Merry Christmas everyone!

I just cut Mia's hair into a...um...let's call it a paige boy. Let's also call it another reason for her to hate me when she's a teenager.

A Happier Mia (and Fred) Video. How blanking cute is this??

Hey, the blanker asked for it.

So Graham has requested I not swear around Mia. It's not like I talk like a sailor or anything, but he pointed out that she is starting to repeat what we say. I pointed out that she's just started saying "No!" clearly, it's her first clear English word. I really don't think the next thing she's going to say is "No Motherfucker!"
I said I don't swear around her that much and he said I just said "Graham, come look at this, she's being so blanking cute."
Really?
Blanking?
Well, if I can say "blanking" then I might be alright with this. I could say "Son of a blank, I am so blanking blanked off, motherblanker! Go to blank you blanker!"
Hee hee, this is going to be fun.

Mia and Santa

You all know what I'm thankful for!

Who do you love?

So I was telling Graham how fun it is to wake up with Mia on the weekends. She sits up and will have the biggest smile on her face and give me all sorts of kisses. I love it. But Graham always gets up early so he'd never experienced the love fest.

So, last Monday he decided he was going to sleep in until Mia woke up. I stuck my head in the bedroom before I left to say goodbye and Graham was awake. I called him from work about an hour later to asked what happened. He said Mia woke up, climbed out of bed without even looking at him, opened the door and ran down the hall yelling "NOGGIES!!!"

Well, you know who's important in this household.

Mo noggies! Mo!

That's what Mia has been saying to our dogs, and she really means it! I don't know what they did to tick her off but all of a sudden she'll look at one of them and say "Mo!" and she'll shake her little finger at them and look so stern. The moggies ignore her for the most part. Sometimes they think she's playing and will get all excited and bark at her, that really makes her mad. But then her voice turns sweet and she'll say "Nigh moggies, nigh" and tries to hug them. But they move too fast and she usually ends up hugging air.
It's never dull around here anymore!

And now she's all better!

Mia has the flu

TMI

So Mia is still potty training, we're not pushing it at all, she goes in the potty a couple times a day. She'll get there. We have a potty that plays music as soon as liquid hits the bowl. It helps her know what it is we want her to do right when she's doing it. So she had just gone potty and the music played and we clapped our hands and ate M&Ms. We clean out the bowl, and wipe it down with a Clorox wipe. Then we were all in her room reading books and all of a sudden we hear the music on the potty go off. Graham and I look at each other and he goes to check things out. Then I hear "Fred, stop licking the potty chair!!" I know it's gross, but I couldn't stop laughing all night.
Fred is so pretty.

I always suspected that Mia had been partly potty trained when we met her, but I couldn't really do anything while in China and I didn't want to stress us all out by trying. So Graham and I were walking through K-Mart today and I saw a potty chair that plays music when liquid hits the bowl. Our friend Deb said she used one of these and she seemed happy with it. So we bought it and I figured I'd just set it out and let her get used to what it looks like. So I put it all together and put it in the bathroom. When I was changing her I thought, what the heck, let's see what happens. So I put her on the potty chair and she went right away! Music played, hands were clapping, M&Ms were given. It was very exciting! She went again tonight and tomorrow I'm going to try for real. Wow, I can't believe I'm starting to potty train her, she's getting to be such a big girl.

An Accidental Adoption

This one has been around for a while, but it still cracks me up.


Have you ever noticed that you hear all the time about "accidental" pregnancies, but never about couples who experience "accidental" adoptions? Can you imagine:

Honey, sit down. I have some news for you.
What is it?
Well, I don't know how to say this, so I'll just come out with it. I went out to the mailbox today and ... well, we got an I-171H.
A what?!? An I-171H? As in, we're going to have a(nother) baby?!?
It looks that way.
But how? We've been so careful! I put away all the blank I-600A forms. Didn't you hide our homestudy update?
Of course I did. But don't forget, there was that one night...
What night? (pauses) Ohhh, that night. But it was only once. We were just messing around. I didn't print clearly. I didn't even use ink! (pauses again) But it was kind of fun. (giggles)
It was, wasn't it? I'll never forget how cute you looked getting your fingerprints.
So now we've got our I-171H, eh? But that doesn't always mean you'll adopt, does it? I mean, shouldn't you see the agency or something, make sure everything's okay?
I already did.
And?
I'm five documents along.
Five documents! And they're all notarized, certified and authenticated okay?
Just great. There was one small scare when the agency couldn't see the Notary's middle initial, but it showed up just fine under the magnifying glass.Thank God.
And you, honey? Are you feeling okay?
I'm feeling fine. As long as I know you're happy about this.
Happy? I'm thrilled! It's always a shock at first when something like this happens, but of course I'm happy.

Graham is home and recovering. He's still not feeling too well, but he's getting better every day. His appendix was gangrene, but it did not burst and we are so thankful for that. The doctor said he thinks that is why Graham was feeling flu symptoms for the past three weeks. Mia's going to daycare all day this week since I'll be a work and Graham can't really take care of her. He's still feeling pretty weak and sore.
This has been a crazy two weeks with Graham going to Portland then ending up in the hospital a week later. But like Janna said in my comments, good thing this didn't happen while we were in China. Can you even imagine??

We just got home from visiting Graham in the hospital. We went to the emergency room because he was having really bad stomach pain. Well, it turned out he had appendicitis and he had surgery right away! He's out of surgery now and is recovering. We should be able to pick him up tomorrow, then he'll rest he for a while.
What a crazy day!

Outakes

No babies or dogs were harmed during this photo shoot. It might look bad, but seriously, everyone was fine. Annoyed, but fine.

Graham had to go to Portland for a quick trip...

She finally sat still long enough for me to put her hair into two pony tails. It wasn't pretty, and I thought I was going to lose an arm there for a minute, but it all worked out and I had to get pictures because I don't know if she'll ever let me do it again.

How cute is she??

Playing with the teething ring.

Our ugly ugly kitchen floor. I hope it doesn't make her go blind.



There is a little cold war going on with the Poo Bear. It's Mia's, but Tessa will sneak it away from her when she isn't looking. Then Mia gets mad and gets it back. It's pretty funny to watch.

4 years ago we got "the call"

This being 9-11 reminded me of my brother and I can't believe I missed the 4th anniversary of my his death. Has it really been 4 years already. He knew Graham and I were going to adopt from China and he was happy for us. I wish Mia could have met her uncle.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the students, teachers started last Thursday. I don't know where the summer went!
Here are a couple more pictures: Looking cute!

She loves to suck her thumb.

Grace, our guide in China. She was great!!

Adoption Barbie. You can only get these if you stay at the White Swan Hotel. It's Barbie holding a little Chinese baby. OK, you can laugh but if you check them out on ebay they can go for up to $300! But I think we'll keep ours for when Mia gets older.

Mia is all dressed up for a typical rainy Juneau day.

This is one of the lobbies at The White Swan Hotel. It was a very nice hotel!

Miss Mia in her frilly Chinese dress.

Some of the people in our adoption group, there were 7 families in our group.

View from the top of the Great Wall.

Mia and Tess doing their best impression of a Michelangelo painting.

Pictures, finally!

