8 Days Folks!!

Only 8 days until we leave for China!! I never dreamed I'd be typing that - what a rush.

My bff is packed and ready to go - she makes me sick she's so organized! Ugh. I haven't packed YET! I have gotten pretty much everything together. It's all in Little T's room waiting to be put in a suitcase. I've booked our hotel in Hong Kong because we will get there a few days before our group has to meet. Here's our itinerary so far:

June 10th Leave
June 11th - Arrive Hong Kong 7:00 pm
June 12th - possible amusement park day!
June 13th - meet with group -
June 14th - 1 day tour of Hong Kong
June 15th - fly to Guangzhou and check into Victory Hotel

I don't have a clue about the rest of the week yet. We haven't received anything back from our agency - hopefully today or tomorrow.

Oh - get this. When we got our referral for Little T I went to the bank and asked them about new 100 dollar bills. They can't order them but they said they would start looking for some nice ones. That was a month ago. I called twice last week to the teller and she never called me back. I finally get a hold of her today and she said she couldn't order them. Huh? I know that!! I asked if she was holding any out for us and she says the ones they received last week were pretty beat up. OK...what about the week before that? No response - she hasn't been looking!! Good grief. So now I've got to run around town and find some good bills. Wonderful!

8 days Little T!!!

A couple of things

First - my Pay if Forward folks - I haven't forgotten about you!! Please bare with me. I WILL get those gifts out but right now things are a little crazy here!!

I'm trying to get our flights booked but feel like I'm behind the eight ball! I've called Lotus and was quoted a price that included the hotel and air fare. I've spoken to Sue and she's getting back with me and I just got off the phone with JC Travel to see what they have. We are looking at flying from Hong Kong to Syracuse to visit some family - not sure yet though - I'm concerned how Little T is going to handle a 12 hour drive from NY back down to where we live!

And on top of that we still don't have our Visas. Good grief! I have one more piece of paperwork to get authenticated and that part will be done. I've also started packing for Little T. My girlfriend who is going with me just laughed at all the stuff I have. She's right - I need to put the stuff in a pile and cut it in half! I haven't even started to pack yet for myself and L! Oh man....I'm in so much trouble!

The final "A"

Our consulate appointment is June 25th! We need to be in Hong Kong by June 13th. Finally - this is happening! We are so excited. I can't believe we are leaving in 2 weeks!!!! OMG! I have so much to do. I'm trying to get flights now, comparing Lotus and JC Travel. 2 weeks folks! We fly to Guangzhou on the 15th from Hong Kong. I'm sad that we will not be visiting Beijing but so excited thinking that we'll be able to give Little T a hug soon!!

Give me a T....Give me an A!!!

What's that spell?? TA!!! Yep, I just got off the phone with our agency! We got TA!! OMG...I'm so excited! They are asking for CA on the 24, 25, or 26 so that means travel June 11 or 12!! I don't even have our Visa's yet. I did just get our updated I171 from Homeland Security - that's one good thing. Oh jeez...I have so much to do!

Here we come Little T!!!

L wrote "Here we come" on her picture! He's so excited to be a big brother and can't wait to hug his little sister. T is just as excited. He would love to go to China with us but with the new baby it's impossible.

Sweet Pictures

T & T took their little girl to Sears and had some pictures taken. Here are 2 of them...isn't she just the sweetest??

Pay It Forward

Michelle over at Day by Day had a wonderful idea to Pay It Forward. This is just about random acts of kindness in every day life. Paying for the person's toll behind you, stopping and helping an elderly person, charity work, even letting a car in line in front of you even though you have been waiting for quite a while. Paying It Forward - a great and simple concept.

So, here's my part. I will send a gift to the first 3 people that respond to this post. If you are one of the 3 people how about putting this pledge on your blog and lets keep this rolling!!

Who wants to play??

Beware the cuteness!!!

Little T news!! We received our "travel call" today. Our agency feels like we will get our TA (travel approval) by the end of this week or beginning of next week. They think we will be travel around June 4th or 5th. Sounds great? Well, not quite. My oldest son graduates from highschool on June 7th and my best friend's daughter graduates on June 9th! So, we will be hopping on a plane right after the ceremony!

We also received some updated measurements and boy is Little T tiny! She's 25 months old tomorrow and weighs 19.8 lbs! She likes to turn TV on and off, play with toys that make noises, and play with toy cars. What's up with the toy cars??!! Her favorite toy is a rattle and she enjoys listening to music, clapping her hands, and playing games with other children.

Another surprise came in today! One of the Yahoo groups I'm a member of is for Little T's orphanage. A couple is picking up their daughter this week and she took a picture of Little T for us. This picture was just taken!! Go check out this couples site at Katherine Yu and give them some love!!

Look at her hair! It's standing straight up!! hehe!! I can't wait to go get her! Enjoy!!

New Pictures!!

I was checking my email this afternoon and there's one from Pam with the heading of NEW PICTURES!! Oh my! So, without further ado, here she is!! (yeah, she has hair!!)






Yes, we need to go get her quickly and put a smile on that adorable face!!

Introducing the newest edition to the family!!

