had this in it....cute. At least I haven't lost all of my "northern talk"!!

Your Linguistic Profile:

70% General American English

15% Yankee

10% Upper Midwestern

5% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

I called on Monday the 27th to see if the commissioner had mailed out the needed letter. His secretary had no clue what I was talking about. I called them 3 weeks ago and nothing had been done. I once again gave the secretary the needed information and she said she would look into it. I called back yesterday....nothing had been done!! Huh??!! Don't these people know this is holding up our adoption?? So I explained once again the importance of this and she said she called the clerks office and was waiting to hear back. She then did a search and couldn't find anything!! OMG.....it's like I'm banging my head against a brick wall!! She gave me the clerk's number and I called her. Guess what? The chick at the commissioners office had just called her about a half an hour before I did. Hmmm.....someone isn't telling me the truth! Anyway, she said that she will have to go down to the basement. She isn't even sure she will find anything. She (Debbie) will call me back if she does. If I don't hear from her by Monday I'm to call her. I then called our home study agency and spoke to Helene. She is so helpful! I explained what was going on and she said just write everything down. If we don't get the needed letter then she will put in the home study what we did and that will be just fine. whew!!! I've been sooooo stressed over this!! I just wish they would fax that letter to me so this part of the paper chase will be done.