Why didn't someone tell me??

We interrupt current programming for this very important massage from your local sponsor.

WE FINALLY HAVE OUR EVER SO LONG AWAITED LID!!!

9-20-06

HIPHIPHURRAYHIPHIPHURRAYHIPHIPHURRAYHIPHIPHURRAY!

It feels like the world has been lifted, and the world can resume to its normal state of affairs. Why didn't someone tell me it was going to feel so good? I have such a busy day ahead that I don't have time to spend celebrating, however I think I will have a new spring in my step as I go about my very busy day.

So the official wait has begun.

Never thought that waiting would be this anticipated.

Edited #1 Sorry for the LID error, I guess I was so excited(and in a BIG hurry) I hit the wrong number. 9-20-06 will be a date that will forever be blazed into my mind. It took about 5 minutes of looking at the email, and then looking back at the calendar to figure that we got our LID on our LID. Gotta love that international date line. Excuse my typos as well. Boy, can you imagine what the post will be like when we get our referral? Unintelligible.

We are off to Austin

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again. Well not really, I feel like all we have done in the last 8 weeks is travel, so I am really not that excited about this trip. At least we are going somewhere reallllllllly good. We are off to a conference in Austin until Sat, and then we will stop and check on the state of affairs in San Marcos. This will be our first visit to see Connor since we took him to school in Aug. We are a teensy tiny bit concerned about the lack of fun he might be having at school *wink, wink* He has since pledged a fraternity since I last mentioned him *smirky, smirky* So our itinerary inlcudes an invitation to the weekly Saturday night Phi Psi party, where Connor is bartending...none the less. I can barely contain my enthusiasm about this impending social event, but you know the old saying...when in Rome do as the Romans do, so when at college, do as the college students do (ROTFLMAO) I must tell you I am a bit intrigued that he even wants us to come to this party, so by all means we will be there with bells on our toes*which is what I think he is scared of* I am sure this trip will also include a trip to Target, and the grocery store. I have my list in hand of what I have been instructed to bring, and we have been told that his days are pretty open to spend time with us *evil roll of the eyes* So a very interesting update will follow *no pictures to follow from the party, unless they still have party pics*
Behave yourselves while I am gone, and I will look forward to checking in to see if referrals come out.

On a final note you will notice that my blog has an AMAZING new look,and loveliness about it. She will be open for business very soon, and you too can have someone swoop in, and bring the loveliness to your life too. Didn't she do a great job?? Let her know by posting some comments on how you think it looks. I am just in love with it. I think it is pure delish, and can't stop looking at it.

Oh yeah, anyone out there from Austin, we are needing a neat,yummy place to take some of our clients on Friday. So any suggestions would be appreciated.

#2 leaded pencil needed, Eyes on your own paper, Time begins now!

Okay, just wanting to know some personal information about some of my blogger friends out there. Come on it's not like you have anything else to do right now, or you wouldn't be reading this. It's Saturday night, and you are home on the computer, do I need to offer you more?
So lets see what you have to say. Thanks Pomegranate for the nosy neighbor list.
Love J, a.k.a Mrs Kravitz (Bewitched)

*Your child's Chinese name (assuming s/he has or will have one)...are you a) using it as a middle name, b) using it as a first name or c) not using it at all? Why?
No, for lots of reasons.(please no judgemental remarks about this one)

*Red threads - yes or no? Discuss.
No, but I am okay for those that do.

*What are you most looking forward to experiencing with your child/ what do you most enjoy doing with your child?
Spending quality time playing, reading, seeing friends & family, and finally traveling when she is a older. Taylor & Connor have been all over the world-they were and are great travelers.

*Have you been reading a lot of adoption books? Any recommendations?
I have been reading about bonding and attachment(scaring the schiznick out of me)

*What will/do you miss most about your life pre-parenthood?
Probably getting plenty of sleep/not being able to even potty by myself.

*Have you started your nursery, or are you waiting until the time gets closer?
Haven't started yet, but have bought some things, and picked out the fabric.

*Lifebook - excited to start or terrified of screwing it up? Top tip?
Yes, lifebook, yes BIG scrapbook. Looking forward to it!! Save everything, and always take pictures.

*What hobby do you secretly hope your child will take up and love?
Hope she is crafty, I do hope she has a great appreciation of Art like I do, but want her to enjoy playing golf or tennis, or be a big runner, really anything that she feels passionate about.

*Co-sleeping - "well of course" or "maybe but I just don't see any of us would sleep"?
NO! We are going to sleep in her room until she is use to her new surroundings, and new parents. As long as that takes, but she will have to sleep in her crib.(no nasty comments on this one either:)

*If you'd had sole choice of your child's name (assuming you didn't), would it have been different? Wanna tell us what?
I really picked out the name, but we both agreed.

*Is your family and friends really supportive of your decision to adopt?
Our friends & family are over the top excited. Taylor and MIL are the most excited.

*What is your biggest fear while in China?
Sick baby, or getting sick while we are there, but will be armed with an arsenol of remedies, and will hope for the best. Not really scared though.