Changes

I'm changing my blog around but blogger isn't being very cooperative so the odd colors will have to stay for a bit!!

Wow!!!!!!!! LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm sitting here listening, reading to some training materials, and waiting for more training materials to download to my pc (multi-tasking at it's best!) I decided to check one of my Yahoo groups. Well one of the girls who just got PA on Monday got LOA TODAY!!! I'm excited for her but then I see where another says they got one too and they were told that our agency received about 30 LOA's!! I quickly went to my email and guess what I found??!! LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We should be traveling in 5 to 8 weeks!!!

People, I'm totally freaking out here!! We were not expecting this referral so quickly and then to have the LOA happen in just 4 days??!!! Unheard of!! My head is just spinning. I called my girlfriend J who is traveling with me and starting babbling like an idiot!

So..we got LOA!! Can you tell how my brain is reacting right now? This post is all over the place!

Where in China is Little T??

Dongguan City is in Guangdong Province which is in the southern part of China. The US Consulate is in Guangzhou which is just about 31 miles or so from Dongguan City.

I joined the Yahoo group for her orphanage and there are some people traveling soon. I've asked them to please see if they can take her picture if they visit the orphanage! Wow - wouldn't that be just amazing?? I would love to see how big she is now. The report we had was done back in July of 2007 so it's old. I misread it also - I thought she weighed 17 pounds but actually only weighed 15 pounds. What a peanut!!

Her care package will be ready to mail by this weekend. I've put in a few 18 month size dresses, a plush toy, a "who loves you" book with our pictures, and some candy for the nannies. I need to get some stickers and stuff for the other babies and I'll probably put a blanket in it for her too.

Here is a map and some pictures of her orphanage.

Here She Is!!!

We recevied PA today! I can finally tell the world about our daughter.

Back!

Ok, I'm back from Lombard! I was supposed to have flown out of Chicago Friday night but after 2 flight cancellations I ended up staying and flying out Saturday. I finally got home Saturday afternoon and was completely bushed. My suitcase is still sitting on my bedroom floor waiting to be unpacked!!

I enjoyed meeting my new team and manager. They all seem very nice and welcoming. They have me set up for almost 15 weeks worth of training but I should be able to skim through most of it because I already know the system.

Oh gosh, I'm so ready to burst with my exciting news but I can't yet. This is so hard!!! I really don't know if I can keep this in much longer.....so here's a quick peek...

Next week

I'll be in Lombard IL having a very busy week at my new job. I'm really looking forward to it though. This will be a much needed change and challenge. I should also be able to tell you guys about something else that has been going on in our lives. It's amazing, incredible, awesome, spectacular, and unexpected - yep, it's that good!! What? You want a hint? Hmmm....I suppose I can give you a small one...




That's about all I can do right now!!! I'm not sure if I'll be able to get to my blog next week or not, let alone my other email address. So, I'll see you guys in a week!! heh...

Exciting times!

Yep, very exciting times around here. Lots of stuff happening very quickly. That's all I can say right now. Please keep our family in your prayers!

Scrap Pics

Not a ton of stuff to blog about. T's girlfriend is due in a about 3 weeks. The adoption is still in the waiting mode. Oh - I have a new job!!!! Yeah! I start on the 21st of this month and I will be working from home everyday!! I'm very exicted about it. My last day at my current job is Wednesday so I'll have a few days off. The new job will supply me with all office supplies that I need including a laptop with accessories. I should be going to IL next week to pick up the laptop and the other items will ship later.

I'm sad about leaving my current job. I've been there for 7 years now and have made some good friends - and enemies!! Ha! We are smack in the middle of an implementation to a new product and I had a key role in it. Yes, I feel bad but I have to look out for me and do whats best for my family. Maybe if the higher ups would have been more open and communicative with us little peons I could have stayed. As it is we were finding things out through the rumor mill. Not good people!!

Ok - enough about the job. Here are 2 pages I did tonight. The first one was a quickpage but the second one I did all by myself!!

5 days

4/7/2008
Dossier and Child Match Update from CCAA's Intranet



The CCAA has finished the review of the adoption application documents registered with the CCAA office before October 31, 2006.

The CCAA has finished the placement of the children for families whose application documents were registered with the CCAA office before January 9, 2006.

5 lousy days. 2 days were the weekend.

154-5 is 149 days until our referral.

Just Scrapping

Sewing away!

I've sewed a few more little dresses. The green ladybug dress is for our granddaughter and the other one is for Little T. I'm really enjoying this and have started on 2 more dresses similar to the ladybug one. There is a hat and little pants for the ladybug dress. When I showed Big T the material for Little T's he was like "I hate to tell you this but those 2 materials do not go together.". Ha! I showed him! I wanted contrasting materials which is why I picked those two out. That dress cost me a total of $3.00 including the pattern!!







One more picture for you! T turned 18 yesterday!! Good God - where does the time go?? We gave him some cash and some tools for his car and took him to dinner last night. (Family tradition) After dinner he came over and was messing around with L and I was taking pictures. I asked him to smile for me and this is what he did!! Nice huh??!!!