I know, I know...

Ok. So before you give me a hard time, I couldn't help myself. I had to change the header to finally say "Wises 3" and not "2 almost 3"! One thing led to another and well... I just ended up changing it all. Sigh. It's an obsession. It's also a way to not do what I need to be doing! Cleaning the house and packing!

So... off to give this "preparing" thing another try. My head is so full of baby that I am having a hard time focusing. I'll let you know how it goes! :)

19 more days until we leave for China / 24 more sleeps to Zoey!

PACKING!

In 20 days we will be getting on our "Red Eye" flight to China!!! (via LAX and Seoul) It turns out that we will be on our international flight with approximately 5 other families from our group. Can you imagine the return trip home? 5 Babies from the same orphanage... all about the same age! Holy mole! This is going to be a wild and wonderful ride!

Today my focus is shifting to packing and getting things around the house ready for us to leave. It looks like a bomb went off in parts of my house! How we are going to pack only 2 suitcases, 44 lbs each, with all of our stuff and Zoey's is still a mystery to me. I know that many have gone before us and have done this so I have hope that I can make this happen!


Zoey's room is NOT neat and tidy. It is a big ol' MESS!


I did not know they make this much medicine for babies... or people in general. Who knew that medicine could take up a whole suitcase??? I have some serious work to do!



25 MORE SLEEPS TO ZOEY

Sunny Skies, No Clouds In Sight! We Have Tickets to China!

So first of all, I want to say thank you to everyone who has kept us in your thoughts. The situation with our paperwork has been resolved and we are good to go! Yippe!!! We have our Consulate Apt. and we already have our flights to China! Things are moving so quickly now! For the first time in a very long time, I feel like we have the green light! We can finally concentrate on being happy to see our baby girl!

I can officially say.... drum roll please!

26 more sleeps until we have Xiao Guo in our arms!!!!!

We have a Consulate Apt!

Things are moving quickly!! We received notice this morning that we have a Consulate Appointment! I am soooo excited! I am trying to book our flights today!! WE'RE GOING TO CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONFIRMED travel dates for Jiangxi families:

Thurs, Dec 10: leave the US

Fri, Dec 11: Group arrive in BJ (Radisson SAS Hotel)

Sat, Dec 12: Group Sightseeing in BJ-TianAnMen Square, Forbidden City and the Great Wall (Juyongguan), lunch is included; CHI orientation

Sun, Dec 13: fly to capital city (Nanchang) of your child’s province. If skipping BJ, arrive in your child’s provincial capital city in the morning. It is possible you may receive your child today.

Mon, Dec 14: meet your child (subject to change)

Tues, Dec 15: do adoption process, registration and apply for the passport

Wed Dec 16, sightseeing or free day

Thurs, Dec 17: sightseeing or free days

Fri, Dec 18: get the passport and all papers back. Flight to GZ (China Hotel in GZ)

Sat. Dec 19: medical exam for all children

Sun. Dec 20: free day

Mon, Dec 21: free day (medical rechecks)

Tues, Dec 22: ACS appt / confirmed

Wed, Dec 23: take oath at the ACS and sign DS230 forms

Thurs, Dec 24: receive children’s visas late in day depending on date of ACS appt. (do not make reservations to leave Guangzhou on this day)

Fri, Dec 25: you can leave Guangzhou on this day and return to the US

TA!!! Things are looking up! :)

WE GOT OUR TA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been out of town all day and Andrew called me to let me know. We should have our Consulate apt. very soon and then we will book our tickets.


Hopefully the paperwork mess will be a thing of the past very very soon.....


HOORAH!!! One more hurdle crossed!!!!

8 months old and...

Our baby girl turned 8 months old yesterday. Oh how I wish I could have been there for that milestone.... Soon baby girl...soon.



We are still waiting for TA and it is getting excruciating! We feel like we are the LAST in line to get TA's, but we have to have faith that it will all work out. We've had some paperwork drama that we did NOT want nor need and are still trying to work it all out. We pray that we can breathe soon, but until then we will keep on moving and trying to iron out all the details. If you think of us, say a prayer. This paperwork screw up is pretty huge and it has to be fixed by the time we travel. My stress level is so high right now I found myself whimpering yesterday. I've got to get it under control!! :)

We are so ready to go to China. I'd go in my P.J's if you told me I could leave now!

Lovely Ladies!

