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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

9 Months of Paper Pregnancy

Sometimes I feel like a love sick teenager. Remember those days, where every anniversary was noted? Those we've been dating for a month, two months, etc... I've become acutely aware of time passing as we wait and today is 9 months down. Just imagine how thrilled we'd be at this point in a pregnancy. The fact is I am somewhat excited with every month that passes and even every day for that matter. So here we are hopefully past the half-way mark.

I find the most silly things to divert my attention. Yesterday I discovered that my milkweed plants have aphids. Naturally, I began looking for ladybugs in hopes that they will help me with these little pests. I found 4 ladybugs! But two of them were in a spider's nest. I have a nice little food chain going on in my flowerbed. I rescued one of the ladybugs from the evil spider and then began talking to it about eating the aphids. So this is what I've come down too? Talking to insects in the great effort to take my mind off the wait? Today there is one little ladybug out there to remind me that good things are to come and silly as it may sound I find it very comforting to know that ladybugs have found my house. I promise, I'm not losing my mind. I'm just a bit paper pregnancy stir-crazy.

Turkey Poop!

I made these little poems to send out to some friends and family. I mailed them out to all of the East Coast Girls. I figured what the heck... the wait has been "poopy" so why not have some fun! Actually, Melissa at work found the poem, then I put my scrapbookin spin on it. Fun stuff! You can bet that if I only had one class, I would have given these out to the kids but with over 600, it is just impossible!

We're Home!

We got in last night from Vegas. We had a great time but it's always nice to come home. I wish I had some good pictures but I don't. We've got to get a better camera. All of my pictures are too dark. Still, we did as usual and really didn't take that many. We went to see Lance Burton Tuesday night. It was fabulous. They even updated our seats to give us a better view. And of course, we went back to the Barbary Coast and listened to Big Elvis. Geoff and I have seen his act 3 times now. I was disappointed that his side kick Goldie wasn't there. After the show I went up to one of the show members and found out that she died this past summer. How sad! You could tell that she loved what she did. They gave me a signed picture from Big Elvis. (Believe it or not, he's lost weight since we saw him last fall! Same great voice though!) We opted to not wait in the long, long. long line at the Belliago for Thanksgiving Dinner. So this year, no turkey! We had dinner at Margaritaville instead. My big find for the trip was the cute little pj set from Baby Gap along with the pink TuTu and magic wand. I can just imagine Lexi running around pretending that she is a ballerina.

And now that we are home, this has been my spot all afternoon... reading a book that is supposed to help me with my dissertation SINCE I'm revising yet, ONCE AGAIN!!



Oh, as far as Geoff's tattoo... not. We took a taxi all the way to Hart and Huntington at the Palm's Hotel. The tatoo he would have gotten without Lexi's name on it was between $400 - $600 dollars. Just let me go on record saying "I told him so!!". He could have gotten one a lot cheaper locally. At least common sense won over. So a synopsis of my take on the "bests" of our trip:

Best Free Show: Big Elvis
Best Buffet: The Buffet at Belliago
Best Shopping Mall: The Desert Shops at the Aladdin
Best Free Mood Music: Wayne, the Saxaphone player and his side kick at Houdini's at the Monte Carlo (Wayne's Rules: No boy bands, No girl bands, No rap, No Celine Dion)
Best Free Dance Music: Some "place" at the New York, New York
Best Way Around Vegas when you don't want to walk: Taxi (for a group, it far beats the monorail!)
Best Eating Value: The Breakfast Deal at the Barbary Coast $3.45 for 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast! Delicious!

We're going to Vegas!

Much to my niece's dismay, we are headed to Las Vegas tomorrow with my sister and brother in law. Jenna just hates that we are going out of town the week of Thanksgiving. Believe me, we have suffered through the "comments" of both Jenna and my mom. (Both say they are just teasing but you know, there is always some truth in comedy) Why this week? It's Carolyn and John's anniversary (15 years I think) and I'm off all week. Why not?? If it hadn't been Las Vegas it would have been the mountains. Carolyn and I would love to be going to the beach but it's not beach season. I think I'm going to take my computer on this trip and practice to see how irritating it is to carry a laptop on the airplane. I think of it as practice for going to China. Last week, I took my computer too but never connected to the Internet (too busy getting lost in traffic and limping on my foot, I guess). Maybe we'll break out of our tradition of taking the camera and then taking no pictures!

It's the night before we leave and I think I am only now getting excited about the trip. Not so for Geoff... he absolutely loves Las Vegas. Why?? I have no idea. He really doesn't gamble that much but he loves to watch others. He'd probably love to go visit the King of Cars with his Blue Genie!! He's been saying that he is going to go to Hart and Huntington and get a dragon tattoo with Lexi's name on it. We'll see if that happens or not. I love the idea because he is not just getting a tattoo for a tattoo's sake. He has actually thought the process out. The Dragon in Chinese is a symbol of strength and protection. Knowing my dear hubby, a tattoo is something he would not do on a whim. It's something that he would do solely for himself. I'll keep you posted.