Graham and Mia

This was a sign outside a night club.

"Bloody romantic night count so you never feel the passion and love count bars nanchang the best bars"

Graham and Mia at the U.S. consulate.

The first time we met Mia.

The Great Wall

Ahhh, 10 hours straight of sleep! Heaven!

I've been taking night duties with Mia. I sleep in her room and get up with her during the night when she cries and I rock her back to sleep. Then at 5:00 am I crawl into bed and Graham takes over. Mia's been having a hard time sleeping so I've been up a lot. I get a good four or five hours straight in the morning but it was taking it's toll. So last night Graham slept in Mia's room and I was going to get a whole night's sleep!! Well, it seemed like Mia was sleeping pretty well, I hadn't heard her cry, then Graham got up around 2:00 am to go to the bathroom and she cried for a bit but then went right back to sleep. I decided I had to go to the bathroom and on my way back to bed my dog was really wanting to go outside. Fine, I put her on a leash because I was sure she just wanted to eat grass but actually she threw up and went to the bathroom. Hmmm. I came back inside and I thought I smelled something in the living room. I took a step in and...uuggh I stepped in diarrhea. Lovely. I turned on the light and Tessa had been sick and had diarrhea all over the carpet. So I started cleaning and putting paper towels over the spots we needed to steam clean in the morning. Tessa continued to throw up and I continues to clean. I was up from 2:00-4:30 taking care of the dog. On the night I was suppose to sleep all night long. The next morning Graham came into the bedroom and said Mia only woke up once and he was pretty rested so I could sleep in if I wanted. Well I wanted and slept until 9:00. I just can't catch a break here sleep wise.
Tonight Graham is going to sleep in Mia's room again and I've given Tessa a dose of Pepto so tonight is the night I'm going to get 8 straight hours of sleep!!

Fred just got the first kiss from Mia. He wasn't overjoyed, but he did accept it. I am totally jealous!

Sorry I haven't updated in so long, this baby is kicking our butt! Now I see why sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture. Things should calm down soon and I will add more pictures, I promise!

Here is a picture of all the babies adopted in our group. Mia is the one on the far right in the pink dress. She's such a cutie! More pictures to come soon!

After 26 hours of traveling...

...we're home!! Mia was a champ but we are all wiped out. I promise to write more tomorrow and add some pictures!

Here we go...

It's three in the morning and we are getting ready to take off. I haven't been sleeping well the last week but tonight I got about 2 hours sleep. Graham stayed up all night. I also have purple puffy hives all over my face. I look lovely. Oh well, things will calm down once I'm on the plane. The waiting is almost over!

Tomorrow

We leave tomorrow for China! That's 14 hours until we're in the air! And 4 days from right now we'll be meeting Mia! This is all so surreal!

It's all under control!

I think we're all good to go! We checked off everything on our To Do List and I checked and re-checked and then re-checked again all our paperwork. I have the originals that will be in our carry on, Graham will have copies in his carry on and we will leave another set of copies here in case we were to need them. We went through the suitcases and got rid of a few things and added some others. Tomorrow we will clean out the fridge and do a few other odds and ends, but we are pretty much ready to go! Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some friends, Wednesday I have a massage, then Thursday at 6:00 we are OFF TO CHINA!!!!

(Oh, and could you leave a message telling me everything will be OK and that my dogs will not run away or die but be happy and healthy when we get home.)

Baby Shower!

My friends gave me a baby shower tonight! I had so much fun! It was at my house, which was good because I wanted to do a deep cleaning before we left for China and this gave me a deadline. So my house was the cleanest it's been in a long time! It also took my mind off of stressing about the trip. Then my friends came over, everyone brought great food and drinks. And actually, now that I think about it, I don't think anything had meat in it. Everyone must have remembered I'm vegetarian. Wow, how thoughtful! I got some really great gifts. Adorable little clothes, some children's books, a cool mirror thing I put on my rear view mirror in my car so I can see the baby without having to turn my head, a gift certificate for getting her hand prints done ceramic, some little baby Smart Wool socks, a cute little dish set with some little cheater chopsticks (I could actually use those myself), an adorable little dish set with bunnies on it, some gift cards (whoo hoo, Internet shopping!), some sippy cups and a little spoon and fork for a baby! And the big present in the picture there is a high chair!
I'm not really a party person, but I had so much fun tonight!
But it's 2:00 in the morning and I'm still a little drunk, so I think I better stop blogging.
:)

6 more days!!

I spent all day organizing all the stuff we are taking to China with us. I put them into categories like clothes, socks and underwear, toiletries, baby toys, baby books, baby clothes, diapers, swim diapers, medication, shoes, bottles and binkys, otc medication and on and on and on. I put each category in a zip lock bag. Either a sandwich bag and 1 gallon or a 2.5 gallon bag. Everything is in a bag so we can find what we need easier. I also did this for my carry on. I weighed them all and they are all under the weight allotment. This took a ridiculous amount of time but I'm happy with the results.
We also got our last couple of things on our list that we still needed, like Dramamine, Tylenol, Pepto and pocket sized Kleenex packages. So all our shopping should be done!
Now we just need to make some calls to our insurance company and see if our calling card will work in China, make a pediatrician's appointment, put in the car seat and some other simple stuff.
This time next week we'll be in Beijing!!

We just got our seats for our international flight changed. We were in the middle of the middle row, so it looked like this (we were the red X's and the .... is the aisle)

X X ....X X XX.... X X

So we changed it to this:

X X ....X X X X ....X X

I'm so happy we were able to change, that would have been a long trip to be stuck in the middle row.
We're getting all set to leave, gathering all the stuff we need to take with us and starting to seriously pack. Had to fill out some more paperwork and fax it in and I'm making multiple copies of all the paperwork we're taking to China.
So nothing too exciting, I'll write when it gets closer to when we leave!

We just got some more information from our agency about our travel. And, of course, more paperwork to fill out. But we got a much more detailed itinerary and we found out that we get to meet Mia two days earlier than expected!! Here is our detailed itinerary. We are family #5.

Accommodations: Poly Plaza
Phone: 0086-10-65001188
Address: 14 Dong Zhimen Dajie (South), Dongcheng District, China
Beijing Guide Information:
Name: Grace
Phone: 13911503674

Friday, July 24 Arrive in Beijing
1:50PM Pick up family #1 and #2 with CO89, and then sent to hotel.
2:40pm Pick up family #6 and #7 with UA889, and then sent to hotel.
4:15 pm Pick up family # 4 with 6851
10:30PM Pick up family #3 and #5 with NW7 , and then sent to hotel. (This is us!)

Saturday, July 25
9:00am Sightseeing Tour to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square

Sunday, July 26-Fly to Nanchang
Accommodations: Nanchang Jinfeng Hotel
Phone:0086-791-8867777
Address:No.281 Zhan Qian Road(west),Nanchang Jiangxi China
NanChang Guide Information:
Name: Grace
Phone: 13911503674

Sunday, July 26
8:05am Send families fly to Nanchang with CA1573.
10:25am Pick up families with CA1573,and send to hotel.
4:00pm Families meet child at hotel.

Monday, July 27
9:30am Do relevant paperwork.

Tuesday, July 28
10:00am Shopping for child.

