What else can you expect but... ANOTHER DELAY

When Geoff came home tonight, he had a new letter from the Homeland Security office. When we got the first letter, Geoff told me that they do not take fingerprints on Mondays. Well.... turns out, my dear husband was correct! We got a corrected copy today. Our new appointment is December the 9th. If nothing else, I'm learning that this adoption process is nothing but hurry up and wait... delay... delay... delay... hurry up and wait... wait... wait...

So as I try to remain postive, I thought of two more things that could be good about the wait... I definitatly WILL be COMPLETELY finished with my dissertation by then. And maybe I'll be back to my skinner days.

My invisible thread ties me to Lexi

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break." -Chinese Proverb

I think this Chinese Proverb is something I need to remember all the time. Today was a rough day. I was a bit depressed last night and then had trouble sleeping. Those who know me know that lack of sleep is not a good thing for me... when I got to work today, I stopped in to tell my friend Susan the news of the delay. Being sleep deprived, disappointed, and depressed, I had a mini melt down. (It's been so long since I cried sad tears) Well, over the course of the day, I've made myself have an attitude adjustment and this proverb seems especially fitting right now. Regardless of time... we will go get Lexi. As I talked to several friends today, I keep hearing their attempts to cheer me up. I heard, "have you thought of another country... have you thought of adopting from the local department of family and children services, have you thought of a surrogate?" I know my friends mean well. Most of them have been through this baby journey with me over the past 3 years. And their questions did enable me to think a bit more clearly through my disappointed mood. I feel so strongly that it is God's plan for us to adopt from China. I feel a connection to this child who has yet to be born. I feel this IS our destiny. So after having my day and a half of pouting, I've decided to look at the positive things of having the wait longer.

1. If we end up going next December like I suspect, I will get two extra weeks of leave (teacher's winter holidays fall then) and will not spend two of my adoption leave weeks in China. (This realization came from my dear friend Samantha).

2. If we end up going in January of '07, maybe we will get to see Chinese New Year in China!

3. I will have plenty of time to spoil my grandchild before becoming spoiling my new baby. (That is totally weird)

4. I'll be around when the grandchild is born and will be able to help my daughter through the first few weeks and months.

5. We just might see snow in China.

Now ... how is that for seeing the glass half-full ??

Not a good day for news

I learned today that the Chinese government has increased the wait time from 6 months to 8. I just don't get it.... orphanages full of babies and they make the wait longer!! Now my best "guessimation" of our trip to go get Lexi may very well be December of 06. I just pray that they will reverse this wait time again soon.

A Wonderful sight !!!!

Houston, we have lift-off! Or in our terms... Houston, we have an FBI fingerprint date!! (warning to Samantha and Dan... we'll be inviting ourselves to your humble abode on Dec. 4th for the night!) We will be fingerprinted at 1:00 pm on the 5th in the great capital city of Georgia! After we returned home from shopping, Geoff went to check the mail and found a letter advising us of our appointment. People in the adoption community know how important it is to make this date... rescheduling means MORE WAITING TIME!! And even with my new quote about Patience, I just couldn't bare to have to wait some more. Now, if only when we get there the fingerprint clearance will not take forever! Everyone, please... Pray. Pray for patience (for me), pray for blessings from above, and pray of our baby Lexi.

New Christmas Ornament Additions...

Every year, I try to find at least one ornament that has some significance to us. Well, while Geoff was busy trying to surprise me with the framed quote, I was looking at ornaments. I found several that I thought would be very appropriate for this year. You know, they don't make "waiting for the baby from China" ornaments. Although, if they did, I'd have a tree full of them. I actually thought of decorating a tree with just items relating to the adoption but ran out of ideas quickly. So these two additions will just have to do for this year.


Hopefully, next year the new ornament will say "Baby's first Christmas!"

Patience

Today, being the greatest shopping day of all Christmas season required a change in our schedule. We got up at the crack of dawn (well actually way before the crack of dawn) and went Christmas shopping with my mom and sister, Carolyn. This was a FIRST for Geoff! We thought he would be a great chauffeur and as it turns out he WAS!! I don't know what we would have done without my sweet husband at our beck and call. He delivered us right to the door of where ever we wanted to go, picked us up when we were loaded down with packages, bought us breakfast and ran errands to the bad ole' Best Buy (we would have never went there ourselves... too much of a man thing). It was a good ole day of more family good times! At one point in the day, Geoff surprised me with the framed saying above that he only knows to well applies to me. I thought it was just perfect and the fact he was able to put the frame together with the quote while I was in the same store was just incredibly sneaky. I just so love this man.