*In the movie of your life, who plays you?
Sandra Bullock

*Sleeping. Light on, light off?
Lights off, must be pitch black.

*China - experiment with food or not?
Some experimenting, but pls refer to #11 that will curtail the over the top food adventure, if we were just vacationing we would be more willing to to live on the edge.

*Are you planning on learning some Chinese?
Yes, we are both taking a class, but it will be D doing most of the learning. He already knows another language-so his brain will be more effective in that department, but I will go for support, and hold the flash cards. I will however make sure I know some very important phrases

*Will this be your only adoption?
Yes, this will be our only adoption(we just wrote tuition checks for both kids) BIG SIGH!!

*To bow or not to bow? that is the question.
Of course to BOW, a girl can never have too many accessories. I wore a bow until I was 25! Yikes

*What about the 100 wishes quilt? Absolutely, or no way just isn't possible.
No, I don't think a quilt is going to work. I have control issues that I am dealing with, and to have so many random pieces of fabric is probably more than my brain can take. Still thinking about it, the premise is very lovely. I still send blocks to my friends.

*Favorite vacation destination?
That is a hard one. I love St. John, Paris(and most of France), Maui(married there) Maine, Rome(ALL OF ITALY).

*What TV show are you most looking forward to starting this fall?
Amazing Race, Survivor, LOST, Dancing with the Stars. I am an admitted reality TV junkie. D finds this very embarassing. I don't! I forgot about Medium, and Without a Trace. Thank God for Tivo!!

*Patient? Not Patient?
Not patient about waiting for this baby, but usually very patient.

*Favorite sport to watch?
Hockey!

*Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate-if it is ice cream I would really order something coffee flavored

*What's your favorite China adoption blog?
I have so many, but I love Naked ovary, Salsa, Pomegranate, Elsie Everywhere, Walternatives, Moon is always female, Digging a hole to just name a few. These girls are funny, and very talented. My ALT list I check almost everyday, so I enjoy those too.

*Finally what is your guess for how far they will get with referrals this month?
I am guessing Aug 8th. That would be 16 days. I would like to guess Aug 31, but I would be just hoping then, not really guessing.

Okay, so now you know everything, and more about me. You know you want to answer, so lets hear it. I am not feeling overly patient this evening, so lets get moving kids we don't have all night.okay, just leave me a comment so I can come over at look at your answers on your site.

A New Day is coming!!

I can only tell you to hold on to your horses. I have a new blog coming, and I can't wait, I am soooo excited. I have someone who knows what they are doing, and they are willing to help my poor cyber(stupid) soul(two things that make it all good) I promise the boring content will not change, but at least it will be pretty.
I just want to tell you that I am so inspired by all the women (and some men) and their writing abilities. I really look forward everyday to reading these little peeks into their lives. I know more about some of you then I know about some of my closest friends. It is a strange phenomenon, 6 months ago I would have never believed in such interest, or talent coming from reading someone's daily thoughts(blog?? What's a blog?? cause 6 months ago, I didn't really know what a blog was) So many of you are like reading my favorite book, I can't wait for more, or I think do they know how funny they are?? Or what a great writer they are? I really appreciate the honesty in which you share yourself, and the connection you are making, even if you don't know you are making it.
Let's see which one comes first new blog? LID?? If I were a betting women I would bet on the blog- Clearly my agency has no guanxi, since it appears that our dossiers were put at the bottom of the LID pile. We have people stating their DTC that were after some of ours(my agency) and they already have a LID. Guess I can do nothing but wait. But back to the betting thing, go for the blog, the odds are in your favor.

A day we will never forget.