Wednesday, July 29
9:30am Sightseeing to XiangHu Park.

Thursday, July 30
9:30am Sightseeing to Teng Wang Ge.07.31
5:00pm Families get child’ passport.
6:20pm Families fly to Guangzhou with MU2225.

Thursday, July 30-Fly to Guangzhou
White Swan Hotel
Address: No. 1 Shamian South Street, Guangzhou, China
Phone: 0086-20-81886968
BeijingGuide Information:
Name: Grace
Phone: 13911503674

Friday, July 31
7:30pm Pick up families with MU2225. and then send to WS hotel.

Saturday, August 1
9:00am Take #2 family’s child to test TB. (Free day for us!)

Sunday, August 2
10:00am Sightseeing tour to Chen family temple.

Monday, August 3
10:00am Sightseeing tour to Yuntai Park.

Tuesday, August 4
9:00am Take famlies to do baby’ Visa photo and do child’s medical examination and get the result for TB.

Wednesday, August 5
9:00am Guide goes to American Consulate to hand in families documents

Thursday, August 6
3:00pm Families go to American Consulate for interview and get visas.

Friday, August 7
8:00am Send family #1 and #2 away with CA1310 to Beijing.
8:05am Send family #3 away with MU5316, to Shanghai(Pudong).
8:20am Send family #6 and #7 away with CZ301.
11:00am Send family #4 and #5 away with CZ3103, and then they will arrive into Beijing at 1:50pm.

Accommodations:
Poly Plaza
Phone: 0086-10-65001188
Address: 14 Dong Zhimen Dajie (South), Dongcheng District, China

Friday, August 7th (continued)
1:50PM Pick up family #4 with CZ3103 , and then sent to hotel .
(I'm hoping this is a typo and that they will pick up family #5 (us) as well!)

Saturday, August 8th
10:55AM Send family #4 & 5 away with AA 5791

Not much to block about. Hopefully the next couple of weeks will be uneventful. I'll write more as we get closer to the 23rd.

Oh ya, our luggage won't get lost...

Here is our flight itinerary to and from China. We didn't get a long layover in Seattle :( but it was such a circus purchasing these that I'm just glad we have any tickets at all!!

Depart:
Juneau Int'l Arpt
Thursday, July 23
06:15 AM

Arrive:
Ketchikan Int'l Airport
07:13 AM

Departure:
Ketchikan Int'l Airport
07:53 AM

Arrive:
Seattle/Tacoma Int'l Arpt
10:50 AM

Depart:
Seattle/Tacoma Int'l Arpt
02:15 PM

Arrive:
Tokyo Narita Airport, Tokyo
Friday, July 24
04:40 pm

Depart:
Tokyo Narita Airport,
07:30 pm

Arrive:
Beijing Capital Arpt
10:30 PM

This is our return trip:

Depart:
Beijing Capital Arpt
Saturday, August 8
08:55 AM

Arrive:
Tokyo Narita Airport, Tokyo, JP
01:45 PM

Depart:
Tokyo Narita Airport, Tokyo
04:10 PM

Arrive:
Saturday,August 8
Seattle/Tacoma Int'l Arpt
09:15 AM

Depart:
Seattle/Tacoma Int'l Arpt
12:00 PM

Arrive:
Juneau Int'l Arpt
08:27 PM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

stressing out and baking a cake

Well it's going to cost us a lot more to fly to China than we thought. We were thinking about $1000 each, maybe $800 each if we got lucky. Nope, it's $1700 each. Motherfuck! OK, it's going to be OK. This is going to cost a lot and we knew that. Still, wow.
I've been trying to exercise and eat right, but tonight I'm baking a cake with lots and lots of icing. I need to go into a sugar coma for a while.

We just got our itinerary! This makes it feel very real!!


Dear Families,

Congratulations! The American Consulate has confirmed your appointment for August 5, 2009!

It is very important that you read and understand this entire email as many of your questions will be addressed here.

Tentative group travel schedule:

7/23 - Depart U.S.

7/24 - Arrive in Beijing

7/25 - Beijing Tour

7/26 - Fly to your province

*If you skip Beijing you must be in your province by 7/26 *

7/28 – Gotcha Day!

7/31 - Fly to Guangzhou on the morning

8/4 - AC appointment

8/5 - Family goes to AC to pick up passport with visa and take oath in the afternoon

8/7 – Earliest you can depart from China

Please book your flights before 4:00pm Tuesday!

Graham is starting to make calls now. We will most likely have to leave from Seattle or San Francisco. I wish we could leave from Anchorage, but this adds on about $2000, so that's out of the question.
This is so cool!!

We got our passports back with our Visa in them this morning! They were mailed last Thursday Second Day Air and showed up this morning, 6 days later. Way to go FedEx!!
But that's OK because we weren't really in a time crunch to get them back. However is is nice to know our passports are safe and sound and not floating around somewhere in California at the Chinese Consulate.

Travel in a month (probably)

This is what I got from our agency today:

Hi Families,

We have tentative travel dates for you! We are hoping to have you traveling from July 23rd – August 7th or so. I will be requesting consulate appointments today and we should have confirmation of these dates within the next few days.
I did request earlier travel dates for your group, I know July 23rd feels like it’s a long way away right now, but these were the earliest available dates. Civil Affairs has recommended that you travel during this time and we will be following their recommendation.
Please remember that we do recommend families wait until Consulate appointments are confirmed to make any definite travel plans. Until we receive that confirmation, these dates are still subject to change.

When the dates are finalized we'll go ahead and purchase the airplane tickets.
I was hoping we'd travel sooner. I hope this month goes by fast!

Keep your fingers crossed

No news about travel dates yet. If we don't hear today I'm hoping for tomorrow! I'll post as soon as I hear somthing!

More Good News!

Remember on Tuesday, June 16th when I wrote about the gift package I was sending to Mia. It was through a site called redthreadchina@yahoo.com. I had heard such good things about Ann, the person who runs it, that I felt comfortable ordering from there. Well, she emailed me today saying that she is going to send out her care package tomorrow. She also talked with the orphanage and her FOSTER MOTHER and got updated information!!!!!!!!!!!! I had no idea she was going to do this. Here is what she sent:

Dear Elizabeth :
Below is all the information I got for you :

height :79cm
weight :10kg
head :45cm
chest :45cm
feet :13cm
teeth:up10down 10

Fu Yan Mei loves her foster mom very much ,she always hugs and give kisses to her mom ,she does not like to stay at home ,love to be outside ! If she stay at home for a little long time ,she will cry ! She loves to drink yoghurt ,she drinks baby formula the most ,she used to eat congee too,but now she does not like it very much ,maybe because it is a little too hot there now ...When her mom hold her hand ,she can walk too....That is all I got for you from the orphange ! I will mail your package out tomorrow ,love,Ann

Wow, we didn't know she was with a foster mother, everything we had said she was in the orphanage. This is such good news! She's been loved and taken care of and seems very happy. I'm sorry she will be sad to leave her foster mother, but with us she'll have her forever family.
Wow, I'm so excited I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight!!
:)

Woo Hoo!!!

This is the email I just got from our agency:

Congratulations, families!