Of course, before the day was out, we went to our favorite children's store (Punch and Judy)just to dream a bit. We are still waiting for the furniture and bedding to arrive but I did see a beautiful rocker that would be perfect in her room. Does the song... "Santa Claus is coming to town" mean anything?

Missing John

Carolyn and Brittany

Thankful for family

Thanksgiving is time of thinking of all the things that we have to be thankful for. This Thanksgiving I have so much to be thankful for... our pending adoption, my future grandbaby, my wonderful family, my adorable husband, my mother's delicious cooking!, my strong niece who is fighting her battle with cancer with great spirits(oh, how I admire her!), my brave brother in law, our freedom, and most of all our heavenly Father who provides so graciously for us.

We all met at mom's today for Thanksgiving dinner. We missed John greatly but know he is doing his duty for our country and wouldn't have it any other way. We took a picture of the group for the dossier to China. We have so much to be thankful for and yet, so much to look forward to between now and next year.

A Quilt Project to keep us all busy...

Time on my hands lets the creative juices flow... or as Geoff would like to say.. it gets me into trouble! :) I've decided to begin a new project that everyone can help with. Please go to the following link to see my plan. http://wishesforlexi.blogspot.com/
I've also posted a link to this page on the left side of our blog under "Our Adoption Links". Here I will keep everyone up to date on Lexi's quilt.

Lexi in Chinese

I found Lexi's name in Chinese on About.com. Amazing the things you do while procrastinating.

Patience is relevant!

Patience seems to be a word that reoccurs over and over in my lifetime. When I was old enough to babysit, my mom discovered that I had very little of it. I'd go off to babysit and quickly end up calling her to come help me. When I decided to become a teacher, I prayed for patience to help me deal with my students. Over the years, I have developed patience in certain areas. I'm a very patient teacher with my students. I'm NOT a very patient consumer when I have to wait and wait in a very long WalMart or Kroger line just because the management doesn't have enough employees working. I mean afterall, I am trying to give them my money. I AM very patient with Geoff and his lack of filing ability although he promises me he will do better every time I take the notion to clean up his piles of papers. I am finding that even though I WANT to be patient with the adoption process, I AM NOT. I find it very annoying knowing that there are so many babies over there waiting for families and yet there is this long bureaucratic paper-trail. Today I decided to help myself see our progress by making a timeline of our adoption process. This did help because I saw all the things we HAVE done in the past 4 months. I may have a few dates off by a day or so but most of it is pretty complete.

And then today as I wasted some down time I found an article of a little girl named Kaitlyn. She was adopted just this past June from China. Her mom was arrested for child abuse last Friday. It is people like this that make the waiting necessary even though they do fall through the cracks. I pray that this incident doesn't have a negative effect on the adoption community. I also pray for this little child and those who are caring for her.

Kaitlyn's Story

Waiting and Waiting Some More

(Tonight we will use a different color and font, perhaps only Wanda can appreciate this.)

I would say things have been progressing on my end of the baby journey, but I am in the same boat as Wanda. The paperwork has been sent and now we are waiting once again. Of course as you go back and read all of the paperwork we were given at the beginning again, it seems as if we should have sent off the I600-A form at the very beginning. A misunderstanding between me and the paperwork or me and CWA evidently prevented this from happening. Not much we can do now, but I believe Wanda is determined that when our application finally is approved we not have to wait for anything else to be completed. Tomorrow it is off to the Probate Court to get a copy of the marriage certificate. Then this weekend a story of why we want to adopt, you would think that it wouldn't be hard to write but it is. Then copies of our local police records and employment letters. And after that all the paperwork will be in place, waiting on the visa approval, and ready to be sent to various locations to be certified. Patience, Patience, Patience........................................

I did have a surprise I was going to get Wanda for Christmas. She told me she wanted to get Lexi's name written in Chinese to put in her room. Searching around one Sunday night I found a gallery and artist in Connecticut that would be able to prepare the "artwork" for us. I provided all the information to them about what we wanted. The following Monday, I had a voicemail waiting for me at the house... the artist had passed away the night before I place my order. I have yet to be able to find another place that will prepare what we are looking for.

