A LITTLE News

While I was on our conference call titled "meeting your new child" with 3 other families and a social worker, Aunti took Chicka outside. Of course since I was in the bedroom with the door closed, they couldn't get in for a coat or shoes. No worries - boots and a robe always makes a wonderful fashion statement!!!!

We received our notice of I797 - immigration is now processing our final approval to bring our Zabi-Chu home!!!! Our agency says that we SHOULD hear of our Travel Approval in 3-4 weeks!

Apology

Time? Where does it go? I feel like I am a chicken running around with, well, you get the idea.

My apologies for not posting AND for not reading YOUR blogs! And, it doesn't look like anything is going to slow down anytime soon.

Here is something that I have read before, in fact I think it was part of a class that I have taken not once, but twice. As glaringly obvious as the answers to these questions are, you would be amazed at the number of times that I have been asked the exact same questions!

The one that I am actually looking forward to, with TWO Asian daughters is: "are they sisters?" - let's see - I am the mom, these are my children. Gosh - I guess they are! Ha! I know what they really mean is are they biological sisters, but come on - get real!

ANSWERS TO DUMB QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK OF ADOPTIVE PARENTS...

Some answers for those stupid ??s

Unreal...Q- How much did she cost?

Smart Answer (SA)- All my heart.
Educational Answer (EA)- Buying children is both illegal and unethical. If you're interested in knowing more about gov't fees and donations for someone you know that's adopting, I'd be happy pass on my agency's website to you.

Q-What is she?

SA- She looks human to me.
EA- Do you mean what is her ethnicity? She is Chinese.

Q-Why China when there are children in the USA that need homes?

SA- Is that where you're adopting from? Oh, you're not adopting? I just thought you might be since you're so interested in making sure the children in the good ole USA are taken care of.
EA- China was the right choice for us at this time for many reasons.

Q-Are you going to tell her she's adopted?

SA- Seriously? Have you even looked at us?
EA- It will be pretty obvious. Besides, I want to share her adoption story with her.

Q- Are you her real Mom/Dad?

ONLY ONE ANSWER- YES!!!

test

I figured that I better test sending an email post to the blog before we actually travel. So far on the tests, the text comes through just fine, but the photos don't. I use a Mac - don't know if that has anything to do with it or not, but if anyone has experienced this problem, drop me a line!

We cut and hauled firewood this week with some good friends. Good friends, good laughs, sore muscles!!!!

Happenings

Not too many happenings for awhile. That is a good thing!

IBoy and a friend, Chick-a-Dee and myself drove up to Great Wolf Indoor Waterpark last weekend to play. Chicka had a great time clutching my hand in one vice-grip and an inflated tube in the other and walking from non-existent water to waist deep water and back again. Over and over ad nauseum. That was her water fun, and she really did have fun. I walked alot. Back and forth. Over and over. fun. We didn't see the boys at all - they had a blast in all the water slides.

A friend graciously offered us their bounty of grapes from their garden, so we went and picked them, came home and canned about 20 quarts of yummy grape juice and made a ton of grape jelly.

Continental Airlines Voucher

I have $600 in travel vouchers through Continental Air that I am not going to be able to use. Does anyone know of anyone who might be willing to purchase these? I can gift this amount to anyone and I could sure use the $600 to purchase a ticket home from China for Zabi-Chu! It expires on January 16, 2010. I believe that it can be used with any Continental affiliate also, but not certain - we'd have to check that out. You can even use it for international travel as long as your leg flies in/out of Newark. I am even willing to gift the $600 for $500 cash to make the deal even sweeter!

LSC/LOA !!!!!!!

Yup - you heard it right - our Letter Seeking Confirmation formerly known as Letter Of Approval is HERE on Day 78!!!!!!

Funny thing - I was hoping that it was going to come soon, so I thought I would get a couple of number pictures ready. I was just snapping this photo when the call came!

Now we wait again. This time for our TA (Travel Approval). Our agency said that we should plan on traveling in 2 - 2 1/2 months from now. Hmmmm. Christmas in China!

Day 73

I KNOW it is God's timing. I KNOW that HIS timing is perfect. I still feel like whining, though. It is been 73 days since our official log in in China's system for this adoption. We are still within the average turn around time. Anytime soon would be great!!!!!

Since ZabiChu is legally not yet our daughter, I can't share much, but we were over the moon excited to get an update on her! Do you see her ponytails????? Well, you can see one of them! She is 1 inch taller than chickadee, weighs the same, same size foot, but a little thinner. She loves to eat fruit, is shy of strangers, goes to kindergarten and is being prepared for adoption. Now if I can just get my achin' arms around my sweetie, I'll be happy!

MissE has been busy creating and sewing a Japanese kimono for a masquerade ball being held in October. She has done an outstanding job!

IBoy has recently been bitten by the camera bug! He has been traveling around a couple of counties with his auntie and snapping hundreds of shots. I'll have to share some of them later - they are really good!

In closing today, I'd like to share a poem that I recently found that touched my heart. Although we don't have any children with disabilities, we all need to understand that life throws curve balls in many different forms. We all need to open our eyes and see God's beauty surrounding us.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.