Your TAs have arrived! As this package is slightly unexpected, I will be checking in with our staff tonight to get a better idea of guide and appointment availability. From there, I will request consulate appointments for all the families who are “paperwork ready”. (These are families who have current fingerprints and I-171h on file with Great Wall. If I am missing anything from you I will be in touch ASAP).

It may take a day or two for our staff to determine availability and then a day or two for the Consulate to confirm appointments. I will hopefully have a better idea about travel dates early next week.

Congratulations!


OMG I'm so freaking excited!!!!
:)

I can not stand this waiting! Yesterday at the gym I was thinking about Mia and I started crying. Yep, right there on the elliptical I was crying. I tried to act like sweat got in my eyes and that made me tear up. There weren't many people around so it wasn't too embarrassing.

My agency will send over a gift package for our child which of course we did, but I don't know when we're going to travel so I wanted to send another one. Our agency only has one type of gift package, but I found a company that has different care packages to mail to your child's orphanage.
Here's what I'm sending:

Product Description
This PJ package includes:1. One 27-exposures camera 2. One set of PJ 3. One nice blanket 4. Candies to nannies/foster family/kids 5. One letter translation is free 6. Girls get dolls ,boys get cars or other boy dolls

I can also send along a letter and they will enclosed a self addressed envelope with enough postage to get back to me. They can't promise anyone will write, but this makes it more likely.
I hope we hear something soon!!

So we are hope hope hoping to get our TA (travel arrangement) this week! Then we just need out CA (consulate appointment) which may come at the same time or soon after and then we can make travel plans!!
We are arranging and finishing up Mia's room this week and starting to pack so we get an idea of what we have and what we need!
I'll make sure to post a picture of her room when it's all finished!

So that's what a heart attack feels like

I got a call from my adoption agency Wednesday afternoon. The conversation went like this:

Hi! Is Elizabeth there?
Yes, this is me.
Hi Elizabeth, this is your travel advisor, I needed to talk to you about your passport you sent to us so we could get you your visa.
Um, ya. I sent both my husband's and mine in the same envelope. Oh My God, WAS MINE NOT IN THERE?!?! (beginning of heart attack)
Oh no, yours was in there... but you forgot to sign it.
Oh, thank God. OK, what was that? I didn't sign it?
No
Can you sign it for me?
No, that's against the law.
Crap.
I'll tell you what, I'll send the passport to you overnight, you pick it up, sign the passport and overnight it back to me, that way it will be here by Friday (the day they are due).
Well that's good in theory, but nothing is actually "overnight" to Alaska. You know that little asterisks that always says *except in Hawaii and Alaska
Well, let's give it a try. We are actually sending them out Monday, so as long as it gets here by then.
What happens if it doesn't? Will, will, will it delay our travel dates? (I started blacking out)
Oh no. nothing like that, you'd just have to pay a late fee. You'd still get your visa before you traveled.
Oh, thank God. OK, I will sign the passport and send it back ASAP. (heart attack subsides)

I told Graham about the call and he asked what the late fee would be. I said does it even matter? And miracles of miracles I actually got the passport the next day. It should be to my agency on Monday and once again all is right with the world!
Phew.

Look who figured out how to use the digital camera!

These are the pictures we are sending along with our letter to our Mia.

Mommy

Daddy

Yes I know I'm smirking and I need a haircut. I'm getting my haircut this afternoon and I'll work on not smirking in future photos.

XOXOXO

We get to send a short message that will be translated and two pictures of ourselves to Mia's orphanage. It took me a while to write this, but mostly because I was crying so hard. But they were happy tears! Here's what we wrote:

Dear Fu Yan Mei,
We were so excited to see your beautiful picture and even though we haven’t met you yet, we already love you so much! Our home is in Alaska where there are lots of trees and mountains and glaciers. We are so honored that we were picked to be your parents. We are hoping and praying that we go to China soon to meet you, and so you can be part of our family. We can’t wait to hold you in our arms.
We send you lots of love and hugs and kisses,
Mommy and Daddy

Visa

We just finished filling out our Visa paperwork and will send it off to our agency tomorrow. It's exciting to take one step closer to going to China and meeting Mia.

We send our referral approval paperwork to our agency last week, and our agency sent it to China last Friday. So now we just sit and wait for our Travel Approval (I think it's travel approval, or is it travel appointment) to come from China. That's when we'll find out when we go to China!! So a little more waiting, but that's OK because now I have a picture to look at!!

A conversation with my mom:

mom: "Elizabeth, do you have a U tube in your computer?"
me: "Yep, put one in last week." (it's just easier this way)
Mom: "Really? Well that's good because I want you to use it to watch this British woman on a talent show sing. Her voice was amazing!"
me: "I've already seen it. How did you see it??"
mom: "Florence has a U tube in her computer and she invited me over to watch this woman sing."
me: "That was nice of her. You know, I also have a rodent that moves the arrow around on my screen."
mom: "What?"
me: "Nothing"
mom: "Are you making fun of me?"
me: "No, not at all. Love you"
mom: "Love you too"

Sometimes she's impatient...

I just got this in an e-mail this morning:

Growth Report on Fu Yan Mei

Fu Yan Mei (Fu means happiness, Yan means beautiful and Mei means Beautiful), female, was born on 5-13-2008 (estimated by her umbilical cord development level). She was found abandoned at the gate of Police Station on 5-13-2008, a staff of the Hong Shi Zui Resident’s Committee named Ma Shu Qin sent to our insititute for care. According to medical examination by our doctor, she is in good health.

Now, her height is 27.19 inches, weight is 16.5 Ibs, head size is 16.75 inches, chest size is 16.75 inches, foot length is 4.33 inches. She has 2 teeth (0/2). Her main food includes formula, cereal, she also eats noodle, egg, fruit, cracker, bakemeat soup, etc. she especially likes to eat egg. She has 7 meals per day, and usually eats formula at 5:00, eats congee at 9:00, eats congee at 12:00, eats formula at 14:00, eats congee at 16:30, eats formula at 20:00, eats formula at 1:30. She has good appetite, and eats formula 250ml per time or eats congee 120g per time. She sleeps well, every day she gets up at 5:00, has a three hours nap at 9:00 and two hours nap at 14:00 and goes to bed at 20:00. she could sleep through the night, she sleeps in her crib, she sleeps with sucking finger or cloth. She has 1 stool and several pees per day.


Physical development

Now she is able to stand with people holding her armpit, her eyes could watch the rocking rattle-drum. If you pull her wrist slightly, she is able to sit up. She can jump, can roll over while lying on her back, sit independently. She can hold the object with two hands, tear paper, and reach for the toys, she can pass the toy from one hand to the other, if the toy falls, she would look round for it. She could stand steadily with support, could crawl, and walk by holding the hands.

Language development

She could laugh, know the people she met before, and even speak to you with her own words. She could speak “papa”, she could turn her head when she hearing her name, she would request for food as long as seeing people eat things, understand people’s facial expression and knows some words that people said to her. She could feed herself some crackers, she also would request for food as long as seeing people eat things.

Personality

She is an extrovert with outgoing and active personality. She likes imitate people’s actions, listen to music, watch TV, she also likes bath time, playing with other children, toys, she likes imitating, sometimes she is impatient, she likes to play in the crowed place, her favorite person is her caregiver.