I didn't tell Wanda this one, but I found a place on the internet that had chinese jewelry. I found a pendant that had mother and daughter written in Chinese. I decided I would order it and purchase a necklace for it in town. I received an email from them letting me know the pendant was on backorder... until October 2006! They suggested I find something else to purchase instead. I believe I will.

Good news though, the Baby Bjorn came in this week. I was getting a little nervous because it was taking so long. But I have already figured it out.. just need something to carry around in it. In addition, I made my way back to Sunday school for the first time since the "incident". I am happy to report, no such problems today. I just might go back again next week.

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Geoff's newest purchase.

I think I will post tonight in pink in honor of Geoff's newest purchase for Lexi. Geoff went to Savannah by himself on Saturday (which can mean be a bad thing... because he does like to shop without me) and came home with a stroller for Lexi. I just love it! Pink is perfect for a baby girl! The only thing that bothers me is that now I have a stroller and still have to wait to put a baby in it. All of the baby furniture is not in yet, nor is the bedding for the crib. I hope it comes soon so that when we do our pictures for the dossier, we can take some pictures of her room.

By the way... those of you who know Sable, should know that she does NOT approve of the stroller any more than she approves of our suitcases, the ironing board, the vacuum cleaner or even her toys falling too close to any kind of cord in the house. It's going to be interesting to see how she reacts to some real competiton in the house. :)

Love

Amist all the excitement last night, my sister Carolyn dropped by with a very special gift. This handmade artwork by a man named Larry Meyer out of Terra Ceia, Fla. It has an ancient version of the Chinese symbol for Love on it. The card that came with it says...

"The character for the Love that one person feels for another suggests that although the word is now used as freely in China as everywhere, love was once considered a highly spiritual emotion. some sages believed it to be a from of giving that should be extended to the society at large, as well as to intimates. In the center, the "heart" pictogram, :above and below, the characters for "breath" and "graceful movement". Love, therefore, can be seen as a kind of inspiration. It breathes life into the heart, and brings grace to the body."

Thank you Carolyn, for such a thoughtful meaningful gift.

Aunt Lexi, Granny Smith and Carlos!

Oh, my gosh... what news I have to today! Geoff and I are going to be GRANDPARENTS! Sara is 5 weeks pregnant! I attended the Ga Technology Conference this week in Atlanta and when I came home last night Sara was waiting at the house. She had a gift bag on the table for us and I thought nothing of it because she so often does sweet little things for us and others. I figured she had found another little gift for us for Lexi. Well, I have to say... I had a totally blonde moment! I opened the card that was shaped like a baby outfit and inside it said "Congratulations!" Love, Sara and Chris. Okay... then on to the bag. There were two little bibs inside. I was like, "oh, I love bibs!". They said "I love my Grandma" and "I love my Grandpa". This totally threw me off guard. I got silent and the thoughts running through my head were... "I'm not going to be Lexi's grandma... how confused is my child giving me this?????" Then it sunk in after the blonde met the highlights! I turned to Sara and said, "Are you pregnant?" Of course, the answer is YES! Geoff told her he needed proof, so she runs out and gets the paper with the results. I almost cried! I can't believe I'm going to be a mom again and a grandmother too! When Lexi gets here, she will already be an aunt! How funny is that!

We were sitting around the table later on and Geoff laughs and says, "YOU'RE going to be GRANNY SMITH!"... now that earlier post certainly came back to bite me in the butt! Then he says very seriously, "I'm going to be Carlos. That was what they called me in Spanish class in high school." I'm married to a nut I tell you! Later on he told me that he has to dye his hair now. I thought he was talking about covering the gray now that he will have the "Grand" title but no... he said he needed to be ALL gray since he was going to be a granddad.

I'm going to have to start another blog ... I've taken a couple of shots of her skinny self and of course, I want to remember every moment of this experience.