As a former flight attendant(I just left in Dec 05) I see September 11th from a different perspective. Obviously I see the whole traumatic picture, but at the moment it happened I was thinking from a flight crew perspective. As this is the moment in our generation that we will never forget what we were doing at that moment, I too will never forget the immediate sense of loss I felt when I watched the second plane hit the second tower live.
I was not flying that week, I was in KC taking care of my godson Jack. He was two weeks old, my dearest friend Karen (Jack's mom) was with her mother in ICU as her mother recovered from having surgery to remove her cancer that had returned. I had been up a lot that night with Jack, and had just gotten him as well as myself back to sleep when the phone rang. When I answered all I could hear was...Turn on the TV, we just heard that a plane hit the towers in NY. Well being very tired, but being based in NYC for half of my career, I knew that could not be possible. Manhattan in general is not in the flight path of any of the NY airports. I had been based in NY when the bombings took place back in the 90's, I really assumed that was what had happened. Karen had no access to a TV in the ICU, she just begged me to turn the TV on to see what had happened. When I got to the TODAY Show, and saw what I saw, I just could not believe my eyes. But I still thought it had to have been a small plane. Again, the tip of Manhattan is not in the flight path. It was only a few minutes later as I was assuring her that it was an accident, and that it had to be a small plane, that I watched what I will never be able to erase. That dark flying shadow headed straight for the second tower. It was at that moment I knew it was a commercial airliner, and I knew this was not an accident. Being in a state of extreme fatigue, and pure shock at what I was watching, I just had a complete and total meltdown. I hung up on Karen, and just started dialing numbers of some of my closest friends that I knew where flying that day, and were NYC based. I truly felt like I had just witnessed my friends being killed on live television. You could not see the tail on that airplane, and all they could tell you was that the flight had departed Boston in route to LA. I knew that we (DAL) had an 8:00 departure to LA from Boston-I knew this, because I had flown that trip just a few months prior. Later we would find out that it was said that DAL had not been the target of this wrath because that flight historically departed late each day. It may be the one time our on-time performance (or lack thereof) had actually spared us of the direct hit.
Please don't assume that I was only focused on the people who were on-board the planes. I knew that many people had just been killed, but for those hours and days that followed I just kept reliving what I knew had probably transpired on-board those planes. We have been coached, and quizzed, and taught step by step what to do in the event you are hijacked. I knew that the crew had cooperated, and had followed instructions that had been compiled over years from previous hijackings. The crew on-board those flights were not prepared for the ill that lie ahead. In the past you just did as they asked, you would land somewhere, demands would be made etc etc...My only hope is that hopefully Flight 93(Shanksville, PA) was the only one that actually were aware of what was happening. The sheer terror of knowing what was happening is almost more than I can bare. As I sat glued to the TV, and the phone(as everyone was calling me to make sure I was not flying that day) I was hearing more and more about the crews that were working those flights. Most of which were on what we call turn arounds. Which is out and back in the same day, no suitcase required, I will be home for dinner and homework. That just crushed me thinking that some probably dropped kids at school and then headed to work for their turnaround, and planned to be home before bedtime. I thought of the flight attendant that had called in sick that morning, and was replaced by a reserve. How horrified you would be by your fate that day.
I didn't have to return to work until the following week. I happened to be flying a trip that month that laid over in DC, so the rest of the month I flew a variety of trips, none of which included NYC, or DC. I surprisingly was very calm when I went to work. I remember laying over in Albuquerque, and D calling me when I got to the hotel to make sure I was fine. He asked me if I had felt nervous on the flight. Funny, I wasn't, but I also only had 7 passengers(yes, 7 you heard me right) and 3 of those were employees. The weeks that followed were just weird. People were being so nice to us (rather rare in our occupation), people really came together. For something so horrific where we saw the absolute worst in people, it really bound us together, and we saw the absolute best in people.
In the five years since this tragedy, so much has changed in the world of aviation. So many of my colleagues lost their jobs,so many left because the stress of that uncertainity of that enviroment was more than they could take, we can't fly without the stress of the airport experience, now we can't can't even take toothpaste, or shampoo. I have just learned recently that uniformed flight crew is exempt from this policy. Which is great, because I was thinking if I had not left last year, I would be leaving now if I can't bring my own toiletries (I was thinking there are some seriously smelly, non shampooed, sweaters on their teeth flight attendants working the friendly skies right now-ugh)
As we remember this day in our history, my heart goes out to all of the families that have lost a loved one. I often think of the people while they may have not lost someone, they have lost a part of their soul because they witnessed this tragedy first hand-can't even imagine living that experience over and over again in my mind.
The question arises often are we safer now, than we were then?? Yes, is the answer from my aviation perspective. Not because we can't bring shampoo or box cutters on board, but because we have been educated. We will never sit passively by and let this happen again if we can help it.

I fixed it, I fixed it, I fixed it!!

As you can see cybergirl is back. I fixed the profile, and now life can resume as normal. This was keeping me up at night. So in the future if you have any computer issues that you need resolved make sure and call me (NOT) Call the geeks. Please note I did not call the geeks-I really did fix it on my own, but I was just minutes from placing that call-it was really causing a brain freeze. Nicole showed me how to add links to my site (thanks Nic) If you want to be linked just let me know, and I will add you up.
FYI. Feeling better today. Good thing, cause it stinks at the bottom.

