Thursday, December 28, 2006

Ladybug Sightings!


I went to the mailbox today and was surprised to find two packages addressed to Lexi. I know this sounds strange but I just stood there shocked. Packages addressed to our daughter! Somehow, it made the whole adoption more real. I came inside and gently opened them wondering who had sent them. Inside the first package was a ladybug finger puppet. I still couldn't figure out who they were from. So I opened the second on and found a beautiful stuffed ladybug. Then I figured it out. The packaging invoice had my sister's name on it. Only then did I remember that Kelly had posted that she and Shirley had mailed a package to us.



Thanks so much Shirley and Kelly. This was a great surprise and really meant a lot to me! The ladybugs are soooo soft and snuggly.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A Dossier's View of China

I'll admit it... I'm procrastinating again. But anyhow, I just came across these pictures.




This is the CCAA building, home to our dossier for the last 10 or so months.

And this is a picture of the some of the dossiers that are gathering dust like ours. (Actually, I hope our dossier is in the review room. Currently, CCAA is reviewing dossiers for February. Hopefully by now, someone has blown the dust off of ours and reviewed it.


And this is where we want to be... the matching room. Once we're here, well be ever so close to referral time.


(And by the way, these pictures are courtsey of Love Without Boundaries.)

Ten Months Down

Well, here we are again... the "anniversary" of our log in date. 10 months down. 10 months of wanting, wishing, praying, hoping, and patiently waiting. At least at this point I am fairly certain that we are more than half way to Lexi. After our agency comes back from the holidays, we will begin the refingerprinting process. To do this, we have to get our homestudy updated. This means another trip to Atlanta for fingerprints, probably another visit from our homestudy provider, and of course more money. It's not even paying more money that bugs me. It's the fact that our country is aware that international adoptions take time. The approval is only good for 18 months. This is insane. You know teachers have to have background checks and be fingerprinted in GA. ONCE. You can see where I'm going with this. I've read that it's taking up to 3 months or more to get the fingerprints from Atlanta. That's why we are going to get busy with updating at the beginning of January. Our fingerprints expire in early March. I was really hoping the paperwork part was behind us. Not so. I guess getting this part done in January will be my new milestone to get over. All of this reminds me of the Eric Carle story "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly, said the sloth". Ever so slowly we're getting there.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas Day

It's been another quiet day at our house. We stayed up late last night watching Season 1 on 24. We opened presents once I dragged myself out of bed. It was fun. Geoff is such a good shopper. I loved everything! One of the things I bought Geoff was two China calendars. I thought we could keep one here and he could take the other to work. Well, one of them is missing months. It had 5 months (Jan., Feb., Sept., Nov., and Dec.). The rest was repeated. How funny!!

This afternoon we went to see "Pursuit of Happyness" (great feel good movie!) and then went to dinner at the China Buffet. I thought it was a perfect thing to do. Next year, we'll do it again and take Lexi. I taught the owner's daughter several years ago. They always speak to us and ask about when we are going to China. They gave us a 2007 calendar with the great wall on it today. It actually has all the months on it! :) When we opened our fortune cookies, I told Geoff it was going to say "Your fortune is that you will get a May referral". Funny thing was, Geoff's had the pronunciation for May on it. Mine had April. Either month would work for us.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Christmas Eve

All is quiet at our house. We're usually at my Mom's on Christmas Eve but since it fell on Sunday night this year, we had our family gathering last night. We did go out tonight to the Candlelight service at church though. It was very nice. At one point, one of the ladies in the church read the Christmas story to all the kids at the pulpit. I'm such a sucker for such moments... I cry every time. We went out to dinner afterwards and on the way in Geoff said exactly what I have been thinking all day... Next year, we will have Lexi. We will.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Ornaments

This is how bad I have been about posting... I got this ornament a few weeks ago in an ornament exchange our Jan. DTC group is having. Angela from Canada sent us this ornament. I love it!



This ornament is from Geoff's mom. She brought it to us on one of their visits this year. It's so cute! Here we are... a cute little snowman-family!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Sweetness



On of the topics on our DTC group has been Christmas traditions. I've been reading lately but not posting so much. It's such a busy time of year. Well, several people have posted about having Christmas trees in their daughter's room and I've been thinking about having one for Lexi. This morning I mentioned it to Geoff and told him that we needed a pink tree for Lexi. (I actually saw a hot pink one last weekend in Jacksonville... along with a lime green one and a banana yellow one at the Macy's children's' shoe in dept.). I told him that we could decorate Lexi's tree with all the socks and hair bows that we have for her. Later on in the day, he announced to me that he was going to town. When he came home he had this tree... a perfectly white tree to match her room. We immediately put it together and decorated it with Lexi's things. We topped it off with one of the hats for her. She better like hats!! It now glows in her room with the first blanket we bought her and some of the cute stuffed animals we have for her. I sure have a wonderful husband and Lexi is surely bound to be spoiled rotten by her daddy. This has been a great Christmas Spirit day!

Monday, December 04, 2006


I know lately my posts are becoming more sporatic. It mainly has to do with being too busy. I'm seriously considering giving up teaching in the afterschool program. It's a hassle and lately I've been overwhelmed by absolutely everything.

So to catch up...

Last week we recieved a great package in the mail from our secret pal filled with all kinds of music CD's for Lexi along with a cool "Hush Little Baby" board book. It was awesome!!


Then on Friday as I was feeling overwhelmed and down, we got another package from Susan (a East Coast Girl Buddy!). It was a star made of wood strips. It's beautiful! Susan also sent the sweetest card with it. It made my day and brought a smile to my face after a hard week. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends.



We put our Christmas tree up. Let me clarify. Geoff went out and bought the tree all by himself while I worked on the blasted paper. I just couldn't let myself go. Finally on Saturday night we cranked up the Christmas music and began decorating. I wasn't satisfied with the ornaments so we had to go out and buy a few more. While we were out I found a Chinese ornament (not exactly Christmas) about the Year of the Dog. I thought this was appropriate for this year so I added it to the tree. It was a bit sad putting up the tree. It brought back memories of last year as we thought it would be the last Christmas without Lexi. I pushed these thoughts away and just KNOW that this IS the LAST Christmas without our darling little girl and then I said a little prayer for all the babies waiting for families asking God to keep them all safe.