Still flying high!

Today we sent in the paperwork accepting our daughter's referral. I was pretty excited. In fact I was so excited that I forgot my purse at the FedEx office. Luckily they called me and we went right back to pick it up.
So now our paperwork is flying to Texas and should get there tomorrow morning. Our agency wanted all the letters back by Friday so they can start travel arrangements, and I didn't want to be that "Alaskan Family that held everything up because it took forever to get their acceptance back", so we paid for overnight shipping. I'll rest easy when I get verification that our paperwork got there.
This is so exciting!!

Ok, you guys were right. I needed to change my blog name, so there you have it! I can now see her and she is absolutely adorable!
Graham has been at a track meet since last Thursday, so I haven't seen him since we got the referral. I want to celebrate, but I want to celebrate with him first. However I think I'm going to have to go buy some baby clothes today! Now that I know what she looks like and what size to get it's going to be so much more fun to buy cute outfits for her!!

Here she is!!

She's about 8 months old here. We think she's adorable!!

We have a daughter!!!!!!

She was born 5/13/2008, Her name is Fu Yan Mei, she was 16.5 pounds and 27 inches at 8 months She is from the Jiangxi provence and Fuzhou City. The person who called me said she has rosy cheeks, little brown hair,full lips, she sits up by herself, she can hold blocks in each hand, she likes to mimic facial expressions, likes music, playing games, and has a ready smile!

We don't have a picture yet but hope to get one later today. I will e-mail it as soon as I get it!

We have a daughter!!!!!!

9:31

I explained to all my co-workers that they can't use the phone today and they were all OK with that! I told them there would be violence if anyone forgets and tries to dial. So they've been warned.

8:31

Got through the meeting somehow.  Now I'm at work just waiting.  Waiting!  Waiting and freaking out!!!

7:21

OK, off to my meeting. I'm going to be so out of it they are going to think I've been drinking!!!

My agency officially confirmed that today will be the day:

"Our Beijing office has been able to confirm that the CCAA has issued referrals and that the cutoff date for this batch of referrals is March 14, 2006. I have checked with our courier again this morning and the package is still scheduled to be delivered today. As soon as it arrives, I will shoot you an email letting you know that the stork has landed and to expect a phone call soon. The courier usually arrives around 1:00 pm central standard time, but he has been known to be late a time or two. So barring any unforeseen courier d el ays, you should expect your phone call later in the day, typically in the afternoon."

Breath in breath out breath in breath out breath in breath out...

6:14 am

I had to take Graham to the airport at 5:30 this morning. It was fine because I was already awake! He's going to a track meet in Fairbanks with the Thunder Mountain Track Team. Yes, he'll be gone when I get the call, but my friends are here so that will be good. So now I've had breakfast and have been reading Rumor Queen. At first I was a little nervous as no more European agencies were getting referrals, but then we found out it's a holiday in a lot of European countries so they won't be getting mail today. AND someone just posted that Ireland just got referrals!!!!!!
(I'll be blogging from school and keep this site updated!!!!!!!!)

WHOO HOO

Check out this blog tomorrow and you'll see a picture of our BABY!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Want to hear the newest rumor?? It's that referrals are already on the way and will get here before this weekend.
Do I believe this? Yes, yes I do.
Why?
Because I am now certifiably insane.
(I'm also really sick and hopped up on cold medication which may be affecting my judgment at the moment)

Nothing new to report. China is still not sending out referrals and we don't know when they'll start again. They also do want families that already have their referrals to travel and pick up their babies. Our hopes are that the swine flu will run it's coarse quickly and China will get back to business as usual.

May 10th

Today is yucky for so many reasons.
My brother was deployed for Iraq 4 years ago on Mother's Day. It's the last time his wife and three sons saw him, until they brought him back for his funeral. So this is a hard day for my sister-in-law and my nephews. And then there is my mom who gets flowers from the Gold Star Mothers and the USO every Mother's Day. This day is hard for her too, which means I'm on the phone with her a lot.
And then, not as depressing, but still there, today is the 36th week of waiting for our baby.
I'll be glad when this weekend is over, I'm actually looking forward to Monday!

Clear as mud

I had some people ask me about what the status was on the adoption so I thought I'd just put up a quick post. Basically, nothing new. Some say the referrals might be sent Friday, others are saying they have no idea when they'll start sending them again.
I'll make sure to post if I hear anything new!

confirmed

Our agency just e-mailed us and said
"The CCAA will delay the arrival of referrals due to the Swine Flu outbreak."
They don't know how long, but they will keep us informed. So I have no idea when we'll get her picture much less travel to go get her.
This is becoming the most depressing block ever.
:(

Confusing

Some agencies (mine included) have been directly told by someone at CCAA that the referrals will come out next week and people can still travel. Two other agencies have been told no referrals or traveling will happen for another 20-30 days when they will then reevaluate the situation. All the agencies are reliable, so I can only presume that they are all talking to different people at the CCAA and are getting conflicting stories. Which then tells me that they haven't made a decision of what to do about Swine flu yet.
All I know is after more than three years I thought I'd see my baby's face this week or early next and now it's a very real possibility that I won't. This sucks.

bad news

It is rumored and has been confirmed by a couple of agencies that China is not sending referrals at this time due to the swine flu outbreak.

Since there is no news, I thought I'd tell a story of how I met one of my neighbors. We had just moved into the house and it was a nice sunny day. We didn't have our fence up yet, and we had the door to the garage open and the door from the garage to the kitchen open. Graham had the dogs on a walk and I was going to go to the bathroom really fast before I started working in the yard. All of a sudden I heard the familiar sound of a dog head banging into a closed door. The door to the bathroom hadn't latched and in walked a big black lab. We don't own a big black lab. So I said "Well, hello there." Then from outside I heard someone calling "Pepper! Pepper!" So I looked at him again and said "Well, hello Pepper." then he turned and wanted me to scratch his butt.
So I finished up and took Pepper back outside and found the lady who was calling for him. She said "Oh my gosh, did he just walk into your house? I'm so embarrassed!" When I told her he didn't just walk into the house but also visited me while I was going to the bathroom she just about died of embarrassment. But I just thought it was funny.
Pepper passed away, but now they have Max who comes over to our yard for playdates. He's also a big black lab. I'm expecting him to walk in while I'm taking a bath anytime now.

Nothing new

We're hoping to hear something this week or early next week (but I'm really hoping this week). The Swine Flu has me a little nervous, but hopefully it'll be contained by the time we need to travel. I'll post here if I hear anything!
:)

There are now two agencies saying that they think the cut off will be March 14, 2006. That means March 10th would be in and we'd get matched. Now that it's the weekend we won't hear anymore until Monday. Ugh, this weekend is going to take forever.

There has been a rumor that China has started matching. They could be matching us with our daughter right now!! I'm getting a little woozy thinking about it!

Welcome to my block

No news. No rumors. But I'll write here as soon as I hear something.
Oh, my mom asked me the other day if I had a "block"?
I said "A block?"
"Ya, you know, that thing you can write on?"
"Mom, what are you talking about??"
"You know, on the computer?"
"Oh, a blog? "
"Ya ya, a blog."
"Nope, don't have one of those."