Jump on the ride to the bottom

I was tagged again to share what I plan to do while we wait for our daughter. Well I am not up for this challenge right now. I have been very upbeat, and positive about this wait until yesterday. Not sure what triggered the downward spiral, but once the move downward started it was a fast ride to the bottom. I am sure I have been so busy lately, that there has not been much time to think about the reality of our adoption, it may have been just reading one too many rumors or board post, or maybe it was just the obscene amount of cold medicine I had taken to try to overtake this terrible cold I have been fostering. Regardless of what triggered the meltdown, it was calm, but it was bad. To read that we could be waiting 3-4 years for our daughter was just more than my brain and my heart could take. We started this journey to a child 3 years ago, and to think that we could have another 3 years to the ultimate end of this journey just seems cruel at this point. We are a very patient family overall. We have had to wait for a lot of things, and we have made an attempt to teach Taylor and Connor about delayed gratification. We are big believers in if it is worth working and waiting for, then it is worth having. But I think this just goes well beyond what anyone should ever have to suffer through.
I spoke to our agency yesterday, and I always do feel better for at least a little bit when I speak to our director. She is a very warm, calm, genuine person who has this amazing ability to calm others. I know that she truly means it when she says that she really can't fathom that the wait will actually extend to that magnitude. But the reality of it is, it is all about the numbers. If the numbers of dossiers don't recede, and the number of paper ready babies doesn't increase, it is a matter of Econ 101-remember the first day of that class? Guns and Butter, supply and demand. Unless the new guidelines are across the board, and no one is grandfathered in, it just seems futile to be in this wait. I have asked about other countries, and about SN. I guess after to talking to "D" last night we have decided that we have to just put some of this aside, keep abreast of the big picture, and not focus so much time on the day to day stuff. Then after the holidays we will reevaluate the situation.
Right now it just feels like it was not meant for me to be a mother. I may have to become more comfortable with that idea. I know that I have so much to do, and I don't feel like doing any of it. I feel so down, so blue, and just feel generally out of control-which is way outside of my comfort zone. I know there are many of you out there feeling the same thing.
I know that people feel like it is all in "God's" time, but sorry, I am not in the mood for that right this minute. 17 year old crack heads go out and get pregnant, is that all in God's time? I am way beyond red threads, ladybugs, and bible verses.
Hopefully I will have a new lease on life tomorrow, but just needed to vent today. I am going to go clean house now, which sounds like such a glorious controlling thing to do-I need at least one thing I can control.
Here's to international adoption. Don't ever get in line behind me at the grocery, because the line I chose always gets longer!!

Tagged

7 Things I Want to do Without Dying of Embarrassment

Sing in public(I can't sing, but I would like to be a good singer)
Still wear a big hairbow in my hair(I wore a bow until I was 25)
Wear Laura Ashley dress'(as I did in college)
Go back a be a cheerleader again(I had so much fun with my girlfriends)
Get a brazilian (I am absolutly not ready for this one)
Run in a marathon
Go back to summer camp


7 Things I Cannot Do in the Summer
Go to bed early(too light outside)
Layout in the sun(it makes you look old/frecklely-sure this is not a word)
Fly stand-by on Delta
Vow to not buy birthday presents(we have too many b-day's in the summer)
Let Matty ride in the car(our 12 year old black cocker spaniel)
Go outside(We live in Hell)
Watch TV-it is all reruns-even OPRAH


7 Things I Can Do Which are Meaningless Unless You are Still in Jr. HighThis is really just stuff that is only meaningful if you are in Jr. High

I have 3 BFF
I love really neat pens
I would still love to have a locker(maybe in my closet???)
I still hide my journal
I love to mix several sodas at QuickTrip
I like to pick out what I am going to wear if there is a big event the next day
If I get something new, I like to wear it a lot!! It offically becomes my uniform.
Splits(it hurts, but I can still do them-thank you very much)
I love to listen to songs over and over again.


7 Things Which Attracted me to our House

Double cul-de-sac
Walk to all 3 schools(elementary, middle, and High School)
It has 5 bedrooms, so we liked the size
It has a pool, but wish that we did not have a pool-I don't like being the pool girl!
Close to the airport.
Huge Master bedroom/bathroom and a really big closet.
We have really mature trees
Strangly because it was close to my stepchildren's mothers house.


7 Things I Say Most When I’m Crying

I don't really cry much, but if I do I am usually alone, and I don't say much.
David will say when I am crying "Did you watch Life is beautiful again?"

7 Children’s Books I am Adding to my Own Collection

Corderoy
Goodnight Moon
I love you this much
Shooey & Dot
Where the wild things are
Green eggs and Ham
Oh the Places you will go


7 Children’s Movies I Can Watch for the Bazillionth Time Without Wanting to Rip my Eyes from Their Sockets

FYI, I don't care for cartoons either-as a kid only watched Jetson's, Richie Rich, and then Land of the Lost(that is not animated-remember the sleestacks??)

Willy Wonka (the original, Johnny Depp was too creepy in the remake)
Finding Nemo
Ice Age
All of the Herbie movies
Chitty Chitty bang bang
Mary Poppins
Charlie Brown Christmas

This was kind of hard, so I won't tag anybody, but of course would like to see if we have any of these in common. Leave your comments. I know you are reading it, so just let me know what you think.
Happy Labor Day.

I love Flower's

This was my good news, or my little pick me up. Aren't these beautiful? We took care of our friends dog for 9 days last month, and this is the Thank You we had delivered last night. I love hydrangeas-so these will dry, and last forever. So nice, so not necessary, and so APPRECIATED-Thanks Phil & Myra. Merlot is welcome at our house anytime.
I know everyone is feeling down right now with the prospect of our wait. I know this will sound crazy (what's new) but right now I have to tell myself that this is really not possible. I need to take a deep breath, and reevaluate the situation in January. I just don't feel it in my gut that we could be 3-4 years from our children (the lastest estimates based on current referral times)So lets try and at least wait until the new guidelines are announced, and see who is going to be affected-I think we will be surprised at what the CCAA will do. We are already hearing whispers of some of the guidelines being instituted across the board (regardless of LID) and some guidelines that will affect only newly received dossiers. I think they have to do something to get the wait times down. This may be the only way to do that with the overwhelming number of people deciding to adopt.
We are off again, headed to Houston this afternoon to see our family. It is Labor Day, and "D's" birthday-so we will be FAT and happy this weekend!!! More CAKE-but it is chocolate this time-I do chocolate too, just prefer white.
So I hope everyone has a great,long weekend.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!!!!