I've been concerned that our adoption paperwork is taking too long. I wanted to go to China next June or July. I've been complaining that it seems more realistic that it will be August or September. Well, with a due date of July 16th, I'll be upset if I am gone. I must be there for the birth of my grandchild. I'm so torn because, I want Lexi... I wanted her 4 months ago! But I can't miss this time in Sara's life too. You know, when I got pregnant with her at 19, I was thrilled and excited to be a young mom because I'd still be young when she was in her 20's. I realized later in life that to a child, your parents are always "old". Now, I'll be an older mom and young grandma all at the same time. I guess now I have a reason to be more patient and hopefully it will work out just fine. Life can be so much fun now can't it!

Who said 2 years olds should play with wooden blocks?

Geoff and I were tortured today. We had nursery duty at church and kept the two year olds. We were at a ratio of 10 to 2. They won! The extra fun part for me was that I also had them for Sunday School so by the time Geoff arrived I had learned some lessons and less than 5 minutes after he arrived, we learned some more. Here's my top 10 list of things I learned from watching 2 year olds today.

1. Always bring your child a spill proof sippy cup unless you want them covered in their drink.

2. If you don't bring a sippy cup, bring them a change of clothes.

3. Grow eyes in the back of your head, because they will crawl onto the tables, stand in the chairs and crawl all over any standing structure in general.

4. Wooden blocks should be used with older kids... I have blue lump on my forehead from a
randomly tossed block.

5. No need to dress up, you will be slobbered on.

6. Watch your step... or else you will knock over a precious child and fall out of your shoes (and in fact... tennis shoes are probably the best choice).

7. Watch out for "boogers".... they will flick them on you (sorry Geoff).

8. Always have extra pull ups handy.

9. Klennex, wet wipes, and lysol spray are a mom's best friend.

And best of all...

10. Geoff will be a great daddy. I wished I had a camera to catch him entertaining 5 of
them at once with the blocks.

We also met two year old Grace. She is a darling little girl from China. I also met her mom who told me that they will be moving to China next August to teach English. It was so nice to make a local contact. There is another couple that I have not met yet that also have adopted from China. I hope to meet them soon.

The Nursery will soon be furnished!

We went to Savannah today and ordered the nursery furniture! We decided to go with the white instead of the cinnamon. We also found the crib set that we like and it's ON SALE but the funny thing was they didn't know how much it was to begin with so they have to call us on Monday to tell us how much it is! Then on the way home we stopped by Target and we found a couple of pictures to put up in the room. We keep running into the problem of the patterns and colors we like matching the walls. I painted the room "hint of mint" a couple of years ago when we were trying to get pregnant. Now I'm sort of wishing it was a very light pink. We've practically painted every square inch of this house and to be honest I'd rather not have to paint again but... we'll see.

As I type this, Geoff is on eBay bidding on a "gently used" Baby Bjorn carrier. It's amazing how much they want for these things brand new. It's so much fun to watch him get into preparing for the baby. And by the way, I have the sweetest husband in the whole world. He ran out for a paper this morning and returned with my favorite breakfast... a Western omelet from the Waffle House. I better enjoy my pampering while I can. I have a feeling that once Lexi gets here, I'll be last in line.

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One "baby" step closer!

This week has just flown by! Work was especially busy and it just seemed to disappear. Monday, I made a visit to DFACS to get the prized "CPS" form in the works. Before I left, I felt as if I had made a connection with the social worker(she gave me magnetic signs that give you 100 ways to praise a child and even hugged me when I left). Wednesday, I finally got a call from my dissertation advisor so I've got TONS to do in the evenings on my study but at least I'm heading in the right direction. By Thursday, the homestudy draft was emailed to CWA to our China Case Worker who had in turn reviewed it and made suggestions to them for wording to change. TODAY, we got a call from the homestudy agency letting us know that the final draft of the homestudy had been faxed to CWA. Here it is Oct. 29th. Our first home study visit was August 27th. At that time, our homestudy counselor told us that she liked to have the homestudy complete within 30 days. So much for 30 days!