( I will, however, refer to this as my "block" from now on because it makes me giggle every time I say it)

(And don't think I'm being mean, my mom and I talk about three times a week. She is updated on my life! And she doesn't even have a computer. And she'd bug my aunt to read it to her over the phone then call me and ask questions for an hour afterwards. No, she doesn't need to know about my block.)

On one of our many trips to Fred Meyers yesterday Graham was looking at some shirts. I asked him if he needed new clothes and he said "No, I just thought I'd look for some cool tops for our trip to China. I don't think I have anything for such a hot climate" This is probably the first time he has acknowledged in my presences that he is actually thinking about the adoption. He's been so laissez-faire for the past three years, it's weird to hear him talk like it's actually going to happen.

So the plan was always I was going to try and work half time and stay home with the baby the other part of the day when we got back from China. We were all in agreement, however my school district didn't get the memo and won't let me go half time. Apparently it's too hard to fill a Deaf Ed. position so I had to stay there instead of going to a part time sped job. So I was very stressed and upset. Then Graham finds out that another science teacher in his highschool is having a baby and wants to job share (job shares are OK with the district). This means Graham could go half time and stay home with Mia. Except I was suppose to stay home with Mia. But that's not going to happen. And honestly as along as one of is home with her I will feel so much better. However the one staying home has only held a baby once before. At a picnic. About 15 years ago. He also won't pick up the dog poop in the backyard because it grosses him out. This should be interesting.
Oh, and he doesn't get to be all BFF with my BFF (Hi Anna) just because she'll be home with her baby to. He can call her with questions or advice, but the second they start going out to get pedicures together I'm going to get pissed.

Alright, I'm back

I had a bit of a meltdown this weekend. I guess not getting matched in the last batch hit me way harder than I thought. I actually wanted to pull our paperwork and quit the adoption. That would show China for jerking me around. FOR OVER THREE YEARS .
But my friends and family rode out my hysteria and I have come back to only mildly insane. And I actually felt a little tiny glimmer of excitement. It only lasted about 10 seconds, but at least it was there.
So, since we should know something in about three weeks I'll keep blogging. All they have to match is 2 days and we'll be in. Of coarse I saw a rumor yesterday where they might just match one day, but I'm choosing to ignore that.

This month is going to be crazy because of work and life. I probably wouldn't check this blog for a couple of weeks.

I'm trying to decide if I should get an iPhone. Neither Graham or I have ever owned a cell phone before. We just switched providers for our cordless and apparently we got new features. I was talking to someone and I heard a beep beep and I totally panicked! I pushed the "talk" button and hung up on everyone. I told myself I wasn't going to get a cell phone until I'd mastered the phone in my house.
But another teacher at work has one and it's so cool! My friend (Hi Anna!) has an iTouch and said if I'm going to get something it should be the iPhone (did I get that right or did I just put words into your mouth?)
See, I thought I could take it to China with us and use the Internet. And if Graham gets one too then we can call each other and text and stuff!
We could get rid of our land line and just use our cell phones!! Woo Hoo, we'd be living in the year 2009!!
Next we should look into getting broadcast television!
And maybe stop churning our own butter!

Bad news. We weren't in this batch. It's a 99.9% chance we'll be matched next time. Either the end of April or the very beginning May.

Looks like we won't hear anything until Wednesday or Thursday. Grrrr, this is driving me crazy!!

See how calm and Zen I'm being

OK, I'm a little more sane this morning. I am going to be OK if we don't make this batch, I just got a little overexcited there for a moment. It'll happen when it happens.

breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out...

Soooo, guess what I'm not doing?? I am not sleeping, that's what. How can I sleep when there's a good possibility that we'll get "the call" tomorrow. Tomorrow! After 3 years of waiting it might finally be our time?? We might see a picture of our baby!!!! Our Mia!!!
OK, I have to be somewhat realistic and realize that we really may not be matched, But I hope hope hope we are!!!!
Oh, I also wanted to say "Thank You" to whoever left the bag of new baby clothes on our front porch. I assume it was one of my friends. Or. Maybe it was a stork!! Maybe it WAS A SIGN!! MAYBE WE WILL BE MATCHED TOMORROW?!?!?!

(OK, obviously I'm not even the teeniest tiniest bit rational. This is craziness!)

The rumor is that adoption agencies should be getting referrals tomorrow or Tuesday. I 100% believe we are in this batch, which means of coarse we won't be. That' going to be really hard.
I post as soon as I know.
(I'm a little sick to my stomach)

Guess who has a new shrine to worship at? I DO, I DO!
Graham and I were at St. Vincent de Paul's and one of the volunteers walk in with a new item. It was a Graco Play and Go (kinda like a play pen). She was talking with the other volunteer as to what price they should put on it. "$5.00?" said the one "No, it's in really good shape and very clean, how about $10.00?" I looked at Graham and said "We should totally get that!" The volunteer said they don't get them donated that often and rarely in this good of shape!! So we snatched it up and brought it home!
It's all put together in the baby's room next to the crib and has pink fluffy blankets and stuffed animals in it and when I look at it a beam of sunlight breaks through the clouds and I hear angels singing.
Then I had to go to the store to get milk. I had to go to Fred Meyer's which I hate because it's always so busy. But then I saw another beam of light and heard angels singing again, and when I looked up I saw Girl Scouts selling more cookies. I thought they were all done selling! I bought many many boxes!
Now I have to go give the dogs a bath, I have a feeling there will be no sunlight or singing angles involved.
Oh, one more thing, there is a rumor that referrals will probably be arriving on Tuesday!!!!!

The only rumors out there are that the CCAA is matching. So hopfully they'll send out the matches next week!! I really really hope we're in this batch!!
And I wanted to say "Hi" to my friend in Fargo who had to evacuate because of the flooding. I know she reads this blog, so "Hi Soozie. I hope you and the pets are doing the best you can under such stressful situations. I've been getting updates from your sister on Facebook. I'm worried about you and hope you're all doing OK. I wish I lived closer so I could help."
-Elizabeth

I ate all the girl scout cookies

Nothing new. Well, there are some rouge rumors out there saying they'll either match just March 7th or they will match the 7th through through the 10th. Of coarse I'm hoping for the 10th. I'm going crazy here. I actually went and exercised again to help with the stress. You know things are getting bad when I willingly go to the gym.
We should hear any day now, so I'll post as soon as I hear anything!

Waiting....waiting....waiting
I hope to hear some rumors this week. Hopefully early this week, I really hope we're in this batch! As soon as there are any rumors I'll post them!!
Until then I will spend my spring break being obsessed with playing Animal Crossing City Folks on the Wii. And eating Girl Scout cookies. Many many Girl Scout cookies!
:)

At least I whispered it.

So Graham and I are standing in Church and the children's choir comes up front to sing. They are all little and cute and I start to tear up, (because I'm not handling this adoption anxiety very well I tend to break down when I see little kids.) Then they start singing and signing in American sign language at the same time! I lean over to Graham and say "God, they're fucking killing me here!"
Yes I know, I'm going straight to hell.

meme

I was tagged to write about 6 things or habits of no importance about me. Hmmm, let me see.