9 Days????

I am so excited to see everyone's referrals. I would have been a bit more excited had they done more than 9 days worth. Hopefully everyone read RQ today as she had the unfortunate pleasure of passing along how the CCAA sees the wait for waiting families. Since I may be mean in my paraphrasing I will share it as it was posted:


"From a European Agency
One of the European agencies has posted that the cutoff would seem to be July 22, that this is not official but that the “sources are sufficiently trustworthy”. They note that they will post when they get something official.

They then talk a little about the delay, repeating the current party line of too many applicants and less available babies and that it is not possible to give a concrete time since there are so many variable factors.

They then state that the CCAA insists that it is necessary that the families have sanity and tranquility and patience while they wait, that this is essential for future happiness, and that this will demonstrate the capacity of people to face problems and difficulties that life always creates.

And then comes the kicker. We are told that people who are not able to handle the pressure and understand these simple points are not welcome." Rumor Queen 8/25/06

I find that very hostile on their part. Tranquility????????? Are you kidding me? How can anyone feel tranquail about waiting 2 years-2 1/2 for most if you include paperwork. Has something happend to make them hostile towards us? I am really confused. I thought this adoption process was good for everyone; great for the babies, great for the families, great for China b/c of the revenue IA produces-Great all the way around as I see it.
I just know that I feel deflated, and disappointed. This all seems to be a dream, and it will never REALLY happen. I think it is time to move along with my life, and put some of this on the backburner(if possible) and someday, somehow, someone will call and say "we have your referral for you" I will be so patient, and tranquil in the asylum that I will respond with "referral? what referral?"

Well again to everyone that did receive your referral CONGRATULATIONS!! To those that just missed it, my sympathies to you- Hopefully you will be next!!
I am just going to go take a nap, and recover from the disappointing news.

Action Jackson is turning 5!!

Okay kids, I am going to be gone for the rest of the week. Off to Kansas to celebrate one of the cutest little boys alive fifth birthday. Jack is the apple of my eye, and so I will spend the week with him and my best friend, and one of the cutest little girls around; Miss Katie-who already owns several pairs of squeeky shoes/and could possibly dress so cute that you might think she has a stylist.
I am already anticipating withdrawal from bloggerland-I mean I am going to come back, and everyone will have their TA's, and I will have missed it-what's a girl to do? I am sure I will sneak a few peeks at the computer while I am there. Anyway, I will have some pictures, and some other fun stuff to share when I get back, I mean the party is at Pump it Up-and it doesn't get any more fun than that... Looking forward to the cake-white cake no less. I am a connoisseur of white cake it's the only reason I go to weddings and birthdays-so if you invite me you better order a good cake. So disappointing to wait around for the cake to be cut and then it's no good-party is a flop in that case. Well as least as far as I see it. My best friend feels the same way about cake-so no doubt this will be an incredible cake,and she will order it extra big so we have some for the whole weekend-now that is something to look forward to, and so will my thighs.
So good luck to everyone awaiting their TA's, and hoping I come back, and I have missed all the referrals-cause that would be great if they came out this week too, and we will be one week closer to getting our LID. Hip Hip Hurray!!

Empty Nesters

As promised, here are our pictures from moving Connor to college. Let me start by saying I did a really good job of not sobbing like a baby during the move or even when we did FINALLY leave. I did however have a big breakdown prior to leaving the house-Connor wrote us the nicest letter ever, and I do mean ever. He just told us what great parents we are, how much he appreciates us, how it is okay that we are a little strange...? that he didn't mind that we often nagged him to clean his room, and constantly reminded him that school is his top priority. It was really just the nicest, sweetest letter a parent could ask for from a child(well except for the reference letters he and Taylor wrote for our HomeStudy) Anyway, that letter made me boo hoo like a BIG OL' BABY, but I was able to pull it together and act like a big girl, in big girl pants once we got on the road.
Moving was HOT, crowded, HOT, fairly quick, oh did I say HOT? B/C if case you don't frequent the weather channel everyone in the state of TX except for far W. TX haven't had rain or a cool day in about 16 years-We are friggin burning up down here. I feel like I have lived a lifetime in hell this summer-it just won't end. It was 106' the day we moved him in-OZONE LAYER people!!!!Anyway, you can see a quick snapshot of his room that he overtook-his roommate didn't have a fighting chance-we moved in first(fortunatly guys are different from girls, and he didn't seem to care, and even seemed to like the set up) I know you can't tell that he picked out a superman bedspread, he has been excited about since we bought it-but then he says "you don't think people are going to think I want to be superman or think that I think I am superman do you?" gosh Connor I just don't know....you are 19!!! Anyway, you can see he and David headed up the hill from buying $600 worth of books-oh don't you remember book-buy-back days at the end of the semester?-it was your $$$$$$$, and it was crisp one dollar bills-didn't matter that you were only getting a tenth of what your parents had spent on the books. Then you see a cute pic of the three of us right before we left-see all smiles-Connor was headed to the river to float with some Fraternity guys that he had met the night before, so really he couldn't get us to leave fast enough. Then one of David and Connor in the LOUNGE area of his room.
Then finally you will see the top picture-well let me just say that is not just a landscape picture-those little black clouds in the sky are bats-millions of bats-and anyone from TX who has been to see the bats will understand when I say we are not crossing the Congress Ave. bridge. This is North Austin-and the bats were just streaming out! The bats at the Congress Ave bridge in Austin are quite a site. A must stop along with the biggest ball of twine. So we were shocked to see another bridge with the insect eating little critters. We have the largest bat colony in N. America. right there in Austin, TX.
Anyway, Connor is moved, he is settled, and he is not missing us yet. Right now I am not missing him either-he left a HUGE mess in his room that I will need to pick up in the next few days.
We are wishing Connor success, happiness, and a ton of fun in college-but not too much fun :)
I have no idea what that red headband is on his head, nor do I condone the fashionable black wife beater t-shirt he is wearing.