I had a day out with the ladies recently. My dear friend Shani, her Mom Nancy & sister Stephanie (each amazing ladies!!) took me out to lunch at BJ's and showered me with love. I would have been perfectly happy seeing them for lunch and shopping, but nope. These stinkers insisted on gift giving. There was barely room at our table to eat with all the gift bags crowding out our plates! I don't have pictures of BJ's because I am lame and forgot to take pictures, and I don't have pictures of all the gifts yet because...well....I just didn't do that yet either! Did I mention I'm a bit overwhelmed right now!?!? These three women are beautiful inside and out and have HUGE hearts. Thank you to each of you for spending your day with me and for all of the heart felt gifts. I love them all!!!

On another note, it's Thursday and no TA yet. Something is "in the air" so hopefully they tucked the TA's in with the referrals this month!! :)

Finding Ad

This past week we received Yi Xiao Guo's finding ad. She is one month old in the picture. Andrew and I have been staring at it and we don't think we could have recognized her in the paper even if we tried. It strikes something in my core to see my daughter's face in that paper.... I have stared at it for so long and I am not exactly sure what I think will happen if I stare at it any longer. I know there is a story there... a story I will never know about. It makes my heart ache for Zoey and for her birth mother.... the not knowing is hard. All I know is that my heart is so full of Yi Xiao Guo. I became one with this little soul long before she was born. I will do anything in my power to make her story as complete as possible.

We are just waiting for TA and a Consulate Apt. and then we can book our airplane tickets! We hope and pray it comes this week.

TA's? and Packing

Some of our fellow 3/27 families (from other agencies), who also received their referral on 10/13/2009, have reported receiving TA's already! Every agency is different, TA's are pretty much first come, first serve it seems. The quicker your agency turns in your SCL, the quicker you see your travel assignment. Once we have our TA, our consulate appointment and our civil affairs appointment can be made. It's quite the process! I am hopeful that things move along smoothly and quickly, not only for obvious reasons, but our I-171H expires on January 27th. I DO NOT WANT TO GO THROUGH THE PILE OF PAPERWORK AND ADDENDUM MAKING AGAIN!!!! Isn't 5 times enough???? Please God!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday we dropped off our Visa Applications and Passports at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco. I felt like we were at the Chinese DMV! It was a good experience though. Everything worked like clockwork and quickly too. There was something very familiar about the place... I felt comforted by the Chinese language and the many Chinese faces surrounding us. I've always felt "at home" in China, but to feel a glimpse of that in the US was strange and very cool at the same time. Friday Andrew goes back to pick everything up (since he only works a few blocks away!) and I am just a tad bit jealous. :) I love China and the people... it is so different from everything we know here, but I think that's why I love it so much. Not a day goes by where I drift off to another place... a place where our family is together. Every day now I think of Zoey's caretakers and how grateful I am that they have taken such good care of her... (as far as I can tell).

Have I ever told you about the day that I knew I would bring my child home from China? It was in 1996 and I was teaching at the Darkhan University in Outer Mongolia. I was single and didn't even know that I couldn't have children at the time. I had an "idea" that it might be the case, but I was much younger and didn't care so much. I remember sitting on the front steps of the University, which looked out into an open field full of goats and sheep. There were several children tending to the flock (a normal sight there) and something washed over me. Crystal clear voice inside my head. You will be a Mom some day... a Mommy to a child from China. I remember thinking... why China? I wonder why I am thinking this and I wonder why it is not a child from Mongolia that I am thinking about? That's where it got fuzzy.... A few days later, I came back to the same spot to eat some lunch and the same thing happened. Mom to a child from China??? The clarity was overwhelming and I didn't know what do do with it. The sense that this "would be" was so strong that it brought me to tears. Fourteen years later, it is coming true. Every event in my life, since that moment, has pointed me straight to Yi Xiao Guo. Even meeting the perfect man who wanted to adopt and thought it would be amazing to be a Daddy to a child who is not of his blood, but of his heart. He is incredible.

I am not sure what brought me down "memory lane", but I haven't thought about this for a very long time. It's funny how sights and sounds can bring back a flood of memories! So I am off to continue getting ready...pre-packing and organizing. It's just a TAD bit overwhelming!!


Bring on TA's and Referrals!!! The rest of our March friends need to experience this joy!!

My Sleeping Beauty

Do you see my sleeping beauty? :) She is in the left of the picture taking a nap on her tray. While she is napping, her little friends Gwyneth and Grace are having a good ol' time! Every time I see a new picture, I just want to jump through time and space to put my arms around her!!!

This picture was passed on by a family in our travel group who also used Ann's services. I am so thankful for this woman!!