We have Confirmation..

Okay...booking flights to China is a night mare...let me just say that! But our dates are confirmed and we are going as scheduled! More details to follow!

Wish I was sleeping...

So the fact that Im blogging at 4am really has more to do with getting just enough sleep to get up and my son waking me up than it does excitement over the trip. I hate it when that happens. I have never really required that much sleep and tend to do just fine on 4 - 6 hours per night. Sure, I have probably shortened my life span by 5 years...but its not like I don't try to sleep. Anyway, there is always that point when I have crossed that invisible threashhold of "enough" sleep and when Jack will wake me up for...water, ice cream, guitar hero...fill in the blank.... and when that happens...well, its 4am and Im blogging. Wouldnt be too bad except for that fact that I play hockey on Wednesday nights and am usually out until very late and I really do want to get some stuff done today.

Yesterday I got the gifts for the officials. I went to Interior Marketplace and my good friend Mary Nell helped me pick out some very nice American made candles ( all red of course...no white as I have learned that the color white is bad luck) and a very nice hand towel made in Alabama. I also drove by the mother ship...aka - Tar-get and picked up a few things to entertain the little princess in the hotel and plane. Stuff like playdoh, crayons, puzzles, paper dolls ( who knew they even made such things), and combined with a cute little doll and a lace and trace game given to us by our friends Lou and Linda we should be all set!

I am looking to borrow a digital camera. We have one and it does okay..but after Jack was done disassembling the lens from our video camera he decided to move on to the digital camera. It will work as long as I manually open the lens cap with my two fingers and honestly, I just dont want to trust it to take all the shots I want to take during this trip. So...as strange as this request is..if someone has a digital camera that they wouldnt mind loaning us...something powerful and compact...we will be forever greatful. Obviously, if it falls into the hands of my 5 year old we will have no problems replacing said camera. I just dont trust this experience to our existing camera and since our friends Jaci and Steve were nice enough to loan us their video camera - I dont want to take their camera too.

The travel confirmation will come this morning....do you see how confident we are now...not "SHOULD come"...but will come. Thats right...we have travel approval...we are extremely confident now. Watch out China!

Need to continue to work on our packing list....still hasnt really sunk in that we are going. Maybe it will sink in on the plane?

More updates later!

Starting to sink in.....GULP....

We are going to China. We are going to China. We are going to China. WILD! And when we come back from China we will have an extra person with us. Even the three year wait cant prepare you to walk into a room as a couple and walk out with this person that is basically yours... FOREVER.

We couldn't be more excited...Rob is thrilled and not even worried about missing a work trip to DC that is now not going to happen for him. Rob, who is not prone to being excited about anything outside the occasional win from the San Diego Chargers, is walking on a cloud.... a very manly cloud...but a cloud none the less.

I am thinking about everything that I need to do to go. Getting the boys schedules and information ready for my very capable in-laws ( and Im not just saying that becuase I know you check the blog every day!). Getting the gifts we must present ready. Making sure we have our paperwork all ready to go... clothes? Coats? hats? Shoes in her size? What toys can we fit in our bag? Computer equipment? We are borrowing a video camera from a friend ( thanks Jaci) because Jack thought it would be a good idea to take the lens off of ours. Just a million things... but it will all be fine...

We have recieved so much support from family and friends....its overwhelming to think how much this little girl is loved by hundreds of people that she doesnt even know. We have already setup doctors appointments and evaluations upon our return... excting times are ahead for sure!

The next step is to get the Consulate Appoinment Confirmation which will come either today or tomorrow at the latest ...and then we are off. I will write and post pictures as much as I can. Other families dont seem to have any problems doing it, so I am assuming we will be able to as well.

Giddy Up! Molly is coming home!

Thats right! We have it! We are going to China. The parents are flying in to take the boys and keep them on schedule and Rob and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary next to the Great Wall! We will spend approximately 5 days in China alone before we get Molly!

I was actually quite surprised to get it today. So much that I didnt even take my cell phone with me while I was out this morning. Mostly becasue I cant seem to find it...but last week I wouldnt have left the house without it... this week I was like... Uh...whatever? So when I walked in the house after picking Jack up from school and saw that there wasnt a message on the answering machine, I didnt give it a second thought. Buuuuuuut...then, I walked over to the phone and scrolled through the calls that I had received and saw that the agency had called us. Well, it couldnt be important because they would leave a message, right? So I just pick up the phone and call them back. I get Elana on the phone and she says "So...are you ready to go to China?"

WOAH! Uh...yeah.... so we are going to China. Im in shock and the best part is that as long as these dates get confirmed... ( and this is really the best part) my sister gets to go with us! I did ask about the chances of these tenative travel dates getting confirmed and we were told that the CCAA had the CA dates WIDE open...so it really looks good!

Thank you God!!!




I guess I should start packing.

Feeling Optimistic about this week...

We had a great weekend...very relaxing...no stress over the TA which is nice for a change. We had our end of season soccer party with the Blue Thunder Sharks. The Blue Thunder Sharks are the U6 soccer team that both boys played on this year. We really lucked out with a fantastic team and fun parents! It was a great time! Then Rob and I had our second game of the season with our co-ed hockey team and we won 8-2. Of course it helped that the other team had a few players ejected because they started fighting... but they were fighting each other...so things kind of spiraled downward for them after that. It was really quite funny from where I was sitting...two grown men talking about meeting each other in the parking lot.... over hockey. Just amazing! That never happens on my all women's hockey team!