You can't even begin to imagine how freaked out I was about the first home study. Of course, I only found out the DAY BEFORE that she was coming and the first thing I did was call my mother and ask her if she had any plans for that afternoon. (This is one time that Geoff's mother is probably thankful that they live 10 hours away!) About an hour and a half later, there was Mom with her cleaning stuff at my door to help. By mid-afternoon, my Dad comes over with cabinet baby locks. (Those things are awful! Mom helped Daddy and it still took about 4 hours to install them all over the house!) Now tell me WHY did I feel the need to go as far to clean out the refrigerator and the freezer?? By the end of the night, I was so sore from cleaning that I could barely move! The next morning, I missed church and mowed the front yard (praying the whole time for God to forgive me for working on his day of rest... Mom and Daddy taught me better), made Geoff clean the garage (but he couldn't put any trash by the road as he usually does because I didn't want her KNOW we had been cleaning!), called my sister, Carolyn, who in turn brought me some of her very own beautiful hanging baskets to decorate the outside, went to Lowe's and bought flowers to put in the wagon out front and when poor Sara dropped by I sent her BACK to Lowe's to get us a green astro-turf carpet to put on the back porch. OBSESSIVE... yes! Poor Geoff! He makes piles and I want to organize them. In hind sight, you might ask if I would do it the same all over again... YES! YES! YES! And it is that perfectionism that made me scrub the back porch brick in my turtle boots. (And by the way, those were my choice Jenna... not his. I have wanted a pair of rubber boots for tramping around in the back yard forever!)

It will be so worth it! It seems to be taking longer than we first thought it would but who knows maybe the next step which is getting the approval from UCIS (immigration) will not take too long. All we can do at this point is pray that God brings us to her and keeps her safe.







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One Decision Down... How many more?

Well we have reached a final decision... the furniture will be white. It is amazing the relief that comes from finally making a decision. I will say that from our point of view this is a major decision, granted we have probably a good eight months at least before we need the furniture but it will be nice to have it in the room waiting for Lexi. We are making progress on the crib bedding as well (my choice is still in the lead.) If this continues I am going to wonder if Wanda is just giving in to what I want (maybe she isn't feeling well?)

We are still waiting on what my mom would like to be called as a grandmother. The candidates are (we are open to suggestions also):
1. Nanny
2. Gran Gran
3. Granny Smith (Wanda laughs at that one all the time)

I was going to share a joke with everyone from my dad tonight, but I was informed that this is supposed to be about Lexi, so as my wife would say you have all been saved. Speaking of my dad he is supposed to be coming down soon to assist with some home repairs. Some of the wood siding is beginning to rot and needs to be replaced. We will share some pictures of the rest of the family at a later date.. too much could be written.

Beware... I'm getting mushy!

This morning, we had a guest preacher, Dr. Chuck Lawless, at church. Many times in my life, I've felt the message given by the pastor was like an arrow into my heart and a window to my soul. It was like that for me today. He was here this weekend as the speaker of a "Spiritual Warfare" conference. Today he spoke of the many times in our life that we've been ready to give up and wonder if God is at work in our life. This touched me so deeply. I immediately thought of our experiences of trying to have a baby and then our adoption journey. This past summer, I WAS ready to give up and I really began to think that I was forcing the issue with God and that he did not have plans for Geoff and I to be parents together. It was then that he began to open my eyes and begin to reveal our purpose. Every since we have opened our hearts to adopting from China, the stars in our part of the universe seem to be lining up. I remember telling my mom when we went for the first IVF treatment, that it was faith issue and that I was praying that God would bless us with a child. Getting pregnant and then losing the baby was one of the darkest days of my life. I couldn't understand why God would allow such a thing but I tried so hard to use my faith to get me through. It was revealed to me later that the miscarriage was God working through a rough time to bring Geoff to him. He was saved and baptized about four months after the miscarriage. What a blessing! I just knew we were on the right track, doing the right things and following God's purpose. After the 3 more tries and many heartbreaking months, I was finally able to give up. This is when adopting came up. We felt maybe it work for us this way. Of course in my earlier posts I've revealed how frustrating that became. I guess the point I'm getting to is that God was sending a message again this morning through Dr. Lawless. I have to patient and let God reveal things in HIS timeframe and that YES, he is at work looking after us. I feel that this long process will result in JUST the right child that needs us. And we NEED her too. I've pondered the pastor's message all day and as I was playing around tonight looking into "all things China", I came across an online video. When I first started watching it, my first reaction was to think "oh no, not another way to trash the women in China" but as the video continued, It tugged at my heart especially when the child singing begins to sing "Jesus Loves Me". It made my whole day go full circle. The message this morning... the message in the video... all revealing to me Jesus loves a child in China who is meant for us.

To view the video go to this url- http://www.bringmehope.org/dvd/index.html

And please, everyone continue to pray for us and our child.



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