Technology, Traffic and Toes!

I've been such a blogger-slacker! Actually, it's not such a bad thing because I've been staying busy. This week I've been away at the Ga. Technology Conference. What a trip this was! Geoff has vowed to never let me go out of town by myself to the big city ever again. I thought it would be a great idea to go stay with my dear friend Samantha (so I could spend time with little DJ and visit with them too). The conference was only an hour away from their house, no big deal right??? Wrong!! It's an hour away without Atlanta traffic. To top things off the night I got there I fell down the last 4 steps of her stairs and broke my toe! I drive stick shift so that was a bit uncomfortable. Plus, I stink at following directions and I kept getting lost. This is where Geoff came in handy because he got me where I needed to go every time I got lost. He ended up being my personal GPS-man. (This is funny to me because this is his initials!) My next car will have a GPS system and will be an automatic. So much for cute and sporty.

After only staying with Samantha one night and dealing with morning and afternoon traffic I opted to get a room close to the conference. (Again hubby to the rescue in getting me a room and helping me find the hotel.) This helped a lot and allowed me more time at the conference with a LOT less time driving. It was just a bit lonely being all by myself but I did learn a lot at the conference and even came home with a few free t-shirts!

The Dating Game

It's chilly tonight in the southeast! It's really a big deal as we run our air conditioners most of the year. We don't really get 4 seasons. We get warm and hot most of the year. Well with a chill in the air, Geoff felt sorry for Sable and Patches because we recently had them groomed and we always keep their hair very short. So he broke out their sweatsuits. I can't help it, it just makes me laugh to see them in doggie clothes. However, once they were dressed, I immediately thought of Pirate (Stephe's adorable little pup!) He gets to dress up all the time and he is just plain adorable!

So Pirate... let's play the dating game! Would you rather go out with Sable???

Or Patches???

Sable has the little pouting thing going . Neither girls have much dating experience. Sable loves to play with doggie toys. She is very independent except for her slightly un-natural fixation on one toy at a time habit. (Hopefully if chosen as Pirate's cyber-date, she won't turn into a stalker-dog!) Sable is more of a Southern Belle in distressed type as she often will see if someone will feel sorry for her and put her on the bed so that she doesn't have to expend much energy and jump up on her own. Her best asset is her beautiful, cute face!

Patches has the coy "check me out!" look going on. She is the snuggling type. She just loves to be cuddled and petted. Patches loves to snatch up Sable's toys and play the "see if you can get it game". She doesn't really like toys, just likes to mess with Sable. She is very smart and can track a squirrel with just a quick sniff but she has the most irritating habit of licking. If she isn't licking herself... she is licking whoever is touching her. Bad habits aside, she is a loyal companion .

So Pirate... what do you think? Need a date?? And can you ever decide between these two gorgeous southern belles?

We're in the Review Room!

CCAA changed it's site today to let the world know that they are finished reviewing the dossiers through January 31, 05. This means we're next! Progress is great!

New Referrals!!

Great News! CCAA updated their site to reflect referrals through Aug. 25, 05. They actually covered a few more days than last time. Could this be the beginning of a slight speed up in the process? I sure hope so! I think having Carol's Rose Colored Glasses is working already!

I just love watching people post referral photos! Our agency got 6 referrals today. The babies were between 8 - 12 months old. They don't expect them to travel until early January. If you want to see a real cuties, check out this website.

http://www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site/home?ID=45028

Oh, I can't wait until it's our turn!!

Insomnia

Insomnia is cruel. Here it is after 11:00 on a work night and I can't sleep. I probaby could have at 7:00 but I fought it off thinking I'd go to bed early. We did but only Geoff is sleeping. It's amazing how sleepy I can be and then go WIDE awake as soon as I lay down. Ambien CR isn't helping tonight either! My mind is just racing wondering if referrals will ever come out from CCAA. Our agency predicted them last week, then hoped for Monday or Tuesday. Now they are hoping for Thursday or Friday. Everyone is wondering if it's possible that they will make referrals through August but most are saying they will only go through Aug. 24, 06. I know those waiting for the any day now news are just about to lose their minds. I can only imagine how little I will sleep when our turn comes. Then I wonder about Carol, Bill, Manette and Matt. Are they in China yet? Are they in the air? How must that feel knowing that you are just days away from your daughter? I guess I'll go back to bed and see if an episode of American Justice is on A&E. Sometimes that works. I tried a PBS episode called "Capturing the Killer Croc". Got to the end and they didn't capture the blasted thing... so why call it CAPTURING?? I believe when I get like this I could watch the dust bunnies accumulate on the living room floor and still not get bored out of my mind! Night... Night, maybe I'll be sleeping soon.

One more Halloween Post!!