1. I will read the last page of a book first so I know how it ends. Same with a movie, I'll skip to the last scene first, then go back and watch the whole film. I don't like surprises.

2. I'm half Canadian and have a duel citizenship.

3. Neither I or my husband have a cell phone.

4. I don't eat meat (I'm not a vegetarian, I just don't eat meat).

5. I hate science fiction genre, but I finally broke down and read that stupid Twilight series. And yes I totally got sucked into it! (and now I want to see the movie).

6. I hate to exercise with a passion!

And it'd be nice to have a Governor that's a little bit sane too.

Well, early rumors are good, but early rumors are always good, then the rumors start getting bad. We need China to match only 4 days, and I'm really hoping they can do it. I don't know if I can do another month of this. I mean, I know I can, but I'm starting to understand what a nervous breakdown feels like. Work is extremely stressful right now and that and this wait is taking it's toll. When I feel this way I revert to my run away strategy and look for other places to live, because (sarcastic voice) you know things will be better there. So I looked up Utah, very pretty, good home prices, but I forgot it's the desert, and deserts have snakes and worse, big spiders. So Utah is out. Then I looked at Minnesota. It's pretty and a lot like Alaska, but waaay too cold. If I'm leaving Alaska then I want something at least a little warmer.
So I need a place where there are no spiders, snakes, alligators, lizards, cockroaches or hippies. Do any of you know a place like that??

Happy Anniversary (kinda)

Today is our LID anniversary. Three years ago China logged in our paperwork and we were officially in line to meet our daughter. At that time we were told that in one year we would be home with our daughter. Well, now three years later we are still about 3-4 months before we meet our Mia. But I am happier we are so close.
Around July 2008 I was ready to quit. I was dead serious, I couldn't take it anymore. I told Graham that I was done and I wanted to pull our paperwork. He asked we stay in for 6 more months and then if I still felt I couldn't do it we would pull our dossier.
Luckily I got through that hopeless phase and am back to my normal psycho crazy perspective parent phase.
I'm so glad there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I hope I'm not jinxing myself right now, but I do believe we'll be spending the summer with our Mia. I can't wait!

4 days matched, 4 to go!

Yep, China matched 4 more days this month which leaves us with 4 days until our LID. They matched through March 6, 2006 and we're logged in March 10, 2006.
So, if they were to match another 4 days next month that would mean we're in! We would finally see our baby's face! But they will not match 4 days because March 7th is HUGE. They will probably get through the 7th and then the next month they'll get through the 10th.
So, two more months. Who knew this wait would get harder the closer we got!!

Yikes!

Oh, on a different topic, I turned 40 today! 40, how'd that happen??

Sorry I've been so quiet, there have been absolutely no rumors this month. It's driving me crazy! We've heard something has been mailed in the past few days and we're hoping it's referrals. If so, we should know tomorrow or Friday how many days were matched. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for at least 3 days!

Good news! USCIS processed our I-600A form and they sent us back an approved I-171H form. Our I-171H expires August 3, 2010 and our fingerprints for the I-171H expire September 5, 2009.
Do you know what this means?
Do you?
It means I never have to deal with the mother fuckers at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Anchorage division again.
Halle-fuckin-lujah

Ideas?

I work with someone I really admire. She has an amazing work ethic and is always taking continuing education classes so she can keep up on the newest ideas in her field. If I could be half the teacher she is I'd be thrilled. However another colleague and I have noticed she's a bit stressed. She never complains, but the paperwork in our field is ridiculous and she is often at work hours after the end of the day filling out paperwork.
We want to do something nice for her, but don't want to get the generic coffee card and flowers. If you were getting a little burnt out, what could someone give you that would perk you up?

ETA: OK, I just re-read that last sentence. Um, only helpful suggestions would be great!

Things I need to do (or stop doing) before I become a parent!

So I've decided to make a list of things to do or stop doing before we get our baby. Here goes:

1. Stop swearing so much
2. Eat healthier
3. Workout more
4. Save more money
5. Make friends with some people from China
6. Stop using the Lord's name in vain so much (see #1) (and really, I wouldn't do it so much if Graham didn't laugh. I don't need any more encouragement)
7. Train dogs to be good (another source leading to #1 and #6)
8. Learn how to cook things that need more than just heating up in the microwave.
9. Learn Chinese (no problem)
10. Beat Anna and Heidi at Wii Cheerleading

Well, I broke down and purchased my first game console since my Atari 2600 in the 70's. Yes we bought a Wii!
Actually it started with an e-mail I got from my husband that said;
"Let's go shopping after school today."
I read it out loud and started whining to my coworkers "Why does he want to go shopping? We just went shopping. I'm tired and hungry. I don't want to go shopping, he can go without me!" Then a coworker said "Maybe he doesn't want to shop for food, maybe he wants to get something fun?" Which I whined even louder saying "Fun?!? We never shop for anything fun. All we do is shop for food. I hate shopping! I'm not going!"
So I came home all in a grump and Graham said "Let's go get a Wii!!"
So off we went to Costco to buy ourselves a Wii. I made the mistake of asking about getting more game cartridges, and was told "There are no game cartridges grandma, they use CDs now" Oh shut up!
So we came home and set it all up and commenced on traumatizing our dogs. Poor things didn't know what we were doing, but they didn't like it. They ended up hiding in the bedroom as we tried hula hooping and yoga and baseball!
What fun! I did just about break my neck doing the Tree Pose, but I got enough points to beat Graham's score. And really, that's all that matters!

I thought I'd explain what I mean when I talk about rumors from China. Approximately every month China sends out a batch of referrals. Referrals are information about your child and it's the first time you get to see your baby and learn anything about her. It's a pretty exciting time. We never know when (or if) China is going to send the referrals. And to make it more fun the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs, the central agency that handles domestic adoptions in China) tells different information to different adoption agencies. Then sometimes there will be a "leak" where someone who works there and we'll have some added information. China is very erratic and secretive about the whole process so any information we can glean is greedily accepted. Luckily there is a blogger that checks all the different adoption agency's websites in American and Europe and people send her rumors they've heard. She's called The Rumor Queen. Sometimes she gets a little preachy, but that doesn't stop me from checking her site 20 times a day to see if she's heard anything new. Well, I used to check her site 20 times until my school district blocked it! (Bastards!) So now I have to e-mail my friend and ask her to check Rumor Queen for me and e-mail me back if there is any new information (Hi Anna!). Of coarse I do all this during my breaks and lunch time. No really, I do.

China officially matched only 2 days, which officially sucks.

new rumor

So the new rumor is that China matched only 2 days. This is a far cry from the first crazy rumor of 20 days. 2 days is pretty depressing. It's not official yet, but it's a pretty strong rumor so I think it'll come true.
If China continues matching at this rate, we will get our referral in 4 months. Unless they start doing 1 day batches and don't say "Oh no, China would never do that!!" I wouldn't be surprised if China found a way to turn back time so that I was actually getting farther away from our referral then closer!!