Feeling that this is our week! We will get some info and start taking the next steps. We are extremely short on wiggle room for my sister being able to join us...but there is nothing we can do to change that so we just have to go with it.

Looking forward to Monday!

Not going to happen this week...

Obviously, this week wasnt our week. I would love to write how surprised I am...but frankly Im not. The delay in the Travel Approval is more in line with what we have been experiencing the last three years and not at all unusual. I would venture to say that getting any news and moving along as we had with the LOI and LOA was an unusual thing.

At one point I was told that we required an amended home study in order to even arrange for the Consulate Appointment so I wrote daily emails to the INS and called them. Tried to call in favors from multiple friends....anything to get that paperwork processed and in our mailbox. So finally this paperwork arrives and I call the agency to let them know that the paperwork I just got looks IDENTICAL to what I already had. I was led to believe from the agency that there would be something on the paperwork that would note that Molly was a special needs child and that we were approved to adopt a special needs child who is older than move adopted girls from China. I was told that without this special paragaraph we would not be allowed to book a CA or get her a visa....but ours looked identical to what we already had. When I told the agency this, they just said" Hmmm...Alabama must be one of those states that dont mention special needs on this form...so whatever you have will be fine"

Im dumbfounded....the hours and time and worry spent on trying to get this form when I was told it was mandatory when actually, it wasnt....not based on where Im living. THIS is what we are accustomed to from our agency as well as the entire adoption process. This is what we have experienced for the past three years and so am I shocked that the CCAA basically just shut down for a week and are now backlogged with paper processing and missed our 3 week LOA to TA time line...nope...not at all. Par for the course.

Hopefully next week will be our week.

Things COULD be worse...

So I found out that a family that has an LOI ( letter of intent) of September 3 is STILL waiting for their LOA! Thats eight weeks or something...someone do the math. Poor Beth! As hard as it may seem to be waiting over 4 weeks for our TA this poor family has no idea when their LOA will show up and has no idea what the hold up is? So....the only thing we can do is just take a deep breath and step back from this whole thing and let it go. Cant control it...cant make a phone call and fix it... I learned that with trying to deal with the INS. Cant help but feel jealous of those people who were just three days ahead of us and still seem to be moving along... happy for them...dont get me wrong...but a tad jealous. We have been "what if-ing" our selves all week. If only I had found her sooner.... if only the LOA had been submitted sooner...if only it had come on a Wednesday and then appeared in China BEFORE the national holiday.... you can drive yourself crazy doing this and frankly I think I mentally left the reservation a few weeks ago.

There are plenty of things still to do around here...and ideas on what to pack...things to buy...etc. For some reason it is difficult to make any more moves until we get the TA... Im one of those people that like pressure and a deadline...and without a TA, I dont have one.

Robby did ask if we were going to love her more than we love him and Jack...only because he is a witness to the excitement surrounding her and has heard me tell the same stories and updates a million times. I explained to him that obviously we love all the kids and that if he had only seen how much excitement that surrounded him before he was born he wouldnt even ask that question. Of course, we would bypass the first three months when I was sick as a dog because of him... I dont think knowing that would help his self esteem much. "Gee honey, we loved you from the beginning...except for when mommy was sneaking naps at work in the womens restroom and throwing up the $40 fruit plate she ordered in a San Diego hotel"

Sign language class tonight... so far we have learned about 250 or so words....most of them I remember. I dont know that we will get to finish the class prior to leaving for China or when we will be able to move on to the next one. We are going to continue to sign even if she is a CI candidate even though it goes against what some AV therapists would recommend...but I have spoken to several parents of deaf kids who have seen much greater results with their kids with CI/hearing aids AND signing.

What is the plan after we get the TA? Well, then we get an estimate on the Consulate Appointments that are available and wait two or three days for the date to be confirmed. After that we make flight plans, call the grandparents who have been OH SO GENEROUS to fly out here like Delta Force at a minutes notice if necessary! Throw a few things in a bag and try to prepare for something that no amount of time or planning can truly prepare us for...who are we kidding?

Several people have asked what we need in terms of things they can buy us and honestly...we dont really need anything right now. We have more clothes for her than both the boys put together and kept all our developmental toys for her to use. Off the top of my head what we will REALLY need in the beginning is childcare for the boys from time to time as we drive her to Birmingham for her physical and hearing evaluations. If we go the CI route we will be driving to Birmingham once a week....so the childcare would be a huge thing for us. Oh..and if you think you are going to be funny and buy her something frilly - lacey - poofy - cutesy...ect...well go right ahead. As long as you are prepared to see it for sale on EBAY you have our blessing! :)

For those of you that expect the instant bond and stories of rainbows and butterflies...well, dont kid yourself. This poor kid is not going to like us in the beginning and most likly really NOT like me.. she will have been taken from her foster mother and handed off to some weird crazy lady with weird color skin that smells funny and keeps trying to hug and kiss her. What would you do? Remember when you were a kid and that weird Aunt of yours would show up from time to time and get into your personal space and try to hug and kiss you and all you wanted to do was run away and hide...well, imagine that scenario and that is probably what we are looking at. It will pass though and before you know it she will rolling her eyes at me as she storms up the stairs to spend time in her room..probably signing something offensive in hopes that I dont see it..but I know all the bad words...in fact they are the ones that I know best...so good luck on that one kid!

Okay...so back to real life... teacher conferences...gift shopping for Chinese officials...laundry and THANKS TO GOD that I get to play hockey tonight. I have rambled enough here today.