I couldn't resist this one last post. Jenna and Charlie brought my great-nephew trick-or-treating tonight. Poor Josh hates to have his picture taken so I opened the door and snapped a picture. Then I felt bad afterwards because the poor baby was just totally embarrassed to be dressed as Sponge Bob! He finally started acting like himself after they took off his costume. Seeing Josh tonight reminded me of something that I haven't really thought of. Josh is one of the reasons for Lexi. We were perfectly happy (so we thought) not having a baby until Josh was born and we babysat him. It was like a light went off in us and gave me a glimpse of what a great Dad Geoff would make. I had long suppressed my longing for another child and honestly was afraid to unleash that feeling again. Within two months Geoff had convinced me that it was possible and that we COULD and WOULD find a way. Here we are almost 4 years later. So I give you "Sponge Bob-Josh Pants!"

Christmas on Halloween! Our Secret Pal Revealed!

Yesterday, we got a notice from the post office that we had two packages waiting there. Knowing that it was time to reveal secret pals, I just knew the packages were from ours. I begged Geoff to go pick them up this morning and bring them to me at work but he couldn't. I had to wait all day! So when he got home with them today, I couldn't wait to open them.

As you can see, our SP wraps packages that are not short of tape! I had to use a knife to get in them and put some elbow grease behind it. She must have gotten lessons from my daughter Sara!

Turns out, our secret pal was no "stranger"! Ours was Carol and Bill! How exciting and funny! We've been buying for each other all this time! This is after we opened everything. The package included two dresses, a pants outfit, a pad of stickers with Lexi's name on a bunch of different stickers (something we thought we'd never see because everything we have seen with Lexi spelled on it has the e at the end), a cute little ladybug sign, and an Infant-to-Toddler feeding set! (This is ultra nice! We have a modern type dining room set that has a counter-top height table and tall chairs. This will be perfect Lexi so she'll be at our height!) It felt like opening packages at Christmas. The outfits had a special note that explained the outfit choices.
There was a cute blue jean outfit was for "shopping for "Bling" with Mommy! I'm sure my fellow Precious Pandas would love this!
This daisy dress is for "the perfect little tea party for the THREE" of us.
A ladybug dress for "twirling for Daddy!" It's so adorable!

This sign says "County Your Blessings". I love the ladybugs of course! And everytime I see it, I'll be reminded of my wonderful secret pals and what a blessing they are and have been to us!
Included in the package with instructions to open last were a pair of glasses. I was certainly confused of this item until I read the reveal letter. At the very end of a very nice letter was a the statement "I hope my rose-colored glasses serve you well!" Carol has been the most positive person on our Yahoo Group. She swore up and down last spring that they would be going to get Emily this fall even as the wait grew longer and longer! She kept refering to her "Rose colored glasses". I have to say I'll HAPPILY and GRATEFULLY wear them. I put them right on! Don't they look so nice with my new haircut! I'll have to try to not sit on these in the car! :)

I also had to post this picture of the mess Sable made with the tissue paper that wrapped the outfits. My title reflected how I felt like it was Christmas... well, Sable agreed. This is what she loves to do with Christmas paper. She had a ball!

Carol and Bill leave for China in the morning. I am so happy for them. I can't wait to hear Emily stories. I also can't wait to introduce our daughters one day. We will go to the Mid-West to meet them one day. We have been so blessed and I hope they can somehow know how much we love and appreciate them.

Oh, and there was one more thing. It was a feather decorated with beautiful ribbons tied with heart in the middle. It had a poem next to it. I'll finish this post with it. I teared up reading it and can just feel our special connection. It just gives me chills.

An Angel's Touch...

Friend

The other day I looked above

and saw an Angel near

I asked for a favor for someone I love

and hoped my message was clear.

Please Angel,

let my Friend see

She's loved so very much

And Angel

will you promise me

to let her feel your touch.

The Angel spoke and moved my way

That's when it's feather fell...

"This gift is yours to

give her this day,

It proves my promise well."

So sweet! Thank you Carol and Bill from the bottom of my heart!

Happy Halloween

Here it is Halloween 2006. So what's it like at our house tonight? Interesting! Geoff is at the front door stalking for trick or treaters. Not to scare them or anything, just to keep them from ringing the doorbell and driving the dogs nuts. Of course, we have them in the bedroom chewing on a chewstick.

When we do get trick or treaters, he lets me know and we both go to the door. It drives Geoff crazy when they skip us! He cracks me up because he NEVER, EVER comes home without first turning on the tv but tonight, he's been too involved with the trick or treaters. Before the kids started coming we agreed to give them 4 pieces of candy but when the kids come and he grabs a handful of the candy!

This has been fun. We actually got to tell the people we "Booed" who we were. The funny thing was they had NO IDEA!

We had a couple come to our house with about a 9 month old baby dressed as a baby bear. So how do you know when you are ready for a baby? When you ooh and awh over the baby bear and want to tell them that this is our last Halloween without Lexi and to come on in and see the nursery. (I wanted to... but I didn't!)