Boring Post

No new rumors yet. But I check the Rumor Queen hourly, so maybe she'll post something later on today.
Our task for today is sending USCIS our I-600A form and our new home-study update so we can get a current I-171H. We are also sending along a copy of our last home-study update and the original home-study, as well as a copy of our current I-171H (which will expire soon) and all past I-171H forms we have. I will send everything they may need or possibly want and I predict it will still take 6 weeks and many many phone calls before we get our correct I-171H back. This will be the VERY LAST time we will have to deal with *&$%# USCIS (knock on wood) before we go to China. I am keeping a log of how unhelpful, disrespectful and unavailable they have been and plan on writing a very detailed letter to our senator. I know it won't do anything, but it will make me feel better.
So once I mail this letter off tomorrow we should be done with paperwork for a while. That will sure feel good.
:)

Sucka

I don't know how many times I have to beat my head against a brick wall to figure out that it hurts when you do that!
I totally got sucked into the rumor that "China was going to match 20 days this month". Since I'm only 10 days away that would mean we would be matched with our baby. OF COARSE they aren't going to match 20 days this month. They haven't matched over, what, 8 days, for the last three years!
Oh, and it gets better. Yesterday I told everyone at work that "I'm going to be matched this month. In fact we'll probably be matched next week!!" So now everyone is coming up to me to find out what's going on with the adoption. Today I realized what an IDIOT I am and they are probably going to only match 3 days.
Here's what I think they are going to do:
End of January they match 2 days
End of March they match 2 days
End of April they match another 3 days
End of May they match at least 2 days
End of June they match at least 1 day
If this holds out then we'll be referred in 5 months.
Not next week.
God, I should not be allowed to speak to people.

Oh ya, there's Harvey Korman too.

Jesus, Joseph and Mary please help me! My husband is watching the "Star Wars Holiday TV Special" from 1978 for the third time in a row. Good God there's Bea Arthur and Art Carney and singing and dancing. And Graham keeps telling me this is the "FIRST TIME WE GET TO SEE BOBA FET!!!" or something. Make it stop! (Oh by the way, it really drives him nuts when I call it Star Trek instead of Star Wars. Sheesh, like there's a difference.)

whine whine whine

No new rumors about the adoption yet. I hope we hear something next week. I really hope they send a batch of referrals before Chinese New Year, otherwise we'll have to wait an extra week before the CCAI gets back to work.
In other news we've gotten about 4 feet of snow in the last couple of days. We even had a snow-day of Friday! But all we did is shovel shovel shovel. We shovel the walk, the driveway, the berm when the plow goes by. We shoveled the roof and had to dig out the cars at least three times! Sheesh, enough! And Graham twisted his ankle yesterday taking the dogs for a walk around the block. So today's shoveling duties were all mine! I don't think I'll have to go to the gym for a week!
But the good news is we shouldn't get any more snow for a while. The bad news is it's suppose to rain for the next week. I have a feeling our yard is going to be a swamp!
Ahhh, I love living in Juneau.

So, today in the teacher's lounge we were discussing our most embarrassing moments of 2008. Gosh, I had so many to choose from. Luckily one of my co-workers helped me remember the one she thought was the funniest.
One Sunday afternoon Graham and I were at our local Costco. We looked at a bunch of stuff together, books, movies, snow tires etc. Then we got up near the clothes. I found a display of underwear and I told Graham I was going to get some. They came in a three pack and were all so pretty, pink and white stripped, baby blue, flowered, but I couldn't find my size. I knelt down to dig in the back to find my size and Graham said "I'll be right back"
I looked and looked but all they had in my size was the three pack of black grey and white. So I have all these packages of underwear around me and Graham comes up next to me with the cart. I put everything back and threw my undies in the cart and said "Of coarse they don't have any of the pretty colors for my fat ass, come on lets go look at the baby stuff" and I grabbed the front of the cart and started to pull it. That's when I heard "Um, excuse me, I think you think I'm someone else." For the first time I actually turned around and guess what? It wasn't Graham pushing the cart. No it was some older man, with nothing in his cart. Well, nothing except for my one package of underwear. So I mumbled "ohmyGodI'msosorry", reached in his cart to take out my package of grey, white and black fat ass underwear, and ran to find Graham who had no idea why I was so mad at him.
It took me three weeks before I'd go back into Costco. Oh, and I love how Graham keeps reminding me that somewhere in Juneau there's some old man saying telling this same story from his point of view.
From now on I'm buying all my underwear on the internet!

Keep 'em coming

Well, we thought we had a keeper this afternoon when we both agreed on MaryRose. It's still a contender, but it's not settled yet. We also got a great suggestion from Anna who suggested the name Kit. We'd name her Kathleen and call her Kit.
Graham screwed up his face at Eleanor (I personally love it) and at Jocelyn (another name I love. We could call her Josie). Arrg this is maddening. I want to get the name settled and he just doesn't feel any rush.
And don't worry, we won't name her Hanna or Emma or Kayla, Greyson, Olivia, Isabel, Chelsea Hope or Grace. They are all pretty names, but we have a million of them at school and I wanted something a little more unique.
Oh, and Mia is still a strong contender.
Thanks for all your suggestions, if you have anymore please leave them in the comments. We need all the help we can get!

Help Wanted!

Sheesh, just when I think we had it all settled Graham starts saying he's not sure about Frances after all! So I asked him if he still wanted Mia and he said he was not leaning towards Mia anymore either. OK, so I asked if he had any ideas of his own or was he just planning on letting me think up the names and then he'd shoot them down? He said he just just couldn't think of any names right now. Well, get thinking mister!!
So I'm asking my blog friends if you have any ideas? We would like an older name like Olivia, Hannah, Isabel, Emma, Grace, Hope; but all those have become very popular. Which is why I thought Frances was so perfect. OK, I also like the name Florence (my grandma's name) but Graham ( and others) had a very strong negative reaction to that one, so it's out. I also love the name Tess, but unfortunately I named the dog Tess over 5 years ago. I've suggested that we could re-name Tess to something else and then use it for our baby, but Graham thought it would be like naming our kid after our dog, and that was just too weird. OK, and a couple more names I really love; Yesenia and Guadalupe. These were the names of two sweet little girls I taught in Chicago and I just fell in love with both names! I know, I know, it's be strange to name our Chinese baby traditional Mexican and Spanish names and I know we won't end up naming her either, but I still love them! And just so you don't think I'm the only one with strange name ideas, Graham wants to name her Kix, after Kix Brooks of Brooks and Dunn the country singers. And God help me but I think Kix is kinda cute.
So she could be Kix Storey or maybe Guadalupe Storey or who knows.
Please, for the love of God, help us think of some normal names!

Name Change

Well, for the past three years we have been referring to our baby as Mia. It was the only name both my husband and I liked and agreed on. I have never been 100% sold on it, and have seen it become more and more popular (one of the dilemmas of being a teacher).
I have always always loved the name Frances, but for some reason I didn't think Graham liked it. Today I mentioned that I though Frances Rose would be a pretty name and he whole heartily agreed. And it honors both our mothers. Rose is his mother's name and my mom's middle name is Francis.
If we do decide on that name then she would be Frances Rose Storey
We probably won't definitively decide until we meet our daughter, and who knows? She might end up keeping her Chinese name or maybe we'll go back to Mia or something different all together!
Trying to figure out what to name our baby, what a fun problem to have!