Waltz Across Texas with Me!

Okay boy's and girl's, just as I promised I am taking you on a tour of Texas. With my minor disaster at the consulate I toured a little more of Texas then first anticipated. With almost 850 miles on my car since Wednesday, I am well equipped to be in charge of carpool when our daughter goes off to school.
I would have labeled the pictures, but not really sure how to do that right now. Don't have a ton of time on my hands-have been gone since Wednesday, and now we are in the mad dash to get Connor ready to move to school tomorrow. This is a very emotional rollarcoaster ride for our family right now-dossier headed for China, and Connor leaving for college. Kleenex please.
If you know how to label, please offer some instruction or advice.
1.Here are all of our documents ready to be put together to form our dossier-Yeah!! 4 1/2 months later!!
2.Here is such a lovely picture after being in the car all day-but we were leaving with our dossier to take it to our SW-Stella-what a feeling, never thought this day would arrive.
3. Here is our dossier all tied up in it's lucky red ribbon.
4.Here is the Sam Houston Memorial in Huntsville-he is REALLY BIG!!!
5.This is halfway between Austin and Houston (LaGrange)They claim that they have the best kolache's, but West is still my favorite.
6.This was a rainbow I saw on my way back from Austin(2nd time)thought it was profound after the day I had had.
7.Remember I told you about Czech Stop in West,TX? well here are my 2 fav's cherry kolache, and chocolate macaroons(these are to die for)Yes, that is my really cute Cythnia Rowley purse in the background that I got for the summer-just love that purse.
8.State Capital of TX-isn't she a beauty? Right across the street from SOS
9. The road to Houston
10.The Chinese Consulate in Houston-spent way too much time here this last week.
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Well as I said we are off to San Marcos(south of Austin) to move Connor to school tomorrow. Should have some interesting stories from this adventure.
Update to follow.
Wish me luck that I don't boo hoo too much in front of the new roommate that enjoys symphonic music-
I don't think he and Connor will be a match made in heaven, I am pretty sure.

Houston we have a problem: The Sequel

Wow, here we are and it's Saturday, and I am still in Houston. Yes, that's right...Still here. I know I should have been back yesterday to drop off our documents to our SW, and she was to Fed Ex them on Mon to St. Louis. Well in my little world of adoption nothing seems to be easy, or go as planned. So kid's grab your bag of doritos, and a pint of Ben and Jerry's because it going to be a long bumpy ride. I made it to Austin and Houston on Wed, dropped our I-171-H off at the Chinese Consulate, went to my in-laws had a lovely visit with them, and planned to pick up the stack of documents from the consulate first thing Friday morning, and then head for the hills. Well, arrive at the consulate, she slides my BIG stack of docs under the window, and there is a note on top that says they could not authenticate two of the documents because of.... So I can feel my heart start to race, my palms start to get clammy as I investigate why this is happening. The first being "D's" birth certificate-I had ordered it off the internet, and then sent it to the Sec of State myself to be certified back in April, had never really looked at it since-well they were saying it was a color copy-okay-why would I make a color copy of a document I have possession of??????????????? Especially when I know that the adoption police need all original documents. The other issue was, they were saying notary was a copy not the origianl stamp on the I-171-H-it's not, but whatever-that is easily fixed. But the birth certificate is not easily fixed. After talking on the phone to a person at the consulate who could only say "photocopy" I was getting no where and time was of the essence. So jumped into the big rig (gas guzzling SUV) and headed for the Houston Dept of Health and Vital Statistics. Let me just start by saying it was lovely spending an hour and half with Houston's finest citizens. Once I got to the window presented my problem to the very nice man behind the glass window-he took what we now know is a color copy of my D's birth certificate. He talks to a supervisor, and gets everyone behind the window worked into a tizzy that someone has committed FRAUD! So in the mean time I figure out that I am going to have to drive back to Austin(yes, that's right 167 miles there and back) and I need to get there by 4:00/and to the Sec of State by 4:30 before they close for the weekend-and I spend the weekend in Austin by myself-let me just point out that it is 1:20 at this point, and haven't left the city limits of Houston. They become so focused on the fraud that may have taken place, and not the problem at hand-I need my husband's birth certificate and it certified, and I need it NOW!!! So I jump back into the gas guzzler and head for I-10 on a Friday afternoon-which is like a parking lot. I will spare you the part where I was sobbing on the phone like a little girl to "D" who is the middle of a meeting and I am driving 80 mph-saying I am never going to be able to make it-along with some other choice words that I will spare you. If anyone has questioned that there is a God, or divine intervention-never question it again. I am living proof that it exist. I must send out a BIG thank you to Steve Elkins who is the Deputy Registar of the State of Texas-because he did everything in his power to assist me with my catastrophe. I explained the whole story to him, and he said he would do what he could to help, and that he would look into why this happened. Then "D" was mapping my trip so I would know exactly where to go, and how to avoid the most traffic in Austin(as I would be arriving at prime rush hour) then he called the Sec of State's office and convinced a very nice women "Dawn" to stay until 5:00 so that I would for sure make it. Well as I said, it had to be divine intervention, b/c otherwise I would have never made it there. I arrived at the Dept of Health in Austin at 4:05, walked out with the birth certificate at 4:10-TX Dept. Of Health you Rock-I didn't even have to pay-which was good because I didn't have any way to pay them-oops. I then walked into the Sec of State at 4:25 and arrived in Dawn's office to be greeted with "you must be...." I didn't even have to have her stay late. So I have the documents ready to go first thing Mon morning-I will pay the same day fee, and pick them up Mon afternoon, and then start the 5 hour drive back to Dallas. "D' is meeting me at the SW house, and we will hopefully turn over our docs and be done with it all. We are still hopeful that we will be DTC on Friday the 18th. But I guess that remains to be seen. I will not feel relieved until I probably have picked up the docs from the consulate, or maybe after we have dropped them off with the SW, or maybe I will feel better if she will give me the tracking number so I can check to make sure it arrives, or I know, I will feel better once I know the plane carrying our docs have made it across the ocean without crashing our 5 months of work into the bottom of the sea. Shoot, I don't know when I am going to feel better. I hope it is soon. So I will update you when I get back to Dallas, and have recovered from this crazed, obsessed, mad episode.
I have to tell you when I arrived back at my in-laws, by MIL had turned my bed down, had the towels out ready for me to take a shower, and sent me to bed. I'm such a lucky girl:)
P.S. I have pictures to follow this tale-Why?? I don't know, I started to take pictures before I knew what a nightmare it was going to be:(
P.S.S. I forgot to mention that I have spent enough on gas in the last 5 days on this journey that I could have bought a plane ticket, rental car, and probably a nice hotel.
Note to self...need to trade the big rig for a Prius.

It's Here, It's Here, Finally, It's Here!!!

Okay, for anyone out there that has adopted or is ahead of me in adopting(not hard at this point) You will know the feeling I had when the mailman(not my usual mail lady) handed me the best piece of mail I have received to date as an adult. Our I-171-H arrived today!!! Applause!!Applause!! It involved shaking the hand of the very sweaty, confused mailman-as I told him he had answered my prayers-well he at least brought the answered prayers.
I have already been to the bank to notarize it-still a little confused on who is getting what-but I will get that figured out, I have the money orders ready for the consulate, I have called all the appropriate authorities(all my peeps), posted it on all the message boards, and now just getting ready to use my streets and maps software to highlight my trip to Austin, with a stop in West for Kloches(duh)(if you have not done this before-you must if you drive from Dallas to Austin stop in West-at the Czech Stop for their amazing little tasty treats) and then onto Houston to the consulate before they close. I will pay the expedited fee for one day service-but will pick up all of the documents(remember SIL/MIL dropped the others off on Mon) on Friday morning and make my way back to Dallas. My SW is expecting me at her house Friday afternoon, she will review them over the weekend, and they will be Fed Exed on Mon to St. Louis-and then drumroll please...............
We should be DTC on Aug 18th, and with any luck at all we will make our LID before the end of Aug. BREATHE, BREATHE. Okay, everyone has been so nice today-I really am over the moon. "D" is on his way back from Colorado-so can't celebrate with him until he arrives at 9:30. He will be very excited-because hopefully the crazed, obsessed woman will go away-yeah right:)
I will update you when I get back. Until Friday

Enough Already!!!

This is going to be short, I have had enough ALREADY!! No INS approval again today. I really thought for sure it would come, but nothing-absolutely nothing in the mail.
My In-Laws did make it to the consulate today-they have dropped off the majority of our documents to be authenticated, and they or me depending on what happens will pick them back up on Thur. Only one hiccup-I made an extra set of copies because the website said they had to have a Xerox of each document submitted, and they apparently don't need the Xerox, and it only confused the situation. I had also forgotten that we have an extra medical letter for "D" that I had not accounted for-SIL says that they said there were 12 documents-but for the life of me I can only account for 11?????????? Who am I to argue.
So we will sit and stalk the mail-lady again tomorrow. We really need it to come, because "I" have had enough already!! Plus, "D" is ready to have his wife back, and not the crazed and obsessed lady he is living with right now.
I will work on this while he is out of town.

Houston, we have a problem

As we all know, we are just waiting on that little piece of paper from the INS. I had made the executive decision that we would wait on our I171 to come-I would drive it to Austin to be certified(everything else has been certified) and then drive on to Houston to stay with my awesome In-laws while getting everything authenticated. I knew I could pay a fee for expedited service at the consulate-so figured we would pay the fee, and have them do it in 2-3 days instead of the general 4-5 day turn around time. Well in my state of anxiety for this approval to come I have gone over the dossier check list about 10 times this week, have made all my copies, gathered all the pictures needed, and reprinted the directions for getting the authentications done-WELL, in participating in that little exercise I realize that the expedited fee is per document, not per package. So $30 per the 11 docs(we had to have some other docs done at other consulates) I have to authenticate on top of the $20 regular fee. $550-that would be crazy right????? So people listen up-if this situation arises for you-This applies to you if you can drive to the consulate-okay maybe not...hear me out. I have now put my package together for the authentication process for the Houston Consulate, Fed Ex'd it to my very generous in-laws who are going to walk our documents into the consulate and drop them off, and then go back and pick them up-that way when this silly little piece of paper from the INS shows up I will continue with the plan of action, and take it to Austin to be certified, and then on to Houston-where now I can pay the expedited fee for just one-yes that is right- just one document(as everything else will be done at that point) saving us about $210 from the original plan. So Great Big Thank You to my MIL, and SIL who are helping more than they know. We owe you a BIG ONE!! Wish I had thought of it sooner. *This would work for you if you use Fed Ex to send the majority of your documents to the consulate, and then after you receive your I171 you could do the courier route, and pay the expedited fee-since it will be hand delievered. That would still save time and money.
I am still holding out hope that the I171 shows up today!!! Update to follow.

Go Postal, Go Postal

Okay, I love Fridays because it is the end of the week, but since we started our paperchase I have found myself not longing for them. The reason; it means there is only 2 days left of the week to get mail. When I am waiting for something in the mail,and Friday rolls around I just feel the disappointment that the week is ending, and there is only 2 days of hope that something will arrive. I had promised to not stalk the postlady until Aug 10th for our I171-H, but sorry to admit the stalking has already started. I am dying here, and it seems she gets here later and later in the day. So come on let's say it together now...Go postal, go postal, we need our approval, we need our approval, let's do this, let's do this. Okay, well let's just hope it comes today or tomorrow. I feel it in my bones, it is going to arrive any day now.

CCAA has updated their site-well sorta

Okay, the CCAA(China Center for Adoption Affairs) has finally updated their website. It now reflects that they referred children to their families who had submitted their dossier to the CCAA before July 13, 2005. That means to the layman out there that the waiting list is about 12.5 months right now. They have not updated their site to reflect if they have indeed progressed on the reviewing of dossiers for Nov,05. Hopefully that update will happen very soon.

The Adoption Bible!

Okay, this is a permanent fashion accessory for me at this point-it looks great with everything I wear. It has become a really big joke in our house, because I don't go anywhere without The Bible or The Book. When I come downstairs in the morning it comes with me, when I go upstairs to go to bed...it goes with me, you get the point. You just never know when the house might catch fire, and which case it is important to know that I will be grabbing my purse, and The Book-and probably not in that order. I tell "D" all the time that in that case he and the dog are on their own...a girl has to have her priorities(okay, just kidding) but I would make sure the book made it out safely. I know I am worrying subconsciously about the security of the book, because the other night I had what I would call a pretty darn scary nightmare. I dreamt that we had gone somewhere in "D's" car, and I left The book in the backseat, and once inside I realized my critical error, so I grabbed the keys to go back to retrieve "The 8th wonder of the world", and while walking back to the car a man came towards me with a gun, and was carjacking me!!! Okay, are you kidding me? I kept telling him that he could have my husband's car, and I would be happy to throw in everything inside, and I could even give him my address to go by and pick up my car as well....BUT, there was just this silly little notebook in the back seat that I must have, and if he would let me have it, there would be no problem with stealing our car. But if not, he needed to know that I was an adopting mother, and couldn't be held responsible for my actions, and I was just going to go "ninja" if he didn't give me my notebook. In my dream the guy just kept looking at me like I was freakin crazy( well...I am, I have been paperchasing for 4 months) Well, then I woke up in a complete sweat, and woke "D" up to tell him about the terrible nightmare I had just had. His response to me was..."J" you are really starting to worry me. You need to add some other interest to your list. Okay...he is not getting the magnitude of this constant worry. Not sure what I will do once everything is in China, I suppose I will find something...like the CCAA losing my "book"
I guess I will have to retire my copy of The Book to the safety deposit box for the next year for safe keeping. I really think this process should come with therapy, because I think it is making me CRAZY!!! At least CRAZY with worry.